Emulation and Roms help?

[krys the beast]

I am interested in Emulators and Roms as I have loads of old games and machines etc but they have now burnt away or don't work!
I have a few Emulators that work correctly but am looking for good emulators that work with Windows XP Home edition..

Sega Megadrive System
Sega Master Syestem
Sega 32X
Sega Gamegear

And good Rom sites which are acociated with the above, and any for
Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nntendo Entertainment System
Commadore (+64)
Game Boy
Game Boy Colour
Amiga

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But I really am looking forward to these roms:
Alien Breed (Amiga)
Sonic Series
Desert and Jungle Strike

Of course I am only interested in legal sites!
Thanks!

[MJCfromCT]

There are no legal ROM sites. ROMs are illegal, even if you own the game, unless you have made the ROM from your own copy.

[krys the beast]

That's not waht it says on the good sites....

It says it's o.k. if you own the full game and machine (which I do) because they are all nearly implayable as brackage ect...

[MJCfromCT]

I'm curious what the "good sites" are.

It is true that there are some abandonware games out there which are free, but the majority of ROMs are illegal unless you own a ROM reader and create the file yourself. Just because you own a music CD doesn't mean that you can go on IRC and download the songs...

[rraehal]

I agree with MJC. You can not copy a ROM from the Internet. It is illegal.

Many people argue it is legal if you own the ROM and system. This is based on laws that say you have the right to backup your computer software for yourself.

I have never read a case or ruling where a ROM copied from a chip has been aid to be legal. Why do you think it is difficult to find ROMs on sites you call Good Sites or Legal Sites.

[CrazyCrusher]

Depends on what your definition of "legal" is.

As far as emulators go, all emulators are legal. It's not illegal to emulate something, unless the emulator contains copyrighted material such as a BIOS image. Most emulators don't, and the ones that do usually have permission to distribute such material.

ROMs are another story. Most fall in a huge "gray area," as they are technically copyrighted but are not making anyone money or still being sold. ClassicGaming.com only covers games for discontinued systems, as they are no longer making their manufacturer any money. In some cases, the company that holds the copyright to these games doesn't even exist anymore. Still, technically, it can be illegal for you to download these ROMs. It's kind of like jaywalking.

There are exceptions. Some companies have released their games to the public domain or condoned not-for-profit distribution. An example of this is ROMs for the Vectrex. These are perfectly 100% legal, as long as they're not distributed for profit.

ROMs may be legal to download if you already own the cartridge (or diskette) they originally came on. Some say that all ROMs are legal to download as long as you delete the ones you don't own within 24 hours. This may or may not be true. The legalization of ROMs is a very complicated issue, in some cases.

Another exception is "New Classics." New Classics is the term used to describe new games written for old systems. That's right, people are still writing games for the ColecoVision, the Atari 2600, Gameboy and other systems. "But that's impossible!" you might say. "They just can't write games for those systems! How do they get them on a cartridge?" Well, usually, they don't. Programmers write the game and release it as a ROM image. They don't need to make a cartridge, since emulators can run their game.

At one time, there wasn't exactly a large number of these "New Classics," as it takes a lot of patience, skill, and research to program them. But since CG.Com opened in '97 the development of these "New Classics" (usually refered to as Homebrew's) has grown immensely. Some, such as Vectrex game developer Christopher Tumber have even been able to make enough in this market to support a nice catalog of new games. More often than not, many of these homebrew games are also released in limited numbers in actual cartridge format with professional packaging. Many homebrew games are interesting, some of them are pretty **** fun, and they're all legal. However, the homebrew scene has also lead to the development of another class of "New Classics": the "hack". Some developers have taken original game ROM images and changed them artistically by either enhancing the graphics or sound, and sometimes even the game play. While there is new code written for these, they are still based off the original commercially released game ROM. So these "hacks" also lie in that "grey area" mentioned earlyer. To sum things up, all ROMs are technically illegal if you do not own the games in another form, while almost all emulators are completely legal.

[MJCfromCT]

I see your point CrazyCrusher. I agree that the emulators are quite legal, and the abandonware roms, along with other special releases are legal as well. However, for the Sonic the Hedgehog games, Jungle Strike, etc, I think that it is still very illegal to download these ROMs.