How do you feel about ROMs and Emulators?

[Artemis]

What do you think of ROMs and Emulators? Do you think they help or hurt the video game industry? I was wondering if this board considered them illiegal and shouldn't be discussed just like bootlegs and pirating. This thread should help determine if that's true.

[Zapages]

They help the old game market like atarie and older systems, which are not available anymore IMO.

But emulators are not illegal IE. Bleem....

Roms are illegal if you don't own the actual game......

But I think they are illegal but in some third world countries there are no copyright law against it so there you can go and buy them...

BTW: We need a mod to look at this post to decide if this post is legit or not...: nothing against you Artemis.

[Mr. Obsession]

Like Zapages pointed out emulators are perfectly legal, ROM's are not.

I personally don't have a problem with ROM's for dead systems and use emulators to play fan translations of games that never made it to the States, mostly NES, SNES (Sieg DeJap!), and Genesis.

But anyone who uses ROMs of games that are still commercially available is evil and makes Baby Jesus cry.

[BLACKHEART]

I love roms. They brings back memories.

They should be free. It's not like Nintendo is going to make money on them anway.

I also only have games that I once owned.

[Psycho Fox]

Well it depends it is one thing to download old Genny roms but totaly diffent to download Game Boy roms.

Just use your head if you can't pick it up anywhere then downloading a rom isn't as bad.

[BLACKHEART]

Yeah. I don't think you should download PS games either. They might want to raise the prices on us.

[Dark Spider]

I feel ROMs are only legal if they are of an old game that is not in the mainstream market anymore. Its not like Atari or Nintendo are gonna gain anything from it, and if they do, its only chump change.

[Gyro]

I'm OK with people downloading old Nintendo games since it's hard to find them anywere, and it's not like it's costing Nintendo any money. But it is illegal, so that's a problem.

[Evil Dr. Reef]

Like everyone else here, I think that if a game is no longer available to buy in a store (that benefits the company that made it), you shouldn't be hassled about downloading it. Otherwise people might forget about wonderful games like Castlevania: Bloodlines (one of my favorite old-skool games).

[RogueMartian]

Roms aren't that bad, and most modern games are so big now they really can't be downloaded by the general public. Most people that want roms want old atari, nintendo or sega genesis games. I see nothing wrong with that, If I want to play the original Legend of Zelda or Pong, it would be extremely difficult to get ahold of an original NES or Atari and the game cartridges.

[James]

I think the purpose that most here use them - to collect games which are either nostalgic/out of print or simply not available is the problem for which emulators present.

We are talking about an issue where games are being emulated that are currently released on new or available platforms. As of such are possibly depriving software programmers/companies of the money incentive to make these games.

I have downloaded many spectrum games, and games from older systems for nostalgia or because at the time, I couldn't obtain them. Roms are a great link to the past!

However, back to the issue, do downloading any roms damage the industry? Hmm, I hope not. Downloading the SNES version of FF6 - a game I never thought would be reissued has not stopped me purchasing the original copy so I wouldn't say that downloading roms prevent companies getting their money. That said, the reissue had some extra features which was an incentive.

Perhaps software houses could follow this nostaglic trend and release some of these older games with a few updates for bugs/graphics etc. I'm sure money could be made there.

[BLACKHEART]

1 thing about ROMs. A lot of SNES games suck without a control pad. Try playing Mortal Kombat 2 with a keyboard.

[bfmusashi]

Emulators are perfectly legal, ROMs aren't. Personally, I feel that there's nothing wrong with downloading ROMs for the older systems, like the SNES, Genesis, NES, etc. However, downloading ROMs and EXE files of newer PSX and Dreamcast titles are probably illegal. (Believe it or not, there are SOME Dreamcast ROMs out there... They're incredibly huge files...) I myself use a PSX emulator to play all my PSX games, but PSX emulators actually require you to buy the game CD. (My PSX emulator does run PSX ROMs, but I've never used that feature. PSX ROMs are massive, and about 70% of them never work.)

[Web Head]

1 thing about ROMs. A lot of SNES games suck without a control pad. Try playing Mortal Kombat 2 with a keyboard.
You can buy a gamepad for your computer for about $20 if you want. I've got one, because if I didn't then I wouldn't be able to play the classics, like Contra or Tyson's Punchout

[Mr. Obsession]

Originally posted by SJJ
However, back to the issue, do downloading any roms damage the industry? Hmm, I hope not. Downloading the SNES version of FF6 - a game I never thought would be reissued has not stopped me purchasing the original copy so I wouldn't say that downloading roms prevent companies getting their money. That said, the reissue had some extra features which was an incentive.I don't think ROM's of games that will never see the light of day in your specific speck of dirt on the globe will hurt the company that made them, unless of course they finally decide to make a version (including porting it to whatever system and translating it if necessary) than it's a question of if you're just a cheap bastard or not. ;)

For years I've had ROM's of FF games 1 - 6 (fan translations of 2 - 5), and Crono Trigger, but when Square decided to release FF 4, 5, 6, & CT on the PSX I deleted the ROM's and went out and bought the games because: (1) I love the games and (2) I wanted to make sure that Square and Sony got compensated for releasing the games, which made me very happy.

