What is your opinion on emulators?

[Lotus Victoria]

Currently I'm almost finishing Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. I'm 4 hours in and got almost all of the upgrades. Sad thing is - I'm playing it on an emulator, Visual Boy Advance, because I don't have a GBA (and it's hard to find one here where I live). Do you use emulators too?

Do you think that using them is wrong?

[Archimand]

for old stuff no, for corrent games yes

[davegrant]

Last year I downloaded NES emulator and played Contra I can't believe that I could finish this game without saving when I was old! But it's not the same on PC. I loved these old controllers, cartridges etc..

[Tech614]

If it's a game you can realistically obtain then yes I think it's wrong(unless you already own said game and are taking advantage of emulation for higher resolution etc).

If it's a game you can't realistically obtain then who cares? You're not stealing something a publisher currently isn't selling. Not like Nintendo or Sega are making the hundreds of dollars on those rare carts being sold on ebay.

[Eleccybubb]

Prefer playing on original systems personally but if people wanna use them then go for it. Nothing against them.

[Deleted]

Well I threw away my Sega Mega Drive like a decade and a half ago, and I'm not going to go find a new one, so I'm absolutely using an emulator to play stuff like Phantasy Star III.

[Eleccybubb]

Well I threw away my Sega Mega Drive like a decade and a half ago, and I'm not going to go find a new one, so I'm absolutely using an emulator to play stuff like Phantasy Star III.

Mega Drives are quite common and cheap nowadays. Picked up one from a flea market a while back for £10. Also good choice of game

[Tech614]

Well I threw away my Sega Mega Drive like a decade and a half ago, and I'm not going to go find a new one, so I'm absolutely using an emulator to play stuff like Phantasy Star III.

Or you could actually buy the game since it is realistically obtainable and cheap at that. http://store.steampowered.com/app/211204/

[Mirishka]

I play older games on things like the Wii U's Virtual Console, but I have used emulators for stuff that isn't available for purchase anymore. They're pretty fun, and sometimes they have neat options to smooth out the graphics, etc.

- - - Updated - - -

Or you could actually buy the game since it is realistically obtainable and cheap at that. http://store.steampowered.com/app/211204/

I bought all those old Sega games in a big Steam sale! So much fun.

[Deleted]

I already paid money for Phantasy Star III so I have no qualms about not buying for a second time, especially since out of 2 euros and change, ain't nobody making any money. Besides which, abandonware is fair game, absolutely. However, wasn't aware it was on Steam, so I might actually get it there. Having said that, it's still an emulated game even on Steam, so my point, which was that I'm not going to go find a Mega Drive to play it on, stands.

[StrawberryZebra]

I like the idea of emulators, they offer a means by which we can preserve older games for newer generations without the need to also keep the hardware required to run them in working condition long after it's become practical to do so. Consoles eventually get discontinued by their manufacturers, but Emulating it at least keeps the games playable. As we're seeing with the new Mini NES, companies are well aware that people want to play their back catalogue of games so hopefully we'll be seeing more steps to keep some of those old games we loved still playable, even if it's only Emulated on another piece of hardware. They might never recapture that feeling of playing them on Arcade machines, but it's a lot better than losing the game forever.

Mega Drives are quite common and cheap nowadays. Picked up one from a flea market a while back for £10. Also good choice of game

It's funny you should mention this, since Saga are also releasing a new version of the Mega Drive with 80 built in games, wireless controlers and the ability to play all our old Mega Drive carts.. In the UK I've seen them for as little as £40 from Argos, which is a price you really can't go wrong with imo - I've even got a couple wrapped up as Christmas pressies already .

[Eleccybubb]

I like the idea of emulators, they offer a means by which we can preserve older games for newer generations without the need to also keep the hardware required to run them in working condition long after it's become practical to do so. Consoles eventually get discontinued by their manufacturers, but Emulating it at least keeps the games playable. As we're seeing with the new Mini NES, companies are well aware that people want to play their back catalogue of games so hopefully we'll be seeing more steps to keep some of those old games we loved still playable, even if it's only Emulated on another piece of hardware. They might never recapture that feeling of playing them on Arcade machines, but it's a lot better than loing the game forever.



It's funny you should mention this, since Saga are also releasing a new version of the Mega Drive with 80 built in games, Wireless Controllers and the ability to play old Mega Drive games on it. In the UK I've seen them for as little as £40 from Argos, which is a price you really can't go wrong with imo - I've even got a couple wrapped up as Christmas pressies already .

I like those re releases means people who want to play them but don't want to fork out for all the games can do because 80 games especially uncommon isn't cheap. However I won't pick em up since like I said I own and correct the original stuff.

[Logwyn]

Last year I downloaded NES emulator and played Contra I can't believe that I could finish this game without saving when I was old! But it's not the same on PC. I loved these old controllers, cartridges etc..

Many emulators should allow for you to save the state of the game and start back where you started. I did this on the NES emulator for a number of games you couldn't save on. It was awesome.


Emulators are awesome. When have multiple Virtual boxes available to play any sort of game or even run older Operating systems to use other programs and play old DOS games on your PC its fun times!!

[davegrant]

Many emulators should allow for you to save the state of the game and start back where you started. I did this on the NES emulator for a number of games you couldn't save on. It was awesome.

Yeah, sure. This time I also was saving game and finished it without problems. But you know old times when you had to / loved to play whole game and starting game over and over again

[Deleted]

Since i was a rather poor guy they enabled me to play all GBA/DS games when i couldn't afford a console+games.

So i'm a fan of them.

Nowadays i don't use them anymore since i can actually afford things; but yes, more power to them.

[dope_danny]

There are plenty of games on older systems that cost hundreds of dollars to purchase if you can even find a copy. not just NES stuff but PS2 era too. These games are not in print and not commercially available and in many cases the producers are dead. For person use theres no problem when its often the only way to experience a game at all. Not like you are selling sketch repro carts

[Poppincaps]

The way I see it is even if you went out and bought the game and system, none of that money would go to the original developers. So, I don't really think it's all that morally wrong.

Personally, I use emulators even if I own the game myself, because it's more convenient that digging out my old system and dusting off my games.

[Linri]

i have the SNES emulator, the only one i own
its really fun, especially cause my real SNES is in storage as i dont have room for it in my current place, too many games

[lawow74]

Something has to preserve the legacy of these games, since the physical hardware will age and decay given enough time. Emulators will see to it that all video games will endure for future generations to see the history of the genre. It's a tool, no more good or bad than any other tool. It's the person using it that makes it good or bad.

[Karamaru]

There are plenty of games on older systems that cost hundreds of dollars to purchase if you can even find a copy. not just NES stuff but PS2 era too. These games are not in print and not commercially available and in many cases the producers are dead. For person use theres no problem when its often the only way to experience a game at all. Not like you are selling sketch repro carts

Pretty much this some good game are so hard to get and are out of print you would never be able to play them otherwise as well some people translate roms to english so that a western audience can enjoy and also fix bugs that the devs themselves never fixed cant really update a cart or a SNES.

Also for really niche games that would have never seen the light of day for example we only got Earthbound beginnings thanks to a a lost prototype rom that slipped trough the cracks or small studios popping up that are now translating games since they see there is an market for such games.