emulators are not warez

[grab_grab_the_haddock]

presumably this thread was closed because it was reckoned to be a warez thread. it might be handy to point out that emulators are not warez at all, they are perfectly legal, what IS illegal is downloading or running copyrighted game roms on the emulator without permission. ( just in the same way that WINE is not illegal, but it would illegal to run pirated software on WINE)

Im not trying to have a pop, the dividing line between legal software and warez is often unclear, so its an easy mistake to make.

Anyway, to answer TFOS fans question there is currently no PS2 emulator, although there is one in development. Called PCSX2 so far it can only play demos, and a release date for the final version still seems some way off (no date has been set) you can find the home page for PCSX2 here http://pcsx2.ngemu.com/

There is also NO emulator for Xbox, although one is in development. I think its called CXBX or something similar.

If you do a search on almost any p2p app you will find Xbox and PS2 emulators available for download, of course these are all fakes, and should NOT be downloaded as they very often contain trojans.

You can find out more about emulators over at the emulator zone

[nasrules]

cxbx is the only xbox emulator in development.

i believe you are allowed to have the roms on your hd for 24 hours for 'evaluation purposes'. unless you have the full game of course.

[Ken17625]

I didn't know that thread was closed. Oh well.

[[NK]Mutant]

Gotta agree with haddock on this one. I was wondering why that thread was closed. Quick, everyone post here before this thread is closed too!

[wingnut2600]

If an emulator has BIOS, then it is Warez--since BIOS are copywritten. But an emulator in and of itself is not illegal. It can be used to play open source or free games created by enthusiasts as well as to debug games in production.

In fact, I believe emulators to be analagous to p2p programs. They are not illegal by themselves, it is what is done with them that is questionable.

[DainBramaged]

If you have the tools necessary to extract the BIOS from your own machine, it isn't illegal.

[Jared592]

Yeah, I was also wondering why that thread got closed. It was a simple question about the availability of an emulator. Perhaps mods have been instructed to practice the shotgun method of moderation. :-P

Next up: Closing threads because they mention trademarked brand names! PEPSI, COCA-COLA, SONY!!! WooooH! Breakin' the law!

(Just kidding, ya hawt throbbers)

[Captinspliff]

Originally posted by nasrules
i believe you are allowed to have the roms on your hd for 24 hours for 'evaluation purposes'. unless you have the full game of course.

thats not actually true it was just made up so that rom site owners could pretend to have some legal use for their sites :)

[Crazy Horse]

It looks like Seph made the last post so it probably was him that closed it. Maybe someone should ask him to explain why it was closed. (nicely of course)

[WoGiTaLiA]

Emulators themselves are not illegal, neither are Roms, Roms do however become Illegal if you dont own the real original version for whatever machine, and Emulators become illegal if they require a BIOS to operate, which makes all Sony and i believe Dreamcast/Xbox/Gamecube Emulators illegal to use, unless you own the machine, and in that case it is not illegal to use the Bios.

[Jared592]

Originally posted by WoGiTaLiA
Emulators become illegal if they require a BIOS to operate, which makes all Sony and i believe Dreamcast/Xbox/Gamecube Emulators illegal to use, unless you own the machine, and in that case it is not illegal to use the Bios.

It is possible to emulate a machine without using the original BIOS. That's how stuff like Bleem! and UltraHLE worked.

[Sephiroth]

Its a very iffy subject and every single Emulator thread in the past has always ended up where do i get roms or how can i play, burned,downloaded games. There really is no way for anyone to determine if anyone here owns the machine so its ok for them to be using a emulator anyways.

People looking for emulators are better off at some search engine like google anyways.

[TFoS_Fan]

thanks grab grab the haddock

pleased to see somebody agrees with me, I was so annoyed when they removed my thread.

don't know who it was, seph was the last to post telling me basically to stop being sad and get a ps2, so I think he is prime suspect. Don't know though, so don't quote me, don't know for sure he is a mod.

Anyway thanks for the info.

And for all the people who believe seph is right, remember computer consoles are as over priced and capatilistic as music CDs. Anyway if it wasnt for the capatilistic world we live in all the companies, sony, microsoft etc...could come together and make a perfect console with all the best features of each, but they are all just wanting the market and the profits for themselves.

[peace]

[wonderboy2005]

Originally posted by TFoS_Fan


And for all the people who believe seph is right, remember computer consoles are as over priced and capatilistic as music CDs. Anyway if it wasnt for the capatilistic world we live in all the companies, sony, microsoft etc...could come together and make a perfect console with all the best features of each, but they are all just wanting the market and the profits for themselves

counsoles are not overpriced. the companies that make them LOOSE money selling them. they get their profits from the games annd/or royalties from other game makers.

you dont like the capitalistic ideal? maybe you should go live in china you commie.

[The Hunter]

For those that dont know it by now, yes Seph is a mod. Also he was pretty much the only mod here for quite a while, that is until us newbie mods showed up.