6 Charged With Making Fake Pac-Man Games

rgMekanic

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3 family members who owned and operated a company called CoinOpStore as well as three people who worked there were charged with forging machines that played Galaga, Tank Battalion, and five different versions of Pac-Man. Collectively, the six are charged with 14 counts of felony counterfeiting, prosecutors said. Officials said that the proceeds from the sale of the machines may be seized - including $1.2 million in cash, a 2012 Mercedes Benz, a 2015 BMW and five properties.

Apparently making counterfeit arcade games is big business based on the seized assets. The article also states if convicted, they face a maximum term of 11 years and eight months in prison, ouch.

The unauthorized video games included "Galaga," "Tank Battalion," and at least five iterations of "Pac-Man," all of which are trademarked by Bandai Namco Entertainment, whose U.S. headquarters is also in Santa Clara. Engin said the games were contained in classic arcade machines, which sold for at least $1,495 apiece.
 
That's one heck of a up-charge for a RetroPie.....

upload_2017-8-11_17-41-45.png
 
You can't sell counterfeit hardware as legitimate. I hope Namco sues the shit out of them.
 
Someone else was giving me the lowdown on this group. This was their money laundering scheme. They didn't think it through very well

when will people learn that a dry cleaner is so much easier.

i mean money laundering? that's illegal!
 
Wouldn't surprise me if they were building these things in China and sneaking them in to their warehouse.

It actually kind of angers me to see them do this since I grew up when these games came out. Spent 1-2 hours playing them after school. Took a trip to Virginia Beach prior to the inauguration to take my sons to an arcade that is still in business - it is 1 of 3 locations left of a chain that had 3 when I was in high school (called Flipper McCoys). I swear they still have the same PacMa, /Ms. PacMan, and Galaga machines (my all time favorite - if I had to go live on a deserted island Galaga would be on my deserted island wish list). They were quite worn out but still operational with CRT screens - some even had the original cigarette burns from a time when smoking was still allowed indoors. I hate the ones I see from time to time with LCD panels - it just takes away from the experience IMHO.
 
Haven't the game patents expired yet? I have no horse in this race. I was just wondering.

Old Gator:
While I agree with you, finding replacement tube screens is getting harder and harder. There is only one real tube factory left.
 
Haven't the game patents expired yet? I have no horse in this race. I was just wondering.

Old Gator:
While I agree with you, finding replacement tube screens is getting harder and harder. There is only one real tube factory left.
Patents expire, trademarks do not.

There never was a patent on Pac Man (although now every software call in the game would be patented probably), however the term itself is trademarked. It would be like me calling a business Ford Motor Company and selling cars.
 
Patents expire, trademarks do not.

There never was a patent on Pac Man (although now every software call in the game would be patented probably), however the term itself is trademarked. It would be like me calling a business Ford Motor Company and selling cars.
good point.
 
I cant believe how scared people are about being politically incorrect. There are a certain type of person across the entire USA that do this type of crime time and time again. Not with just tech either. Anything that can be counterfeited and profited from is being so. Im surprised any of the proceeds were seized, it is normally sent back to the criminals home country long before they are caught. ICE needs to deport these scum the second they are convicted so we don't have to pay hundreds of thousand of dollars to house and feed them.
 
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I cant believe how scared people are about being politically incorrect. There are a certain type of person across the entire USA that do this type of crime time and time again. Not with just tech either. Anything that can be counterfeited and profited from is being so. Im surprised any of the proceeds were seized, it is normally sent back to the criminals home country long before they are caught. ICE needs to deport these scum the second they are convicted so we don't have to pay hundreds of thousand of dollars to house and feed them.

That's because it's dirt cheap to produce those good in their home country, their home country turns a blind eye towards that behavior since it allows more people to be employed, the amount of goods coming into the US makes it impossible to inspect every container, and, the reward compared to the possible penalty if caught is generally high enough to make it worthwhile.

Perhaps long sentences in a Federal "pound me in the ass" prison might discourage it but it probably won't really stop it if they repatriate their funds and can just be deported back to spend them.

I've been overseas quite a bit and the amount of fake goods is staggering. Just totally unbelievable the scale of it all.
 
Were they pretending these were originals? I am guessing they were not, but just delivering bootleg machines to be used commercially. This is why it differentiates between your home MAME/reto-Pie stuff.
 
The retro shop here sell similar things. They're great. 32,000 is approximately US$ 1000.

arcades.jpg
 
$1k for a knock off machine?

I mean christ on a crutch, I wouldn't need an authentic machine and really would be happy to have a Mame cabinet (one of my todo wishlists whenever I get some time to actually build it... so like probably never) but sure as hell not going to pay top dollar for a knockoff.
 
3 family members who owned and operated a company called CoinOpStore as well as three people who worked there were charged with forging machines that played Galaga, Tank Battalion, and five different versions of Pac-Man. Collectively, the six are charged with 14 counts of felony counterfeiting, prosecutors said. Officials said that the proceeds from the sale of the machines may be seized - including $1.2 million in cash, a 2012 Mercedes Benz, a 2015 BMW and five properties.

Apparently making counterfeit arcade games is big business based on the seized assets. The article also states if convicted, they face a maximum term of 11 years and eight months in prison, ouch.

The unauthorized video games included "Galaga," "Tank Battalion," and at least five iterations of "Pac-Man," all of which are trademarked by Bandai Namco Entertainment, whose U.S. headquarters is also in Santa Clara. Engin said the games were contained in classic arcade machines, which sold for at least $1,495 apiece.



A decent fully done MAME arcade machine costs more than that. Clearly they weren't trying to fool anyone into thinking they were originals, but they must have made the mistake of including ROMs.
 
A decent fully done MAME arcade machine costs more than that. Clearly they weren't trying to fool anyone into thinking they were originals, but they must have made the mistake of including ROMs.

IF you look at how the cabinets are constructed, it isn't too hard to built a copy. I actually had a full size arcade machine that was dead and I was going to swap modern electronics in and build a MAME machine. Unfortunately the roof leaked in the shed I had the cabinet stored in and it ruined. They are made of MDF.
 
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