Microsoft Wants You To Know That Its Surface Tablet Can Play SNES Games

I think it's good for Nintendo to be honest. Everyone wants to play SNES games, and the best way is on Wii U.

Hello lawsuit!

Its funny that old Nintendo games are becoming a bulletpoint for other developers to sell their stupid toys while also saying that Nintendo is doomed
How can someone be so stupid to openly advertise emulation ?
Are big devs these days really that lazy and unintoitive to not be able to come up with their own, original stuff ?

So this is news now, Microsoft knows about it, and if they have the video removed, no harm, no foul. If they don't, I think Nintendo deserves to take action.

On the other hand, Nintendo needs to join the modern era in some things. They're still making quality games with fantastic gameplay, but they don't seem to understand internet culture. The key to beating piracy and emulation is to offer a superior product at the convenience of the consumer at a price that the consumer will embrace. That's why tens of millions of people have Netflix subscriptions. There isn't a great selection of SNES games on the Wii U VC and, arguably, $8 is a bit of steep price point for an SNES game.

For $800, that better be playing GameCube games as well.

i lold so hard

@Grubdog What are you talking about? Seriously.

Eh, it's nothing a law suit won't cure.

Wow....no respect! Just no respect at all. I can't get with that, nor will I. It's one thing to make or emulate games LIKE Nintendo cough Sony cough, but it's another to take actual Nintendo games and advertise it to sell your own product.

Your move, Nintendo! Hopefully it's a good one.

sigh -.-

@johndevine read the article maybe

@Grubdog I suggest you do the same. "I think it's good for Nintendo to be honest"

@johndevine yes because people are talking about SNES games. They are popular and fun.

@Grubdog so if you made a great product... would you think it makes good business sense to allow people to steal this product?

Of course they're pleased to show off that their tablet can play Nintendo games.

Why on earth would anyone want to play Microsoft games on the poxy thing?

@CaviarMeths The alternative of emulation can never be a valid argument for pricing. That way you could say that 60-80$ for a new game is too much, because a console mod only costs about 30-40 and then you can play these games for free.
The only problem rearding prices the VC has is, that these prices are fixed on the media and are stiff. 8$ for, say, Super Metroid or Mario World is in no way too much but 5$ for Balloon Fight or the classic Mario Bros is.
Stop measuring games on how old they are and start measuring them on what actual content they have. Super Mario WOrld is still on par with modern platformers and thus is not automatically worth less because its an older game.
But having every SNES game cost 8$, no matter how big, good or rich in content they are is a big flaw.
And the lack of VC games isnt entirely Nintendos fault. They just provide thei games at a pace, that is oriented at longlivety. Putting out every game at once gets people overwhelmed. They dont have the money to buy all at once and thus, buy a few and eventually forget about the rest. And Nintendo cant release games without having the license to do so, so its up to other companys too.
The way i see it, its not a problem of the system itself, the problem lies within the "have everything at once and for free" mentality of the people nowadays.

I think this is why Nintendo comes out with dual screens handhelds and crazy controllers. Tougher to rip them off.

Which I can't say that emulation is bad, but companies shouldn't be showing that their product can emulate a competitors product no matter how old it is.

If Microsoft thinks its ok to do this, then they should have no problem with Nintendo or Sony having their systems play Xbox games.

@Einherjar Right, but you're missing my point. It doesn't matter what you think these games are worth. It doesn't matter what I think they're worth. It matters what the consumer thinks they're worth. That's how free market works. The fact that people are emulating Nintendo games on every device from iPhones to Xbox 360s should tell Nintendo that they're not providing an attractive enough service.

Netflix single-handled ran Blockbuster out of town. They're done. All the stores are closed. Everyone's laid off. They did that by providing the consumer exactly what they wanted at their own convenience and at a good price point. Playstation Plus has got this whole thing down too. That's a subscription that gives you unlimited access to a lot of content to download, play, and keep at your own leisure. The catch is that once you cancel your subscription, you lose all of your games. Nintendo could do the same thing - charge a monthly subscription for anyone to play whatever VC games they want. But they don't. They really don't seem to understand that meeting your consumer's demands is kind of important. With such a low install base on the Wii U to begin with, the VC as it is now just isn't going to curb emulation at all.

If Nintendo doesn't perform some sort of legal action for this, I would actually be disappointed. Nintendo sees Microsoft as a serious competitor to them in the home console market (unlike Ouya, which I assume all the big three have just shrugged off). Microsoft is literally endorsing copyright infringement of one of its two major competitors, and that is simply unacceptable.

