Reza Jacob
Historical Case Study
The History and
the Future of
Console and Arcade
Emulation
Game consoles and arcade games turn over at
exceedingly rapid rates; every few years, game console companies invent faster
platforms with greater technological prowess to remain competitive in the
market. As these consoles and arcade
machines fall from common use, their history, in a sense, becomes lost. Emulators, computer programs designed to
mimic another electronic system, provide the means to revive and recover such
lost history. By emulating video
consoles and arcade machines on home computers, anyone wishing to play a game
from past eras may do so without needing to possess hardware no longer
available for purchase. However, the
notion of video game emulation has been plagued with many legal qualms. In this history, the definition, origins,
and purposes of console and arcade game emulation will be laid out, in stride
with their advantages and drawbacks.
What
exactly emulation entails
Emulation is the act of simulating the
integrated circuits or silicon chips used in any electronic system; emulation
is not restricted only to video games.1 For example, running a Windows operating system on a Macintosh is
considered emulation. An emulator,
then, is software that is used to perform emulation. In terms of video games, emulators simulate chips and circuitry
used in the hardware of gaming consoles or arcade machines. For emulators of cartridge-based consoles
and for arcade machines, copies of the original software contained within the
game cartridge or game board can be saved on a home computer as a disc image
called a ROM. 1 Creation of
such ROMs from game cartridges requires a piece of specialized hardware. For emulators of CD-based game consoles such
as the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Dreamcast, the same CDs used in the
console can be inserted into a home computer and run through the emulator. In either case, video game emulators utilize
the same code that the actual gaming machine would; thus, if an emulator is
well-written, emulator users would experience the same phenomena that users of
the original machines would: graphics, music, and gameplay. Of course, the input devices usually differ
between the original gaming machines and the host computer on which the
emulator is run. Most emulators are
coded in C or assembly languages,1 though some emulators exist
written in Pascal or other languages.
Some technically simple games, such as Pong!, can be emulated online
with Java, as demonstrated by Professor Lowood in class.
The development schedule for emulators is
usually lengthy. This occurs mainly for
two reasons: firstly, most emulator developers do so as hobbyists and not as
part of a career, and secondly, because of the technical challenges that the
developer must overcome.1
For example, a developer would need to examine all the specifications of
the chip and circuits used in a machine and subsequently convert the logic and
commands of those elements into code in order to match the operating system and
the processor of the hosting machine.
Because of the time required, many emulators are abandoned at alpha
versions or beta versions before ever reaching a bug-free version. Occasionally, all (or most) of the bugs are
removed, and an emulator capable of running commercial games is born.
Why
video game consoles emulators arose
The video game industry has been compared to the
film industry in many respects: both offer forms of video-based entertainment
from a variety of genres, and both industries have been successful in raking in
billions of dollars from consumers.
Since the year 2000, the video game industry’s revenue has exceeded that
of the film industry.2 Video
games continue to be a growing part of world culture,3 but unlike
cinema, the video game industry, particularly the console games industry, must
reinvent itself in terms of technology in order to remain profitable. For example, Nintendo’s reluctance to adopt
newer forms of technology, such as the compact disc, led to the late release of
the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) relative to the release of its
market rival, the Sega Genesis.4 Because of this drive for faster
processors, better graphics engines, higher-quality sound, and overall newer
technology, current game console systems tend to become obsolete rather
quickly; essentially, game consoles can only last two to three years before
being superceded by more recent and more powerful consoles.
Thus, every few years, gamers tend to place
their current consoles on a shelf, and in their stead, replace them with new
ones. This poses a substantial problem
for anyone wishing to study or play games from an era long past: the hardware
(consoles) and software (games) that were popular only a few years ago are no
longer sold. To make an analogy to the
film industry, one could imagine that as soon as a movie moved off the New Releases shelf at a video rental
store, it went into the clearance bin.
A second and perhaps more convincing analogy to film would be to imagine
that VHS-players, having been superceded by the more technologically advanced
DVD-players, were no longer sold. Thus,
all movies in the future would only be released on DVD format, stimulating the
eventual loss of all movies originally released on VHS. However, this has not come to pass in the
movie industry, as almost all films that were released for VHS have also been
re-released on DVD; moreover, new movies are released for both VHS and
DVD. Furthermore, the exponential increase
in the graphics capabilities of video game consoles has not been paralleled by
a comparable increase in the film community.
Thus, the rapid turnover from one generation of consoles to the next
necessitates a mechanism for the historical preservation of consoles
games. How many universities, besides
Stanford, house gaming consoles in their library’s media collection? Because of the historical desire to prevent
the extinction of older-generation consoles, gaming console emulators have
arisen.
