Am I a good or a bad gamer?

[Artwark]

I want to get games as legally as possible but I've never got the chance to get games like the classic mario games( I only got super mario world and Bros 3 for gba) I played some old mario games through emulators and I feel bad for that.....

I wish Nintendo forgives me for this......

[MexicanAnime]

Nah. In fact, sometimes it's hard to legally support them or not even possible at this time, more specifically with old games (if you were pirating newer games...that would be different).

[Artwark]

(if you were pirating newer games...that would be different).

I have never pirated any new Nintendo games infact I highly discourage it seeing that I already own a Wii, DS, 3DS, GBA and GCN. But damm if only I could get old nes classics through payment I can have relieve that I did a good thing not only for myself but also for Nintendo.

I just don't want Nintendo to get dissappointed in me

[Psychospacecow]

Doesn't the Wii have a market spot specifically for old nes games?
If you don't want to emulate then use that.
Personally, I use emulators for ps1 but that's more to do with a broken ps1.

[JiraiyaSennin]

It might just be that my conscious doesn't feel bad about doing this kind of thing, but it's really not that big of a deal. So calm down and just keep playing.

[ThisGuyInTheSuit]

I don't really care if people emulate games, but I only do it to the games that I own so I can play them on my PC. I'd still try to get the original games though.

[Artwark]

Doesn't the Wii have a market spot specifically for old nes games?
If you don't want to emulate then use that.
Personally, I use emulators for ps1 but that's more to do with a broken ps1.

The problem is that I'm in India and well I'm not soooo wealthy due to the currency issues. Plus I have no idea where to get the points aside credit card.

[Yawackhary]

So basically you are saying that you want to play the old NES and probably SNES/N64 as well games but have doubts regarding emulating?

There's the Virtual Console on the Wii, Wii U and the 3DS that provide NES games (with the Wii having the most), without using a credt card there are also top up eShop cards that you can buy in stores that have a value but since you live in India (compared to the US/EU), it is a problem.

Now I've checked Nintendo's official website and there doesn't seem to be any support from India whatsoever so it is Nintendo's fault for not providing the services you want (I know Sony do have PSN for PS3 and Vita in India, not sure about Microsoft). Then again Nintendo didn't give Europe and Oceania much of a toss until the DS era since all they focused on is Japan and America. So even though you want to support Nintendo, you can't since they don't support your region yet.

Since I don't know regarding Nintendo's state in India, I have to ask you a couple of questions:

1) Regarding your 3DS and Wii (maybe add the NGC as well), what region are your games? Do they have a letter like E, T or M on the cover (American)? Use the PEGI age rating like 3,7,12,16 or 18 (European)? Do they use another system (I'm only vaguely know the Australia/New Zealand ratings)?

2) Can you access the eShop on your 3DS? If you can, what prices do they display? Dollars? Pounds? Euros? or Rupees (your currency)?

If it is the former, you are pretty much screwed where you have to import top up eShop cards from the Internet and maybe also VPN to think it is the US region. If it is the latter there might be a chance but I don't know. If you can't access the eShop, you might also be screwed.

As for alternatives, your GBA can play old Game Boy games so you would be able to get Super Mario Land 1 & 2, Super Mario Bros Deluxe, Mario & Yoshi, Mario's Picross, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Alleyway (Breakout clone that features Mario on the cover) and the various Game & Watch Gallery games (that's just for Mario, there are other games). There is a range called NES Classics on the GBA that have a single NES game on a cartridge but playing the game looks squished and I would rather recommend Super Mario Bros. Deluxe than the GBA version due to extra stages and features.

You wouldn't have problems playing old NES games on your computer since many of the games on that system are no longer supported by the developers and many of them no longer exist. Yes, there are legal and moral issues but you have to remember something. In the late 90s, Nintendo was against emulation but yet in 2006 they set up the Virtual Console that does the same thing. Some people argue that you are paying for ROMs. Personally I only download a ROM from a company if I can't provide the same experience myself (e.g. official English translations of Wonder Boy in Monster Land/Monster World IV), has extras (Sonic the Fighters) or high quality.

If worst comes to worst, you could buy an old NES and some games but that would mean buying online and they might not ship to India. You are probably used to Famiclones, sort of like Russia, China and South America so there might be pirated carts of some games that you want (one of them is Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels that was only released on the Famicom Disk System in Japan normally).

(Note: I have used emulators for years and the only systems that I go for real hardware are the N64 [lousey emulation], Gamecube/Wii/PS2 [computer too poor to run them and still have my launch NGC] and the Xbox [no proper emulation to the point that I bought one recently]. Anything older than them systems or less powerful, emulation is okay except the Saturn but that's another thing.)

[CosmykTheDolfyn]

I'll admit, I've done a lot of emulation. I still do at lot of emulation. So many games aren't supported or even copyrighted after the 10 year mark (now, major games are, but after 10 years, you have to pay more fees to keep rights to copyrights, and many publishers won't do that for junk games that lost them money in the first place.)

