MAMEHub 0.4 [r277] - ROM Sharing

[Krusty]

Change description:

Digitalghost added a ROM sharing dialog for the client perspective.


Approximate revision of change:

r277


Reason for change:

Provide clarity to the ROM sharing functionality.


Illustration:

Begin by double-clicking a hosted game. If you don't have the ROM available locally, the ROM sharing process will begin:

---

1) Legal Entitlement Dialog*




2) Download Dialog




3) Automatic Audit Dialog




4) Auditing Progress Dialog




5) Audit Complete Dialog




6) The ROM is now available in the game list




* WARNING: Those who break the ROM legal entitlement agreement may be subjected to hours of entertaining emulation experiences on MAMEHub.

---

Notes:

This change took place on approximately March 24th, 2011.

All of my posts in the news section are from the perspective of a MAMEHub tester and do not necessarily represent Digitalghosts views.
Only Digitalghost provides the final word on MAMEHub.

[zambr123]

Needs updating to use exact same text as in regular MAME. A Yes / No isn't good enough, it does not make the user stop and read it.

Here's my suggestion



Where each player has to tick the box AND has to press Proceed button. Makes it very clear.

[Krusty]

The disclaimer you're showing is for using the roms, not for downloading them.

If it was necessary, then I would agree with strengthening the disclaimer for downloading roms. But I'm not sure if it's needed.

More information on this topic would be helpful.

Perhaps Digitalghost has some thoughts on this.

[zambr123]

IF user already has the ROM then
...show new dialog (one shown above)
ELSE
...show current dialog as is (add a tick box to it)


The reason we should use the original disclaimer text just before a game runs, is because it was removed from the emulators (this was to fix issues with the loading process).


Eventually, we should replace the new dialog with the game lobby dialog. If / when it happens.

[Krusty]

Sept 5, 2011 2:47:49 GMT -5 zambr123 said:

The reason we should use the original disclaimer text just before a game runs [...]

I think this would be rather disruptive for new users starting out. I understand that something should be done to mitigate the loss of the per-game disclaimer that was removed from CSMAME but I would favor something like a one-time agreement as opposed to having to agree with every game. Just out of curiosity, do you know if other emulators have a per-game disclaimer?

Perhaps the disclaimer can be something that occurs when MAMEHub is first run (like the first-time audit).

[zambr123]

Sept 6, 2011 18:12:23 GMT -5 Krusty said:

Sept 5, 2011 2:47:49 GMT -5 zambr123 said:

I think this would be rather disruptive for new users starting out.

Indeed it would. It should be used for the Game Lobby dialog. Users should find that acceptable as

(a) you have a pop-up dialog anyway (benefits listed here mamehub.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=guirewrite&thread=111&page=1)
(b) the status would not turn to OK until the user agrees to the disclaimer, which would be easy to understand
(c) keeps within MAME license. ).

Sept 6, 2011 18:12:23 GMT -5 Krusty said:

Sept 5, 2011 2:47:49 GMT -5 zambr123 said:

do you know if other emulators have a per-game disclaimer?

No. But no other online gaming system works like this, with ROM downloads (and the only reason ROM downloads is present is because we found it was impractical without it due to people always having different version ROMs (MESS ROMs in particular) as well as the constant updating of MAME versions. Anyway, the Game Lobby disclaimer would be fine, that would be the logical way to go