Video games have been around for a long, long time now. Pong made its debut in 1972— though back then you needed a bulky arcade cabinet to run it. Nowadays, you’ve got a much more powerful machine right in your pocket with your smartphone.
Along with all of the modern games available for Android and iOS, you can also dig deep into vast libraries of retro video games from years gone by. Games from old consoles can be brought back to life right on your phone’s screen.
What’s more, the emulators that run these retro games are now available on the iPhone (they’ve been available on Android for quite a while). That means more people than ever can jump into the world of retro gaming.
The caveat: Are emulators legal?
Before you get started, you should be aware that while emulator software is legal, pirating video games isn’t—in the same way that torrenting software is legal, but pirating movies isn’t. At least, that’s the case in most parts of the world, and if you’re in any doubt you should check how the law stands in your country of residence.
Copyright infringement is black and white, but there are shades of gray around its edges. As per the US Copyright Office, you can make backup copies of computer programs you’ve bought, as long as no one else is using them—though it’s difficult to be definitive about the rules here.
Read up around the issue, and you’ll see that video game publishers most often take action against emulators that circumvent digital rights management, or against large distributors of ROMs (Read Only Memory files), which is the name given to retro game files shared online. We’re not going to tell you how to find any ROMs in this guide, so you’re on your own in that respect.
We’ll leave it to your own personal conscience about whether or not you feel comfortable playing retro games that you haven’t paid money for in…
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