Game Emulators, good or bad

Most people may have heard of a emulator:

An emulator duplicates (provides an emulation of) the functions of one system using a different system, so that the second system behaves like (and appears to be) the first system. This focus on exact reproduction of external behavior is in contrast to simulation, which can concern an abstract model of the system being simulated, often considering internal state.

But as of now, people are creating Illegal game emulators which are computerized versions of console games that have been modified for use on a computer, such as the Visual Boy Advance, N64 Project, PSE (Play Station Emulator)I and II for which games are free.
http://www.vtemulation.net/emu-reviews/img/vba-screenshot.jpg

What are your thoughts about the use of these emulators. Remember, have a open mind about all the factors of them.

an emulator is a game world hosted by a normal person right? well for games like WoW people can host a server and everyone can play for free instead of paying monthly for it. also good to test out new features in the game.

Are you talking about Game emulators or emulators in general, becuase your poll just says emulators then your title says game emulators and then you ask 'these emulators', both game and emulators in general can fall under different arguments/discussions.

Game emulators aren't illegal as such, it's only illegal to use the games you don't own.

A while back i wanted to play a PS1 game for good ol' times but my PS1 kicked the bucket a looooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago so i got a PS1 emulator, but that is fine cause i own the game i was playing, now if i went and downloaded some other PS1 game i didn't own to play then that would be illegal.

I also emulated Mandriva Linux to see what it was like so i didn't have to install it but Mandriva and pretty much any Linux is free so there is nothing illegal there, but if you were to go and download Vista or something and TRY to emulate it (i imagine you would have a super hard time) i'm pretty sure that would be illegal,

so they're good and bad, they give people who use them correctly the chance to do stuff they wish, such as try a linux distro without having to install it, but can aslo give pirates and other sea dwelling nasties the oppertunity to do illegal stuff with them.

I use game emulators to play classic games which through time have broken down or were thrown away. I don't think to many people go download games from 10+ years ago if they haven't owned played and loved the game.

Nintendo and SNES games are actually all legal to download, google vimms lair for legal games.

Anything past that idk, Iv thrown away more than one cracked ps1 disc in my time I really dont feel bad for downloading and playing those same games on a emulator.

I do use SNES, MAME and Genesis emulators, and I love the fact that there is a way to play such classic games without resorting to cartridges or the like.

So I do think they're good. :)

who cares if its illegal, i have project 64 and i love legend of zelda :)

I'm a fan of project 64 and dolphin Gamecube/Wii emulator, which I use for Super Smash Bros., and SSB Melee. Melee tends to run slowly, from 15-25 fps, but I'm sure a faster CPU would remedy that. P64 on the other hand runs beautifully: I never see the fps counter drop below 60.

same here technochicken and i dont even have a graphics card

I play with console emulators. Pretty damn hard to find those SNES games/system around these days.

And they finally got a ps2 emulator to play FFX flawlessly (IMO). Time to grind my youth away.