Arcade Emulators

[vanhelsing]

Re: Arcade Emulators

I can't get it to run but I've got a Snes emulator.

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Arcade Emulators

I can't get it to run but I've got a Snes emulator.

What's the emulator called & what's the problem ?
I'm a bit of an emulator nerd, i'm pretty sure I can help.

[Sly]

Re: Arcade Emulators

Guys, take it to private messages. As fun as they are emulators are illegal and you shouldn't be discussing them on an open forum. You are most likely violating this forums T&C by talking about them.

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Arcade Emulators

Guys, take it to private messages. As fun as they are emulators are illegal and you shouldn't be discussing them on an open forum. You are most likely violating this forums T&C by talking about them.

Sorry Sly, I don't know where you got that idea from, but emulators are completely legal, there isn't one single law that prohibits the use of them.
As long as you own original copies of the games you intend to play, then you are not breaking any laws.
Also any public domain roms are completely legal to emulate.
Some basic information on the subject can be found here.

I am definitely not violating this forum's T&C in any way.

[Sly]

Re: Arcade Emulators

You mentioned SNES up there. Would you like to know what Nintendo thinks?

http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#good

If you couldn't be bothered it covers:

Whether you have the right to play ROM's of games you own.
Whether you have a right to play games that are no longer in distribution.

The short answer is "You don't, as it infringes copyright". Partaking in such activities is piracy which of course is illegal. If you were to tell someone how to pirate films on here the mods would come down on you like a ton of bricks.

The link you sent me to says that emulation is legal, however obtaining code to run on them isn't unless it's officially supported. If you're not playing homebrew only stuff, then you are breaking the law. It all comes down to copyright.

I'm not telling you to stop emulating, using emulators is great. What I'm saying is don't put it out there that you are willingly breaking the law to play things you've not paid for.

[DemonEyeX]

Re: Arcade Emulators

I totally appreciate what you are saying Sly, but I still tend to disagree.
What we have above is Nintendo's "opinion" on the subject, rather than any actual legal black & white. They are clearly against it, but the law isn't technically on their side.
As it stands, there have been a few court cases over the years, but there has never actually been a legal precedent set.

You are completely right about homebrew, but I still believe that if you actually own the console/computer & the game, then emulation shouldn't be a problem.
For example, I own an incredibly rare Spectrum game (Rock Star Goes Bizarre by Codemasters), and it appears that mine is the only surviving copy.
As this is on a cassette tape, it will degrade over the years until it is unplayable, but because I have digitally transferred it the game will now last for as long as I back up my hard drives. If if wasn't for this the game would be lost forever.

But I don't want to cause any problems, so I will not mention emulation unless the games are legally in the public domain.
Anyway, I appreciate your input Sly, lucky for me I own over 20 consoles, plus many computers, so I can play classic games legitimately.

[EightiesNinja]

Re: Arcade Emulators

On a slightly related note regarding the whole grey area and morality of it all; emulators are always behind the times as far as I'm aware. It's a bit like ripping a movie that was only ever available on some near-extinct media like Betamax.

Meanwhile, in three days GTA IV just pulled in the same amount of money as The Phantom Menace.

That said, I intend to fill the place with the real deal when the opportunity arises. As a kid I always had to sell my current computer/console in order to buy a new one, but cost is less of an issue nowadays for multiple reasons. I was just talking about this with a friend last weekend actually while allowing him to kick my **** in some old, rubbish football game. Nothing beats having the original console and controller.

[Sly]

Re: Arcade Emulators

I'd rather companies, developers or owners of the content would cut loose IP's that are no longer going to receive support so it became OK to 'obtain' copies of stuff that are no longer in circulation.

A while back my friend contacted Tim Schafer via asking that because he could find Grim Fandango, would it be OK for him to 'obtain' it and as a way of payment buy a T-shirt from his storefront. He was instructed not 'obtain' the game, but scour eBay for a genuine copy. Sure, Tim could say yeah, 'obtain' my game, but what's to stop you from carrying on and 'obtaining' everything Tim's ever created. As a guy in the games industry, Tim's not going to advocate getting games and not paying for them, even though it's unlikely we're ever going to get a legal chance to own and play these games again.

Speaking of Codemasters, they were in some legal stuff within the last few years regarding their IP and their stance on it. They are against it too. It seems at odds that they'd rather see stuff they worked on rot away and never get archived for people to enjoy. I rather it wasn't like that because the stuff that's being lost is a significant part of my childhood as well as everyone else who played them at the time, and it'd be nice to have them in a safe place where we knew they'd be safe for as long as people were willing to give them time.

The whole "Don't 'obtain' games!" stance filters down from the very top from the likes of behemoths Activision and EA right down to minnows programming our favourite indie games. It's something that needs looking into properly so that what's created isn't lost, especially in a world where companies are buying each other out and licenses for games get ripped in either direction so that games that came out are no longer viable because several companies all own the rights to different parts that went into making the game.