Where does the law stand in the people that make money on the emulators they sell on android? How are they not illegal. But using the roms is?
It's like you can make the hardware were fine with that but don't think about making the software

Surely the people making money out of this are the most guilty of all

Oh, Windows 8 only...even more illegal with that.

Iwata: Get your guns ready Reggie And Miyamoto!!!!

Yeah, its illegal copyright infringement and probably something the IT guys doing the video didn't even realize. Pretty sure both companies sets of lawyers know each other quite well and this gets resolved with a phone call.
On a lighter note, MS should've shown off the emulation skills of their tablet by playing something by RARE on an N64 emulator. Now THAT would've been maddening.

[to the tune of the Batman show]
TANANANANANANANANANANANANANANANA LAWSUUUUUUUUUUIT

Nintendo needs to sue Microsoft into the ground for this. Force them to give you 75% of the Surface profits. Let's face it, there is no reason to own a Surface if it isn't to play SNES ROMs.

@SandersEvers

right! Halo HD VC for the Wii U.

anyways this is getting ridiculous.

it's like i publish a book and as a selling point i tell people harry potter is

in the back of the book so they can read that too.

This tells you how well Microsoft monitor what get's put on the App Store

The funniest part is that Microsoft shows a Nintendo game being played rather than its own Xbox line of games.

@TruenoGT
Now thats funny.

....which brings up question for me...Where are the SNES/Gamecube VC titles on the 3DS? I have this weird feeling Nintendo would rather do some sort of "HD" version of these games to sell them at a higher price point than to sell them as VC titles. Kind of like the way Disney can re-release their big titles in a 7 year cycle ad infinitum.

@CaviarMeths Still, emulation isnt a valid argument since its in a legal grey area or streight up illegal. Steam and its extremely low sales prices didnt stop piracy on PC at all. GoG gave you an alternative to steam AND is completely DRM free and even that didnt stop piracy, even for older games. PS Plus with its regular offerings of free games and additional discounts still didnt stop piracy.
And the VC wont do it either, no matter how well its set up and even if these games are free. People emulate games out of two reasons: 1 = out of convinience (like you already stated) and 2 = because they are free loaders.
And you can NEVER get rid of the first reason, because convinience is completely up to the user. Some find a library of games on a single system convinient, some want to have all games on all systems, some find it convinient that emulators offer aditional features like savestates and what not.
To tackle that need, youll need to release every possible "retro" game and any system with complete customizability for free, all backed up with exchangeable save files, online multiplayer, savestates, graphical filters and a heck of a lot more, since no one is ever satisfied.
The VC is a fine way to enjoy games from the past on new systems without the need of, say, old CRT TVs to hook you old consoles up, nothing more, nothing less.

Anothzer example: GTAV sells like crazy, but is was leaked on the internet even before its official release and you could have it for free that way. Isnt that convinient ? You didnt even need to get out of your house for that. So, why sell the game in the first place ? People clearly wanted it for free and there was a way to get it that way.
Now you could argue that old nintendo games are "already made" and just need to be emulated, but thats harder than it sounds if you want them to be as close to the original as possible. It takes quite a bit of work to do it. Making an emulator that just runs the games is one thing, but making it so that the games run as if they would on the original system is quite an effort. And thats why VC games cant be offered for free, they still need to work on them and these people need something to buy food with at the end of a week.
What "the internet culture" wants and what is actually reasonable are polar opposites most of the time.
And about the subscription model: PS Plus offeres mostly best sellers for free. Games, that sold so well that they pretty much can afford to give them away for a 15$ fee. The inflated prices of these games already covered theses "losses" beforehand.

I've had a couple of comments on the subject edited/removed in the past, but as this topic is directly concerning emulation then I hope this will be ok.

I was under the impression that emulators are not a 'grey area' as long as the people writing the emulator software do not reverse engineer the hardware.
The legal issue is about ROM images. If you don't own the game then you can't legally play the game.

Because I own a Wii, and all my games, and the software on the Wii to transfer those games to my PC; then am I doing anything illegal here?

@eza "Because I own a Wii, and all my games, and the software on the Wii to transfer those games to my PC; then am I doing anything illegal here?" Well, technically yes, since you own a license to play the games from the disc on your Wii system, not a license to play them digitally on a PC...

Get back to me when surface can stream 360 games, then we'll talk.

