What are ROMs?

First off you need to know what an emulator is. An emulator is a program that usually “emulates” a game console such as an NES or a Sega Genesis. There is virtually an emulator for every game console to be released in the past twenty years.

Okay, so now what are ROMs?

A ROM is a copy of the chip found in game cartridges and made into a file that can be read on a computer, think of it as a computer based copy of a game. ROMs exist for nearly every game that has come out for the popular consoles, like the Atari, Nintendo, and now even the Nintendo DS. As you may have noticed the consoles that I have mentioned are all cartridge based.

So now that you know what a ROM is, how do you know if its legal or not?

Well it’s simple really, if you own a game, and actual retail version of the game, then it is perfectly legal to own a ROM of that game. Some people abuse them and download ROMs of games that they do not own thus giving the emulation community a bad reputation and is often refereed to as people who steal games. While this is the case some times not every person who uses emulators or ROMs are thiefs and most, like myself, can’t stand when some body steals someone’s hard work.

Where can I get ROMs?

There are literally tons of sites online that offer ROMs but most of them are filled with spam and spyware. To add to the frustration of try to find ROMs some sites actually require you to vote for sites to gain access to their large base of ROMs but they give you a endless supply of pop-ups and ads thus making it frustrating. . Also some sites may require you to have a membership fee or may actually charge you to buy the ROMs, this is 100% illegal. I have to add this: Just because you bought a ROM from a website doesn’t mean you own that game and to add to that you did not pay the hard working people who made that game, the person you just paid got paid for someone else’s work.

Okay, so are there any decent sites?

A great site that I have found is called Doh Games. This site features no spam, fees, or even those stupid voting things. The site features ROMs and even ISOs for most game that cover just about every console. I would also like to add that the owner of this site also does not condone the illegal use of ROMs, so please don’t abuse this great privilege.