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Author:
Road|{ill
Well, it all started out... I was browsing the web, checking out some old commodore 64 emulators on your site. I saw a link for Nintendo 64. I was curious, so I clicked it. I had known that N64 emulation was either fake or in it's infancy at best. Then I saw it. Yes, the infamous link to UltraHLE. WTF???
I couldn't believe it. A real working N64 emulator. I wanna say that there is a real problem today. I OWN a Nintendo 64. I OWN a few games for it. Now they can be easily downloaded and played for FREE! And to think, that this was only a technical experiment. ...
Okay, just a technical demo? First of all, if you write a technical demo, you write it JUST to see if it works. However, releasing it publicly, where untold millions may have access to it through the World Wide Web?! This is OBSURD! Now, if you take a $140 system, and $40-$60 games and port them to a computer where they can be downloaded free (though illegally)... this is definitely going to piss somebody off. Of course it did. Nintendo has announced that emulation as a WHOLE is illegal. Many different people have different opinions about this. When it comes to N64 emulation, I think that the company that designs the games should be payed for them.
However, in these recent days, people have gone wild over pirating games. The emulation scene has been reduced to a bunch of panicky warez'ers with their teeth bared. The IDSA is gonna have a field day. That remains to be seen.
However, I have a different opinion in regards to InVerse's article (most of you have probably read this). It depicts a sort of Doomsday scene for emulation. I disagree.
Not to say that emulation wont be affected at all; that too is untrue. It will hurt it somewhat, but the scene will not die. It seems to be the same thing as Mp3 used to be. It had a small following. Few people knew about it so the impact on the music industry was unnoticeable. However in the last year or so, it has exploded, with music piracy run rampant. The bottom line is, that no matter how hard an organization tries to kill something on the net, it is impossible. It's all the same. MP3, Warez, VQF, VIVO...anything. Although each have come against opposition from several groups, all remain strong.
But I'm not worried about the legality of the situation as much as I am the morality. People are using the net for illegal purposes more today than ever before. N64 emulation is not only illegal (according to Nintendo) but its not right because it brings up strong opposition to Emulation. It will undoubtedly be pushed underground, but it will never die.
What happened to the good old days?
Road|{ill
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