If you think emulators are illegal, you're wrong
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Date: 2023-12-10
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Comments and reviews: 30
-Dhalin
Emulating was never illegal, unless you are using proprietary code (Playstation BIOS for example. That's why Playstation emulators are always shipped without the BIOS, because it's illegal to distribute said BIOS. However, it _is_ illegal to distribute or download ROMs or ISOs of stuff you do not own a copy of. So, if I have a physical playstation sitting around, and I make a copy of one of my playstation CDs, and I play it on an emulator, that is 100% legal. I am using things that I legitimately bought and paid for. But if I go and download an. iso of a game I did not own, and start playing it, then I'm technically breaking the law. But. I'd have to get caught first, and the likelihood of that is slim-to-none (but not impossible. It takes money to prosecute and they need to be careful with that, because they don't want to waste money going after someone who actually does own a physical copy of something (which gives them a pretty good defense) and it's impossible to know who has a physical copy of something and who does not, so they go after the distributors rather than the end-users. That's why big emulation ROM sites get taken down from time to time when they get too mainstream, too big, and if they happen to host Nintendo titles as Nintendo is one of the few companies that actually still care about emulation.
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Emulating was never illegal, unless you are using proprietary code (Playstation BIOS for example. That's why Playstation emulators are always shipped without the BIOS, because it's illegal to distribute said BIOS. However, it _is_ illegal to distribute or download ROMs or ISOs of stuff you do not own a copy of. So, if I have a physical playstation sitting around, and I make a copy of one of my playstation CDs, and I play it on an emulator, that is 100% legal. I am using things that I legitimately bought and paid for. But if I go and download an. iso of a game I did not own, and start playing it, then I'm technically breaking the law. But. I'd have to get caught first, and the likelihood of that is slim-to-none (but not impossible. It takes money to prosecute and they need to be careful with that, because they don't want to waste money going after someone who actually does own a physical copy of something (which gives them a pretty good defense) and it's impossible to know who has a physical copy of something and who does not, so they go after the distributors rather than the end-users. That's why big emulation ROM sites get taken down from time to time when they get too mainstream, too big, and if they happen to host Nintendo titles as Nintendo is one of the few companies that actually still care about emulation.
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-limonsoda
Emulators are not illegal, of course. Piratong is, and i don't see how that is not widely accepted. I do think legacy stuff should be allowed to be emulated, as is basically abandonware (the whole trend of netflix like services puts this in a weird place thouh. Having said that, emulation is used today to emulate current consoles and it is mostly used for piracy, that is just fact. I wont say don't do it, but be honest to yourself, you are doing it cause ypu dont like nintendo and wont pay for its stuff. If this actually continues, it will go the same route of the psp, where so many games were being pirated that first 3rd party and then even sony would care anymore to make games. So, sure, we can all do it, but if you want Zelda, Mario, and all of those games to keep being made, some money have to keep going their way.
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Emulators are not illegal, of course. Piratong is, and i don't see how that is not widely accepted. I do think legacy stuff should be allowed to be emulated, as is basically abandonware (the whole trend of netflix like services puts this in a weird place thouh. Having said that, emulation is used today to emulate current consoles and it is mostly used for piracy, that is just fact. I wont say don't do it, but be honest to yourself, you are doing it cause ypu dont like nintendo and wont pay for its stuff. If this actually continues, it will go the same route of the psp, where so many games were being pirated that first 3rd party and then even sony would care anymore to make games. So, sure, we can all do it, but if you want Zelda, Mario, and all of those games to keep being made, some money have to keep going their way.
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-christopher9727
John 3: 16-21 -
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
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John 3: 16-21 -
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
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-rmt74358
Nintendo is the only company out of all consoles that hates Emulation, yet I am beginning to think that them saying backing up roms, hacking their hardware really bothers them. Why? Because they are seeing an increase in hardware and game sales and have for many many years because of emulation. Lets be real. If Nintendo was not emulated and nobody cared than Nintendo would lose a lot of money. Sure there are many players today, but how many kids and adults are on Sony, Microsoft consoles, or on PC. When you compare that to Nintendo hardware and games. I can almost bet half of sales would vanish if not for Emulation.
