Retrode 2 USB device lets you play real SNES and Genesis games in emulators

@Level 5
It most certainly has!

@Startbuttonnews

Because downloading ROMs is not exactly legal. There is nothing illegal about emulation itself, though.

@Startbuttonnews
The fact that downloading ROMs is illegal?

@Startbuttonnews and also, you can plug in your old controller using this thing

@Startbuttonnews
The legality of something has never stopped a person from doing it... Unless they stand on a moral high ground about the matter which we all know is not exactly populated by the entire world.

Those that wish to use their old games and do not have the hardware to do so, rather than commit the "crime", now have a solution that harms no one. (technically they've had several including the first Retrode but for the sake of the article, let's just assume.)

@Startbuttonnews

I don't even have to read the replies to know it will be people on their high horse acting as if they have never downloaded a song, movie, whatever in their entire lives because their moral internet compasses are as pure as pure can be.

@Startbuttonnews This is a stupid argument. If all you wanted to do was download some roms you wouldn't bother buying this device to begin with.

@Kevadu Who cares if it's legal? If you already own the cartridge anyway, you'd have a hard time arguing that it would be immoral to download a ROM of it.

@Cletus VanDamme It's not a high horse thing. Just because you can get away with something doesn't mean you should. Sure, you can run out of a restaurant without paying for the meal. Or steal some socks that don't have the security tags. You can kill someone and never get caught by the police. You may think that it's silly to have society rules. But we have them so that life is simpler, faster, and easier. Seems to me that it's not a high moral ground that's the problem. It's that you have a below normal moral ground.

As for the device, it let's you make your own ROMs (which is perfectly legal). It let's you use your own game controllers and your own cartridges. And (fingers crossed), since it has Atari controller ports (which Sega used for the SMS and the Genesis), you can use the thing for Atari and Commodore emulators (hopefully!).

Emulators are completely legit. It was getting illegal ROMs that was the problem. Also, many people have obscure games that were never ripped to ROM form and thus now, maybe we can have ROMs for everything now. Before, you could search for a ROM and then find out it's bad. And you had to depend on whether the people that actually had the tools to rip cartridges had access to the obscure titles.

@(Unverified)

That's the only reason I could see using this. Being able to use my SNES controllers makes sense. Otherwise what a hassle to have a secondary device to run through your computer.

And yes I get that rom's are illegal people geeze. I'm just not understanding the point of this device when one could instead buy a dual NES/SNES or Genesis system that only requires your TV and no emulator. This device is just impractical.

@onlysublime You just compared download a ROM of a game you own to murder? Really? That's something you did just now?

@onlysublime Your first paragraph really did nothing but confirm his belief

@Startbuttonnews A lot of the unofficial consoles have difficulty with some of the more obscure games. It's truly bad on NES where NES on a Chips are all that are made. Bad colors, missing or distorted music, etc. Also a lot of Genesis games look like shit on HDTVs. NES games have sprite limitations per line that make things flicker. Finally there's filters you can use in emus that make the game look significantly better than the official system can make them look.

@Frostblade10
Nope I supported the devs and had most of those on individual carts.

@Undulation

I would bet that the studios also made money off of the 6-pack.

@Undulation
You mean the devs that made money off of the pack that he had?

Its funny when somebody tries to climb up on a high horse and falls off.

"The devs" is Sega, considering they made all of the games on the cart. And they're the ones who made the 6-game cart as a Genesis system pack-in one holiday season.

@Joshua Przygocki
Assuming it's not a system racked by age and corrosion. On theother hand there are the consoles that are made to play classic games as well (NES SNES and Genesis/MD in one shell for like 60 or 70 bucks), but they lack the ability to record footage or use cheats like most emulators are capable of doing.

@Joshua Przygocki

I'd rather play on a device like this on an old system, just for the fact that this isn't as easy to break as a classic old system. Sure, I could just buy another one for $20, but there is so many out there and who really knows the condition of them? Plus, I can hook up a different controller too my computer, as well as use things such as filters on the computer, tv output, better sound output... There's a lot of pros to using an emulator.

@Joshua Przygocki Well I'm mainly talking about the price here... Anything more than $50 is way too much for something like this, and even then I would say that is stretching it...

One could legally buy a real Genesis (~$20) and a real copy of Sonic 1 (~$1) and then just download the ROM off the internet (since you own the real game, it's the same difference).

No need for this device. Even if you wanted to use the gamepad, a Genesis USB adapter is like $15-$20.

Now, if your cartridges had good save files on them (and the battery didn't die), then yeah maybe you'd want this just to extract the save data.

@EIranzer People say this but I've never been convinced that it is true. What gives the ROM site the legal right to transfer copyrighted information over to you in that manner in the first place?

I'm not saying I agree with one side or the other on this, but in terms of legality? I'm not sure that's right. It sounds iffy.

For comparison's sake, I doubt the RIAA would say "oh, that's OK!" to someone downloading MP3s off a torrent because they already own the CD. Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there any precedence for that in a court?

It reminds me of all of those sites saying that you have to delete the ROM file within 24 hours. There's so much misinformation that I'm not even sure what's true... me not being a lawyer and all.

@Dick Socrates
Am I the only one that still has a box of old Genesis carts? Unlikely.

@(Unverified) There's several of those out there. The thing is they're just clones of the original system. You hook them up to the TV and the machine itself does all of the processing.

This is different. It's essentially a box that lets you hook real games into a PC emulator.

@johnvonhugendong ion bracelets ftw!

@Khazidhea

I have never downloaded a rom.