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Game emulation: Is it morally defensible?

Many retro gamers have asked the question: Are emulators illegal?  The answer is no; you can download them without a problem. Don’t get excited, though. The emulators are legal, but they are kind of useless on their own.

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ghettogamer.net
ApocalypseShadow1857d ago (Edited 1857d ago )

Emulation is an interesting thing. It's not right but it's also right when it comes to game preservation of decades old games. Or even making the game look better or run better than the hardware that ran those games. Or the televisions that had limited resolution and scan lines.

Not only that, but fans of these old games have released fully translated languages of foreign ROMS for others to understand and enjoy those games that the developer never got around to doing or thought of doing or release in another country.

Some ROMS have fixed bugs. Some have returned music or characters or moves to games that were taken out from porting to more censor heavy counties and the games can be played as originally intended.

There are games that no longer have an owner because the parent company is no more. Creating new fans of an old title. Some hacks of these old ROMS have crossovers of playable characters that were never in the original release because most companies never collaborate. All these things and more are part of the emulation and ROMS discussion.

It should never be right to "test" a new release game as the developers should be paid for their hard work and dedication. Games that are 20, 30, even 40 years old that made their money and never see the light of day today because the parent company is only happy to sit on history. Those games are a little hazy like an old copyright or trademark that expires. As long as you're not selling or profiting off of playing old titles, the crime is a little bit easier to swallow.

AnnaDea1857d ago

I agree with everything except this.

"Or even making the game look better or run better than the hardware that ran those games. Or the televisions that had limited resolution and scan lines."

One problem is that some emulators runs the game faster than intended so it becomes a problem with the clock speed. And all these games were made with the amount of pixels that are shown on a crt. So those teves produces the best available picture of a retro game. Today you need to have scalers and filters that makes the games look like ass most of the time.

luckytrouble1857d ago

Well, the big example people usually use when they say a game looks better is Dolphin. And you can probably expect the same from PS3 emulation long term as well. Really retro definitely needs a little help to look the best it can be, but by and large emulators account for that anyways in default options.

ManMarmalade1857d ago (Edited 1857d ago )

There are plenty of mods to fix a lot of those issues. Here's a specific one from Jan 2019 that upscales PS1 graphics:
https://www.pcgamer.com/mod...

AnnaDea1857d ago

You people can just look at this picture and decide for yourselves which looks better.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media...

Scanlines help enhancing the pictures and this is what I mean when I say that the games were made with scanlines in mind.

uth111856d ago

The good emulators do things "cycle exact" which will make the game run at the correct speed. PC emulation presents a problem because some old PC games were developed to run correctly on the PCs of the mid 80s, but didn't anticipate the ever increasing clock speeds of the platform. Some of those games will run way too fast now. Some have patches available to fix this.

Not every scaler is great, but SD content tends to look awful on HD screens, and some scalers will provide CRT-like emulation that displays the game closer to how it looked back then, so I like to use the ones that do this well

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 1856d ago
ManMarmalade1857d ago (Edited 1857d ago )

I use a ps1 emulator because of my budget. The pandemic shut down the art events I was attending which took away about half of my income and I was forced to sell a lot of my physical possessions, including a lot of my older games, trading cards and other collectibles and media. Getting a ps1 emulator is the best way I have been coping with a lot of the stress that's been happening the past year and also re-living my childhood with games like rival schools, croc, and even playing teletubbies when I smoke 😅

ShadowWolf7121856d ago

You're conflating Emulation with Piracy. They're not interchangeable terms.

Orchard1857d ago

I personally don’t see any problem with emulating a game provided it isn’t readily available anymore - either via the original console + game being on sale or via backwards compatibility.

Ristul1857d ago

Emulating hardware is not illigal, we can even make backups of our games.

Pirating is a different issue.

Shiken1857d ago (Edited 1857d ago )

As long as you directly rip the game from your actual copy yourself is it legal. Downloading and distribution of the ROMs themselves is still illegal, even if you already own a copy in its physical form.

Duke191857d ago (Edited 1857d ago )

YoU wOuLdN’T DoWnLoAD a CaR!!

Lol

deleted1857d ago

Just you wait, the 3D printing technology will eventually get there! XD

XxINFERNUSxX1856d ago

If that was possible with torrents I would actually 😁👍

isarai1857d ago

Easily yes, there are games that only exist through emulation now. Not only that, it's not like the devs/publishers get anything out of these games. Emulation is 99.99% for games no longer in print, so whether you pay or not makes no difference to them. Only one standing to gain is some rando who just happens to have the game, likely at an absurd price. It's great for preservation, and for those that want to experience the devs work without having to pay potentially hundreds of dollars, or spend days, or even years hunting down a copy.

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70°

Microsoft Gaming Revenue Drops 7% Year-on-Year, Content and Services Down 5%, Xbox Hardware Down 33%

Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.

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simulationdaily.com
Jin_Sakai13d ago (Edited 13d ago )

Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.

dveio12d ago

To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.

Jingsing12d ago

The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.

Tanktopmaster9212d ago

Once they re-evaluate exclusive all will be fine….

S2Killinit12d ago

Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.

Jingsing12d ago

15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.

Tanktopmaster9212d ago

These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse

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60°

Steam Controller (2026) review

Second time's the charm.

cl198313d ago (Edited 13d ago )

Seams like a nice controller

Reaper22_13d ago

Two analog sticks acrossvftom each other is a no go.When will everyone learn.

30°
9.0

Forefront VR Review - Battlefield Comes to VR — and it Actually Works | Terminal Gamer

TG writes: If you’ve ever wanted that chaotic, large-scale modern warfare feeling from Battlefield but in full VR immersion, Forefront delivers it better than anything else currently available on Quest.

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terminalgamer.com