A Little Confused

[digitaldj]

Hello All,

I am new to Arcade Emulation Software like Mame or what ever programs are out there. What confuses me is the fact that these programes support game play and when you ask where to get the games it is an illegal question, so how can these sites support the emualtion software of such illegal game play?

I would appeciate someone explaining this all to me! I am upset with the fact I was kicked off of mame world for asking about the games. My feeling is that if you are creating emulation software that the games should be legal, if not then the whole process is illegal.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Bleagh]

It is legal to own backups of the software you own, but for no other reason than a backup, and illegal to distribute it.

[BobA]

The emulator is legal as long as you are running roms that you have the right to use.  This means owning the original roms on an arcade board.  There are some roms that have been released to the public domain and some that were never in the arcades that were written just for the emulator.  These are relatively few and none of the popular games full under this catagory.

From the RULES of this forum.

5. Nothing illegal! Do I even need to explain this one? Need a ROM to repair an arcade board you own? Fine to talk about. Need a ROM to complete your MAME collection? Don't bother to post here. If someone posts such a request, please don't answer it -- no direct answers, no hints, no private messages

[digitaldj]

Ok! Then where to find legal games for the emulators? You know as well as I do this enables illegal activity to have other copies then legal games.

It kills me that everybody acts so wholesome! People are trading games and you can't tell me anything diferent because people do it with music also!

How many people on here or mame world own a copy of something they don't own?
To have a forum that supports emulators and doesn't entertain questions as to where to get games especailly legal games is ludacris. Besides to get kicked off of a forum without first answering the question to legal games tells me you can do illegal activity but don't say so on their forum which supprts emlators and inturn will support illegal games.

Just my personal opinion!

[saint]

This is not a MAME support site nor an emulation site, this is a site about building hardware systems to play arcade games on a computer. You can play hundreds if not thousands of games on arcade controls without ever once using an illegally gotten ROM or even MAME. Note - I am a fan of MAME, but MAME and arcadecontrols.com are two completely different entities with different goals.

That said, there are a few options:

1. Get the freely released ROMs at mamedev.org - currently there are 12 listed.

2. Purchase a HotRod joystick or ArcadePC upright cabinet from HanaHo, which come with fully licensed CapCom ROMs.

3. Buy any of the various PC compilations that have been released that have emulated or recreated versions of arcade classics.

4. Buy Dragon's Lair and other laser disc games from the legally licensed seller, Digital Leisure, and play them with their engines or use Daphne.

5. Try the hundreds of shareware/freeware arcade remakes and originals available from places like retroremakes.com, Big Fish Games, Alwar Entertainment, retro64.com, and many others.

6. Search the software forum on this web site for games that people are legally playing on their arcade controls.

It used to be that the only thing that was a guarantee to irritate me was to attack my integrity, but I've found that the other thing is the "if you're building arcade controls you must be a pirate" line that keeps coming up.

--- saint

[leapinlew]

Ok! Then where to find legal games for the emulators? You know as well as I do this enables illegal activity to have other copies then legal games.

It kills me that everybody acts so wholesome! People are trading games and you can't tell me anything diferent because people do it with music also!

How many people on here or mame world own a copy of something they don't own?
To have a forum that supports emulators and doesn't entertain questions as to where to get games especailly legal games is ludacris. Besides to get kicked off of a forum without first answering the question to legal games tells me you can do illegal activity but don't say so on their forum which supprts emlators and inturn will support illegal games.

Just my personal opinion!

Saint is right. You need to do a little more research before you accuse a whole community of illegal activities.

[CheffoJeffo]

How many people on here ... own a copy of something they don't own?

I do !

Or, wait ...

do I ?

 

[digitaldj]

Then forums admin's need to quit kicking someone one off because they asked where to get games. Though I know it wasn't on this forum but I know alot of people frequent both and it wasn't the admin here.

As to the pirate comment, don't tell me that anybody that has a cd or dvd burner hasn't used it to copy something illegal. To give, sell or borrow copyrighted material is illegal even to the extent of 2 little old ladies exchanginging copyrighted receipes.

I don't want to get anybody fired up here, just want to understand the emulator stuff and state the obvious of breaking the law on any platform, we have all done even speeding.

[CheffoJeffo]

Then forums admin's need to quit kicking someone one off because they asked where to get games. Though I know it wasn't on this forum but I know alot of people frequent both and it wasn't the admin here.

As to the pirate comment, don't tell me that anybody that has a cd or dvd burner hasn't used it to copy something illegal. To give, sell or borrow copyrighted material is illegal even to the extent of 2 little old ladies exchanginging copyrighted receipes.

I don't want to get anybody fired up here, just want to understand the emulator stuff and state the obvious of breaking the law on any platform.

If you don't want to get people fired up, then don't ... that is to say, we have all heard the eleventy brazilion arguments about copying CDs or DVDs (and, your little story about the little old ladies is NOT necessarily true AND depends on jurisdiction). None of them have any bearing on The Rules.

This is saint's site and those are his rules -- don't ask where to get copies of ROMs that you don't have the rights to. He told you where to get legal ROMs.

If you got kicked off a MAMEworld, then you probably didn't read the FAQ there either.

It is a great hobby, but please take a second to read a bit before you tick more people off with your "we all do it, so what is the big deal" nonsense.

 

[crashwg]

What people have or haven't done that may or may not be illegal is irrelevant.  If this website or any other allowed it's members to support the distribution of roms (which I don't think anyone will argue is usually illegal) then this and/or those other sites would be susceptible  to legal action from all sorts of people.

