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I shouldn't have clicked that link, it was very frustrating. It's like when watching AVGN, any time they bring up emulators it's always in a negative way. "Yea

I shouldn't have clicked that link, it was very frustrating. It's like when watching AVGN, any time they bring up emulators it's always in a negative way. "Yeah, this is where people on emulators would cheat and make a save state" etc... I've got a Switch, I buy all the games that I play, and I am extremely excited for this emulator to come out. In my Steam library I have several games that are DOSBox wrappers around the original title. They're emulators, and I paid money for them, and they're perfectly legal. Digital archival is a growing problem, so much of our culture is going to be lost without efforts like these. On a side note: When I talk to fellow gamers about my history of modding games, there's generally two groups. The ones who play on PC ask what I added, new levels, skins, etc.... And the ones who play only on consoles typically get upset because they think it means I made cheats for online play. (For the record it was usually new features in code)

bsimpson 9y ago
When I was in film school (2004-8), there was a huge concern about what the growth of digital formats would mean for archiving. Film from the 1800s can still be projected (so long as it's in physically-good condition), but tape formats (at least at the time) went obsolete every few years.
- kaoD 9y ago
  This is why open standards are so important. DRM and proprietary drivers/blobs/formats are enemy to humanity. This is also why it should be (and in some places is) 100% legal to circumvent such measures, including via reverse engineering. But it shouldn't be that way! I'd say society should go a step further and grant copyright on works only if the specification of the underlying formats is fully released, just like patents exist(ed?) to grant legal protection in exchange for disclosure.
  - kaybe 9y ago
    Maybe DRM etc should only be legal in combination with code escrow.
khedoros1 9y ago
Anyone who has bought a Virtual Console game from Nintendo: Emulators. Ditto, anyone who has bought the NES/SNES Classic consoles. Those are just an ARM chip, a bit of flash, and a custom Linux with an emulator running ROMs that match the exact contents of files available online.

bsimpson 9y ago

When I was in film school (2004-8), there was a huge concern about what the growth of digital formats would mean for archiving. Film from the 1800s can still be projected (so long as it's in physically-good condition), but tape formats (at least at the time) went obsolete every few years.

kaoD 9y ago
This is why open standards are so important. DRM and proprietary drivers/blobs/formats are enemy to humanity. This is also why it should be (and in some places is) 100% legal to circumvent such measures, including via reverse engineering. But it shouldn't be that way! I'd say society should go a step further and grant copyright on works only if the specification of the underlying formats is fully released, just like patents exist(ed?) to grant legal protection in exchange for disclosure.
- kaybe 9y ago
  Maybe DRM etc should only be legal in combination with code escrow.

khedoros1 9y ago

Anyone who has bought a Virtual Console game from Nintendo: Emulators. Ditto, anyone who has bought the NES/SNES Classic consoles. Those are just an ARM chip, a bit of flash, and a custom Linux with an emulator running ROMs that match the exact contents of files available online.