How do locations get away with 60-1 machines?

kjeffery

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I am wondering how locations are getting away with the bootleg 60-1 pcbs running and actually charging to play. I guess no one who sees them are really worried? I am staying in a upper scale Embassy Suites hotel and they have one here running and people are popping in quarters left in right to place it. Including me :) but how do these operators get away with it. Oh and the machine here is a galaga cab with donkey kong side art lol and sadly its not the first time i seen that
 
Who looks at one of those and thinks it's illegal? I'll bet 99% of the people that see it go "Oh cool, an arcade game". Even if a copyright lawyer saw it, he'd probably say the same thing. People like us might say "Hey, that's not right", but are we going to report it to someone? Probably not, but then to who?
 
There is a 60-in-1 at the freakin' Boise Airport. Two of them actually (one in the main "luggage" area arcade and one in the terminal arcade). Routed by one of the two operators here in the Treasure Valley...

EDIT: Oh... and at least one of them has been there for 3+ years...
 
I too have just played one in one of the local bars, musta just got it cause it was not there two weeks ago....I stuffed enough quarters in it too!
 
Getting away with what really? Dedicated cabinets?

It plays and takes money, those are the main things for operators.

And it repalces 60 machines, so it take less space.
 
One day Nintendo, Namco and whoever owns the midway rights will get tired and starts firing off c&d letters. I'm surprise they arent doing anything to arcade resellers who sell those machines for 2000$..
 
Well I sold not one but TWO MAME cabs this last weekend...

...and felt a little bad about it... for about 5 minutes. The amount of time and effort I put in to the cab easily warrants the asking price.
 
Those weren't your only two were they? I cant see you being MAME-less.


Naw.... I sold my vertical upright.... (my cocktail MAME plays the vertical's awesome) and the Capcom Anthology which ended up with a 1917-in-1 in it...

I still have my original Horizontal MAME and the cocktail MAME...

:)
 
It is unlikely that anyone who cares (someone from Namco, Nintendo) will ever see the machine on location so not surprising they can get away with it. I have seen them around here as well.
 
One day Nintendo, Namco and whoever owns the midway rights will get tired and starts firing off c&d letters. I'm surprise they arent doing anything to arcade resellers who sell those machines for 2000$..

I have heard of sellers getting C&D letters from Namco.
 
It is unlikely that anyone who cares (someone from Namco, Nintendo) will ever see the machine on location so not surprising they can get away with it. I have seen them around here as well.

Really :D
 
Its kind of like worrying about jaywalkers during a riot...Bigger fish for these guys to fry.

Close, but i think it's more along the lines of there are easier, more common and more profitable fish to fry. Stopping them would mean a bunch of legal fees and a law suit, which would result in suing the operator for all he's worth (probably not much.) Typically this type of thing works better as a lawsuit threatening blackmail letter thing.

In the world of vinyl cutting, there are freelance individuals who go around watching for trademark infringement. When they find someone who is cutting decals (or if they can bait them to cut decals) of certain companies (*cough* dewalt *cough*) they report it to a company that polices trademarks. These companies usually police many trademarked and registered names and logos. They then send out letters to the cutters threatening a huge lawsuit and legal action unless they pay them a certain amount, usually a few thousand, to avoid litigation. The amount is usually enough to pad their pocket, but not so much that it would be worth fighting in court over. These companies give a finders fee to the freelancers who found the violation. I think an outside party like the above situation would have to be involved to stop the 60 in 1s from being set out in operation.
 
I guy I used to work for recently posted on Facebook (well maybe 6 months ago) that he got a 60-in-1 for use in his establishment. Not only did he grossly overpay for it (since MAME machines are good for building and selling, but not buying) I had to let him know its not legal for him to charge for it. He knew it was illegal to do but he said it was worth the tiny risk of getting caught.
 
The very most any establishment would received from running a 60-in-1 would be a C&D. Remove the game and you're golden. Big deal.

If an OP routes one... gets the attention of a lawyer who shoots out a C&D... they simply move the game to another location and ... well... they're golden.
 
It's really incredible how easily bootlegs go over in arcades. Did you know most DDR machines in the US are running 100% illegal bootleg software? That DDREx at the FEC downtown? Bootleg.

You'd think Konami would care now that they're actively pushing new DDR versions in the US, but the bootlegs aren't going anywhere.
 
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