Do you pay for emulators?

[darkNiGHTS]

It seems like a new trend to charge for emulators on devices that have app stores. Overall, I rarely pirate modern programs but I just don't feel right paying for a program that's sole purpose is to play free illegal games. Do you guys feel differently about that?

[Elite Evil]

I have never needed to, but I use windows. I assume you are referring to androids or macs?

[SKullinator]

It wouldn't surprise me if some of these paid android emulators borrowed code from open source projects.

[darkNiGHTS]

I have never needed to, but I use windows. I assume you are referring to androids or macs?

Yep.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dsemu.drastic

That emulator has more than 100k installs and it almost never goes on sale. A few hundred thousand dollars of profit off of Nintendo's IP.

[call_me_sir]

I do from time to time. If you look through the Drastic DS reviews you'll see mine eventually. Capcom wouldn't bring phoenix wright to android in english even though it was out in japan? Well ha ha, I have phoenix wright on my phone anyway.
It is totally overpriced, but when you consider the jump from every other ds emulator to drastic you (i) mentally knock off a few bucks anyway.
I also bought fpse, and epsxe, but other than that I use free ones like gensoid and nesoid.
I have to disagree with the "illegal games" argument though. I own a LOT of cartridges for nes snes and genesis. I'd say I own about 99% of the games I'd ever want to emulate. When they're disc based, I usually even rip them myself.
Having said that, I know that downloading a game you own is still technically illegal if you didn't rip it yourself, but I don't find it morally wrong. I just don't have the hardware to do it to my carts.

[Earth]

I find it a little ridiculous too, thankfully there are still some good emulators, specifically the .emu series.

[darkNiGHTS]

I do from time to time. If you look through the Drastic DS reviews you'll see mine eventually. Capcom wouldn't bring phoenix wright to android in english even though it was out in japan? Well ha ha, I have phoenix wright on my phone anyway.
It is totally overpriced, but when you consider the jump from every other ds emulator to drastic you (i) mentally knock off a few bucks anyway.
I also bought fpse, and epsxe, but other than that I use free ones like gensoid and nesoid.
I have to disagree with the "illegal games" argument though. I own a LOT of cartridges for nes snes and genesis. I'd say I own about 99% of the games I'd ever want to emulate. When they're disc based, I usually even rip them myself.
Having said that, I know that downloading a game you own is still technically illegal if you didn't rip it yourself, but I don't find it morally wrong. I just don't have the hardware to do it to my carts.

I know there is a small percentage of users who use emulators morally, I was more concerned with the developer profiting rather than individual use cases like that (though looking at my original post that wasn't clear).

[EKXODUS]

i cant justify it myself because i dont use my nexus 7 for gaming. i can see why someone would though, if the emulator was feature packed.

[retro_killa]

It seems like a new trend to charge for emulators on devices that have app stores. Overall, I rarely pirate modern programs but I just don't feel right paying for a program that's sole purpose is to play free illegal games. Do you guys feel differently about that?

jailbroken iPhone with emulators

[CrazyJunior]

Apple OMG

[call_me_sir]

For the record, a surface pro is a nice thing to have. I can play all the elder scrolls games on my tablet with a 360 controller.

[retro_killa]

nope I just find them and use them or use the free emus