Emulation- is it software piracy?

@ Nyarly: For PS 1 games, I can see someone prefering playing with the ISO of a game he owns instead of his real copy, due to the horrendous CD loading slowdowns. Believe me, Mitsumete Knight is a bitch to play on emulation with all the characters voices CD loads, as I discovered when taking snapshots for the Dating Sim Image Pickin' thread.

I only play with real copies of games, though. Even of No Export for You games: for those, I get them via Nippon-Export's excellent search-and-order-items-you-desire service.

edited 28th Feb '11 7:22:36 PM by AceNoctali

"Your kindness gives me the presentiment I can be reborn. Now, I want to believe at least in you." - Kaori Yae

It's piracy, but since you're probably doing it with a console that's only available used (same goes for games), it's technically abandonware (it's not really illegal if there's no legal way to get it because you're not actually incurring any losses to the copyright holder! still illegal though, But Thou Must!!) and therefore in the hideously legally gray area most lovers of suing the pants off people tend to avoid for whatever reasons.

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.

If they can't stop you....then who cares?

Troper Page

Yes, it's piracy. That's pretty obvious. I think the question you're looking for is "Does anybody care?".

Just as an example, I don't own a GameBoy, but I do own a copy of Link's Awakening DX purchased new, and I also have a dump of it I downloaded off the internet to play with an emulator. Does that make me a pirate?

Eric,

It's still not legal but whoever gives you grief over this is a pedantic waste of carbon that should be by all mean ignored.

Piracy and illegal? Yes. Immoral? Depends. Will anybody arrest you? No.

Reading that, I'm pretty certain Nintendo is full of it, so far as US fair use law is concerned. If I, for instance, had a ROM dumper of my own, their EULA saying that it's capable of prohibiting that is preposterous.

Eric,

It may be illegal, but IMO, it should only be considered piracy if it actually effects commercial sales. If you are emulating a dead console, and playing a game that is not commercially available in any form, you aren't "stealing" anything, because there's nothing to steal.

Also, using emulators and RO Ms to play a game *you already own* is not piracy. Fair Use.

Home of CBR Rumbles-in-Exile: rumbles.fr.yuku.com

This is wrong. People say it all the time, but it's wrong. ROMs are illegal regardless of whether you own a physical copy of the game — I believe that format-shifting is technically legal, but I seriously doubt that you're talking about ripping your own physical games rather than downloading a ROM made by someone else.

Really from Jupiter, but not an alien.

Ripping your own games isn't as hard as you think, especially if you're into portable gaming.

And "Reality" is unveiled. What did it want...? What did it see...? What did it hear...? What did it think...? What did it do...?

Yeah, but how many people do it?

[1] This facsimile operated in part by synAC.

I used to do it all the time with DS games back when I had a WEP-based router. I find taking an hour or two to dump my own games to be less frustrating than spending that time searching for RO Ms on the internet (plus it also allows you to back up your save files).

And "Reality" is unveiled. What did it want...? What did it see...? What did it hear...? What did it think...? What did it do...?

I on;y emulate systems and games that are no longer for sale by their original manufacturers. I buy the Vitual Console versions of the RO Ms I have when they are released.

Emulators are like a gun. You can use the gun to accomplish a positive purpose (hunting for food) or a negative purpose (shooting children in the face). Emulators can be used for piracy or you can use them when your old system finally clunks and you want to play your games again.

Blame the people, not the programs.

I chose to solder my old console back into life, but then again, it's a Famiclone, so I was already up to my eyebrows in copyright infrigiment with my load of pirate game carts for it =)

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.

Why would you put so much love into a Famiclone? You can get them a dime a dozen, same white rolling lines, same sound inaccuracies, etc...

I just downloaded Heart Gold.

As others I said, I think that emulating older games is (morally) kinda okay, as long as there are no remakes or such on current gen consoles.

"The world ends with you. If you want to enjoy life, expand your world. You gotta push your horizons out as far as they'll go."

Depends on the remake though in some cases. Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals is a remake of Lufia 2 Rise of the Sinistrals and yet if you wanted to play the latter game you damn sure wouldn't play the remake.

edited 1st Mar '11 4:00:52 PM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

^x3 All of the cool pirates have gone 5th Gen already.

Also, did I ever mention how pathetically easy it is to dump your own GBA games? I should really see if Gamestop still has any GBA carts that are worth buying...

edited 1st Mar '11 4:07:51 PM by TheGinkei

And "Reality" is unveiled. What did it want...? What did it see...? What did it hear...? What did it think...? What did it do...?

^ I'll get to that one too.

GOTTA PIRATE THEM ALL!

I'll be buying my copy of Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals because I love-hate the entire series (save 4 which I got very annoyed with). Likely new. I don't feel like buying it online for whatever reason and the only copies our Gamestops carry are new ones. And then my collection of physical copies of the Lufia series will be complete once more...

edited 1st Mar '11 4:12:51 PM by Aondeug

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

@chocoboxxx, because it's one of the early ones, it's not one of those nes-on-a-chip ripoffs, has a full complement of internal electronics (including support for headphones-via-gamepad and multitap connections, which is why I'm bending my brain around how to make a multitap myself - buying one is out of the question, impossible to find these days) and is rather accurate graphically, at least compared to emulators and the NES, I never had a chance to test an actual Famicom. Also, after sixteen years together, I've grown quite fond of it.

edited 1st Mar '11 9:13:46 PM by Noelemahc

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.

Oh wait, you're from Russia? Is it a Dendy? Those things are hella cool man! (I'm all d'awww at your devotion for the console btw, that's awesome. )

Nnnope, a Chinese import! =) The Dendy was essentially a Famicopy, being a carbon copy of an actual Famicom and all, right down to the non-detachable gamepads in some versions, and despite its barely legal status (due mostly to there not being an official Nintendo presence in our country at the time) was bold enough to have its own magazine and TV show =)

Videogames do not make you a worse person... Than you already are.