And now that Square has the opportunity to port their SNES library over to the GBA (which they've been drooling to do for awhile now) and Sega having announced Phantasy Star 1 - 3 will be on the GBA, I'll be very happy to pick those up and free-up a little bit more space on my hard drive. :)


Perhaps software houses could follow this nostaglic trend and release some of these older games with a few updates for bugs/graphics etc. I'm sure money could be made there. It'd be nice, but most companies don't make add-ons for older games as the costs are to high and the returns are way to low.

The only area you'll probably ever see this is in console gaming.


Originally posted by SLIPKNOT
1 thing about ROMs. A lot of SNES games suck without a control pad. Try playing Mortal Kombat 2 with a keyboard. You can buy game pads designed for the computer, most emulators allow you to customize the imput controls to work on a game pad. I even bought an adapter that allowed me to hook-up one of my PSX controllers, now I used it with all my emulators, it's super nice. :)


Originally posted by bfmusashi
Emulators are perfectly legal, ROMs aren't. Personally, I feel that there's nothing wrong with downloading ROMs for the older systems, like the SNES, Genesis, NES, etc. However, downloading ROMs and EXE files of newer PSX and Dreamcast titles are probably illegal. (Believe it or not, there are SOME Dreamcast ROMs out there... They're incredibly huge files...) I myself use a PSX emulator to play all my PSX games, but PSX emulators actually require you to buy the game CD. (My PSX emulator does run PSX ROMs, but I've never used that feature. PSX ROMs are massive, and about 70% of them never work.) There are at least two PSX emulators now that can run ISO's (an image of the CD). I've tried a few PSX emulators, but the require too much tweaking compared to emulators for older systems (I found I had to re-adjust the settings for almost every game, a time consuming process). So now I just use the best PSX emulator available for all my old PSX games, the PS2. :D

[Psycho Fox]

Originally posted by SJJ
Perhaps software houses could follow this nostaglic trend and release some of these older games with a few updates for bugs/graphics etc. I'm sure money could be made there. Some do like the Sega, Hasbro (Atari), Namco. They all released game packs of their older games

[BLACKHEART]

Mr. O where did you get that adaptor and what is it called?

[Lightwave]

ok.heres the deal.

roms and emulators are illegal,but the company doesn't generly mind if its for a rare and outdated game,cause they don't get the money for it anymore.but if its for,say GBA,then its illegal because you can still buy it.

if this was stated already,im sorry.

[Mr. Obsession]

Originally posted by SLIPKNOT
Mr. O where did you get that adaptor and what is it called? http://www.zophar.net/store/fdesc.phtml?psx-joyconv

[Mr. Obsession]

Originally posted by hyperknux88
ok.heres the deal.

roms and emulators are illegal,but the company doesn't generly mind if its for a rare and outdated game,cause they don't get the money for it anymore.but if its for,say GBA,then its illegal because you can still buy it.Nope, emulators are perfectly legal. If they weren't Nintendo would have shut down groups like ZSNES a long time ago, and SEGA wouldn't have bought GENS from the guy who created the program.

It's not that the companies don't frown on emulation, it's just that they can't legally do anything about it. What they can go after, however, are ROM's which are technically illegal. It's just that there's a lot of debate over whether the older games (any that fall between 8 - 10 years old) are classified as abandonware.

[Zapages]

There are new 3D games like Tekken 1, 2, SF EX series all except EX 3... These games look tempting to download.. Must not Download.... hehe.....:eek:

:



System: Unknown Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Cool Boarders UEP Systems
Gunbullet Fever Namco

System: Atlus PSX Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Heaven's Gate Atlus 1997

System: FX-1a Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Magical Date Taito 1996 Yes
Magical Date EX Taito 1997 Yes Yes
Psychic Force (Japan) Taito 1995 Yes Yes
Psychic Force EX Taito 1996
Super Football Champ Taito 1995 Yes

System: FX-1b Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Fighters' Impact Taito 1996
Fighters' Impact Ace Taito 1997 Yes
G-Darius Taito 1997 Yes
G-Darius Version 2 Taito 1997 Yes
Ray Storm Taito 1996 Bad

