IMO, this Virtual Console idea is great. Not something new, as millions of PC owners already tasted the emulation wine, but indeed, a sick idea.

But the great idea here isn't the emulation by itself. It's the delivery method.

I see two kinds of response from gamers to this feature on Nintendo's next console:

1st. AWESOME!

2nd. OLD, I can do it on my computer.

But console emulation in computers or other consoles (even handhelds) is illegal, no matter what you think or say. It's is illegal to own a ROM, even if you own the game, even if you made the backup yourself.

Nintendo is just offering a legal way to own and play these games, other than finding working consoles, controllers and carts. For a price, of course. Offering their former competitors catalog, setting up servers, employees, bandwidth, all that costs money. And their ultimate goal, as for every company in the world, is profits.

Pretty neat, huh? Most are saying it won't work because of the prices, when you can ransack irc channels for ROMs and spend hours trying to setup an emulator.

Now, this isn't revolutionary at all. And no, I'm not talking about Live Marketplace, or GameTap. I've seen this before, years ago. And this is the reason I believe the Virtual Console will be a huge success: it's based on the iTunes model. And as Apple, Nintendo isn't first to serve it's good in this model, but they are serious. Serious to the point to make deals with old death-sworn enemies.

Ok, I'm running in circles. Lets end it here before it gets worse.