I Want to Play NES and SNES FE Games

[Kinata]

And I want to do it legally. Yeah, you can see my problem. Any suggestions?

I know most people just emulate, but apparently that's illegal, even if you buy the actual game. And my conscience has forbidden from doing this (ugh, why did my parents have to raise me right? ).

To play any of these normally, I would have to get a console and the actual game, which would cost a lot of money that I don't really want to spend.

My best hope is the Wii Virtual Console. But I hear the old FE games are only available in the Japanese region. Does that mean I have to get a Japanese Wii, or do I have to visit Japan and use a Japanese internet connection? The latter is probably out of the question, but selling my American Wii and getting a Japanese Wii one might work. Would my American Wii games (which are currently limited to Brawl and Wii Sports) play on a Japanese Wii? And is setting up an internet connection on a Japanese Wii different than doing it on an American one?

Thanks.

Edited December 27, 2010 by Kinata

[Celice]

I would suggest to sate your conscious, purchase the amount of wii points the VC titles would cost you, then download the games and install them through exploits in the Wii. If you're on a non-Japanese region wii, you'll have to remove the region protection, either from the VC titles or through modifying your actual wii so it doesn't care what region boots what.

Otherwise spend an absurd amount of money for a Japanese wii, in addition to paying for the VC titles.

Personally I would suggest buying a Super Nintendo/Super Famicom and playing the 16-bit games on the actual system, as it's probably the cheapest method aside from the homebrew path. Unless you're in the PAL region, which is a lot more technical--pick up a used SNES, break off two plastic tabs, and you're import-friendly. FE3 and FE4 are fairly cheap to acquire. And most knock-off Famicoms/NES systems are region free if I remember correctly, so you could get a Yobo and play FE1 and FE2 if you want.

For more info on the homebrew stuff, I suggest looking around the site gbatemp.

[Florete]

I know most people just emulate, but apparently that's illegal, even if you buy the actual game.

I'm pretty sure that's not true. I'm no expert, so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I was told that if you own the game legally, a ROM counts as a backup and is therefore legal.

[Kinata]

@Yui

I'm pretty sure Nintendo said on its site that there are no actual laws supporting that belief, so apparently no.

@Celice

I'll look into the Homebrew stuff later. Thanks for the advice. And like I said in my now edited post, I might be willing to sell my American Wii for almost enough money to buy a Japanese one, as I have found people on eBay selling them for surprisingly prices or auctioning them even lower.

[Kaoz]

I'm pretty sure that's not true. I'm no expert, so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I was told that if you own the game legally, a ROM counts as a backup and is therefore legal.

From http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp:

Can I Download a Nintendo ROM from the Internet if I Already Own the Authentic Game?

There is a good deal of misinformation on the Internet regarding the backup/archival copy exception. It is not a "second copy" rule and is often mistakenly cited for the proposition that if you have one lawful copy of a copyrighted work' date=' you are entitled to have a second copy of the copyrighted work even if that second copy is an infringing copy. The backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic. Therefore, whether you have an authentic game or not, or whether you have possession of a Nintendo ROM for a limited amount of time, i.e. 24 hours, it is illegal to download and play a Nintendo ROM from the Internet.

[/quote']

So basically, I guess it's ok when you make the ROM yourself, but downloading one is definately illegal.

[grandjackal]

Celice said it best, though do note something if you are going to get the original systems. I dunno about the Famicom, but I do know getting the Super Famicom is not that easy. You can get them off Ebay, but you will get scammed and most likely it will not come with a power cord or A/V jacks, like how mine was. However, if you do end up in that situation, do as I did in finding different stuff to make it work. As I have discovered, an NES power cord will work fine, as will any A/V-Cable adapter, so you won't be totally screwed if you find your system came without the cords to make it work.