The touchy subject of emulation

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FatCobra
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The touchy subject of emulation

Post by FatCobra »

I know alot of people here probably MAME their shmups, as not all of us can afford their own arcades. Is emulation such a bad thing? The software companies think so. "OMG, kids are stealing our 10 year old games! Let's sue them!" I don't think anyone really cares if some college student downloads Megaman 2 or Earthbound to their flash drive. As much as I like to own the originals, I don't have the money or space for the consoles and games. I'll take a ROM over a sloppy port anyday (cough*SNES-to-GBA ports*cough).

Besides, the Super Eagle Filter rocks!
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Post by Specineff »

They will care if the DMCA2 passes. Read my post for the scoop. In the name of copyright, companies will try to f00xx0r us in the @$$.
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FatCobra
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Post by FatCobra »

Specineff wrote:They will care if the DMCA2 passes. Read my post for the scoop. In the name of copyright, companies will try to f00xx0r us in the @$$.
They can pass as many laws as they want, there will still be people playing ROMS.
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The Coop
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Post by The Coop »

Specineff wrote:They will care if the DMCA2 passes. Read my post for the scoop. In the name of copyright, companies will try to f00xx0r us in the @$$.
What post?
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TalkingOctopus
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Post by TalkingOctopus »

I like emulation and take advantage of it. I think that companies mainly have a problem with it b/c they don't want you spending time playing old games. They want you to spend $60 on new games.
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Post by Dave_K. »

I really don't know why anyone should be starting up this topic yet again, must be a slow day or something...
TalkingOctopus wrote:I like emulation and take advantage of it. I think that companies mainly have a problem with it b/c they don't want you spending time playing old games. They want you to spend $60 on new games.
Best answer I've herd in a long time! :D
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rolins
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Post by rolins »

No matter what laws they past, emulation and the spread of rom/iso is going to continue. In one form or another.

I'm glad there is emulation, roms, isos around the internet. If there wasn't, how the hell am I suppose to know what game I want to buy w/o wasting money?
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JBC
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Post by JBC »

Aside from that emulation is helping to keep franchises alive. You think your 8 year old nephew would know who Kid Icarus is? Not unless he downloads it onto his Wii - but we all know that wouldn't even be an option if not for the advent of emulators on PC lo those many years ago.

Emulation coupled with his appearance in the upcoming Smash Bros. game are the only things boosting interest in that character to the point Nintendo would even consider making a sequel after so long.

Let's not forget just how forgotten other favorites would be if not for emulation. Battletoads, Altered Beasts, Startropics... i could go on and on.

I bet without emulation you could forget our little Gunstar sequel we got on our GBA's. The companies should be thankful for it. That's just me ranting though.
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Post by icycalm »

I like emulation because I can have 10,000 games on my tiny 12-inch laptop and travel around the world with them.

All the games I wanted as a kid and could not afford, I suddenly have them in my backpack!

It's a miracle I tell you!
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Post by iatneH »

I like emulation, but honestly... don't have money? Buy cart-only. It's cheaper. Don't have space? Cart-only saves space too. Most of the things I bother to emulate cost less than $10 each. I don't even find myself playing MAME much anymore.

And as nice as Super Eagle Filter is (or you say it is), to me it won't ever look better than playing the actual hardware on my Commodore monitor.

Although I'm really not THAT hardline... It's nice to be able to do that try-before-you-buy thing as rolins has said. I've avoided spending money on some really horrible Genesis games like this. Even going with icycalm, I have a handful of ROMs on my GP2X. *mostly* of games I already own though, and I barely play them at all because again, I'd rather play them on actual hardware simply because I can.

And.. 12 inch? You don't have one of those crazy little Fujitsu bookies, do you icycalm?
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Edge
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Post by Edge »

Yeah, i agree emulation is a great thing.

And it is not ruining the market by any means. More than 99,9% of all roms aren't sold in any dept stores or game shops. (and offcourse you can't count used stuff because this won't help the industry at all.)

