For all you PinMAME/Visual Pinball lovers out there

[heckheck]

I did a quick search of the newsgroup and found only two mentions of a
great BitTorrent site that has ALL of the PinMAME/Visual Pinball tables
available (and a whole lot more like all MAME, etc). It is at

http://torrent.mametitles.co.uk/

Their sets are virtually complete, and download is quite speedy with a
broadband connection. I used Azureus BitTorrent client to pull down
all the PinMAME ROMs in about a day.

I must warn you, however, that this site does not take lightly people
who just suck down files without sharing upload bandwidth (aka
leechers), so don't heavily limit your upload speed, and stay connected
after your download is complete for a few days to share back some data
(download is for many of us much faster than upload). Also, Azureus
client has a bad name over there right now (though 1/3 of the members
use it). They recommend BitTornado, which is reliable, but only
handles one torrent at a time.

As an alternative, the flood of tables/ROMs by Spirit-DK on
alt.binaries.emulators.pinball is still available for people with news
servers that have a long memory (like Giganews), but will age out
pretty soon.

Happy downloading,

h_h

[PT]

A bittorrent site just got busted yesterday. They were ordered to turn
over the download records. Here is the article.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050210-4606.html

John

[heckheck]

PT Good point, and a proper warning disclaimer.

BitTorrent sites per se are not the problem, it is a matter of what
they choose to share. I wholeheartedly agree that piracy of
commercially available media will be pursued and enforced (and should
be, there is a commercial alternative people are subverting). That is
why I have a Netflix subscription instead of downloading movies from
sites like this. That is why I don't really listen to music (don't
want to take it, but don't like the current digital distribution DRM
shortcomings).

You may say that pinball simulations are the same and fall under the
shouldn't touch category and are "risky" to traffic in, due to the
copyrighted nature of the ROMs. This is probably technically true, but
as with most of things Pinball, this stuff is effectively abandonware.
WMS is out of the pinball buisness, many of these games are 20+ years
old, and there is little if any commercial value left to them
(obviously not so with current release movies and music). The torrent
site I mentioned is being VERY selective about what they will post
trackers for. For instance they won't post any Nintendo trackers,
since Nintendo has indicated they are against sharing of their works no
matter how old, and will pursue their copyrights. No problem, won't
share it. They are sharing only what they consider abandonware. No
it's not their call to make, so proceed at your own risk. Life is full
of risks.

h_h

[Mr. Fixx]

Not True about the ROMS being abandonware at all..

Gottlieb, or whats left of it, actively protects its copyrights..

Williams has shown in the past they too dont like VP or VPM..

I would be careful about Bit-Torrent'ing and sharing those ROMS..

The copyright police, they might just get you...

Fixx

Post by heckheck
PT Good point, and a proper warning disclaimer.
BitTorrent sites per se are not the problem, it is a matter of what
they choose to share. I wholeheartedly agree that piracy of
commercially available media will be pursued and enforced (and should
be, there is a commercial alternative people are subverting). That is
why I have a Netflix subscription instead of downloading movies from
sites like this. That is why I don't really listen to music (don't
want to take it, but don't like the current digital distribution DRM
shortcomings).
You may say that pinball simulations are the same and fall under the
shouldn't touch category and are "risky" to traffic in, due to the
copyrighted nature of the ROMs. This is probably technically true, but
as with most of things Pinball, this stuff is effectively abandonware.
WMS is out of the pinball buisness, many of these games are 20+ years
old, and there is little if any commercial value left to them
(obviously not so with current release movies and music). The torrent
site I mentioned is being VERY selective about what they will post
trackers for. For instance they won't post any Nintendo trackers,
since Nintendo has indicated they are against sharing of their works no
matter how old, and will pursue their copyrights. No problem, won't
share it. They are sharing only what they consider abandonware. No
it's not their call to make, so proceed at your own risk. Life is full
of risks.
h_h

[Ross]

Did Williams sell the rights to the ROMS for the Williams Bally games to
Gene?

Eithe way, they are copyrighted.

Ross

Post by Mr. Fixx
Not True about the ROMS being abandonware at all..
Gottlieb, or whats left of it, actively protects its copyrights..
Williams has shown in the past they too dont like VP or VPM..
I would be careful about Bit-Torrent'ing and sharing those ROMS..
The copyright police, they might just get you...
Fixx

Post by heckheck
PT Good point, and a proper warning disclaimer.
BitTorrent sites per se are not the problem, it is a matter of what
they choose to share. I wholeheartedly agree that piracy of
commercially available media will be pursued and enforced (and should
be, there is a commercial alternative people are subverting). That is
why I have a Netflix subscription instead of downloading movies from
sites like this. That is why I don't really listen to music (don't
want to take it, but don't like the current digital distribution DRM
shortcomings).
You may say that pinball simulations are the same and fall under the
shouldn't touch category and are "risky" to traffic in, due to the
copyrighted nature of the ROMs. This is probably technically true, but
as with most of things Pinball, this stuff is effectively abandonware.
WMS is out of the pinball buisness, many of these games are 20+ years
old, and there is little if any commercial value left to them
(obviously not so with current release movies and music). The torrent
site I mentioned is being VERY selective about what they will post
trackers for. For instance they won't post any Nintendo trackers,
since Nintendo has indicated they are against sharing of their works no
matter how old, and will pursue their copyrights. No problem, won't
share it. They are sharing only what they consider abandonware. No
it's not their call to make, so proceed at your own risk. Life is full
of risks.
h_h

[Mr. Fixx]

Thats a good question.. Especially since Pinball.com is still up.. I would
assume they did, so that Gene could produce reproduction boards?

I could be wrong,

Fixx

Post by Ross
Did Williams sell the rights to the ROMS for the Williams Bally games to
Gene?
Eithe way, they are copyrighted.
Ross

Post by Mr. Fixx
Not True about the ROMS being abandonware at all..
Gottlieb, or whats left of it, actively protects its copyrights..
Williams has shown in the past they too dont like VP or VPM..
I would be careful about Bit-Torrent'ing and sharing those ROMS..
The copyright police, they might just get you...
Fixx

Post by heckheck
PT Good point, and a proper warning disclaimer.
BitTorrent sites per se are not the problem, it is a matter of what
they choose to share. I wholeheartedly agree that piracy of
commercially available media will be pursued and enforced (and should
be, there is a commercial alternative people are subverting). That is
why I have a Netflix subscription instead of downloading movies from
sites like this. That is why I don't really listen to music (don't
want to take it, but don't like the current digital distribution DRM
shortcomings).
You may say that pinball simulations are the same and fall under the
shouldn't touch category and are "risky" to traffic in, due to the
copyrighted nature of the ROMs. This is probably technically true, but
as with most of things Pinball, this stuff is effectively abandonware.
WMS is out of the pinball buisness, many of these games are 20+ years
old, and there is little if any commercial value left to them
(obviously not so with current release movies and music). The torrent
site I mentioned is being VERY selective about what they will post
trackers for. For instance they won't post any Nintendo trackers,
since Nintendo has indicated they are against sharing of their works no
matter how old, and will pursue their copyrights. No problem, won't
share it. They are sharing only what they consider abandonware. No
it's not their call to make, so proceed at your own risk. Life is full
of risks.
h_h