Poll: Am I a bad person to use Emulators?

[Overusedname]

Did you own it? Or is the game practically impossible to own and play otherwise?

Then it's completely fine.

 

[Twilight_guy]

No. You might be a bad person for piracy but that's another issue. Emulators are fine in and of themselves.

 

[Porygon-2000]

By all means, if you can't get it any other way, or is out of print, by all means emulate.

 

[Evil Smurf]

Why not send an email to the publisher to see if you could pay $20 for it?

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Emulators are a bit of a grey area. Generally, if you both own the original console and the game you're playing it's fine. Otherwise, you're starting to hit legal trouble. Morally, though? If you're unable to purchase the game/console I think it's fine morally.

 

[Russirishican]

I think its fine if the game is no longer in production, because then its simply depraving yourself of enjoyment and its not taking money out of anyone's pocket.

 

[Braedan]

When games are as old as the ones you want, when you buy them you aren't buying the game. You're buying the privilege of owning a collectable item. There's nothing wrong with just wanting to play the game. This is truly the perfect example of a victimless crime. Even if you did magically find a way to buy this brand new from Nintendo, it's doubtful any of the people that actually spent time and effort to make it would get a share of the profits.

New games of course are a different story obviously.

 

[kortin]

There are only two situations in which piracy is acceptable:

1. The company can no longer make money off the game (i.e. not sold in stores anymore)
2. You cannot legally obtain the game in the area in which you live.

Any other time is not acceptable.

Also, I firmly believe that you are morally allowed to download a game for an emulator if you have purchased the game in the past.

 

[DirgeNovak]

Using emulators for old stuff that is no longer being made is ok in my book. If there is no legal way for you to play a certain game, or if the only way to buy a real copy doesn't help the creators (i.e. eBay), I have no issue with it.
I used to have a PSOne emulator, but when most of the PSOne game I wanted to play were released on the PSN, I got rid of it and bought the classics. But I still have my GBA emulator to play Mother 3, for instance.

 

[Nuke_em_05]

It is definitely illegal by the letter of the law.

Whether you should "feel bad" or guilty over it is completely up to you.

As for whether I find it morally "right"; meh. You couldn't otherwise legitimately compensate the creator (or rights holder, anyway), so it's not really breaking the spirit of the law.

The only time I have a problem with this is when "pro-piracy" advocates claim that this is always what "piracy" is. When the top 20 shared games on Pirate bay and other torrent sites are all AAA new releases, I find that hard to swallow.

Do what you feel comfortable doing. You shouldn't care what "the internet" thinks, but more what the license holders might think.

 

[Woodsey]

I'd say most of the stuff that you'd want to emulate would require you to go beyond the call of duty to get your hands on and pay for. In which case, it's fair game.

 

[Callate]

I'm generally with the consensus here: it's hard to find the harm in playing a twenty-year-old game that was never released in your country, or one that none of the parties who originally created are getting any kind of percentage from any longer. I mean, I suppose one could make an argument that some games eventually show up as downloads for various console services or in CDs bundled with other titles that stretch the use of terms like "classic", and perhaps you should get those if it's an option, but at a certain level I feel such offerings come because emulators and people's use of same made the console companies aware there was still a market for retro offerings, rather than the other way around.

 

[lacktheknack]

For example I emulated the original Rayman for the PS1, I had bought it brand new and I had bought the PS1 but both had gone missing and I really wanted to play it. There wasn't anywhere I could buy it again, so I emulated it. But, if there is an option to buy it somewhere else then yeah, I will buy it again.

In case you're interested,

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/rayman_forever

OT: If you own the console and do a manual BIOS dump, there's literally no legal issues with emulators.

Of course, virtually no one does, people generally steal BIOSes from somewhere else. While this isn't a moral issue if you already own the console, it is illegal, so I can't recommend it.

As for pirating the games, I don't really recommend it. If piracy was legal, I'd say go for it, but it isn't, so you shouldn't.

 

[w9496]

If you were emulating a modern console, say an Xbox 360, then yes, you would be a horrible person. But if the game is from the PS1 era or further, then I'd say it's okay.

They actually sell those ps1 games on the ps network so those would fall under being wrong as well.

I forgot about that. Well, it would still be fine for certain games, because I doubt the PS3 has every PS1 game for sale.

 

[Plucky]

The way i see it; most older emulators are based on handhelds/consoles that hasn't seen a new game released in over 10/20+ years, so even if you found the real existing game at a store, buying the game won't put money in the company's pocket due to being most likely preowned.


Though with companies such as Square Enix, they could probably remake any Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest game they wanted at anytime, thus the creative rights might still be reused for them to market.


Though im pretty sure theres emulators that can enable you to use real media, like a Windows 98 Emulator that you can use a CD drive with a real verified disc as the Operating System, then use that to play archaic games that might have not played on current OSes in Windows 98-mode.


The legality of emulators is a bit weird, i wonder if Bios alone would set off a lot of alarm bells.

 

[LtFerret]

Yes you are and you the reason this industry is dying.
Turn in your gamer card and hand yourself over to the authorities

In all seriousness I see Emulation as a last resort for a game that is impossible to find (publisher screwing your region, out of print, etc.)

 

[Fayathon]

I emulate old ass games all the time, and don't see anything wrong with that, especially if I owned the game at some point. (I don't sell my games, even if they suck ass, case and point being I still own a copy of The Legend of Alon Dar.)

 

[Something Amyss]

First, your poll mixes options. "Am I a bad person" does not necessarily equate to right or wrong. For example, I don't think you're a bad person, but it still doesn't make you "right."

So I ask you, am I bad person to use emulators, despite not paying for most of the games.

Like here. No, you're not a bad person. However, you are illegally aquiring someone else's intellectual property. That's illegal and it's wrong.

Yes it is piracy by definition, but my arguement is that they don't make these games any more, the consoles have been considered obsolete by everyone but retro gaming fans.

Part of intellectual property is the right to control your intellectual property. That is, not just that you can sell it but also that you choose not to. If a game company doesn't want to sell a game in the US, that doesn't magically give you the right to the game. You are nto only breaking the law, but you are violating someone's rights. That's not cool.

 

[BoredAussieGamer]

Considering that most of the PS2 games I've been seeking for quite a while that I missed out on (Katamari Damacy, XIII, The Suffering) are rarer then gold dust over on my side of the pond. And when you factor in region locking, absurd prices people charge on Ebay for used Ps2 classics, and the fact that no-one is willing to depart from said classics, it's pretty much impossible to feasibly obtain those games.

I won't emulate it if I stumble upon it in the used game bin at EB (That's the aussie division of gamestop), but if it's impossible to find, emulation is fair game.

Also, games for consoles that have long sinse gone out of print (Doubly so for games) are fair game.

 

[rob_simple]

I think you are morally in the clear OP. I only emulate games for the same reasons, and similarly with downloading music, I generally only download what I can't get in my own country without ridiculous import costs, (as soon as Dir en Grey started publishing their CD's over here I started to buy them,) or things that are so obscure it's either impossible to find on CD or for which people are charging criminal prices.