Console emulator
A console emulator is a program for a computer, or other computing device, that can emulate a video game console or handheld, so a computer can be used to play, translate, or modify games that were created for that console or to develop games for that console. Console emulation can also be done between consoles (hence cross-console emulation), making a modern video game console emulate a less advanced one.
Console games for emulators are often distributed as ROMs on the Internet. Without the permission of the copyright holder or the Entertainment Software Association, this practice is illegal, although few copyright holders appear to care about older games (See Abandonware), and a few copyright holders have even released their games and demos gratis or even as free software. This illegality is also controversial for long time gamers and so called "old school" gamers. The popularity for console emulation among fans is due to the belief that many older video games that are no longer on the market are more enjoyable than newer video games currently on the market. Part of this comes from game companies having to focus on gameplay elements other than graphics, due to the graphical memory and hardware limitations at the time of the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, while some believe that modern 3D graphics have not yet fully matured. Another belief is that companies can no longer make income from older titles, though this is not always the case with published archived collections, ports and rereleases, emulated titles, and enhanced remakes provided by the original publisher or copyright holder. On some of these "Emu" sites, there is a myth that you may only keep a ROM image on your computer for a period of 24 hours. This idea stems from the belief that ownership of the actual game is not required.
For more up-to-date systems (eg: Nintendo's Game Boy, N64; Sega's Dreamcast, Sony's Playstation) the copyright holders tend to be more proactive about protecting their copyrights, and a number of websites offering ROMs have been shut down.
Many ROM sites claim that it is legal to download the ROMs for backup purposes if one owns a physical copy of the software. It appears that Title 17 USC Section 117
permits making a backup copy within the United States, but this has never been tested in a court of law.
One advantage to ROM images is the potential for hacking: Console game fans sometimes produce translations of games, rewrite the game's dialogue, or apply fixes to bugs that were present in the original game. Software which emulates a console system can be improved with additional capabilities that the original system did not have, such as variable-width font, anti-aliasing, or game save state functionality. Also, console game fans sometimes change the game's font from fixed-width to variable-width font, e.g. Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana) Variable Font Edition. SNES fans use variable-width font in producing translations of Japan-only SNES games.
In an editorial from RPGamer.com, console developers (especially Nintendo) and game publishers may have by implementing territorial lockouts or censorship of game content. The legal term for such behavior is copyright misuse.
Some popular console emulators include gnuboy, FCE Ultra, nester, Snes9x, ZSNES, , , and TuxNES.
See also
