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[punch999]

I thought I would randomly mention that OBVIOUSLY. Nintendo wouldn't want you to host ROMS when that is the buisness they are going to use with the Wii's virtual console

[Tom Henrik]

Well, this was before the Wii was created.

[Burger Meister]

If you are looking for new systems of any of the above, they are not created anymore by their respective companies which means we aren't hurting their sales because all it is is other people selling their old second hands to other people. If amiga was still manufactured I wouldn't want roms/emulators to be added, but it's not sold by it's company anymore.

[chainsoar]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Burger Meister @ Nov 2 2006, 11:58 AM) [snapback]264987[/snapback]</div>

That Leaves:

-Game gear
-Amiga
-Commodore
-Spectrum
-Master System
-Genesis
-Wonderswan
-Neo Geo
-Neo Geo Pocket
-Turbo Graphix
-Turbo Graphix 16

There's most likely more... [/b]

I'm something of an emu nut and used to have a ton of roms on my old pc, and I know that roms are illegal unless you own the original copy - ie the cartridge/disc/whatever. Neo Geo and Neo Geo pocket roms are definitely off limits. Also, Sega are still around producing games for other companies and they're not letting go of any of the old Genesis games.

This entry from Wikipedia covers it pretty well -

In some countries, it is legal for an individual to personally make backup copies of a game they own. Individuals may make backup copies for various reasons, perhaps as insurance against losing the game or as redundancy in the event that the original game's medium becomes unreadable. See the section on ROMs and Preservation.

However, in the U.S. it has been illegal since 1983 for a user to create their own backups of video game ROMs. This was decided in the courtc case of Atari vs JS&A. JS&A manufactured a "game backup" device that allowed users to dump their Atari ROMs onto a blank cartridge. JS&A argued that the archival rule allowed for this. The court disagreed, noting that ROM media was not subject to the same volatility as magnetic media (for which the law was created). Thus, not being so relatively vulnerable, ROMs were not applicable under section 17 USC 117.

Some games companies, such as Nintendo, print warnings inside their game manuals that they do not allow users to make backup or archival copies. Whether or not these warnings in this specific form can be considered valid contracts is legally questionable. For an overview of relevant issues, see user agreement (EULA), shrink wrap contract, clickwrap, Fair Use, Fair Dealing and DMCA.



Roms are quite a tricky legal grey area, some are legal, some aren't, some might be legal or not, in some countries they're all illegal, and in other countries they're just not sure. You have to be really careful with hosting roms. The only place I ever really got them was from sites that were entirely prepared to post warez.

[JJXB]

if it's going to be emulation within the law, i'd say just provide a site to help with emulation and guides (e.g. guides to setting up PSX emulators/imaging psx games/getting bios legally etc) and have reviews of roms and compatability lists. that way, it would be emulation based but it wouldn't be illegal (as there wouldn't be any rom links/bios links etc) anyway, anyone that desperate to download roms/bios would have to look themselves. so if your careful then you could set up a emulation site

and as for what consoles it should relate to i think it should include (i don't mean roms, i mean the catual emulators):
Playstation
Saturn
Dreamcast
Nintendo 64
Snes
Nes
Game Gear
Sega Master System
Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
Game Boy/Color/Advance
Amiga
C64

and basically any other console under the sun that can be emulated. obviously, the choice of what consoles are actually covered on there is up to whoever runs it (be it tom or kosta or anyone else) but IMO covering emulators wouldn't do any harm (just stay away from the taboo bits like where to dl roms/bios files)

[Burger Meister]

^^^^

I guess that's a safer and better idea.

[nace]

Whell, we had (and still are...) this conversation on AR. You can check it out-here is the link. I would love to see something like that to happend, but I don`t think that that would happend in the near future...

[troop18546]

Why make a site like that? If you need any emulators and emu games - there's plenty of site to go and download the crap out of them. AB and AR are only a few sites, controlled by a small group (owned by one?), making an Emuladonia would result in NOTHING. Why? Because #1 the fact remains that AB has issues of getting games (ESA and stuff), but emu sites have issues of having NO rights to host ANY of the files. If we're having trouble on AB with ESA - there'd be shitload of trouble making an emu site. Plus there's no need for one as I've said. I rest my case.

[faralar]

that isn't totally true, some amiga games are availible for download as long as you have the original game..

I like the way they've done with the latest games (the "get the amiga version here") maybe that could be done with other versions of the games as well?

[troop18546]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(faralar @ Nov 5 2006, 10:20 PM) [snapback]265481[/snapback]</div>

that isn't totally true, some amiga games are availible for download as long as you have the original game..

I like the way they've done with the latest games (the "get the amiga version here") maybe that could be done with other versions of the games as well?
[/b]

You say "some" Amiga games, so what's with all the other games? If you're really looking for trouble - then go ahead - make the site, I wash my hands on the whole thing.