Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Game boy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advanced. Cartridge based video games as such. I want to make something of the sort to sell.
I was planning on responding in some depth to your legal concern but the depth that is required for a discussion of old video games and emulators is not easy to achieve in a forum setting. I think you will need to sit down with an IP attorney in your area, grimofdoom, to go over the current status of the law as it applies to your proposed plan. There are changes in the copyright law that are anticipated in the near future and some of these changes could play a role in what you will be able to do, and what you will not be able to do, with your old video games and your game consoles.
First, you automatically have problems with Nintendo - and single317dad provided a link to the Nintendo site that touches on some of these problems. Nintendo essentially views emulators as facilitating infringement, developed solely to play illegally copied software. You will find it difficult to market your product online because takedown notices are common and there is often little you can do against a big company like Nintendo.
That said, it is not illegal to create an emulator. Creating an emulator, in and of itself, is legal. What is illegal is to access read-only memory chips (ROMs), using the ROM image of a video game. That infringes on the copyrights of the cartridges. You cannot, in other words, use emulators and ROM images together (with a few exceptions). The unauthorized sale and distribution of copied game ROMs would be infringement.
I am going to provide a link to one software infringement case filed by Sony against Connectix Corporation over its emulator and how it was developed. This can give you an idea of some of the legal issues you can face with your game console, although the case speaks more to the reverse engineering single317dad mentioned earlier. The Court found that the reverse engineering during development of Connectix' emulator, of Sony's BIOS which was extracted from a Sony PlayStation console, was protected as fair use because the final product did not contain any infringing material. Sony Computer Entertainment v. Connectix Corp., 203 F.3d 596 (9th Cir 2000):
https://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/203_F3d_596.htm
Again, because copyright law is evolving in this area (with the possibility of shortened copyright terms for video games), I suggest you go over your proposed game console creation, and the legal issues that can arise, with an IP attorney in your area. What I have provided should be verified with the IP attorney who does your personal review. Good luck.
