Dear Future Gamer,
About it being illegal to sell PC games, I read on my (very old) Wipeout box that it is illegal to re-sell the product. My Dad told me it was because you are buying a license to use the software, and the software is given free with it. If this is the case, don't publishers have to give you another CD if you break your old one? (or am I completely wrong?)

One last thing, a man in Game told me that there was an emulator out for the DC. He also told me that if I wanted to use it, I'd have to have a DVDdrive, as a CD drive wouldn't read GD-ROMs.

Also, I know how hard it is to backup CDs (as I do it all the time) but I'm sure it must be possible to copy a whole GD-Rom to a hard disk, remove the non-essential music tracks
and burn the whole lot onto a normal CD to be used on an emulator.

James Barwell

FG: Your Dad's almost right. A spokesman from ELSPA (European Leisure Software Publishers' Association) put us straight on this and explained that when you buy a game you're buying both the game and a licence to run it.

As for replacing broken discs, most games are sold with a limited warranty and most software houses will replace faulty discs within the specified time period (usually 90 days).

As for your other point, we've been made aware of an emulator for the Dreamcast but haven't had the chance to check it out properly yet and have no idea about copying a GD-ROM to a hard disk and wouldn't dream of trying.