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Comment by PhasmaFelis | Hacker News Reader

I'm amused by how many video game emulator devs insist that they're not for playing video games. (MAME is another big one.)

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And why is that difficult to believe? My previous emulation project (https://code.google.com/p/pspplayer/) was the same kind of exercise: do something no one else had done and learn a lot doing it. As a hobbyist the act of doing something is far more fulfilling than the output.

It's not difficult to believe, it's just funny. Devoting an enormous amount of time and energy to understanding and reproducing a device whose only purpose is to play video games while insisting that you're not interested in video games is a pretty funny thing to do.

I mean, I obsess over odd stuff too, I'd guess most of us do, but it's important to keep a sense of humor about it.

Oh, for sure. I thought you were implying that I only was doing it to play/steal/etc games (as many people assume). I've got a pile of awesome Japanese import games I picked up the last time I was there that I'd love to play, but the region locking on the real consoles prevents me. If I had an emulator, that wouldn't be a problem. Not the only reason I'm doing this, of course (I could just buy a Japanese console), but it's a reason nonetheless :)

Might such a comment be used against you? Just curious.

It's fair use. If a book is not available for sale in the US I can travel to the UK and buy a copy and bring it back with me and read it. It may not be what the publisher wanted, but it's a legally purchased good used in a legit way.

In at least the current legal framework, this declaration of intent is [supposed] to help avoid lawsuits.

In theory, the emulation of a system, in and of itself, is not illegal. The copying or unlicensed use thereof, is.

Non-piracy emulation projects are the only way to explain NES emulators written in Visual Basic and JavaScript.

Never been curious enough about how something works to try to replicate it?

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