I received a Yobo for Xmas. And I was happy, thinking of all the nifty NES and SNES games I could replay. Secret of Mana, here I come!
But. Of the three NES games that I’ve tried to play, two won’t play at all, and the third one (the original Legend of Zelda) doesn’t show color. Since some of the enemies are palette swapped sprites, I need to know whether those things are red or blue! During the game intro, there’s color, but during the game itself, everything is greyscale. This decreases my enjoyment considerably.
Do I have a defective unit, or do all or most Yobos have this problem? The reviews on Amazon are very mixed.
I already HAVE quite a few NES/SNES cartridges that I’d like to play again. I’m pretty sure that my Secret of Mana cart still works, and if it doesn’t…I can buy another copy for twenty bucks or so. Now, if I want that copy to be new in box, yeah, it’ll be a couple hundred bucks. But if I’m willing to accept a used copy, the price and availability drops dramatically.
Emulators all the way! For one, you won’t have the issues you are having (well, not too often), and in some cases you can run games with a variety of enhancements. (check out super mario brothers with 4 player co-op and portal guns!! http://www.co-optimus.com/ 'course in this case it’s a remake not just emulation). Also it’s a hell of a lot more convinient than dealing with this clunky hardware.
If you already OWN the games I see no ethical dilemma. And the PC has a larger variety of gamepads to choose from than any console.
I was JUST playing the original Mike Tyson’s punch out. Something about that simple gameplay mechanic just turns the right wheels in my brain.
Careful there. What you are suggesting may or may not be ethical but it is certainly not legal in the US. It’s a violation of copyright law. It may be legal in some other countries but not here.
Copying ROMs other people have created, even if you own the original cartridge, is not legal in the US.
And even creating your own ROMs from cartridges you have in possession is not legal in the US.
Nintendo might not have cared much a few years ago, but now that the Virtual Console exists and you can buy many of the same games again there, they do have at least some interest in preventing that kind of software piracy.
Some companies do provide free licenses for some old games, but neither SquareEnix nor Nintendo have that for any of the Mana or Zelda games.
To a large extent, they’re not going to kick up much of a fuss about 25 year old games. And the PR hit is potentially bad for a big company to pick on uber fans, but that’s no reason to recommend actions that aren’t strictly legal.
Wouldn’t that be covered under the right to “transpose” content for your own use.
As I understand it, it only prevents you from bypassing encryption to do so (stupid, the courts need to rule on this or the law changed), and I don’t believe those old cartridge games are encrypted, are they?
I’ve read a lot of articles for and against ROMs. The more rational ones seem to say that ROMs are illegal in the US, even if you do own the game. The ones that say that ROMs are legal usually argue that people like ROMs and that the information should be free (rather like other forms of pirating).
I’d LOVE to be able to play ROMs with a clear conscience. But I can’t.
Decided by the Supreme Court in 1983 in “Atari v JS&A”. It’s legal in a few other countries but not here.
The “right” of transposing your own content doesn’t actually exist, by the way.
For example, you can’t photocopy pages out of a book you bought for archiving or for personal use. The Supreme Court ruled copying of ROMs was like that. There are some fair use exceptions for education, but it’s not like you can photocopy the latest Stephen King for the plane so you can leave the book at home.
You’re not actually correct about ripping a CD to MP3, either. It’s not explicitly a denied right, but it’s not entirely clear, legally, that it’s not copyright infringement. There’s been no landmark case to decide the issue.
Basically, look it up online. There are thousands of web pages dedicated to arguing whether or not it’s legally supported to do any of these things. A simple Google search should produce much the same answers I’m giving.
Again, practically speaking, nobody is going to hassle most people about ROMs for 25 year old games, but that doesn’t change the legal status.
In this case, I would just ignore the law. There’s a lot to be said about how much crap people will put up with before they either forcibly change the law themselves or demand it. I have many physical copies of games. Those are MY game. I don’t subscribe to the notion that I’m simply buying a subscription or license to the games. They are mine. If I want to sell them, or rip them, I will. It speaks to the foundation of ownership if certain things can be classified as a media in which people never truly own them but only can essentially lease them for personal use
I reject that notion. I own my games, my music, and my movies and TV shows and every zero and one in every disc, file, or cartridge. Just because technology has made it to the point where companies can exert their muscle to deny me that, doesn’t make it right.
That’s most a valid viewpoint, but irrelevant to the point I was making.
I’m making sure that anybody thinking about taking that advice knows the potential ramifications of their actions.
No matter your personal opinions on the topic (and I share most of yours on this topic), it’s not ethical to advocate illegal actions without giving fair warning that the actions are illegal.
I understand ignorance of the actual law was at play, which is why I elaborated on my first post.
I have had one for about 3 years now. My NES games have played fine on it. I don’t notice any differences from playing them on a real NES.
The SNES games on the other hand don’t ever get the colors quite right on the console. They play fine but you’ll just about always see something purple that should be blue, etc.
The controllers though are indisputably terrible. I use original SNES ones with mine.