System: PS Arcade 95 System Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Bloody Roar / Beastorizer (Bootleg) Hudson / Eighting / Raizing 1997 Yes Yes
Bloody Roar / Beastorizer Hudson / Eighting / Raizing 1997
Bloody Roar 2 / Beastorizer 2 Hudson / Eighting / Raizing 1998
Brave Blade Raizing / Eighting 2000 Partial

System: System 10 Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Mr Driller Namco 1999
Mr Driller 2 Namco 2000
Mr Driller G Namco 2001
Taikono-tatsujin Namco 2001
Truck Kyosokyuko Namco 2000

System: System 11 Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Dancing Eyes (DC1/VER.A) Namco 1996 Yes Yes
Don Bear Near Namco 1996
Dunk Mania Namco 1996
Kosodate Quiz My Angel 3 (Japan) Namco 1998 Yes Yes
Pocket Racer Namco 1996
Point Blank 2 Namco
Prime Goal EX Namco 1996
Soul Edge (S01/VER.A) Namco 1995 Yes Yes
Soul Edge (S02/VER.A) Namco 1995
Soul Edge Ver.II (S03/VER.C) Namco 1996
Soul Edge Ver.II (S04/VER.C) Namco 1996 Yes Yes
Soul Edge Ver.II(?) (S02/VER.B(?)) Namco 1996
Star Sweep (151500JUL151997 STP1/VER.A) Axela 1997 Yes Yes
Tekken - The Iron Fist Namco 1994
Tekken - The Iron Fist Ver.B (TE1/VER.B) Namco 1995 Yes Yes
Tekken - The Iron Fist Ver.C Namco 1995
Tekken 2 Namco 1995
Tekken 2 Ver.B (TES2/VER.B) Namco 1995 Yes Yes
Tekken 2 Ver.C Namco 1995
Xevious 3D/G (XV31/VER.A) Namco 1995 Yes Yes

System: System 12 Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Derby Quiz - My Dream Horse Namco 1998
Ehrgeiz Namco 1998
Fighting Layer Arika / Namco 1998
Fighting Spirit Biography 3 Namco 1997
Golgo-13 Namco 1999
Golgo-13 2 Namco 2000
Kart Duel Namco 2000
Libero Grande Namco 1997
Over Kuhn Namco 1999
Soul Calibur Namco 1998
Soul Calibur Ver.B Namco 1998
Submarines Namco
Super World Stadium '98 Namco 1998
Super World Stadium '99 Namco 1999
Techno Drive Namco 1998
Tekken 3 Namco 1997
Tekken Tag Tournament Namco 1999

System: System 573 Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Anime Champ Konami 2000
Bass Angler / Fisherman's Bait Konami 1998
Bass Angler 2 / Fisherman's Bait Marine Challenge Konami
Dark Horse Konami
Dark Horse 2 Konami
Gachaga Champ Konami 1999
Hyper Bishi Bashi Champ Konami 2000
Kick & Kick Konami 2001
Konami 80's Arcade Gallery Konami 1998
Monster Gate Konami 2001
Salary Man Champ Konami 2001
Step Champ Konami 1999

System: System GV Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Hyper Athlete Konami 1996 Yes
Hyper Olympic in Nagano Konami 1998
Powerful Baseball Konami 1996
Susume! Taisen Puzzle Dama Konami 1996 Yes
Wedding Rhapsody Konami 1997 Yes

System: TPS Company Year Dumped ZiNc
1 on 1 Government Tecmo (Nekogumi?) 1999
Block Buster Tamsoft
Dead Or Alive ++ Tecmo 1998 Yes
Frame Gunner Tecmo
Gallop Racer Tecmo
Gallop Racer 2 Tecmo 1997 Yes
Gallop Racer 3 Tecmo
Shanghai: Matekibuyu Sunsoft / Activision 1998
Tecmo World Cup Millennium Tecmo
Tondemo Crisis Tecmo 1999 Yes

System: Videosystem PSX Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Sonic Wings Limited Videosystem 1996 Yes Yes

System: ZN1 Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Battle Arena Toshinden 2 (Japan) Takara / Capcom 1995 Yes Yes
Judge Dredd - The Game Gremlin / Acclaim 1997
Justice Gakuen: Legion of Heroes (Japan) Capcom 1997 Yes Yes
NBA Jam Extreme Acclaim 1996 Yes
Rival Schools: United by Fate (Asia) Capcom 1997 Yes Yes
Star Gladiator Episode 1: Final Crusade Capcom 1996
Street Fighter EX (Japan) Arika / Capcom 1996 Yes Yes
Street Fighter EX (Asia) Arika / Capcom 1996 Yes Yes
Street Fighter EX+ (USA Pub) Arika / Capcom 1997 Yes Yes
Street Fighter EX+ (Japan Pub) Arika / Capcom 1997 Yes Yes
Tetris: The Grand Master (Japan Pub) Arika / Capcom 1998 Yes Yes

