Did A Google Earth Mistake Cause A Couple's Brutal Murder?
Tumblr 101: Tips And Tricks To Get Started
N64oid for Android completes the retro Nintendo emulator trinity
Yongzh, the same developer behind NESoid, SNESoid, GameBoid, Ataroid, and more (!), has finally released the last and most important Android retro emulator: N64oid.
N64oid looks and feels like Yongzh's other emulators, and like NESoid it has the option of using hardware keys (if you have them!) or an on-screen gamepad. We won't lie: gaming with an on-screen controller is nothing like the real thing; it works, but pulling off combos, like those required in fighting games, is not easy.
There's an option to use your Android device's accelerometer as the N64's analog stick, however, which could make RPGs like Zelda a lot easier to play. Also, all told, Yongzh's emulators have been downloaded around 5 million times, so the on-screen gamepad is obviously not that bad.
Game compatibility is apparently very good, and if you have a high-end device like the Nexus S, Samsung Galaxy or Droid, games should run very smoothly. As far as finding games to play with N64oid, if you still have your old N64 cartridges in a cupboard somewhere (who doesn't?), you can find ROM backups with a quick Google search.
We'll hopefully have a hands-on review of N64oid later today, so we'll be able to tell you first-hand just how good (or bad) it is.
Read our hands-on review of N64oid.
N64oid on the Android Market - $5.99
Comments
15
Subscribe to commentsRollinsMar 4th 2011 7:46AM
While my Incredible's first-gen Snapdragon...gently weeps.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 4th 2011 8:24AM
@Rollins I am crying with you, bra.
KirbyMeisterMar 4th 2011 8:22AM
You just linked to ROM sites. Are you nucking futs? Emulator devs don't even do this. You're supposed to say something akin to "find or dump the ROMs yourself".
Sebastian AnthonyMar 4th 2011 8:25AM
@KirbyMeister We've linked to them before.
As I said, they're great if you have the cartridges and don't have the expertise to extract the ROMs yourself.
ShadowFoxMar 4th 2011 10:48AM
@Sebastian Anthony
Clearly, you still operate under the same archaic assumption that many
people have been doing for years. Even if you own a legitimate copy of
a game, it is still -illegal- to download a ROM. How can you seriously
not know that? I'm not saying I'm anti-piracy, but I'm just saying
give people the real facts before the potentially get themselves in a
heap of trouble. Straight from the Nintendo website and this page has
been there for years. http://www.nintendo.com/corp/legal.jsp#download_rom
Sebastian AnthonyMar 4th 2011 10:57AM
@ShadowFox Thanks for the link! It's informative.
I wonder under which jurisdiction it applies, though -- US, UK, Japan, EU...
I still find it hard to believe that it's legal for me to extract the ROM myself (I own tons of N64 titles), but not to download it from elsewhere.
Couldn't I just _say_ that I extracted the ROM myself, even if I got it from elsewhere?
ShadowFoxMar 4th 2011 11:24AM
@Sebastian Anthony
I believe that it applies to all of Nintendo's IP on a global scale, I don't see any logical reason why it would be a regional thing.
As far as your question about saying that you extracted it yourself, that would be akin to say copying another students homework. Sure, you could probably do the assignment yourself, but you didn't. You cheated. You stole.
kojo87Mar 4th 2011 1:25PM
@ShadowFox
but if its just a link to a site whats the problem? if i go to the Pirate Bay but don't download anything who is going to get mad at me for what?
Sebastian AnthonyMar 4th 2011 1:31PM
@ShadowFox The homework-copying analogy is awful!
Here's a better analogy.
I have a DVD box set of House. But I move to America, and leave my House DVDs in the UK.
My friend offers to burn some DVDs, so I can watch my favorite TV show.
Should that be illegal?
(Needless to say, the legal rights of copyright holders are a bit... grey).
