Emulators! Dun Dun Duuuuuun

[ILIKECEREAL]

Dont know how to start this and I’m tired and have assignments sooo just gonna start lol. Are emulators stealing? You play a game on them but aren’t using money to buy the console and maybe the game…not sure about the game part. It’s stealing in my opinion but what do you think?

 

[Highwayhound]

Dont know how to start this and I’m tired and have assignments sooo just gonna start lol. Are emulators stealing? You play a game on them but aren’t using money to buy the console and maybe the game…not sure about the game part. It’s stealing in my opinion but what do you think?

Okay, help me out - what is an ‘emulator’?

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

To emulate means to try to act like another person, as in I want to emulate Christ.

It does not mean to copy in the sense of pirating a game or film.

 

[blase6]

My opinion:

If you are using an emulator to play a game you don’t want to buy, then it is probably a sin. But in this day and age, what constitutes stealing and not stealing is very confusing. If the game is really old and/or you can’t realistically buy it anymore, then I think it is not a sin.

I play the Touhou PC-98 games. It is an indie game with only a couple hundred copies of each game produced for a long gone Japanese computer system. On the rare event that the games go for sale, it is usually the equivalent of thousands of dollars. I don’t think it qualifies as stealing.

 

[waanju]

To emulate means to try to act like another person, as in I want to emulate Christ.

It does not mean to copy in the sense of pirating a game or film.

Emulators are also something for video games. Pirating is copying something using a computer or ect.
Emulators are similar in that they copy, but actually, they are re-created games that are exactly like the original game, but were not copied, just imitated, to be played on another system. In other words, they share more with a high quality knock-off purse than a pirated movie.

 

[Peggy_in_Burien]

Emulators are also something for video games. Pirating is copying something using a computer or ect.
Emulators are similar in that they copy, but actually, they are re-created games that are exactly like the original game, but were not copied, just imitated, to be played on another system. In other words, they share more with a high quality knock-off purse than a pirated movie.

Thanks for updating my vocabulary! Guess I dated myself there.

 

[waanju]

Thanks for updating my vocabulary! Guess I dated myself there.

I think they can also be adapter type things that let you change what system you play on.
I might be wrong on that though, as it’s just what I’ve garnered from friends.
And you didn’t date yourself, you proved that you aren’t a gamer.
(confession, I’m not either!)

 

[blase6]

Emulators are also something for video games. Pirating is copying something using a computer or ect.
Emulators are similar in that they copy, but actually, they are re-created games that are exactly like the original game, but were not copied, just imitated, to be played on another system. In other words, they share more with a high quality knock-off purse than a pirated movie.

No. Emulators take the ROM of the original game and make it playable on a different system. It is not a remake.

 

[waanju]

No. Emulators take the ROM of the original game and make it playable on a different system. It is not a remake.

Good to know. THANKS!
Someone gave me the wrong impression, and I just spread it

Sorry for updating your lingo the wrong way, Peggy!

 

[Dale_M]

Dont know how to start this and I’m tired and have assignments sooo just gonna start lol. Are emulators stealing? You play a game on them but aren’t using money to buy the console and maybe the game…not sure about the game part. It’s stealing in my opinion but what do you think?

I am only familiar with emulation on computers, but I think the concept is similar.

Software which is written for a particular operating system isn’t meant to entice you to buy the operating system. The software is meant to be used, and money simply wasn’t spent by the developers to cover all OS platforms.

If you use an emulator to play Skyrim on a Macintosh, instead of a PC, you aren’t cheating the maker of Skyrim. So long as you are not using a pirated copy, you still have to buy the game. And you aren’t cheating Microsoft, because Skyrim wasn’t written for the purpose of getting you to buy Windows

 

[WoundedIcon]

Put simply, it’s legal and therefore moral if two conditions are fulfilled: namely, that the BIOS the emulator is running on comes from a system you own (it’s software and is illegal to pirate) and that the games themselves you own as well. Any other way and it’s illegal. And sinful. How sinful I’m not sure.

 

[R_C]

I understand the issue here is with the ROM rather than with the emulator itself

How about you pray the Rosary instead?

 

[WoundedIcon]

I understand the issue here is with the ROM rather than with the emulator itself

How about you pray the Rosary instead?

Well, he asked if using an emulator itself would be wrong, due to not owning the original system. And since many emulators require you to transfer some software from the console being emulated in order to run, software that it would be piracy to download, then yes it would be a sin to use a pirated BIOS to run it. Now, if they obtained the BIOS from their own system, then it’s legal and guiltless. And if the pirated BIOS is built in (which I doubt happens often due to legal fears) then the whole emulator is bunk unless it can be removed. Although in order to remove it you’d have to download it first! So Catch-22.

 

[Razanir]

To emulate means to try to act like another person, as in I want to emulate Christ.

It does not mean to copy in the sense of pirating a game or film.

Emulators in computing are programs that let you run programs for one operating system on another. Examples:
-A Windows emulator for a Mac would let you play games and run programs that exist for Windows but not Mac OS
-Visual Boy Advance lets you play GBA games on a PC

If you are using an emulator to play a game you don’t want to buy, then it is probably a sin. But in this day and age, what constitutes stealing and not stealing is very confusing. If the game is really old and/or you can’t realistically buy it anymore, then I think it is not a sin.

The question can be generalized to shareware. Shareware is a weird corner of copyright law, where the programs are still under copyright, but are so old that the company probably won’t enforce it.

 

[oldcatholicguy]

Emulators in computing are programs that let you run programs for one operating system on another. Examples:
-A Windows emulator for a Mac would let you play games and run programs that exist for Windows but not Mac OS
-Visual Boy Advance lets you play GBA games on a PC

The question can be generalized to shareware. Shareware is a weird corner of copyright law, where the programs are still under copyright, but are so old that the company probably won’t enforce it.

That’s abandonware. Shareware works under the “free, please donate” or “mostly free (part of the program is non-functional until you enter a code, etc), please donate and/or pay for the full game” models.

 

[Razanir]

That’s abandonware. Shareware works under the “free, please donate” or “mostly free (part of the program is non-functional until you enter a code, etc), please donate and/or pay for the full game” models.

My bad. I misspoke. Point is, abandonware is in a shadowy, spiderweb-filled corner of copyright law

 

[ILIKECEREAL]

But heres the thing the game was lets just say a console exclusive or mabye not. Either way the money should be given to the company of the software from the console it was meant for right?

 

[Razanir]

But heres the thing the game was lets just say a console exclusive or mabye not. Either way the money should be given to the company of the software from the console it was meant for right?

Well what about buying a game from a used game store? I’m sure that money goes to the store, not the game company

 

[ILIKECEREAL]

I heard its illegal to play the games on them though not the owning of an emulator but gotta double check that. And the store has a licence to sell games though.

 

[Crescentinus]

How about if it’s actually made for free?
Examples include Visual Boy Advance (an emualtor for the GBA and the GBC) and no$gba (an emulator for the GBA and the NDS).