Emulation (open discussion)

[MottZilla]

Hundreds of japanese games never make it here, and I wouldn't doubt there are dating sim things for playstation.

[automatic]

Emulation is good. I'm of the opinion that information should be free. That includes my entertainment, and my entertainment includes ROMS, DVD rips and the music of popular artists in the form of copyrighted (and infringed-upon) mp3s. Most of my software requires a keygen or crack. The rest either came with my computer, or is freeware.

Screw Corporate America. Screw Corporate Japan, for that matter.

See, here's the thing... the people that made those games... the artists, the designers, the programmers... they've already been paid. They've been taken care of. They don't get my money when I buy a game... the corporation does. Well, they really don't need my money... not as much as I do, that's for damn sure. I 've got bills to pay. Giving your money away for something that is readily available for free is for chumps.

"But automatic, if you can't afford it, you don't deserve it..."

Um, no. This isn't a moral issue. I can do it, and I do do it. There is no should or should not.

Those that are deserving of my money are individuals, not corporations. I have art on my walls made by people I know that I paid for. I pay money to see local bands play live music. These are people trying to make a living, not corporations trying to make a profit. And yeah, that is an important distinction to me.

Well, that's my take on it. Enough of the tirade.

My Favs (The reason I have the emulators in the first place):
NES (FCE Ultra) - Bionic Commando, Solstice, Crystalis
SNES (ZSNES) - Chrono Trigger, Super Metroid
Genesis (Gens) - Sonic Spinball, Flashback
GBA (VBA) - Metroid Fusion, Metroid Zero Mission, LoZ - The Minish Cap
N64 (PJ64) - Goldeneye

[ZTC]

If the corporations don't make money, they can't pay the programmers and designers....

don't remember if I did a list (it's incomplete)--
GameBoy (smygb) MegaMan 3-5, Xtreme 1-2
NES (FCE Ultra, NESTEN, JNES) MegaMan 1-6, Metal Gear
SNES(SNES9X, ZSNES) MegaMan 7, X2, X3, MegaMan & Bass, Zelda 3, Final Fight Tough, Final Fight/FF Guy, Final Fight 2; Final Fantasy 2 (US), 3(US), 4J, 5J; Kirby SuperStar, SuperMario RPG
Genesis (Gens, Gens+) Battletoads and Double Dragon, Zero Tolerance, Zero Wing, Duke Nukem 3D
Arcade (none yet....)MegaMan- the Power Battle

[automatic]

If the corporations don't make money, they can't pay the programmers and designers....

That's true. But not everyone is pirating software or ripping dvds. Most people playing games and watching movies still actually buy them. Just not me.

And it's been said before, but the most traffic in illegal roms are for systems that no longer sell. Nintendo isn't going to lose any money on someone having a rom of Milon's Secret Castle.

[vegeta1215]

And it's been said before, but the most traffic in illegal roms are for systems that no longer sell.

You sure about that? I can't even begin to tell you how much activity the gamefaqs page for The Minish Cap was getting months before it came out - meaning people were playing it somehow, and my guess would be via a ROM. (it did come out in Europe before we got it over here, but not that long before). This is just one example, but I think there are a lot of people pirating new games.

[Kairyu]

Yeah, if Gamefaqs is any indication, the GBA is being heavily emulated. And like Mott said, It's not getting better or anything. And despite Mott's hopes, it's very unlikely that they'll get rid of the useless people- they'll just spend less on new, fun games that people will enjoy and just go for stuff people will buy.

[automatic]

Yeah, if Gamefaqs is any indication, the GBA is being heavily emulated.

Yeah, this is true. But this is pretty much the exception, not the rule.

There are PS2 and GCN emulators out there (I don't know about XBox, but probably...) but most people don't have buff enough systems to run them. If they do, they're probably playing HL2 instead of bothering with trying to get a GCN rom working. GBA is being exploited because the emulator will run on your grandma's old Apple IIe (well, you know what I mean).

Also remember that companies at any time should they feel the need to, invest more into copy protection methods.

Just about every form of copy protection has lasted all of five seconds, and thank god for that. Any digital copy protect is usually hacked within a matter of days after it's implementation. Spending resources to develop copy protection is just about the most wasteful thing a company can do... all it does is stave off the inevitable piracy for a few moments.

As far as companies losing money... I really don't think they are. At the current ratio of piracy, that is "pirates" vs "good citizens," I think the good citizens far outweigh the pirates. People have been making cams and promo dvd rips of current run Hollywood movies for years, now. Plenty of time for Hollywood to go belly-up if they were being seriously damaged in any way by it. But they haven't, because the general populace wouldn't even dream of pirating movies. Most people watching movies are paying full box-office price for them.

So, let the moral and upstanding majority support Hollywood and the software and game manufacturers. That leaves plenty of room for the rest of us pirates to maneuver around.