CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

I've been to an online emulator for NES, and my understanding is that it is legal because they own the games are not offering them for download. I'm looking for a similar one for the SNES, and all I've found so far are ROM downloads (which I don't want, them being illegal and all). Is there a legal SNES emulator out there?

A NES emulator is just as illegal (or legal... if you own a hard copy of the game its not illegal, if you don't, you supposed to delete the game within 24 hours or something) as an SNES one. And a ROM is the game it's self. You need a emulator to play the ROM. If you're playing an NES emulator, then the games you're playing on it are ROMs.

Meh, I never heard of an online one and really, I don't see how it would be legal unless they got the games licensed to them from where ever. Just owning the game and letting others play it doesn't sound like its legal but anyway.

Scarecrow (post: 1212916) wrote:A NES emulator is just as illegal (or legal... if you own a hard copy of the game its not illegal, if you don't, you supposed to delete the game within 24 hours or something) as an SNES one. And a ROM is the game it's self. You need a emulator to play the ROM. If you're playing an NES emulator, then the games you're playing on it are ROMs.

Meh, I never heard of an online one and really, I don't see how it would be legal unless they got the games licensed to them from where ever. Just owning the game and letting others play it doesn't sound like its legal but anyway.

Hm. The NES one I found is purely online; you cannot download anything from it, only go there to play it. So the ROMs are never in your possession. *shrugs* Some loophole, I hear. Anyway, thanks for your answer.

SNES and NES emulators, in and of themselves, are not illegal, and in fact they are protected under US law. The ROMs however, are where the legal issue comes into play. Since emulators of earlier (not all, I'll get into that in a second) consoles are perfectly legal, it's the ROM sites that get threatened mostly.

Now, starting with the fifth generation of consoles (PS1, Saturn, N64), the only way to create an emulator for those is to have a dumped copy of the console's BIOS to work. Doing this IS illegal, and thus, fifth generation console emulators and beyond are considered illegal.

That being said, for the most part, companies tend to not bother going after most ROM sites. The reason is of course that earlier game systems and games aren't being sold in stores, and the companies can't make a profit off of them. Since it's mostly a waste of company resources to spend time and money shutting down things they can't make a profit off of, most ROM sites, while technically illegal, aren't bothered with.

This has, however, changed a bit since the introduction of the Virtual Console, since now Nintendo CAN make a profit off of those older games again. Still, most reputable ROM sites will remove the ROM of a game once it goes up for sale on the VC, much like most fansubbers will remove a series for download once it is licensed.

[quote="Kanerou (post: 1212920)"]Hm. The NES one I found is purely online]

It's not really a loophole -- if the companies cared enough they could still prosecute. Something about how in order to run the game, even via such a website, there is still a copy of the game being created in your computer's RAM, and you're still technically downloading it.

In any case, the companies generally don't care about the people downloading, but instead go after distributors.


To me, it sounds like you feel guilty about it and are trying to find a way to justify playing games you don't own. It's up to you personally what to do -- I have no personal qualms about emulation and ROMs of titles that I can't find anymore, but it's a decision each person needs to make for themselves.

Nate (post: 1213147) wrote:This has, however, changed a bit since the introduction of the Virtual Console, since now Nintendo CAN make a profit off of those older games again. Still, most reputable ROM sites will remove the ROM of a game once it goes up for sale on the VC, much like most fansubbers will remove a series for download once it is licensed.

O.O *looks through VC games* Now I really want a Wii.

ROMs aren't ever legal, even for 24 hours, even if you have the game. You have to own the exact cartridge that the ROM image came from. Emulators themselves are very much legal.

That said, nobody gives a darn. If I were to download a whole stack of Sega Genesis ROMs, do you really think the companies that made those games would care? Purchasing the cartridges used from second-hand retailers doesn't help either SEGA or the original dev teams. That's why this stuff is called Abandonware.

Legally wrong in the US, morally acceptable, IMO.

Emulators are legal, Roms aren't, with the exception of a few (For instance, Mother for the NES was never sold in English, but one English copy was produced and given away. It was never sold, therefore fair game.) Personally, as a gamemaker myself, my stance on emulation is that if people know they want a game, they should buy it. But if they're on the fence about buying it, I'd rather they emulate and play it than not play it at all.

Then again, I'm thinking from an artist's stance and not a financial one.

At this point, if a game isn't available to buy anymore, I do think it should be fair game. The Virtual Console is one way that companies can work within that.

How easy (or difficult) is it to find NES and SNES systems nowadays? I ask because I definitely want the latter, possibly the former.

I'm pretty sure we decided a while ago that ROM discussions = no go. Take it to PM if you want it to continue.