Despite the fact that its sales are flagging, the Windows Phone 7 has plenty of signs of life. Their app market just hit over 5,000; they’re expected to make some stellar presentations at CES this month; and, just recently, they hit an even more significant milestone: Someone made an NES emulator for the Windows Phone 7 OS.
A stunningly brief definition of an NES emulator for those few left in the dark: This program allows users to play games from the original Nintendo console on their phone; potentially any Nintendo game. While the display video for the Windows Phone 7 NES emulator does show that the game is running a tad slowly (and seemingly without sound), it still appears fully functional.
Sadly, you probably won’t be able to toy with this emulator on your Windows Phone 7 without rooting it first. Microsoft decided to bar the application due to possible terms of use violations. The violations, of course, would be in the legality sector.
This is an interesting move for Microsoft, especially since both the Android Marketplace and the iPhone currently have multiple NES emulators available (although Apple does have a tendency to restrict theirs). The legal issues here root back to the treacherous ground that emulators have been on since they were first created. Emulators themselves are, by all technicality, completely legal. So too is playing games on that emulator, with one important condition: You have to already own the non-emulated version of the game you’re playing.
Since the legal blame can almost always be passed along to the consumer, most groups seem to accept emulators as fit for publication. For many, it’s upsetting that Microsoft hasn’t — but no one’s more saddened by the announcement than Matt Bettcher, the creator of the app, who is hoping to get community support for the app’s acceptance.
