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Emulation: Difference between revisions
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The most popular computers to emulate are [[Arcade Game|Arcade Games]] and games consoles, although emulators for other systems do exist. Most emulators are written by fans/enthusiasts, as a technical challenge, as a way of storing computing history ([[MAME]] and [[MESS]] have this as their primary goal), or as a way to run games on something other than what they were written for in the first place. A few emulators are written by the official manufacturers, such as Nintendo's acNES for GBA (used for the eReader, GBA extras in ''[[Animal Crossing]]'', and Classic NES Series) and the emulators in [[Virtual Console]] titles on Wii Shop Channel.
In order to play games, emulators [[Captain Obvious|require the game software as well]]. These usually come in the form of [[ROM|ROMs]] (for cartridge-based games) and various disc image formats (for disc-based games). Publicly distributing your ROM dumps (pirating copyrighted games) without permission is generally considered illegal, with possible, nebulous, and debatable exceptions for “fair use” in some cases. The veracity (and legal validity) of these beliefs have yet to be formally ruled on in either direction; and thus, talk about emulation (especially talk about [[ROM|ROMs]] themselves) is generally a [[Flame Bait|very dangerous subject on internet fora]], such as the [[Game FAQs]] fora and others, which may auto-delete posts that direct other users towards emulation sites, possibly even if they don't link to games themselves, partly due to legal reasons. Morality issues are even grayer, so [[Internet Backdraft|it's probably best not talk about it]], lest you start up rampant [[Flame War|Flame Wars]], or [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|worse yet]], philosophy students bandying about terms such as "utilitarianism" or the dreaded "Kant's Categorical Imperative." There's really no reason to share such information anyway, since most web searches can provide it handily.
Nevertheless, the lure of [[Retro Gaming|classic games]] is too much for many gamers to resist, especially for [[Abandon Ware|games that are long out of print]], [[No Export for You|were never sold in one's part of the world]], were never (or were [[Blind Idiot Translation|poorly]]) [[Fan Translation|translated]], or do not exist in a portable format. In addition, emulators tend to add lots of comfort features such as state freezing, upscaling, control remapping, cheats, etc., and also allow gamers to study, [[Game Mod|modify]], and [[Tool Assisted Speedrun|find interesting things to do with]] these games.
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