'Antstream Arcade' App With Over 1,300 Retro Games Launching on iPhone and iPad Next Week

[aloysiusfreeman]

1,300 games but “. . . the service offers only a handful of games for consoles like the NES, SNES, Game Boy, and PS1”

Is this a contradiction or just meaning that others are early home computer (ie C64) titles?

When I looked at the list - the SNES and PS1 titles were very sparse. Did see a lot of Amiga and DOS titles.

 

[JustSomeInfo]

I signed up because of the arcade games they have, not because of the home console stuff. I never thought I'd ever get to play my beloved Rastan or Zoo Keeper again.

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

>streaming
Nah thank you

 

[svish]

Good but not too happy with the subscription model.

 

[entropi]

crystal quest, anyone?

 

[dylanwho]

What is the name of that controller in the image?

 

[bousozoku]

Sadly, the game list is so light, I don't see anything I want to play so much that I would subscribe.

If they had the original Atari 8-bit Star Raiders and Starglider for the Amiga, I might have subscribed for a month. Even the MSX catalog was almost empty.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Even if a game hasn't been sold for a long time, even if its original publisher is out of business, there's a chance that another company purchased the rights (or even bought out the old company) and is watching the emulation scene with interest, getting ready to sell a collection of their own.

"A chance"
"is watching with interest"
"(maybe) getting ready to sell a collection"

None of that = "available to purchase"

Honestly, rules around IP are completely overboard
At some point, it all needs to expire and enter the public domain

Are we really wanting some random generational Nintendo descendant suing someone for playing a 200 year old Mario ROM in 2185?

 

[Brynjamen]

What is the name of that controller in the image?

Android & iPhone USB-C Gaming Controller | Backbone

Backbone One USB-C controller is compatible with Android and iPhone 15 & 16 Series and lets you game from anywhere via console, cloud gaming, or remote play.

playbackbone.com

Backbone One

 

[Victor Mortimer]

I signed up because of the arcade games they have, not because of the home console stuff. I never thought I'd ever get to play my beloved Rastan or Zoo Keeper again.

Rastan? I always thought of that as a IIgs game.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

But the roms needed for Delta are not. Not sure why you think we should go out of our way not to mention that stealing is, in fact, stealing.

 

[GraXXoR]

Oh look another subscription service. You will own nothing and you will be happy!

 

[macos9rules]

I wonder what the licensing deal is and how much the developers are compensated for their original work. And what about devs that are no longer operating.

 

[JustSomeInfo]

Rastan? I always thought of that as a IIgs game.

One of the dining places on campus in college (1988) had the arcade cabinet. That was the sole game they had. Maybe it was later ported to IIgs.

 

[rhaezorblue]

We need an emulator for iOS devices that supports Arcade games.. like MAME does on PC.

 

[bousozoku]

Oh look another subscription service. You will own nothing and you will be happy!

Unless you were buying games in the 1980s, there isn't any way to own most of those games.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

What about ScummVR?

I found a ScummVM, is that open source? Then, I was really talking about how people could get music for “free” and all iTunes did was make a solution where the biggest difference was that iTunes made music easier to find for a price. It appears that, while folks can find their own roms, this apps does that for the user for a price.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

Perhaps instead of splitting hairs on legality we should be discussing morality and ethics instead.

IMO taking and using others IP without their specific permission clearly is neither ethical nor moral. Just my $0.02 but I feel strongly about it. I do not consider viewing imagery or listening to audio once/twice to be theft of IP. IMO the IP theft occurs if/when the imagery/audio gets saved to mass storage; or worse, edited without specific permission to access the original work.

I don’t have any gray areas like that. If I take an action to view or listen to content while intentionally avoiding the steps to license/own it, I’ve tried to not be legal. I know no one is going to come after me for it, but that doesn’t change the legality of it.