It's 100% legal to emulate whatever you want. It's just downloading warez that's illegal.Just because you own game on n64, it doesn't give you legal rights to emulate that game on anything. If you can show a law in any country that says differently, please do.
With that said, some n64 games can quite probably be emulated on the 3DS. However, the n64 isn't that easy to emulate in general. Even the Wii doesn't have 100% compatibility. If I remember correctly, it's even recommended to use European roms rather than NA of JP because of lower framerate caps or something.
Just because you own game on n64, it doesn't give you legal rights to emulate that game on anything. If you can show a law in any country that says differently, please do.
It's 100% legal to emulate whatever you want. It's just downloading warez that's illegal.
If you've made a legal backup, you're allowed to use it for personal means. That includes emulation.No, it isn't. People confuse making a legal backup with playing said backup on computers/phones/other systems. It's legal to make a backup YOURSELF, to play on the original hardware only. Once you change hardware, it falls into a grey area. Not to mention I seriously doubt everyone in this thread has the means to dump n64 games.
Now, there are public domain roms for nearly every system. So those are 100% legal, but that copy of Quest64....not so much.
Please No Flaming, Trolling or Arguing
If you've made a legal backup, you're allowed to use it for personal means. That includes emulation.
As computers and global computer networks continued to advance and emulator developers grew more skilled in their work, the length of time between the commercial release of a console and its successful emulation began to shrink. Fifth generation consoles such as the Nintendo 64, the Sony PlayStation and sixth generation handhelds, such as the Game Boy Advance, saw significant progress toward emulation during their production. This has led to a more concerted effort by console manufacturers to crack down on unofficial emulation. Both country specific copyright and patent law and international copyright law under the Berne Convention protect copying and reproducing of subject matter with copyright protection.[1]
Under United States law, obtaining a dumped copy of the original machine's BIOS is legal under the ruling Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. v. Nintendo of America, Inc., 964 F.2d 965 (9th Cir. 1992) as fair use as long as the user obtained a legally purchased copy of the machine. However, several emulators for platforms such as Game Boy Advance are capable of running without a BIOS file, using high-level emulation to simulate BIOS subroutines at a slight cost in emulation accuracy.
The games I do hope for it to emulate are
Paper Mario
TLoZ OOT and Mario Kart 64
Although Sound can be sacrificed for Performance... Right?
My first try at getting N64 games on the 3DS would be to look at Ocarina of Time for the 3DS. If the developers ripped apart the ROM into easier to read pieces, I would try to see if I could rip apart other ROMs in a similar fashion and try to replace the pieces in OoT with new pieces of the new ROM.
It would probably be much easier to reverse-engineer OoT if the ROM itself was modified and there was an emulation top layer, but it sounds too good/ very unlikely to be true.
If there is ever a Nintendo 64 game released on the virtual console for the 3DS, that might be more a more realistic target for reverse-engineering. The main reason I am thinking of reverse-engineering instead of starting from scratch, is because I'm much better at editing code than writing it...I understand how to edit most programming languages, but I can only write in C properly.(it's actually very easy to edit almost any programming language after learning one, for me anyways)
(if anyone is wondering, I own 60 N64 cartridges ranging from Power Rangers to Quest64, including the Zelda games)
Sorry, that doesn't cover games. That case is regarding modification of game files in a non-permanent manner, but does allow the use of a dumped BIOS as long as you own the original machine. It's also mentioned in the quoted part of my previous post.
Emulation is a tricky bugger, ain't it? I personally have no moral objection in backing up the (older) games you legally own. Same with CDs, DVDs and other personal media.Sorry, that doesn't cover games. That case is regarding modification of game files in a non-permanent manner, but does allow the use of a dumped BIOS as long as you own the original machine. It's also mentioned in the quoted part of my previous post.
And where does this info exist. Im pretty sure the 3DS runs with 2 ARM11 Cpus. Also, thanks for pointing out the MIPS, could have sworn it was using RISC, lol. However, it is still 64 Bit. However, this still proves that the 3DS cannot run n64 games perfectly or probably even close. Thanks Oxybelis.No. PS1, N64 and PSP use MIPS CPU. So it's easier to emulate them on PSP. 3DS has ARM processor. And it's low clocked ARMv6. ePSXe team said ARMv6 was not enough for ePSXe on Android for good framerates.
The funny thing is that earlier you stated it as a more of a grey area. To say its completely illegal would be foolish, and state it would be legal would be equally foolish, unless either side has some sort of evidence/ support from any laws, even if it is only a little. Fair Use gives emulation a case in legality, if people do not infringe on other copyrights via piracy of games and required BIOS if needed. While DMCA and other things may get in the way.Sorry, that doesn't cover games. That case is regarding modification of game files in a non-permanent manner, but does allow the use of a dumped BIOS as long as you own the original machine. It's also mentioned in the quoted part of my previous post.
Most games are 320x240 which can be centered just fine in the top screen. The N64 was capable of 640x480, but from what I've read that was too taxing and introduced too low of a framerate for most devs to find acceptable. Besides, as it's been shown with 3D emulation on other things, rendering can just be done at a lower resolution.wouldnt it look terrible with the 3ds' resulution?
Show me a law that says it's okay for me to jerk my dick. Last I checked laws list what's wrong, not what's right. They're a blacklist, not a whitelist. They outline behavior that the rulers of the society deem wrong.And again, show me the law that states it does, and I'll gladly admit I am wrong.
Are you one of those people that thinks video games are some sort of sacred art and somehow above and beyond other mediums? It's software, streams of data, presented either as a service, or as a copy on a physical medium that's sold.Now, Fair Use, which is what most people think gives them the right to emulate, doesn't really touch on video games at all. It talks about movies, books, and music. Broad interpretation covers games, as well as art, fashion, and even tattoos.
How many in this thread have the means to make a legal backup of an N64 game? I don't.
The CPU is what's used to emulate the system. The GPU is just used to output the graphics like in a normal game. Generally in emulation the GPU of the containing system is much newer than that of the emulated system anyways.Doesnt the GPU account for anything?
Thank you, awesome post. Totally agree. However, is there anyway to do any of the calculations in emulation with the GPU? Or, would it not make a significant boost in speed/ the PICA wouldn't be able to pull something off like open CL?-Snip- Super Long