Homebrew Where to get "legal roms"

[Slimmmmmm]

I've got a spare (1gb) SD card so I've decided to get all known emulators for the Wii and set them up on this SD card. I've grabbed a few mods of some of them too and am going to trim down any reduntant mods so that I should hopefully have all known emus for the Wii and any mods that add something.

It was quite hard tracking down some of the older ones, but I think I've got them all now.

Now, I'm hoping someone can help me with finding legal roms.

I want 1 (as small as possible) legal rom for each emu. This is so I can quickly test things, so it doesn't need to be a game or anything big, just a rom that loads a picture, a demo etc would do. I think it's best if it outputs audio+video.

...lol... this will be interesting to see if anyone that uses emus knows where to get legal roms or not

Anyway... so far...

Spoiler

LINKS

(B) = found some pd/demos etc, can't link to site

These links need fixed

(1) - http://www.pdroms.de/files
(2) - (edit: Removed by Cyan. Sorry, this direct link has PD roms, but the site also contains a lot of commercial ROMS for many consoles)
(3) - http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/roms.html


SYSTEMS EMULATED ON THE WII

Amstrad CPC - (B)
Apple IIe - (2)
Arcade Games - (1)
Atari 2600 - (1)
Atari 7800
Atari 800/XL/XE/5200 - (1)
Atari Lynx - (1)
Atari ST - (B)
Chip8 - (2)
ColecoVision - (1)
Commodore 64 - (B)
Commodore Amiga - (B)
DOS - (B)
GB / GBC / GBA - (1)
SUPER GB
Genesis/Mega Drive - (1)
Intellivision - (1)
MSX
NEC PC-8801
NEC PC-9801
Neo Geo - (3)
Neo Geo CD
Neo-Geo Pocket - (2)
NES - (1)
Nintendo 64 - (1)
Nintendo DS(L) - (1)
Odyssey2/Videopac
PC-9801
Playstation 1 - (1)
Sega Master System - (1)
Sega Game Gear - (1)
Sega Saturn - (1)
Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Super Nintendo - (1)
Trojan LCD Game Simulator
Turbo Grafix 16/PC Engine - (1)
SCUMM VM
VCS/2600
Vectrex
VIRTUAL BOY - (1)

ignore this...

TO DO...
sample roms, get smallest that's ok, do folders, do settings, do download thingy

 

[Ryupower]

public domain roms should work (

there like HOMEBREW for a system

the pdroms site should work

 

[serenade.63]

No such thing as a "legal rom" even if you own the game downloading/ripping is still illegal. I'm not sure what the rules are for very old games like NES or SNES because the copyright may have run out on them, but I still think it's 100% illegal. You can however get all the illegal roms you want by googling things.

 

[Slimmmmmm]

No such thing as a "legal rom" even if you own the game downloading/ripping is still illegal. I'm not sure what the rules are for very old games like NES or SNES because the copyright may have run out on them, but I still think it's 100% illegal. You can however get all the illegal roms you want by googling things.

Sorry to say this but you have it wrong.

 

[shortz1994]

No such thing as a "legal rom" even if you own the game downloading/ripping is still illegal. I'm not sure what the rules are for very old games like NES or SNES because the copyright may have run out on them, but I still think it's 100% illegal. You can however get all the illegal roms you want by googling things.

your on point, even if you find a site that has you pay for roms, those roms could still be illegal.
@ slimmmm. i've got 1500 roms. i'm using for all the homebrew emulators. more then your card can handle.

the only ones i don't have are the ps1, an the arcade type emulators. but sega, n,sn, wii64. megadrive. i've got covered.

 

[OmegaVesko]

No such thing as a "legal rom" even if you own the game downloading/ripping is still illegal. I'm not sure what the rules are for very old games like NES or SNES because the copyright may have run out on them, but I still think it's 100% illegal. You can however get all the illegal roms you want by googling things.

Wrong, copyright laws vary by country.

 

[Arras]

To everyone saying ROMs are illegal, I think he's talking about homebrew ROMs, not commercial ones.

 

[Ryupower]

some systems might not have PD roms

so you might not find any for some systems

 

[Coto]

Then the topic title should be changed to homebrew roms, legal roms sounds nicely illegal

 

[chop]

World of Spectrum, is legally allowed to distribute cassette images of Commercial spectrum games after seeking and receiving over 900 permissions from publishers and authors.

but the spectrum emu on the wii is shit.

 

[spinal_cord]

No such thing as a "legal rom" even if you own the game downloading/ripping is still illegal. I'm not sure what the rules are for very old games like NES or SNES because the copyright may have run out on them, but I still think it's 100% illegal. You can however get all the illegal roms you want by googling things.