System: ZN2 Company Year Dumped ZiNc
Star Gladiator Episode 2: Nightmare of Bilstein (Japan) Capcom 1998 Yes Yes
Street Fighter EX2 (Japan Pub) Arika / Capcom 1998 Yes Yes
Street Fighter EX2+ (Japan Pub) Arika / Capcom 1999 Yes Yes
Strider 2 (Asia) Capcom 1999 Yes Yes
Strider Hiryu 2 (Japan) Capcom 1999 Yes Yes
Tech Romancer Capcom 1998
Tyoukousenki Kikaioh (Japan) Capcom 1998 Yes Yes

alll these games by one emulator

I must try... I hope these are cd game emulator... Emulation technology has gotten better than I thought

[bfmusashi]

Yes, ePSXe and a few others can play ISOs, a backup of the data on a PSX CD. I sometimes make ISOs of my PSX games for personal use, because it often helps the games run faster on my computer. And while some PSX emulators may require simple tweaking, I don't mind it, because I get enchanced graphics, enchanced sound/music, save states, and the ability to take snap shots. ^_^

[Mr. Obsession]

Save states are a god sent. I love 'em, especially during a nasty boss fight. :D

I'd say the big down side of the PSX emulators right now is that there aren't any programs that allow you to transfer save game data from the emulator to the PSX memory card, even if you have the adapter to save the data on your hard drive.

How much fun is it to be halfway through a game, but if you want to play it on you're emu you've got to start over. :rolleyes:

[James]

Originally posted by Psycho Fox
Some do like the Sega, Hasbro (Atari), Namco. They all released game packs of their older games

I was aware of that - but are these the original codes that have been debugged or recreations?

Either way, I was might impressed with the FF6 release (only released in the UK this year!) and the work that had been put into that - but then it was clear that would sell.

Mr Obsession: And as for you points on the commercial ventures of selling oldies - I agree with all of them. It would be nice though!

Saying that there have been some interesting amateur 'remakes' of some classics - Chaos on the Spectrum has had a couple of classy remakes and Elite has had a couple of too - based on the original code. Chuckie Egg (anyone remember that?! and even ANT ATTACK (PLEASE someone say they remember THE first block 3D game!!) have been interesting if not as good as the originals. The net is worth checking out for remakes.. some good stuff being done out there...!

[Mr. Obsession]

Originally posted by SJJ
Either way, I was might impressed with the FF6 release (only released in the UK this year!) and the work that had been put into that - but then it was clear that would sell.I heard that, and I've also head that you'll finally be getting FF5 and FF4, in that order. Ha! You're getting 'em backwards. :p


Saying that there have been some interesting amateur 'remakes' of some classics - Chaos on the Spectrum has had a couple of classy remakes and Elite has had a couple of too - based on the original code. Chuckie Egg (anyone remember that?! and even ANT ATTACK (PLEASE someone say they remember THE first block 3D game!!) have been interesting if not as good as the originals. The net is worth checking out for remakes.. some good stuff being done out there...! Well I do know that there are fan projects out there to make sequels to popular old games, some are actually being done with the original source code (released by the company to the public domain) others are hacks of the source code. I've also heard rumors of a group that’s trying to make a working version of the FF6 engine so they can make they're own rpg's for emulators. Don't know how true that one is, it'd be cool if it was though.

[auto]

I only download ROMs of games nintendo doesn't sell anymore (mainly SNES games)

[Artemis]

So it's generally believed that the downloading of ROMS from older systems like SNES, Genesis, NES, etc are perfectly ok and acceptable since they don't make them anymore.

But d/ling ROMs of PSX, GBA, and any system out now is wrong and illegal. I'm glad we all share the same mindset. I also like ROMs because they give us an oppurtunity to play import games the US denied us years ago.

[bfmusashi]

But d/ling ROMs of PSX, GBA, and any system out now is wrong and illegal. I'm glad we all share the same mindset. I also like ROMs because they give us an oppurtunity to play import games the US denied us years ago.

Exactly! There are TONS of great games that were never released in the US, including Tales of Phantasia, Seiken Densetsu 3, Star Ocean, Fire Emblem... The list goes on forever! With the good emulators, ya can play 'em all!

That's another plus of PSX emulation for me, also. With a good PSX emulator, you can play all the Japanese import titles without having to mess with the actual console hardware. Heck, the same goes for all the emulators, anyway!