[Black Squirrel]

So if you've ever been to a British pub you'll probably find "fruit machines" - big gambling things with plastic buttons and flashing lights. Nobody thought to document them until fairly recently - IIRC there was a fight to get these ROMs into MAME because there is a horrible set of people out there who only think "important" games should be emulated, not the stuff that genuinely needs preserving, because "guh nobody plays these".

Turns out Sega made some. And we're not talking about old, mechanical-style slot machines (also known as fruit machines... and one-armed bandits) - these things. While it's still difficult to find people who care about those (a.k.a. help us document them), historical significance and age ensures people take reasonable care of them these days.

This stuff - not so much:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201339087831

Sega apparently bought a UK firm, "JPM International" which specialises in these things, before outsourcing all the manufacturing (to Japan?), selling it in 2004, and playing its role in the decline of British manufacturing over the last two decades.


I think this means every JPM fruit machine produced in the early 2000s is within the scope of Sega Retro. But I can't find much information on these things because... nobody cares.

I've only found a couple:

- Club Firecracker
- Ker-ching!

There will probably be more. Thoughts?

This post has been edited by Black Squirrel: 28 April 2015 - 11:14 AM

[winterhell]

Not to rain on your parade, but does everything gaming related have to be documented and preserved? Especially the stuff nobody cares about?

Where do you draw the line where you start archiving every iPhone game out there made in 1 day by amateurs.

Bottom line is, do you personally care for those Fruit Machines?

This post has been edited by winterhell: 28 April 2015 - 11:33 AM

[Overlord]

winterhell, on 28 April 2015 - 11:32 AM, said:

Not to rain on your parade, but does everything gaming related have to be documented and preserved? Especially the stuff nobody cares about?

Where do you draw the line where you start archiving every iPhone game out there made in 1 day by amateurs.

Putting aside your immediate reaction, yes it IS worth documenting them, because of both the exact reasons he said and because if Sega was involved with it, it IS in scope for Sega Retro.

This is a weird one, to be sure - I wasn't even aware Sega was still involved in stuff like this (despite this being their origins!)

[winterhell]

Alright them.

[Black Squirrel]

winterhell, on 28 April 2015 - 11:32 AM, said:

does everything gaming related have to be documented and preserved?

Eventually, yes. But it's up to other people to cover things not within the scope of Sonic/Sega Retro. I do secretly like the idea of someone keeping track of all the Flappy Bird clones, but it won't be me doing it.