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I love emulators, I think they are a fantastic way to keep old platforms alive. Even with the grey area around roms I think they are really interesting. Dolphin is now working on a Vulkan backend.

See the github work-in-progress pull request for the Vulkan work here.

Dolphin is open source under the GPLv2+ license.

The problem with roms is the confusing legalities behind them, but if the game isn't sold any more, it should be fair game in reality. If you already own the game, then it should also be perfectly legal to have a personal rom of it, but the law changes between each country. What then happens with old games that are then re-sold on Steam like some retro games do? Very confusing. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Saulsecsiramirez 27 Jun 2016
wojtek88
That's the problem I have. I was using emulationstation with my Dualshock 4 and playing Contra, Goal 3 and other classics. Then I've heard about Atari Vault and started to think - is there a way to legally buy roms this days? Is there a way to be perfectly sure that you can play this game from the platform that is dead?

Have You got dolphin running through emulation station? If so what did you put in the command section of the config file.
ElectricPrism 27 Jun 2016
In the case of Wii / GC, etc... I would just reccomend using the GC or Wii DVD if you have a DVD drive and are worried about not knowing.
Vaiski 27 Jun 2016
In the case of Wii / GC, etc... I would just reccomend using the GC or Wii DVD if you have a DVD drive and are worried about not knowing.

Dolphin can't read Wii or Gamecube discs. You have to dump a disc image using original Nintendo hardware or a PC with a special optical drive like the GDR8082N.
DrMcCoy 27 Jun 2016
See the github work-in-progress pull request for the Vulkan work here.
A pull request that adds 30k lines (and is far from done). I'm glad I'm not the person who has to review this.

(mirv, your xoreos OpenGL renderer rewrite will not take 30k lines, right? :))
mulletdeath 28 Jun 2016
If I lived in a place where creating my own roms (from games I legally purchased) was an illegal activity, I likely wouldn't follow that law, as it would be an unjust one.

I am however, completely against piracy, and wouldn't ever just download and use roms from elsewhere. I think that's completely different. Emulation doesn't have to be about "sticking it to the man" by refusing to pay the developer or a reseller money. Man, I need to invest in a retrode.

Anyways, I'm excited about any Dolphin developments, but what I'm really excited for is Cemu, the Wii U emulator, to eventually come to Linux.


Last edited by mulletdeath on 28 Jun 2016 at 12:22 am UTC
badber 28 Jun 2016
Edit: The main thing is, I don't want to read comments about people talking highly about how they pirate, that's the main issue. Simply discussing it reasonably I have zero issues with.

Yes, this seems reasonable. Thanks for explaining it.
Kuduzkehpan 28 Jun 2016
Screw the legality. If Nintendo is too shortsighted to recognize me as a customer then they deserve every potential loss of sale that my ROMs have caused. Console manufacturers often enter into contractual agreements with game developers to only develop a game for their consoles, explicitly disallowing its release for PC, to force consumers to buy their consoles in order to play those games. Their whole purpose is to lock consumers into a closed ecosystem and restrict their freedom. This allows console manufacturers to fix prices artificially for their games and peripherals.

1) Games and Hardwares' ownerships are designeted by their own license. So violating these licenses is a bitching.
2) Piracy is a big shit on developers and customers. (less income less quality and games from same source)
3) You dont have to buy hardware and software also at the first place you agreed all EULAS when you did buy that Hardware and software.
4) Everyone needs to take care of her/his family and him/her-self unless someone bitching with their property.
5) There is noting left to us unless to protest non-free and copyrights in harmless ways as in all manners.
6) You can even go a square and tell people about their bullshitting lock-in ecosystem and marketing games.


Last edited by Kuduzkehpan on 28 Jun 2016 at 1:09 am UTC
TacoDeBoss 28 Jun 2016
Good! I was worried when Dolphin got a DX12 backend and the developers didn't seem to give one sixteenth of a damn about Vulkan.
GustyGhost 28 Jun 2016
1) Games and Hardwares' ownerships are designeted by their own license. So violating these licenses is a bitching.
2) Piracy is a big shit on developers and customers. (less income less quality and games from same source)
3) You dont have to buy hardware and software also at the first place you agreed all EULAS when you did buy that Hardware and software.
4) Everyone needs to take care of her/his family and him/her-self unless someone bitching with their property.
5) There is noting left to us unless to protest non-free and copyrights in harmless ways as in all manners.
6) You can even go a square and tell people about their bullshitting lock-in ecosystem and marketing games.

