[ Emulation ] -- free stuff! awesome!
Emulation in general is the simulation of something using something else, to put it bluntly. Usually, in the wide world of illegal computer things, emulation is the simulation of a console, e.g. a super nintendo, using a computer program. The program, called an emulator, can read the same type of data as a console reads. The data the emulator reads, the game data, is called a ROM or an ISO, basically depending on whether it was originally cartridge or disk format.
There are a lot of stupid myths about how legal emulation-related things are. It is perfectly legal for an emulator to exist or to be used because they're private programs designed to read a certain type of data. It is, however, illegal for a commercial ROM to exist, because they are copyrighted by the creators of the game. Independent ROMs can exist as long as they were independently created. No, it is not legal to own a ROM for 24 hours before it has to be deleted. That's bull. I'm not actually sure whether or not it's legal to own a ROM as a back-up for the original game; it's widely argued about even among the more major ROMish people.
I'm actually kind of afraid that if I post actual ROMs around here that I'll get this site deleted. More so, however, I'm just too lazy to upload the 3-10 mb files that some of them are, so I'll just post links to primary emulators. If you want a ROM or something, ask me personally. If you want ISO's or something then go ask Donald because I'm too lazy and my computer sucks too much to really delve into cd-based things.
l x Ta Z l (10:08:46 AM): It is perfectly legal to own the ROM if..
l x Ta Z l (10:08:52 AM): You own the physical cartridge yourself
l x Ta Z l (10:08:58 AM): Not borrowed, owned
l x Ta Z l (10:09:08 AM): Otherwise you can only keep for 24 hours as a rental
l x Ta Z l (10:09:21 AM): Purpose of an emulator is to keep the older consoles and such alive
l x Ta Z l (10:09:35 AM): Without emulators, the old consoles will die out more
l x Ta Z l (10:09:42 AM): THink of emulators as a rental service
l x Ta Z l (10:09:58 AM): And emulkators arent just ROMs
l x Ta Z l (10:10:06 AM): There are emulators for many other things
l x Ta Z l (10:10:12 AM): Take Ragnarok Online for example
l x Ta Z l (10:10:27 AM): RO is a pay-to-play game and is not worth it on the official servers
l x Ta Z l (10:10:44 AM): People have created the game from scratch on an open-source
l x Ta Z l (10:10:55 AM): These emulators enable you to have private servers
l x Ta Z l (10:11:05 AM): whats so great about these private servers?
l x Ta Z l (10:11:11 AM): Its completelyy customizable
l x Ta Z l (10:12:21 AM): In iRO (the official pay-to-play server), the serrvice sucks, the GMs are gay, there arent many new things, they are about a year behind from kRO (the official server in Korea), and you have to pay as much as final fantasy (ithink)
l x Ta Z l (10:12:34 AM): With these private servers
l x Ta Z l (10:12:40 AM): You can have everything you want
l x Ta Z l (10:12:53 AM): YOu can have custom items, custom quests, good service, good GMs
l x Ta Z l (10:12:57 AM): ALl thanks to emulators
l x Ta Z l (10:13:05 AM): All emulators are different though
l x Ta Z l (10:13:21 AM): Such as Aegis, it is very stable but requires almost a super-computer to run
l x Ta Z l (10:13:43 AM): Athena requires a regular computer and can fit a lot of people but is NOT STABLE
l x Ta Z l (10:14:13 AM): Weiss has had a history of being the worse stable but now, it is surprisingly stable and there are few bugs with lots of new stuff
l x Ta Z l (10:14:29 AM): Weiss also takes about 1% of your system resources, not bad for a emulator
l x Ta Z l (10:14:50 AM): There are PSX emulators out there
l x Ta Z l (10:15:03 AM): And PS2 emulators are out but only works for a tiny amount of games
l x Ta Z l (10:15:14 AM): And the emu itself is ultra buggy
l x Ta Z l (10:15:19 AM): [end topic]