Emulators legal?

[Seraph]

Are emulators such as PSX and ZSNES legal/illegal? They say if you own the software then it is legal, but even so, that may only be in certain countries.

[Loki]

Re: Emulators legal?

Emulators are. Roms ain't. Unless you created the rom from the physical cartridge you own. And even then it's still not 100% legit.

[Seraph]

Re: Emulators legal?

So, do I need rom's to play my PS games on a PC? Or just the disc? How does it work?

[Loki]

Re: Emulators legal?

Depends on the emulator I guess. This isn't really the place for your research. They're are plenty of emulator sites that can answer your questions. And Valk is well known for not tolerating any talk of piracy or illegal activities here. You're walking on thin ice.

[Manji]

Re: Emulators legal?

speaking of roms, especially the older or hard to find titles, the game makers arent making money from them anymore. except in the popular case of re-releasing their older games as compilation packages or downloads from virtual console, etc. otherwise, it seems to me, as long as you own the physical catridge or disc, it shouldnt make a difference because people would like the convenience of playing all their favorite games in one place on their pc. to which i say, why not.

[Seraph]

Re: Emulators legal?

Loki: No I'm not.

I never once promoted any kind of piracy. I asked a question. And I think this is the best place for my research because there are a lot of educated people here.
I have seen sites offer RPGMXP for free claiming that it's 100% legal. It's not. So I don't want to go to a website, get the wrong info, and end up downloading an illegal software. That's why I asked here. I never promoted any kind of piracy. You're mistaken.

[Loki]

Re: Emulators legal?

Woah! Geeze! I never said you were. I just told you to be careful and said that some other site might be better suited to your needs. I'll just let all the emulation experts here step up to the plate.

Go to it, guys.

[Seraph]

Re: Emulators legal?

And Valk is well known for not tolerating any talk of piracy or illegal activities here. You're walking on thin ice.

I thought that's what you implied. My bad.

[Red Dragon]

Re: Emulators legal?

So, do I need rom's to play my PS games on a PC? Or just the disc? How does it work?

Getting the BIOS for PSX is illegal, however there IS a way of getting it from the original PSX that requires you to rip it open, but you would probably rather get it from a website.

Also you don't need roms for PSX games, I can just stick my PSX disc in my cd drive, or make an .iso file out of it and use it that way.

It's how I play RPG Maker 1 games. And Valk was able to do his Japanese RPG maker special on the website.

[facts]

Re: Emulators legal?

Getting the BIOS for PSX is illegal, however there IS a way of getting it from the original PSX that requires you to rip it open, but you would probably rather get it from a website.

Also you don't need roms for PSX games, I can just stick my PSX disc in my cd drive, or make an .iso file out of it and use it that way.

It's how I play RPG Maker 1 games. And Valk was able to do his Japanese RPG maker special on the website.

The bios can be acquired through PSX Gameshark. I also occasionally use my PC to play RPG Maker 1 games, because my Dex can't hook up to my new laptop.

Anyway, Red Dragon is right about being able to play PSX games on comps, just put the disk in the disk drive.

[marcus]

Re: Emulators legal?

There are methods of ripping the rom directly off of cartridges but it requires purchasing special accesories. Disc games can be played by simply inserting the disc into your disc tray or ripping it into an iso. As far as the legality of it goes, it all depends on the End User License Agreement. Most PS1 games don't have one as well as most old PC games. They include a copyright notice that usually says "Illegal distribution of blah blah blah" but there's nothing wrong with saving a disc as a backup copy as long as you don't hand it out for free. Some newer EULA's forbid even ripping your disc but I ignore any company that tells me I don't FULLY own the product that I purchased.

The FBI isn't going to kick down your door just because you burned a ps1 game to play it on your computer.

[Valkysas]

Re: Emulators legal?

If an emulator allows you to use the original game disc (PS1, PS2, DC, Saturn, and Sega CD emulators), you can talk about them here, as they are legal. The bios files are illegal to distribute, so do not ask where to get them.

Even mentioning an emulator that relies exclusively on ROM files makes the forum send me a PM notifying me of the post so it can be dealt with. We just don't tolerate software piracy at all here.

making personal backups of your own software for your use only is legal, depending on the software's EULA, as Marcus mentioned above. even when software allows personal backups, the second you let someone borrow that backup, or give it to them, you're breaking the law. downloading someone else's backup that they've posted on the internet is illegal as well, no two ways about it.

Now, I have to close this topic. You didnt do anything wrong, but I dont feel like getting into the inevitable debates that topics like this spawn.