Antstream - Retro Game Streaming Service

[Joefish]

If I were you I'd have nothing to do with them. Let them stand or fail on their own terms.

We've seen far too many attacks on people and websites that have had only the most passing association with previous kickstarters, when they fail or get taken over and the trolls come out from under their bridges. Any 'agreement' you might establish will be worthless the day after it's given and can only lead to trouble.

This is a free site - ask yourself what you can hope to gain from talking to someone who just wants to make a profit. And do you honestly think they have anything to 'give' compared to all the 'taking' they have planned?

[Bizzley]

Notice that none of these advantages would be affected by availability of the same titles from preservation sites like Spectrum Computing. I really hope they can understand it!

How long do you think it will be before a commercial company that operates and aims to make a profit on the basis that customers will pay for something that can be obtained freely - if unofficially - elsewhere will sooner or later work out that removing said free supply would be in their best bottom-line interest?

BTW if you've got a few spare minutes look up Antstream Limited at Companies House and follow some of the director names, see if you can spot the link between a former director of RCL (Vega+ infamy) and one of the current directors of Antstream. Isn't the Internet great.

[Einar Saukas]

If I were you I'd have nothing to do with them. Let them stand or fail on their own terms.

We've seen far too many attacks on people and websites that have had only the most passing association with previous kickstarters, when they fail or get taken over and the trolls come out from under their bridges. Any 'agreement' you might establish will be worthless the day after it's given and can only lead to trouble.

This is a free site - ask yourself what you can hope to gain from talking to someone who just wants to make a profit. And do you honestly think they have anything to 'give' compared to all the 'taking' they have planned?

I'm not planning to "give" or "take" anything, or to make any kind of "agreement". And certainly nothing to do with Spectrum Computing, I'm neither owner or admin here so I'm not entitled to represent it when speaking with anybody else!

I just happen to believe that lots of problems and misunderstandings may be avoided by simply opening channels for dialogue. I also believe initiatives for businesses based on retro content don't necessarily have to be a bad thing (think about the commercial Retro Gamer magazine for instance), if done properly.

So yes, I will try talking with them and see if I can influence a positive collaboration from their initiative with our community. There's nothing to lose from trying, if done properly.

[Einar Saukas]

How long do you think it will be before a commercial company that operates and aims to make a profit on the basis that customers will pay for something that can be obtained freely - if unofficially - elsewhere will sooner or later work out that removing said free supply would be in their best bottom-line interest?

It depends whether they realize that trying to kill the retro community will attract negative publicity and shrink their potential audience, thus hurting their own business in the long run.

Frankly I'm also concerned about their strategy. And that's exactly the reason I think it's important to open dialogue.

BTW if you've got a few spare minutes look up Antstream Limited at Companies House and follow some of the director names, see if you can spot the link between a former director of RCL (Vega+ infamy) and one of the current directors of Antstream. Isn't the Internet great.

I assume you mean Darren Melbourne. However he was never involved in Retro Computers (RCL) and Vega+. He's only involved in Retro Games, that has released one product and it's late on another, but it doesn't seem to have any major issues. This is somewhat similar to current ZX Next status, personally I don't see a lot of problem there.

[djnzx48]

I guess this is supposed to work similarly to the recently announced Google Stadia game streaming thing? The main point of it was that it allowed you to play games on low-spec hardware that wouldn't normally be able to run them, but it seems a bit pointless if you're just dealing with retro games that can be run on pretty much anything. And the latency was reportedly a big problem with that service, especially with fast-paced games. So it's not sounding that great so far.

If you do try to contact them, try to be careful I guess. Didn't a guy called Gamestage contact Activision about game permissions and then ended up getting all their games denied?

[Ralf]

Didn't a guy called Gamestage contact Activision about game permissions and then ended up getting all their games denied?

True.

On the other hand he just did what WOS at that time encouraged users to do: actively seek permissions for games. He tried and failed.
The proper approach was probably just never ask them and let sleeping dogs lie. This way they would never know and never care as it
worked for years before.

So yes, these are delicate matters and sometimes it's better to leave things alone. Choose carefully, Einar.

[patters]

I was curious about this and installed it on my phone. You can't even try the service for free, something you'd expect to be a pre-requisite for a subscription decision. I mean the emulation might be poor, so as a customer you'd need some tangible proof to the contrary. Instant uninstall for me.

[holycross]

**post merged by PJ"

The Netflix of old games does not let you remap controls and has poor image quality:/

When I asked them why they would not sell games but stream them, they said this was because it is better forquality because the size of the files is going to increase with the number of games(?????)

I found out Tencent invested money in Antstream.Maybe they think they have foubd a honey pot and that streaming is more profitable...

https://www.gamesradar.com/antstream-arcade-review/

[holycross]

I posted a thread aboutit, should have replied this one I guessed. They have poor image qualityand you can't remap controls. Tencent invested in the company...

https://www.gamesradar.com/antstream-arcade-review/

[DouglasReynholm]

Tencent invested in the company

Well now it's a definite swerve from me.

[Turtle_Quality]

Bumping an old thread here, but here's an article about AntStream going (from December 2020) to a model of free subscription with ads and some restrictions, or a premium subscription.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/03/08/antstrea ... -14206523/

[Juan F. Ramirez]

[...] a model of free subscription with ads [...]

The first thing that comes to my mind is this:







Sorry, I couldn't resist...

[Einar Saukas]

Bumping an old thread here, but here's an article about AntStream going (from December 2020) to a model of free subscription with ads and some restrictions, or a premium subscription.

https://metro.co.uk/2021/03/08/antstrea ... -14206523/

Well, this is going a lot better than I expected!

They never went against preservation efforts like SC/ZXDB (so users wouldn't have the choice to find the same games somewhere else). Instead, they have adopted the strategy of selling this service simply as a "more convenience experience" for regular users. This is great.

Their decision to change to free subscription with adverts should work much better for them.

If they continue along this path, I wish them good luck!

[namco]

I only got into Antsteam after seeing Jim Baguley's stream on Nebulus and I wondered if I could beat his score (which I did). Since then I've enjoyed the challenges/tournaments and discovering new games.

[bluespikey]

model of free subscription with ads and some restrictions, or a premium subscription.

Thorin arrives.
Thorin sits down and sings of gold.
Thorin starts telling you about Skillshare, an online community where users share tutorial videos about anything, such as how to slay dragons.