Well if people don't buy the original games/hardware they don't deserve the right to play them? Why that? Those games aren't sold anymore and if it wasn't for emulation all old games would be lost forever sooner or later. The gaming history can be accessed by everyone and will never get lost. I think everyone agrees that games are digital art and they should be kept forever. And further should be accessible for everyone and not only the collectors who drive the prices insane. (nothing against collectors, but i think the prices of "some" games on ebay are not the actual value of the game. Not for a non-collector)

And I really doubt that the programmers of these games have any problem that people play their old games for free. It are only the publishers who see nothing else than their own interests, they'd rather burn the books then to let people read them without paying.
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Post by Specineff »

The Coop wrote:
Specineff wrote:They will care if the DMCA2 passes. Read my post for the scoop. In the name of copyright, companies will try to f00xx0r us in the @$$.
What post?
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=8935
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FRO
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Post by FRO »

I'm a fan of emulation for 3 reasons:

1. I can emulate games that I'd never be able to buy (like rare OP Japanese games)
2. I can play arcade games that never saw a console (or US) release
3. I can discover new games that I end up buying (such as Super Nova or Axelay)
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Post by Arznei »

I'm all for emulation when it comes to older games. The newer stuff is usually worth buying instead of waiting for emulation, unless it's something like Chaos Field.

The real thing is obviously better, but with older Megadrive/SNES titles, it isn't at all surprising that people can emulate the entire game perfectly by now. They're consoles over 10 years old.
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Post by Blade »

Reasons I have for enjoying emulation:

1. Game-hacks are fun.

2. Games are so much more fun on a 20" Monitor.

3. Obscure games like Super Robot Wars get to be played.

4. Legendary Shmups like Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun can be played at OPTIMUM resolution via PC.

5. PC Flatpanel Monitors can TATE easily.

6. Games don't last forever on a Disc or a Cartridge, and sometimes backups on a computer is the best way to preserve them.

7. I like getting revenge on near impossible Quarter-Munching games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Superman, Double Dragon, Arkanoid, Dungeons & Dragons, etc. etc. by just hitting F1 or whatever button you map as Insert coin, you can finally see a game to the end.

8. Oftentimes you get to play games that never were popular or sold out into obscurity such as the oftentimes rare and untranslated Star Ocean.

9. The arcade music of Zero Wing is FAR SUPERIOR to the Genesis Version's music.

10. YOUR MOM....yeah.
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Post by 99pence »

Well I hate buying a news shelf magazine and they're talking about emulation. You don't pick up a music magazine and they tell you how to download free music. It's ridiculous.

But at the same time if you have the right video card for low res etc MAME games are better than the console compulations you can buy, how messed up is that.

It's a shame there isn't iMAME.

This Wii virtual console is a great idea but the games won't be in the right res and you don't know how much games will cost. etc.

How can something (in this hobby) thats free be better than something you buy.
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infested_ysy
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Re: The touchy subject of emulation

Post by infested_ysy »

FatCobra wrote:I know alot of people here probably MAME their shmups, as not all of us can afford their own arcades. Is emulation such a bad thing? The software companies think so. "OMG, kids are stealing our 10 year old games! Let's sue them!" I don't think anyone really cares if some college student downloads Megaman 2 or Earthbound to their flash drive. As much as I like to own the originals, I don't have the money or space for the consoles and games. I'll take a ROM over a sloppy port anyday (cough*SNES-to-GBA ports*cough).

Besides, the Super Eagle Filter rocks!
Not rly.

If I don't have access to ROM(s), I won't buy the actual product anyway.

And I agree with the filter part. I find myself hard to appreciate the graphics in Samurai Shodown V Special that I have on my PS2. The sprites looked so bad (like a fighter sprite that came out of the early 90's) without some basic filter/echancement like a 50% scanline.
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Post by Stormwatch »

99pence wrote:How can something (in this hobby) thats free be better than something you buy.
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Neon
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Post by Neon »

Seems like free software is overtaking the commercial equivalents in a lot of instances...I guess capitalism doesn't work when it comes to software/information :lol: .
Legendary Shmups like Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun can be played at OPTIMUM resolution via PC.
Disagreed entirely. Chankast runs Ikaruga like shit, Dreamcast can run it at the proper res with a VGA box. RS could only run at the proper res with this graphics card.
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Post by Davey »

99pence wrote:How can something (in this hobby) thats free be better than something you buy.
That Kenta Cho is a crazy, loveable guy.
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Post by icycalm »

iatneH wrote:I like emulation, but honestly... don't have money? Buy cart-only. It's cheaper. Don't have space? Cart-only saves space too. Most of the things I bother to emulate cost less than $10 each. I don't even find myself playing MAME much anymore.

