Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie

YFZdude

@dankcushions said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

i anticipate that nintendo (one of the few active publishers who retain the rights to a vast library of titles) will do this at some point - have a subscription 'virtual console' emulator service on tvs/phones/consoles/etc, permitting access to their entire catalogue. probably not until they've exhausted all other ways of reselling us that content, though ;)

I thought they did this concept with the Switch where you pay a fee for online services and get access to either a rotating selection of games or the entirety of whatever they choose to have in the library. Nonetheless, it definitely would not be the entire library for every system as we would all wish.

Also, I can't remember the details, but my impression of US copyright laws was that even if you own a game, you can't download the ROM from someone else. I thought there was a legal way of making your own backup copy but distribution or download is likely off the table. Probably similar situation in many countries.

I think this is why the used games market continued to thrive for so many years. Alas, the current trend of games being sold and consumed entirely in digital format makes it unlikely that will survive forever. Is there even an option for selling a console game you purchase from the digital storefront?

thelostsoul

@yfzdude Owning a copy of a game does not grant anyone a free copy of existing ROM files of this game. First off, when you buy a cartridge (or any other physical media), then you buy this one single particular item. And you get the right to play and do whatever you want with it, including selling and reading its ROMs. You never paid for a digital representation of this game (ROM files), but you are allowed to read the data for yourself. The ROM files for this game are also read/dumped from other cartridges you never paid for. So downloading someone else ROM files means you never get the same game as you paid for and therefore cannot be seen as a "backup".

That is at least the situation is for cartridges and cds and other physical medias for games, at least from my understanding.

themazingness

Due to the Steam sale, I've been able to confirm a few more Piko Interactive games.

Tunnel B1 comes with both Playstation (original) and DOS versions of the game. No renaming is necessary. The Playstation game's .cue and bin files are in the ...\TunnelB1\ps1\game folder.

Radical Rex and Tinhead are SNES games and Brave Battle Saga and Switchblade are Genesis/Mega Drive games. Just browse to the res folder, copy the "game" file, and rename them with the proper extensions (e.g. .smc for SNES and .bin for Mega Drive).

themazingness

Additionally (not by Piko Interactive), Lizard is a homebrew NES/DOS/Windows game for purchase on Steam. The NES and DOS versions must be added as DLC, but the DLC is free.

A Former User

I know I'm late for the party here, but I'd like to mention I agree that there's lots of ways to get ROM's legally, even cartridge dumping is a way to do it, copying cartridge ROM's of games you already have legal whether 2nd hand or kept them since they were factory condition, it doesn't matter, both won't violate the terms of the license, it's only when you give or sell them to other people it becomes a problem.

Virtual Console is a good way to do it but unfortunately those are encrypted, meaning they will not work on third party emulators. Sega beat them to the punch on this one and sold their retro games on Steam in DRM free fashion as you had mentioned in this thread, but it is still only for personal use because distributing them without Sega's consent is illegal.

themazingness

I haven't tried it (too many games to play), but I learned about this homebrew Genesis rom for sale that has a demo version to play before you buy it.

Arkagis Revolution: https://arkagis.itch.io/arkagis-revolution?fbclid=IwAR2yKUpMoFAUOxK-Xy7VaTMfZO2m6K6UDuSoaw9vwPWGGnwfRLkG_rDdOjU

Crush

So lately there's being allot of new games released on retro systems, some of them are available in rom format as well.
Ironically allot of Dreamcast devs do not sell them as digital download, even though most DC owners i know, have replaced disc reader with a disc emulator.

Sega:
Xeno Crisis: https://shop.bitmapbureau.com/products/xeno-crisis-sega-mega-drive-genesis-rom-download
Demons of Asteborg: (Not yet released but demo is available) https://demonsofasteborg.com/
VergeWorld: (Not yet released but demo is available) http://retrobones.com/

Dreamcast:
Xeno Crisis: https://shop.bitmapbureau.com/products/xeno-crisis-sega-dreamcast-rom-download
Hydra Castle Labyrinth: (Free): https://www.obscuregamers.com/threads/hydra-castle-labyrinth-new-port.1838/

Vectrex:
You are free to use any official released games, overlays and manuals for non-profit. this does not include third party titles. (more info in post below)

Clyde

@crush said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

Vectrex:
You are free to use any official released games, overlays and manuals for non-profit. this does not include third party titles.

Do you have a source for this?

Crush

@clyde https://web.archive.org/web/20071007155940/http://www.vectrexnews.com/faq/vectrex-faq-60.txt

thelostsoul

@crush Out of curiosity I looked it up. The quote in question from https://web.archive.org/web/20071007155940/http://www.vectrexnews.com/faq/vectrex-faq-60.txt:

8.0) Legal issues

8.1) Isn't copying the games by burning EPROMs stealing or violating a
copyright?

If the system is "dead" then no money is lost by making copies of
something which otherwise would never be available. Even so, it is a
fuzzy matter and technically the answer should probably be, "YES."
Fortunately, Smith Engineering [Jay Smith] has given permission to make
copies of all Vectrex related materials (manuals, games, overlays, etc.)
as long as it is not for profit.

The author of the document claims that J. Smith gave permission to make copies. I would like want to see the permission he gave. Even if this is correct, this just means you are given permission to copy (for backup?), not to distribute the copies. Right?

I couldn't find any other related info. So based on this, I doubt that downloading and distributing Vectrex games is gone free. To be honest, I doubt that anything would happen, but from legal perspective is this really correct? The author of the document isn't even the license holder of the subject and he itself is just interpreting the law and gives the answer "probably yes". That's not exactly 100% clear on this topic to me.

