Emulators question.

[sinker747]

Aew emlators illigal? Just wondering.:confused:

[James]

When you say emulators, do you mean ones designed for running games on different platforms?

[sinker747]

Sorry. I guess I wasn't clear on that. Yes. I do mean emulators for running games on different platforms.

[Phoenix]

It really depends on what you are planning to do with an emulator playing games on different platforms.

The emulators themselves aren't illegal. What's illegal is using the old ROM images without a license. As long as you are doing it for personal use, no one's going to flip out, but if you started selling them or distributing them that would be another story.

So, what game and what platform???

[akashik]

I know Sony tried to shut down Bleem a while back. From what I remember they 'won' and can continue to make their emulator. A few others have been closed down though so it's a bit of a grey area.

My understanding of it is the same as Phoenix. The emulator is legal, but the ROM's aren't. By their nature they're exact copies of copyrighted games, right down to the actual coding. I think the rule is you can amke a 'backup' of a game you already own, but can't have anything you didn't pay for.

A country mile away from real legal advise of course.

I used to play Elite (the old C64 game) on my laptop for a while - lotsa fun :)

Greg Moore

[Phoenix]

My housemate (who is stuck in the 80's) has managed to accumulate about every game written for the C64-but he plays them on one of his collection of vintage Commodore machines-64, 128D and several different Amigas. He plays the old Atari games on his laptop via emulator.

He also gutted an old Pac-Man arcade machine, replaced the original workings (no vacuum tubes but pretty darned close) with a PC running MAME (the standard arcade game emulator) and plays pretty much any 'classic' arcade game that he can find the ROM's for. It's great for parties. Just don't challenge him to a game of Pac-Man, because it will never be your turn.

[akashik]

Ahh the good old beige breadbox :)

The Commodore 64 will never die away will it. Some friends of mine just hunted down a working C64 themselves to play old games on, even though they already have Sony's, desktops and laptops strewn all over the house. Must be a Gen-X thing - when the girls wouldn't talk to you, at least the computer was always there :)

Greg Moore

[Phoenix]

The only thing I haven't seen around is a VIC-20. That was my first computer, and then I sold it when I got a C64.

[akashik]

I know what you mean, I haven't seen one of those in years. I'm sure younger people the VIC-20 urban legand status :)

Greg Moore