ROMpocalypse 2018

[Protoman]

As many of you know, ROM sites have been running very scared after a recent lawsuit from Nintendo towards one of the largest(apparently, I never even heard of it before) and most others I know of(like emuparadise) have stopped offering downloads, effectively ending their usefulness.

I love emulating, as it allowed me to get back into console games at a time when I had very little disposable income after my PC got horribly outdated (got into emulators in 2002 on a PC from 1997).  Nowadays I mostly use it to test out games I might buy or to record game footage from, but I still think it's disconcerting that this is happening now, especially seeing as the majority of old games aren't on any kind of service like Steam, GOG or Nintendo's VC which is probably one of the worst in terms of availability.

This is probably a forum where everyone owns everything they want to play already, but still, what do you think? Are roms just stealing or do you see something good in them, selfish or not.

[fcgamer]

I feel the same as you.  While I understand the need to protect one's assets, alienating one's customers is a different story.  I own more games than any individual person would ever need to own, and yet I also view ROMs as having their purposes, there's a time and a place for everything. 

Nintendo closing down the gaming bars in Japan was a much bigger blow, imo. 

There comes a time and a point where I feel these companies could recognize the reality and then support it.

[MaxXimus]

It honestly has come to a point in my life where I just don't have the energy to dig out a game console every time I want to play a game. I don't own as many games as some people, but I still have hundreds of games spanning a few systems  I use openemu and dolphin on my iMac with a couple N30pro 8bitdo controllers and I can leave all my games and consoles packed away. Sure, there are roms of games I don't own in there, but I also have and still do purchase many games as well. It doesn't ruin my sleep, let's put it that way.

[nensondubois]

I will make a few valid points about copyright and how I fee because it is necessary.

Copyright is a good thing because it ensures people will get to keep what they created and keep chaotic romhacks away as some form of "quality" control, if you will. People have spent time out of their lives to create something with the intention that someone will enjoy and hope they will for generations, or longer if Earth survives more than 50 or so years.

On the other hand copyright shows that companies are greedy, and put profits over people, and shows a lot to it's fans and overall hurts customer loyalty. We have seen a lot of the side effects of copyright laws such as videogame rental laws, breaking up the Famicom and retro bars, lives ruined by the MPAA, RIAA, and other big terrible conglomerates. It sends a bad message if a creator or owner is a terrible person to it's consumer base.

I take the side that copyright should expire within a few years of it's inception and derivative works should be allowed and people can make money off it if they want, or whatever the (I don't remember if swearing is allowed here since it has been years since posting on FW.) they want to do with it. People should experience one's creations and appreciate it without living of fear of prosecution, but people should also respect the original experiences of the creator(s).

I would want someone to respect my work and not abuse it, but I understand that I can't stop that from happening, and I would rather err on the side of "hey at least someone is enjoying it' or "my experiences are my own and I shouldn't have the right to force people to be bound by them even if it's not an accurate or respectable representation of the work. because I wouldn't want someone to have a record (pun intended) of doing something "illegal" because it's my own creation.

What Nintendo is doing shows they're a bad company and are over their heads. Their attitude personally sends me a bad message about them as a company as someone who grew up loving their games, which were the best of the company.

Takeaway opinion: "I think their direction has been lost for several years in terms of game quality as a company but that doesn't really matter in terms of how I generally feel about copyright as a whole."

The fact that Nintendo is unwilling to add more games than their own "basics" to the Switch play-online because of lisencing fees they would need to pay third parties also shows how greedy they are. Why are they protecting their intellect on games such as "Soccer" and other very early titles? Just because they can? As long as they can? Isn't that supreme arrogance? I think so and it also sends a bad message to me about them as a company.

I haven't bought a new Nintendo product in what, 6 years since I had to sell my 3ds because I needed money. I don't think I'll be buying a new Nintendo item until they change their attitude.

[Bry89]

Apologies for bumping this but, I knew of this before and I wonder now if it's still ongoing. Although at the same time, Nintendo had been clamping down on people having videos on YouTube of their gameplays with any of their games, whether they're using ROMs or on real hardware. Now though, Nintendo have decided to "relax" these rules for them.

For what's going on though, that's probably why it's so damn hard to find them these days.