Title says it all.

you get roms for older systems which you can play on the older computer systems or use the roms to play them on your pc cant post links to the here but if your interested in playing some games just do a search for it on google and you shall find them

can you burn roms and play them on a system such as ps1?

If there is an emulator available, then yes.

r=read o=only m=memory

But you wouldnt call PS1 stuff ROMS as such - These are known as ISOs as they are burned to CDR

ROMS are usually what you describe formats such as amiga.c64.atari st,NES,n64, Bally Astroarcade <---- eh? stuff to be if U see what i mean. ie carts and floppy disk stuff

;0)

what about cd-rom, dvd-rom, they are all read only memory. thats what rom stands for and thats what a NES game on your hard disk or SNES or whatever stands for

Technically speaking, a ROM is a factory built chip(integrated circuit) which holds data and is permanently written(hence the "Read-Only" part).

The term transferred over to old games systems (software)files since cartridges were made with ROMs which contained the software's code.

What we refer to as a ROM nowadays is actually the "ROM Image" from the original chips in the cartridge.

Crash course time:

ROM usually refers to Read Only Memory. Generally speaking this is some form of data storage which cannot be altered after its creation, such as an integrated circuit or a write-once disc (like a CD).

In terms of game backup, ROMs are generally dumps of the contents of a video game cartridge, created using strange, rare, and (thanks to Nintendo's strong-arming) illegal (in the US) devices. In plain English, they are old video game system or arcade games stored on a modern computer. In even simpler terms, you can have your old NES cartridges on a floppy disk.

You may ask, "How is that useful?" Well, by itself it wouldn't be very useful, except as a backup to protect your investment. However, thanks to programs called Emulators, it is far more useful. Emulators work on the concept of the Turing Machine, which states (I'm simplifying here) that all computers are basically the same. Therefore, any computer can be made to pretend to be any other computer. Since video game systems and arcade machines are, essentially, computers, this allows you to play old games on your desktop PC.

So, it's possible to play Gameboy, NES, SNES, Genesis, and all those other games on your computer using an emulator and the ROM for the game you want to play.

You can find the emulators at places like Zophar's Domain (http://www.zophar.net) , Retrogames (http://www.retrogames.com), and many other places (do some Google searching for "emulators" and the system you're interested in, like "NES" or "SNES")

Currently, most systems up to the PS1 & N64 are emulated at playable levels. Current systems such as the PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox are emulated, but not well. Do not expect these systems to be fully emulated (or even playable) for a few years.

On the arcade side of things, an overwhelming majority of the games to date are fully emulated by a program called MAME (http://www.mame.net) (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator).

Most importantly, do not email the emulator authors, nor the site operators, requesting ROMs. There are channels on mIRC, and groups on Usenet dedicated to such things.

that was really useful, nice info

how do u burn and play roms or iso's on ps2?