@CaviarMeths I absolutely agree with you, Nintendo should provide a subscription VC service because some of the games are worth the price but most are not. Also, I called the Hollywood/blockbuster video thing as soon as Netflix came out.

@CaviarMeths To be honest you can also easily emulate ds games or even wii games if you want to. Doesnt mean Nintendo should sell the game for the price of a loaf a bread.

No matter what happens, this is still pretty funny. In a sad, pathetic kind of way.

@WiiLovePeace But is that the case, legally? I don't know if the concept has ever been tested in court, but when I bought a Wii game I didn't read or agree to any licence regarding my use of that game. (There's probably some small print in a manual that I didn't read, though).
It's not even like a software installer, where you have to click 'I agree' before it installs.
Certain CDs for PC software have a sticker on the case or paper sleeve, which states that by breaking the seal you agree to various licence agreements.
But no Wii disc I have bought has even had this. Some of the second hand games I've bought haven't even had the instruction manual.

Again, I'm not a lawyer or legal expert, and I have no idea whether a legal precedent has ever been set or not, but I'm not sure whether even the act of clicking 'I agree' actually constitutes a legally-binding contract.

I have no doubt that Nintendo do not like the practice, but if you're buying a physical product then as far as I know, you own that product and can do whatever you like with it.

It's a bit underhanded on Microsofts part, since their openly promoting this type of emulation while they have games on their app store that steal assets/characters from other games: http://apps.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/app/yoshijump/7b93db6d-3f9a-40a5-9547-00c02b46e7f8

But that's more of Microsoft playing to their strengths, which is the grey area of free/stolen ROM emulation for whatever reason they can pull out of their donkey. When we all know what the main reason is....you get another companies games/characters for free and that'll in turn help push your device.

"Ohhh, the blame is on Nintendos marketing bec--"

No.
I could get an SNES ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Nintendo-SNES-System-Console-with-2-Controllers-/290981868123 )
AND Super Mario World ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Mario-World-Super-Nintendo-1990-/261299752485?pt=Video_Games_Games&hash=item3cd6adce25 )
for FAR less than any SurfaceRT ( http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microsoft-Surface-RT-64GB-Tablet-Windows-Warranty-Office-Factory-Sealed-/151135545690?pt=US_Tablets&hash=item233061695a ).

The problem is that SNES can only play games that you buy in cartridge form, while the Surface RT can steal them (and many others) for the wopping price of $0, while also giving you the ability to steal books, and songs, and movies, and programs.

The ones who do it in search of bettering their skills with programming or emulating are fine by me, but that isnt the majority of the ROM scene. It isnt some good spirited scientist just looking forward to challenging himself/herself, it's friggin' Dr.Frankenstein making abominations for a quick-buck and millions of faithful Igors thinking this is still some honorable practice.

This is just silly, MS will have it removed now they know about it or Nintendo will send them a letter.

It does make me think that it's about time Nintendo opened up the Wii VC for the Wii U and started managing their prices properly. MS are advertising free Mario Kart on Surface but on Wii U you can only play it for £5.50 on the Wii Channel. Maybe a Miiverse price and release schedule protest is in order?

@meltendo While I agree that SNES titles should be on 3DS by now, you're crazy if you think the 3DS could handle GameCube emulation without some serious changes made to the games themselves. Not to mention the 3DS doesn't have enough buttons or sticks to play them properly...

@Grubdog They have started adding god awful filters. (Like Hudson and Sega did with some of the Wii VC releases).

Best way to play SNES games is on a SNES with the switchless chip that allows switching between regions and 50/60hz. (Needs a £1 PIC chip that is all).

and RGB output. (Either mod a cable with the resistors that the official cable has or use the official cable if you can get one).

If you need it on a modern TV then use an XRGB or similar.

Nintendo's emulation is not accurate enough. (They are the professionals and they have all the hardware docs).

I don't really care. If nintendo cares they can do something if not oh while well.

@eza You can reverse engineer the SNES or NES hardware all you like the patents have expired.

What was done for the original PC Bios is certainly allowed. (Persons who is dealing with the hardware only writes docs who are used by someone who has never touched the hardware to do whatever).

Other things are less clear cut. The situation of the reverse engineering of the NES security chip was allowed then but I dunno whether it still is.

"... uh... oh yeah, we can do that, too!" -Microsoft

@CaviarMeths Nintendo should not have to combat those games with marketing or variety. Those versions are still free and hard to "compete" with in a "market".

I would say Microsoft shouldn't get off the hook to a degree - if they didn't know emulators could run on their tablet, they should've taken extra time to find out.

