You know, this forum is missing something...

Originally Posted by Dante Reborn

Of course, after a while, that may prove to be a good thing.

What's your stance on the use of downloaded ROMs? I mean, not all of you are advocates of it, right? There's gotta be one of you against it!

Personally, I'm for it, to a certain extent... I'll only play old-school ROMs, such as NES and its Super counterpart. That way, no one loses any potential profit.

But when they re-released those games in compilations, E-Reader Cards, Animal Crossing extras, GBA ports, or whatever, it's not ENTIRELY that legal to do so. But morally it feels ok because the systems they were initially released for are currently no longer being distributed.

And of course, there's the Neo Geo. Such a niche community, one that has a respect for emulation, that the updates for emulators often purposely leave out the newest games. But still, the emulators for that have been around for a while for the decade-old (!!) system.

Personally, I love ROMs for games I would be unable to play anyway else. Fan-Translated Japanese RPGs in particular.

Originally Posted by Chr0n0s End

I think of Roms like i Do Mp3's.. If you have the original content(such as the game or the music cd) and your using them for educational purposes/or personal use with out distribution then its clearly legal, your not breaking any laws because it's just considered a back up for the original media. Check out the copyright laws on one of the gov't sites, you can't be wrong in the matter..

Technically, for a ROM to be legal, it has to be procured from the physical copy you actually own. Of course, there's not really any way to determine if you backed it up from your own copy, or downloaded it, should it ever become an issue, but I figured I'd mention it anyway. And in that case, it's strictly only supposed to be used as archival data, which would mean it's supposed to sit there on standby until your physical copy becomes unusable.

Personally, I have no problem with emulation and roms and such. As far as regular usage goes, I mainly stick to the older systems. I do grab the occasional GBA rom here and there (If it should happen to leak long before it's release date, for example), but any game that I really want, I will end up buying. Of course the problem is, I still buy more games than I have time to play them, so I still end up sitting with a pile of games I never get to play.

Originally Posted by TheInfernalStorm

Technically, for a ROM to be legal, it has to be procured from the physical copy you actually own. Of course, there's not really any way to determine if you backed it up from your own copy, or downloaded it, should it ever become an issue, but I figured I'd mention it anyway. And in that case, it's strictly only supposed to be used as archival data, which would mean it's supposed to sit there on standby until your physical copy becomes

This disclaimer defense has been used by MANY of an emulation website and has had the legal precedent of being stupid and inneffective. In other words, it's just bullcrap and a false sense of security for websites that have it. As long as the websites that provide ROMs cannot verify that the downloader owns a copy of a game being downloaded, it is vulnerable to being shut down.

Moreover, the license you buy with the game does not allow you to make backup or archival copies. Meaning you can't make ROMs.

Nintendo could make a lot of money by re-releasing popular old games on the gbasp, but, you know, Nintendo hasn't been famous for making good decisions recently. Maybe they should have theif be their new ceo :thief:

But I have no problem getting a rom of a game that I can't get other places (and if I find it and I already have the rom I'll buy it anyway 'cause the original games are better than roms on computers). But past 16 bit ages is a big no no.

Originally Posted by stFalcon5

This disclaimer defense has been used by MANY of an emulation website and has had the legal precedent of being stupid and inneffective. In other words, it's just bullcrap and a false sense of security for websites that have it. As long as the websites that provide ROMs cannot verify that the downloader owns a copy of a game being downloaded, it is vulnerable to being shut down.

I didn't mean to defend websites and distribution; I understand fully well that all of those disclaimers are complete BS. That was my whole point; just having any old copy of a ROM is illegal, even if you own the cartridge. However, as I was told at least, it was legal to have an archival backup, so long as it was extracted from a physical copy that you legally own. Obviously, this would also mean distribution is off-limits.

You may be right about the licensing issue, though I would've thought that something like this would've fallen under the whole fair-use clause.

Bottom line is, there is no way to legally distribute ROM images of commercial games.

Of course, illegality doesn't always mean immorality

Also, Sushigaski-

Why limit it to 16-bit? Nintendo no longer makes money off of N64 games; The only half-exceptions would be the Zelda games, which even still is a grey area. They've been re-released on the 'Cube, but they're not-for-sale promotional items.

[lymerion]

Personally, I don't think any comany is going to care if you download ROMs of games they no longer manufacture and will never again manufacture. One problem with ROMs though is some sites hack them and add a new screen before the games original first screen. This makes it very obvious that the ROM is not a direct copy of your game. Such things are important for legal reasons. Even if you own the game the ROM belongs to, you'd still get in trouble.

BTW, is having the NSF file to an NES game you don't own illegal? Just wondering...

[Lucas]

roms aren't illegal if you own the original matter. its not illegal at all to have a copy of the info in the chips you already own. i think there's also something about games that aren't being sold anymore, a sort of registration that stops after the production is halted and the inventory is disposed.

ROMS allow me to play Earthbound. You tried finding that game? You can't, unless you wanna go digging around. I paid $50 for Chrono Trigger second-hand and sans instructions and map.

Well, lucky for me I managed to find a copy of Earthbound before they stopped selling them in stores... Did they ever not come in those large boxes with the strategy guide? Which, I must say, seemed an awesome guide. And I would have been afraid without that guide. Not that the scratch 'n sniff cards didn't scare me.

I got my copy of Chrono Trigger, but now I own the Chronicles verison, which, among other things, comes with what I think of as a ridiculous load time. If it weren't for that niggling little detail I would be sated. I just wish I had a copy of SMRPG...

Nes and Snes roms are great. There's no reason that you shouldn't be able to play classic games, especially if they're not being produced anymore. Nintendo should license and sell roms and emulators online. Seriously, this is a whole market people would be dying to be a part of.