Oh dear, someone has jumped straight to the 'r0mz R illegalz' before checking out the content. Just because is has the word ROM in it, does not make it illegal. there is plenty of home-made software for many games systems, you may have herd the term 'homebrew' to describe these. Commercial games however can only be shared with the copyright holders permission.

 

[Slimmmmmm]

Then the topic title should be changed to homebrew roms, legal roms sounds nicely illegal

Aaahhh but not all legal roms are PD.
Also some free/legal roms are not homebrew.

Legal just means legal.

So... legal, output sound+picture and small is all I care about.

 

[StupidGamer1]

yeah but lets be honest dudes. PD games and roms suck hard.

 

[Jacobeian]

yeah but lets be honest dudes. PD games and roms suck hard.

again, that's not the point of this topic

Here's one I know for MAME roms:

http://mamedev.org/roms/

 

[obcd]

It's a difficult topic.

I read somewhere for instance that some NES rom's can be freely distributed because the authors consider the game absolete and don't expect any income from it anymore.
Others, that were big hit's years ago are still copyrighted.
I suggest you give it a try and try to contact one of those gaming companies and ask them if you may use their code. If the company still exist, and you get a response, they will probably say no because they don't find it worth the time to look up what you are asking exactly, and also because there isn't any profit in it for them to say yes..

And what do you do with a game that was produced by company x who was taken over by company Y that doesn't exist anymore as well?

If I buy the original game cartridge on ebay or a garage sale, what can I do with it, since it doesn't exactly fit in my wii....

Before you start flaming me, don't get me wrong.
Being a software developer myself, I know that game authors need to get income from their work, something that doesn't happen anymore when people start copying around.

But I love the way people say "they think" it's illegal.

Me personal, I think it's illegal that the gouvernment charges an "authors right" tax for external harddisks, since they believe I will use it to store illegaly downloaded MP3 songs from domestic song writers. The fact is the gouvernment doesn't give a s**t about what I think about it.

The question that crosses my mind at that moment.. Since I payed the tax, am I allowed now to fill that disc with downloaded domestic songs? (Not that most of them are worth downloading...)

I love these discussions. They are almost as good as watching television to waste your time....

 

[Cyan]

Legal ROMs is the correct terms.
Not only Homebrew are legal, but some commercial games are also legal (never being copyrighted (well, the first publisher may become copyright holder) or fallen or put by their author into Public Domain).

Even though the author is granted an automatic copyright up to 50 to 70 years after his death, the games names/Intellectual_Properties require that they are registered (trademark registration).
Trademark registration must be renew each 10 years (can be dropped after 5 years of no use).
Some games registration are not renewed and I know that some Snes games became unregistered because either the company doesn't exists anymore, or they don't care (I don't remember which one).
Unregistered trademark doesn't mean copyright free.
French author can't place his own creation in Public Domain, while USA authors can decide that their product are not copyrighted anymore.

So, commercial games produced by USA/Canadian/UK/Australian companies (part of Common law) can be Public Domain if they said so.

It also depend when the first publication occurred.

It's seems very complicated, I can't tell what is public domain or not.


Slimmmmmm, you only include 1 or 2 PD roms per consoles?
Maybe you could try to gather them all to make a full Legal archive. (without including Bios of course)

 

[Slimmmmmm]

Slimmmmmm, you only include 1 or 2 PD roms per consoles?
Maybe you could try to gather them all to make a full Legal archive. (without including Bios of course)

It's not what I intended, as my time/bandwidth is not that much just now.

 

[Lexip;]

Buy game and build a rom dumping device...

 

[matguitarist]

Hi guys!

All copyrights roms is illegal, read this page from nintendo site and you will understand all that copyright S**t : Legal Information ( Copyrights, Emulators, ROMs, etc. )

Haven't the Copyrights for Old Games Expired?

U.S. copyright laws state that copyrights owned by corporations are valid for 75 years from the date of first publication. Because video games have been around for less than three decades, the copyrights of all video games will not expire for many decades to come.

Till 2060 nes roms are illegal lol

Be patient!

 

[Slimmmmmm]

Damn I wished I never posted this now....

Not all NES roms are illegal, eg if I make a rom I can choose to distribute it however I please. "ROMS" are not copyright only 99.9% of them.

There are many ways they can be legal, a company goes bust and doesn't operate anymore in the territory they hold rights, they choose to make it PD (see snes Another World (out of this world), someone makes a homebrew rom etc.

GbaTemp wont allow links to illegal roms, yet I have links to PD roms .... so they must be legal or gbatemp would have removed them already.

This topic wasn't intended as a debate over the legality of commercial roms.