The Ethics of Emulation

[LocoColt04]

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this editorial may not reflect the opinion of The Final Fantasy founder and owner, Steve "Fuzz" Thompson, nor does it define the opinion of the website's community.


As everyone knows, emulation is a growing theme in the world of videogaming. Even companies such as Nintendo have hopped on the bandwagon, offering earlier cartridge titles for download on their upcoming Revolution. But when the emulating is in the hands of the fans, is it ethical?

As you may or may not be aware (you should be), TFF does not support discussion of illegal software. Here is the official excerpt from the rules:

Illegal Content is NOT PERMITTED. This includes (and is not limited to) warez, oldwarez, crack(s/z), serial(s/z), hack(s/z), plans for hacking a site (such as this one), plans for illegal activity, and acts of terrorism. The only thing not included in this would be the consumption of drugs, which is permissible. This messageboard is not a hideout for terrorists. There are plenty of other places where you can view such material at your discretion. This is NOT one of them.

Why, then, do I not only allow, but promote threads such as Cain Highwind's FFT6 hack? Because it is different. You're probably asking yourself how, are you not? It is rather simple. Cain's "hack" is a ROM, which can be played with any standard SNES emulator. The thread can be found here. Now, for me to tell you where you can acquire other ROMs would be against the rules. I often tell members just to do a Google search, or divulge my sources someplace other than on the forum itself. So why is discussion of ROMs different from what's listed in the rules? Because a ROM is a work of art. On its own, it is nothing more than a game, either ported from some cartridge or ripped from some disc, or perhaps created or modified by a fan or group of fans.

As a reader, you may be wondering why I have set aside the time to write this to begin with. Recently, Cain Highwind posted news of a group of Japanese hackers who successfully transferred Final Fantasy X in its entirety to a ROM for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The thread can be found here. One member stated his disgust for the project, and the thread turned sour. An argument spawned, fueled primary by yours truly, and the original topic was long forgotten.

I present this editorial to you in hopes that the discussion can be continued, but in a more sophisticated manner, such as a debate rather than an argument. Any argumentative commentary shall be deleted at my discretion. I ask only that you respect the opinions of one another, in order to keep this civil.

Now that the scene has been set, my real point: the ethics of emulation.

Is it ethical to take a game created by a team of highly skilled developers which worked on it for months on end and modify it however you please? The initial reaction to a question like that would be to disagree. Those developers worked long and hard, and their creation deserves to remain untouched. Who are we, the fans, to take the game into our own hands and change it at our every whim?

Ah, but you see, fair readers, that is precisely the question which holds the utmost importance. We are the fans. We have every right to obtain an enjoyable gaming experience. What would Halo be if not for the fan-created maps and modifications? Or what of Warcraft III, without modes like DOTA? Ever hear of a little game called Counter-Strike, though not fan-created, is still nothing more than a Half-Life mod?

The recreation, modification, and emulation of videogames is simply an homage to the original titles themselves. If the fans did not enjoy the games, they would not take the time to modify them to begin with. There is nothing wrong with presenting a game through various medias so that others may enjoy them. Furthermore, so long as these emulations remain free of charge, no one can profit off of them. No one is "stealing" from the industry, or harming the original developer in any way. I have never seen a ROM in which proper copyrights have not been addressed. Does this mean such ROMs do not exist? Of course not, as that would be an absurd assumption.

For example, take the aforementioned Final Fantasy X ROM. With the title now available to the public in the form of emulation, albeit in an inferior form, people who might have once been skeptical of the original title may now have interest in it. Is this to say that every person who plays FFX-NES will buy a copy of the original for the Playstation 2? Not in the least; however, additional hype surrounding the game has always been proven to spike sales. If the hype comes from emulation, is it any less real? Is emulation anything more than another form of advertising?

