atari2600land's Blog

While others may have different opinions, in general, playing games using an emulator is illegal. The license for the original cartridge doesn't permit playing the game any other way.

 

If you bought the cartridge (new or used) and played it on an NES, that's okay. If the copyright owners provide a different method of playing the game (e.g. Activision Anthology), then that's okay.

 

And Nintendo does care. You can buy & play SMB via the Wii Virtual Console. You downloading the ROM and playing it on your PC deprives Nintendo of that revenue.

 

Yes, AA does host ROMs. However, you will notice that there are no Activision ROMs, because Activision still claims ownership. And although the original companies may no longer exist, ownership of the copyright may have been transferred.

 

And you should also care. You hold the copyright to all of the games & music you have created. How would you feel if your creations were distributed freely without your consent?

Yeah, I get what you're trying to say, but I don't know how to go online with my Wii, and it scares me to buy stuff that way since the PS3 incident. Is the Virtual Console still active, last I heard, there were no updates to it. As for me caring about whether I would care if my stuff was distributed freely: If I created an NES game back in the day and got all my money from it, and if it was so popular that people would want to download it, I'd let them. I doubt anything I make nowadays warrants that anyway, (GoSub), but, eh.

 

 

Note: I don't use VC as I already have enough new & old games to fill my free time.

 

If you don't want to give Nintendo your credit card info, just buy the cards at your local video game store.

 

According to Wikipedia there are new (2011) releases for VC, although it's slowed down a lot.

 

And yes, there are IP owners (e.g. Vectrex) who have released games as free to use. But other companies (e.g. Nintendo) are still very protective of their IP, no matter how old it is.

 

And although you might not believe your creations are worth protecting, I think you would be surprised if you tried. Although the license for Skeleton+ allows people to play the game using an emulator or to make a cartridge for their own use, AA & PackRatVG have sold 100+ cartridges. Not enough to live on, but enough mad money for me to spend on other hobbies.