Where Do You Stand On "Ethical Emulation"?

[TradeDraft]

Should be Okay with older systems that Company's are not making money on it or can Buy at store.

Not saying that people still do it with new games but just not the best thing

Also not making money off them as well

Where Do You Stand On "Ethical Emulation"?

Your Thoughts?

 

[Taylor]

I think there's a discussion to be had around the time post release of a game that the material would become public domain and given the speed at which technology advanced, particularly in the late 90s and early 00s, that the period of time to reach that 'Public Domain' threshold should be shorter than that of music or other forms of IP.

I would propose that after twenty years other creators can use your game, but cannot profit from it and should you wish to release your game again then you retain full rights to that for another twenty years. Protecting modding communities and fans from being targeted by borderline defunct companies seeking to scrape as much cash out of a near dead fan base, only kept alive by the modding community.

It would also encourage developers to release their products on new console and PC architecture. So as to retain full protected rights to their content.

You could even make the case that ten years would be reasonable, with twenty years being the point where other people can make money from the IP given the developer has had ten years post internet public domain threshold to botch together a release for download only to retain their financial rights.

We aren't talking about World of Warcraft, it would strictly be the likes of N64 games, Battle for Middle Earth style PC games that need a heap of smart friends to get running on a modern machine.

 

[jabba5114]

I mean it keeps old games alive. One thing I hate is losing old stuff. Music,tv,movies and games. If it makes it easier for younger players to find old games and play I'm all for it.

Sent from my motorola edge 30 pro using Tapatalk

 

[SugarShane]

Not sure you actually read the article you posted. By "Ethical Emulation" they're talking about using the legal avenues available, ie. Paying for Nintendo online to play N64 games on your Switch, buying PS1 titles on the PS5 store, etc. Hard to see anyone having an issue with that. Who's going to be annoyed by supporting the creators/license holders of the games they're playing? I assume you're actually asking about unethical emulation?

Technically if it's still under copyright, it's wrong. No amount of mental gymnastics can change that, regardless of if the game and/or console is out of print or not. N64 games were out of print but then all of a sudden Virtual Console became a thing and Nintendo can now sell N64 games again, albeit in a different way.

Do I do it? Hell yes I do. My SNES and N64 Everdrives get an absolute hammering. But I'm under no illusions that I'm doing the right thing.

 

[dumb]

I used to frequent abandonware sites a lot. Old pc games, old apple iie. And somewhat less abandoned MAME emulator sites so I could play arcade games on the PC.

The abandonware sites would claim the game is no longer being supported, the rights were no longer policed by the company. There is some tacit acknowledgement of their moral grey area balanced against the archivist angle of keeping the legacy and game itself alive, without them some games may disappear forever.

Last time I looked, the MAME Rom sites claim you need to have the arcade game to legally download it. Yeah right. Aside from you maybe ticking a box saying you're allowed to have a copy, no policing happens from the site itself (abandonware tends to respect the rights of game companies, this is how they term themselves abandonware after all).

My thoughts are similar to torrents (if I were the person to illegally download, which I may or may not have been at one time).
Some of this stuff is so old that policing its piracy is not cost effective. I would feel no guilt if I were to obtain something like a movie long past the point of measuring box office return (this has been muddied with the explosion of streaming, my distaste for Hollywood factory releases notwithstanding). Especially if it were no longer obtainable by usual means.

Old games despite being from legacy media as well still feel like being in my living memory. You can watch a 100 year old film if a copy exists. Steam discovered that much piracy was borne of content delivery gaps - make it easy to pay for and people do.
If the market solves a problem of people wanting to pay to play otherwise unobtainable games, that's great. If companies are unable to provide platforms for people to enjoy their legacy products, they should expect people to find ways and means.

I've rambled and the more I typed the more I forgot the premise of your question, I may have been making a completely unrelated point. Apologies.

 

[Gethelred]

Seiken Densetsu 3 (or Trials of Mana in the modern remaster) was released in 1995 in Japan and Japan alone due to competitiveness between SquareEnix Japan and SquareEnix America. America got Secret of Evermore, and Japan got Seiken Densetsu 3.

Seiken Densetsu 3 was, when it was released, one of the most replayable eastern story driven action RPG's ever. It featured a 7 day week with some monsters stronger/weaker depending on the day of the week, a day night cycle with different monsters depending on the time of day, a three person party with six possible characters who could each class change twice (one at lvl 18, the second at lvl 38) and three different antagonists with three different final dungeons. The themes for each protagonist were different, as were the motivations for the villains.

The music is some of the strongest in the series, with multiple tracks being reserved for different routes through the main story; they let you miss things if you didn't go looking or didn't stray from the required path.

The game was translated and emulated by Neil Corlett in 2000, and was released as a SNES rom online.

While the critical release at the time was mediocre - mainly 7's and 8's, due to initial level of battle complexity at entry level being a step down from Secret of Mana and cliched plots - the series developed an underground reputation for being one of the hidden gems of its console generation, despite having never been released outside Japan.

There is a reason this game received a worldwide remake, which was absolutely awful. The voiced lines were unchanged, the actors dull and casting must've been rushed because the voices just weren't right for the characters.

Now, I have purchased this game around 5-6 times. I bought a copy for each of my siblings as part of the SquareEnix 25 year anniversary pack (as well as for my self), and I own a copy on Switch and the remake on PS4. But when I became aware of it around 2002, there was no way for me to legitmately purchase a version in a language I could understand.

There was no way to play a game that became foundational to my gaming memories legally.

While I can certainly understand that copyright holders deserve their ownership and require recompense for their art, holding such to ransom is not an acceptable way to treat other people. Depriving people of foundational works is akin to charging millions to allow one to see a Monet in person or refusal to allow someone to see Itzhak Perlman perform because they don't speak english or french or italian.

It's snobbery, it's the hoarding of art for the sake of capitalism, and it's wrong.

 

[Spirit Level]

Sometimes I want to play old video games that you can no longer buy in stores.

If my choice is between buying a GBA game from ebay for $1000 and free emulation, my hands are tied

 

[jwikked]

If it's not available for purchase from the distributor, or whoever, I'll emulate without any guilt. If publishers won't make their old games available in an easy and convenient way - that's on them.

If I wanted to play a certain N64 game, I'll emulate it (provided it's not available on the Switch), but if it is available on the Switch (Mario 64 for example), I'll buy that version. I have a good collection of retro games (mainly on the Switch), it's been a fantastic console for playing all types of games.

I even bought the mini consoles, the NES, SNES and PS1. I've hacked them to play roms, of course, but I do like to support when companies make their old stuff available.