And who are we, as gamers, to criticize our fellow gamers? Do artists run around screaming at other artists, whining about how the mimicry of another artist's style is a crime against humanity? Do novelists confront other novelists, telling them that their books are worthless? Unless the world has fallen into complete anarchy, that memo was never posted. Look at the current state of the entertainment industry. Censorship is everywhere: movies, television, radio, and videogames alike. With strong anti-gaming lobbyists such as Jack Thompson prowling, this is hardly the time to be fighting amongst ourselves.

So I ask you, not as a writer, nor as a friend, but as a fellow gamer: put aside your differences, and embrace emulation. It causes no harm to the industry; rather, it has only strengthened it, broadening the span of videogaming. Have you never played a title, and wished it had something more? Have you never wondered what a game would be like if presented on a different platform? Emulation allows it.

[T.G. Oskar]

My, my, touching editorial. First things first: I support emulation, but my support is limited. While I wholeheartedly disagree with the emulation of systems that are still accessible in the general market (IE any video-game selling store that sells these games new, not "pre-played"), I still support the idea of emulating systems that have become obsolete in terms of the market. In other words, while I do not agree to play with a ROM of a PS2/GC/XBOX/any next-gen system (exceptions are other thing I'll explain later), I agree to play with ROMs from the NES/SNES/Genesis/GB/GBA/etc. I have loved these games since they came out, and after the developers stopped production, I hungered to play them again. Emulation has given me a chance.

There are a set of points I wish to set as my support as to why emulators should exist, albeit the non-next-gen ones. First, availability. The games are almost unavailable anymore, and if I want to go to E-Bay(tm) to buy a copy, it would be because I'm either a big fan or a collectionist. If I want only to play the game, I prefer an emulator.

Second, the original developers do not lose money from it, since the games aren't produced anymore!! Re-releases? Well, they cost even more to produce because they need to pay a whole new set of people, those who set the game for the new system. Those people already got payed for their services, they are paid for their job, not for the revenues. 'Course, their paychecks come from the sales. But they get paid also for a whole other set of games. Besides, the videogame industry is right there with pornography and movies as the most successful industries to date, even with the piracy around. If you buy a used copy on E-Bay, you'll only pay to the bidder: no money goes to the developer.

Third, most games d/led b=for emulators never reached some shores. Some games never came to America, or Europe, or even Japan (in the case of America-focused games). People never had a chance to play them in that time, and now have the chance to.

Fourth, the movement of emulation has changed the industry forever. Executives are aware people are struck by nostalgia, and re-release these old games and bring the never-before released. And people buy 'em, not like hotcakes but still generate a good amount of money to the company.

Fifth, why do you think games like Doom, Half-Life, and others have become so popular? Because of user-made things. User-made maps, hacks, translation patches: all contributed to the success of a particular game, or benefited from it. Of course, the game must be good too, but these programs help keep the interest in the game.

Sixth, emulation is a work of art. It takes time, consumes resources (energy, KB of info, hours of sleep, etc.) into getting the game and setting up a program to understand the info, so the computer can emulate (hence the word) the original system. I respect people that do emulators, and those who risk their own games so that others may enjoy 'em. They do something that I don't, and use their skills in what they like, something not usual around these days. And if emulation itself is a hard process, t-patches and hacks are harder yet.

Seventh: hacks and t-patches offer a new and different way of experiencing the game. Even if you own the original, the hack allows for something the original cannot give you. Some are ridiculous, but some are well made, result of days and hours of work, and a sincere commitment into honoring the essence of the game.

...and that are my 2 cents about emulation. Cesar, if you may, you can dispose of the post as you like, but I needed to take that out of me.

[LocoColt04]

Originally Posted by T.G. Oskar

While I wholeheartedly disagree with the emulation of systems that are still accessible in the general market (IE any video-game selling store that sells these games new, not "pre-played"), I still support the idea of emulating systems that have become obsolete in terms of the market.

I, too, feel the same way, but couldn't find a great way to put it into the article. As such, I figured I would just wait until someone else mentioned it and state my opinion on it at that point in time. I didn't expect it would be so soon.

