MerlinArcade
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:25 pm

MAME Cabinet Question

I'm creating an arcade cabinet for myself and thinking about selling this cabinet to others.

If I sell the cabinet, can I install MAME for free in it will my clients have to installed it themselves?

Thanks
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cuavas
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2014 1:04 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact: Website

Re: MAME Cabinet Question

There's nothing in the MAME license that prevents you from selling a cabinet with MAME pre-installed. However if you want to distribute any ROMs, game artwork (including screenshots, cabinet art, flyers, etc.) you need a license from the current copyright holder(s) of that media.

What you cannot do is use the trademarked MAME name/logo/wordmark to promote the product you're selling. It's OK to mention in your feature list “comes with MAME® pre-installed" or similar along with a note in the fine print saying "MAME is a registered trademark of Gregory Ember". You can’t advertise your product as a "MAME cabinet", imply any kind of endorsement from MAMEdev, or use the MAME logo in promotional material without explicit permission.
MerlinArcade
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:25 pm

Re: MAME Cabinet Question

Thank you, that's a relief because I see many competitors selling their cabinets with your logo on their cabinets and they are loading your logo on their cabinet TV screen and even use your logo on their cabinet marquee and I won't do any of that.

I will also never load the cabinet with side art like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong etc because I know that those are trademarks and I can get sued from Namco or Nintendo.

I contacted Atari and asked them if I can buy and play their CD-Rom games ROM and BIN files from an emulator software rather than the software that they provide with the CD-Rom?

I won't even have to make copies of those ROMs, I will simply point MAME to the directory where those ROMs are located in my PC where I installed the games so I don't see why I wouldn't be able to do so because MAME per se is not illegal and since I have paid for the right to play those games I would be quite surprised if they tell me I can't play them with MAME.

Thanks

Merlin
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cuavas
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2014 1:04 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact: Website

Re: MAME Cabinet Question

It's generally accepted that loading a ROM out of a software title you've purchased is "format shifting" in the same way as recording a TV show or ripping a CD to your computer. If you can defeat technical measures designed to prevent it and you aren't distributing copies to others without a license, it's acceptable.
MerlinArcade
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:25 pm

Re: MAME Cabinet Question

cuavas wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2017 12:47 pm It's generally accepted that loading a ROM out of a software title you've purchased is "format shifting" in the same way as recording a TV show or ripping a CD to your computer. If you can defeat technical measures designed to prevent it and you aren't distributing copies to others without a license, it's acceptable.
Yeah well those "technical measures" is scaring me legally speaking because aren't this part of the copyright to play their game using THEIR technology (aka console or built-in emulator in the CD-Rom) and illegal to extract them out of their cartridge or CDs?

Anyway, we'll soon found out when Atari replies to me.

Merlin
MerlinArcade
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:25 pm

Re: MAME Cabinet Question

Hi cuavas,

It's been a while but slowly but surely, this arcade cabinet project is moving forward. You can watch the temporary site here.

http://www.merlinworld.com/merlincade/

As you can see, I haven't posted any logos of MAME and right now, I am still in the dilemma of inserting the ROMs in the cabinet or not because the cabinet will be sold with the 5 gaming compilation CDs described in the page.

I'm simply replicating what X-Gaming is doing with their X-Arcade Cabinet. They send the CDs with the arcade but the games already come installed in their Front End software called Maximus Arcade.

Nowhere on the website you will here me say that it's a "MAME Cabinet" and to invite people to download illegally ROM files.

So what do you think? Do you think is legit this way?

Merlin
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cuavas
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2014 1:04 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact: Website

Re: MAME Cabinet Question

If you include a licensed copy of some PC software on CD-ROM or some other transferable license, you can pre-install the software on the PC as-is. However I don't know of any legal precedent that would support extracting ROM/disk images from the software to use with another emulator. I believe it would be even harder to convince a court that it's OK to obtain a ROM/disk image for the same game from elsewhere and provide it with the PC along with the software. I'd still consider the ROMs to be unauthorised if you don't have written permission from the rights holder for this kind of use case, or you're hoping to test it in court.
MerlinArcade
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 9:25 pm

Re: MAME Cabinet Question

Watch this screenshot of my PC.

It contains the ROM files of the CD Atari Vault that I bought at Steam. I have NOT requested those ROMs, Steam installed them in my PC so does that mean that it's legal to install the ROMs in a PC AFTER you have bought the games?

Well if the answer is NO, then not only me but X-Gaming and Steam is at fault here because they all do that. The key I believe is to play by the rules and make sure I buy all 5 of the gaming compilation CDs that I will put in my cabinet's PC.

According to this lawyer...

https://www.howtogeek.com/262758/is-dow ... ver-legal/

... if you bought the CD, you also bought the right to play the game in another format (he calls it space shifting) so it would be legally defensible.
“Fair use is a fuzzy standard, not a rule,” Bambauer explained. He says he could imagine a few possible defensible scenarios. “If I own a copy of Super Mario World, I can play it whenever I want,” he notes, “but what I’d really like to do is play it on my phone or my laptop.” In this case, downloading a ROM could be legally defensible.
By buying the CDs, I am forcing my cabinet owners to pay for the rights to play these games. So if Namco or Atari sues me for doing that despite me buying their CDs, it will show the gaming community that the industry is rotten and will simply fuel even more the illegal downloading of Roms.
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