Console emulators?

[Higlac]

I found one of these on the internet, for N64, and I just thought it looked kind of "legally dubious." I was just wondering if anyone knows whether they are legal or not?

 

[AiM]

Emulators themselves are legal, but the Roms are illegal to hold for more than 24 hours unless you own the actual game I think.

 

[Higlac]

Ok, so this is one of those things that you keep on removable media then.

 

[TCfromBN]

Nobody keeps track of that stuff. TBH, I wouldn't worry about having it. It is legal if you actually own the cargrages and nobody is tracking to see if you actually do.

 

[bam23]

I don't know if they're illegal or not myself, but I don't see why anyone would lose their panties over it. They're old games for old consoles. I can understand people having a problem with the newer ones though.

 

[VirusType2]

I found one of these on the internet, for N64, and I just thought it looked kind of "legally dubious." I was just wondering if anyone knows whether they are legal or not?

The emulators are legal to own. The bios for the game console is copyright material though. Some emulators will work without a bios though.

You are legally allowed to own the bios if you own the console.

You are legally allowed to own a backup ROM if you own the actual game. For example, If you own Mario 64 and a nintendo64, but you don't want to have it hooked up, you can just play it on your PC.

You can even buy adapters that will let you use a Nintendo64 controller on your PC.

Another example: if you own a PS1, PS2, or PS3, since each of these consoles can play PS1 games, then you are legally allowed to own a PS1 emulator and PS1 bios. If you own any PS1 games, you are allowed to make a backup of this file on your PC.

I always play my PS1 and Saturn CD ROM games on my PC. You just put the game disc in your PC's drive.

You can increase the resolution to as high as your PC supports, and upgrade the texture filters and such.


Any deviation from what I described is probably breaking copyright laws.

 

[Steven]

It's a silly law, needs to be re-writen to have any effect.

 

[Sliver]

The older games cost about $0 dollars to produce now anyway.

 

[CyberPitz]

If you own it, you can have the emulators/roms. Though since nobody is tracking them, you are fine. I have every emulator with almost ever game for NES up to PS1. I've since forgotten where I put them though....

 

[Higlac]

Ok cause I just got a NES emulator from my cousin and it has almost every single nes game ever produced. There's like 768 of them on the Cd in total.

 

[nutcrackr]

sent to jail for 30+ years if you have n64 roms, true story.

 

[Dumb Dude]

Its actually all illegal, but no one cares. Even if you own the game, its illegal to have a "back-up" of it. The whole 24 hour thing is stupid too. Just download everything you want and no one will get after you, its like music, just download it.

 

[lePobz]

I got sent down for 3 years for having a couple of hundered ZX80 rom/tap files with an emulator. I was grassed up by a lowlife commodore 64. True story.

 

[Lucid]

Its actually all illegal, but no one cares. Even if you own the game, its illegal to have a "back-up" of it. The whole 24 hour thing is stupid too. Just download everything you want and no one will get after you, its like music, just download it.

Until one day the FBI decides to stop by your house and look through your computer.

 

[CyberPitz]

Until one day the FBI decides to stop by your house and look through your computer.

Because so many people are being prosecuted for it. I say the chances are good that the 1/100000 people using emulators getting caught are good.

 

[Cole]

Because so many people are being prosecuted for it. I say the chances are good that the 1/100000 people using emulators getting caught are good.

1 out of 100 thousand? Ha, more like 1 in 100 million. I have never heard of someone being prosecuted for ROMS.

 

[CyberPitz]

1 out of 100 thousand? Ha, more like 1 in 100 million. I have never heard of someone being prosecuted for ROMS.

Oh, damn, meant to put a couple more 0's in there. OH WELL!

 

[MorganFreeman911]

1 out of 100 thousand? Ha, more like 1 in 100 million. I have never heard of someone being prosecuted for ROMS.

Oh, damn, meant to put a couple more 0's in there. OH WELL!

More like 1 in 1 billion.

 

[Kyorisu]

Its actually all illegal, but no one cares. Even if you own the game, its illegal to have a "back-up" of it. The whole 24 hour thing is stupid too. Just download everything you want and no one will get after you, its like music, just download it.

Watch it not all countries share the same laws. Backups are legal in Australia for instance, a rom is backup.

 

[Beerdude26]

Its actually all illegal, but no one cares. Even if you own the game, its illegal to have a "back-up" of it. The whole 24 hour thing is stupid too. Just download everything you want and no one will get after you, its like music, just download it.

IIRC, it's legal in America if you own the ROM and have downloaded the information from the information chips from your ROM itself. Downloading it from the internet is actually illegal. Unfortunately, not everyone has professional chip-reading equipment, so yeh

 

[Dalamari]

Roms and shit are illegal, but it's illegal in the way that littering and not picking up dog shit is illegal, nobody really enforces it until it becomes a problem