Have you ever heard of this 'console' before?

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Have you ever heard of this 'console' before?
Tweet Topic Started: Jan 28 2013, 10:58 AM (245 Views)
Monaco	Jan 28 2013, 10:58 AM Post #1
Posts: 202 Group: D Rank Guardian Member #12,918 Joined: April 28, 2012 3DS Friend Code: 1161 - 0283 - 7329	Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I'd like to announce, the emulator! Now, if you know what an emulator is, I suggest leaving this thread, as it is just introducing it to others. An emulator is a surprisingly free downloadable application for your computer, that allows a user to play a virtual console such as the SEGA Saturn, or the Nintendo 64. Now, an emulator is very easily used, all you have to do is download it, open it up, and that is all there is to it. Now, you might be wondering how you are suppose to work it. Well, you have to download another file called a ROM. Now a ROM file is a file containing a PC version of a video game. Of course for video games for consoles such as the Wii and 3DS that do not have PC alternatives, editing is required to make it playable at all, but, surprisingly it works out in the final result. I downloaded an emulator for the Nintendo 64 called Project 64. And then I downloaded a ROM file, containing Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask. Opening the emulator resulted in a small white page coming up, containing a few options, including an Open ROM option, that I clicked, in hope for it to direct me to the ROM. and, it took me to downloads. I scrolled down to find the ROM I extracted from WinRAR into my downloads file, and then once I'd found it, I clicked it. The blank white page became full-screen and was showing Majoras Mask. Of course, it took awhile to learn the controls, and the tutorials in-game weren't for the version I was using since they were completely untouched, it actually worked. Now, this is apparently completely legal in some weird way. I would understand it being legally possible, if it wasn't free, but, it is free. Games for the Wii, Gameboy Advance games and emulators, I don't understand how it can be possible at all, putting aside the legal part. Moderator Note - You are free to discuss Rom and Emulators but please refrain from posting links to sites containing them, Zetaboards don't like that sort of thing. - Eevee Edited by Eevee, Jan 28 2013, 12:07 PM.



YamiShadow	Jan 28 2013, 11:21 AM Post #2
Flying Battery Act 1 Posts: 918 Group: C Rank Hero Member #12,994 Joined: May 25, 2012 Gender: Male Country: Canada Game Currently Playing: Final Fantasy X HD	Ah, emulating. First off, I'll touch on the legality question. It is 'technically' legal to have an emulator and a rom, however only if you actually own the system and the game that you have the emulator and rom for. Emulating, in the legal sense, is basically for the purpose of using your computer to play games that you have for broken systems you have, like how I do with my PS2 games. However, as long as the system is N64 era or older, I don't really have any issue with emulating games and systems I don't own. xD; I'm slightly more lenient with handhelds, since they're unlikely to receive either a Steam port or a virtual console release of some sort. The Wii U has slightly put a wrench in this for the GBA though, so I suppose I'll have to switch over to the now-viable alternative that it offers as soon as I have one. Most of these older games would be next to impossible to get otherwise, and they're already old enough that I don't really feel as if I'm stealing through a potential money venue for game companies. Still, I suppose technically I could get Sonic 1~3&K through Steam, for example, and I probably would do so, if not for the fact that I already have Sonic Classic Collection for the DS. Edit: Added missing words. Oops. xD Edited by YamiShadow, Jan 28 2013, 11:28 AM.
	Thanks again to Parabola for the awesome signature!


Cee Jay Haych	Jan 28 2013, 12:14 PM Post #3
"I didn't use the whole thing ...." Posts: 3,252 Group: =SB= Kings Member #9,868 Joined: March 28, 2009	Just to note, All Nintendo Roms and Emulators are illegal reguardless of if you own the original copy or not. Not sure how the other companies handle it.