Yes, I'm sure what Saint touched on is true and there probably are some people who run their cabs completely legit (a small percentage IMHO) but for the rest of us, getting MAME and other emulators up and running isn't that hard to do with an internet connection and a search engine.  We are willing to go out of our way and look for answers elsewhere as to not jeopardize what we have here, a community of people dedicated to preserving/making arcade machines.

While I do appreciate when people try and stir up discussion like this occasionally, I believe you're starting to cross the line a little bit when it comes to pushing buttons (at least mine).

[Organic Jerk]

digitaldj, you seem to show an understanding of one unstated concept but seem to lack (whether purposely or not) understanding of another unstated concept. 

It should make perfect sense to you why people should not and do not post open discussions about illegal material on an open forum.

[digitaldj]

My original complaint was when I was kicked off for asking where to find games and it should have been said that legal games can be found here and then said they don't support illegal games. That is what got me fired up. Being new to emulator games I had no idea where to find them!

That's it, I got what I needed!

[leapinlew]

My original complaint was when I was kicked off for asking where to find games and it should have been said that legal games can be found here and then said they don't support illegal games. That is what got me fired up. Being new to emulator games I had no idea where to find them!

That's it, I got what I needed!

So you went to a different forum to pick a fight? You would be wise to take note of the rules when you sign up for forums. Point to 1 person on BYOAC who was kicked off for asking about ROMS. We usually straighten them out just like you got straightened out.

[DaveMMR]

I know all the answers were provided already but I feel like saying something here.

It seems to me, digitaldj, that you didn't understand the rules of a forum and now you're playing the victim trying to plead "ignorance" as a defense.  I know you're trying to justify your actions by discrediting everyone else, but I suggest you follow the rules and stop trying to circumvent them just because you think the entire world is full of hypocrites.   The rules have nothing to do with what we do outside the forum - right or wrong.  None of us pretend to be "holier than thou", we just know what we can and can't do.  That's it - simple as that. 




 

[BobA]

Well said Dave MMR.

 

[gatordad]

This is not a MAME support site nor an emulation site, this is a site about building hardware systems to play arcade games on a computer. You can play hundreds if not thousands of games on arcade controls without ever once using an illegally gotten ROM or even MAME. Note - I am a fan of MAME, but MAME and arcadecontrols.com are two completely different entities with different goals.

That said, there are a few options:

1. Get the freely released ROMs at mamedev.org - currently there are 12 listed.

2. Purchase a HotRod joystick or ArcadePC upright cabinet from HanaHo, which come with fully licensed CapCom ROMs.

3. Buy any of the various PC compilations that have been released that have emulated or recreated versions of arcade classics.

4. Buy Dragon's Lair and other laser disc games from the legally licensed seller, Digital Leisure, and play them with their engines or use Daphne.

5. Try the hundreds of shareware/freeware arcade remakes and originals available from places like retroremakes.com, Big Fish Games, Alwar Entertainment, retro64.com, and many others.

6. Search the software forum on this web site for games that people are legally playing on their arcade controls.

It used to be that the only thing that was a guarantee to irritate me was to attack my integrity, but I've found that the other thing is the "if you're building arcade controls you must be a pirate" line that keeps coming up.

--- saint

So let it be written....So let it be done.....
Love the book buy the way, It's costing me alot of money

[TOK]

My original complaint was when I was kicked off for asking where to find games and it should have been said that legal games can be found here and then said they don't support illegal games. That is what got me fired up. Being new to emulator games I had no idea where to find them!

That's it, I got what I needed!

I think what actually got you kicked off was that you have an inflammatory posting style. How much pirated music does a person called digitaldj have on his I-Pod?   

[digitaldj]

Matter of fact the 8,000 albums I have on my juke and dj setup I own and can prove it. But i was like any other dj that played gigs and got payed for the nusic I played as a public performance and is against copyright laws. I was busted in 2000 playing a huge new years eve party and cost me 10,000 fine and was lucky not to spend jail time. I was targeted because of a large collection of music. As it stands right now I have not played anymore gigs.

Look I wasn't looking to start a fight just voicing some opinions but I see that can't be done(good ol'e america huh!). As the posting stated I was just looking for legal games.

Yes it was not on this forum, as I stated before but I know most of you frequent mame world. I would have posted there but... I got kicked off. Matter of fact it wasn't even a posted question just a private message to the admin with a legitimate question for legal games.

Here is a good point, it is allowable for people to post about such topics and where to download illegal software such as tinyxp etc. but I don't see anything done about that and that is on this forum.

[digitaldj]

My original complaint was when I was kicked off for asking where to find games and it should have been said that legal games can be found here and then said they don't support illegal games. That is what got me fired up. Being new to emulator games I had no idea where to find them!

That's it, I got what I needed!

I think what actually got you kicked off was that you have an inflammatory posting style. How much pirated music does a person called digitaldj have on his I-Pod?   

TOK
I guess your no different than I because your making an assumption about me

[WunderCade]

Such and abrasive manner...digitaldj.  Click here and strap in bro: P'n'R

[leapinlew]

Here is a good point, it is allowable for people to post about such topics and where to download illegal software such as tinyxp etc. but I don't see anything done about that and that is on this forum.

Whats your point man? Geez, get over it already. You got booted from another forum and it sounds like you want booted off this one as well.

Get a life.

[TOK]

TOK
I guess your no different than I because your making an assumption about me

Seems like my assumption was right based on your other post, huh? Seems like every anti-piracy net cop that comes along always winds up dirtier than the people he's preaching to.
Maybe since you wore out your welcome on one forum so fast, and you're well into doing it on a second one, it'd be prudent to learn whats acceptable before spouting off. I made sure I had 50 or so posts before revealing my true a-hole self.

You have a PM...