Play SNES Games online with friends SNESbox.com

[dkma841]

SNES Link: http://snesbox.com/
NES link: http://nesbox.com/

What is SNESbox.com?

SNESbox is a Super Nintendo Entertainment System emulator, built on Adobe Flash technology and it can only be run directly in your browser's window without installing any plugins. We have 1861 games and 11337 roms.

This is pretty neat as not only can you play SNES games online you can play with your friends online too in 2 Player game just simply give the generated link when you select 2 player to the other person and been playing with my controller with a friend online perfectly  he played with his keyboard i think... Give it a try!

Found out about this site from here:
http://www.ghacks.net/2012/12/16/play-snes-games-online-with-friends/

[Covarr]

Uh, is this legal? Unless they have a legal, physical copy of every game for ever person actively playing it on their site, it's not even remotely legal. Even so, that puts it in a gray area.

[dkma841]

Erm well the guy reviewing the site says this..

I discovered the service a while ago and was not really sure if I should write about it as there is a high chance that it will get pulled if Nintendo finds out about it. Then again, Nintendo may be clever this time and broker a deal with the service instead.

Who knows lol .. mainly a grey area for this

[DLPB_]

Do nintendo really still care about the SNES?  I doubt it.

[Covarr]

Do nintendo really still care about the SNES?  I doubt it.

Hell yes they care. Many of these games are available legally on Wii's virtual console service, which Nintendo makes money from. If they can't monetize this, and if they see it as eating into sales of something they CAN monetize, you bet they'll care.

[nfitc1]

Hell yes they care. Many of these games are available legally on Wii's virtual console service, which Nintendo makes money from. If they can't monetize this, and if they see it as eating into sales of something they CAN monetize, you bet they'll care.

This right here. It'll be taken down within days I would imagine.

I mean, they even have single-player games like LttP and Aladdin on their front page. This won't last long.

The emulation isn't bad, actually. I just played the first level of DKC and it didn't give me any trouble.

[Tekkie.X]

They've been around for over a year though.

[DLPB_]

They've been around for over a year though.

Not just that but let's be realistic here, if there really was a massive incentive to protect these older games, you wouldn't be going around easily downloading ZSNES etc etc etc.  Sony cared enough when Bleam came out.

[Tekkie.X]

Sony cared enough when Bleam came out.

I think they only went after Bleem because it sucked  , there's plenty other emulators still going strong.

[Bosola]

Uh, is this legal? Unless they have a legal, physical copy of every game for ever person actively playing it on their site, it's not even remotely legal. Even so, that puts it in a gray area.

SNES game EULAs may not actually cover this eventuality, so it's possible that this is actually legitimate.

[nfitc1]

Not just that but let's be realistic here, if there really was a massive incentive to protect these older games, you wouldn't be going around easily downloading ZSNES etc etc etc.  Sony cared enough when Bleam came out.

Emulators aren't inherently illegal. There are a lot of third-party knockoffs of old 16-bit and prior systems and even hand-held devices that can play these games. The piracy comes in the games' software being copied and distributed. The most basic EULAs say only that. From all the mp3 "busts" I've heard of the fines were based on the distribution of songs, not the possession.

This site doesn't technically distribute the software. Still, I would imagine that if Nintendo knew virtually its entire SNES library is freely accessible to anyone that it wouldn't be for long. I'm surprised places like EP haven't been busted by Nintendo or Sony or any of the third party developers. I guess they are too small (as opposed to RIAA) to pursue legal action against everyone that has a copy that they didn't pay for.

[nowares]

Emulators aren't inherently illegal. There are a lot of third-party knockoffs of old 16-bit and prior systems and even hand-held devices that can play these games. The piracy comes in the games' software being copied and distributed. The most basic EULAs say only that. From all the mp3 "busts" I've heard of the fines were based on the distribution of songs, not the possession.

This site doesn't technically distribute the software. Still, I would imagine that if Nintendo knew virtually its entire SNES library is freely accessible to anyone that it wouldn't be for long. I'm surprised places like EP haven't been busted by Nintendo or Sony or any of the third party developers. I guess they are too small (as opposed to RIAA) to pursue legal action against everyone that has a copy that they didn't pay for.

^This is very true. I run a fairly popular site similar to that in question and agree insomuch as emulators aren't inherently illegal. If you own a copy of the game it's considered perfectly within legislation.

Most companies don't waste time and money by chasing down their most die hard fans who like to play games which are older than most gamers these days 

[arkilus]

Hey e1sunz! What did you do to activate your controller in the games? I got a Xbox controller installed, but could only use my keyboard so far.

Thanks!

[dkma841]

Hey arkilus
As far as i remember the last time i played snesbox with a controller all i did was connect the controller before opening the browser then head to the site and just play with the controller, i use a Saitek controller.
But if you want to use a program that inputs the keyboard buttons to your controller use Joy2key i think it was called, works perfectly for any games that requires keyboard buttons but used on controller

[Cazador]

SNES game EULAs may not actually cover this eventuality, so it's possible that this is actually legitimate.

This actually may be correct, that would put it into a gray area though not so much a legitimate area.

[nfitc1]

Some excerpts from wiki:

Some games companies, such as Nintendo, print warnings inside their game manuals that they do not allow users to make backup or archival copies. Whether these warnings in this specific form can be considered valid contracts or not is legally questionable.
...
The vast majority of computer and video games from the history of such games are no longer manufactured. As such, the copyright holders of some games have offered free licenses to those games, often on the condition that they be used for non-commercial purposes only.

So what I get from this is that games that are not being manufactured may not be subject to copyright laws as long as it's distributed AS-IS and pieces are not stolen to make commercial third-party games. Also, even if copying were not "legal", most companies would not have the legal standing to prosecute any ROM holder.

What it really seems to amount to is that you didn't sign a contract BEFORE PURCHASE stating you wouldn't distribute copies. Now it IS a violation to dump a ROM onto a blank cart that plays in a console. Like if you copied Earthbound onto a blank SNES cart (and managed to bypass its copy protection) that would be bootlegging, which is illegal. Since the ROMs are neither on physical carts or being sold there is probably not any legal recourse Nintendo can make.