I love emulation: I’ve been playing games since the 1980s and watched emulation mature from a hobbyist pursuit to something the average person has access to. With that access comes questions. People ask me all the time “are emulators legal?” It’s a great question. The answer gets complicated in a legal sense because the legality of emulation and the legality of what you run on emulation are two separate issues. Here’s what you need to know about what that actually means.
“The short answer that will get you in trouble someday is “yes, emulators are legal.” They are, but that’s an oversimplification. Emulators are legal applications that you can download and use without worry. What you are doing with that emulator can be very illegal.”
What is Emulation?
Emulation is when one piece of hardware imitates the functionality of another. An N64 emulator is a program that mimics how an N64 functions. It translates the old code into something that modern microprocessors can read. On a technical level that’s all it is. Instruction set translation done by software instead of hardware.
Creating an emulator also means you need to know how the original works. You need extensive knowledge of the inner workings of the processor, the graphics chip, the sound chip, memory addresses, etc. Then you have to document those and produce new code that replicates all those functions. It’s LEGAL to make an emulator.
Most countries agree that building an emulator is not a violation of copyright law. You are reverse engineering hardware that already exists, but you’re not selling the copyrighted hardware. Building an emulator is perfectly legal.
Emulators have been around for decades now. The best Nintendo 64 emulators get updated regularly and can render games better than they looked on their original console. You can play games meant for the N64 in 4K with anti aliasing and improved draw distances. That’s because modern hardware isn’t busy emulating the tech of yesterday – it can blow it out of the water.
Emulators Themselves: Legal?
Yes. Emulator software can be downloaded without fear of legal reprisal. It’s been proven by courts time and time again. Connectix made an emulator for the Playstation. Sony sued them over it. The court ruled in Connectix’ favour as long as the emulator didn’t contain any copyrighted code from the console itself. Basically, they wrote an emulator without using Playstation’s code. Connecting created what’s called a “clean-room implementation” of the console.
This ruling has stood the test of time. The legality of emulation software hasn’t changed since. Building your own emulator would be legal.
The DMCA also makes it illegal to crack any copyright protections. Some people argue this extends to emulation since emulators allow you to play games that have those protections. HOWEVER, You’re not cracking that copy protection since the emulator isn’t interfering with that. You are still just playing a video game. Emulation doesn’t harm anything copyright holders cared about in the first place. The legal system has become more clear over time. Building and downloading emulators is legal.
Nintendo does try to sue anyone they catch building emulators. They always lose. While Nintendo will sue companies selling emulator softwares and ROMs, they haven’t won a single case against the developers. Building emulators is legal.
You’re allowed to download emulator software. Under the law you could even build your own emulator. Commercially selling an emulator is technically legal. Nintendo would definitely sue but you wouldn’t be breaking any laws by selling one.
Games you Run On Emulators: Legal?
The legal tightrope starts when you try to run games on that emulator. Here’s the thing about video games. They’re covered by copyright law. Just like books and movies. It is illegally to play a video game you do not own. Again, this is separate from the emulator itself.
You can illegally download a ROM off the internet and play it on an emulator. The ROM file is a copyrighted video game that you downloaded without paying. Just don’t download them. It’s illegal.
Yes, it is copyright infringement to dump your Nintendo 64 games to ROM files to play on an emulator. But, you own the copyright to those games since you bought them. There’s a fair use argument to be made by owning the game and backing it up. But the courts have never made a formal ruling on it, as far as I’m aware. It’s unlikely they will since it’s currently a grey area.
ROM files of games you don’t own are 100% copyrighted material that you’re obtaining WITHOUT PERMISSION. It’s illegal.
Nintendo can’t win cases against emulator developers. That doesn’t mean they won’t sue the ROM sites out of existence. Because they can legally.
What Happens In Real Life?
You should be playing games you legally own. If you own a game on N64 you should dump the cart to a ROM file. Take that ROM file and play it on your emulator. There is nothing illegal about that process.
The reality of emulator use is that people play games they don’t own. People obtain ROM files of games they aren’t legally entitled to play because they don’t own them. That’s against the law.
The chances you’ll get in trouble for playing ROMs you’ve downloaded are slim. Nintendo doesn’t care about you, an individual. They’ll go after the websites giving you’re games because they can.
Unless you’re ripping games you don’t own, you’re likely fine legally speaking. The only real risk of playing emulated games you don’t possess is if you download ROMs. Then you could be sued by Nintendo. It probably won’t happen.
But you’re breaking the law. There’s no two ways about that. Sure, Nintendo doesn’t care about you downloading ROMs. But you’re taking someone’s copyrighted property without paying for it. If that doesn’t bother you, cool! You don’t care about the law. That’s fine, but don’t act like it’s legal.
Nintendo wants to give you access to older games through Nintendo Switch Online. If you’re wanting old games to play, just BUY THE SERVICES NINTENDO HAPPILY SELLS YOU. You’re paying them money instead of stealing it. That’s the legal route to take.
And they’ve done enough that there’s less of an excuse than ever. Nintendo Switch Online offers NES, SNES, N64, and Genesis games that you can play on switch. Emulation is illegal… unless you’re paying Nintendo to play games legally through their Switch Online service.
Some games are still going to be inaccessible without the physical copy. Games that are “Unavailable” on switch. These will always exist unless Nintendo decides to produce the original hardware again. Games that fell into this category would be up for legal debate. Nintendo COULD sue you for playing your legally owned games on an emulator. They just won’t because you bought a game they’re not making any money off of.
Emulation became open source once the legalities were settled. Developers didn’t want to get sued by Nintendo so they made the source code public. Look at Dolphin, one of the most popular emulators for GameCube and Wii. Every wire-plugin is open and free to look at. You can literally guarantee those aren’t ripping code from Nintendo’s source because you can see it.
TLDR: Emulators Legal
Emulators are legal. Download emulators. Playing emulators is legal so long as you own the games you play on them. ROM Dumps of games you own are a legal grey area but if you’re only using the dumped ROM for yourself it’s pretty safe.
Playing ROMs you’ve downloaded is against the law. Never do that.
Sure, Nintendo won’t come after you personally for downloading ROMs. Emulation is perfectly legal. So as long as Nintendo doesn’t decide to start suing individuals, you’re pretty safe playing your ROMs. That’s not saying its legal, just that you’re likely to never see consequences.
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