Originally Posted by T.G. Oskar

...and that are my 2 cents about emulation. Cesar, if you may, you can dispose of the post as you like, but I needed to take that out of me.

Looked more like seven cents to me.

Now why on earth would I dispose of your post? It's not causing any problems. It's only when the bitching begins that things will be deleted. I'm just hoping the thread stays smart and doesn't reach that point. I hate watching intelligent topics go downhill.

[awall]

I'd have to say I agree with most of what you've said, LocoColt, but there are a few comments I'd like to make.

First of all, I think there should be a distinction between emulating and romhacking. Emulating is the act of downloading an emulator (which is actually perfectly legal, and I don't see why you don't support the discussion of such here) and downloading a rom (which is illegal, so I won't go into detail about where to do that) and playing the game on your computer instead of on whatever console it was originally meant to be played on. While it's in theory okay to emulate, you aren't supposed to have rom images unless you created them yourself from a copy of the original game. I ripped my copy of FFT to my computer, and I tend to play it emulated rather than on a PS simply because it's more convienient to play it on my computer than to have to find a TV. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that*.

But let me ask everybody who reads this: How many of you emulate games? How many of you actually own every game that you emulate? And even if you do, how many of you made the rom image yourself? I dare you... I dare anybody who has ever emulated to say truthfully that you have never emulated any game except one that you ripped from the cartridge/CD yourself. Anybody? Anybody at all?

(Note the silence that follows.)

The thing is, nobody follows the rules for how to emulate legally. Why? First of all, the lure of playing games for free is simply too strong. Downloading roms is like pirating music. Everybody knows it's illegal, but nobody is quite moral enough to quit doing it. I know for my part that I'm not. But there are other reasons why none of us feel that bad about it. Old games are notoriously difficult to find. Nobody makes NES or SNES games anymore. Sure, many of the old classics have been remade for new systems, but there is usually a long delay before they are. I emulated FF1, 2, 3, 4j, and 5 long before any of them (except 1) were available in the US. Hell, 3 still isn't out over here; if a game isn't for sale, then who are you ripping off by finding some other way to acquire it?

In general, the abandonware argument is a valid case for emulating in my opinion. These days, most systems have graphics cards and other hardware that any geek would go nuts over. Computers within the normal person's price range (especially people the age of most of the people who emulate a lot) simply aren't capable of putting out that kind of graphics quality. Right now I would imagine most companies make most of their money of PS2/Gamecube/Xbox games, and you'll notice that there are no emulators out there powerful enough to handle those systems. By the time a system is old enough to be emulatable, it is generally unprofitable to sell games for it, so the games tend to go out of print. Again, if something is not readily available in stores, I don't see who we rip off when we download a rom of it.

The one place this argument breaks down is for portable systems. GBA became emulatable shortly after its release, yet Nintendo continues to sell games for it. This is where I feel the most guilty about emulating, because in this case it really is theft. If I hadn't had a rom of FFTA available, I might actually have gone out and bought a real copy of the game. Actually, I probably wouldn't have - I would have borrowed a GBA and the game from a friend and played that. The fact that I had it available through a friend is my excuse for pirating; I encourage those of you who emulate GBA (or DS or PSP if/when that becomes available) to think about what you're doing. Emulating retro games is one thing; stealing from Nintendo is another. I won't tell you not to do it, because that would sound very hypocritical, but at least try to understand what you're doing.

And now, onto the second topic here: romhacking. I agree with LocoColt that romhacking is similar to player-created maps/scenarios in Warcraft or Halo. I believe it's actually part of the "fair use" part of copyright law that if you own a copyrighted work, you are allowed to modify it all you like so long as you don't try to sell the modified copy as your own work or anything. I'm a bit sketchy on legal stuff, so take what I say with a grain of salt; however, I believe there is nothing illegal about hacking a rom.