Nintendo didn't sue over the Ouya, they won't sue over this. I even emailed Nintendo about the Ouya openly promoting emulation on it's platform via Nintendo's piracy report email address and they said nothing about it. I don't know why Nintendo didn't do anything.

Yes, I'm a rat for Nintendo. So sue me.

@UnseatingKDawg They know.

Dunno about the legality of ripping the rom from a legitimately purchased VC game. (If people were reasonable it should be just fine.)

As usual, if you're sick of waiting for your favorite retro titles to surface on the VC (seriously, one or no releases per week is the norm) here ya go. Bet it can handle N64 as well.

@unrandomsam Thanks for info, I wasn't aware that the patents had expired and those consoles are now 'fair game'.

_{i've answered your questions in a comment below. Enjoy! — TBD}

In this murky topic, are there any definite rules that moderators are following regarding comments, or is it based on the general feeling one gets when reading the comment?

It is a perfectly legitimate tie-in for Microsoft's new slogan: "Our games suck. Why not try Nintendo's?"

Watch as nintendo includes emulators for... for... Darn it Nintendo! Why do you have to be so awesome?

I love emulation and unlike many people on here have no problem with it. I do however think it's completely wrong to use it as a "feature" in advertising and should be left in the dark for those "in the know". While this isn't advertising it shouldn't be endorsed by the Microsoft team or whoever runs their twitter account.

Nintendo are missing the boat though, they could have been offering up their retro games on multiple systems for years and reaped loads of money. Instead people will be playing them for free and mostly grow tired of them before Nintendo is broken up and sold for scrap.

Microsoft promoting something that is generally illegal as a feature without letting the people who they're advertising to the conditions in which it is generally considered legal?
I wonder if Nintendo will bother trying to take them on.

Hey guys (and @eza since you've asked): please keep comments about emulators unspecific, and leave the personal anecdotes at the door. We don't need people sharing advice or how-to's regarding specific emulators or discussing whether this will be able to run (insert game here) as it's not on topic. We also don't need people sharing how emulation has changed their gaming lives, and we especially don't care how big of a pirate you or your friend's sister's cousin's uncle's mother-in-law twice-removed are. Also, unrelated comments regarding R4 devices and Action Replays and the like are not kosher in this thread. These things are not on-topic and as such will be edited out.

In short, we're discussing Microsoft and the fact that one of their official Twitter accounts has apparently RT'd a video showcasing emulation (and possibly piracy, we have no idea where that ROM came from) as a 'feature' for their tablet device. Keep your comments on-topic and we'll be square. :3

Ugh. I have no personal qualms with emulation on a private level, but I still support VC releases as often as I can, even with games I already own, and seeing a big business like Microsoft promoting emulation as a feature of a commercial product is just low.

@CaviarMeths Just wanted to say I love the points you made here. I like supporting the VC, but the releases are few and far between. And pricey. Thankfully, the SNES has S-Video out so I wind up using it a lot of the time.

@theblackdragon Thanks for the clarification.

So, I just watched the video (I know - maybe I should have done that before first commenting) and the guy on it has missed out the crucial detail of how he obtained Mario Kart.
Seeing his amazement that Surface has an actual real working web browser in it, and his utter astonishment that he could plug it into his TV, I find it highly unlikely that he has the technical wherewithal to actually create a rom from an original Mario Kart cartridge.

I also wondered whether there really is an app on the Microsoft Store called "Super Nintendo" as he states in the video, because surely an unauthorised 3rd party cannot use Nintendo's trademark. So I went and looked for it. It's not called "Super Nintendo".
I can confirm that it does not come with Mario Kart bundled. So how did this "hapless techno weenie" (reference: the film Hackers from 1996) get Mario Kart running on it?!

Also I find it unlikely that the Microsoft PR person actually watched the whole video. They probably skipped through it, noticed the gushing compliments from the guy who did the video, missed the bit where he played Mario Kart, and retweeted it.

ALSO, Windows 8 is horrible. The majority of apps in the store are knock-offs of mobile versions. The Microsoft apps like Calendar and Mail have horribly reduced functionality compared to their website versions, which is unbelievable.
I've been using it daily on a touchscreen laptop since last December and I started off liking it but have grown to hate it, because it just doesn't do anything very well.

EDIT: In the comments on his video n YouTube he has stated that he owns a SNES and the Mario Kart cartridge.

I'm sure Nintendo's lawyers are already hitting the books.

