Emulators..??????

[kimsanghoon2003]

no one still did not answer the original question.
If one were to download a emulator, how does one get the games to be played?
Is the games available for download online if one was interested?
if downloaded, can one ativesync it to his or her axim and start playing with or without the cradle?

I was thinking about getting this, but seems it is illegal. no game is worth being fined.

anyways, axims rule baby

[TheAce]

Originally posted by kimsanghoon2003
no one still did not answer the original question.
If one were to download a emulator, how does one get the games to be played?
Is the games available for download online if one was interested?
if downloaded, can one ativesync it to his or her axim and start playing with or without the cradle?

I was thinking about getting this, but seems it is illegal. no game is worth being fined.

anyways, axims rule baby

You are able to read, right ?

Almost everyone said that this is illegal, and that NO DISCUSSION OF ROMS (or where to get them from) is allowed on this site. Need any more hints ?

[Raynne413]

Thank you, Ace.

Please refer to my original post:

An emulator will allow you play games for the system it is emulating. Like a gameboy emulator will allow you to play gameboy games. However, you need the ROM of the game in order for the emulator to work (and links to ROMs are not allowed on Aximsite).

[kimsanghoon2003]

hey "the ace,"

first of all, if you refer to my original post, you will find that I did not ask if it was legal or illegal. I already know it is illegal. i just wanted to know how an emulator specifically worked. I dont want to know where to download it. Also, i am not promoting it, or encouraging anyone to do so. like i said before, i just wanted to know how the thing works.

and to the comment of talking about emulators in this forum, sorry buddy, there are over 10 replies/comments regarding emulators.

Axim 4life

[TheAce]

Originally posted by kimsanghoon2003
hey "the ace,"

first of all, if you refer to my original post, you will find that I did not ask if it was legal or illegal. I already know it is illegal. i just wanted to know how an emulator specifically worked. I dont want to know where to download it. Also, i am not promoting it, or encouraging anyone to do so. like i said before, i just wanted to know how the thing works.

and to the comment of talking about emulators in this forum, sorry buddy, there are over 10 replies/comments regarding emulators.

Axim 4life

Erm, OK:

Almost everyone said that this is illegal, and that NO DISCUSSION OF ROMS (or where to get them from) is allowed on this site. Need any more hints ?

It doesnt matter if you asked or not, its still illegal. And as you can plainly see from my reply, I was reffering to ROMS, not emulators. We indeed discuss emulators on a regular basis here, and I'm almost in every single thread about those. You wanna talk about emulators, I'm your guy.......

.......but not about ROMS. Simple, isnt it ?

[kimsanghoon2003]

yea, i guess there is no point in discussing emulators (speaking for myself, not others) because i will not be using one, downloading one, etc.

anyways, for those that do, have fun.

[Chris Morse]

Originally posted by deftech
I think the way companies legally publish emulators, is because there are some, though few legitimate freeware ROMs that developers have created themselves.

I've been following this discussion and cant think what the point of an emulator is. Obviously I know it's to emulate, but if there are "honest" developers out there why are'nt they developing for the system rather than the emulator it's going on?
I have a sneaky feeling that if there were no illegal Roms out there, there would'nt be many legitimate ones either.

[TheAce]

Originally posted by Chris Morse
I've been following this discussion and cant think what the point of an emulator is. Obviously I know it's to emulate, but if there are "honest" developers out there why are'nt they developing for the system rather than the emulator it's going on?
I have a sneaky feeling that if there were no illegal Roms out there, there would'nt be many legitimate ones either.

Sorry, but I fail to see the point you are trying to make......

The emulator is a piece of software that emulates a specific piece of hardware. Its totally legal, since its totally irrelevant with the hardware, and cannot be sold as such, and is used for many purposes (some for testing, some for having fun, some for credits in the university, some for practise in a language etc etc.....).

The ROM is an image file of a cartridge, CD, or memory card, that can be used with the emulator. The ROM is copyrighted, and because its the actual image of the very same cartridge, it is considered to be the same thing. As such, the ROMs are illegal (except if you have dumped your own cartridge for backup purposes).

The one (emulators) has nothing to do with the other (ROMs), except from the fact that the ROMs can be used on the appropriate emulator. Other than that, their purpose of existance, their legal status etc etc are TOTALLY different

I hope I didnt make it more complicated.....

[Martin]

i think at this point aximsite should issue a disclaimer! there's a lot of people dispensing legal advice all of a sudden...

i'm a lawyer, and one of my training seats was in intellectual property, and i wouldn't be able to give you a quick answer on the legality of certain roms. Some are freeware, some have been OFFICIALLY made universal by the companies, and some are still very much guarded by them. In my experience, the companies....and i name no names....used to get very tetchy when we dealth with their "personalities", e.g. Sonic, etc. Even NES roms were not outside the realm of litigation.