Actually, one clarification. When you make a patch for a rom, you don't (necessarily) modify the rom itself. Instead, you usually generate a .ips file; this file is a patch which is then applied to the rom to modify it appropriately. What Cain Highwind distributes in his thread is just the .ips file. This is NOT the rom; we all know that offering roms for download is illegal, but the .ips is ENTIRELY Cain's own work. Why shouldn't he be allowed to offer a file he created all by himself? It's his own original creation that just happens to have an effect when you apply it as a patch to an illegal copy of FF6.

I believe romhacking is not disrespectful to the original creators. Romhacking is like fanfiction; people hack roms because they loved them so much that they wanted to play with them too. We've all heard that imitation is the highest form of flattery; to me, somebody telling me that my game is so good that they want to spend their own time and effort to make it better (or at least what they consider to be better) would be a huge compliment.

Anyway, this is just my two cents regarding emulation and romhacking. Feel free to disagree.

EDIT: Oops... I started this post before TGO made his, but it looks like we said more or less the same thing. Ahwell, brilliant minds...



*Actually, for this to be completely legal, I would also have to have a legit copy of the PSX BIOS, which I don't... (hides head in shame).

[ZRO]

Heh, I agree with LC on all of this. Except for the fact that Counter-Strike originally was a fan developed title, based off of the Half-Life engine. After seeing how hugely popular it got, Valve picked up the title (can't remember if they hired the guys, or just paid'em off) and they've been distributing it since. ^^

[LocoColt04]

Ah, see, I never actually had a chance to play the original Counter-Strike, only all of its updates. I was under the impression that it was a fan-created mod on Half-Life, but considering the fact that it's now packaged with HL and HL2, I got confused and didn't feel like spending any more time scrounging through facts. Thanks for the correction.

[ShinRa]

Well, NES games are gone. Same goes for SNES games. The only way people can play the beloved games of old is to pirate them. I have to myself. There are some games that are impossible to find that are just excellent, but oh wait, the company's not making it anymore, or it went bankrupt. So while I don't like to, I do it anyway. I don't want to spend $100 on a console and $50 per game. GBA, on the other hand, I don't pirate stuff on. The company in question, Nintendo, is still manufacturing GBA games and systems. If I download a GBA ROM, I make sure it's one I already have. Like KH CoM, FFTA, and FF I&II DoS. But then again, that's my opinion...

[ZRO]

Also of note is the fact that it's okay to d/l ROMs that you don't have as long as you delete them within 24 hours. Sort of a trial period I guess you could say. I forgot to mention that. So it's not illegal to d/l the ROMs and have them until after you've had them for more than 24 hours. Which is, of course, the case with most of them. ^^;

[chocbolovr]

good editorial. I have the original Atari, SNES, and NES, but I don't really like to get wear and tear on my systems just becasue they are so old, so i download the games i want. If im really hooked by the game, i might buy it just to say that i own it. i personally have nothing against hacks, just as long as proper credit is given. the FFX idea was ingenious.

Gamers unite in a war against all our enemies! Or, somethin...

[awall]

Originally Posted by ZRO

Also of note is the fact that it's okay to d/l ROMs that you don't have as long as you delete them within 24 hours. Sort of a trial period I guess you could say. I forgot to mention that. So it's not illegal to d/l the ROMs and have them until after you've had them for more than 24 hours. Which is, of course, the case with most of them. ^^;

As far as my (admittedly flawed) understanding goes, that is not the case. All those websites that say you're allowed to hold onto the games for 24 hours are just spouting BS. The law allowing you to download games for 24 hours is exactly the same as the law allowing you to download mp3s or movies for 24 hours; it doesn't exist.

I believe the statement originated as a disclaimer on one of the first rom sites to try to cover its butt. You know, if everybody downloaded illegal roms from your site, you can at least claim that they were violating your policy and you shouldn't be held responsible. Would never hold up under legal scrutiny, but... whatever.

It's not like anybody deletes them after 24 hours anyway, nor do they have any means of tracking it without doing some sort of DRM-ish encryption on the rom, which I'm sure all of us really want.