So basically we have a video of someone with a Surface Pro (which is full blown windows 8) running an emulator and an SNES game on it to boast that it was worth his $800+ for a tablet that has a battery life of 30-90 minutes.

Basically the video would have been kosher if he just bought Sega games on Steam and showed them instead of using grey area (at best) ROMs.

So, is Nintendo allowed to rip Microsoft games, upload them to the internet, and let us download them for free and risk-free? It's only fair.

@Discostew And advertise it as an "amazing feature"

@Discostew A more accurate parallel might be if Nintendo allowed a third party developer to release a DOS emulator on the eShop.
And then they tweeted a video of a fan playing an old DOS game on their Wii U, but with no mention of how that fan was able to legally obtain that old game.
(It's hard for me to think of an example of a Microsoft-published DOS game, however, to make the parallel complete!)

So it could run emulators and roms? Big deal, other devices could already do that and for cheaper the price. The problem is playing roms on emulator doesn't had the same feeling or experience as playing it on a real console. If this thing was release around 2001-2003 then I'll be impress but nowadays emulation had been all over the place. I could pretty much name the top 20 devices that could run emulators and roms without even including the PC in the picture but then again it's not worth mentioning because it's all illegal.

Seeing Super Mario Kart being played on this thing is certainly what will push millions of people to buy one.

@Technosphile lol, exactly.

Anyway, it's obviously gone.

meanwhile SNES VC has yet to appear on a Nintendo handheld...

@eza Found this on Nintendo's site - http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#roms

Can I Download a Nintendo ROM from the Internet if I Already Own the Authentic Game?

There is a good deal of misinformation on the Internet regarding the backup/archival copy exception. It is not a "second copy" rule and is often mistakenly cited for the proposition that if you have one lawful copy of a copyrighted work, you are entitled to have a second copy of the copyrighted work even if that second copy is an infringing copy. The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic. Therefore, whether you have an authentic game or not, or whether you have possession of a Nintendo ROM for a limited amount of time, i.e. 24 hours, it is illegal to download and play a Nintendo ROM from the Internet.

Golly, this Windows based tablet PC can run emulators...just like Windows based desktop and laptop PCs have for over a decade? Jeepers.

hmm looks like the tweet has been deleted by MS now.

@jsty3105: I'm fairly sure @eza knows how to get a legit backup copy for their games (and if not there's always Google). we're just commenting on how the video doesn't make mention of these important things at all in terms of legal game emulation :3

Oh no you di' ent!

You know Nintendo should just say bump it and release the old version of Killer Instinct to the VC since Nintendo owned the rights to the first and 2nd game. LOL Yeah yeah I know they lost the license!

I bet microsoft was: "It's not about emulation....it's about sending a message"

I hope ninty releases moar games for the eshop :

@jsty3105 Very good point. Unless the author of the video ripped the ROM from his own game cartridge then his 'backup copy' is not legal, even though he owns the game. And this could be the sticky legal point that caused MS to remove the tweet.

I suspect someone in the Microsoft social media team has had a talking-to by their manager, and maybe put on menial website image-cropping work for the next three months!
You just can't be as high-profile as MS and overlook things like that.

Good old internet: never before have people been able to make mistakes so wide-reaching and so instantly!

Lawsuit incoming!

This is an outrage! Quick Nintendo don't miss out on the perfect chance to get those slimy gits!!!

As you can probably tell I rather hate Microsoft.

Sue sue sue!

@TwilightV: What lawsuit? Nintendo doesn't even have the balls to sue PETA for obvious copyright infringement.

Dumb move Microsoft.....did I mention dumb? DUMB.....

I find it quite amusing that lots of people (Apple, Microsoft, ...) say that Nintendo is on the decline and is obsolete... and then have SNES games being played on their systems.

I also find it amusing, yet quite upsetting, that Nintendo tells these companies that the REFUSE to sell their games onto other systems and then these systems "suddenly" have lots of videos of people pirating Nintendo software on the systems that Nintendo would have published those games on if N wanted to...

@CaviarMeths "arguably, $8 is a bit of steep price point for an SNES game."

No it really isn't. That's less than my local pre-owned game shops and pawn shops sell ANY snes game for (aside from the sports titles that flood the used market so sell for, like, a dollar).

@WiiLovePeace
"Well, technically yes, since you own a license to play the games from the disc on your Wii system, not a license to play them digitally on a PC..."

Actually, no. Whatever any "licence agreement" says you have every legal right to make a backup copy of a game you own and use that copy as you see fit for your own personal use. But you have to rip it yourself, downloading a copy is illegal whether you own the original or not.

