The Sunday Sun n JANUARY 19, 2014

E38 ENT n n
Mashing buttons since 1982
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I feel like Imholding a chunk of my
childhood in the palmof my hand.
And, theoretically, I could
get arrested for it.
As a gamer whos been kicking around
for longer than I care to admit, I grew
up on game consoles that have long
since faded into the mists of antiq-
uity. Te Super Nintendo Entertain-
ment Systemand Sega Genesis, the
earlier Nintendo Entertainment Sys-
temand original Game Boy, and even
consoles frombefore that time the
Atari 2600 and ColecoVision were my
introduction to home video gaming.
Te fact that now, in 2014, I can carry
a device in my pocket that can store and
play thousands of games fromthese
bygone consoles blows my mind a bit.
Well, part of my mind. Te other part
the part that feels guilty about things
like taking too many mints when leaving
a restaurant clucks disapprovingly.
Te gadget in question is the GCW
Zero, a handheld video game machine
that launched last year after a successful
Kickstarter campaign. While the Zero is
by no means the frst handheld designed
to play a variety of retro games (in addi-
tion to original homebrew software), it
was designed by a group of gamers who
wanted to make a best-in-class device.
And theyve done a pretty fne job.
Available for $150 fromTinkGeek.
com, the Zero is essentially a tiny but
relatively powerful computer with famil-
iar video game controller buttons and
a 320 x 240 pixel screen lowresolu-
tion by todays standards, but more than
adequate for playing old-school games.
I got the Zero for Christmas, and Ive
been in love with it since. Its not exactly
an intuitive gizmo, and requires a lot
of learning, tinkering and tweaking to
fully unlock its potential. But nowIve
got a bunch of game emulators installed
on the thing, capable of playing every-
thing fromthe original Pitfall! for the
Atari 2600 to my Genesis faves Earth-
wormJimand Mutant League Foot-
ball to SNES classics like Donkey Kong
Country and Super Mario World.
Catch is, playing these games
is technically against the law.
In video game terms, emula-
tion refers to a piece of hard-
ware mimicking an older
gaming systemthrough raw
computational power and
clever software design. Emu-
lators arent illegal, but ROMs
short for read-only mem-
ory, a catch-all termfor these
old games fles are.
Even though many of these
retro games are 20 to 30 years
old, theyre still copyrighted
material and cant legally be dis-
tributed. Nintendo in particu-
lar takes a dimviewof emula-
tion, with an entire section of their
website devoted to the topic.
Are these laws enforced? Given
that websites ofering ROMs for down-
load operate openly and with relative
impunity, it appears not. I suspect game
publishers focus their anti-piracy eforts
on people who illegally copy and dis-
tribute newer games, rather than track-
ing down folks playing 1985s Super
Mario Bros. on their home computers.
Tere are plenty of legal ways to
play old-school games, to be sure.
Lots of classic titles are re-released on
newer consoles (Nintendos eShop,
for instance, has tons of old favour-
ites), and theres always the option
of buying an old systemand track-
ing down out-of-print games through
specialty stores, eBay and the like.
Not exactly convenient and def-
nitely not portable. So when something
like the GCWZero comes along, and
ofers you the seductive possibility of
carrying your entire gaming childhood
in a single pocket-sized devicewell,
we must all look within and fgure out
which way our moral compasses point.
For the record, I deleted eve-
rything of my Zero after writ-
ing this. For the record.
Zero tolerance
This pocket-sized device lets me revisit my gaming childhood. But is what Im doing legal?
steve.tilley@sunmedia.ca
STEVE TILLEY
@stevetilley
n Infamous:
Second Son
(PS4)
n Watch
Dogs (PS3,
PS4)
n Destiny (PS3, PS4)
n Driveclub (PS4)
n TomClancys The
Division (PS4)
n The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
(PS4)
SONY
n TitanFall
(Xbox One)
n Watch Dogs
(Xbox 360,
Xbox One)
n Halo (Xbox One)
n QuantumBreak (Xbox
One)
n Destiny (Xbox 360, Xbox
One)
n Below (Xbox One)
XBOX
n TitanFall
n Tom
Clancys The
Division
n Elder
Scrolls Online
n The Witcher 3: Wild
Hunt
n Destiny
n Watch Dogs
PC
n Super Smash Bros.
(Wii U, 3DS)
n Mario Kart 8
(Wii U)
n Donkey Kong
Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U)
n Bayonetta 2 (Wii U)
n Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
(3DS)
n Watch Dogs (Wii U)
NINTENDO
GAMER
The GCWZero can
store numerous
classic games,
such as 1985s
Super Mario Bros.