I would love to address your statements but we should probably only do so in a place where disfavored ideas are welcomed. You can always find me on Voat, a site which encourages unrestricted discourse and frowns upon moderation that attempts to influence opinions. It became popular after Reddit started to become censorious and authoritative.
wojtek88 28 Jun 2016
That's the problem I have. I was using emulationstation with my Dualshock 4 and playing Contra, Goal 3 and other classics. Then I've heard about Atari Vault and started to think - is there a way to legally buy roms this days? Is there a way to be perfectly sure that you can play this game from the platform that is dead?

Not exactly. You must buy the game and dump the ROM yourself. However, some Steam game collections actually diatribe the ROM file to make playing possible.

Dump the ROM myself? What hardware do I can use to dump games from SNES? Little bit to much effort from my point of view to play 1 or 2 classic games, but ok, nobody told that this is work for everyone.

wojtek88
That's the problem I have. I was using emulationstation with my Dualshock 4 and playing Contra, Goal 3 and other classics. Then I've heard about Atari Vault and started to think - is there a way to legally buy roms this days? Is there a way to be perfectly sure that you can play this game from the platform that is dead?

Have You got dolphin running through emulation station? If so what did you put in the command section of the config file.
No, I was using only SNES emulator. But it was also pain in the *** to setup this, I've spent one day on it before I was able to run the single game.

Anyway, I'm still confused with the ROMs and legallity, so I'm not going to follow that direction, but it's nice that such a software exists and has Vulkan support.

Regarding piracy - it's hard for me to understand that in this days piracy exists. Especially on PC, where you can have so much great titles for such a reasonable prices. Just to be fair - as a kid, back in 90s I was playing games that were bought on the market and those were not official CDs. I'm not proud of it. As a student I used to download not legal content from University network (ashamed as well). But today, I can say that I haven't played game that I didn't buy for about 4 years. And 4 years ago I played one classic Blizzard game that I don't own through Wine just to see how it runs (and it did run well). Except that I guess "I'm clean" for about 6 years.

And if I would hear for example that someone downloaded illegal version of XCOM: EU, the game that was so many times available on Steam for 4.99 euro, and had so many other great deals, I would say that such a person is either pig or something worse. Of course - there are situations that someone bought PC, but does not have money for games. But if you have a car but do not have money for gasoline, do you steal it?
tuubi 28 Jun 2016
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But if you have a car but do not have money for gasoline, do you steal it?
Blah blah, artificial scarcity etc. Stealing something tangible vs. making a copy. IOW: Don't be Lars Ulrich please. Metallica is was awesome but that guy's an idiot.
Liam Dawe 28 Jun 2016
But if you have a car but do not have money for gasoline, do you steal it?
Blah blah, artificial scarcity etc. Stealing something tangible vs. making a copy. IOW: Don't be Lars Ulrich please. Metallica is was awesome but that guy's an idiot.
It may sound different, but in reality it isn't.

Personal copies I think should be 100% legal, however, passing a copy to someone who hasn't purchased it themselves is piracy. That's the entire point, that person you are passing it to has never owned it, and got something they are supposed to pay for free even though they aren't entitled to it.

That whole "copying isn't stealing" argument is basically bullshit. Again, personal copying I think should always be legal, passing it around is not.

If everyone did that, developers would never make any money.

Anyway, this argument has been had elsewhere :P
Liam Dawe 28 Jun 2016
1) Games and Hardwares' ownerships are designeted by their own license. So violating these licenses is a bitching.
2) Piracy is a big shit on developers and customers. (less income less quality and games from same source)
3) You dont have to buy hardware and software also at the first place you agreed all EULAS when you did buy that Hardware and software.
4) Everyone needs to take care of her/his family and him/her-self unless someone bitching with their property.
5) There is noting left to us unless to protest non-free and copyrights in harmless ways as in all manners.
6) You can even go a square and tell people about their bullshitting lock-in ecosystem and marketing games.