And as nice as Super Eagle Filter is (or you say it is), to me it won't ever look better than playing the actual hardware on my Commodore monitor.

Although I'm really not THAT hardline... It's nice to be able to do that try-before-you-buy thing as rolins has said. I've avoided spending money on some really horrible Genesis games like this. Even going with icycalm, I have a handful of ROMs on my GP2X. *mostly* of games I already own though, and I barely play them at all because again, I'd rather play them on actual hardware simply because I can.

And.. 12 inch? You don't have one of those crazy little Fujitsu bookies, do you icycalm?
I've got something better. Panasonic's toughbook. It weighs 1.2kg with the battery, and takes up less space in my backback than a small textbook. I can take it to bed and I've got instant tate. And the battery lasts for 12 hours--I shit you not! Without it, I wouldn't be able to play arcade games for several months of the year, since I am always moving around and living with friends or in hotels/hostels, etc. It's the perfect portable for me. Even though I have a dozen handhelds, including a PSP and a DS, I don't carry them around with me. I try to travel as light as possible and the handhelds have an entourage of chargers/carts/discs that I'd rather do without. And with 10,000 games constantly on my hard drive it's impossible to get bored.

Anyway, my love for emulation doesn't prevent me from buying obscene amounts of new and old games and hardware. It's just that all that stuff is spread out in several storage spaces, across 2 continents and 3 countries.

I will be in one place with a cool TV, and my Mega Drive and game collection will be 2,000 miles away. Or I'll be forced to play DC shmups with the pad, even though I have 2 Agetec sticks at some other place.

So until I can settle down at one place, and gather all my stuff there, I will be using emulation on a regular basis. Even then, I plan to buy an arcadeVGA card and a cab.
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Post by BBH »

I have never used an emulator in my life. 8) 8) 8)
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Post by jpolz »

BBH wrote:I have never used an emulator in my life. 8) 8) 8)
Your loss. :D
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Post by 99pence »

I hate it on the internet when someones like 'so I was playing my megadrive and...' then everyones like 'teh, foo, ownhedge emuz' which to normal people I guess means 'I say old chap, why are you bothering with that megadrive when you can play it on emulator, haw haw haw'.
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Post by Shatterhand »

Yeah, this annoys me too.

Or the mentality "Why did you buy this game if you could had just downloaded from the internet?"

But I do enjoy emulation a little bit. Undobutly, there are a huge amount of games which I would have never known if it wasn't by emulation.

But I do prefer playing in the real thing at any time.

Like an old buddy from the forum used to say

NOTHING BEATS THE REAL THING[/code]
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Post by Ganelon »

Yeah, also if people would just shut up about boasting the use of emulation and talk about the games themselves, then there wouldn't be any trouble. Esp. annoying are those who start off by stating that they're playing the ROM. Nobody cares that you're emulating a game so nobody wants to know you're playing the ROM. You're not doing anything special; anybody could hook up on any number of emulation and torrent sites to download the same stuff. It's one of the most utterly useless statements ever.
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Post by Shatterhand »

Oh, something that REALLY annoys me:

"What are your favourite ZSNES games?"

Like, the games were made FOR THE EMULATOR. Heh.
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Post by Ceph »

Ganelon wrote:Esp. annoying are those who start off by stating that they're playing the ROM. Nobody cares that you're emulating a game so nobody wants to know you're playing the ROM.
Depends, as far as high-scores are concerned, I think it is very important to know if an emulator was used. I'd say that scores achieved on an emulator shouldn't count at all or at least be marked.
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Post by iatneH »

Usually the guys who do that aren't really concerned with high scores, it's more like i luv 2 play chorno tigger on my comp lol

And for those of us that do care, I think the majority of threads in the Hi Score section require a statement of the format on which the score was achieved.
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Post by Stormwatch »

Shatterhand wrote:Oh, something that REALLY annoys me:

"What are your favourite ZSNES games?"

Like, the games were made FOR THE EMULATOR. Heh.
Ouch. And I thought "let's chat on mIRC" was bad.
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