Your view on emulators.

[ntw3001]

I really can't tolerate Pokemon running at its default pace. There's only so many times one can tolerate a two-minute intro every time one plods into a Pidgey; it's a grave error to require the player to bring a book along. I don't really have any excuse for getting the game for free, of course. It's not a game I would have bought, but running it a six times the speed transform it into a game I would buy, if it were commercially available.

 

[Chibz]

emulators are basically piracy, did you know that?

How is the emulator itself piracy?

1. Programming a program is legal.
2. Back-ups of a game you legally bought is legal.

Therefore...

Making a program to run legal back-ups you made is legal.

 

[CScuff]

An emulator, I suppose, is like a bong. The reality is that it will PROBABLY used for something illegal, but as a standalone item, is not illegal itself. So talking about an EMULATOR shouldn't be grounds for a forum ban, but asking about ROMS certainly should.

 

[nexekho]

I've recently been playing some of my Cube games in an emulator... F-Zero GX looks incredible at 1050p, so much detail you can't see at the paltry 480p a Cube/Wii can kick out.

 

[Feylynn]

Emulators are cool in my opinion as long as you use them appropriately.
They take so much power to emulate it prevents them from being used for piracy of recent games and they allow a large audience to easily access classics they missed out on or to continue playing their favorites long after the batteries in your snes cartridges die and corrupt your saves.

If you have money and a PS3 you should definitely support the ps1 classics on the PSN but that's a limited library and isn't an option for a lot of people. Besides most of the classics you would go out of your way to find are games you owned previously and loved before they stopped functioning.
Don't you love ps1 discs and bad lasers?

 

[DustyDrB]

Some games you just can't find anymore. Others you can only find second-hand in not great condition at ridiculous prices (and same for the consoles they were made for as well). If games like these haven't been released as a downloadable title on the PC, Wii, Xbox Live, or PSN, then emulate away. Go wild.

 

[fix-the-spade]

But are emulators illegal? And what's your view on them?

Something of a legal grey area, emulators themselves are in no way illegal, but they are reliant on pirated software to work, which will get you in trouble.

But the easy answer is that yes, they are or soon will be illegal as the definition of piracy gets ever wider. In some cases such as rare or old games it's probably the only practical choice you'll have to play them.

I can't see anyone coming after you for usings emulated old console games, but it's legally questionable at best.

 

[demoman_chaos]

I see them as a good thing. Gives people a chance to enjoy old classics they can't find by other means. I used to play them fairly often, but haven't fiddled with them in a long while. Playing on an emulator isn't the same as playing it on the real thing.

 

[let's rock]

The emmulator isn't illegal, downloading roms for the actual games is. If you own a hardcopy of the game and upload it to your computer, you can play it on an emulator.

 

[Moromillas]

*le sigh

Kinda discouraging to see a few saying they think emulators might be (or are ) illegal. Let me explain what they are, a piece of software. You can't label a piece of software with something like "illegal" it's lines of code, it's just a piece of software.

Granted you can label the actions of people and say they could do the wrong thing with it, but you know what - If it's not possible to buy the game they want, or they're in some remote location that can't get the game, I have no problem with them downloading it via torrent whatsoever.

 

[Handbag1992]

Emulators are one of the best ways to keep the oldest games alive for the new generations, I doubt that companies would care, as they aren't making any money on you tracking down a used copy anyway.

 

[Atticus89]

The way I see it, it should be okay if it's for games that you can't find anywhere else.

For example, if you wanna play Super Mario Bros. then you can get it off of WiiWare or even buy it for the GBA if you find it for cheap on Amazon or eBay. Now if you wanted to play a game that is harder to get and would require investing a good deal of money, like Terranigma (RPG that wasn't released in America but in Europe), I feel that an emulator wouldn't be a bad idea since you would have to buy not only a PAL Region SNES and then the accompanying game.

Or if it's for something that nobody has heard of, again, I don't see a clear problem. The problem is when you start getting games that can be easily bought today through other means. When a profit can still be made by the company offering it, that enters piracy in my eyes and that's not cool except in very, very limited situations.

 

[TheDooD]

Without emulators I wouldn't have been able to experience a lot of Arcade, Retro Games and so I love the damn things. The thing that I find Ironic is that you "need" the real game so you can emulate the game legally. Yet if you have the game there's no need for the emulator.