Will The Emulators Be Free?

[dgame]

In the “What Games Will People Be Trying First?” thread most responses would require using some of the emulators we have seen so far.

So the question is will the emulators be available to us for free?

Specifically:

N64
PS1
SNES
GBA
NES
C64
NEO-GEO
Amiga
Atari ST
DosBox


During the good-old-days most (if not all) emulators were free.

My iBuddies have to pay-to-play some of these on their iThings.

Could the Pandora app store change things?

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

emulators will be free.

theres no reason to charge money for it.

regarding the iLikeApples store its an apple policy that they cant do it for free? i think

 

[DrJeebs]

considering they're using open source software I don't think they could charge for it...

maybe I'm wrong...


Edit:

Beaten to the ball by GizmoTheGreen *shakes fist*

 

[gibberish]

only if someone develops an emulator from the ground up could they possibly think to charge for it. for the main consoles at least, it is likely they will all be ported from open source projects and therefore will be free.

 

[Aimless_E]

In the “What Games Will People Be Trying First?” thread most responses would require using some of the emulators we have seen so far.

So the question is will the emulators be available to us for free?

Specifically:

N64
PS1
SNES
GBA
NES
C64
NEO-GEO
Amiga
Atari ST
DosBox


During the good-old-days most (if not all) emulators were free.

My iBuddies have to pay-to-play some of these on their iThings.

Could the Pandora app store change things?

Nope every emulator will be priced according to their popularity. N64 has gotten the most attention so it will be around 20 dollars or so followed by PSX at 12 to 15 dollars. j/king

Truthfully the app store "could" charge for such things but most likely wont. Emulators "in most countries" are considered in the gray area in terms of piracy. So charging for them can lead to legal difficulties.

However the developers could ask for small donations to continue their work.

Edit: Thrice times beaten.

 

[Aimless_E]

considering they're using open source software I don't think they could charge for it...

maybe I'm wrong...


Edit:

Beaten to the ball by GizmoTheGreen *shakes fist*

Open Source doesn't have to be free Free (but usually is)
Free software doesn't have to be Open Source (dito)

 

[HackModford]

Zodttd charges for his emulator's for the iPhone and I think most of them are just ports of the pandora's/gp2x's emulator's that people have ported from other stuff :rolleyes:

 

[krosfyah]

Zodttd charges for his emulator's for the iPhone and I think most of them are just ports of the pandora's/gp2x's emulator's that people have ported from other stuff :rolleyes:

Mostly all crap too, but let's not open that can of lemmings.

I'm sure the other authors will continue the tradition of free emulation.

 

[torpor]

I would quite happily *BUY* a full set of emulators, fully loaded with very nice, legalized ROMS, if I could. But unfortunately its not so easy, it seems the people who should be doing this are all asleep.

 

[renwils]

I'm pretty sure that anyone can sell FOSS software. But they also have to provide the source code to anyone who asks.

So basically, you'd have to be a giant prick.

 

[krosfyah]

I'm pretty sure that anyone can sell FOSS software. But they also have to provide the source code to anyone who asks.

So basically, you'd have to be a giant prick.

/me watches lemmings pour out of can

 

[Mr B]

I'm pretty sure that anyone can sell FOSS software. But they also have to provide the source code to anyone who asks.

Is this really true? I might have mixed something up, but i think you only have to provide the source to those who have access to the binary, making it only to those who actually bought your software.

I'm not sure tho, someone who buys it, should be able to spread it on there own, without the binary.
I think.
B!

 

[renwils]

-snip-

I think you're right, but there's nothing to stop anyone else from distributing your modified software either.

I'm sure a lot of us would gladly donate to some of the developers doing the hard work for us though.

 

[WizardStan]

I'm not sure tho, someone who buys it, should be able to spread it on there own, without the binary.
I think.

Yes, this is the feature/flaw to charging for open source software: someone can pay for the binary, request the source, and then rebuild and distribute the binary.
HOWEVER the binary may not be of any use without the resources. If someone is charging for their binary, they may include icons or sounds or anything else that are not open source. If you distribute the recompiled binary with these resources, you are breaking copyright. Think about Quake and other commercial games gone open source; the engine is open source and freely available to anyone, but the full game itself still requires you to purchase a license from somewhere.

 

[emil10001]

I have no problem paying for FOSS emulators ported and optimized to/for the pandora. Some of these emulators, like the N64 and Dreamcast emulators, require quite a bit of effort on the part of the dev, and it is certainly up to them as to whether or not they want to charge for it.

 

[skeezix]

There should be no negativity against someone who wishes to charge for something; people who create should have that right, and be supported.

Most emus are ports of open source projects, and so could be charged for, but wouldnt' really be 'right' to do so most of the time; if its a quick port, you would indeed be a prick. If you've spent a tonne of time on the port, then maybe af ew bucks if you want, but you know someone else will just do it again for free so it better be good

But if you've written it ground up yourself, you coudl make it FOSS, or closed free, or closed and $$ or whatever; we should be supporting of that. I coudl release $$ versions of many of my emus if I wanted, since they're often ground up brand new.

that said, my stuff will be freeware (Atari ST and others); I (or others) will bring Hatari over (a very good FOSS ST emulator), plus my own emus and such.

(BattleJewels dunno, probably freeware, but maybe I'll ask a couple bucks for it, who knows? But thats not an emu so off topic, just throwing it out there. If I add multiplayer head to head to BJ maybe a couple of bucks would be cool, but more than likely I'll just make it freeware anyway.)

jeff

 

[Trip]

A lot of the emulators and software in the iPhone App store cost money because it costs the developer money to put it in the App store to start with and they need to make that money back somehow. That and the fact that it's a commercial platform anyway, so why the hell shouldn't they?

OpenPandoras App store will work a little differently..

It wont cost developers anything to add a program for download within the App store, they will get charged only if they sell the software. Anyone that wants to distribute a program for free will pay no money to OpenPandora at all. I wish people would stop being paranoid about all this.

I've not heard one emulator dev mention that they will be charging money so far. Yes most, if not all will set up a donation button and some might supply early beta builds to people who donate to the project (as a thank you), but what's the harm in that?

 

[WizardStan]

Yes most, if not all will set up a donation button and some might supply early beta builds to people who donate to the project (as a thank you), but what's the harm in that?

I'm hoping a pay-what-you-want option becomes fairly standard. Anonymously, of course. "Alice thinks I'm worth $20, but Bob only gave me $5. And Carol just downloaded it for zero. Bitch."

 

[Rathum]

Yes most, if not all will set up a donation button and some might supply early beta builds to people who donate to the project (as a thank you), but what's the harm in that?

I'm hoping a pay-what-you-want option becomes fairly standard. Anonymously, of course. "Alice thinks I'm worth $20, but Bob only gave me $5. And Carol just downloaded it for zero. Bitch."

World of Goo's pay what you want deal was wildly successful IIRC. I picked up a 64-bit Linux copy for $π and then payed another $7 for a 64-bit Windows copy. It's quite an awesome game.

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

sure it is, you complete it in a few hours too