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OUYA to have NES/SNES emulators available at launch

Back on topic: I wonder what these emulators are based on? Presumably, they're forks of existing ones for Android, which is kind of a bad thing since most of those have sound and accuracy issues.
 
It's an XBOX 1+.

Potentially, it could emulate all consoles from VCS to PS1/N64.

Sounds like a beast then. This is going to be pretty damn popular I think.

Aren't they using an older Tegra processor as well they plan on updating on a yearly basis?
 
There are tons of free homebrew games for all the old platforms.

The majority (by majority I mean >50%, so stay with me here) of people who use emulators....pirate illegal ROMs from the internet and play them for the sake of convenience.

Nintendo's fear is that people will just download the ROM + play it on OUYA instead of investing any money into their Virtual Console service, hurting sales.

That might just be cause enough for Nintendo to come in and shut it down.
 
It's not illegal to dump ROM or disc image files from physical media that you own for personal use. I've got a Wii and ripped several of my own games to play on Dolphin, for example. Getting a ROM from a cartridge is a bit more challenging, but can still be accomplished with a reasonable effort and some not-too-expensive equipment.

One could also make the moral (but legally murky) argument that illicit distribution of ROMs is kind of a good thing for preserving games that would be lost to the ages due to the degradation of physical media, or rendered permanently abandonware by copyright disputes, defunct publishers, etc.

ALSO, Emulators are essential for developing homebrew games, like the awesome Super Bat Puncher for NES.

The interesting question is, in the age of Virtual Console, is it illegal to emulate digital media you own for personal use? In other words, dumping ROM of SMB3 cartridge = legal. Copying SMB3 Virtual Console title on my Wii for use of emulator on my PC (I don't even know if this is possible, btw) = also legal?
 
The final controller is a bit different from that one.

D825Udo.jpg

Ewwww....should have stuck with the developer controller? lol
 
The majority (by majority I mean >50%, so stay with me here) of people who use emulators....pirate illegal ROMs from the internet and play them for the sake of convenience.

Nintendo's fear is that people will just download the ROM + play it on OUYA instead of investing any money into their Virtual Console service, hurting sales.

That might just be cause enough for Nintendo to come in and shut it down.

They likely wouldn't win any lawsuits against Ouya, but Nintendo could definitely strongarm them out of business with neverending appeals and all the legal fees the Ouya folk would have to deal with. It's what happened to Bleem after all.

I imagine if Nintendo puts pressure on them, they'll just remove them from the store.

The interesting question is, in the age of Virtual Console, is it illegal to emulate digital media you own for personal use? In other words, dumping ROM of SMB3 cartridge = legal. Copying SMB3 Virtual Console title on my Wii for use of emulator on my PC (I don't even know if this is possible, btw) = also legal?

DMCA forbids "circumventing copy protection", so that probably wouldn't be legal.

It also makes ripping your own DVDs illegal, which is pretty shitty.
 
Back on topic: I wonder what these emulators are based on? Presumably, they're forks of existing ones for Android, which is kind of a bad thing since most of those have sound and accuracy issues.

Well, it's a fixed platform, so that's an advantage; troubleshooting to one platform instead of hundreds.

Nintendo's fear is that people will just download the ROM + play it on OUYA instead of investing any money into their Virtual Console service, hurting sales.

That might just be cause enough for Nintendo to come in and shut it down.

Nintendo doesn't have standing to shut it down. See the Bleem! case.

Nintendo might try to bully them with legal fees but the law is not on their side.

Honestly Nintendo needs to focus on their own house and not anyone else's. They've got problems.
 
I'm going to suggest something radical: Nintendo (and other publishers) should make their back catalog of NES, SNES, and N64 games free.
 
I'm going to suggest something radical: Nintendo (and other publishers) should make their back catalog of NES, SNES, and N64 games free.

Well, you did say it was radical before suggesting it....

I *think* I know where this is going. By making it free, you're putting forward that they would get more hardware sales and grow the install base, right?

Personally, if they gave away 10 free VC games I'd consider a purchase, because it adds value. Freeing their back catalog removes value, and makes it less attractive to many.
 
Well, it's a fixed platform, so that's an advantage; troubleshooting to one platform instead of hundreds.



Nintendo doesn't have standing to shut it down. See the Bleem! case.

Nintendo might try to bully them with legal fees but the law is not on their side.

Honestly Nintendo needs to focus on their own house and not anyone else's. They've got problems.

