So I bought Final Fantasy VII recently and have been playing it on my PS1 emulator (pSX to be exact) and have been enjoying myself a lot so far. Does anyone else use emulators, and which ones? I use VBA for Gameboy Advance, and I also got Project64 for Nintendo 64 and PCSX2 for PS2 ready when I want to get games on them.
As a side note since I know this will come up, what do you consider ok to emulate and not ok to emulate? Or do you not care or think emulation is piracy all together? Discuss.
This is my view…
If what you´re emulating is out of your reach (as in, it´s not made anymore, for example, NES or Game Boy games, for example), you´re good to go.
Well, you could just buy a NES Mini and plug it into a PC. Also SNES mini´s coming too.
If you´re just taking a current game and playing it on PC with the excuse of “more power on PC”, for example, Zelda: BotW in a Switch emulator, nopety nope, sir.
I mostly agree, emulating games on any of the current consoles (Switch, PS4, Xbox One) are completely out of the question and are blatant piracy in my eyes.
When it comes to older games like you mentioned, I don’t see much of an issue with games that aren’t available digitally via eShop, Steam, PlayStation Store, etc. But with ones that are, the only acceptable way of emulating them is owning a physical copy, and then getting it, because then no money is stolen, which is what it really comes down to in my opinion.
I guess I can give you that one. But I wouldn´t personally buy a game just not to feel guilty about emulating it. That´s just me though.
It just bugs me too much that those games are being sold online, it feels like stealing to me. Now obviously no one will persecute you for it, and you could also argue it doesn’t impact sales as much since they’re older title. So for me it’s not so much the emulation in of itself, it’s how you got the ROM to play it.
I agree with both of your guys’ thoughts.
However, if you get an emulator for a game like Mario Kart Wii, I think it is acceptable to have it because you can do stuff you couldn’t do in the original game, but only if you have a legitimate copy of the actual game. That’s just my opinion, though.
TBH, the Wii has been succeeded by two consoles now. I’d still say you’d still have to own an origInal also copy, especially seeing that they’re still produced (I think).
I’ve also found it a good option in some cases to rip the files from your copy of the game to play on the emulator. For cartridge based games, this is a bit tricky, you can buy devices to rip the files, I don’t believe they’re too costly but they if you’re not wanting to spend any money period you migt not like this. PS1 games are especially convenient because the games are in CD format. You don’t even need to rip the files necessarily, though it’s nice if you’re using a flash drive.