At the end of the day, its dangerous to say its ok, and ignorant to say its illegal, because different rules apply to each and every rom out there. IP Law, especially in the UK, is very complicated stuff (which is why i moved across to medical negligence!). To be on the safe side, assume it is an illlegal download because it probably is. If you're unsure, phone the makers of the product, or simply don't download it. Unfortunately emulators often seem to be like guns....they're only illegal if you use them.

Play safe!

[deftech]

Originally posted by tabten5
i think at this point aximsite should issue a disclaimer! there's a lot of people dispensing legal advice all of a sudden...

i'm a lawyer, and one of my training seats was in intellectual property, and i wouldn't be able to give you a quick answer on the legality of certain roms. Some are freeware, some have been OFFICIALLY made universal by the companies, and some are still very much guarded by them. In my experience, the companies....and i name no names....used to get very tetchy when we dealth with their "personalities", e.g. Sonic, etc. Even NES roms were not outside the realm of litigation.

At the end of the day, its dangerous to say its ok, and ignorant to say its illegal, because different rules apply to each and every rom out there. IP Law, especially in the UK, is very complicated stuff (which is why i moved across to medical negligence!). To be on the safe side, assume it is an illlegal download because it probably is. If you're unsure, phone the makers of the product, or simply don't download it. Unfortunately emulators often seem to be like guns....they're only illegal if you use them.

Play safe!

If you go back and read some of the past threads on these topics, you'll notice that I (as well as others) used to get very specific and tell users that different rules apply to different ROMs based on the copyrights associated with each ROM. However, discussions continued to pop up simply asking "Where can I download ROMs?" At that point, we just simply had to ban the discussion of ROMs in general to keep the site out of trouble. To make it easier for the "average user" to understand, we now usually just tell people that a large majority of ROMs are illegal, and that's why it can't be discussed. If you start getting very technical with the laws regarding ROMs, many people become confused and think that certain things (which are actually illegal) are okay to discuss here.

[deftech]

Originally posted by Chris Morse
I've been following this discussion and cant think what the point of an emulator is. Obviously I know it's to emulate, but if there are "honest" developers out there why are'nt they developing for the system rather than the emulator it's going on?
I have a sneaky feeling that if there were no illegal Roms out there, there would'nt be many legitimate ones either.

People that actual develop their own "homebrew" games for systems (such as the NES) are not usually developing them specifically for an emulator. Most of them have the hardware that allows them to write their finished game to the EEPROM of an actual NES cartridge. The emulator allows them to test the game throughout the entire coding process, without having to write it to a cartridge to test. Also, the emulator allows tons of other people around the world to play the game.

And as has been discussed, there are SOME games that have been moved to public domain, freely distributable by anyone. So these are also okay if you run across one. The problem really lies in being able to truly determine if a ROM is indeed legal or not. There are few sites out there that list only legal ROMs. That is a big part of the reason that we do not allow links here. Even the "legal" sites usually have at least a handful (or more) of illegal ROMs available for download.

[Martin]

I understand the mindset behind the policy deftech...i went into slightly more detail because the threads starter seemed to want it, and was not satisfied with the blanket answer. In no way did i discuss how to download roms; nor did i condone it.

The "average user", as you so patronisingly put it, would easily be able to understand my short paragraph about different rules applying to different roms. I didn't actually go into detail about the rules themselves...that WOULD be confusing. My point, to summarise, was that the whole area is a legal minefield and you should tread carefully.

As a last point, believe it or not I have better things to do with my waking hours than to go back and read past threads. If you wish Aximsite users to bleat out the same thing you do in the forums, it won't be particularly stimulating.

[PDA_designer40]

First I want to say, I do not like being accused of something I am not suppose to, that is wanting something illegal. If you will read this thread, I was wanting to know, because I had gotten the emulators from sites where I have been downloading FREE stuff for and so I collected them, thinking that one day I would find out what they were all about. I tried clicking on one and nothing happened so I though maybe I tried activating it wrongfully, so I just made a folder for them and left them there. But , I am not going to go and download a bunch of illegal stuff to fit a emulator. I will keep them in case something comes along to work for them that is FREE, but I didn't like the idea that I was accused of wanting illegal stuff.

[brandenpro]

Why is everyone arguing the same side of this issue? If you already have the roms, and they are legal, get an emulator, (which is also legal) and play till your thumbs fall off. As for tabten5, I dont believe daftech was being patronising, I think he was simply explaining why they have put a blanket over the entire ROM discussion. And also why they dont go into as much detail anymore about it. You tell someone some are legal and they want to be directed to a site that has ROMS. The problem is most "legal" sites also have illegal ROMS. If you were the admin of this great site would you want to track down every URL to see if they had only legal ROMS? You bet some lawyer here would find the one that slipped through, and next thing you know the best forum on the web is closed. Lastly the original post was from LA, your legal advise is worth about as much as mine, in the USA.