Real question: is there anywhere to legally obtain/purchase roms?
If your honestly and genuinely discussing the premise of this thread. Then the answer would be probably no it's not worth getting the retro pi as to legally play these you'd have buu extra hardware and acquire the skills. Most like case this would not be true would be piracy. So it's not ignorable in this case.What is even the point of coming into a thread like this accusing people of pirating ROMs? Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, but you can't prove anything and you're not even affected by it at all.
Nintendo are the only ones affected, and if it really bothered them that much they would have made enough stock.
Real question: is there anywhere to legally obtain/purchase roms?
According to Nintendo all emulation including ripping your own roms is illegal. Purchasing the game off the eShop is only purchasing a license not a copy of the rom itself. Unfortunately (or possibly fortunately) this has never been seriously challenged legally so no precedent has been established. Which leaves it languishing in a legal grey area.
While the Virtual Game Station might very well lower Sony's PlayStation console sales, its transformative status- allowing PlayStation games to be played on Mac - rendered it a legitimate competitor in the market for Sony and Sony-licensed games:[3] "For this reason, some economic loss by Sony as a result of this competition does not compel a finding of no fair use. Sony understandably seeks control over the market for devices that play games Sony produces or licenses. The copyright law, however, does not confer such a monopoly."
Emulators, yes. I was referring to making copies/backups of roms.
I was referring to the "all emulation is illegal" part. Nintendo's full of shit, the precedent for emulation being legal's been set for nearly 20 years.
How Come Nintendo Does Not Take Steps Towards Legitimizing Nintendo Emulators?
Emulators developed to play illegally copied Nintendo software promote piracy. That's like asking why doesn't Nintendo legitimize piracy. It doesn't make any business sense. It's that simple and not open to debate.
What is a Nintendo Video Game Emulator?
A Nintendo emulator is a software program that is designed to allow game play on a platform that it was not created for. A Nintendo emulator allows for Nintendo console based or arcade games to be played on unauthorized hardware. The video games are obtained by downloading illegally copied software, i.e. Nintendo ROMs, from Internet distributors. Nintendo ROMs then work with the Nintendo emulator to enable game play on unauthorized hardware such as a personal computer, a modified console, etc.
Anyone who says "set up a retropie in 20 minutes" is a bit disingenuous.
How easy is it to get it up and running?I love my nvidia shield tv, I just wish retroarch for it wasn't a crashy mess to use.
Retro Pi + this >>> SNES Classic.
What is that fan even doing right there lol.
So I guessing this can't do Dolphin like Nvidia Sheld ?
The Shield is a much more robust piece of hardware. If you have one, there is no reason to get the Pi system going.
The Nvidia Shield is far more powerful but the Pi with RetroPie is a significantly more mature, turn-key solution for emulating lots of systems, and integrates everything with a slick UI (emulationstation). What are the good front end options on the Nvidia Shield? I tried Gamesome and was pretty disappointed. I use my Nvidia Shield TV for gamecube/wii, N64, and arcade emulation, but prefer the pi for all the older console systems.
So I guessing this can't do Dolphin like Nvidia Sheld ?
I have a retropie box and I don't like it, it's too fiddly. I'm glad I got an snes classic, just want something that's plug and play and simple to operate. Just hope that the 8bitdo recievers and wireless controllers work well and pair easily every time.
I jumped on the Raspberry Pi bandwagon with how Nintendo handled the NES Classic
So the premise is you also need an NTSC Wii (since PAL Wiis have 50Hz games) and to have bought the original games (not all of which are on Wii) on the VC, so that's another $200 of 'required stuff laying around'. You'll still need a SNES ripper and carts for a few games, and will never have Star Fox 2, but we'll let that slide.
So your interpretation of the OP is actually:
"Hey, if you have $200+ worth of stuff already laying around, and time and knowhow to rip all the games yourself, you can also buy a Pi and put the huge valuable legitimate collection you already own on it, and now you have something marginally cheaper than a SNES mini, with only vast original caveats as part of the premise!".
Yeah okay pal maybe read the rest of the thread where this has been gone over.There are several Nintendo systems that have the VC. Do you really think it's that outrageous to imagine that someone interested in the SNES classic (a Nintendo fan) just maybe owns an original SNES and some games, or any 1 of those systems with VC?
Might as well start complaining that the OP hasn't factored in the cost of a PC and monthly internet since you need one to purchase and setup the Pi while the SNES mini can be bought in a brick and mortar store.