I would love to address your statements but we should probably only do so in a place where disfavored ideas are welcomed. You can always find me on Voat, a site which encourages unrestricted discourse and frowns upon moderation that attempts to influence opinions. It became popular after Reddit started to become censorious and authoritative.
Oh get a grip.
tuubi 28 Jun 2016
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But if you have a car but do not have money for gasoline, do you steal it?
Blah blah, artificial scarcity etc. Stealing something tangible vs. making a copy. IOW: Don't be Lars Ulrich please. Metallica is was awesome but that guy's an idiot.
It may sound different, but in reality it isn't.
It sounds different because it is. ;) Theft and software piracy are not the same thing ethically, even if they are legally. The "you wouldn't steal a car" non-analogy really rubs me the wrong way, apples and oranges and all that.

But I know this isn't the right forum for this discussion. Linux gaming, woo! Emulators, yum!
Liam Dawe 28 Jun 2016
But if you have a car but do not have money for gasoline, do you steal it?
Blah blah, artificial scarcity etc. Stealing something tangible vs. making a copy. IOW: Don't be Lars Ulrich please. Metallica is was awesome but that guy's an idiot.
It may sound different, but in reality it isn't.
It sounds different because it is. ;) Theft and software piracy are not the same thing ethically, even if they are legally. The "you wouldn't steal a car" non-analogy really rubs me the wrong way, apples and oranges and all that.

But I know this isn't the right forum for this discussion. Linux gaming, woo! Emulators, yum!

Well I'm not censoring anyone, I'm enjoying the mostly reasonable discussion on it apart from the "waaa don't tell me what to think" type of comments.

It's an interesting issue, as people feel strongly about it on both sides.

For me though, if the developer doesn't give their game away for free and expects payment (like 99% of games) and you chuck a copy to a friend, you're doing something illegal (in most countries I think?) and unethical (because it shits on said developer).
tuubi 28 Jun 2016
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For me though, if the developer doesn't give their game away for free and expects payment (like 99% of games) and you chuck a copy to a friend, you're doing something illegal (in most countries I think?) and unethical (because it shits on said developer).
I agree with you, and I don't take part in or advocate piracy. But that doesn't mean it's all black and white, and that all crime is equal. Most of us live in democratic countries though, and if and when we disagree with our laws, the right thing to do is to try to get them changed, not to break them. Activism is okay and even desirable, illegal or antisocial behaviour less so.
Liam Dawe 28 Jun 2016
For me though, if the developer doesn't give their game away for free and expects payment (like 99% of games) and you chuck a copy to a friend, you're doing something illegal (in most countries I think?) and unethical (because it shits on said developer).
I agree with you, and I don't take part in or advocate piracy. But that doesn't mean it's all black and white, and that all crime is equal. Most of us live in democratic countries though, and if and when we disagree with our laws, the right thing to do is to try to get them changed, not to break them. Activism is okay and even desirable, illegal or antisocial behaviour less so.
In total agreement on all points there :)
STiAT 28 Jun 2016
I do not see the harm done to developers and publishers if you copy a rom not being sold any more. In my country this would only be legal if you own the original game.

I go the route that i buy what is still sold, but download what I can not buy by developers/publishers anymore, since I dont see any harm done (i would just be unable to play it, they would still not get anything), fully aware of the fact that it theoretically is still illegal, but they fail to give me an option to obtain it a legal way.

I would prefer if they put up stores where you legally can buy and download rom dumps of their games (new or old). But I hardly have hope that this will happen any time soon (hard part would be copyright protection).
Vaiski 28 Jun 2016
I would prefer if they put up stores where you legally can buy and download rom dumps of their games (new or old). But I hardly have hope that this will happen any time soon (hard part would be copyright protection).

There are a few (sort of) official ways to acquire ROMs for older systems, though of course not every single game ever released is available.

The Humble Store has a lot of Neo Geo games without DRM. You'll get the ROMs and even the BIOS required by emulators.

SEGA offers many of their Mega Drive / Genesis games via Steam. These contain the original ROMs, though you'll have to use a Windows-only tool to extract them.

I also believe the Wii Shop Channel is still active and enables you to buy games for the NES, SNES, N64 and other consoles. If you have a homebrew enabled Wii, you could dump the Virtual Console channels to your computer and extract the ROMs using tools like romextract or vcromclaim.
ANDREZAO 28 Jun 2016
Sega remade something for those packs in steam?
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