GameTap is online early!

TheDecn

TheDecn

CAG Veteran
I thought it wasn't supposed to go live until October, but some folks have received an e-mail today with a link to join early. You can sign and start using right away! Trial membership for the first three months is $9.99, $14.99 a month thereafter. You have to use this special link...there is still no way to join from the homepage:

http://www.gametap.com/launch/

For those that haven't heard, GameTap is a service that allows you to play over 300 classic games for systems like the 2600, Genesis, Arcade, on up to Dreamcast (Hydro Thunder is available right now), PSOne, and the PC (such as Beyond Good and Evil, and Splinter Cell). All the games are emulated in their native formats. Over time there are supposed to be upwards of 2000 games available. The interface is extremely well done, everything seems to be well thought out. This is an amazing service and an amazing deal.
 
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[quote name='RandomNPC']Hmmm, is emulating all those games even legal?[/QUOTE]

Obviously it is or Turner wouldn't be backing it.
 
[quote name='RandomNPC']Hmmm, is emulating all those games even legal?[/QUOTE]
They have purchesed the rights to the games and are working with the developers as well.
 
Now bring on Saturn emulation. I'd happily pay 9 bucks a month to finally play Radiant Silvergun

I'm really curious as to how many PSone games they'll get....
 
[quote name='Skylander7']Now bring on Saturn emulation. I'd happily pay 9 bucks a month to finally play Radiant Silvergun

I'm really curious as to how many PSone games they'll get....[/QUOTE]

The collection is pretty sparse. There is really nothing that is worth the price they are asking for, especially since you can't keep the games.
 
does it save your place in the game. I see like shining force and a few other rpgs does it save or do you got to start new everytime you log in.
 
I'm going t pass on that, I was in the beta, and while the interface was slick the novelty of playing some old games wore off VERY quickly.
 
[quote name='Mr.Answer']I'm going t pass on that, I was in the beta, and while the interface was slick the novelty of playing some old games wore off VERY quickly.[/QUOTE]


first month free i mean you cant pass that up BUT is the only way to cancell you got to call 1 866 722 5295 ... if that is the only way to cancell then that will put many people off. if you could cancell online i would join tonight
 
[quote name='slidecage']does it save your place in the game. I see like shining force and a few other rpgs does it save or do you got to start new everytime you log in.[/QUOTE]

It saves your game just like the actual game would. Gametap, least when I was in beta, did not support save states.
 
As a CAG, I think the price is steep; if they charged 9.99 / 3 months all the time, I'd probably jump. Considering most of those games have been "out of print" for years if not decades, the publishers should be grateful to squeeze even a little more revenue from what is essentially a dead product. Besides all that, there are enough free emulators floating around for different platforms (and ON different platforms). Yes, illegal ROMS are the issue, but again most of those games are not making any more money for the original developers or publishers anyway.

Maybe I'll try it out and cancel, assuming I can decide if getting the hard sell when I call is worth the trouble.
 
Hm

I was in the beta, I guess it's ok to talk about it now.

With no Saturn support I'm out for now. They bring Saturn support, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shining Force 3 parts 1,2,3,4 (all translated), D&D Collection translated, Guardian Heroes, Radiant Silvergun, etc....I'm in.
 
As a video game collector, something like this makes me sick. Whatever happened to the thrill of the hunt for that elusive game cart or disc you want to play so you can relive your memories...OH SHIT did i just see toy commander in this intro movie!? where do i sign up??
 
Thanks for the post. Probably not going to do it right now (only 3 or 4 games that interest me that I don't own, and don't have 5gigs free atm on my HD), but it is definitely something to keep an eye on. And yes, making rare games available for what may as well be free, makes me a little nausous as well. But there is a chance that something like this may not drop the value of the rarer stuff, at least hopefully not by much. There is still something to actually holding the game instead of playing a ROM.
 
Well, considering the only reason to do this is if you're some huge stickler for "keeping it legal", I see no reason to pay this price. I can get any game I want, plus more, for free on emulators that have been readily available for download free for many years.

Then again, I prefer actual carts and systems, but if I'm in an emulation mood than free it is, fuck paying for it.
 
I have been interested in this new service, and I got the promo offer yesterday so I decided to sign up. It has a very nice interface, and the games seem to play well (especially the arcade games), but like Cmosfm mentioned -- you can get pretty much all of these games on emulators. Still, it is kind of cool, and if they start adding new games every week (as they say) it will be fun to check out the new additions as they show up.

