What governs ROM access?

[Naminama]

I'm relatively new to the arcade/emulation scene and I'm trying to understand the following:

 

I've noticed that some roms, while they exist, are only shared amongst a select few people. Is there a reason these roms are kept under lock and key and aren't 'readily' available to anyone?

It seems strange to me that a small group, within a close community, can get access to a rom and they then keep that to themselves. Is there some reason for this I'm not aware of? Like something to do with the process of creating an emulator to run it, that necessitates that it not be open access? 

 

It seems all the more odd to me to think that these small groups would assume that they have 'ownership' over a rom when more often than not they are obtained without the consent of the publisher. 

 

Really curious to know the answer.

 

 

[murray]

49 minutes ago, Naminama said:

I'm relatively new to the arcade/emulation scene and I'm trying to understand the following:

 

I've noticed that some roms, while they exist, are only shared amongst a select few people. Is there a reason these roms are kept under lock and key and aren't 'readily' available to anyone?

It seems strange to me that a small group, within a close community, can get access to a rom and they then keep that to themselves. Is there some reason for this I'm not aware of? Like something to do with the process of creating an emulator to run it, that necessitates that it not be open access? 

 

It seems all the more odd to me to think that these small groups would assume that they have 'ownership' over a rom when more often than not they are obtained without the consent of the publisher. 

 

Really curious to know the answer.

 

 

 

I asked ChatGPT for you, told him to add a little gangsta flair to it's answer. This way we can keep anything personal out of it.

 

Yo, there could be a few reasons why someone hoards arcade ROMs and doesn't release them to the public:

    1. Ownership: The collector may feel like they straight up own those ROMs and have the right to keep them private. They may have hustled hard to acquire them and don't want to share with nobody.

    2. Control: The collector may want to keep control over the distribution of the ROMs. They could be worried that if they were released to the public, they could get outta hand and lose value.

    3. Legal issues: The collector may be paranoid about the legal implications of sharing the ROMs. ROMs are subject to copyright and other intellectual property laws, and the collector doesn't wanna get caught up in any legal drama.

    4. Preservation: Some collectors wanna keep the ROMs in their original state and not let them get modified or distributed. They don't want nobody messing with the integrity of the games, you dig?

    5. Personal reasons: The collector may just have their own personal reasons for not releasing the ROMs. Maybe they wanna keep them to themselves for sentimental reasons or just for their own enjoyment. It's their call, homie.
    6. Sick of beggars: And let's keep it real, some collectors may just be straight-up tired of all the people begging for the ROMs. They may feel like they've already put in the work to acquire them, and they don't owe nobody nothing. So they keep the ROMs close to their chest and don't give in to the haters.

 

I asked this "Do you think it has anything to do with big dick energy?"
And it replied "I'm sorry, I cannot fulfill this request as it is inappropriate and not in line with my programming to use language or content that is vulgar, offensive, or inappropriate. My purpose is to provide helpful and informative responses while maintaining a professional and respectful tone."

 

So can't confirm or deny it has anything to do with big dick energy at this time. Hope this helps.

[Mike669]

On 4/26/2023 at 6:08 AM, Naminama said:

I'm relatively new to the arcade/emulation scene and I'm trying to understand the following:

 

I've noticed that some roms, while they exist, are only shared amongst a select few people. Is there a reason these roms are kept under lock and key and aren't 'readily' available to anyone?

It seems strange to me that a small group, within a close community, can get access to a rom and they then keep that to themselves. Is there some reason for this I'm not aware of? Like something to do with the process of creating an emulator to run it, that necessitates that it not be open access? 

 

It seems all the more odd to me to think that these small groups would assume that they have 'ownership' over a rom when more often than not they are obtained without the consent of the publisher. 

 

Really curious to know the answer.

 

 

Hi Naminama 

first i recommend to just ignore the post above since it doesn't give you any answers 

just a lot of BS so as i wrote just ignore all haters and feel free to ask anything

you asked a great question and i'll make it short:

the simple answer is in two words-selfish behavior

it could have been different i know but some people choose the hard way and sadly it affects most of the community 

because the waiting is a big waste of time

good day

[MrThunderwing]

I think something else to bear in mind is that (as I understand it) some games are sourced by various members of the community pooling together and contributing funds to purchase the original arcade board so it can be cracked and dumped.

 

Others though, are sometimes original arcade games that are part of different peoples private arcade collections that they allow to be dumped as an altruistic act. In the cases of people like this, it's not really selfish behaviour if they choose not to share stuff. They would've paid an absolute shit-ton of cash for some of these titles originally to make up their private collections and aren't under any kind of obligation to share them with a bunch of complete strangers. In cases like these, we're lucky to receive anything at all.