Everything You Know About Emulation

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tripredacus:

--- Quote ---It said the only free full version games that are illegal are games that are younger then 20 years age since of release. OR any game that has an active copyright. In which case most games older than 20 years don't anymore.
--- End quote ---

This is false, at least in the US. You are referring to abandon status. This only can happen if both the IP is in an inactive usage period and the rights holder does not exist. The exception is when the rights holder releases a product into the public or has a redistribution policy attached to it.

The fact that you had previously purchased something does not give the legal right to download a copy of it later. You have a legal right to make a copy of the thing you purchased, but cannot provide the copy to anyone else. The use of "Archive" in legal terms tends to be specifically private use by individual or institution and does not cover things like an archive that has a distribution method.

I want to point out that while Nintendo is hard set against ROMs and sites that let you download them, they have used ROMs from those very sites in things like Virtual Console. :D

kypherion:
Gonna throw in my semi-related two cents here.

There's a few projects going on that are decompilations of the original code. This means they run with a native .exe file instead of a rom through an emulator.

Using them still requires an original legitimate rom, but there's now ports for:

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (Zelda3)
Super Mario 64
Super Mario World
Super Metroid

Super Metroid and SMW are still being worked on, as are the others, but only those two are in a questionable state.

You can literally experience Super Mario 64 with ray tracing and SGI workstation graphics for free (assuming you have the hardware for it). It's completely legal as reverse engineering is a completely legal act. For those interested, snesRev on github handles SMW/SM. Render96 is the SM64 project and Ship of Harkinian is Ocarina of Time's. Go nuts! You're only shooting yourself in the foot if you don't do this.

oldgamerz:
Retroarch is my favorite retro emulator, because it can be used to play any games including DOS. But Retroarch is not for beginners in my opinion. because it does has 1000's of ways to play each and every game, on multiple consoles but it's vary easy to screw up your settings and hose the program's main configuration. Or playlist file,

You need to spend some serious time on YouTube learning the tutorials and running internet searches otherwise. You could probably even destroy your physical hardware. If for example, you click on a setting that is too high for your device. Retroarch even lets you emulate A computer built in 1993 but switching the core file settings. To a 386 or 486 even before s Pentium 1 came out in 1994.

Although if you don't mind doing the tutorials Retroarch can open and play 1000000's of games and versions of them, it's a one stop fits all emulator when configured properly the default settings are not guaranteed to work just so you know.

For you unwillingly to break your hardware then download a different program that is easier to understand

oldgamerz:

These results are from the best AI search engine on the planet I believe, and this is not a deep search but a recent search 10/15/2023

The legality of downloading games from before 2004 depends on the game and its copyright status. In general, games that are no longer sold or supported by their developers are considered abandonware. However, the legality of downloading abandonware is still a gray area, and it varies by country and jurisdiction. In the United States, for example, copyright lasts upwards of 80 years, and those old DOS games are still under copyright 1. While it is technically illegal to download abandonware, it is unlikely that you will face legal consequences for doing so 1.

It’s worth noting that some websites offer free downloads of old PC games that are no longer sold or supported by their developers 23. However, the legality of these downloads is still questionable.

I hope this helps! BING

but GOOGLE IS STILL GOOD TOO but is often not as accruate

oldgamerz:
A Lot of Nintendo 64, Super Nintendo and Nintendo Entertainment System games on Ebay, Amazon and Esty are not original!! and some can cost you a lot of money too. But your often getting ripped by some kind of ROM chipset, some kind could even have glitches or hardware issues and be broken from the start.

you cannot be certain unless you open them up after they are delivered!! they can even contain poisons or drugs in rare cases. or bad batteries in them, batteries that are cheap and could explode in even rarer cases.

I surfed the internet for many years that is how I found out about these types of news. New cartridges are safer, . mail is usually monitored though. Amazon might even inspect the packages before shipping, I never worked for them.

fact is many of those cartridges are not real anyway, chipset numbers can be cloned, and stickers can be copied or printed then copied. no I don't do these things but that is what I heard is a possibility. you cannot depend on Youtubers to tell you if something is or is not real. you must trust your heart of what you think is and is a lie. Liars come in many different shapes and forms nad so do imposters.

CD DVD Bluray games can also be bootleg fakes too.

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