[Adam Silver]

As far as I can tell emulation of a game console is legal, and as long as you own an original copy of a game (or an emulation package such as Namco Museum) you can legally posses a ROM file for that game.

What I don't know is if translations (such as the Japanese Final Fantasy games never released in the United States) are legal.

So my question is, can I legallly posses a translated ROM of a game if I own a copy of the (untranslated) Japanese game?

[This message has been edited by Adam Silver (edited 08-05-2000).]

[Cipher13]

By my reckoning, yes. If they don't provide for all users, then it is okay to improvise, which is what you have done. As long as the original author gets credit for it (which they do - its not like the translation has taken the credits out or anything), then its ok.

Cipher13

Who cares? I mean, if you are only talking about nintendo games... or even super nintendo... I mean, the manufacturer's arent making any money on them right now, because they arent even being SOLD many places! So I say who cares if its illegal. Download and play away.

Ca$h

[Adam Silver]

This coming from someone who posted links to warez sites on this forum (which were quickly deleted).

[Herr Newton]

Bzzzt. They're IP and the company still has the capability to make money from them, as evidenced by the demand for ROMs. However, I agree with Cipher13 in that there is no way for non-Japanese gamers to get ahold of some truly great titles such as later FFs which were never released in English.

Anyway, back to the IP dispute. As I said, they can still make money off of them. How? I imagine it would not be very hard for Nintendo to image its ROM collection and slip-in a quick ad as a splash screen, shown for, say, 5-seconds prior to the start of the game. I can't remember how large the carts can actually get, but i really don't think the addded info would be all that difficult.

Or, simply sell the images at US$10 ea. somewhere on the web. You'd get the ROM, a PDF'd manual, and maybe a free FAQ or something. (didn't Nintendo of America own the mag "Nintenedo Power" outright? Huge backing store for tips and tricks there). Personally I think it'd be a very lucrative business as, other than setup and bandwidth, there'd be very little overhead.

Originally posted by Ca$h (hates AOL):
Who cares? I mean, if you are only talking about nintendo games... or even super nintendo... I mean, the manufacturer's arent making any money on them right now, because they arent even being SOLD many places! So I say who cares if its illegal. Download and play away.

Ca$h

[Evangellydonut]

Herr, you can get the FF Anthology for PSX in English...though I think emulation is the only way to get FF4 in English...

As for legality issue, I don't know law all that well, but I don't think its legal to reverse engineer something...Why is Sony spending so much time with CVGS when they should put more focus on Bleem, who has a bigger market base, and is releasing a PSX emulator for Saturn?

(oops, Dreamcast, my bad...it's one of those things made by Sega...I haven't used a Sega since Genesis...)

[This message has been edited by Evangellydonut (edited 08-08-2000).]

No, bleemcast... its a PSX emulator for Dreamcast. Not that abortion of a console gaming system "saturn".

Anyway, I sure as heck wouldnt pay 10 dollars for a ROM of a 10 yr old game... thats nuts! Especially when you can get a whole nintendo SYSTEM for a little more than that.

And remember this.. NINTENDO doesnt own too many of the games. Acclaim does, and all those other companies I cant remember. But, if one of those companies were to bundle ALL their ROMS together on a CD, and sold it for a REALLY LOW price (Why not?! What else do thy have to lose? No real development cost here, so it should be about 10 bucks for ALL of them)

Ca$H

[Cipher13]

I can't remember how large the carts can actually get

The biggest N64 carts are 512Mb.

Cipher13

[blizaine]

What N64 game is 512MB?? The biggest I've heard of is about 32MB and most are about 8MB to 24MB. That was one of the major drawbacks of the N64 vs. the playstation. Because the playstation could hold 650MB on a disk (obviously).

[Evangellydonut]

yeah, the N64's drawback was that everything was stored on the ROM instead of a CD, thus severely limits the game size...I read something like if you want to play FF7 on N64, you'll need 60 cartridges or something like that...

[Adam Silver]

blizaine, that's 512 megabits, not 512 megabytes. Big difference.

512 megabits = 64 megabytes
Far smaller than the largest CD or DVD game.

As for the Final Fantasy series:

• I was released in the United States (uncut? and uncensored?) for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).
• II and III were never released outside of Japan
• IV was released in the United States for the Super NES as II severely cut and censored. (The uncut and uncensored version was later released in Japan for the PlayStation.)
• V was released last year in the United States for the PlayStation uncut and uncensored as part of Final Fantasy Anthology
• VI was released in the United States uncut and uncensored first as III for the Super NES and later as VI as part of Final Fantasy Anthology for the PlayStation. (Both were uncut and uncensored.)
• VII and VIII were released in the United States for the PlayStation and Windows uncut and uncensored. In fact, the American version of VII was better than the Japanese version. (More cinemas, bug fixes, etc�)
• IX is available for the PlayStation in Japan now. It will be available in the United States and Europe soon (uncut and uncensored). (I assume a Windows version will follow.)
• X and XI will be released in Japan for the PlayStation 2. American releases will come later.

In other words, all Americans need is translations of Final Fantasy II and III, and an uncut and uncensored translation of IV. (And the first one as well if it was censored and/or uncut.)

And Herr, SquareSoft (now part of Electronic Arts) owns the Final Fantasy series, not Nintendo. (Although Nintendo itself did release the first Final Fantasy game in the United States.) Also, Nintendo Japan still offers copies of floppy disk based games for its ancient Nintendo Family Computer (the Japanese version of the NES) Disk System on its web site. (Finding disks for the system is another story; the propriertary disks have long been discontinued. However, the for the games themselves are available from Nintendo Japan's web site.) Too bad the disk system was never released in the United States.

Come to think of it, that might solve some of our legal problems with ROMs. Does anyone know (1.) if Final Fantasy I, II, and III were released for the Nintendo Family computer in floppy disk format, (2.) and if they were, are they available for sale on Nintendo Japan's web site or somewhere else?

[This message has been edited by Adam Silver (edited 08-08-2000).]

[Cipher13]

Rather incredible what Nintendo developers have managed to do with their games when working with that little space... Just look at Zelda and Perfect Dark...
Puts the Playstation developers to shame...

Cipher13

[oscar]

There is a lot more sloppy programers then neat programers, as evidence of the number of titles for psx vs n64

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-See Yea!

[This message has been edited by oscar (edited 08-10-2000).]

[bizzare]

Originally posted by Cipher13:
Puts the Playstation developers to shame...

I'd say the only good developers for PSX are SquareSoft and Konaomi (i don't know how to spell it). The Final Fantasy series of games are the absolute best video games in history. So good, in fact, it's going to be a movie.

Also check out Apple's Quicktime site for the full trailer.

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-Bizzare

[Adam Silver]

I think the main reason N64 games usually look better than PlayStation games is because of superior hardware.

Other than more storage, the PlayStation doesn't have any major advantages over the Nintendo 64.

Also, Nintendo has ridiculous quality controls over games. (Which is one of the reasons there aren't too many games for the N64.)

Back to my original question, does anyone know if translated ROMs (specifically those of Final Fantasy II, III, and an uncensored and uncut IV) are legal if one owns copies of the untranslated original?

And if they are legal, does anyone know where I could buy Japanese copies of Final Fantasy II, III, and IV?

[Cipher13]

It is legal to own a ROM if you own the original - the games are not translated by the company that released it, and the translations are not released with a price. If you own a non-translated original, the tralslated roms are most definately legit (by reckoning of common sense anyway - however, the world rarely works like that...).

Cipher13

[This message has been edited by Cipher13 (edited 08-12-2000).]