Idea; Rewriting & "selling" x68000 disks what do you think?

[uroko-sakanabito]

Backround;
Since i got my first x68000 system i ever wanted to play all those underground STG´s on real hardware but it is a bit difficult to write them back on original disks. I am one of those people who can´t have fun with emulators, even when the setup is "near" the original it is still a emulator for me

Now i was finally able to set up a Windows 98 PC with all programms & 5,25" disk drive, so i can write Images on disks and play them on real x68000 hardware. I buyed around 300 (new!) disks on ebay and now i want to offer them to other people.

My idea is to sell those freeware shoot em ups @ ebay for a smal price covering my costs (ebay fees, time, shipping, disk price & hardware) i have to test every disk on my real x68000 so i think it will shorten the life span of my disk drives much! Currently i am thinking about 5€ per disk, is that fair or to high what do you think...? The formatting, copying & testing process needs around 15 minutes per disk !

This should be a non profit project but it will kill my x68000 drives sooner or later so i have to get new ones. There is one seller @ yahoo.jp and every disk from him is starting @ 1000yen, he sells many disks per month.

What do you think?

And what about copyright issues? Is it legal to sell freeware games in this "project" or is it illegal?
Thanks for your opinions

-Uroko

PS i was thinking on games like Sho-Ren-Sha, Alian, Kamikaze, Hatenkou, Maderina, Spiral Bullet etc...

[mjclark]

What a nice project!
Common sense suggests that if the seller at yahoo.jp has a good turnover then so will you and he also might be able to point you in the right direction about copyright issues (although I can't imagine this being a problem with old and largely obscure doujins).
Also have you posted your idea on Tokugawa Forums where there are a lot of x68k pundits?
Anyway, what's the worst that can happen?
I'd guess that anything you do to help keep the x68k as a living platform will bring you many rewards and unexpected bonuses so good luck with this

[uroko-sakanabito]

Hey, afaik all games in my list are freeware so there will be no problem with the copyright i think...
I found a few games which i have never played before and a few of them seem very uncommon...

Testing starts these days, i am also thinking about printing stickers for the discs etc...
Thank you so far i will check Tokugawa in the next days

[Obiwanshinobi]

I think you'd be better off letting people on dedicated forums know you can do them such a favour. Those who care about playing stuff on original hardware are likely to at least lurk around there.
Even if it's going to be non-profit, building up the cred on auction service this way, dunno...
Not getting on my high horse or anything as I purchased a SuperCard and got my PS2 chipped (to play homebrew and imports, naturally) via auction service.

[mrsmiley381]

I personally have no problem with reproduction software so long as it is offered specifically as a reproduction and at a price that is not largely profitable to the reproducer. Hell, even custom stickers are really cool. Don't be surprised if you do a really good job of providing the service to people and randomly get donated a new drive when your old one breaks. I think it all depends on how well you treat this as a service to others.

Now, what would be really cool is if you could build a nice little app that lets you put more than one game on a disk. I don't even have an x68000, but I think that would be something worth my time, money, and interest. Of course, this depends on the games, but it's a good idea, yeah?

How hard is it to find a working x68000 nowadays?

[uroko-sakanabito]

Hey, it is not hard but expensive
Only source is yahoo.jp and around 200€ + shipping for a good working unit are "normal"

I have made 10 copies of ChoRenSha so far 300 empty & new disks arrived a few hours ago
I think ebay price will be 5 euros +shipping and in forums 4€ + shipping is enough

I have to test every game cause the have some copy errors from time to time (old disks )

[dieKatze88]

Oh man, If I had known there was a demand for this I wouldn't have ditched my 486 DX 33 with a network card last year, it would have been perfect for this. I probably had close to 400 5 1/4th disks too.