Emulation, how do you feel about it?

[Goldark]

It's an old question but it's still frequently discussed. Personally I can only enjoy PS thru emulation, since my old consoles doesn't function anymore, and aren't produced anymore, also I feel that spending more money on such system will only enrich the buyer, not SEGA.<br>But that's not the only thing I played via emulation, I also played a lot of other games I never bought, and had fun playing them. Still I don't feel like I have robbed anyone.<p>Another story is when it comes to newer systems like PSX, or N64, which were emulated when the consoles were still sold (so their games), not to talk about the GBA, there was an emlator PRIOR the commercialization of the actual console. All of this has to be consiered piracy.<p>So even if it's illegal to obtain roms for which you don't own the original product, I feel that some dinstinction are to be done.<br><p>[size=small][Edit by Goldark on [TIME]1077813165[/TIME]][/size]

[Benoit]

You mean emulation.<p>Agreed. I also emulate games, though most of them I haven't bought.<br>I don't emulate the Phantasy Star games, though. I enjoy them on my Mega Drive, like it was meant to.<br>I did discover the series through emulation, PSO and the magazines, though.<br>The reason in particular why I don't emulate Phantasy Star IV is because of the music. The PAL version of Phantasy Star IV plays its music slower than its NTSC counterparts. So in order to fully enjoy it, I decided to not touch the ROM again. I do still have the ROM on my hard drive, though.<p>As for other games, if I really like them, I'll buy them sooner or later, if possible. I know I bought the originals of Lufia: The fortress of Doom and Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals after playing the first one. Not having a SNES, I play them by ROM, but now it's legal. I plan to purchase Mega Man X one of these days.<br>So you could say that emulation promotes purchasing of games, even though the companies don't make money off it. Since I'm now a fan of the Lufia series, I buy the recent games, which does make the company money.<p>Which takes me to the next point: is it okay to emulate older games you don't own?<br>I would say yes, since those games are no longer sold in stores, and thus don't make the companies any loss. Except, of course, when they rerelease the games, like they do now, more and more often.<br>There's even a proposition for a law in the US that would make older ROMs legal if you can't reasonably find them anymore.<p>As for emulation of more recent consoles, that's where I draw the line. It's against the principles of emulation. Emulation was created to allow us to play our older games on our PCs, in case our originals or our consoles were broken, or to enjoy nostalgia on your PC.<br>Making emulators for recent systems like Dreamcast, PSX, N64, GBA and GameCube is against this. They should disappear without a trace. Not only is it against the principles of emulation, it promotes, like you said, piracy.<p>That's my two cents.

[Goldark]

<blockquote><i>Originally posted by Benoit</i><p>You mean emulation.<p></blockquote><p>Damn! I know I missed somthing <p>Now the title is correct.

[Mizehrith]

I play games via emulation all the time, with the exception of the newer ones.

[Zylo]

I like to playing ROMS. It's great since you can save savestates that makes wierd things in games, for example I have a savestate on Sonic3 and Knuckles when Tails is helping Knuckles to defeat the third boss. <br><p>[size=small][Edit by Zylo on [TIME]1077826031[/TIME]][/size]

[LaconianShot]

Shades of grey people, shades of grey.<p>A good rule of thumb to go by is: if you can't easily obtain a copy of the game and if the company no longer distibutes the console and that particular game, then it is excusable. However, if the console and/or game is new and easily obtained, then it's wrong. For instance, I tried to obtain Super Metroid for the Super Nintendo. I looked everywhere and have finally turned to emulation. I don't particularly like to emulate games because the controls are often hard to use (it's damn near impossible to play Super Metriod with a keyboard).

[Benoit]

That's why there are gamepads. <br>I always use one. It was horrible playing Mega Man X with a keyboard in the period I didn't have one because my former was broken.

[LaconianShot]

Hmmm...that would probably be a wise investment...but I really don't have the cash right now. Just for the hell of it though...what game pad are you using?

[Benoit]

Currently I'm using a gamepad made by Auchan, some big French company that makes all sorts of things.<br>I was lucky to buy it when I was on vacation in France.<br>It has 6 buttons and 2 shoulder buttons. The D-pad is a round one, not a cross, which makes it a bit tricky sometimes. I am happy with it, though.

[Siren]

Hmmm. I <b>only</b> emulate if it's the only way to get a copy of the game, providing that the game is old and no-longer manufactured. I also have to want the game badly to emulate it, and not just sample.<p>For instance, I was a toddler when PSIV was in it's prime, therefore I could not get a genuine copy of the game. Years later, I bought PS collection and fell in love with the series. I wanted to get the original version of PS4, and I looked all around and on E-Bay for a copy, but everyone (not to my surprise) charged way too much for me to afford. So, though reluctantly at first, I emulated PS4.<p>But all in all, there is so much more to benifit from actually buying the game because there is the boxart, instruction booklet and no glitches (or at least less than an emulater's) . Also, with some emulaters, the cheat codes are automatically enabled, which is bad because I'm somewhat of a purest when it comes to playing games (as in I despise cheating strongly)<p>

[HuBBsDoctor]

I'd like to point out a tiny little things from a few months ago. In the USA, possession roms are not really illegal under certain circumstances now. Thanks to the Library of Congress, they read an articles of a billed passed saying that any games from a system that is not readily available in sotre or that you can buy in large quanities, minus the internet, is perfectly legal to own. So basically since you cannot get a NES at almost 90% of all retail stores that sell games, its perfectly legal. This also includes some abandonware PC games.

[Benoit]

Ahh, so it wasn't just a law proposal? Well, great!<br>Abandonware? I hope Princess Maker 2 is legal now...<p>Well, that's only for the US, of course...

[zoothe]

I feel that unless a company intends to continue to make older games available for purchase (ie: Nintendo and its re-releasing of NES games on GBA or Companies like Capcom and Konami re-releasing classic games in "collectionc" and so forth), they should not complain about ROMS and emulators. If a system and the games for it are no longer being produced or sold as new, the companies stand to lose nothing. In fact, they probably would benefit from the possibility of a new gamer discovering older titles like Phantasy Star and then that gamer goes out and buys PSO Ep III or something like that.<p>I don't agree with emulators of systems that are currently being produced and/or sold.

[Benoit]

I agree, zoothe. I discovered the Lufia series when I was looking for a good RPG to play.<br>I now own the whole series, except the Lufia game on GBA.<p>Games I really like I eventually buy. I have bought Lufia and The fortress of Doom, Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals and Mega Man X in this way.<p>I despise emulators made for recent systems. This is not the purpose of emulation. Emulation was made to replay your old games while due to the console or game being broken you couldn't anymore.

[zoothe]

Yeah, that's how I got into the Tales series. I played Tales of Phantasia (which wasn't even released in the US) and then I went out and bought every US Tales game there was... which at the time was only two, but dammit, I still bought them! And later I bought the brand new Tales of Symphonia... it all worked out in the end <br><p>[size=small][Edit by zoothe on [TIME]1091545531[/TIME]][/size]