YamiShadow	Jan 28 2013, 12:17 PM Post #4
Flying Battery Act 1 Posts: 918 Group: C Rank Hero Member #12,994 Joined: May 25, 2012 Gender: Male Country: Canada Game Currently Playing: Final Fantasy X HD	Eevee Jan 28 2013, 12:14 PM Just to note, All Nintendo Roms and Emulators are illegal reguardless of if you own the original copy or not. Not sure how the other companies handle it. Interesting. That's slightly different information than what I've heard, but it is worth noting. I'll have to keep that in mind.
	Thanks again to Parabola for the awesome signature!


Monaco	Jan 28 2013, 04:00 PM Post #5
Posts: 202 Group: D Rank Guardian Member #12,918 Joined: April 28, 2012 3DS Friend Code: 1161 - 0283 - 7329	Eevee Jan 28 2013, 12:14 PM Just to note, All Nintendo Roms and Emulators are illegal reguardless of if you own the original copy or not. Not sure how the other companies handle it. Actually, it was legally confirmed that if you own an original copy, it is legal, so that is not exactly correct. No offence.



Eren Jaeger	Jan 28 2013, 04:20 PM Post #6
"I will kill ALL of the Titans!" Posts: 2,305 Group: S Rank Hero Member #12,433 Joined: October 2, 2011 Gender: Male	I thought it was against forum policy to talk about roms and emulators on the forums...
	-Sig under construction because the next thing I use will be hilarious- Hey guys! Check out this game I made Here!


YamiShadow	Jan 28 2013, 04:45 PM Post #7
Flying Battery Act 1 Posts: 918 Group: C Rank Hero Member #12,994 Joined: May 25, 2012 Gender: Male Country: Canada Game Currently Playing: Final Fantasy X HD	It might be. If that's the case, the staff may do with this topic as they would, I suppose. xD If not, discussion shall continue~
	Thanks again to Parabola for the awesome signature!


Nail Strafer	Jan 28 2013, 07:46 PM Post #8
Flying Battery Act 2 Posts: 1,218 Group: A Rank Hero Member #8,106 Joined: May 5, 2008	I used to mess around with ROMs and emulators myself. Mostly I recall using them to play Japanese games that never made it to America. These would be games that would have been too gory for the games market at the time, like Clock Tower and Sweet Home. It's a good thing someone went to the trouble of making fan translations for them too. However, I don't do emulation any more. There is a game shop near me that sells lots of retro games, so I've basically bought almost every single retro game I want to play now. Secondly, my computer's gotten infected with viruses in the past from me downloading ROMs and emulators. Sorry, but I have a lot of personal information and documents on my machine now, so I really don't want to be screwing around with viruses now.



SonikBioHazard	Jan 28 2013, 10:09 PM Post #9
Marble Garden Act 2 Posts: 153 Group: A Rank Adventurer Member #13,254 Joined: September 17, 2012 Playstation Network ID: Zendithz Xbox Live Gamertag: ShadowEchoes 3DS Friend Code: 3738-0762-8519 Steam ID: SonikBioHazard Game Currently Playing: LittleBigPlanet 2	I used a GBA emulator and a N64 one. They were useful. Especially the N64 one, I got to play Kirby 64 and Paper Mario because of it.
	My Hands Will Crush Them All...


Cee Jay Haych	Jan 29 2013, 01:54 AM Post #10
"I didn't use the whole thing ...." Posts: 3,252 Group: =SB= Kings Member #9,868 Joined: March 28, 2009	Moriko Jan 28 2013, 04:00 PM Eevee Jan 28 2013, 12:14 PM Just to note, All Nintendo Roms and Emulators are illegal reguardless of if you own the original copy or not. Not sure how the other companies handle it. Actually, it was legally confirmed that if you own an original copy, it is legal, so that is not exactly correct. No offence. If your going to make such claims I suggest you do your research first. Following quote is taken directly from the Nintendo Website. Nintendo There is a good deal of misinformation on the Internet regarding the backup/archival copy exception. It is not a "second copy" rule and is often mistakenly cited for the proposition that if you have one lawful copy of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to have a second copy of the copyrighted work even if that second copy is an infringing copy. The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic. Therefore, whether you have an authentic game or not, or whether you have possession of a Nintendo ROM for a limited amount of time, i.e. 24 hours, it is illegal to download and play a Nintendo ROM from the Internet. Link to source. Stark Jan 28 2013, 04:20 PM I thought it was against forum policy to talk about roms and emulators on the forums... It's not against policy to talk about the existence of Roms so long as people refrain from posting links directing to Rom sites.



