Question Are emulators legal?

[ThatSourMelon]

So, I have a $1000+ gaming pc, so I want to emulate some console exclusive games on pc. If they are also on pc I’m fine paying for them, but if they are just on console I don’t want to pay for a whole console for just one game or two. Emulators are free, I looked online and I can’t find a precise point on wether or not they are legal, here are some:
-Emulators are illegal
-Emulators are only legal for personal use, no commercial use
-Emulators are legal if you own the game and hardware but only personal use, no commercial use
-Emulators are legal if you own the game and hardware for personal and commercial use
-Emulators are legal
I don’t know what to believe. I have a Wii U and Zelda: breath if the wild, and I want to see how it would look on my gaming computer, could I do that? What if I wanted to use it commercially: make a video on breath of the wild in 4K 60fps? What about going back to old Nintendo games, I don’t want to buy a Super Nintendo or GameCube to play super Mario 64 or Zelda: o corona of time. What about ps4 exclusives, are they ok? I just have a lot of questions, if someone could clear this up for me: thanks!

 

[drivinfast247]

It would emulate exactly what the game looked like originally. It doesn't scale the graphics.

 

[AllanGH]

Emulators are, for all intents and purposes, legal--provided that they do not actually use patented technology or copyrighted code segments from the original game consoles.

Getting a-hold of the original game code, on the other hand is less than legal without some sort of written agreement from the code owner, or the move of the code owner to release it to the public domain.

 

[ThatSourMelon]

Emulators are, for all intents and purposes, legal.

Getting a-hold of the original game code, on the other hand is less than legal without some sort of written agreement from the code owner, or the move of the code owner to release it to the public domain.

Thanks for that! So how would I know which games are legal, and how do I find them?

 

[AllanGH]

That is a search that you will have to do on your own, I'm afraid.

 

[TerryLaze]

Thanks for that! So how would I know which games are legal, and how do I find them?

As long as you personally rip the game that you legally own from the disk or rom to a file it's 100% legal to do it and to run it on an emulator.
And while it's not legal to download a game you own, because you don't have the equipment or knowledge to rip the game , it's not like anybody will come to your house see that you own the game legally and then check if the files you have actually are from the game or downloaded.It's just a matter of if it bothers you that you know it's not 100% legal.
As a matter of fact nintendo themselves sell downloaded roms because ripping them is too much of a hassle so good luck to them if they want to sue any end user that just wants to play their legally owned games.
Very nice video, worth watching all of it.

View: https://youtu.be/HLWY7fCXUwE?t=877


Emulators are legal for personal and commercial use BLEEM! the first commercial PS original emulator won a court case against sony,as long as they don't use any IP of the console there is nothing anybody can do.
You don't even need to own the hardware unless the emulator needs original boot roms,in that case the same things I said in the beginning apply,you need to own the console and rip these roms yourself.
If you are making a new console and just use a random emulator from the net without permission that's illegal.