DoctorEncore | 3,690 Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 It seems we've had a growing interest in emulation with the success of Analogue, the AVS, mini consoles, and whatnot. We also have NOT had a problem with discussion of illegal activities related to ROMs. As such, I think it would be nice to have these threads organized into a Subforum in The Gauntlet. Thoughts? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NESfiend | 1,514 Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 Have no clue what you are referring to regarding illegal activity and roms? I don't emulate in any form, so I am obviously way out of the loop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorEncore | 3,690 Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 (edited) 2 hours ago, NESfiend said: Have no clue what you are referring to regarding illegal activity and roms? I don't emulate in any form, so I am obviously way out of the loop Emulators that don't use copyrighted source code are generally considered legal in the United States. However, owning, downloading, distributing, and even ripping ROMs from games you own is probably not. Rather than go into the specifics, here is a great article that addresses the topic with input from an actual copyright and intellectual property lawyer. It's worth a read: https://www.howtogeek.com/262758/is-downloading-retro-video-game-roms-ever-legal/ Edited May 10, 2020 by DoctorEncore 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,761 Administrator · Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 Just now, DoctorEncore said: Emulators that don't use copyrighted source code are generally considered legal in the United States. However, owning, downloading, and even ripping ROMs from games you own is probably not. Rather than go into the specifics, here is a great article that addresses the topic with input from an actual copyright and intellectual property lawyer. It's worth a read: https://www.howtogeek.com/262758/is-downloading-retro-video-game-roms-ever-legal/ Talking about those things isn't illegal and we're not hosting any ROMs on this site. To be honest, and this is just me, Doug, talking and not an "official VGS stance" or anything, I don't even see any issue personally with people saying stuff like "there's rom packs on pirate bay" or whatever. Look at how long it took Nintendo to crack down on the actual ROM sites hosting ROMs for free and easy download. Yeeeeears. And even after they did so people were like "Hehe waybackmachine" and Nintendo didnt/can't really do much about that. Personally I see no problem with us adding a section dedicated to chatting about emulators, especially as it pertains to stuff like "which is best?", "what features do they have?", and "what to use for developing my homebrew game", stuff like that. Where it might get tricky is if people start asking for others to share ROMs. To that personally I'd simply say do so in private. What I don't know can't hurt me in this regard. I can see your PM's (any admin can) by looking you up on the admin panel and logging into your account, but we do that so incredibly rarely (I've done it once to check on a known, banned scammer, to see who he reached out to so we could warn them) it's hardly worth a mention outside of simply disclosing for transparency (I've mentioned this before). All that to say - let's hear your opinions. I'd be interested to have this discussion out here in the public, so other staffers please feel free to chime in too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nintegageo | 582 Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 I am super anti-emulation. Just my 2 cents. No one is using it to do legal shit anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorEncore | 3,690 Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 8 minutes ago, Nintegageo said: I am super anti-emulation. Just my 2 cents. No one is using it to do legal shit anyway. Well, my Analogue Nt is a hardware emulator and I use it play all my legally acquired cartridges. Also, all the mini consoles are software emulators released for consumer use by the companies who own the games. So everything I'm using emulation for is 100% legal. Some people may be doing things that aren't totally legit, but the emulation conversation goes well beyond using a PC and downloading illegal ROMs. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,761 Administrator · Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 11 minutes ago, Nintegageo said: I am super anti-emulation. Just my 2 cents. No one is using it to do legal shit anyway. People who use emulators to work on their homebrew games? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NESfiend | 1,514 Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 11 minutes ago, Nintegageo said: I am super anti-emulation. Just my 2 cents. No one is using it to do legal shit anyway. Thats just not true. I dont use it either, but save states would save a lot of time practicing a level it takes an hour to get to. Getting more involved in the nes completions thread this year, I'm thinking about it all the time. I could have beat a lot more titles if I had access to save states. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nintegageo | 582 Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 2 minutes ago, Gloves said: People who use emulators to work on their homebrew games? Don't we have a homebrew area though? Other people have also mentioned decent points, but I do think the vast majority use it to play games they shouldn't be playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,761 Administrator · Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 1 minute ago, Nintegageo said: Don't we have a homebrew area though? Other people have also mentioned decent points, but I do think the vast majority use it to play games they shouldn't be playing. You're not wrong in that regard, it's a fair point, and reasonable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloves | 11,761 Administrator · Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 My current thinking is that emulation isn't broad enough a subject to warrant a whole subforum. Perhaps a dedicated thread for discussion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorEncore | 3,690 Posted May 11, 2020 Author Share Posted May 11, 2020 Yeah, this thread didn't get much traction, so I figured most people weren't interested. I think there are about three or four different emulation-based threads floating around right now, so maybe if a few more pop up we can reassess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ifightdragons | 234 Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 (edited) I think a subforum called FPGA & Emulation would make sense in the coming years, judging from the rising activity on other forums and subreddits. Especially when it comes to FPGA (Analogue and Mister). Just calling it Emulation isn't precise enough. Edited June 1, 2020 by ifightdragons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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