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I don't think people should be stealing ROMs, but completely understand your thinking.

With modern gaming, one could easily lose access to play a game that was previously purchased.

There has been at least one thread on the MR forum reporting a developer that hid a "kill timer" in update of one of their games, making them unplayable after a certain date.

I have personally experienced the inability to play purchased games after an update of the OS, and the inability to go back to an OS when the game worked.

I recently had an tvOS update that automatically deleted about 30 games that are no longer on the tvOS App Store.


Compare that to my old console games that will still work after 30+ years, and will continue to be playable for a long time to come.
Yeah, so the proper answer is to just not play those games.
When I occasionally pirate a ROM, I don't try to justify it, let alone paint it as digital activism.
 
So I got Plex Arcade working using an app called Core Manager.

This helped out a whole lot, as not all cores were working, so Core Manager made it easy and quick to try out different cores to see what worked.

The app automatically installs the core where it is supposed to be installed, and rewrites the XML file for you. It easily deletes the core as well.


Anyways here is the link for the app:


As for Plex Arcade, it performed okay on the ATV, but not great. I tried a few NES and SNES games.

It is great for games that do not need low latency, like FF1, Wallstreet Kid, or Sim City, but not for games like SMB or Donkey Kong Country. Basically any platformer game will suck.

A game that needs quick, precision input, such as Metroid would be near impossible, I think.


I am unsure if I will keep the subscription. Now that I figured out the setup, it isn't hard, but the input lag, while small, is slow enough to make a lot of games pointless to play.



Well yeah, selling tools for piracy is Plex's entire business model. When someone says they're watching a movie on Plex, anyone automatically assumes piracy, just like when they say they're torrenting something.
I am sure there are plenty of people that are using Plex with pirated media, but for me, I own a DVD or Blu-ray of every movie and TV Show that is on my Plex server.

I know some might consider that as piracy, but in my mind, it isn't unethical.
 
Man you probably didn’t play:

Elevator Action Returns
Dead Connection
The Outfoxies
Sunset Riders
Paperboy
Secret Agent
Rampage
Bubble Bobble
Rainbow Islands
Narc
The Gradius Series
The Final Round
Chase HQ
Hot Chase

That’s just a taster of some of the best games ever made!

Exactly, also Double Dragon, Shinobi, Cabal, etc, etc. Too many to list. It's called gameplay.

Arcade gaming and home computing peaked in the 80s. It got rather terrible or just boring in the mid/late 90s, once Windows95 took over, and those early 3D games (with the exception of Doom and Quake) didn't age well. I could play those 80s classics on the original joysticks/cabinets any day instead of most of the modern offerings.
 
It should be included free for Plex Pass holders. Or at least a ROM-only edition free for those people where you can play your own ROMs and you'd need to pay for the games they actually provide if you want them.
 
Also, without trying to get into a huge piracy debate (covered already PLENTY of times in other places) ....

Plex is also a music jukebox player/streamer, and I've absolutely downloaded MP3s of music I bought a long time ago on cassette, but the physical tape started wearing out. Most reasonable people would say "That's not piracy then! You already bought the album!" But the recording industry says it's still piracy. (At one time, they were even suggesting things like mailing back in your original worn-out cassette plus some media replacement fee for them to send you another tape of the same thing, as the legal option.) Ultimately, it's just greed on their part since they already established what you pay for when buying an album is the right to listen to the content. The media it comes on is just the delivery device for it.
 
I been using my Plex Arcade almost everyday via my ATV4K, playing some of my old NES and SNES games.

I couldn't get N64 to work.

While it has been fun, the lack of features such as saves, key bindings, etc. I will most likely be canceling my subscription.

If there was no input lag, I would most likely keep the service even without all the features I would normally expect.

But with the input lag and lack of features, it isn't ready for a paid-for service.


But the recording industry says it's still piracy.
Yeah, and legally it might be as well, although I don't think anyone is getting in legal trouble over copying stuff they previously purchased as a back up or to play on alternative media.

While it might be illegal, I personally do not consider it unethical though.
 
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