Emulator

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An emulator, in the most general sense, duplicates (provide an emulation of) the functions of one system with a different system, so that the second system appears to behave like the first system. Unlike a simulation, it does not attempt to precisely model the state of the device being emulated; it only attempts to reproduce its behavior.

A popular use of emulators is to run software and games, often referred to as ROMs, written for hardware that is no longer sold or readily available, such as the Commodore 64 or early Amiga models. Emulating these on modern desktop computers is usually less cumbersome than relying on the original machine, which may be inoperational. However, software licensing issues may require emulator authors to write original software that duplicates the functionality of the original computer's bootstrap ROM and BIOS, often through high-level emulation.

Contents 1 Legality of emulators 2 Legality of ROM images 2.1 Common legality myths 3 Console Emulators 3.1 Arcade 3.2 PlayStation 3.3 SNES 3.4 NES 4 Handheld Emulators 5 See also

[edit] Legality of emulators

Most emulators are perfectly legal under United States and international law, protected by laws that cover reverse engineering. However, emulators can be illegal if they use copyrighted code from the original console, computer, or program.

[edit] Legality of ROM images

ROM images are copyrighted code and are protected by international law. The only legal images are homebrew games created by programmers, images released into public domain, or images downloaded with the permission of the copyright holder.

[edit] Common legality myths

• 24-hour rule: Many emulation download sites like to claim that you can keep unlawfully downloaded ROMs for 24 hours and then delete them, and still "stay legal". This rule has no basis in real law.
• Owning the game: Owning the game in its original form does not make downloading a ROM image of it legal, according to the letter of the law. The only fully legal way is to make a backup image yourself using special hardware. But this hardware can be expensive, and many gamers consider it ethically correct to download an image as long as you own the original game.

[edit] Console Emulators

[edit] Arcade

• MAME

[edit] PlayStation

• Bleem!
• ePSXe

[edit] SNES

• ZSNES
• Snes9x

[edit] NES

• NESticle
• VirtuaNES
• NEStopia
• JNES

[edit] Handheld Emulators

• VisualBoyAdvance - GBA
• DeSmuME - Nintendo DS
• WinDS - Nintendo DS
• NO$GBA - GBA & Nintendo DS

[edit] See also

• Reverse engineering
• High-level emulation
• ROM image

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