I see with RetroArch on iOS, the “#emulation is illegal” rubbish has clawed its way back into the daylight. Emulators are legal. Yes, many files people load into them may not be legit but that doesn’t make the tech itself illegal any more than it makes e-readers, music players and video players illegal.
Maybe people should concentrate more on encouraging publishers to provide legal routes to play (and buy) old games than spreading rubbish about emulators.
@craiggrannell It's especially infuriating when people are like that about platforms with healthy homebrew, modern commercial and freeware scenes, because it's the emulators that inspire those to exist in the first place, to a great extent.
@craiggrannell The whole thing has resonances with “no person is illegal”. Obviously I’m not drawing a direct equivalence, but that some people in migration may enter illegally doesn’t make any person illegal.
Also, I’d LOVE to see some sort of codification of abandonware laws, similar to the right to repair movement.
I have been replaying Grandia on the Miyoo Mini plus for the #VideoGameClub and have been really enjoying it. I feel it looks better on the smaller screen and I like that I can overclock it as well. #VGCMay2024#Grandia#Emulation
The article dives into how well many peripherals and accessories can be emulated. It focuses exclusively on officially licensed hardware that software interacted with. In brief:
Most stuff is emulated just fine (37/47)
A small % needs just a bit more work (9/47)
Only 1 item is completely unemulated
We've done a lot of work over the years, and it shows!
So I have been playing around with the Miyoo mini and have really been loving it. The ps one capability and also the Ds are great on it. I was a bit shocked about the ds as I thought I would hate playing that system on it but the button mapping is spot on with the Onion firmware and you can switch screens no problem. Highly recommend #emulation#retrogaming#videogames#handhelds#miyoominiplus
People defending owners of old gaming IP all day long. Look, I get it. And #emulation is often iffy. But imagine if other mediums were like gaming. 99% of music and film inaccessible unless you owned original hardware and original media, slowly degrading and liable to die at any moment. It’s insane that gaming is in the place it is. I’d long hoped for an ‘iTunes for MAME’ years ago, but no. The closest we’ve got to something remotely sensible is ‘Netflix for #retrogaming’ Antstream Arcade.
@flargh Indeed. A lot of TV and movies have been lost forever too. Primarily due to the same thoughtlessness that would have caused the exact same thing to happen to gaming if it wasn’t for the pirates and the emulators.
Note: I’m not condoning that stuff. But the industry could help itself. Rights owners could sell people ROMs or disk images to use as they wish. But they don’t want to.