I'm not an authority on the subject so somebody please correct me if I'm off base, but my understanding is the owner of both boards (one is the trackball version, the other the joystick) got them without the ROMs but worked out a deal with the copyright owners to get them strictly under the condition that it was just to fix his boards and not to release them.
So that said I don't think you'll get anywhere trying to talk him into releasing the ROMs, and I certainly can't fault the man for keeping his word. The same kind of thing goes with Crazy Otto too, they can't release the ROMs as much as they may want to because Namco will go after their gonads and they still get royalties for Ms. Pacman, they'd be insane to risk that by picking a fight with them. Let's just be thankful they allow the public to play them at CAX each year which is certainly something they have no obligation to do. I can only imagine the rare and long missing games are in the hands of collectors but being kept secret because they don't want the hassles?
You might have better luck talking to the actual copyright owners, even if they can't be talked into a release if they see enough interest perhaps some kind of home computer game commercial release like a "Atari Classics" kind of deal might happen, at least then we could buy it and finally see what it's like.
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