FAQ
What are Emulators and ROMs?
An Emulator is a program which emulates a console or computer. This means you can play Nintedo 64 games on your computer as well as many others. Emulators normally work by reading the program code of the game, this allows your computer to read the games. These games are known as ROMs. The reason why games are called ROMs is because most classic games were stored on cartridges with Read Only Memory chips.
These cartridges weren't designed to play on PC's so machines were made to download the contents chip. This data is then stored on a computer as a ROM file. ROMs come in all sizes from 5kb to 5MB, it mostly depends on the console the game was originally made for. Different ROMs have different extensions depending on what type of emulator it is for.
e.g. Gameboy Advance ROMs have .gba while NES ROMs have .nes as their extension.
Are Emulators and Roms legal?
Emulators are perfectly legal. It is not illegal to emulate something unless the emulation has copyrighted material in it. Most emulators don't and those that do will have permission to distribute.
ROMs are different. They fall into the same catergory as music and film. While some classic games no longer have the copyright on them others do. Some people say that if you delete the game within 24 hours of downloading it then everything is ok, while a more commonly known fact is that if you have the game then you may have the ROM legally. Legalization of ROMs is a very complicated issue.
To sum it all up most emulators are legal while all ROMs, unless you own them are illegal.
What are Emulators and ROMs?
An Emulator is a program which emulates a console or computer. This means you can play Nintedo 64 games on your computer as well as many others. Emulators normally work by reading the program code of the game, this allows your computer to read the games. These games are known as ROMs. The reason why games are called ROMs is because most classic games were stored on cartridges with Read Only Memory chips.
These cartridges weren't designed to play on PC's so machines were made to download the contents chip. This data is then stored on a computer as a ROM file. ROMs come in all sizes from 5kb to 5MB, it mostly depends on the console the game was originally made for. Different ROMs have different extensions depending on what type of emulator it is for.
e.g. Gameboy Advance ROMs have .gba while NES ROMs have .nes as their extension.
Are Emulators and Roms legal?
Emulators are perfectly legal. It is not illegal to emulate something unless the emulation has copyrighted material in it. Most emulators don't and those that do will have permission to distribute.
ROMs are different. They fall into the same catergory as music and film. While some classic games no longer have the copyright on them others do. Some people say that if you delete the game within 24 hours of downloading it then everything is ok, while a more commonly known fact is that if you have the game then you may have the ROM legally. Legalization of ROMs is a very complicated issue.
To sum it all up most emulators are legal while all ROMs, unless you own them are illegal.
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