I just downloaded a NES emulator and a ROM that I've always been wanting to play for a while... And it totally WORKS! I've never emulated anything before, so if I'm making a big deal out of nothing, forgive me, but I really do miss the old NES... plus this gives me something to do when I'm bored at school... an I can get better screenshots from this instead of having to look online.

I've just opened so many doors with this, it's amazing! I can actually review my favorite Nintendo (and maybe other platforms...) games!

Anyway, I just hope I can figure out how to save and stuff... I just opened the ROM for like a few seconds, so maybe I'm getting too excited a bit early, but whatever.

Oh, and another thing... These programs are safe, right? Like they won't try to hide viruses in them or anything? I wouldn't think so, but I don't know enough about the internet to be safe on the matter. The site I got it from was specifically an emulation site, though - had a forum and everything - so maybe there's no worry there.

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	honestgamer - January 17, 2008 (02:13 PM) Emulation is usually pretty safe if you're just getting individual ROMs or if you get a bundle of them from a trusted source. If you torrent, people sometimes like to be buttheads and slip a Trojan file in there--or they do it without even being aware that they have one--so you'd want to scan anything like that in Norton or McAfee (hopefully the former) to be safe. There's obviously a lot of potential for ROMs to make it easier to grab game info and screenshots for a site like this, but that's about my only use for them. I still buy most games I actually play, even the retro ones.
	EmP - January 17, 2008 (02:35 PM) Jason in "more money than sense" shocker. Also see: PS3 purchase. Still makes me spend my own money when shipping out games, though! Again, just stick to ROM sites for said ROMS and you'll be safe as houses. Well-built houses located and manufactured away from hurricanes and earthquakes.
	wolfqueen001 - January 17, 2008 (04:17 PM) Hm... Well, I got the game from this site: http://www.coolrom.com/ which seems to be entirely devoted to emulation, so I guess I'm fine. I don't use Torrent or anything... but I'll scan the stuff anyway just to be safe. Hm... Well, to be honest, I'd much rather use the original system myself, but I just don't have access to it anymore, and I think all our cartridges can't hold saves anymore, so this is really the best option right now. Hell, I don't even know if or where they'd sell those sorts of games anymore. o.O LoL - thanks, EmP. Unfortunately, your safety contract didn't cover tornadoes, which is... what we get... >.>; Still better than earthquakes and hurricanes, though, I guess. ROMMing's easier, anyway. >.>
	pup - January 17, 2008 (04:36 PM) I have a ton of arcade games from CoolRom and haven't had a problem yet.
	espnking2002 - January 18, 2008 (08:26 PM) More money then sense is the attitude I have too when it comes to music. Actually owning a copy is better to me than just getting it off the internet. Anybody can get it off the internet, but it actually own it is much different.
	sashanan - January 19, 2008 (01:04 AM) Haha, welcome to the club. A world opened to me when I was introduced to emulation in college, and so many of my future purchases have been either the same games or the same genres based on my emulation experiences that I'd say the gaming industry has been paid back in full by now. Not much of a virus risk in emulators and ROMs, but all internet activity should go through a permanently active and up to date virus scanner. Not necessarily a paid one - free alternatives like AVG do just fine - but that's one layer of protection you always want to have.
	shotgunnova - January 19, 2008 (02:44 PM) CoolRom is a great site to use and, when I was sending screenshots to GameFAQs, I used that one primarily. A few don't work, but after trying hundreds, you can hazard a chance at usin' them. Another good one is frozen-roms.in for GBA/DS stuff. As suggested, stay away from the pitfalls (bundled packs, torrent stuff, shady sites) and you'll do fine.
	wolfqueen001 - January 19, 2008 (04:50 PM) Thanks guys. I kind of liike that site - it's easily navigational and everything - so I think I'll stick with that (and thus not have to worry so much about viruses and things). Looking for a recommended emulator, though. I downloaded Nesterj from that site and the ROM I'm playing is kind of glitchy on it. Not sure if that's the emulator, ROM or the game as it was initially designed. The glitches aren't really hurting anything, but they are annoying. Will suggested I get ZNES, but that's not available on that site... I s'pose I could look elsewhere for it, but not sure where (What's saafe and what not). I had also tried Nestopia to see if that'd work, but the ROM just froze instead. Also, I found out that you can't carry savestates from one emu to the other (probably should've known that anyway, though...).
	goldenvortex - January 21, 2008 (06:55 PM) I always found Romnation.net to be a pretty decent source for roms. As long as you ignore the disturbing "Dead Hooker" adverts, then you're good to go!