For me, the answer simply boils down to this question: Is the game company still trying to make money by selling the game?

If the answer is no, the moral quandary is resolved in my mind. If the game maker is not providing me an avenue to satisfy my demand for their old game, then they are not losing a dime if I satisfy that demand by other, free means.

The option to download classic games on a new console complicates this a bit, but at the time it was a pretty simple rule. Want to Play Super Mario Bros. 3? Nintendo doesn’t sell it anymore, and if I do find a copy it would be second-hand (i.e. no revenue going to Nintendo) so I had no problem with downloading away. Recent Playstation games, on the other hand, were off-limits.

Now however, I could buy a Wii and download the game officially, which muddies the waters quite a bit. The new version of the classic games are improved, with more options and better graphics. This begs the question; are they different games, or just a repackaging of the same old thing?

Not to say that I don’t fire up Nesticle every once in a while anyway.