Because something is free for your personal use doesn't mean you can use it for comercial use.
Humble Neo Geo Bundle seems to be using Frank Cifaldi's old GameTap emulator
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The Spoony Hou
Member
Most emulators are free, but a company can't sell an emulator made by another person (unless they make a deal).
Some are completely locked down, some are free with a non-commercial license, some are free with the caveat that they expect to be credited in any product they're used with.
What's wrong with it? The GameTap emulator was awesome back in the day!
The NeoGeo games ran perfectly, and they also had a fully working Sega 32X and Saturn legal, perfectly working emulators!
I loved GameTap, too bad it ended...
ok guys, really thanks!
now i see the problem, games like kof 98 in steam still use this?
Wow. Can't believe that I actually thought SNK or code Mystics wrote up an emulator for this haha
Well, it's kind of slimey selling an emulator with roms when you didn't even create the emulator, or have permission to sell.What's wrong with it? The GameTap emulator was awesome back in the day!
The NeoGeo games ran perfectly, and they also had a fully working Sega 32X and Saturn legal, perfectly working emulators!
I loved GameTap, too bad it ended...
Of course, I'd hope they have worked it out prior and this will just blow over.
The versions of KOF98/02 that are in this bundle weren't by DotEmu, so probably not.
technozombie
Member
I don't agree with stealing of someones code and then selling it but I'm not quite sure this is the same as say, the Retron 5. According to the article on Ars you can take out the roms and play them on MAME. You really are buying the roms and getting the emulator for free. Either way doing it without permission is shitty.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/...ts-you-play-19-neo-geo-games-in-your-browser/
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/...ts-you-play-19-neo-geo-games-in-your-browser/
storafötter
Member
Honestly you can give all the money charity so it isnt really that bad. Plus you save over 30 dollars on those steam games. Shitty lazy practice yeah, but I am not planning to play with the roms much.
They are absolutely selling the emulator. It is identical to the Retron 5 situation, except it's entirely digital rather than having a physical element.
Assuming the emulator is indeed being used without permission, as it appears to be on the surface.
It would be a different matter if they just sold the roms and included links to where you could download a variety of emulators.
I don't believe the emulator is being used without permission. It's Frank Cifaldi's old GameTap emulator from his own words, but he also replied with these tweets.
Frank Cifaldi said:
Frank Cifaldi said:
If Cifaldi made this emulator for GameTap, then the current owner of GameTap would be the owner of the emulator unless there was a deal where SNK or DotEmu got the rights to the emulator. There are ROMs that are obviously MAME/Nebula ROMs included, but that isn't the emulator itself and is code owned by SNK Playmore.
Of course they worked it out. They asked SNK permission, and SNK is getting part of the money.
This is as legal as the NeoGeo/Sega/Capcom games when they were on GameTap.
Gametap used a version of GiriGiri iirc. It was a really early Saturn emulator with amazing compatibility that Sega actually bought the rights to and hired it's creator.
McBradders
NeoGAF: my new HOME
BronsonLee
Member
Much Ado About Nothing
Everyone can feel clean again.
Too late to trust now
... There was nothing done that inpinged on trust, just someone who didn't have enough knowledge to pass judgement did so and created a false controversy. Stop trying to keep the flame going.
As we may know the guy who made the emulator vanish from the emulation scene, so it's hard to believe since this latter was made before the findings. Who knows the truth is the original creator.
I hope for the best since this can damage the Humble Bundle trust.
This kind of stuff is historically very common. Very often in official re-releases of PC games, you could find the signature of the nocd crack team inside the executable with a hex editor/viewer. I mean, they still own the rights to the content even if it's been illicitly tampered with, so why reinvent the wheel?
BMX Bandit
Member
Hell, even one of the last patches for rainbow six vegas 2 on pc was a goddamn crack team nocd patch. This kinda stuff seems to happen a lot more than people realize. That being said I'm glad they cleared up the emulator issues.
The original creator said he knows nothing since he doesn't own the emulator as it's GameTaps property. DotEmu have licensed this so unless GameTap come out and say otherwise, that's the situation.
stan423321
Member
Actually it depends on the particular license used by "another person". Dolphin, for example, is licensed on GNU GPLv2+, so if Nintendo one day decided to release their Wii games on PC by bundling them with Dolphin, nothing is stopping them.
New mystery spawned; when and how did Gametap acquire salable rights to Nebula?
Bony Manifesto
Member
SNK is well within their legal rights to leverage the emulation/ROM community's illegal/gray area, or license someone else to do it.
If they violated IP rights with the emulator (which they probably didn't--DotEmu respects licenses usually), then I'm sure it'll be corrected. The ROMs, however, are theirs through and through, even if they were gotten via torrent.
If they violated IP rights with the emulator (which they probably didn't--DotEmu respects licenses usually), then I'm sure it'll be corrected. The ROMs, however, are theirs through and through, even if they were gotten via torrent.
The Hermit
Member
Welp too late.
What do I do now?
What do I do now?
MrCunningham
Member
Depends on the license.
Closed source emulators: No. One well known closed source emulator is Kega Fusion. It is generally distributed as freeware, but is not under GPL. Sega actually uses a version of Kega Fusion in some of their older Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive compilations. But, they hired the developer of Kega (Steve Snake) to make them their own variation on his emulator.
Open source emulators: Yes, but only under strict conditions if it is GPL. Open source under the GPL license can be freely distributed by anyone and can also be packaged in commercial software as long as it includes proper GPL documentation and/ or has the source code available for it. An example of this would be DOSBox, which is a DOS emulator that is packaged with almost every DOS game on GOG and Steam.
The Neo-Geo emulator is emulating a Motorola 68000 CPU, a Zilog Z80 CPU, a Yamaha FM sound chip and probably a couple proprietary graphics chips that may be owned by SNK Playmore. If a developer can recreate those chips in software without breaking any patents, then it is perfectly legal.
BronsonLee
Member
Play the games or use a different emulator, basically.
Well they were all delisted anyway
BronsonLee
Member
IT'S BETTER TO BURN OUT, THAN TO FADE AWAY
Or it's better to just shut up, that works too
Good, C64 games are poisonnn
Tye The Czar
Member
Here's a good idea, if anyone still wants the games:
Make it so that all money goes to charity. That way you can also stick it to DotEmu.
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
Guess I know why I instinctively saved my cash. Really scummy of them.
EDIT: Nvrmnd. The ROMs are still technically SNK's property. So I'll probably pick this up between today and tomorrow.
Why stick it to DotEmu? Read the thread, they're in the clear. There is absolutely nothing illegal or shady here.
Edit: OP really needs to update their post.
BronsonLee
Member
While I'm all for donating to charity, doing it that way is for the wrong reason.
Also it affects SNK more, probably. They get the money.
It's literally not. In the letter Dotemu asserts they acquired rights to "Gametap's emulator Nebula" a year ago. The question is when and how did Gametap even get those rights.Last year. It's literally in the letter you are quoting