Dear Future Gamer,

I've got several points to make (all re: FG14) so I'll try and be brief.

Firstly, emulator speed depends on how closely related the emu'ed hardware is. PlayStations and N64s have more in common with modern PCs than the C64 does, which is why they can be emu'ed more easily.

Amiga and Mac hardware is so similar (all Mac/PowerMac CPU's are available for the Amiga) that the Amiga can run emu'd Mac software almost as fast as a Mac can.

Secondly, piracy is theft. When you pirate games you are stealing from people who spent years developing entertainment for you. It shouldn't matter that you can play N64 games at a higher res using a PC, whatever happened to morals? (Anyone who says that morals have been eroded by entertainment media can shut up 'cos I've been playing games for 14 years and I can tell right from wrong).

Pirates and people who make emu's for current consoles are put up on a pedestal by gamers, despite the fact that they are destroying the market.

People say: "Why should we bother paying for games when we don't know if they're going to be any good?" Which causes some developers and publishers to think: "Why should we bother making good games when we don't know if they're going to pay for them?" (Sound of unimaginative sequel being churned out).

Thirdly, although publishers are usually in it for the money, developers make games because we feel we have something to offer. The great games come from artistes who know that clones and more-of-the-same-sequels suck and want to create something new and better. No matter how much publishers just want to suck players' money out of their pockets, there will always be developers that just want people to have fun.

Oh, and if anyone loses their perception of reality (this is for C. Planken) then it's because their parents didn't teach them which one is the off switch...

Michael Flaherty, Digital Images

FG: Piracy has dogged the software industry since the beginning. No sooner has a new way of encrypting code been found than someone's cracked it. It isn't big, it isn't clever - yes we can all see the temptations but it does keep software prices high. It's not the only factor though and high software prices aren't solely due to pirates. But software houses would have some of their ammunition in the 'but we have to charge this much' argument taken away if piracy was greatly reduced.