don't get me wrong, I diagree with the emulator hackers messing with neo geo roms to get them working on within weeks of release, and in all honesty 3 years is MORE than enough time for a software house to make their cash on the AC side as well as domestic.. let's face it, on the whole , if it's not out in the home within 2 years it's NOT coming out at all.... so it's PCB or nothing.Edge wrote:Well spoken, Pixelcorps.
That's exactly my opinion. I was going to write something like this but you safed me a lot of time since I'd need a lot of time to get this thoughts into English words.
if it's not a brand new PCB, the only person making money is the large profit that the reseller makes, maybe the arcade will make a little more on the revenue they already made, and by then the PCB would have paid for itself if it's popular.
it's dead money once the developer has sold their unit as far as "supporting a company" goes.
and as far as comparisons go:
I play esprade, a lot and played the PCB at dave k's place. the only difference I saw was that my emulated versions scroll refresh was a bit inconsistent, the timing of the game seemed very intact.
as for dodonpachi, I saw massive sprite breakup and glitches that i've never seen in MAME.. wether dave's board is glitchy or not I don't know, I haven't seen anyother DDP PCB's but I swear as a game developer of 16 years, the glitches I saw were "sprite tear" which happens when a certain number of sprites all appear on a horizontal row at the same time.. that is a hardware limitation.
So, to those of you that are buying brand new PCB's, congratulations, seriously..
You are giving the devs a LOT of money.. moreso than you should mind, because they are made to recoup cash.. sadly you guys will never see a reduced price permanent "free play" version, that would support the company, that isnt made for "on site" use, as it would be hacked for arcade use by unscrupulous arcade owners too quickly, because essentially that 2 grand PCB, hardware excluded, costs less than the average PS2 game in budget, staffing and development time.
So, to those asking for the utterly ridiculous, and frankly elitist "5 year holdback" that simply translates as "don't devalue my purchase and shmup forum credibility!" rom kiddies are merely that, stupid kids, and you can easily ignore them if you stay off their playgrounds (forums)
These games were made for use in japan, in arcades, to make revenue and without ports, the reality of these games is utterly out of reach for some.. does that mean once CAVE's made it's cash, only you can enjoy the game , even though the means for anyone else is easily within their grasp, and to be quite frank, free from legal repercussions? I don't know anyone jailed by direct legal action by say, cave for someone having a GUWANGE rom.
Divx's? MP3's? bootleg DVD's? well, that's different isn't it.. people get jailed for that... and i'll bet 90% of you have enough to land you a nice fine, if not jail.
if a domestic version of a game comes out, yes!! you should BUY IT!! if you like the OST, BUY IT!! these relatively CHEAP (to buy and produce), AFFORDABLE products sell far more copies than the PCB's alone, and generate great revenue by everyday folk with normal incomes.
So have fun in your way of choosing, and maybe take on some of these ideas.
Don't scream and rant when you realise that a DC game isn't emulated, and probably won't be for another 5 years (or someone does a hack job on the xbox 360)
Pay what you like for PCB's, and think about where your money is going before you yell "no fair!" at those playing for free.
Don't rant "piracy" when the company haven't seen a cent from the game in YEARS, because, and i'll say it again, if your PCB isn't BRAND NEW you've done less to support the industry than someone who bought the PS2 port.
Don't scream superiority from the rooftops because your PCB is more "authentic" , because somewhere, some kid with less money than you, is pissing on your highsore on MAME using his KEYBOARD, and having just as much FUN (remember that word? as thats what it's about!) as you are.
and from a consumer standpoint I agree with a lot of what you wrote. But I'm not seeing a lot of this elitist attitude from PCB owners (such as myself), I could care less if someone is playing a Mame rom they don't own. But when these same people go as far as getting pissed off or screaming to get new games emulated (I am not referring to Kid Icarus, but that other newbie), someone has to throw in a little perspective and remind them of the true intention of Mame. Then all of a sudden it turns into this class/money based thing where rich snobs buy pcbs and look down on poor kids who have to steal to eat food and play mame just to stay alive. 
