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Classic Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Sega Sells Classic Genesis ROMs On Japanese Site 30

Posted by simoniker from the sega-sells-sea-shells dept.
Thanks to 1UP for its story revealing that Sega is opening a Japanese ROM download service for classic Genesis games, meaning that "players can download and play an array of 16-bit games on their PCs" completely legally. According to the piece, "The service charges a monthly fee of 1,000 yen (about $9) for unlimited downloads. 30 games will be available at launch, with about 10 new games joining them each month." Launch titles include Gunstar Heroes, Ecco the Dolphin, Phantasy Star II, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and "Sega plans to eventually build a library of more than 100 games, as well as community features where retro-gaming enthusiasts can meet and chat", but there's no news on a similar service in the West, and it's a little unclear whether you can keep the games after stopping monthly payments.
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Sega Sells Classic Genesis ROMs On Japanese Site More

Sega Sells Classic Genesis ROMs On Japanese Site

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  • when it was free and called PE2000 [archive.org].

    Shame the site was brought down...

  • neat (Score:1)

    by s33l3t ( 722580 )
    this is a great idea, i love to play roms on my laptop at work it would be nice to have access to these sega games for about $9 a month

  • Amazing! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Bagels ( 676159 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @08:47PM (#7478805)
    Legal ROM downloads that a mainstream consumer might be interested in, at a reasonable price! Take notes, RIAA folks; *this* sort of thing is what we'd like to see for legal music downloads. Granted, there's far more than 30 pieces of music out there (this service is only offering 30 to start with), but the principle's the same.

    A few questions: How are the ROMs to be played - do you have to download them each time you want to play and run them through an online emulator, or has Sega made their own emulator software? On a similar note, how does saving work - will it allow things like multiple save files and other such benefits that emulators typically offer? Are there any plans to release games from the less-popular Genesis add-ons (32x, Sega CD)? None of those are really deal-breakers, but they would certainly sweeten the deal.

    • Knowing Sega, they've bought the rights to an existing emulator. The Sega Smash Pack CDs for PC were modified versions of the KGen emulator. I've also heard that Sega has bought the rights to one of the more finished Sega Saturn emulators out there, although it's still terribly slow.
    • They announced MegaCD games, but I can't wait for Knucles Chaotix to be released. That was one sweet mother of a game...
    • I've been calling for this for years, and predicting that a day might come when it may happen.

      Now, let's take it a step further.

      I'd love to see a service where we could buy old CD-ROM games - mainly Console games. How about a service that holds the ISO images online, and you can buy a physical copy of the media for $20 apiece? If Sega came out with their own Sega-CD emulator and Saturn emulator for OS X/Windows (and yes, Linux - and please, no discussions on the capabilities of those emulators, we know
      • ** (and yes, Linux - and please, no discussions on the capabilities of those emulators, we know how hard it would be to emulate a Sega Saturn system with PC technology, this is all hypothetical).**

        dunno about that.. if sega helped i'm pretty sure they could get something running in a month. check satourne [consollection.com] for emulator in progress(and yes, for the lazy who don't want to check, there's screenshots).

        psx games aren't that hard to come by on the net either(and the emulators are pretty sweet). so it's just a

  • Interesting (Score:4, Insightful)

    by neostorm ( 462848 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @09:43PM (#7479130)
    But if there is only a library of 100 ROMs total (eventually), what's to keep subscribed when they've downloaded them all? From my experience, it doesn't take a long time to download 100 16-bit ROMs, and "community features" featuring chats and forums aren't really worth $10 a month are they? That's what we have GameFAQs.com for.

    • 'eventually build a library of more than 100 games'

      They never said they'd stop at 100.

      If other companies *cough*Nintendo*cough* catch onto this, will we see the end of "remade" games such as "Namco Museum".

  • Rental (Score:4, Interesting)

    by moronga ( 323123 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @11:04PM (#7479507)
    According to the little blurb here:

    http://sega.jp/product/home.html

    it's a rental service, so you presumably have to pay the monthly fee to keep playing the games you've downloaded. (I could be wrong, but I'm not sure what else "rental" could mean.)

    They're launching the service next Thursday, so I guess we'll see.

  • DRM (Score:1)

    by Orien ( 720204 )
    Before people start blubbering about DRM and how this model is restrictive, please keep this in mind: Before this, there was NO LEAGAL WAY TO PURCHASE these games from them. I know that the subscription model doesn't really let you purchase them but ANY move at all to make availble old game ROMS that are other wise dying as old cartriges/cabinets stop working needs to be applauded and supported. Don't forget about StarRoms [starroms.com] too. The way I see it, the first step is to let the game companies sell the ROMS in w
    • reading the EULAs Just ask Microsoft!

    • Re:DRM (Score:3, Interesting)

      by croddy ( 659025 )
      there's *still* no legal way to purchase them at all, except for going to pawn shops / thrift stores / soon, antique stores ... DRM rental *isn't* a purchase any more than renting a video from blockbuster is a purchase.
    • The way I see it, the first step is to let the game companies sell the ROMS in whatever protected and limited fashon they are comfortable with, and then after they see a consumer demand for it, market forces would start letting competitive companies offer better EULAs

      The main problem with this idea is that owners of copyrighted material have a natural monopoly over that material. Nobody else can *offer* that material but them, so there is no competition. You can get Phantasy Star from but one company.

      T

    • Re:DRM (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Try ConsoleClassix [consoleclassix.com]. They have tons of SNES, Genesis, NES, and atari roms legally accessible to play. $5 per month, or $100 for a lifetime membership. (Or you can donate games and get months of service.)
  • Did Sega develop their own emulator for these ROMs, or are users instructed to use a particular existing one?

    Myself, I find Gens [consoleemul.com] to be the best (and it's open source, too). Makes me glad I hung on to all my old Sega CD games after mine up and died.

    And lastly, what's a post without some piracy links? Over at www.suprnova.org [suprnova.org] there are torrents containing every Genesis game ever released in the US. Same for NES, SNES, and more.

    The NES package of 700+ US titles is only 70 MB. Heh. Technology.

    • Myself, I find Gens to be the best (and it's open source, too).

      Not only open source, but open source with a linux port in the works. Last I checked the linux port is still beta, but I've found it to work very well with a few sega cd games (once ripped to iso). Genny emus weren't all that user friendly before this, even aside from lack of support for sega cd. So I was very happy to hear of this port!
  • It would be nice if they could sell licenses to the games for say, $5-10 each. I bet a few folks wouldn't mind buying legal, playable, versions of a few games from years gone by - but subscribing for a monthly fee? I suppose there might be a different market for this, perhaps this is a prelude to some cellphone or handheld game service?
    • I'd have to dissagree I wouldn't pay $10 dollars for an old console game when I could stop by gamestop or cd tradepost and but a newer consle game for that same price, I would on the other hand pay $10 for unlimited games even though i of course would have to pay that every month. that is just me of course
  • When the hell did Sega start making good marketing decisions?

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