Emulation (open discussion)

[ZTC]

I haven't seen a topic like this posted, so I thought I might start one.
I bascially want this thread to be an open discution about emulation and roms.
Subjects that come to mind(but not limited to) are as following:
Your thoughts in general
Public domain roms
Have you downloaded any?
ect, ect

One thing I'm curious about is this(to start the discussion):
would it legal to have a Sega CD emu that can play the Sega CD discs?

[NESLolo32]

I'm planning on building a MAME cabinet from my scratch design..

[*b*]

it's the games that are illegal, not the player, so no, Cyborg, it's not illegal to play official disks with an emulator... or is it? I'm pretty sure it isn't, but don't hold me to it

[ZTC]

it's the games that are illegal, not the player, so no, Cyborg, it's not illegal to play official disks with an emulator... or is it? I'm pretty sure it isn't, but don't hold me to it

Heh, I won't hold you to it, but something comes to mind:
bleem! Who remembers that program that allows a person to play PS1 games on the PC?
Eh, oh well.

Thoughts on public domain roms?
(and would it be alright to post links to them, as long as there are no 'indecent' links or illegal roms/links with them?

[DarkDragoonX]

Heh, I won't hold you to it, but something comes to mind:
bleem! Who remembers that program that allows a person to play PS1 games on the PC?
Eh, oh well.

Well, there's also Magic Engine, which allows you to play PC Engine and Turbo Duo games on your PC. They charge money to register it, and haven't been shut down.

Sony DID get into a legal battle with bleem!, but as I recall, bleem! won, and were allowed to keep selling their product... I think bleem! had to shut down simply because of a combination of legal fees and the fact that they really weren't making that much money.


Here's a snippet of an article I found about the subject:

Bleem launched its PlayStation emulator just over two and a half years ago, only to be instantly sued by Sony for a mix of copyright infringement, intellectual property violation and brand degradation.

Sony's case against Bleem followed a parallel action targeting Connectix, which launched a PlayStation emulator of its own earlier in the year, for the Macintosh. Unlike the Connectix case, however, Bleem won the support of the court, beating a temporary injunction against sales of its emulator and later defeating Sony's demand to ban the sale of the emulator permanently.

Sony's failures in court went to its head, Bleem later alleged in a countersuit of its own. The emulation company claimed that the Japanese giant's US operation had initiated a dirty tricks policy which, in part, involved attempting to have Bleem thrown out of the May 1999 E3 show, one of the world's largest games industry shindigs.

May 2000 saw the announcement of the Dreamcast version of Bleem - Bleemcast - at which point Sony sued the company again. Once more, Sony alleged that Bleem was violating its patents.

Now, as we all know, bleem! shut down shortly after the Bleemcast announcement. I think that they just weren't making enough money to pay the legal fees to deal with all of Sony's lawsuits, and were thus forced to give up.

[deathbyhokie]

Heh, I won't hold you to it, but something comes to mind:
bleem! Who remembers that program that allows a person to play PS1 games on the PC?
Eh, oh well.

there's also epsxe, which is alive and well, as well as my player of choice.

[DsS Game]

it's the games that are illegal, not the player, so no, Cyborg, it's not illegal to play official disks with an emulator... or is it? I'm pretty sure it isn't, but don't hold me to it

It's not illegal IF YOU HAVE A COPY OF THE GAME. It is if you don't own the original copy.

The only new games I get are the ones for gba since they seem to be easy to rip off either way.


Daywalker

[ZTC]

It's not illegal IF YOU HAVE A COPY OF THE GAME. It is if you don't own the original copy.Daywalker

Uh, I hate to say that you're wrong, but Nintendo(and possibly other companies) DO NOT allow archive copies of games; but that doesn't stop people

Could that be contested? Probably. Look at what happened with DVD rippers, they won the archive battle. The same thing could happen with Nintendo. Who knows?

If I may, what games has anyone downloaded, and why?
(for me, it's usually public domain roms, and imports that haven't been released in the US at all, like Final Fight Tough for the Super Famicom, or Zero Wing for the Mega Drive)

[DsS Game]

Uh, I hate to say that you're wrong, but Nintendo(and possibly other companies) DO NOT allow archive copies of games; but that doesn't stop people

Could that be contested? Probably. Look at what happened with DVD rippers, they won the archive battle. The same thing could happen with Nintendo. Who knows?

Dude if u read disclaimers on any site where you would normally download ROMs, it gives you an agreement. You agree to that agreement only if you have the original copy of a game.

Daywalker

[Vagla]

Er, yes, because we all know that everything on ROM site agreement pages, like the 24 hour rule, is true. </sarcasm>

It's my understanding that there really is no problem with dumping/ripping your own ROM or ISO from your own legitimate copy of the game. However, downloading a ROM or ISO for a game you own is not legal. People simply use that as an excuse to justify downloading games. Honestly, I see nothing wrong with the excuse, since not everyone has backup software and downloading games can be more convenient than dumping/ripping them yourself, but it's still not an adequate excuse.