Do you ever justify playing ROMs or Backups by buying another version of a game?

[dendawg]

I play rom and "backups" for one reason and one reason only.....because I can!

[Richter Belmount]

You guys are such assholes for emulating games , think of the poor guy who had to horde that old snes cartridge so he can charge you a fucking arm and leg , and also think of the developers who moved onto current gen your hurting their profit margin for a old nes game.

[Enigmus]

You guys are such assholes for emulating games , think of the poor guy who had to horde that old snes cartridge so he can charge you a fucking arm and leg , and also think of the developers who moved onto current gen your hurting their profit margin for a old nes game.

I could never agree more.

To me, the "emulation vs. original" debate will pretty much side with emulation as the original systems and games die out. Another thing is compilations- if I/you own five different collections containing Sonic 1, shouldn't that merit the right to play that in Kega? After all, I'm/you're the one shelling out $20 to $35 per collection disc even though they're mostly unaltered from the last one. Also, consider this- how many of the games in a "complete collection" will you really play, especially for systems like NES and A2600 which are rife with shovelware? Emulation just lets you pick what you really want to play (as long as you own/owned the game) instead of pouring thousands of dollars into an 800-1200 NES/Fami game collection and then realizing there's only 200-300 games you'd actually play. And on the "PC emu's aren't good without USB controllers" subject, just put HBC on your Wii and play games on there with a Classic Controller. Problem solved.

[11killer11]

If I bought the carts of the WWF and WCW games that are on the N64 from ebay,then once they came, I downloaded the roms of them onto my computer would that be considered okay?

I jus don't have room for another system the way my TV's set up.

[megasdkirby]

If I bought the carts of the WWF and WCW games that are on the N64 from ebay,then once they came, I downloaded the roms of them onto my computer would that be considered okay?

I jus don't have room for another system the way my TV's set up.

Supposedly, that's still illegal.

The only way it's supposed to be "legal" is if you take the carts you purchased and dump the ROM yourself...and play your own ROM image, never to distribute. And if you sell your game, you must also delete your ROM image.

[j_factor]

It's still technically illegal, but who cares? It's true enough to the spirit, if not the letter, of copyright law.

[kedawa]

The spirit of the law was to protect copyright holders from loss of enrichment due to counterfeiting and piracy. Emulating old games that aren't currently for sale by the copyright holder doesn't really go against that one way or another.

[WanganRunner]

I emulate for convenience.

Anything non-portable that's older than PS2, I usually play in emulation to avoid having to keep twenty million consoles hooked up.

This is especially nice for, say, PS1 or N64, where the visual quality of the game is MUCH better in emulation. SM64 is killer in 1600x1200 at 60fps with 4x AA and high-res textures.

I don't have a particular compulsion about HAVING to own a hardcopy of anything I emulate for legal/moral reasons. I own plenty of hardcopies that I'll probably never play, and I play many games in emulation I'll never buy hardcopies of.

My collecting and my actual gaming are very disconnected in this way.

I'd never pirate/emulate anything NEW though, but otherwise I don't see the harm, even if the courts do.

Meh.

[Zthun]

I lie, cheat, and steal, but rarely play emulated games cause it just doesn't feel the same. Sometimes, though, I'll get back into it. It can be fun to play the games I don't have.

[Famidrive-16]

I don't really play as much emulation as I used to, but when I do, it's mostly games I've played before. I used to go searching for every ROM I could but it's not really as fun as playing the legit version.

There are a couple times I've made exceptions, though. I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to play a real copy of Snatcher, for instance.