@eza "Again, I'm not a lawyer or legal expert, and I have no idea whether a legal precedent has ever been set or not, but I'm not sure whether even the act of clicking 'I agree' actually constitutes a legally-binding contract."

EULAs like that have only been found to be legally binding in a handful of states in the US. Most of the world doesn't recognize it as such. The way Nintendo and other gaming companies do it don't even conform with legal requirements to make it binding in those States, either. Nintendo includes the licence agreement with the System, and other companies point you to a website on the box, but the requirment is that the software itself include a copy of the licence agreement and a way to return it to the manufacturer if you don't agree to it.

Legitimately facepalmed. Here I thought it was just a little mention of it, but bro spends a minute and a half talking about how cool it is that he can play Nintendo games on this thing.

Microsoft, what are you doing?

@wombatkidd Very interesting, thanks for that. I did a bit of searching on the subject, and it turns out that where I live (Spain) piracy is actually legal, as long as it's not for commercial gain.
The USA have put pressure on the Spanish government, though, and a recently-approved amendment will see website owners who link to copyrighted material prosecuted: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/20/net-us-spain-piracy-idUSBRE98J0RD20130920

Interestingly the amendment still doesn't affect an individual who downloads copyrighted material, who can continue to do so within the law.

@theblackdragon I know Entered late into the conversation, it was in answer to one of the earlier queries about the possible legalities of it all.

@FLUX_CAPACITOR Wikipedia sys otherwise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Console_emulator#Legal_issues
Good info on the subject in that article.

Halo 4 Online Multiplayer Match:
Announcer: "Reggie is having a killing spree."
Reggie: "Suck it Microsoft Marketing Team! I'm about kicking a**, making games, & taking names. How about you?"
Microsoft Marketing Employee: "Uhh...we allow you to play Nintendo games on our Surface tablet."
R: "How's Halo on the Surface?"
MME: "Wait? Halo is on the surface. It can't emulate that."

The best part's when he says "My Surface is OFFICIALLY a Super Nintendo!"

Unsurprising.

Generation Y has zero respect or even knowledge of copyright.

To be fair ill be surprised if Surface could not play SNES game lol

Lol its almost mockery. I love that Microsoft thinks they're better than a company that's been making games longer and beat them last console generation.

I want a lawsuit. Just to watch Microsoft lose.

@CaviarMeths COMPLETELY agree with you.
In fact, your mention of Netflix sparks an idea...NES & SNES & even N64 games are pretty darn old now, and easily available for anyone with any type of computer to play for free. I've never bought a NES or SNES title on the Wii, because they were just too expensive to make it worth my while.
$8 for a digital game thats 20 years old? Yikes. Bargain bins at Gamestop sell xbox/gcube/ps2 games for under $5...
I think Nintendo should take their massive VC library and make it into a subscription service like Netflix! Could you imagine?
As of now Nintendo Network is free anyway, but maybe if they made a "premium" Nintendo Network account, say $50 or $60 a year (akin to PSN+ or XBL Gold), you get access to ALL VC games for free! Wouldn't that be something?

I think it's kind of a guarantee that you COULD emulate on it if you wanted too. Heck, my four year old Ipod can emulate N64 games if I so choose. I personally don't like emulation, but that's beside the point. The point is Microsoft can and probably will get sued for this. Is it warrented? Yes. Yes it is.

While it's cool this works, I fear that Nintendo won't like it. Unless MS somehow was allowed to emulate them like the VC is doing...

@TwilightV you say lawsuit, but Nintendo seems to prefer sitting on the side while other companies destroy their good name. Just think look at PETA making spoof Pokémon games, and going un challenged, and despite everything all the reporters say calling Nintendo bad while kissing Sony, and Microsoft's butts they don't make no-brainer actions like advertising to boost their sales.

Maybe if Nintendo would ever release the SNES VC on 3DS this wouldn't be a problem.

I first experienced emulation on the PC when i got Pokemon Yellow for the GB on there wbefore the game had even been released in the UK. If anything that led me to buy Pokemon Blue for the GB shortly after to experience the game properly. In the mid '00s i got hold of Discs on ebay that had 100s of Mega Drive, SNES, NES, GB roms on, so owned the monopoly of retro gaming. I got a lot of enjoyment out of them games but still when it came round to buying my wii i have opted to pay and download the true classics i wanted to own again. Emulation has never taken anything away from my spending on Nintendo products, and probably never will.