Why
arcade machine emulators arose
Similar to game consoles, arcade machines turn
over at a very rapid rate. Who can go
to an arcade today and play the original Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat? Emulators can and do preserve arcade games;
however, the first attempts at arcade emulation began for a less noble
purpose. Soon after the inception of
Pong!, others attempted to duplicate to work of Al Alcorn for profit.5 Because of the nature of the circuit board
on which Pong! was made, the hardware was the software; there was no
microprocessor off which a ROM could be run.5 Thus when others essentially copied and sold
the Pong!, they were emulating it. This
can be contrasted with the pirating of Tetris, in which the idea and software
were copied but not the hardware.6
Screenshot of the
original Street Fighter (1987) on MAME
Who
makes game emulators and why
Most emulators are made by hobbyists who “create
them for fun,” and distribute them freely.7 When emulators for game consoles became
popular around 1996 , many people hailed emulators as “programming coolness”.
7 The hobbyists who created
emulators of the Atari, Nintendo Entertainment System, SNES, and Sega Genesis
did not intend to change the gaming scene or obtain a salary; for the most
part, they were simply interested in preserving older games and wanted to find
some way so keep them alive,7 and the internet provided the perfect
forum for them to spread their emulator and
allow others to enjoy older games on platforms which are no longer
available for sale. As with all
cartridge-based emulators, ROMs under copyright are illegal to possess unless
one actually ones the cartrige.8
Websites distributing such ROMs were shut down by the threat of legal
action from console companies, though no legal action has been threatened or
attempted against the makers of emulators of the aforementioned consoles for
use on the home computer.
Ethical
and Legal Emulation
Aside from the emulation of Pong! for profit,
there have been other cases in which the reverse engineering of video game
machines have occurred. Clearly,
reverse-engineering is necessary for emulation because in order for an
emulator’s programmer to simulate the actions of a machine’s circuits and
chips, he needs to first understand exactly how those components function. Also, the use of the principle of reverse
engineering is not confined to emulation; there are plenty of other reasons why
one would reverse-engineer a console.
For example, Electronic Arts (EA) attempted to reverse-engineer the Sega
Genesis in order to circumvent the need to acquire cartridges from Sega.9 In doing this, EA could avoid paying Sega a
substantial licensing fee of around $8.00 per game unit sold.10 Considering that the cost of new
console-games over the years has been roughly $40.00-$60.00, about one-fifth to
one-seventh of the revenue for game sales goes to pay licensing fees.
Although the intentions of emulator developers
originated in nostalgia for old games, in January of 1999, two emulators were
released that substantially influenced console gaming companies and threatened
their financial profits. First, a
freely distributed Nintendo64 (N64)
emulator called UltraHLE (for Ultra High Level Emulation) was developed,
designed, and released by two hobbyists who called themselves Epsilon and
RealityMan.11 This emulator
was significantly different than its predecessors in that this emulator
replicated almost perfectly the performance of a newly released console rather
than that of an obsolete one. Because
games for the N64 are distributed in the form of cartridges, users of the
emulator would have to import the code for games onto ROMs in order to play
games on the emulator. The circulation
of such ROM images was anticipated by the developers of UltraHLE, and thus,
they posted this warning on the UltraHLE website:
If
you use rom images which are illegally in your possession you are in violation
of many United States and international laws. The authors of UltraHLE do not
condone the illegal use of rom images.11
Despite the legal notice that users of UltraHLE
were required to agree to before downloading the emulator, Nintendo saw the
emulator as a tool for piracy and thought that UltraHLE could herald the end of
sales for both its N64 console and cartridges running on it. Thus Nintendo publicly and vigorously threatened
legal suits against Epsilon and RealityMan, though none have been filed to
date.11 At this threat,
however, Epsilon abandoned the UltraHLE project. Soon after, RealityMan followed, and excerpts from his last
public statement appear below:
"I have done some hard thinking this evening and
decided that my hobby is no longer of public concern. As far as I am concerned
UltraHLE is dead and buried and I will be deleting the source, roms and all the
documentation I have… some people will say that this is another smoke screen or
delay but to be honest I have had enough of the back biting etc that I have
received… [Ultra]HLE is dead now but it set out to achieve its aim and
succeeded - to prove N64 emulation was
possible…"11
Obviously, the game console industry has not
perished, but nevertheless, Nintendo and other game console companies bear no
warm feelings towards the makers of emulators.
Sony faced a slightly different threat from Connectix, a San Mateo, California,
computer software company that premiered a commercial emulator.7
Connectix’s
emulator was the Virtual Game Station (VGS), a program sold for $49.99 at any
local software store, which emulated the Sony PlayStation console on the MacOS,
and later, on the PC. Getting wind of
this, Sony straightway filed suit against Connectix to block them from selling
the emulator.7 Sony’s claims
were at first dismissed by the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on the
ground that the emulator did not violate intellectual property rights.7 However, Sony press on and in April of 1999,
the court granted Sony an injunction against Connectix which required them to
cease shipment of additional copies of the emulator because Sony had proven
that Connectix had directly copied the PlayStation’s basic instruction set.7
Connectix’s VGS Software (left), and its start-up screen
(right)
The
situation of Sony and the VGS differs in several ways from that of Nintendo and
UltraHLE. Because PlayStation games are
sold and distributed in CD format, consumers who played games on the VGS also
contributed revenue to Sony through that $8.00-per-game licensing fee. Moreover, most of the income of console
companies comes not from the sale of the console itself but rather from
licensing fees.10 In
actuality, console companies lose
money per console unit sold in hopes that they will recoup losses through the
sale of games via licensing fees.10 Thus, it is natural to wonder
why Sony so adamantly pursued lawsuits against Connectix. Publicly, Sony claims that emulators promote
piracy and that their legal actions were not taken in malice towards emulators
but rather in preemption of game piracy.7 However, Connectix went
through special measures to ensure that replicas of game CDs (burned copies) would not be playable on
their VGS. Therefore, Sony’s argument
is not internally consistent; any individual unwilling to purchase an expensive
PlayStation might be willing to buy the
cheaper Virtual Game Station along with a handful of games, by which
Sony would profit in a scenario in which it wouldn’t have otherwise.
