ROMs and Emulators: Bad or Good?

For the longest time there has been Emulation. Emulating something simply means to be like it. To better define Emulation,

An emulator duplicates (provides an emulation of) the functions of one system using a different system, so that the second system behaves like

As for the rom, this is required on almost all roms. You have a system that you are emulating, but how do you run external software, or if install new software, you use a rom. Using a example such as a Super Nintendo, The Nintendo would be the emulator, and the Rom would be the game cartridge. It’s not hard to understand.

There is a lot of controversy over Roms being bad, and downloading roms are illegal. It is a known fact that Roms are very legal, as long as you own a original copy of the game. Otherwise it is just considered warez. In this case, if you own it, you can download it. Sometimes I don’t understand why this works with computers games you own, but that is a different story.

Being able to browse a website to take a look at all the games avalible for certain systems you can emulate, it is nice. Considering that a lot of these games aren’t even sold in stores anymore, and they are all old childhood favorites, or at least some.

You can discover games that you never knew existed, or find one that is lost in the back of your head and you just can’t remember the name of it.

I don’t think that Roms and Emulators are doing any harm to these gaming companies. You don’t even sell these old games in stores anymore. So what is the big deal? You’re not losing out on profit and if you really wanted to, you could set up something on your websites where users could actually do what they do now, but for a small fee. Embrace technology, don’t hate it. This is a good thing, and it probably always will be.

Not only is emulation a good thing, it adds another level. Some emulators for certain systems add a multiplayer option to the games. You can actually connect to someone else using the same emulator and play a 2 player game of, anything that can go on 2-player. There are also all the graphic updates that a Emulator can add. Just take the Super Nintendo, or the PSX. There are so many different plugins and options for these systems with emulators, it makes playing the games fun all over again.

So, why don’t you open up google, download a Emulator, and see what you have been missing for years!