Emulators are Computer Applications that allow the user to mimic consoles and boot ROM Image files to play games from older systems on their PCs. Some say that emulation extends games’ lifespans and allows them to proceed their forms of media, others contend that it can be financially threatening copyright infringement, illegal, and/or terrorism.
Thoughts? I believe that it is all harmless fun, but I’m curious what others think about it.
haha man ive got a lot of those 
but come to think about it how can they be a financial threat for sistems like nes? its not like they sell them anymore so whats the harm done there?
I bet the vast majority of users don’t have the original games, they download them. This is piracy, and it sure is immoral unless you also buy the original. I think that’s fine for old Nintendo consoles and their games but nowadays the PS2 is not far from being decently emulated.
i have Roms of some SNES games, i have some, others i don’t. I have that street fighter arcade game emulated because i don’t wanna put 1 dollar in the machine all the time.
There’s a difference between freeloading everything, and downloading some things.
But if you ask me slapping a 130$ AUD price tag on an xbox game is a bigger crime than me downloading that game for free, there i said it 
If you emulate games from which the company doesn’t get a penny anymore for how outdated they are, then there’s no economical damage, at all.
Companies make a huge fuss about it, even if it’s thanks to it that certain games (Chrono Trigger anyone?) got so famous. I smell hypocrisy.
Emulating modern-day games, or games which can still be found on the market, then that’s damaging for companies.
And yes, some old consoles and carts can still be bought, but almost always from people selling theirs, not shops, thus not a cent goes to the companies.
By the way, immoral? You mean illegal?
Well, I meant that not only was it against the law, but that people wouldn’t do it anyway because they didn’t wish to harm the developers and cheat them out of potential revenue.
But illegal makes more sense, so I edited it. Thanks PL.
Also, what about companies reselling their old games for obscene amounts of money, such as $8 dollars for Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on the Wii Shop Channel?
Would you still feel bad about emulation, or rip yourself off?
8 dollars obscene?
It must have been a really horrible game.
Many people consider the prices for these games ridiculous. And it’s the only legal way to play these classics, unfortunately, short of tracking down the actual carts and systems.
For $20 you can get three retro games on that Wii Shop Channel, and that’s if you’re lucky.
Sure it’s illegal, but since they can’t enforce it, it may as well be legal.
Square-Enix are still making a profit with old Final Fantasy games. They’ve been remaking them for the GBA. I think FFVI Advance is the same as the SNES version, with a few additions. So you can play basically the same thing on an emulator.
Something I think is a little more justified, is playing old games that were never even translated to English or brought to Europe or America. Fans sometimes translate the best of such games, for example Der Langrisser, a very good strategy-RPG for SNES that was recently translated into English. I wouldn’t even have heard of it otherwise, much less played it.