Bug#95807: ITP: zsnes -- Free Super Nintendo emulator
Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
I intend to package zsnes, an SNES emulator. zsnes
(http://www.zsnes.com) has a DOS heritage, but early this month the
source code was released under the GPL and it was immediately ported
to SDL. Once the Linux version is officially released (which should be
in a matter of days), I plan to upload my package.
I will upload the package to main. Many have suggested that it will
need to go in contrib because Debian doesn't include SNES games. I
find this argument absurd, and could waste a lot of time fighting it,
but instead plan to bundle a small, free demo ROM in
/usr/share/doc/examples to work around the issue.
Note that zsnes will be the first free SNES emulator available in
Debian.
Source: zsnes
Section: otherosfs
Priority: optional
Maintainer: Aaron Lehmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Build-Depends: debhelper (>> 3.0.0), nasm, libsdl1.2-dev, zlib1g
Standards-Version: 3.5.2
Package: zsnes
Architecture: i386
Depends: ${shlibs:Depends}
Description: Emulator of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (TM)
ZSNES allows you to play classic games writen for the "SNES" game
console
on a GNU/Linux system.
.
Please note that many of these games are non-free. See
/usr/share/doc/zsnes/README.Debian for more information.
And here's README.Debian so far:
zsnes for Debian
The zsnes package is not portable to non-i386 architectures because of
the fact that most of it is writen in i386 assembly.
zsnes itself is available under the GNU GPL. However, almost all of the
"ROMs" that it is designed to run are distributed under stricter
licenses,
which may not permit redistribution. We advise you to pay attention to
license information when obtaining such software. Debian claims no
responsibility for any illegal usage of third-party software under
zsnes.
-- Aaron Lehmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Sat, 28 Apr 2001 22:51:31 -0700
Bug#95807: ITP: zsnes -- Free Super Nintendo emulator
On Mon, Apr 30, 2001 at 12:08:03AM -0700, Aaron Lehmann wrote: > The zsnes package is not portable to non-i386 architectures because of > the fact that most of it is writen in i386 assembly. > > zsnes itself is available under the GNU GPL. However, almost all of the > "ROMs" that it is designed to run are distributed under stricter > licenses, > which may not permit redistribution. We advise you to pay attention to > license information when obtaining such software. Debian claims no > responsibility for any illegal usage of third-party software under > zsnes. Can I suggest using the word "unlicensed" instead of "illegal" in the text above? It's more precise, and it doesn't throw the usual sop to the media conglomerates that copying their data is as bad as rape, murder, or car theft. -- G. Branden Robinson | You could wire up a dead rat to a DIMM Debian GNU/Linux| socket and the PC BIOS memory test would [EMAIL PROTECTED] | pass it just fine. http://www.debian.org/~branden/ | -- Ethan Benson pgp7wJe4fk7g5.pgp Description: PGP signature
Bug#95807: ITP: zsnes -- Free Super Nintendo emulator
> I will upload the package to main. Many have suggested that it will > need to go in contrib because Debian doesn't include SNES games. I > find this argument absurd, and could waste a lot of time fighting it, > but instead plan to bundle a small, free demo ROM in > /usr/share/doc/examples to work around the issue. This is not absurd. Emulators generally require proprietary data to be useful. The Debian policy clearly states that such programs should be put in contrib. Requiring users to depend on proprietary data is not as bad as requiring them to depend on proprietary programs. But it is still a bad thing to do. For what I am concerned, I would prefer seeing free software games appear for the GNU system rather than emulators requiring proprietary game roms. That is the whole philosophy of free software. If you don't accept that, this means you either don't accept it or either don't understand it. Wolfgang
Bug#95807: ITP: zsnes -- Free Super Nintendo emulator
On Tue, May 01, 2001 at 01:18:01PM -0400, Wolfgang Sourdeau wrote: > Requiring users to depend on proprietary data is not as bad as > requiring them to depend on proprietary programs. But it is still a > bad thing to do. There are free ROMS for SNES. Have you considered that SNES can be a fun architecture to write games on? Its hardware is much more capable than a VESA board. zsnes is actually extremely useful for developing and testing free SNES roms. > For what I am concerned, I would prefer seeing free software > games appear for the GNU system rather than emulators requiring > proprietary game roms. That is the whole philosophy of free software. > If you don't accept that, this means you either don't accept it or > either don't understand it. Have you heard of assembly language? ZSNES itself would need to run under an emulator on, say, sparc. There's no reason why emulators are only useful to run binary-only software. They are a necessity in development and testing, and run free software for other platforms (unfortunately not all software is portable - even zsnes itself only runs on 386). Philsophical issues of emulators vs. native code can be debated later, but as per Debian policy I see no reason why emulators shouldn't go in main, especially if they include sample applications.
