Legality of those 30-in-1 game devices-joysticks sold in mal

[Guest Brendan]

I want to know how these are legal. I've been into emulators for years now, the eumlators themselves for the most part are legal. The game images (roms) are kinda a grey area. Legal to own if you have the original cd/cartridge, illegal otherwise.

These game devices must be able to emulate the original game hardware. I guess they run their own proprietary emulation software, or a open source emulator. Now how do the companies making these get the licenses from the respective game developers to have their game on these?

I just can't see a major developer like nintendo or capcom to allow these 3rd party companies to make these. I've never seen a nintendo "seal of approval" on the box.

I've heard of a lot of emulator authors getting heat for their projects. Bleem got it from sony, I believe the first functional N64 emu got it from Nintendo. I know that they are legal as long as you dont incorporate or include the bios with the emulator, which is why they all require a seperate bios file.

[Guest Pondrew]

I've always assumed the reason was that the software/hardware company in question (Sega/Nintendo) was receiving royalties...

[Guest Brendan]

NOA taking legal action:

look

I had a feeling something was fishy about them.

Ohh and on the topic of emulation, it was only a matter of time:

DS emu in the works!