| Description: | And where do ROMs come from? If a game comes on a DVD, like the PlayStation 2 or the Nintendo Wii, you can actually rip games yourself using a standard DVD drive to create ISO files. For old cartridge-based consoles, special pieces of hardware hardware makes it possible to copy games over to your computer. In theory, you could fill a collection this way. Basically no one does this, however, and instead downloads ROMs from a wide collection of websites that, for legal reasons, we will not be linking to. You’ll have to figure out how to get ROMs yourself.
Is downloading ROMs legal? We talked to a lawyer about this, actually. Broadly speaking, downloading a ROM for a game you do not own is not legal–just like downloading a pirated movie is not legal. Downloading a ROM for a game you do own, however, is hypothetically defensible–at least legally speaking. But there really isn’t caselaw here. What is clear is that it’s illegal for websites to be offering ROMs for the public to download, which is why such sites are frequently shut down.
The Best Starter Emulators for Windows Users
Now that you understand what emulation is, it’s time to get started setting up a console! But what software to use?
The absolute best emulator setup, in our humble opinion, is a program called RetroArch. RetroArch combines emulators for every retro system you can imagine, and gives you a beautiful leanback GUI for browsing your games.
retroarch-games
The downside: it can be a little complicated to set up, especially for beginners. Don’t panic, though, because we have a complete guide to setting up RetroArch and an outline of RetroArch’s best advanced features. Follow those tutorials and you’ll have the best possible emulation setup in no time. (You might also check out this forum thread, which has great recommended settings for NES and SNES in RetroArch.) |