Crush

@thelostsoul said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

The author of the document claims that J. Smith gave permission to make copies. I would like want to see the permission he gave. Even if this is correct, this just means you are given permission to copy (for backup?), not to distribute the copies. Right?

It says copy as long as it is not for profit, if this was a legal document it would indeed cover distribution. but like you said it's not from the owner of the rights.

furthermore this doc is from when the Vectrex scene was still very much alive in the 90s, I'm afraid if you require further information on the topic, you'd have to find it on archived forum sites from that era.
I doubt any of the email addresses are still relevant, and whether the written letter of Jay Smith still exists.

This is the info that is available at the moment unfortunately, and people can do with it as they wish, i should have cleared all this up in my original post.
In any event, the info has been shared, without any links to roms.
Hope this helps.

Clyde

@crush Thanks for trying to give as much information as possible.

Please don't take our inquiries as overly pedantic; there are just too many myths, falsities and half-truths out there in such matters. Thus, we (as far as I know @thelostsoul from previous posts) are very sceptical by default if people claim that copyrighted material is free to download, use or copy under more or less specific circumstances. In many cases, its most probably just passed-on misinformation or wishful thinking. The real giveaways tend to be well documented and traceable in my experience.

That said, thanks again for your elaborate, objective, and honest answer.

Folly

Hi all,

A while ago I found some cool Konami Remakes on the internet with source code included on a website that seems to be a backup of an old abandoned website :
https://mog.jorito.net/
These games have no licence and some have the GNU/GNU2 licence.
So they can be shared.
So I used them for tests in the Box86/wine thread.
Later I was able to compile 3 of them and make ports for them.

A few days ago I found a new website from one of the makers of these Konami Remakes :
https://braingames.santiontanon.dev/
He has not yet included the the Konami Remakes on his website, but he is planning to do so.
On his website he already included some other games for MSX, CPC and PC that can be freely downloaded.

I was able to contact him, this was his reaction :
Cool!! Glad to hear you were able to run the remakes!!! I definitively want to bring them back to my new website, and I was hoping to go through the original source code and make sure they still compile in modern Mac/Windows/Linux. But it’d be also great if they can compile directly for the raspberry pi!

My idea was to make all the source code available in GitHub. But I haven’t yet found the time to do it. Hopefully I’ll put it up soon! But in the meantime, by all means feel free to share.

santi

Here I posted my ports :
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/28345/old-computer-appreciation-thread/1079

Crush

@mitu said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle for PS4, Xbox One and Steam (Windows). Includes 7 arcade games:
Final Fight, Captain Commando, The King of Dragons, Knights of the Round and Warriors of Fate, Armored Warriors and Battle Circuit. Both International and JP versions available and has online multiplayer, save states, achievements.

Can anyone please confirm if the actual roms are included in the pc version and compatible with retropie?

themazingness

@crush said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

@mitu said in Where to (legally) acquire content to play on RetroPie:

Capcom Beat Em Up Bundle for PS4, Xbox One and Steam (Windows). Includes 7 arcade games:
Final Fight, Captain Commando, The King of Dragons, Knights of the Round and Warriors of Fate, Armored Warriors and Battle Circuit. Both International and JP versions available and has online multiplayer, save states, achievements.

Can anyone please confirm if the actual roms are included in the pc version and compatible with retropie?

They are not included.

Crush

Found some more and you'll get roms for multiple systems.

I haven't bought these yet so i cant comment much on it, but it looks pretty nice.

Escape 2042 - The Truth Defenders
Atari STe / Gameboy / PC / Sega Megadrive Genesis / Jaguar
$12,00 at https://orionsoft.itch.io/escape2042

Zia and the goddesses of magic
PS1 / Dreamcast / PC Windows
$12 at https://orionsoft.itch.io/zia-and-the-goddesses-of-magic

And they got a few more but they look less intresting to me and i don't wanna type anymore so you can see them over @ https://orionsoft.itch.io/

Crush

Who else missed this game being released on the PSX last year? and it's free :-)

Download: http://netyaroze-europe.com/Media/Downloads
Some background: https://www.engadget.com/playstation-ps1-indie-game-magic-castle-205946277.html

Folly

@crush

That's a cool game you posted !

themazingness

I have not verified this will work in Linapple for the RetroPie, and I recognize this thread has mostly been for console games (DOSBox was excluded in the original post), but this project is pretty awesome. It reminds me of the AD&D Gold Box games.

Lawless Legends is a cRPG for Apple II that is far into development and is open for testing: http://www.lawlesslegends.com/

Ancient Legends is a complete cRPG for Apple II in the same engine: https://8bitweapon.com/2016/07/21/our-rpg-ancient-legends-released

The Outlaw Editor lets you make your own cRPGs for the Apple II (much like the Gold Box games had the Unlimited Adventures software, or in this century like the Neverwinter Nights games): https://github.com/badvision/lawless-legends/tree/master/OutlawEditor

thelostsoul

@benmclean

Rock 'n Roll Racing for the SNES is available for free from Blizzard (disguised as a "Windows" version by bundling the ROM with ZSNES) under the "Classic Games" tab on Battle.net.

The game is not available in the list anymore. But you can download it with a direct link, and add Lost Vikings to the list too:

Seen this in a post in Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/lovo2z/you_can_get_all_games_from_the_blizzard_arcade/ Also someone states Rock 'n Roll Racing is a demo version without music and only 3 tracks. I did not test this to confirm.