Sebastian AnthonyMar 4th 2011 1:37PM
@kojo87 Yeah, that's what I was wondering earlier -- can we link to TPB, but not ROM sites?
I guess TPB doesn't directly host copyright-infringing files... but it's a pretty close call.
ShadowFoxMar 4th 2011 2:20PM
@kojo87
None of my comments had anything to do with direct-linking or otherwise. My statement was just that of clarifying Sebastian giving readers false information about the legality of -downloading- ROMs...
@Sebastian Anthony
Regardless of my analogy being poor or not, let's look at your example:
"I have a DVD box set of House. But I move to America, and leave my House DVDs in the UK. My friend offers to burn some DVDs, so I can watch my favorite TV show."
In this situation, it is still a legal gray area. If you friend is only burning a single copy of _your_ House DVDs and sending them to you, why not just send your original box set in the mail? If you mean ripping them and then you download them from him, technically this would still be considered legal as it was from _your_ original, legally owned DVD copy.
By the letter of the law, if you friend then kept the original DVDs as his own to watch and keep, then you are now in possession of illegally obtained DVD copies of which the originals are not yours as they are now in your friends possession.
According to national law, copying DVDs is legal under fair-use in the US, but as laid out by the DMCA, breaking any encryption used to protect the disc is illegal. In the UK, as of April 2009 making a copy of copywrighted media without the copyright owners consent is also illegal. This includes CDs and DVDs.
Again, this is far away from the statement I initially made, and as the copyright law is clearly laid out anyway for downloading ROMs, your point is moot.
Sebastian AnthonyMar 4th 2011 2:24PM
@ShadowFox Sorry, shoulda been more explicit:
I'm in the US. My discs are in the UK. I download an episode while I'm in the US (and I have that episode on disc, back in the UK).
I don't really want to get into the legalese of it -- I'll let you handle that bit :)
ShadowFoxMar 4th 2011 2:31PM
@Sebastian Anthony
If the download comes from your original disc, your fine. If it comes from a torrent, DDL, or otherwise, it's illegal.
And to clarify, I have absolutely no problems with piracy. As it stands, I believe the current global laws are to rigid and I fully support the efforts of the members of the pirate party and others seeking to stop the far reaching hand of groups like the MPAA and RIAA.
/thread
xwatchmanxApr 5th 2011 10:50PM
I know this thread is old, but I believe I have a better analogy that is nearly identical to the thing about downloading roms when you own the cartridge.
This example is a true one, of my own experience: there's a particular website (which I will leave unnamed) that specializes in software and media for smartphones and the like. However, most of it is illegal because they upload and post paid android apps and ripped digital copies of movies for people to take free. Now I don't believe in stealing devs' or filmmakers hard work, so I follow a personal rule: I only download apps I've paid for and movies I already own on dvd (or bluray or vhs, if I had those).
A prime example of an app I already paid for that I would download from this site is n64oid: I recently performed a data wipe on my phone and only discovered afterward that n64oid was pulled from the market. Hence, I found a free download online and took it (I even emailed yongzh himself afterward to ask if that was ok w/ him, btw, and he was).
As for movies, it's self explanatory: I already physically own official, legal discs containing the movies, so I download digital copies of them free so I can watch them on my phone.
Sure, I suppose I technically can download one of those dvd rippers and waste an hour or so learning to use it and then ripping my actual dvd to get the same product I can get in only ten minutes by downloading it online, but why should I have to do that for it to be "legal"? What IS, in short, the actual message here? That if I don't "suffer" through a much longer process to get a product I already legally should have access to, it's illegal? In my opinion, the same applies to downloading roms of games you already own online, as opposed to copying them from the cartridges themselves. I'm not denying these acts are illegal: just pointing out how pointless, legalistic, unfair, and illogical the laws on the matter are.
Just my two cents.
Sebastian AnthonyApr 6th 2011 4:22AM
@xwatchmanx Thanks for chipping in :)