I've always liked the idea of high score saving, like on Xbox live -- but it doesn't look like it is on many games. In fact, the only game I noticed this on was Pitfall. There must be others, and I hope they eventually plan on doing this for all games. Multiplayer support would be great too, and I read somewhere that it will come eventually.

It has games from Arcade, Atari 2600, Sega Master System, Genesis, Sega 32X, Game Gear (only a few), Dreamcast (3 or 4), Windows, Intellivision (3 games), and I think thats it. Big hole without any Nintendo representation, in my opinion. No way can they say that they have the "best games" without Nintendo. It would also be great if they had some of the classic PC games, like the old EA games (Archon, MULE, etc) and Infocom and Sierra adventures -- but no.

I'll hold onto it for the trial period (4 months), they we'll see.
 
Cool. I'll check it out in a year or so if it has a nice enough library. As for now I'll stick to PSP and PC for my classic gaming needs.
 
$15/month is a bit much for this... especially since one can easily download all these games in a matter of hours, with save states and other fun options. Now, if they can manage to get Saturn/PS1/Nintendo games without a huge increase in price, I'd give it a shot.
 
[quote name='davidmt'] Big hole without any Nintendo representation, in my opinion.[/QUOTE]

Nintendo'll never show up on Gametap, unfortunatly. GT went to license Nintendo stuff, and it ended up like this.

holyrevolutionwork.jpg
 
[quote name='slidecage']wonder whats heavier a flying xbox or a cow[/QUOTE]
Wonder what's stupider? A flying slidecage or a cow?
 
I participated in the beta, and the interface caused my machine (a 2 month old Dell 8400) to crash nearly every time I used it. Had to drop out of the beta because of this. Could see this being fun otherwise.

I have to think that Saturn games will be added as soon as it's feasible. They're limited in what they can really add, since neither of the big 3 manufacturers will license their content for this, and the PC titles take a long time to download.
 
I know Nintendo will never license because they will have older games on the Revolution, but it would still be nice. I hope Gametap gets more companies involved - its a great idea, but I just don't know if it will take off.

My machine hasn't had any problems -- but I've only had it installed for one day.
 
Sounds like bs to me. How is they able to emulate dreamcast games on the pc, you can hardly get the sega saturn emulator to run.

Someone give more information please.
 
[quote name='U2K Tha Greate$t']Sounds like bs to me. How is they able to emulate dreamcast games on the pc, you can hardly get the sega saturn emulator to run.

Someone give more information please.[/QUOTE]

They only have Hydro Thunder and Mr Driller so far - I tried Hydro and I didn't find any glaring issues, but it has been several years since I played it on the Dreamcast.
 
[quote name='U2K Tha Greate$t']Sounds like bs to me. How is they able to emulate dreamcast games on the pc, you can hardly get the sega saturn emulator to run.

Someone give more information please.[/QUOTE]


There's also a fully functional Dreamcast emulator out there not attached to Gametap, called chankast. It's cause the DC uses a Windows variant.
 
Don't like the idea of this it makes me mad i spend hundreds of dollars on ebay to obtain games like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Power Stone for my Dreamcast. Man i love that thing.
 
I just got the email to join up on this, and i am loving it, sooo many games i havent played Since Time Warner had the Sega Channel back in the day.

First thing i played was Comix Zone :)

Pretty cool that it has some good PC games as well.
 
I was in on the beta test I'd I haven't signed up for the launch. Quick review...1) if you don't use a USB PC gamepad you are screwed! 2) Games that are available are weak.
 
[quote name='sonicfreak5']Don't like the idea of this it makes me mad i spend hundreds of dollars on ebay to obtain games like Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 and Power Stone for my Dreamcast. Man i love that thing.[/QUOTE]

I hope you didn't pay more than $10 for PS...
 
[quote name='SpottedNigel']...any other beta testers get an e-mail about signing up for a year for $1?[/QUOTE]

Yep, and I already signed up for it. Great deal for those of us who helped get everything running.
 
[quote name='Rihan']Yep, and I already signed up for it. Great deal for those of us who helped get everything running.[/QUOTE] ...did it go to a weird MS sign in page?
 
[quote name='SpottedNigel']...did it go to a weird MS sign in page?[/QUOTE]

Yeah, it was kind of a beyotch to get going right. Copy the link location from your email and delete the ibeta redirect stuff.
 
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