Topic: The Ethics of Emulation and ROMs (edited)

@TheJGG Ah, I see. Well it's rather hard to tell if someone is joking or not through type.

My take is that if a game is still on sale, no matter how old, you should buy it. Whether you choose to emulate or run on genuine hardware is down to you.

On the other hand, if the publisher is no longer selling it, they've only got themselves to blame. Even the big N didn't bother to include the games they weren't selling in their damage estimations for recent court filings, which ought to tell you something, even though downloading them is still a copyright infringement.

Yeah… It was a joke, since you seemed to get a bit angry at the staff members, when literally none of them has said anything here

On the subject of emulation, I don’t mind it. I vastly prefer using original hardware, but I have created back ups of several of my GBA and DS games myself. Since these do worry me, they have the habit of failing, and they’re not getting any better with time.

Normally the artist gets to decide how many of a certain painting he wants to make, which medium to use, and if/when he wants to discontinue it (either permanently or temporarily, for whatever reason). Ethically and legally consumers buy the paintings within those parameters. Same concept applies with video games.

Calling giant video game companies "artists" is an awful take.

I was going to make an exception to games that are actually owned by the people who developed them, but for old games, that is so few games that its laughable. I think Oddworld as a series counts?

also almost no game developer would intentionally limit how many people got to play their game like that way anyway. A publisher will, an IP owner will, a game developer will probably not (certainly not nowadays).

Same concept applies if the artist cedes the rights to the work to a large corporation, for whatever reason.

also almost no game developer would intentionally limit how many people got to play their game like that way anyway. A publisher will, an IP owner will, a game developer will probably not.

If the developers could somehow earn more profit by limiting supply, many most certainly would.

@SeantheDon29 Here are the official rules, which will lay any further worries for this topic to rest, provided you still have any:

4. Unacceptable content

c. Do not discuss current gen emulators/homebrew/piracy; It is permitted to constructively discuss the use of flash carts, emulators and homebrew software when in the context of previous generation(s) hardware. We ask that you do not link to any resources for illegal copyrighted content such as where to download ROMs and we reserve the right to lock, edit or delete any threads or comments we feel stray too far into an illegal or legal grey area, especially related to current gen products.

Taken straight from the Community Rules, in case you care to read them in more detail...

This is a very misleading statement and isn’t correct. We updated the rules a number of years ago with the following:

Do not link to illegal content; Linking to any illegal download sites, torrents or other resources that allow users to gain access to illegal content such as copyrighted ROMs, games, movies, music, TV shows, software or related activities is strictly prohibited.

Do not discuss current gen emulators/homebrew/piracy; It is permitted to constructively discuss the use of flash carts, emulators and homebrew software when in the context of previous generation(s) hardware. We ask that you do not link to any resources for illegal copyrighted content such as where to download ROMs and we reserve the right to lock, edit or delete any threads or comments we feel stray too far into an illegal or legal grey area, especially related to current gen products.

So if you’re not posting links where to download games or other copyrighted content it’s fine, within reason. We don’t encourage detailed discussion on current gen hacking that may lead to piracy for obvious reasons. It’s basically common sense at the end of the day.

@antdickens Beat you to it, sir.

I was initially skeptical of discussing it but I'm discussing experiences at least three generations prior to the cutoff point so we're good with Wii and GameCube!

@ThanosReXXX haha, close one but you win this time Thanos!

Nintendo pretty much did that with 3D All Stars though.

@antdickens

Just recently there was an article on here about the mother 3 english rom hack being updated and Nintendolife provided a link to the patch itself. That basically says go for it. Like someone is gonna read that and not wanna go looking for the rom and patch it themselves. If one of us users provided that patch via a link they'd be slamming down the ban hammer.

I do agree that articles shouldn’t be providing download links to anything even partially related to roms.

The users that want the patches are pretty capable of finding them.

We wouldn’t ban anyone over something like that though. Unless they were unpleasant to begin with then it would be a good excu- huh I said nothing.

@Zeldafan79 yeah, what @Eel said. It’s unlikely anyone would get banned but we might remove it.

All depends on context. The main difference is we have control over editorial and exceptions can get discussed before publishing. That isn’t the case on a public forum so it’s just a blanket rule.

I am a little surprised that people do not know the emulation/hack/modding rules here as they were discussed many times.

Everything that is NOT current gen is ok to be discussed.

This way people can get the most out of their old consoles especially the first GBA for example.

I'm a firm believer in buying content if it is available. For old Nintendo games, I have a fair few digital titles on my Wii U, 3DS and subscribe to Switch Online. I'm also fortunate to have a nice retro game collection. However, I feel that game preservation is sorely lacking - particularly with the availability of many titles or the ability to play these on modern day TV's etc. There are some era of games, such as the N64 and Gamecube that need you to pay collectors prices and have a good hardware setup to play. I'd love a paid library to play these games - instead though, all that does is push retro gamers towards emulation. I genuinely believe that most retro gamers don't use emulation for 'free' games but purely for game preservation.

I think it should be fine to emulate titles that you may not be able to purchase anymore, due to licensing or just how old it is and if it is even available to be found. That been said, I do try to buy most of my games, and if any titles I have emulated do get remasters, remakes, rereleases or whatnot, I will purchase them because I would finally "own" them. There is also the historical preservation stuff that people do, I support that. It's important to keep track of the history.

This reminds me of a book I needed for a college class back in my bachelor's degree. I couldn't afford it nor justify spending a loan or had any other money for it (course fees and rent come first!) but it was a 200 euro book on poetry. Most of the poems are available online for free because of their age, or I could find cheaper alternatives to using them. My tutor for the module actually sent me a link to a website to download a free version of the book. It wasn't legal either but made me think about education and how money is a bigger barrier to it than I thought. I remember reading of a writer and researcher for a science journal saying that rather than paying for a subscription to the journal his work appeared in he had no problem emailing his sections or articles to those who might need them for their essays and research.

At the end of the day, I guess it all comes down to what you think is the right thing to do. Emulation is a broad subject, with many factors to think about. I don't think there is a real right or wrong answer to it, just what you personally believe in.

I have completed SM64, ocarina, Majora and wind Waker many times on the keyboard lol (the bow can be fairly tricky...)

I am totally in favour of emulation and romhacks of old games as they are essential for preservation and to keep the games alive. 90%+ of the people interested in the games will buy it if easily available.
Not to say I don't understand why Nintendo is so strongly against it.