Do ROMS ever get released or sold?

[Jim]

At AtariAge I saw someone asked "Do ROMS ever get released or sold?" which I've never seen.  My response is pasted below in case I can get more replies here.

I've never seen Odyssey ROMs for sale, but I'd love to be able to purchase them this way.  I just don't have the space or money to buy all the great homebrews that come out, but I'd like to play them all and support the programmers that create these games.  I'm sure there's a concern about piracy and/or devaluation of the games, but maybe waiting to release the ROMS for a period of time (like 1 or 5 years) would help mitigate those fears?

[Janzl]

Yes I'm interested too.

It seems to differ between systems. The Atari 2600 and C64 scene have tons of free / pay roms available while others, like the Intellivision, have hardly any. Or they're asking ridiculous prices for them.

Following.

[VideopacBelgium]

Here is an example.  
The programmer asks me 2000 euros to allow me to sell a limited number of 100 cartridges.
I sell each cartridge with the manuel at 29 euros each.
If I sell 100 cartridges, which is very rare. I still have 900 euros for the 100 prints (manual, indexcard and cart label) and the assembly of the 100 cartridges ...  
Do you want to pay 20 euros for the ROM?  

[Janzl]

€2000?

Wow! I'm going to pick up programming again.

Where are the days that people made games just because they loved doing so.

And yes, at the Intellivision scene they're asking $20 just for the download roms.

[VideopacBelgium]

In today's world, downloaded games cost more than physical games, don't you? 

[Jim]

Do you want to pay 20 euros for the ROM?  

I can't speak for anyone else, but yes I would pay 20 euros for a ROM.

You left shipping out of your price.  For example when I purchased Laser Blitz the game was only 29 euro, but shipping without a case and no tracking cost 9 euro. Therefore the cheapest I could actually get Laser Blitz was 38 euro.  With tracking the total cost was 43 euro.  20 euros for a ROM doesn't seem so bad anymore.    Another benefit of ROMs is that I would be able to go back and buy old games that aren't for sale anymore.

I'm not saying physical cartridges shouldn't be made.  Like most of us here I love the old tech, I would prefer have a physical cartridge for every game I own if space and money allowed.  The artwork and care put into the creation of the cartridges and manuals is amazing.  Maybe someday when my kids are moved out and I have free space and money I'll try to get a complete Odyssey2 collection, but it's just not possible for me right now.  And if ROMs were to be sold it probably wouldn't affect the meager number of physical carts I buy (which is about one a year on average).

Like I said before I know there are reasons for sellers not to sell just the ROMs, but perhaps delaying the "ROM only release" would help?  I'm sure there are also other ideas I haven't thought of that could make ROM only sales better.  Like maybe ROMs would start out at the same cost as the physical cart, but drop the price of the ROM by a euro per year?

I'm very grateful for my current problem of too money good homebrew games, I just think the ability to buy ROMs would be a nice additional option.  Thank you VideopacBelgium (and everyone else in the game creation chain) for helping to make these games available for sale.

[Rafael]

The programmer asks me 2000 euros to allow me to sell a limited number of 100 cartridges.

Good to know

[Janzl]

 :D :D :D :D

I think the homebrew prices will soon rise  

[Mux]

Hi everyone!

Aptly on topic, I'm actually looking into getting reproduction cartridges made. It's going to take a while and I'm only in the exploration state in terms of cost and what not but will keep you guys posted.
On that note, for those of you who've done boxes, how much did printing + materials cost?

Thanks!

-Mux

[Ozyr]

2000 Euro is nuts, IMHO. I've always sold on commission with Packrat, and always will. Thus selling ROMs for a low price I could see, after a few years once a physical cart is sold.

[Sorex]

what is the pupose of the rom download?

to play it with an emu or put it on a multicart?

imo both options should be possible where you can earn some pocketmoney on the real cart & so called digital downloads.

the only negative that might happen is that the rom gets spread after 1 sale and you won't earn as much as hoped.