Lord Pianta	Jan 29 2013, 05:06 AM Post #11
Il Piantissimo Posts: 3,320 Group: Former Monarchs Member #9,741 Joined: February 7, 2009 Gender: Male Nintendo ID: Piantab	I recently checked out some new Emulators. I have the PCSX2 who rocks Persona games for me. They don't sell those here - or they sell them overpriced and rarely. I use it also for other games they don't sell here. Really, Europe doesn't get much games... at least where I live. I remember the Virtual Boy Advanced, but I could never get that to work properly. I played Sonic games on that, but I could never save. ;-;
	last.fm \| MAL


BLOPS2	Jan 31 2013, 04:05 PM Post #12
Walkers, Walkers everywhere Posts: 258 Group: B Rank Guardian Member #13,213 Joined: August 21, 2012 Gender: Male Country: United States of America Xbox Live Gamertag: RedCommander98 Steam ID: Kotor9803 Game Currently Playing: Blockland	I have heard of them, but something about them just...I don't know why, but not playing the games in their original form just doesn't feel right.
	Gonna dropkick it.


Monaco	Feb 2 2013, 08:06 PM Post #13
Posts: 202 Group: D Rank Guardian Member #12,918 Joined: April 28, 2012 3DS Friend Code: 1161 - 0283 - 7329	Eevee Jan 29 2013, 01:54 AM Moriko Jan 28 2013, 04:00 PM Eevee Jan 28 2013, 12:14 PM Just to note, All Nintendo Roms and Emulators are illegal reguardless of if you own the original copy or not. Not sure how the other companies handle it. Actually, it was legally confirmed that if you own an original copy, it is legal, so that is not exactly correct. No offence. If your going to make such claims I suggest you do your research first. Following quote is taken directly from the Nintendo Website. Nintendo There is a good deal of misinformation on the Internet regarding the backup/archival copy exception. It is not a "second copy" rule and is often mistakenly cited for the proposition that if you have one lawful copy of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to have a second copy of the copyrighted work even if that second copy is an infringing copy. The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic. Therefore, whether you have an authentic game or not, or whether you have possession of a Nintendo ROM for a limited amount of time, i.e. 24 hours, it is illegal to download and play a Nintendo ROM from the Internet. Link to source. Stark Jan 28 2013, 04:20 PM I thought it was against forum policy to talk about roms and emulators on the forums... It's not against policy to talk about the existence of Roms so long as people refrain from posting links directing to Rom sites. Well, that isn't exactly correct either. I mean, ROM files and emulators are not for Nintendo content as a whole. It is for a wide variety of different things. So, maybe Nintendo have it so their work cannot be produced to ROM files, or have their consoles converted to emulators. For an example of this, the creator of Minecraft, whom you have most likely have heard of, admitted that he would allow pirated copies of his game to be used, as he considered it a form of advertising or demo. And in most cases such as this, where these so called, 'illegal content' are approved by the creators of the original content, they are not considered illegal. Therefore, what you've said, is basically what Nintendo approve. And what they do and don't consider illegal for their customers to do. It is generally considered legal to make a backup / archival copy of a ROM yourself. Though if you have to bypass some DRM to do so, it might or might not be illegal. The law isn't as clear here, and it depends on what the DRM is. So, I suppose here, there is not actually an answer to the question of what is and isn't legal about ROM and emulator files. But, clearly Nintendo disapprove. As many others will. But, that depends on how much they care about their work financially. Edited by Monaco, Feb 2 2013, 08:09 PM.



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