In fact my own brother has developed several retro games for old computers, such as Attack of the PETSCII Robots for many platforms, including the C64, Apple II, and others. Small teams or one man shows are developing games for retro computers.
Homebrew ROMs are a relatively new thing. No one knows if that would hold up in court, but it did clear his conscious! Again, its all a legal grey area. One lawyer wrote that they simply bought a Pac-Man cartridge and put inside their RetroPie arcade cabinet not connected to anything, installed the game from a torrent, and then screwed it shut. But I suspect that the lawyers would argue in court that since you can and do use both simultaneously it is not a backup. You are allowed to make backup copies of your material. Many believe that if you own the game already, then you’re legal. Downloading RetroPie ROMs of these games without legal permission is most definitely a crime and most definitely punishable. Most game ROMs are still under copyright, and most game studios are still enforcing these rights.
This isn’t an area that’s been tested in court, but many in the legal profession believe that it’s just as criminal to download an abandonware game as it is any other copyrighted work. Either because they closed their doors and went out of business without selling their assets, through bankruptcy, or they just don’t enforce their copyrights anymore for whatever reason. In some cases the legal rights holder doesn’t even exist anymore. Since these companies have shown good will, we feel like its a good idea to respect that agreement and download from their direct links.
However, in most cases you are required to download the games directly from them, and not from some 3rd party or torrent site.
Many game studios have released their older games for free into the public domain.
You can download RetroPie ROMs that are Public Domain in many cases directly from the game developer. Types of ROMs to Downloadīefore we go further, it’s important to really important to understand that there are different classifications of ROMs. We recommend that you do so! The Geek Pub does not provide ROMs to anyone under any circumstances. It’s up to you to obey the laws in your jurisdiction. The Geek Pub does not make any claims about the legality of anything you download, buy, or copy from others using this guide. Don’t get caught downloading a game you thought was freeware only to get a threatening letter in the mail. The retro video game market is a very bizarre world of companies who vigorously fight piracy of their old games, to some who have made their games freeware. But they could change their tune at any moment and you could be prosecuted or slapped with a hefty fine. It just means the rights holder is not currently enforcing their rights. While many games are considered abandonware, it still doesn’t mean you just download it for free legally. The reality is, much of what you find on the internet are links to download RetroPie ROMs from unknown and unlicensed sites.
But it is no doubt the fastest way to get started. Of course this card isn’t free as the sellers have to pay royalties and licensing fees. It would take a lifetime to build a collection like that. For example, this card comes loaded with over 100,000 game ROMs ready to go. Probably the fastest way to get started is to buy an SD-Card pre-loaded from Amazon.