GameTap: Turner's games-on-demand site is live
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Oct 3rd 2005 at 2:00PM }
Today, Turner Broadcasting launched
GameTap, its online games-on-demand
service. GameTap allows subscribers to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to its collection of retro (and
not-so-retro) titles. At launch, the service is dominated with titles from various Sega platforms, including 32 X,
Dreamcast (only Hydro Thunder & Mr. Driller), Game Gear, Genesis, and Master System—GameTap also
features arcade & windows-based games and titles from the Atari 2600 and Intellivision. It's no surprise that
Nintendo has steered clear of GameTap, as it plans to launch a similar service for the Nintendo Revolution.
With the prevalence of emulators and ROMs it's not hard to see why a service like GameTap was launched, providing a legal method of playing games of yesteryear on your PC. That being said, most (if not all) of the games featured on GameTap can be easily acquired and played for free. But that's certainly an ethical dilemma; not to mention, Mr. Turner and his wide-reaching empire would be cheated out of your $14.95 monthly subscription fee. Anyone signed up yet?
[Thanks, William]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris_C @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
Their selection of newer games is pretty poor, the older games get old(er) quickly. I recieved an email from them a week ago thanking me for being an early subscriber, and stating that if would just take a 15 minute survey I'd get a $20 Amazon gift certificate, still waiting on that.
Also, it seems to be far too difficult to unsubscribe. I've been trying desperately to find the link somewhere on their poorly laid out site, or on the software you download and install, but no luck.
Frogbrother @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
Not signing up... I'm a Mac user and as usual, we've been excluded!
leo @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
I won't pay $180 a year just to make me feel better about myself. ethical dilemma? so be it.
1337Thespian @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
Cancel your subscription through your cedit card.
d1a2r3k @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
Yes i have also subscribed, and unsubscribed from gamefly. Its a neat idea but man oh man there title selection is way low, thing liek showing you games when the software starts up and not seeing the in your title list does throw people off. I did like how i can make other users on the account so you can use the software on diffrent computers. Things that i didnt like, when a game is loading up this awful guy doing video game poems just made me want to kill myself. Oh and to unsubscribe you have to find the customer service number on there home page/contact us. Thats the only way to unsubscribe from there service....
Chris_C @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
Thanks for the info #5. Man I can't believe I'll have to deal with real people to do this... the humanity!
djSyndrome @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
Have had this for a week. Awful game selection, no options to adjust difficulty settings in arcade games, very few control and video adjustment options.
Yeah, I'll be unsubscribing tonight.
Scott @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
Ted Turner has not worked at Turner for several years.
Iced_Eagle @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
As a beta tester I got to sign up for 1 year for 1 dollar.
It's not that bad IMHO, but I'm not a huge retro fan.
columbiatch @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
I beta tested this load of crap as well. Great idea but the selection of games just doesn't warrent $15 a month. I'm dumping it as soon as I actually have to pay for it.
VGH @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
I smell a big failure :-
BigKountry @ Dec 18th 2005 10:00PM
I'm not to sure that I would subscribe to this either. Gamefly is great though, I have never had any kind of problems with them. It saves me in the long run too, I'm not spending a fortune buying a game, realizing it sucks, and being out $50. The only drawback is I have to wait a couple of days to play the new releases.