Is there any legal way of playing Arcade games?

[MrPopo]

My understanding is that owning the cab legit lets you operate it for coins. Now, sometimes you'll see an arrangement where an arcade supply company will lend out a cab to a bar in exchange for a percentage of the take. This allows the bar to not have to front the money for the arcade cab.

[AppleQueso]

AFAIK, owning the cabinet lets you charge money for it. Certain areas might have regulations preventing you from say, charging them out of your home, and sometimes arcade cabinets will fall under general "gaming bans" that some counties may introduce (meant to take down stuff like video poker machines, but there's also places that basically banned arcades because of their reputation in the 80s), but outside of that, you're probably fine.

"Buying the arcade" doesn't' necessarily have to mean buying a huge cabinet that's going to take up tons of space. You could always just buy the arcade boards.

The Supergun that Ghegs suggested getting is basically a device that interfaces JAMMA arcade boards with regular TVs and controllers.

Many arcade collectors go this route actually. Buying up boards isn't quite as cheap or straightforward as buying cartridges or something, but it's very doable and makes for a very unique collecting experience.

So you are suggesting to buy the board and use MAME to play the games , because I legally own the board? Or is there some way to hookup the board to the tv? Sorry I hardly know anything on this topic.

Nonono. You hook the boards up to a "supergun", which plugs into your TV. You're literally playing just the arcade board.

Any way, no body answered my question over why are the arcade games do not get ports or remakes on the opposite of retro consoles? I imagine its a very simple process today given that games back then were "simple" compared to what goes on in today's gaming

...because arcade games DO get ports and remakes on modern consoles. Several arcade fighting games have been released on Psn and Xbla with online play for example, and Wii's Virtual Console has several arcade titles as well. Not sure why you think there aren't any?

[Ghegs]

So you are suggesting to buy the board and use MAME to play the games , because I legally own the board? Or is there some way to hookup the board to the tv? Sorry I hardly know anything on this topic.

Like AppleQueso said, a supergun is basically an arcade cabinet in console form, sans the monitor, which will be your TV. Here's mine:


The supergun is the one on the right, the device on the left is a consolized MVS. The arcade games are on printed circuit boards, and you simply connect it to the supergun and turn it on, just like playing a console game. The supergun outputs the signal to your TV and you can attach different controllers to the system. Though depending on how it's built, the controllers might need some work done to them, but there are superguns that take Saturn controllers right out of the box, for example.

Overall a supergun is a great solution for people who want to play genuine arcade games, but don't have the space (or interest) in a cabinet.

Any way, no body answered my question over why are the arcade games do not get ports or remakes on the opposite of retro consoles? I imagine its a very simple process today given that games back then were "simple" compared to what goes on in today's gaming

Sure, it's doable in the technical side of things and there have been many arcade games ported to current or previous-gen systems, but often A) there isn't enough interest to warrant a port, or B) the game's copyrights are all over the place or unclear, or C) the game's source code has been lost, which happens much more often than you'd think.

[AppleQueso]

... C) the game's source code has been lost, which happens much more often than you'd think.

I can't imagine that being an issue in an era when most retro "ports" are just roms wrapped in emulator shells anyway.

[indecks]

Ghegs: Which game are you talking about that isn't emulated? Im just curious.


I've got a PRIMAL RAGE board and while it is emulated, it's not emulated properly. The only way to play the real PR is via the arcade board, even the arcade classics releases are flawed because the encryption hasn't been cracked, and the makers of the game aren't available or interested in helping.

[Luke]

I'm fine with ports of arcade games. If I can't find a decent port, tough noogies for me.

[Ghegs]

Ghegs: Which game are you talking about that isn't emulated? Im just curious.

I have an "SD Gundam Sangokushi Rainbow Tairiku Senki" board. It's basically a run 'n gun with chibi-Gundams. It's pretty fun, I've made a creditfeed video to showcase it. I still haven't gotten around to making a proper 1CC video of it, really should get to it one of these days.

[SpoonyBard]

What allows you to charge money for coin op games? Owning the actual game board? Let's say, for simplicity, that I bought a Street Fighter II arcade cab. It's a legit cab, 100% original. Does owning this cab, even second hand, give me the right to put it in my store or where ever and charge money for plays?

There are different rules all over. Some places require you to get a yearly license for each machine and some (like my town) require you to apply for an arcade license if you have a certain number of machines (over 6 here) at a business. Some cities even have laws where can't have them within a certain proximity to bars/schools. It's kind of a hassle, and you're usually better off going free play unless you've got a lot of market for it.

[ryanofcali]

The legal way isn't always the best way, if circumstance prevents a port and cost prohibits the average Joe from owning the game then why would anyone have qualms about emulation? It wasn't me that made the game unavailable it was circumstance so why should I feel bad about it.

[RCBH928]

@AppleQueso and Ghegs

I never knew anything such as "supergun" existed . Seems like an affordable solution. I also looked up arcade cabinets on ebay and the prices seem fair at $50-150 per board.

I am guessing I just need 1 supergun and it will work like a console for different boards right?

I wonder if these boards die over time or need special maintenance . I am aslo amazed at the low price of the boards because I would imagine that there are a lot more console games than arcade boards, yet a console game can easily reach $60 and an arcade board is like twice that. Also , I am surprised how large a cabinet is while the actual game is just a small board.

I guess my question got answered, I always thought that we had to buy the actual cabinet.