I may be wrong but its my understanding that its not illegal to make roms of games that you already own. If thats right, then how does someone do that? I read that you need a hardware device, but what's that device called? Thanks for your replies.

IF you own the game, it is legal to download it. You dont need to "make" a rom.

actually reese ive read that it technically illegal to download any roms from commercial games even if u do own the game itself (its the stupid dmca at fault). i think this sucks and isnt going to stop me, but whatever. i dont think any judge in the world would convict you tho

as for the hardware avenue, it suppoesedly costs upwards of a hundred bucks for the ripping device, so unless you are strongly opposed to downloading roms, ur sol

nefariousnurd is my other moniker, and im too lazy to change my sig with the different names ive used so whatever

What console cart's roms are you interested in ripping?

You can build a variety rom dumpers, if you're good with electronics. Buying dumpers for anything but GameBoy is expensive, and fairly hard to find them.

It is illegal to download copyrighted ROMs (unless the license allows it), in the US, even if the DCMA is repealed. You can rip/dump your own carts, so long as they are not copy protected. DCMA prevents circumventing copy protection. To make things more confusing, there are revisions to the DCMA that expire if not renewed, and one of them exempts bypassing copy protection of 'obsolete' video games and computer software.

I won a Dell Mini DJ through the Dellf game!

I was mainly interested in roms from the nes and gameboy. But, if its that hard to make a dumper than I'll prob'ly just go the "other" route. Plus, I just don't know much about the whole concept.

"You may download a game ROM ONLY if you can do so legally. This means you must own the actual cartridge (or other media the ROM was distributed on) of the ROM you are downloading. Under the copyright laws of the U.S., you are entitled to own a backup of any software you have paid for..."

a direct quote from a ROM site

make sure if u do go that *other* route that u dont mention any specifics, or ask where to find any roms on this site.

and reese, im not saying i dont agree with you, but all the rom sites say that. they are just doing that so if they do get sued its not as severe. i have been told by many governmental people that even tho the roms site say that, it is still illegal, though barely

i think it was howard2k who provided a pretty insightful look into the true legality of downloading roms a while back, but im not sure

nefariousnurd is my other moniker, and im too lazy to change my sig with the different names ive used so whatever