Legality of ROMs?

[MasterNile]

My understanding is that ROMs are legal if you have the original game cartridge or disk, is this correct? I just jailbroke and would like to install some of my old favorites, but I don't mind paying for them and having everything legit, if the iTunes store was to release some of my favorite old school games like all of the early Final Fantasy games (American #7 and before) I would gladly pay for them but they haven't.

 

[lostless]

The legality of game roms are always a grey area if you own the original game. You are legally allowed to make a backup, but the device that makes the backup is illegal according to the DMCA. So in the end, a legal copy becomes illegal but only because you had to use a illegal machine to use your legal right to make a copy . Go figure. Emulation is 100% legal though if your able to somehow play an original NES cartridge (the actual cartridge) on the Ipod touch . There is no law saying you have to play software on the original machine it was intended to play on. I say do what feels right. Just remember any copies of games you do not have the original copy of, is piracy.

 

[MasterNile]

are there any game companies out there that are porting old games to the ipod touch? when would we see some of these in the iTunes store? Why won't they just let me pay them so I can play my old favorites and not feel bad about piracy, that's all I want?

 

[lostless]

I doubt that any old FF games will ever be ported to the ipod/iphone. Especially 7. That game alone was 1.5 gigs on the the Playstation. Plus you have the control issue. The ipod touch has no real tactile controls to speak of. It would be a pain to play on a system like that. If you really want portable FF games. 1-6 have been ported to the GBA. 1-3 (all 3 originally on the nes with 2 and 3 only out in Japan) have been redone completely. 4-6 have has some tweaks but remain pretty faithful to the original SNES games (with 5 only be released in japan). Those GBA micros are pretty small.

 

[MasterNile]

Double Post

 

[MasterNile]

I don't think lack of physical controls for the iPod Touch will be a problem for too much longer.

http://www.icontrolpad.com/

and I've got 32GB, I'd be willing to take up 1.5GB or even 3GB for FF7, but could the ipod touch 2nd gen even handle it? I know it's got the fastest processor vs the other iphones and ipod touch but is it that fast?

 

[Tokiopop]

ROMs are perfectly legal if you already own the original game (same region and version), or dumped the ROM yourself. Dumping the ROM yourself can be quite difficult in some situations, as you may need certain equipment.

If you don't own the original game, you're allowed 24 hours to delete it off your device and computer