Reddit mentions of Phantasy Star Online, Episode I & II

If you have a PC, you can play plenty of PlayStation 1 games legally without needing the system itself -- most PSX emulators these days have their own 'replacement BIOS' code and don't need an official Sony BIOS file any more (which is technically illegal to download and difficult to dump yourself), and can play the original commercial games straight from a real PSX disc in the computer's CD/DVD drive, so there's no pirating involved. I believe most PS2 emulators still need a BIOS though, since the PS2 code is much more complex and therefore hard to make a replacement for...

Other than that, I'd definitely recommend getting an original Wii, preferably one of the older models that were made with GameCube controller and memory card ports. The Wii itself had a ton of garbage games released for it (though there are a few awesome titles, too, if you're willing to wade through the crap), but it has full backwards compatibility with GameCube games and also has the Virtual Console (I think you can still connect to VC with the original Wii, but haven't done so myself. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please). And even if you don't want to pirate, there are other benefits to softmodding a Wii (which is extremely easy to do, by the way) -- there are plenty of legal homebrew games/utilities for it available on WiiBrew (I recommend POWDER, OpenTyrian, and the WiiMC media player), and if you use an unofficial GameCube loader called Devolution to run your official GC discs, it can mimic a GameCube Broadband Adapter to connect games like Phantasy Star Online to a private server such as Sylverant or SchtServ.



NOTE: I am not a lawyer, but know that emulators themselves are legal as long as they contain no copyrighted code, as deemed by the case of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. v. Bleem, LLC.

http://www.amazon.com/Phantasy-Star-Online-Episode-II-GameCube/dp/B00005RCR0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344549124&sr=8-1&keywords=phantasy+star+online

Currently at $199 for a new copy on Amazon.
I loved this game as a HS student playing with my friends at their house, but I literally can't afford it now.

No, not really, I don't have much for the systems your looking for. I have eternal darkness (but I have to check if it works, I may have a duplicate of sonic adventure 2 battle I could trade (I have to look), I also have this game in great shape: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/ol/B00005RCR0?c=u
But, I'm going to sleep now so I will get back to you tomorrow if you have any further interest.

You can buy it here!

It was one of my favorite games on my 'cube. I regret getting rid of it all the time.