And where is bleem these days? The lawsuits from Sony broke them financially and they had to close.
 
I hope this thing becomes a major emulation machine. I've been looking for something to retire my modded Xbox 1 with.
 
Well, you did say it was radical before suggesting it....

I *think* I know where this is going. By making it free, you're putting forward that they would get more hardware sales and grow the install base, right?

Only issue with this is the Wii U being sold at a small loss. If a bunch of people are buying the console just to play the back catalog and don't buy any retail games, then Nintendo is the one that loses out.
 
Personal backups are a grey area, but it also implies that you're making those backups yourself.

In other words, dumping your own cart is probably maybe okay legally, just downloading the rom of a cart you own definitely isn't.

Dumping a rom yourself, or ripping a PS1 game, or whatever, is actually illegal under the DMCA, because you're circumventing copy protection to obtain the data on another device.

It's ridiculous, but that's what it is.
 
BSNES is just really really beefy. The thing about it is that it doesn't make use of multiple processor cores, so it'd actually run better on a 3.4 GHz dual core than it will on a 2.2 GHz i7.

MAME has a really good CRT type emulation. Check out HLSL on it.

Will be checking MAME again!

And ahh... so it's more of a core thing.
 
Well, you did say it was radical before suggesting it....

I *think* I know where this is going. By making it free, you're putting forward that they would get more hardware sales and grow the install base, right?
Legacy games from depreciated platforms, that are from 15-20+ years ago, should be freely available to future generations of gamers.

And... there's really no way to stop people from playing those ROMs for free, anyway.

I also believe copyrights should expire after twenty years. I know: I'm a radical.
 
Dumping a rom yourself, or ripping a PS1 game, or whatever, is actually illegal under the DMCA, because you're circumventing copy protection to obtain the data on another device.

It's ridiculous, but that's what it is.

The companies also believe that, when you purchase a game, you are entitled to only access the game through approved methods (Virtual Console, the physical system, etc.) Anything else is "illegal" because it requires the use of unauthorized, reverse-engineered hardware that they didn't sanction.
 
Dumping a rom yourself, or ripping a PS1 game, or whatever, is actually illegal under the DMCA, because you're circumventing copy protection to obtain the data on another device.

It's ridiculous, but that's what it is.

Dito. Its illegal to make backups of games with copy protection where i live. That may even include the lockout chips from Nintendo.
 
Dumping a rom yourself, or ripping a PS1 game, or whatever, is actually illegal under the DMCA, because you're circumventing copy protection to obtain the data on another device.

It's ridiculous, but that's what it is.

The 'copy protection' is referring to stuff like the data on a DVD being encrypted. Ripping a PS1 game is basically on the same level as ripping a music CD. Nothing is preventing you from simply copying the disc itself.

Same thing with dumping roms, if you have the hardware you aren't actually circumventing any technology specifically designed to stop you from being able to copy it. The "copy protection" that is actually on some SNES games is only there to prevent it from being played back on old copier devices, it doesn't actually prevent you from just dumping the data.
 
I hate it how some are making money on others talent. Ok Nintendo may be stupid not to sale these games for cheap or better to give all their Nes/Snes/GB library for free on Wii U (cloud gaming) but it's not the choice of others to make this available... mostly when they make profit of it.

And now we're asking ourselves why the industry is dying and why there is no creativity.
Why taking a lot of risks when others are going to steal your ideas for free and when you'll watch powerless a lot of "gamers" praising the free or cheaper solution.

I like homebrew but emulators have always been on the limit of legality (if not just illegal).

I guess Nintendo imagine that people who are playing on these systems are not really gamers or Nintendo fans so they don't lose some sales... but if it's not really hurting them, it sure won't help.
 
Legacy games from depreciated platforms, that are from 15-20+ years ago, should be freely available to future generations of gamers.

And... there's really no way to stop people from playing those ROMs for free, anyway.

I also believe copyrights should expire after twenty years. I know: I'm a radical.

No need to clarify...that's fine. I'm a fan of copyrights lasting for 50, myself. There are always exceptions to rules and so forth, but I think I'm picking up what you're putting down.
 
And where is bleem these days? The lawsuits from Sony broke them financially and they had to close.

Bleem! had .0000000000000001% of the capital of Google. They had jack shit. Bleem wasn't even a licensed Dreamcast developer and their discs only work on certain revs of the Dreamcast.

