11 replies to this topic

[Dauber]

When my wife and I were doing laundry earlier today [well...as I look at my clock it's well after midnight, so I guess YESTERDAY now...], I noticed that the launderette no longer had the "20 Year Reunion" double-game with Ms. Pac-Man [high-speed] and Galaga...

Now they have a smaller machine, VERY red, that has not only Ms. Pac-Man [standard speed, I believe], Galaga, and....FROGGER.

Has anybody seen this sucker? Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Frogger a Sega game? And ergo couldn't legally be in a machine with two Bally/Midway games?? I'm willing to bet that this machine might be a pirate, especially as it looks kind of odd compared to your regular arcade coin-ops...

Or are all three games now owned by the same company?

[Breakpack]

Didnt Sega claim Frogger for awhile,but it turned out Konami was the creator??

[NovaXpress]

Sega licensed Frogger from Konami. Perhaps Namco licensed it for it's coin-op.

[Cassidy Nolen]

Most likely its a bootleg board. They have been popping up quite a bit. Every few years, a new guy makes one, then Namco sues them back underground. A few years go by, and a new one is out again...

Interesting that an operator would risk that on location.


Cassidy

[Dav]

Yep, the operators I know won't touch them, But I guess the bottom feeders will risk it.



http://www.twobits.c...amcoWARNING.jpg

[Stingray]

Screams pirate to me. Frogger in with B/M games and in a red cab to boot.

-S

[tyranthraxus]

So how would an operator be at risk? Does Namco send out spies to
investigate every arcade in America? Unless its a city with a major
tech industry what are the odds of anyone who cares finding out they
have a pirate board?

[Albert]

Dav said:

Yep, the operators I know won't touch them,  But I guess the bottom feeders will risk it.
http://www.twobits.c...amcoWARNING.jpg

Amusing, TwoBits is here in Austin.

..Al

[Dav]

Every operator has competition and/or disgruntled employees. The business software piracy people seem to make a lot of money from disgruntled employees.

It is ironic that twobit is the one reposting the advertisement since they got sued by namco already. But I guess they want everyone else to play by the same rules they have to.

[bcostin]

I can see the copyright owner going after a vendor/manufacturer, as they do with other bootleggers. But what could the company do to the owner of such a game, even if they got reported? It's not like Namco is entitled to a cut of the take from the arcade operator.

I'm just curious. I don't mean to derail things, so feel free to tell me to shut up and go away.

[Dav]

I am not a lawyer so I couldn't really say but, they can confiscate all the machines I"m sure. They can make you pay their legal fees as well, which I'm sure would be padded like crazy. Not sure if they can take a percentage of you past profits or not, I don't see why not though. Your locations may not like being in the newspaper for having illegal machines confiscated, so you could lose locations. The competition for locations can be pretty cut throat. Not sure if a city would pull your licenses for something like that either, probably not though.

Just confiscating the machines would probably be a pretty big dent in your bottom line. The arcade business isn't like it used to be, and those boards probably take a long time to pay for themselves.

[ussexplorer]

I love legal notices. Companies can put just about anything on a product. That does not say they can back it up. I would hope that some lone arcade owner who modified a few of his games wouldn't get hit. But yea the mfg would get nailed along with any big chains.

Sortof like software. They go after the companies mfg the priate cds and the big companies. Even some mid size companies. But hardly against the single users. Well except the RIAA, Direct tv, etc, etc. LOL

Laters,

ussexplorer