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Nintendo is the only company out of all consoles that hates Emulation, yet I am beginning to think that them saying backing up roms, hacking their hardware really bothers them. Why? Because they are seeing an increase in hardware and game sales and have for many many years because of emulation. Lets be real. If Nintendo was not emulated and nobody cared than Nintendo would lose a lot of money. Sure there are many players today, but how many kids and adults are on Sony, Microsoft consoles, or on PC. When you compare that to Nintendo hardware and games. I can almost bet half of sales would vanish if not for Emulation.
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-MakotoIchinose
One of the flaw behind -emulator is illegal- stigma is that it assumes it comes with illegally distributed ROM/games to play, which is not the case at all.
In the most legal case, you'd obtain the real hardware in modded condition, dump the BIOS and the games you have with that real hardware, and keep it to yourself to play with the emulator with enhancements and whatnot.
The console's copy protection measure is often not implemented likely because it's not worth the effort to do so.
In short: emulator is not the problem, the ROM piracy is.
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One of the flaw behind -emulator is illegal- stigma is that it assumes it comes with illegally distributed ROM/games to play, which is not the case at all.
In the most legal case, you'd obtain the real hardware in modded condition, dump the BIOS and the games you have with that real hardware, and keep it to yourself to play with the emulator with enhancements and whatnot.
The console's copy protection measure is often not implemented likely because it's not worth the effort to do so.
In short: emulator is not the problem, the ROM piracy is.
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polygon
Yeah, remasters like Phantom Dust. Now they don't take 20 bucks like for the original game back in the day but instead want a piece of my immortal soul, my blood and my dignity. Uhm, no thanks I would rather pay with money. Unfortunately that's not an option. So emulation is the most feasible option. Because a used copy is below 200$ which in my rough estimation is a lot cheaper then a chunk of my immortal soul and my dignity. It also has the moral advantage of not giving Microsoft money while still being 100% legal.
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Yeah, remasters like Phantom Dust. Now they don't take 20 bucks like for the original game back in the day but instead want a piece of my immortal soul, my blood and my dignity. Uhm, no thanks I would rather pay with money. Unfortunately that's not an option. So emulation is the most feasible option. Because a used copy is below 200$ which in my rough estimation is a lot cheaper then a chunk of my immortal soul and my dignity. It also has the moral advantage of not giving Microsoft money while still being 100% legal.
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-hersh1138
The real travesty is losing gaming history. As consoles cartridges and discs age and breakdown not to mention games lost to license rights we have to preserve this. I would be in favor of like a 10 to 15 year law. That's roughly 2 or 3 generations prior to current unless made available with things like gog steam psn game pass or Nintendo stores. Even if I bought a game not on a streaming library from ebay the producing company won't see a penny of that.
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The real travesty is losing gaming history. As consoles cartridges and discs age and breakdown not to mention games lost to license rights we have to preserve this. I would be in favor of like a 10 to 15 year law. That's roughly 2 or 3 generations prior to current unless made available with things like gog steam psn game pass or Nintendo stores. Even if I bought a game not on a streaming library from ebay the producing company won't see a penny of that.
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-ghostbombl8034
I quite modern gaming yrs back because
I do not trust digital downloads pluss, you won't be able to play most modern games in the future if servers shuts down. I tryed steam and digital down loads but someone hacked my account stole money worth my games. after that, never again. I stuck to old retro gaming. At least its not a scam like modern crap. What a shame to collectors that you can not have physical copies much anymore.
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I quite modern gaming yrs back because
I do not trust digital downloads pluss, you won't be able to play most modern games in the future if servers shuts down. I tryed steam and digital down loads but someone hacked my account stole money worth my games. after that, never again. I stuck to old retro gaming. At least its not a scam like modern crap. What a shame to collectors that you can not have physical copies much anymore.
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-daedalus547
Emulators aren't the problem, it's ROM's people didn't dump themselves, if you dumped your own copy it's fine, just as long as you keep the original somewhere. Simply downloading a game you own is still illegal and still considered piracy. You also can't run multiple copies of the same game/dump, your only allowed to either play the original or play the backup, not both at the same time, or use multiple copies of the same dump.
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Emulators aren't the problem, it's ROM's people didn't dump themselves, if you dumped your own copy it's fine, just as long as you keep the original somewhere. Simply downloading a game you own is still illegal and still considered piracy. You also can't run multiple copies of the same game/dump, your only allowed to either play the original or play the backup, not both at the same time, or use multiple copies of the same dump.