Screenshot of ChronoCross from a new PlayStation Emulator
for MacOS X, FlareStorm
The extinction of gaming consoles?
So why
did Sony file suit? Is Sony’s
corporate pride more important then added revenue? Perhaps this is so, considering this statement made by the
president of Sony Entertainment of America Kazuo Hirai, during an interview in
May 1999: "It's a matter of principle to us. I don't think I would want to
be ... in a position where I am profiting from sales of software to run on
something that is based on copyrights and intellectual properties that are, by
the way, being stepped all over! I would say, 'OK, we don't need that extra
unit sale,' if that means I get to protect my copyrights."7 The drive to quash Connectix’s emulator was
so paramount that eventually Sony paid an undisclosed sum to Connectix for the
complete termination of their Virtual Gaming Station project. As a historical aside, Sony also prevailed
in a lawsuit against the makers of Bleem!, a commercial PlayStation emulator
for the PC.12 This sets a
precedent which discourages companies from making emulators, for good or for
worse.
The
existence of UltraHLE, Virtual Gaming Station, and Bleem! all bring into
question the very existence of consoles.
If high-quality emulators for modern gaming consoles can be developed
swiftly after the release of a new gaming console and subsequently circulated
(freely or for a comparatively small fee), the console industry would surely
fail. Because all of the leading
consoles now on the market utilize CDs and DVDs for the distribution of games,
console companies no longer enjoy the luxury of a special cartridge that is
inherently incompatible with personal computers. Thus the strategy of blocking the circulation of ROMs will no
longer work. If emulators such as
UltraHLE and the Virtual Gaming Station were allowed to persist and mature,
consoles would deteriorate from dedicated hardware to superfluous machinery. By setting precedents of swift action
against those individuals or companies who create emulators of modern-day
consoles, Nintendo and Sony have ensured the survival of the console industry
for a long time to come, bolstering the barriers between gaming consoles and
personal computer.
On
arcade emulation and the future of arcades
The most widespread arcade machine
emulator is the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) for PC, which has a
MacOS port, MacMAME, along with a Unix port, X-MAME. Created and maintained by
Nicola Salmoria, MAME is an open-source project aimed at documenting and
preserving the hardware and software of arcade games.13 MAME was first released in February of 1997
and since then has grown to accommodate over 2000 playable arcade games and
currently includes a team of about 100 volunteer programmers.13 Though this emulator permits one to enjoy
extinct arcade games, the main purpose of the project aims to historically
preserve the hardware of older arcade games.
An account from the MAME homepage reads, “There are already many dead arcade
boards, whose function has been brought to life in MAME. Being able to play the
games is just a nice side-effect.”13 MAME achieves its goal of preserving arcade hardware, and several
ROMs are publicly available for use with MAME, including clones of popular
arcade hits such as Pac-Man. MAME
forbids the distribution of ROMs with the emulator, since possessing the ROM
without owning the arcade board is illegal.14 To this author’s knowledge, no suits have
been brought against the developers of MAME, though ROM sites such as
www.mame.dk have been forced to remove all their copyrighted ROMs. Moreover, playing ROMs or clones on a
personal computer will not replace the arcade environment or experience;
therefore, the MAME project provides a free service to the gaming community
without financially harming the arcade industry.
In conclusion, the makers of some
emulators have helped preserve the history of console and arcade games, while
others have attempted to reap monetary rewards. If console emulators are allowed to be developed for newly
released systems, the console gaming industry will not thrive. Lawsuits have been filed against the makers
of UltraHLE, Virtual Gaming Station, and Bleem!; the actions taking by console
manufacturers has successfully discouraged
the release of emulators for modern-day consoles. However, emulators for obsolete consoles and
arcade machines exist without doing harm to the gaming industry and serve as a
historical repository of hardware and software. It seems that the older a system becomes, the historical value of
its emulation grows greater while the economic burden of its emulation dwindles
to insignificance. Perhaps Al Alcorn
said it best: “If people now-a-days emulate Pong!, I couldn’t care less.”15
Bibliography
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Lecture: The History of Computer Game Design: Technology, Culture, and
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International Scene (Europe, Japan, Korea).
11 February
2003. Stanford University.
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Al. Guest Lecture: The History of
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22910.html
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