Emulation - legal or illegal?

lindbergh

lindbergh

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Emulation allows you to play console games on your PC. Even without a game console you could enjoy the legend of Zelda, metal gear, Resident evil, and other console games right in front of your PC. And all of it is free. Do you think that this is legal or illegal?
 
Maybe it is illegal. But some of the emulators a just crappy and there are nothing near the real thing. So, PC users that use emulators are just lying to themselves.
 
You're right that some emulators are crappy and cannot play most games but there are also emulators that allow you to play the real thing. The epsxe, the emulator for the n64, the emulator for old sega consoles are all working. I'm guilty of using emulators but it's one of the best ways too enjoy old-school gaming at no cost at all.
 
I don't see why it should be illegal. If you own the game, you should be able to play it in any way you like it. I know that sometimes, playing on the original console, with the original controller is a great experience, but if i want to play an old game without setting up the retro table, i just go with a emulator.
 
If I wanted to play an old school game and didn't have the console anymore, it would be so difficult to find that, the game, controllers, etc.

I don't think any game companies are worried about people playing old-school games on PCs anyways when they have their recent titles to worry about.
 
Emulation is not illegal. Downloading ROMs online, though, is pretty much an act of piracy. But emulation itself is not illegal as long as you, say, rip your own games. You would be playing our own copy of the game, after all.
 
I am assuming it's kind of just like J walking, it's technically illegal, but is not enforced. Lets face it, Nintendo is not making money off of Super Mario Bros 3 anymore.
 
I am not so sure about this one. The government might be shutting this one down soon. It does sound illegal to me.
 
I think it may be legal if you own a real copy of the game. I'm not exactly sure though.
 
It depends. In one way it is but in another it isn't. The emulation itself isn't illegal, but it's illegal to download ROMs and BIOS from the internet instead of dumping your own since it's considered piracy even if you own the system and game you're emulating.

I emulate stuff too, mostly PS2 since that thing looks horrible on HDTV and my PS2 is busted anyway.
 
Hit games so old that they won't care if you get caught. Example, I have Pokemon yellow, blue, and red on my laptop.

Haters gonna hate.
 
The term emulation in itself is not an illegal act. If are playing a game on the virtual console, you are in fact, emulating that game. However, downloading the roms of retro games, is illegal. Especially now that you can legally buy many of the games on virtual consoles.
 
I couldn't care less, what's going to happen FBI knocking on my door because I'm playing on an emulator??
 
technically we arent doing the illiegal activity but the person who done the emulated game or gave it to us would. besides i think nothing is wrong.
 
From what I remember, its legal to use them but only if you own the game being emulated. The difficulty comes in the BIOS to run the emulator, your supposed to take it from your own console because I remember thinking if you have the console and the game, why would you need the emulator!?!

Strange but true.
 
mikerossuk said:
From what I remember, its legal to use them but only if you own the game being emulated. The difficulty comes in the BIOS to run the emulator, your supposed to take it from your own console because I remember thinking if you have the console and the game, why would you need the emulator!?!

Strange but true.
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I've always wondered if this is true. I used an emulator to plat the first Fire Emblem for the GBA because it was only released it in Japan. Would it be legal if I imported the cartridge? Based on what you say, it would be. I'm not honestly sure though. Would love to see a formal explanation of this.
 
I'm pretty sure using emulators on your Computer is perfectly legal, well atleast it is in my opinion. Emulators gives the opportunity to gamers to test the games out before they actually purchase them from stores to see if customers will actually like it. When I was in high school, I used Gameboy and DS Emulators on my PC to test out games which I'll buy in the future, so I don't see anything wrong with it.
 
Of course it's illegal - however it isn't something that can generally be enforced against. That said it is a big enough issue that developers have started adding in little things - like not being able to save or leading to your information ending up online. Oh, well - it honestly is the same deal as bootlegging DVDs using DVDFab or whatever.
 
I never think of emulators as being illegal. I think of them as a copy of an original in a different format. They are also never as good as the real thing and I get tired of playing them within an hour or two.
 
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