Guides
This post relates to: Super Mario Bros.
There's an applet on the interwebs known to some as vNES. It was created by Jamie Sanders, who, along with the support of a small company, takes original NES cartridges and puts them through a legally sound process known as ROM dumping. They essentially strip the cartridge of all it's game data and then store it on their computers for the theoretical purpose of digital preservation. Distrubiting these ROMs freely, however, is deemed illegal, since people who don't own the original copy could download the ROM regardless and play that data in an emulator.However, and here's the super awesome part, it's not illegal to stream the output data, because any and all of that data is randomized byte code that the computer creates based on the instructions in the ROM. If I told you how to get to Krispy Kreme in Union City from here in Fremont, would I get to eat the donut? Nope, and hence Nintendo can't eat my freely distrubted retro donut, or retro-nut. Seriously: Jamie Sanders can take any game for which he has the cartridge and put it online. For free, legally. No way, but totally, effing way.
So, yeah, I've been into this legal emulation scene as of late, and I'm enjoying myself. Of particular note is the very solid gameplay I find in games like Super Mario Bros. and Metroid. They aren't all that innovative in their design, but are superb in their technical gameplay and level design. I was listening to Trigames Podcast numero 102, and found that I agree with Austin's monologue regarding innovation in game design. He said that innovating and reinventing amounts to nothing if your game isn't technically sound and lacks good level design. Innovation isn't a bad thing, but you should be able to back it up with good production values, like Gears of War, which innovates here and there, but has most of it's excellence beneath the solid controls, high production values and well-structured level-design. That is, if you're talking about the single player. The mutliplayer is lagshit-crazy-fuck-noodles.
And with that, good sirs and ladies, I bid you much ado.