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polygon
Well I mean,
If you can't use the software anymore I'd say you should be allowed,
But if it's from another company then I believe the other company deserves to get the right money paid and them and get that emulator ( or the normal console )
Because the idea and concept and pretty much everything is from then and they are playing a version almost identical
(Please don't hate me)
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Well I mean,
If you can't use the software anymore I'd say you should be allowed,
But if it's from another company then I believe the other company deserves to get the right money paid and them and get that emulator ( or the normal console )
Because the idea and concept and pretty much everything is from then and they are playing a version almost identical
(Please don't hate me)
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-AlexUnknown37
I forgot all about that information. First off
1)we would be buying games from your platform and you wouldn't be loosing on consoles. And
2)we would need your consoles to play your games on your service so at some point someone would probably get your console if someone bought enough games.
It's crazy, so many ways to get gamers money and they want to be butts about it.
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I forgot all about that information. First off
1)we would be buying games from your platform and you wouldn't be loosing on consoles. And
2)we would need your consoles to play your games on your service so at some point someone would probably get your console if someone bought enough games.
It's crazy, so many ways to get gamers money and they want to be butts about it.
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-dr. decker3623
NES can have the block out chip clipped to play all regions, and every other Cart based console (snes, N64, Genesis) is only locked out by the shape of the cartridge/console cart slot, all you need to do for N64 / Snes is file down the parts that block the insert, or like the Sega, just use a game genie/shark which don't have physical lock out, and voila.
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NES can have the block out chip clipped to play all regions, and every other Cart based console (snes, N64, Genesis) is only locked out by the shape of the cartridge/console cart slot, all you need to do for N64 / Snes is file down the parts that block the insert, or like the Sega, just use a game genie/shark which don't have physical lock out, and voila.
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polygon
I dont mean this the way it sounds, but there arent many girls that i-ve enjoyed listening to talk about games and such because usually it feels forced, like the girl doesn-t really belong in the video narrating the subject, but whoever narrated this video was awesome, i really enjoyed it.
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I dont mean this the way it sounds, but there arent many girls that i-ve enjoyed listening to talk about games and such because usually it feels forced, like the girl doesn-t really belong in the video narrating the subject, but whoever narrated this video was awesome, i really enjoyed it.
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-leonlewis9551
So. basically they monitised VGN by taking away free premium content, adding payed subscription packages and throw away deals/discounts then ended up naming it -PS Plus- and used PSN as a way to relaunch it/advertise it.
(wow these companies all fight dirty lol)
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So. basically they monitised VGN by taking away free premium content, adding payed subscription packages and throw away deals/discounts then ended up naming it -PS Plus- and used PSN as a way to relaunch it/advertise it.
(wow these companies all fight dirty lol)
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-bna8259
was this ever a question though? I thought people understood that emulation wasnt illegal, it was the ROMs themselves that contained the copyright material. The emulator doesnt matter, its whether or not you purchased the games (or the rights to the games) that matters.
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was this ever a question though? I thought people understood that emulation wasnt illegal, it was the ROMs themselves that contained the copyright material. The emulator doesnt matter, its whether or not you purchased the games (or the rights to the games) that matters.
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-RoCkShaDoWWaLkEr
Bleem and then Bleemcast were my first introductions to emulators; but hand coding a working copy of X. M. U. G. E. N. (EVE copy with all characters and stages) including the select (dot) def file to make the best emulator work on my modded Xbox was the coolest.
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Bleem and then Bleemcast were my first introductions to emulators; but hand coding a working copy of X. M. U. G. E. N. (EVE copy with all characters and stages) including the select (dot) def file to make the best emulator work on my modded Xbox was the coolest.
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-paulhunter_
I think it's sad that so many games become extremely rare to find along with working consoles but also require a rediculous setup.
Emulating classic or retro consoles should be fine to do, i know the emulator isn't illegal and personal backup is fine.
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I think it's sad that so many games become extremely rare to find along with working consoles but also require a rediculous setup.
Emulating classic or retro consoles should be fine to do, i know the emulator isn't illegal and personal backup is fine.
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-n0lain
Melee players know all too well about the -if you have enough money to defend yourself- thing. lmao. Nintendo's been trying to kill competitive Melee since before Brawl was even released, they don't care that legally speaking there's no copyright infringement.