I've got a Retropie setup. It was honestly very easy to set up, works great, costs less for the hardware and offers many more options than the Nintendo products do. People are doing some brilliant things with the shaders and the skins.
I'm still amazed at just how shit the US version of the SNES looks. The japanese/european model looks so much nicer with smoother edges and none of those horrible purple buttons. Wtf we're Nintendo thinking with that?
I've probably tried emulators for a couple hours at best, but I was under the feeling that for all the interest some of them could have visually, the increased lag was making them unsuitable for me.I didn't even dive into that much, it took me almost no time at all to set up a CRT shader that I found acceptable. I remember thinking that type of thing was silly when I first heard about it, but it really does make old 2D sprite games look so much better.
By dumping it from a SNES mini?So where do you get a legal Star Fox 2 rom?
As you said, they don't make laws, so that remain to be seen. Though it's usually hard to properly and legally dump a rom (and that depend on the country, I'm not sure it's legal everywhere...), unless you find one of those USB cart readers (or hacked something like a retroN5).According to Nintendo all emulation including ripping your own roms is illegal/piracy.
I'm sure it was legal 20 years ago here, but I'm not sure it's still the case, even if you dump original cartridges yourself. Laws change (and recently, I'd say, not in a good way for the user), and it's a tricky question, since it's not directly written for those situations, usually.I was referring to the "all emulation is illegal" part. Nintendo's full of shit, the precedent for emulation being legal's been set for nearly 20 years.
I've probably tried emulators for a couple hours at best, but I was under the feeling that for all the interest some of them could have visually, the increased lag was making them unsuitable for me.
By dumping it from a SNES mini?
As you said, they don't make laws, so that remain to be seen. Though it's usually hard to properly and legally dump a rom (and that depend on the country, I'm not sure it's legal everywhere...), unless you find one of those USB cart readers (or hacked something like a retroN5).
I'm sure it was legal 20 years ago here, but I'm not sure it's still the case, even if you dump original cartridges yourself. Laws change (and recently, I'd say, not in a good way for the user), and it's a tricky question, since it's not directly written for those situations, usually.
Yeah okay pal maybe read the rest of the thread where this has been gone over.
The premise of the thread is that it is an alternative to the SNES Mini. You needing 20 Virtual Console games minimum ($160) plus all the knowhow or equipment to rip them to make a Pi equivalent without piracy is a pretty big caveat to it being an alternative.
I don't think so but it is really not that hard to get a lot of old games on steam, PSN or one of Nintendos systems.
I don't think anyone offers a plain ROM though.
So you didn't read the thread or my post, got you. If you're talking about original carts, the equipment is not just a PC, you need a cart ripper and knowhow to use it. So the premise of the thread becomes faulty - if you have hundreds of dollars of original carts sitting round (in both original and today's prices), and the tools to rip them yourself (huge caveats to the premise), then maybe it could be viable without piracy. And the type of person who had all that stuff already would hardly be looking into emulation boxes for the first time just because of SNES mini pre-orders.Did you even read my post? Again, you're assuming people haven't already purchased at least a few of these games, that they don't already own a PC (that "equipment" you mention), etc.
Also, "alternative" doesn't have to mean "exact clone". Not everyone is interested in an SNES mini for the same reasons. You seem to believe people only want it to be able to play an exact list of 20 games (no more and no fewer), none of which they already own in any form or on any platform.
Did not know that.SNK's Humble Bundles did this very thing. They sold basically Roms of Neo-Geo games packaged along with an emulator. Also the emulator was not self contained. Meaning you could take your legally purchased roms and use them on another Neo-Geo emulator of your choosing.
The Sega Genesis Classics collection on Steam are also Sega Genesis roms packaged along with an emulator. The roms themselves are in a special container format with an extension recognized by the emulator that it comes with. There isn't anything preventing one to use their own emulator with the included games.
So you didn't read the thread or my post, got you.
If you're talking about original carts, the equipment is not just a PC, you need a cart ripper and knowhow to use it.
So the premise of the thread becomes faulty - if you have hundreds of dollars of original carts sitting round (in both original and today's prices), and the tools to rip them yourself (huge caveats to the premise), then maybe it could be viable without piracy.
Can someone rundown the total cost including the games that I need to rip off? Based on the current market value of course.
I'm just curious.
How easy is it to get it up and running?
Do you have to use retro arch?
Most importantly, how well do the games run and is there noticeable input lag?