Google has the money to fuck with Apple, not vice versa. Nintendo is going to end up Google's bitch if they try to force Google to remove emulators from the Play store.

Nintendo needs to sit down and shut the fuck up. And figure out their Wii U sales issues.
 
Iwata: Destroy them. (laughs)

Legacy games from depreciated platforms, that are from 15-20+ years ago, should be freely available to future generations of gamers.

And... there's really no way to stop people from playing those ROMs for free, anyway.

I also believe copyrights should expire after twenty years. I know: I'm a radical.
Nintendo makes millions selling their NES titles over and over again. Why would they kill the goose that lays golden eggs?
 
and there are still people buying them... your point?

The purpose of 'intellectual property' law, copyright and patents, is not to be a perpetual profit center. The purpose is to bring out innovation to enrich the public domain.

There is no such thing as 'intellectual property.' It is a legal fiction.
 
Legacy games from depreciated platforms, that are from 15-20+ years ago, should be freely available to future generations of gamers.

And... there's really no way to stop people from playing those ROMs for free, anyway.

I also believe copyrights should expire after twenty years. I know: I'm a radical.

If a game is being sold by the copyright holder in any capacity (Virtual Console, GOG, etc.) it is IRRELEVANT if the game is from a depreciated platform----the company has the full legal and moral right to pursue action against any form of piracy or vehicle to access piracy.
 
No need to clarify...that's fine. I'm a fan of copyrights lasting for 50, myself. There are always exceptions to rules and so forth, but I think I'm picking up what you're putting down.

Since we're talking US, I want someone to propose the Founding Father's Copyright Bill - that is, the copyright scheme enacted by the Founding Fathers in the Copyright Act of 1790. You got 14 years, and had the option of renewing for another 14 years. This meant, at most, 28 years of copyright protection.

If we had such a plan today, everything created before 1985 would be public domain. The things people typically call abandonware would be in the public domain if created before 1999.

Edit: Americans! Rise up! You are being robbed of your birthright - the public domain! RARRR!
 
Legacy games from depreciated platforms, that are from 15-20+ years ago, should be freely available to future generations of gamers.

And... there's really no way to stop people from playing those ROMs for free, anyway.

I also believe copyrights should expire after twenty years. I know: I'm a radical.
So where's the limit?

Can I make a pair of Jordan then and sell them for half the price?
Maybe cultural property should be "accessible" to everyone (including movies, music, books, games...) but no need to copy things.

So like I said Nintendo should made these games playable for free on Wii U in the cloud.
 
Sounds like a beast then. This is going to be pretty damn popular I think.

Aren't they using an older Tegra processor as well they plan on updating on a yearly basis?
Yep.

The current Ouya model uses an overclocked Tegra 3.

Ouya 2 will, probably, use a Tegra 4.

Might be a cool movie box with xbmc and a retro console. PS1 games might be a challange but cool if they work.

With both Plex and XBMC coming to Ouya my media center needs will be met with ease.

If Ouya manages to offer a Steam-like indie library + good emulators, it's going to become my most-used console in the coming gen.

It can emulate dreamcast too
A full-speed Dreamcast emulator is impossible, though.
 
Copyright reform is a whole 'nother discussion.

If a game is being sold by the copyright holder in any capacity (Virtual Console, GOG, etc.) it is IRRELEVANT if the game is from a depreciated platform----the company has the full legal and moral right to pursue action against any form of piracy or vehicle to access piracy.

That last bit sounds pretty slippery slope to me.
 
Chû Totoro;51555300 said:
So where's the limit?

Can I make a pair of Jordan then and sell them for half the price?
Maybe cultural property should be "accessible" to everyone (including movies, music, books, games...) but no need to copy things.
The shoe design of Air Jordans from 20 years ago should be public domain, anyway, as patents *do* expire in that time period. For instance, anyone is free to make and sell exact hardware replicas of NES and SNES systems, as their patents of have expired. However, you could not call them "Nintendo" anything (or Air Jordans for the shoes) as those aspects fall under trademarks, which are perpetual while used in commerce. So yes, you could make exact replica of old Air Jordans and sell them, just couldn't call them Air Jordans or use the "Jumpman" logo, etc.
 
Don't the RetroN machines use emulators?

I don't see what the big deal is. Sure some EMUs really would step over some legal bounds if they were implemented in such a manner, but AFAIK pre 3D era consoles don't use BIOSes. Nor do you even need to rip or download a game in the case of SNES and Genesis...
 
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