That is where the gray area exists: no court had yet made any ruling on this matter.

However, if a game was no longer available for purchase, downloading a ROM image would not cause market harm, right? Especially if you previously owned a copy and the game cartridge had become damaged. Even the mere act of downloading a game via a peer-to-peer network (such as Torrent) could be considered “sharing” and thus illegal. Sharing ROMs, however, is against the law. “Fair Use” gives you that right, though copyright holders often claim otherwise. If you own the game, downloading a copy is not illegal. Any information shared here is general in nature and not to be taken as personal, professional, or legal advice. Where the legal gray area exists are the ROMs themselves.ĭisclaimer: I am not an attorney. Since most do not contain any proprietary code, they almost certainly are lawful. Whether that is illegal is a point of contention in the gaming and software industry, but at the time of writing this article, I was not able to find any definite answer since no US court had yet made a ruling.Įmulators are software that mimic the game console with which the ROM image can be played. Console games were shipped onto memory cards that could not be modified (“read-only”), but enthusiasts had found ways to copy them as “ROM images” as a way to preserve game history or for piracy.

It is not entirely user friendly, but very powerful. Other emulators I had played with in the past connected via the Red/White/Yellow RCA (composite) cables - whose ports some newer TVs no longer offer.īefore we get into my review of the Anyando Wireless HDMI Game Console Stick, let us go over what Game ROMs are.įor a higher-end emulator, check out our favorite, Android-based Retroid Pocket 3 Plus. The premise was simple: plug in the game stick into any TV’s HDMI port and play! This even worked on a Toyota Sienna minivan’s rear entertainment system! The key here is the connection interface: HDMI. This was made possible through the inclusion of “Game ROMs” that the manufacturer placed onto the removable 64GB microSD memory card. Sega Genesis (MD) / PlayStation (PS1) / Super Famicom (SFC).Gameboy / Gameboy Advance / Gameboy Color.Atari / Capcom Play System (CPS) / Super Nintendo (FC).

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