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Fri 28 Dec, 2007 06:27 pm
We got a couple of games for Cub's Nintendo 64 that he got from a buddy a couple of weeks ago. N64 games are now in the "Retro" secton of the used games stores.
Anyways, this guy came in and heard us asking about other older games available and started telling us we could download an emulator for any of the gaming systems and play any of the games on our pc.
He gave us a couple of sites to look into and said to use Google to research it... I guess that's cause he doesn't know about A2K.
Anyone know about how to do this? Is it legal? How much "power" and memory would be required? etc?
Supposedly, you can download an emulator for every one of the game systems on the market and play all of the games for free. Cub explained it as "Someone took the code from the systems (Sega, Nintendo, playstaion, etc) and put it into PC compatible code.
The guy at the store was so animated when telling us about this that he even invited us to his house to see how it works. Bear and I declined, thinking we might never escape.
An emulator for each system has to be downloaded seperately along with the games that go with that system. So, supposedly you could turn your pc into a Sega Genesis, a Playstation, a Nintendo... or all three if the games you want are on different systems.
I asked how I would then play and he said you can get a game controller with a USB plug so it will work on your PC. Cub said they are only about $14.
I wouldn't have any idea how much juice all of that would take. I imagine I'd also want to invest in a larger screen. And, I wouldn't do any of it if it was illegal.
Hoping someone will be able to tell me more.
(Meantime, maybe this will show in Google soon and draw some attention.)
Judging from the response, I guess we have to figure this one out for ourselves, Squinney.
I found this website. I still don't understand how an emulator helps you make a Nintendo game cartidge compatible for playing on a PC. There must need to be some sort of data transfer or data conversion of the software between the two pieces of hardware. I can only assume that you need to find the software on the internet somewhere and download it to the PC rather than using any game cartridges you might already own.
http://www.helium.com/tm/124978/possible-nintendo-games-using
Quote:It is possible to play Nintendo 64 games using your computer. In essence, this is accomplished by using a program which emulates the functions of the original Nintendo 64 console using your computer. This emulator then runs games which have been adapted to function on your computer, which are called roms.
The best emulator program that I have found is called project64, which is currently in version 1.6. This file can be found by running a search for project64 1.6 on any internet search engine, and if you don't want to do that you can get the program at
http://www.freeroms.com/n64.htm. Just download and install. This file should be no more than 2 mb.
Next you are going to need some roms to play, and these are similarly easy to find. A search for the game name followed by the word roms will usually yield good results. Most roms are small, no more than 35 mb. Just save this file on your computer to a known location.
Now, to use this system, open project64. Then click on file, and move down to open rom. Then simply navigate to the folder in which you saved the game rom, and select it. When you tell it to open, you should find yourself playing the original Nintendo 64 game.
You play these using rom software which can be downloaded from the internet. i e you would google centipede rom for example for the file for the game centipede.
Squinney.... to answer your legality question. This is not legal and is a copyright infringement.
Drats! I knew it was too good to be true.
So, some computer shiz's take the game code and convert it to PC code so it can be played on the computer like other PC software games?
I was hoping it was being done by the game companies.
It appears it is legal
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/17518/139/
Quote:
The US Supreme Court, without comment, rejected Sony's plea to reverse a ruling that found the Virtual Game Station by Connectix a fair usage. That ruling, in turn, reversed an earlier ruling that halted the sale of the VGS software, that enables users to play games on a PC that were designed for use on Sony's PlayStation game console. Though Connectrix is free to sell its product, a lower court could still find Sony's claim of unfair competition legitimate and take the VGS off the market.
Sony lost the suit on this emulator but then bought the company and immediately stopped selling the emulator.
What isn't legal is using pirated copies of the games. As long as you purchased the game and own it legally you should be legally able to play it on an emulator.
I was referring to the software being illegal...not the emulator
Here are the system specs for one of the N64 emulators
Quote:The system requirements of Project64 are high. Don't expect games to run well or at all if your PC doesn't meet these requirements:
Pentium III 600 Mhz or better
128 Mb. RAM or more
Fast video card with 16 Mb. Video RAM or more
Windows 95/98/Me
DirectX 6.0 (latest version of DirectX recommended)
Project64 works best with these video cards:
TNT, TNT 2, GeForce, GeForce 2, ATI Radeon
Project64 does not work well with these video cards:
Matrox G200 and G400 (blending errors)
ATI Rage Pro (misses some 3D functionality)
3DFX Voodoo Banshee (has bad DirectX drivers)
3DFX Voodoo 1 or 2 (secondary 3D cards are not supported)
and we all know NO ONE ever does anything illegal on the internet :wink:
One of Seth's buddies gave him a bag of almost 50 N-64 retro games that had been in the back of his closet for several years... he's pretty much set.
The emulation software should be legal, but the ROMs are probably not. Although I wouldn't feel bad downloading a ROM if I actually owned the cartridge.
Bi-Polar Bear wrote:One of Seth's buddies gave him a bag of almost 50 N-64 retro games that had been in the back of his closet for several years... he's pretty much set.
Uh, Bear... It was for me, not Cub.
I want to play Rayman again. I almost had it won when Cub accidently erased it ten years ago.
I'm sure i'm still just as coordinated as I was then.
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