Over the past few months, we have seen some promising work in the world of Next Generation Emulation, ranging from Dreamcast emulation to the very latest consoles which are still on the market, such as namely XBOX, GAMECUBE and PLAYSTATION 2.

The intriguing question is will this generate a lot of positive qualities or will it just mean more heat from the manufacturers themselves, pushing the point further that emulation is a utility that promotes illegal software which is downloaded from the net or taken from the originals themselves.

From my point of view, when ULTRAHLE was released to the public only strengthens this topic, when eventually a fully playable XBOX/GAMECUBE/PS2 emulator comes along, will it generate the negative reaction from the gaming community and from the manufacturers themselves?

Personally when it does happen I cannot see it becoming online long due to legal threats that come along with such a touchy subject today.

When ULTRAHLE was released it generated a lot of new visitors to emuunlim.com, 95% of their soul purpose, was not to thank the authors for their hard work, but were there to ask where they will be able to download or attain the roms available, that will run on the emulator. This was asking for trouble as it was a current day emulator still for sale, and in a way was a cheap way for them not to purchase a N64 and the games available.

The same type of pressure will go along with these emulator authors and hosts, when they become playable to an extent to become a worldwide success, but success comes with a price, take the good (hits) with the bad (legal problems).

Press coverage will add pressure to the manufacturers to take action and dont think they wont, in any way to make them not look bad and unprofessional.

Next Generation Emulators only put pressure on the FUTURE of emulation, which overall may push emulation into illegal terms for ALL, and deny so many people to relive playing classic computers and consoles such as the ZX spectrum/Amstrad CPC/C64/Amiga... and the list goes on.

Emulation in my opinion should be kept at a safe breathing distance in order to maintain it continuing without any legal problems.

The problem is that its getting too far ahead now, that people dont realise the longterm damage that it may cause to everyone. Please don't let me not deny the authors themselves, they have a GREAT talent which is appreciated by their groups, but they need to step back and think "what will happen at the end of this?".

If it does end up turning bad, then we all might be posting news on illegal emulators, without posting downloads with them ALL being released on underground MIRC channels or newsgroups.

Fingers crossed that DOESNT happen.....

THE FOX

NEXT SUNDAYS TOPIC : EMULATION WEBSITES TODAY!- WAS HAS HAPPENED? HAS REAL LIFE TAKEN ITS TOLL?