It's a very grey area, to be sure. But there are many games that weren't released out of Japan that I have fully played through thanks to emulation. I don't go way overboard either. I had a friend that had all of the official SNES releases saved on his computer - all 784 games.

[Mass Distraction]

Meh, I have (or had) a few hundred NES games on my computer. Since they're nearly impossible to get here for a decent price I just emulate them. At least some of them are on the eShop/PSN/Android, though that might be a completely different ordeal for you.

[Sohakmet]

Piracy? If it wasn't for Steam I'd be doing that until today, so don't feel bad about. I basically play all my console games emulated (the old consoles that is.)

[Arjahn]

The only games I've pirated are FTL: Faster than Light, after I bought it on Steam. I just torrented it again so I could play on school computers, and a few old NES games. Money is sort of tight, and I really wanted to play some Duck Tales.


Don't hate me, have a cookie.

[Mass Distraction]

Speaking of pirating new games, I did pirate Amnesia back when it came out because literally the only thing I knew about it was that it's a really horrifying indie game.

It did get me into the series and I even went back and bought all the Penumbra games on Steam. Now I'm looking forward to Machine for Pigs. I guess I could buy the actual Amnesia during the next Steam Halloween sale.

[Artwark]

So basically you are saying that you want to play the old NES and probably SNES/N64 as well games but have doubts regarding emulating?

There's the Virtual Console on the Wii, Wii U and the 3DS that provide NES games (with the Wii having the most), without using a credt card there are also top up eShop cards that you can buy in stores that have a value but since you live in India (compared to the US/EU), it is a problem.

Now I've checked Nintendo's official website and there doesn't seem to be any support from India whatsoever so it is Nintendo's fault for not providing the services you want (I know Sony do have PSN for PS3 and Vita in India, not sure about Microsoft). Then again Nintendo didn't give Europe and Oceania much of a toss until the DS era since all they focused on is Japan and America. So even though you want to support Nintendo, you can't since they don't support your region yet.

Since I don't know regarding Nintendo's state in India, I have to ask you a couple of questions:

1) Regarding your 3DS and Wii (maybe add the NGC as well), what region are your games? Do they have a letter like E, T or M on the cover (American)? Use the PEGI age rating like 3,7,12,16 or 18 (European)? Do they use another system (I'm only vaguely know the Australia/New Zealand ratings)?

2) Can you access the eShop on your 3DS? If you can, what prices do they display? Dollars? Pounds? Euros? or Rupees (your currency)?

If it is the former, you are pretty much screwed where you have to import top up eShop cards from the Internet and maybe also VPN to think it is the US region. If it is the latter there might be a chance but I don't know. If you can't access the eShop, you might also be screwed.

As for alternatives, your GBA can play old Game Boy games so you would be able to get Super Mario Land 1 & 2, Super Mario Bros Deluxe, Mario & Yoshi, Mario's Picross, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Alleyway (Breakout clone that features Mario on the cover) and the various Game & Watch Gallery games (that's just for Mario, there are other games). There is a range called NES Classics on the GBA that have a single NES game on a cartridge but playing the game looks squished and I would rather recommend Super Mario Bros. Deluxe than the GBA version due to extra stages and features.

You wouldn't have problems playing old NES games on your computer since many of the games on that system are no longer supported by the developers and many of them no longer exist. Yes, there are legal and moral issues but you have to remember something. In the late 90s, Nintendo was against emulation but yet in 2006 they set up the Virtual Console that does the same thing. Some people argue that you are paying for ROMs. Personally I only download a ROM from a company if I can't provide the same experience myself (e.g. official English translations of Wonder Boy in Monster Land/Monster World IV), has extras (Sonic the Fighters) or high quality.

If worst comes to worst, you could buy an old NES and some games but that would mean buying online and they might not ship to India. You are probably used to Famiclones, sort of like Russia, China and South America so there might be pirated carts of some games that you want (one of them is Super Mario Bros 2: The Lost Levels that was only released on the Famicom Disk System in Japan normally).

(Note: I have used emulators for years and the only systems that I go for real hardware are the N64 [lousey emulation], Gamecube/Wii/PS2 [computer too poor to run them and still have my launch NGC] and the Xbox [no proper emulation to the point that I bought one recently]. Anything older than them systems or less powerful, emulation is okay except the Saturn but that's another thing.)

1.Mine is USA. Its ESRB.

2.Whenever I got to eshop(And yes I can go to eshop btw) It displays in dollars.

I guess my only hope is to get a prepaid card.

But thanks for all your help. Now I'm bumped up that I finished playing earthbound through emulator....What luck! To think that they actually released Earthbound in US.
:(

[Dutchtica*]

I'll admit it freely. I've emulated a LOT in the past.
But the games I really enjoy I got on my VC as well. Like Earthbound and Super Mario RPG, NEVER got a European release.

Shit's unfair yo.