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Counterpoint: NES games were handwritten in assembler for a long-dead architecture. You couldn't pick a worse development environment for "time safety". The sou

Counterpoint: NES games were handwritten in assembler for a long-dead architecture. You couldn't pick a worse development environment for "time safety". The source code for most of the games is lost, too. Yet they remain some of the most portable programs in existence, because of emulation. The PC architecture is extremely well-documented in practice (as are alternatives like WebAssembly), and there are going to be emulators for them around for the foreseeable future. Emulators for the PC architecture are no more likely to die in the future than C compilers are. You will be able to run any program written for the PC, in any language, for a very long time.

zzo38computer 7y ago
Yes, although people still write programs for NES, sometimes for that reason, so it works.
bitwize 7y ago
> The PC architecture is extremely well-documented in practice (as are alternatives like WebAssembly), and there are going to be emulators for them around for the foreseeable future. Intel has patents on the x86 ISA. Though the basics of the instruction set (386, 486, Pentium) are outside the scope of a patent, it's impossible to write a complete emulator for a chip made within the past 20 years without infringing on Intel's IP.
- littlestymaar 7y ago
  Actually you can, in any country but the US and Japan. Software patents aren't enforceable anywhere else AFAIK (and at least not in the EU for sure). For a commercial product that's a show stopper indeed, but for an open source emulator without commercial ambitions that wouldn't be much of a problem.
- rcxdude 7y ago
  Nintendo claims the same about emulation of their consoles. It hasn't appeared to be much of a deterrent.
  - fwsgonzo 7y ago
    Anyone can claim anything that helps their cause. All you have to do is not implement the emulator using the official developer documentation for the system. For example on the original Gameboy the thing you have to avoid is using the copyrighted BIOS ROM. But you can avoid that by just initializing the CPU registers and instead starting at the cartridge start address.
    - comex 7y ago
      FWIW, independent reimplementation protects you against copyright infringement but not patent infringement.
      - littlestymaar 7y ago
        True, but patent infringement are limited to few places in the world, while copyright infringement are enforceable pretty much everywhere.
- comex 7y ago
  Which would only be an issue for the next 20 years at most. I suspect we won't run out of native x86 processors in that time frame. Regardless, complete emulators exist today, and Intel hasn't sued anyone over them so far. Intel did threaten to sue Microsoft over Windows-on-ARM's x86 emulator do so a few years ago [1], but that doesn't seem to have gone anywhere, and even if it did, it's unlikely anything would happen to open-source emulators. [1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/09/intel_sends_arm_a_shot_across_bow/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/09/intel_sends_arm_a_s...
pjc50 7y ago
Emulation isn't portability. It enables you to run the program, but not to modify it and adapt it to fit in with a new platform.

zzo38computer 7y ago

Yes, although people still write programs for NES, sometimes for that reason, so it works.

bitwize 7y ago

> The PC architecture is extremely well-documented in practice (as are alternatives like WebAssembly), and there are going to be emulators for them around for the foreseeable future. Intel has patents on the x86 ISA. Though the basics of the instruction set (386, 486, Pentium) are outside the scope of a patent, it's impossible to write a complete emulator for a chip made within the past 20 years without infringing on Intel's IP.

littlestymaar 7y ago
Actually you can, in any country but the US and Japan. Software patents aren't enforceable anywhere else AFAIK (and at least not in the EU for sure). For a commercial product that's a show stopper indeed, but for an open source emulator without commercial ambitions that wouldn't be much of a problem.
rcxdude 7y ago
Nintendo claims the same about emulation of their consoles. It hasn't appeared to be much of a deterrent.
- fwsgonzo 7y ago
  Anyone can claim anything that helps their cause. All you have to do is not implement the emulator using the official developer documentation for the system. For example on the original Gameboy the thing you have to avoid is using the copyrighted BIOS ROM. But you can avoid that by just initializing the CPU registers and instead starting at the cartridge start address.
  - comex 7y ago
    FWIW, independent reimplementation protects you against copyright infringement but not patent infringement.
    - littlestymaar 7y ago
      True, but patent infringement are limited to few places in the world, while copyright infringement are enforceable pretty much everywhere.
comex 7y ago
Which would only be an issue for the next 20 years at most. I suspect we won't run out of native x86 processors in that time frame. Regardless, complete emulators exist today, and Intel hasn't sued anyone over them so far. Intel did threaten to sue Microsoft over Windows-on-ARM's x86 emulator do so a few years ago [1], but that doesn't seem to have gone anywhere, and even if it did, it's unlikely anything would happen to open-source emulators. [1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/09/intel_sends_arm_a_shot_across_bow/ https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/09/intel_sends_arm_a_s...

pjc50 7y ago

Emulation isn't portability. It enables you to run the program, but not to modify it and adapt it to fit in with a new platform.