These games were from a time when there were so many different types of PC's on the market that all had different hardware. There is just something magical about the old DOS games that just brings back memories and takes many of us back to our childhood or a time when things were simpler and just as much fun without all the animation that is the standard these days. I think he might be the one.ClassicReload was setup for preservation of 6,000+ old retro abandonware games and abandoned OS/interfaces that you can play DOS games online right in your web browser for education and research purposes. So if you don’t mind I’ve got a 10-minute speed date with a blue hedgehog who is obsessed with wedding rings. The outrage also shows how warmly old gamers regard computer firms, such as Nintendo and Sega, and I’m definitely in this category as playing Sonic has helped me through these tough times – the instant 90s hit is just what I need when I’m juggling childcare and work. The worst legal recent action was a few years ago when Nintendo took to the courts to remove a few websites that used its logo and even this small move incurred the wrath of the retro gaming community – well, as much anger as a bunch of nostalgic dads could muster that is.
“You could describe the company in other ways but it becomes like a party game.” “If you’re the person or company who has put together the emulator then your argument would be this is trademark’s version of fair use: in other words to be able to tell our consumers what kind of games this thing runs: I’ve got to use the name Sega. There’s a plausible argument that what a user is doing is fair use: there’s just no financial harm to the copyright owner, especially if they don’t have any intention of releasing on new platforms or selling anniversary editions to the few people who still have old Nintendo consoles.”Īnd what about the legality of the emulators themselves? Does the KEGA emulator, which uses the originally Sega logo font, but with one letter change, infringe copyright? Bambauer confirms this is again very low risk to the end user as it’s pretty defendable from a trademark law standpoint. “And you can’t get copies of it in the shops. “If the game is no longer available in the market,” Bambauer adds.
But if it’s the only way to play the game – the Genesis (or Mega Drive in the UK) for example wouldn’t work on most people’s TV sets – then there isn’t really a huge legal issue.īut am I committing shoplifting, something that my 12-year-old self was too cowardly to do? The answer is ‘not really’ as it’s highly unlikely a company, like Nintendo or Sega, would sue an end user like me and I have a fair-use defense that I’m not depriving these firms of revenue. In fact downloading, say, Madden 21 is akin to getting torrents of a new film –– the file size would be huge (I honestly have never done this, but I’m sure it would be massive).
If the spirit were a codified document, then it would state: thou shall not download a game that is still in publication, so owning anything that deprives a copyright holder of some income is a big ‘no-no’. Emulating anything newer is impossible and not in the ‘spirit’ of retro gaming.
However, anyone can download ROMs for more modern machines, such as the PlayStation 2, but the file sizes will be larger (Final Fantasy X is 3.2GB). As you can tell my gaming sweet spot is the 90s and I write extensively about this period for publications, such as Retro Gamer, which involves me downloading a lot of pre-2000 titles.