Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie

Clyde

@fruitybit What people often ignore or don't understand is that you don't "buy" software like you buy physical things. You acquire a licence to use the software in a narrowly defined way. As a rule of thumb, everything not explicitly allowed is forbidden as long as it's not fundamentally allowed by applicable law.

So, if the licence allows providing the game to your patrons, you can legally do that. But as far as I know, most games' licenses only allow personal use, not sharing it with other people. Software production is a business like any other, the producers calculate (predicted) income versus expenses and shape their contracts accordingly. How generous they are in doing that varies from company to company like in every other business.

You as a customer have the legal options of either not closing contracts whose terms you don't like (an option that, alas, too few people take in my opinion), or trying to negotiate special terms with the providers. Everything else will be illegal or at best a legal grey area.

edit: typo corrected

hooperre

This post is deleted!

rpieguy

@dankcushions The link that you provided is about public performance rights. I don't think someone playing a game in an office waiting room is a public performance but that would be up to a judge. Even if you were to charge money, it wouldn't violate copyright law. In the old days video game rentals were common. If something is specified in the licence agreement than that should be followed; doesn't mean just because it's in a license agreement that it's legally enforceable.

hooperre

After this discussion I tried to find the End User Agreement from Steam (where I acquired a lot of the ROMs from):

(a) without written permission from Square Enix, use, advertise or exploit in any manner the Game Software or any of its parts commercially, including but not limited to use at a cyber (Internet) café, computer gaming center or any other location-based site;

BenMcLean

The answer to every intellectual property law question is "No" regardless of context.

I'll try to update this thread sometime soon, but there's been so much backlog that it looks like it'll take some work, which I'm not up for right at this moment. Thanks to everyone who has found cool new stuff, especially the NES homebrews.

I am a big fan of One Must Fall 2097 and I'd be very happy to find out that a source port of One Must Fall 2097 will run on RetroPie but I won't list it if we're running it through DOSBOX, not because there's anything wrong with DOS games (they're some of the all-time best) but because MS-DOS has such a vast library of excellent free games that it would need it's own thread. Thanks to a numerically superior library of titles enabled by a free market open platform with near total backwards compatibility across the decades, the Glorious PC Gaming Master Race reigns over all console peasants with an iron fist and it always has, even back then.

Clyde

@rpieguy said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

I don't think someone playing a game in an office waiting room is a public performance but that would be up to a judge. Even if you were to charge money, it wouldn't violate copyright law.

Under the U.S. Copyright Law, Chapter 1, Section 101, "publicly" means

(1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered

That sounds to me like most workspaces. Further on, Section 106 states that

the owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following:
[...]
(4) in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works, to perform the copyrighted work publicly;

There is no mention of charging money; the mere performance seems to be protected.

Thus, I as a legal layperson think you're very likely wrong on both accounts – at least in the U.S., but I suspect that other countries' laws are similar in that regard more often than not.

@hooperre Mind that all our opinions here are no professional assessments. If you want to be sure, you'd have to ask a lawyer, preferably one specialized in copyright law.

@benmclean said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

The answer to every intellectual property law question is "No" regardless of context.

How about "will you continue to refuse intellectual property law?"

Sorry, I couldn't resist. O:) I concur to your decision not to list MS-DOS games here.

Triquick

This Guide: https://eltechs.com/retropie-raspberry-pi-retro-gaming-machine/

Shows how its possible to get older GoG games playing on a raspberry Pi with Retropie. Its requires buying the ExaGear Desktop through and a bit more setup to get PC games running.

Drakaen391

A good spot I get my PS1”roms” is off the PS1 disk... but haven’t found a way to have the pi read the disk...

Guessing I have driver issues...

If only I could share my saved between my Pi and PS1 memory card

Shadowron

Don't know if posted before, but i wanted to share this website with you guys.
http://nesworld.com/index.php

It contains a large database of homebrews (no hacks). Some are free to download, some are demo's and some you need to buy in order to play. The website doesn't only contain NES roms and information, but also for other Nintendo consoles.

To admins: if you think the link is inappropriate, please notify me.

BenMcLean

I wonder if the Lord of the Rings Game Engine could be compiled for RetroPie. http://www.wonderland.cz/lotr/

mitu

@benmclean From the looks of it the answer would be yes, but will most likely be easier to use dosbox to play the DOS version, at least for the joystick support.

cyperghost

Sega Master System - Brawl (for Genesis/Megadrive!)

download link

TomCat

Cant delete this, but figured out the problem and no longer need assistance, sorry.

mediamogul

@cyperghost said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

Sega Master System - Brawl (for Genesis/Megadrive!)

This was updated today and has a lot of new additions.

VictimRLSH

I was able to use the pak files from the Amiga version of Quake without any problems.

cyperghost

@mediamogul cool was not aware of this.
Another cool game is "Oh Mummy!" for Genesis/MD
It has a selection of 2 modes
Mode 1 is the original Amstrad CPC version with original music
Mode 2 is a massive improved graphics adventure game

TomCat

OK, so: I am building a retro pie machine and I need ROM's! So, I bought Sega Genesis / Mega Drive, Mega Man Legacy Collection and Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection off of Steam. I have read through many guides how to extract the ROM's from these games, but python wasn't really working, and also I'm pretty new to this stuff, so I don't understand a lot of the terminology. Now, is there anyone else that knows a good, simple, and straight-forward video or thread to figure out how to do this? Thanks!

VictimRLSH

Another thing to keep in mind is the gigantic number of programs for Apple, C64, VIC20, Amiga, and DOS that are shareware or public domain. While these might take more effort to get working, you will have an impressive game library that is completely legal. Redistribution rights would be another matter though...

TomCat

@victimrlsh Are you answering my question? I dont understand.

VictimRLSH

@tomcat It was a general addition to the thread for anyone looking to expand their legal game collection.