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I found this interesting especially with heated topic of emulators that goes on this board form time to time. I tried load up a Korean Pc Version of Symphony of the Night my buddy brought home from Korea and noticed it loaded the PSXBIOS. In fact when it was loading it even loaded what it called a PSXEMULATOR. I'm sure Konami had some legal way of doing it but still it sorta makes me laugh. Just thought someone here besides me might find that interesting.
If it was really a legit game, there's two possible ways.
1. Reverse Engineering
2. Licensing (Least Likely)
Yes it is very legit.It even has very fancy Working Designs style embossed text on it. I just wish I could look at the files it with my dumb computer trying to boot it. grrr . Perhaps the laws are much weaker on matters like that there?
Well both my points I stated above are legit possibilities.
What makes a BIOS illegal anyway?
If your using windows, and when your double clicking on the CD from Mycomputer it auto starts, instead of doing that right click on the icon and select Explore. That will display all the files contained on the CD.Quote:
Originally Posted by Iron Lizard
Since it allows more accurate PSX emulation, and is copyrighted, that's what does.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Smith
A console's Basic Input Output System (hee hee) contains code that, basically, tells the console how to work. It's copyrighted material, so you can't download, upload, reload, lock-and-load or otherwise redistribute it willy-nilly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Smith
Using it as part of an emulator (like a dumped Mega-CD BIOS) means you can use the machine's original code, and thus get more accurate emulation - plus, as you have to supply your own Mega-CD bios file to get the emulator to run, the emulator creator won't get in legal bother for redistributing copyrighted material. Instead, the end-user (i.e. you) need to supply your own, legally-dumped Mega-CD BIOS from your own Mega-CD hardware.
Steve Snake got around this issue with the 32X by creating his own BIOS with identical functions to the original, and integrating it into the Fusion emulator.
Because Steve Snake = amazing.
I knew that emulators are legal and the legal of status of ROMs (especially here in Europe) can be quite ambiguous, but wondered what was special about BIOSs that made them illegal. Thanks for clearing that up for me chaps :)
Also, I know Steve Snake is unlikely to read this, but well played to him.
Thnaks. I just tired it and sure enough in the bios file there was the scph7502 file. Oddly enough my computer thinks its some sort of media file. Scanned the game for all to see since I can't find anything on this. Maybe its a just a really pretty pirate. Maybe Kylera would know.Quote:
Originally Posted by playgen
http://www.imagehosting.com/show.php...astle.jpg.html
http://www.imagehosting.com/show.php...stle2.jpg.html
I read somewhere, that Sony would let you use the BIOS IF you have a PS with that BIOS (in my case PAL model SCPH7502)... like owning a ROM is not illegal if you have the cart...
Almost. The BIOS that comes with the game can only be used to run the game it's bundled with. You can't then turn around and say "now that I own a disc with the BIOS on it, I can now use that BIOS file as I like, oh hey look an emulator, it needs a couple of files to run, woohoo now I can play Bubsy3D.iso on my PC!".Quote:
Originally Posted by TmEE
To put it another way, owning a game doesn't automatically entitle you to a free copy of the soundtrack CD.
That owning the ROM if you have the cart is a load of shit, atleast by US laws.
Check the real law, you can only have the ROM, if it came FROM your cart, not if you HAVE the cart.
So in other words, you have to dump it yourself, if not, you have an illegal ROM, even if the MD5 is the same.
EDIT: And yes, it's just a very pretty pirate. There was no release PC version at all.
As far as I'm aware, under European copyright law you can legally own the ROM if you possess the original game. The same applies for downloaded mp3's if you own the original CD's. American law is much more strict on such matters and you have to dump it yourself.