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Melee players know all too well about the -if you have enough money to defend yourself- thing. lmao. Nintendo's been trying to kill competitive Melee since before Brawl was even released, they don't care that legally speaking there's no copyright infringement.
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-nil0bject
your knowledge on the topic is very limited. you make it sound like game console emulators are the ONLY emulators. i'd love to see the creators of virtualbox or qemu or sheepshaver get sued, as you suggest would happen in your dystopia, lol
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your knowledge on the topic is very limited. you make it sound like game console emulators are the ONLY emulators. i'd love to see the creators of virtualbox or qemu or sheepshaver get sued, as you suggest would happen in your dystopia, lol
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-daniels-mo9ol
0: 32 this is how Apple does most of its business though lol. They pirate or get inspired by other projects, and call it their own or say they came up with it. And the fanboyism just plainly accept their shady business year after year.
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0: 32 this is how Apple does most of its business though lol. They pirate or get inspired by other projects, and call it their own or say they came up with it. And the fanboyism just plainly accept their shady business year after year.
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-williamhenry2290
Emu them self are not illegal its when you download the BIOS and. ISO of the game when it becomes pirating. Suppose to take your physical console and dump the BIOS then use it for Emu and make ISO of physical disk you own.
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Emu them self are not illegal its when you download the BIOS and. ISO of the game when it becomes pirating. Suppose to take your physical console and dump the BIOS then use it for Emu and make ISO of physical disk you own.
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-goransvraka3171
I had a modchip in my PS1 and I would go to a video store hire a game, copy it, keep it and return the game. Sometimes I'd get a game copy it then return it right after saying I didn't like the game. good times!
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I had a modchip in my PS1 and I would go to a video store hire a game, copy it, keep it and return the game. Sometimes I'd get a game copy it then return it right after saying I didn't like the game. good times!
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-nemtudom5074
I think its very telling that apple is proud of 'going their way' and ' --innovating-- ', then just emulating or creating a translation layer for the popular thing everyone actually likes.
Damn hipsters
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I think its very telling that apple is proud of 'going their way' and ' --innovating-- ', then just emulating or creating a translation layer for the popular thing everyone actually likes.
Damn hipsters
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-sloppynyuszi
I had a pirated version of that emulator and played original PlayStation games on my Mac. It wasn-t perfect though, a lot of games were missing UI elements so I ended up buying a PSone anyway.
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I had a pirated version of that emulator and played original PlayStation games on my Mac. It wasn-t perfect though, a lot of games were missing UI elements so I ended up buying a PSone anyway.
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-shogenx
its funny how the AAA gaming market is going to cause another video game callapse I honestly dont think ive met a gamer that has faith in the AAA games being buggy micro transactions garbage
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its funny how the AAA gaming market is going to cause another video game callapse I honestly dont think ive met a gamer that has faith in the AAA games being buggy micro transactions garbage
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polygon
If GameStop does not have to show bill of sales to resale used games, that could potentially be stolen. Why should emulating be a problem? Especially if the game is no longer in production.
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If GameStop does not have to show bill of sales to resale used games, that could potentially be stolen. Why should emulating be a problem? Especially if the game is no longer in production.
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-SuperKhalid95
Emulation is legal, because when you wanna play a game that you love from the past which game companies refuse to re-release, then you can emulate it and play it on your free will.
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Emulation is legal, because when you wanna play a game that you love from the past which game companies refuse to re-release, then you can emulate it and play it on your free will.
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-LeDoomfistJames
You know she's legit AF because she straight up said, -I haven't bought software on a disc since. EverQuest. - Evercrack is a how you separate the real gamers from the WoW crowd.
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You know she's legit AF because she straight up said, -I haven't bought software on a disc since. EverQuest. - Evercrack is a how you separate the real gamers from the WoW crowd.
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polygon
Great video, and with it I am glad to say I beat all Megaman Legends and also Final Fantasy 7 og on the duckstation last year and it's 100% legal and will never be a crime.
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Great video, and with it I am glad to say I beat all Megaman Legends and also Final Fantasy 7 og on the duckstation last year and it's 100% legal and will never be a crime.
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-90sretrodad
Corporations are jokes, big jokes. Nintendo literally used pirated games and resold them to us specifically the original super mario on the wii store back in the day.
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Corporations are jokes, big jokes. Nintendo literally used pirated games and resold them to us specifically the original super mario on the wii store back in the day.
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