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Now a little disclaimer before the mods close the door on this topic. This is NOT about piracy and I would expect any post drawing any attention to sites that allow access to illegal ROM's or BIOS' to be deleted and rightly so. I'm posting this topic because there are points and purposes to emulators that have nothing to do with piracy. The first one I'll point out is preserving gaming history. There are games that were released on older platforms and arcades that now cannot be played in any other way... Unless you have access to the original hardware but that won't last forever. Game's (including demo's like PT) should be archived and be playable because they are part of our culture. With the gaming industry moving more and more into the realms of DRM and digital distribution aspects of this piece of our cultural heritage is a greater risk than ever of being reduced or lost completely. The only way to save it is through emulation. The second is that despite continuous complaint's for publishers, there are game's that they are not making and most likely will never make any money on, often through willful negligence. One example would be Ubisoft and Driver San Francisco. This is considered to one the best if the THE best game in the franchise despite not being a huge commercial hit. To this day Ubisoft do not distribute the game on any platform, not even on their own UPlay storefront on PC. There have even petitions from fans asking Ubisoft to release the game on UPlay but they have refused. So unless you have an original disc there is no way to buy the game outside the second hand market which generates Ubisoft no revenue anyway. So should one really feel guilty about playing this game through other means? It is Ubisoft that continue to slam the door shut on it. The third being that emulators by themselves are not illegal. It all depends on how you get the ROM's. There are exceptions but these are mostly older games that can no longer be purchased by any legitimate means. So if there is no way for the publisher to make money off the game anyway is it really wrong to download and/emulate it for free? Well that's my two cents, how about you? Do you use them and if so which ones? Post but of course keep it clean.

You're spot on with this. I've talk about Abandonware on the forums before that pretty much exists to preserve unsupported games. Not all of the games on thier need to be emulated of course, but there are a lot that do, especially older games. However, just because a game is older, don't assume that it's legal to download a ROM for it. A lot of such games are still sold, so obviously downloading a ROM is likely not legal. Then there is situation where publishers and the owners of IP's don't sell them, but get petty with thier copyright. I completely understand the moral justification to download such games, but it doesn't change the fact that posting links to such ROM or websites that host them won't be permitted here. Emulation is important though, like you said. Without it many games would simply perish and be lost. So of course this topic will remain open and I encourage people to share what emulators they use. and discuss emulation in in general. Just a few parameters for me, as a mod, to set. Do; Discuss and link to your favourite emulators and post instructions for others on how to use them. Ask what emulators are recommend for the games you have. If by any chance that game has been acquired by means that may not be legal, keep that you yourself. Respect that this topic is about emulation, not piracy, so stick to the topic at hand. Feel free to discuss emulation in general without posting anything specific if you wish. Post links to legal sites to download game files, such as the aforementioned Abandonware and digital storefronts. Don't Link to illegal ROM's nor any website that hosts them, as previously stated. Link to software or post instructions with the purpose to crack or hack games to bypass DRM and other copyright security. Make promotional posts, links to forbidden websites and obviously pirate games and software in accordance with our current Rules and Guidelines. On topic. DOSbox is a great emulator I have use for emulating DOS games, but it can be difficult to use. RetroArch is similar, but with a more modern interface and i feel is easier to use with more compatibility options. That's really about all I use at the moment.

I was thinking more of windmills cause cancer, but you nailed the realism better! Faux news on weather: must watch

I can see it all now.

I would think this should be something that the parents choose for their families and not something that any government should impose. Yes, children's brains and health are at risk if they are constantly are glued to a video game. But parents should be the ones who step in and set boundaries.

That trailer is criminal. It wholly misrepresents the king of game that this is. If it wasn't for @skyfire mentioning it, I wouldn't have known this was a card game. You wanna know what this game really looks like like? I'm not saying it's a bad game, but obviously Riot were not confident about it otherwise that trailer would have represented the game for what it is. EDIT: Also after digging a bit, I found that that rewards aren't randomised, so no lootboxes, but better cards can still be purchased with real money, so it's pay-to-win. Yeah, fuck this game.

I totally agree with your sentiment - when it comes to PVP, exploits are definitely a no-no for me. I always play fair and square as I want no complaints when I defeat someone.

If it's a competitive PVP game then yes, I would consider it cheating. Otherwise have at it! It's not the gamer's fault that the developers failed to spot an exploit during testing.

I carry a .357 magnum when I go out, and will use it if I have no choice. Otherwise, it stays holstered on my hip. I always keep one in arms reach. Right now I have my newest gun right beside me. It's a laser sighted .380. It's compact, but accurate and will get the point across if required.

@Reality vs Adventure I don't wanna defend the Chinese Government (trust me, I REALLY don't), but you haven't quite got the full context to this. Gaming addiction is a pretty serious problem in China, more so than it is in the west. Part of the reason for this is that most don't own a gaming console or PC of thier own, instead they go to 24 hour internet café's. So when you consider that people including children are gaming and spending in a public space, with pretty much no supervision... I think you start to see the problems. There are people that have legitimately lost their lives in those kind of places after gaming for litteraly days at a time. It's not such a problem if the people, particularly children are at home like they trypicaly would be over here where that can be supervised or at least have somone knock on the door once in a while. I'm not saying the Chinese Government won't abuse this, they fucking obviously will, but I can see a point to it.

Toy Story 3 - 8/10