From: "Collin van Ginkel" <collin@...>

> I can understand why some companies would like a GBA emulator (buy one
> devkit and work with several teams on projects) I don't think it's illegal
> to do that (Or am I totally wrong?)

Emulators are completely legal, as long as they are created using black-box
reverse engineering techniques. For example, most of the accuracy in my NES
emulator has come from me writing test programs and running them on the real
hardware.

The AGB emulator, however, is an illegal piece of software because it was
written based off of official NOA documents. Whether these documents were
apprehended in an illicit manner (which they were - no licensed developer
would risk their job releasing an AGB emulator) is immaterial -- the fact
that the information is "proprietary and confidential" means that it can't
be released to the public, or even anyone who hasn't signed an NDA. The
emulator, in a sense, releases that information to the public; just look at
the register and bit names in the debugger. Sheesh.

Now, I'm totally in favor of an AGB emulator for debugging purposes --
no$gmb has been instrumental in my game development. But one that is
created honestly (and none of us official developers can create one honestly
because we have the documentation), or one that is created in-house, and
*kept* in-house is the only legitimate way to go.

This AGB emulator has the potential to really fuck things up for the
legitimate emulator scene as well, and for this I don't appreciate the
author's recklessness in releasing the software. Word on the streets is
that NOA/NCL is going to drop the hammer soon...

Matt.