Oh boy, I think you better give this a read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8-track_cartridge . 8 track cartridges, and many MANY other forms of media, are patented, and you sure as hell need a license/permission to manufacture an 8-track cart 
Um...not the same thing. Lets use a more modern example, the Compact Disc. If I want to record an album and sell it on CD this is no problem. I just put it on a CD-R and sell it that way, or I can send the CD-R to a reproduction facility and they can stamp out some fancy pro stuff. If this is done with some places they can even slap a SKU on it and sell it on Amazon, or Lulu, or where ever. Is there a license process in this scheme? Well, yeah, but its not like making a console game. The patent process in situations like this is taken care of by the makers of blank media, the burners, the presses, etc. As a recording artist I wouldn't have to (knowingly) pay a license fee, or get anything authorized from anyone.
Contrast this to the console world. If I want to make and sell a GBA game in a store, on a cart, its either official, or its unlicensed. Those are the choices. Selling an unlicensed GBA game in the US would be pretty much legal thanks to customer protection lawsuits against Nintendo that date back decades. I don't think the DMCA applies to GBA games, but I'm not sure. However you might get into trouble in Europe, or Japan selling unlicensed software. Now, if If I wanted the game to bear the Nintendo Seal of Quality (or whatever it is) then I'd need to send the complete software to Nintendo in order to pass their judgement. If it was a pornographic game, or something that pisses of too many religious groups, or has other copyrighted materials, or it talks smack about Nintendo, or is annoying to someone there in some other way, it would never be honored a license. It would also need an ESRB rating for the US, a CERO rating for Japan, whatever the UK, and EU use, etc. Nintendo would also, obviously, want money and there is a good chance they would be the one manufacturing the carts, or arranging it anyway. Not only that, but as a GBA publisher I would probably have already payed for a GBA dev kit (although that's not really necessary nowadays). In the end this license would get me the right to use the official GBA packaging (with the logos, etc), and major stores would be much more likely to stock the title.
If you want to make, say, a Windows game then the only license you'd be paying would probably be the ones built into a CD scheme, or maybe various APIs, graphic engines etc you might elect to use. Its much more free. In fact if you avoided Direct X, etc, and made it download-only you’d be paying no fees to anyone. With dead systems the license system is either open (like with the Jaguar) or just ignored because nobody gives a shit anymore (like NEC).
This is the difference between Last Hope, and SS5Special. The last official game for PCE was Dead of the Brain 1&2. Anything since then has skipped all that crap I just mentioned. Of course NEC could always crank out some copies of Sapphire and then that reprint would be the last official game. This keeps happening with the PS1. Most recently with King’s Field.
So while there are issues with stuff like 8-track, CD, etc they are actually pretty minimal, and usually so transparent that the fees are payed without the artist even knowing it. With a console though...someone is going to want a check. With a game like Metal Gear Solid, I wouldn't be surprised if the license fees added up to tens of millions dollars over the years.
Maybe think of it this way - my '78 Pontiac Firebird is in perfect condition, it requires a license in the form of registration. However, the 78 line of Firebirds is long since dead, in fact Firebirds aren't being made any more period. Can I still drive my car? Yep. Is it's particular model dead? Yep. I think you will need to better point out the distinctions before I can agree. The video game world doesn't differ much from the rest of the world.
OK, that's just totally off base. The license and registration for your car are granted by the state. You don't pay any fee to GM to own or operate the car. It might be different if you were talking about making parts for the car, but actually GM doesn't care about that either. For example, you can perform modifications (to boost the 78’s
amazingly low stock horsepower) and then sell it to someone else at a profit. This is something you can’t do with licensed software (excepting open source, or Creative Commons).Hot Wheels pays a fee to manufacture metal miniatures of it though. Likewise if you bought a shirt that said, "Firebirds Rule!!!" and it used the Firebird logo, Walmart or whoever would have to pay a fee for that. The state on the other hand is really just charging you a use tax. They also want a use tax for dogs, but the original creator (God, in this case) doesn't mail you the license, get any of the money, or have any say in the process. Now there are patent fees all over a Firebird (from things on it they didn't invent or build, like the carborator, probably), but GM payed all those and passed them onto the original purchaser of the car.
I think if you ask any person that isn't a video game freak like we are if the Neo Geo (if they've even heard of it) died a while back they will agree with me.
Yeah but, what does that prove? They probably think vinyl records are dead too, but its actually a (amazingly) still $100 million a year industry. The opinion of the average guy isn't worth much. The average guy thinks that the 9/11 hijackers were Iraqis, that microwaves cook things from the inside out, that downloadable ring tones are worth $2.50...do you know how many people don't realize that the earth travels around the sun, and not the other way around? I'm not talking about crazy people, or the mentally retarded, "I'm talking about f*ckers with
jobs". Seriously, f*ck the average guy. He's an idiot, he knows it, and he likes it that way. He's not part of this conversation.
