Snes roms gone?
6 years ago

I was trying to find some new roms, particularly the japanese version of lltp, and I noticed that on both of my go to sites (emuparadise and coolroms) that not only all the zelda roms are gone, but all of the snes roms on coolrom and most of them from emuparadise. Anyone know whats up?

Ireland

Probably got hit by Ninetndos lawyers, Nintendo are not a fan of emulation of their systems and will aggressively go after people infringing their copyrights.

TingTyphoon likes this
Antarctica

Yeah Nintendo nuked all the ROMs of their games on popular sites in the past few months.

There's a couple obscure (and safe) sites I've found that still host at least some of the ROMs, but obviously not gonna publically post them here for the clear legal reasons.

In short, a lot of them are still out there just harder to find now. I'm super glad I had the foresight to grab a few of the No Intro Sets before this happened.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
TingTyphoon and HowDenKing like this

blarg..I have an external somehwhere that i downloaded literally every rom available forever ago, but i have no idea where it is...[message redacted by moderator] final fantasy too? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Edited by ROMaster2 6 years ago
Texas, USA

After all these years of teasing us, it really ¤was¤ the Final Fantasy....

PackSciences likes this
Kansas, USA

Noticed this today when I was trying to find the Donkey Kong NES ROM, was planning to run it. Ah well, I'll find it somewhere else (legally, of course).

European Union

**not to be that guy but could you not talk about illegal stuff on here? ** https://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#roms there's a whole site for you to read through if you want to know more.

[quote]Noticed this today when I was trying to find the Donkey Kong NES ROM, was planning to run it. Ah well, I'll find it somewhere else (legally, of course).[/quote] that would mean getting a physical cart or via VC then.

~HDK

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Texas, USA

That's interesting, actually. I would have thought obtaining a copy of something you already purchased would be within your rights, but it looks like it's not. From what I can tell, it looks like all games played on an emulator- at least for Nintendo- are done so illegally, because they haven't released any of the rights to any of their games, nor have they built or released any ported versions for emulators. If that is the case, then shouldn't runs for Nintendo games played on an emulator be banned from this site?

As a random example, about half of the runs done for the Pokemon Red/Blue Any% claim to be done on a GBA emulator, but according to Nintendo, these are all done with illegal, pirated software. Furthermore, according to the information in that link, it seems that this kind of thing can have serious consequences on the site as a whole, because "(websites) can be held liable for copyright and trademark violations,regardless of whether the illegal software and/or devices are on their site or whether they are linking to the sites where the illegal items are found."

I suppose the other side of this coin is that banning runs done on emulators creates a paywall for submitting legal runs, because in order to qualify to submit a run, you must purchase the game and system. Then again, in order to be an olympic swimmer, you have to purchase a swimsuit, so that's not really a great argument. The fact that it has been this way for a while doesn't change the fact that it is wrong. Honestly, all things considered, I think that banning emulator runs for Nintendo games is the lesser of these two evils. I know nobody has challenged this yet, but I think it needs to be. This is a much bigger issue than it first seems, and if this site has runs that are openly admitting to being done on pirated software, that is just a hair shy of supporting piracy. IMHO.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Washington, USA
EmeraldAly
She/Her, They/Them
6 years ago

Downloading a ROM of a game you physically own is perhaps ethically defensible, but legally, yeahno, not even a grey area. Emulation is not a "hair shy" of piracy, it ¤is¤ piracy. And before anyone comments on the height of my horse, I don't personally give a fuck. It's not something I choose to do, but I know that puts me in a staunch minority.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
TingTyphoon likes this
North Brabant, Netherlands

Emulation is not illegal. Every VC game runs on an emulator. These are officially released roms+emulators by Nintendo/sega/etc. Others forms of emulation however, it is illegal. The only gray line is, dumping your console bios and game on the computer to emulate it there.

Also, fangames also fall under copyright. Nintendo has shut down several fangame projects. And this also include romhacks. Nintendo is in the last years fighting hard against this.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Texas, USA

Emulation itself is not illegal, but pirating copyrighted material is. From what I can tell, Nintendo has ¤never¤ released an official emulator for any of their old systems outside of the Wii Virtual Console and I think there might be one for 3DS. I'm not really a Nintendo person myself, but my point is that any run that claims to be done on an emulator of a game that isn't on Nintendo's official list is a pirated copy and should be removed from this site.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
North Brabant, Netherlands

Including fangames? Those arent legal either.

Lower Saxony, Germany

Just because Nintendo says it is so, it ain't so. As far as I can tell, from the few sources that actually quote the law and court decisions, if you a) make a dump of a cartridge you own, to b) be able to play a game on your PC, that you could also play on original hardware and c) neither modify nor share or sell the image it is considered fair use. And Any individual may reproduce a copyrighted work for a "fair use;" the copyright owner does not possess the exclusive right to such a use. (SCE v Universal) Actually proving that this is ¤not¤ what happened when someone submits such a run is very hard. I don't think a court could hold the site responsible, as long as no information is given on how to do illegal things.

Not a lawyer, just how I understood some of the points made by someone smarter

Edited by the author 6 years ago
North Brabant, Netherlands

@JessicaSix Here you are wrong. If you dump both the cartridge rom and console bios on your computer, and make an emulator around it, it is legal. Or put the rom on the flashcard and play it on the original console. If you download or distribute said rom, then it is no longer legal.

And that is why Nintendo can't take action against individuals and are targeting those that distribute it. That is why Nintendo can't try to take legal actions against this site either.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
Lower Saxony, Germany

Exactly, and also you can print on a box or in the EULA what you want, say 'You may not make copies, even for "legal use"' But you still may, because that's the ¤actual¤ LAW

Cambridgeshire, England

Well, goodbye TASVideos. And goodbye decent practising tools.

North Brabant, Netherlands

Distribute, not for own use. Nintendo has no case against those using roms and emulators, as Nintendo can't prove anything. They have to prove that the user downloaded it. This is why Nintendo go after sites that distribute them, not after sites or users that use emulators. They know that most here use it, and if they were legally right, they can take so many people down by going here. Yet they don't, for two reasons. 1: Bad publicity, and 2: They have no case.

They do have a case against those playing/making/distributing romhacks.

Edited by the author 6 years ago

Was just wondering if anyone had a source for these deleted roms, not start an arguement..found my own, thanks anyways.

North Brabant, Netherlands

@JessicaSix It seems you don't understand the point. Besides, I am not earning money with those things, so there you are wrong as well. I know the legal side of this, and you can copy it for fair use, being it only yourself. One has said this before, but you clearly hate all forms of emulation. You make that cloud your judgement and attack others. I am not only talking about the legal side of emulation, but also of FANGAMES, which is illegal. Yet many people are running and playing fangames. Nintendo tries to take some down, but they can't keep up with all that. Taking down big distribution sites is all they can do. I stated time and time again why Nintendo can't take action against this site. If you dislike the use of emulators, I believe Speed Demons Archives is console only. But then again, that is outdated.

I know from all your posts I have seen before from you that you want emulators gone from this site. It won't happen, as it is still legal. No matter what Nintendo says, no matter what their lawyers say, it is legal. The distribution is not legal, and that is where the issue lies with those sites. We don't share roms or anything here, nor tell people where to get it.

Edited by the author 6 years ago
KangeBuru likes this