Basically, whoever was responsible for releasing the original Super Mario Bros on the Wii's virtual console, for whatever reason, didn't or couldn't get a ROM from Nintendo. Dumping from NES carts is complicated, and in the instance of the SMB cart the game was stored on two separate chips. So to dump the game, a guy back in 1996 had to modify the ROM himself if in order to dump it and get it properly runnng on an old emulator called iNES. Nintendo may have effectively benefited from the fruits of the labor of a community they refuse to recognize as anything more then pirates, while the Eurogamer video argues that these people aren't just pirates, but have also played a pivotal role in preserving old game software in a way most game companies haven't really bothered too. Of course, whether Nintendo actually didn't have the original ROM for Super Mario Bros, or if they were just lazy about it, we just don't know.

To inject my own opinion, regardless of the truth behind this situation, that statement does have some truth behind it in regards to the community as a whole. There ARE instances of companies throwing out or losing source code for their games, meaning that games that aren't dumped will be lost forever when the copies of them decompose (which will happen to CD and even cartridge games eventually).

The fact that instead of takeing a game cart of their own, and off loading it (or finding some old code laying around in a archieve), they went to a ROM site and downloaded their own game, to sell it on to users.

That isnt actually a problem.

The problem is they say that emulation is piracy and its all bad.

The people that do emulate, usually have bought alot of those old games themselves, and say they are doing it to preserve gameing history.

Those guys where proved right by nintendo actions, since even nintendo just sell you a rom from a rom site.

^ so much better explained than I could.

It makes nintendo look like hypocrites.

Well it is technically their game...

The point is... they couldnt bother to put in the work, to give you the game themselves.

It was either gone (the game) or code or too much hassle.

So the reason this mario game was playable at all, on the Wii was because of a ROM.

Those guys that emulate argue that they are preserveing gameing history. Nintendo calls them pirates instead.

But nintendos actions speak otherwise.

It's a little tacky of Nintendo :/ I get it though, im also a developer and steal other developers working code all the time.