Did emulators ruin everything?

True. But, as a gamer that started with the N64 I felt robbed when I found out there was emulators for almost every game I played on my N64 when I was 6.mrgz940

Is this a joke?

The only nostalgic thing about hardware gaming, is the incredibly bad framerate (on N64 anyway) and controller.

Everything else is pretty much meh... graphics look archaic, and did i mention FPS?

No. Quite the opposite actually. They're godsend. Videogames are terribly shortlived medium. Books are eternal, movies too. Games meanwhile are tied to a specific system. Without emulators we would be loosing gaming history with each generation. It would be absolutely terrible. Imagine if all you could watch are movies made after 2005. All those classics lost forever. It would be true tragedy. Emulators save us from this terrible fate and allow for preservation of this medium.

I prefer playing on the actual console, but there's nothing wrong with playing a game on an emulator.

No. Quite the opposite actually. They're godsend. Videogames are terribly shortlived medium. Books are eternal, movies too. Games meanwhile are tied to a specific system. Without emulators we would be loosing gaming history with each generation. It would be absolutely terrible. Imagine if all you could watch are movies made after 2005. All those classics lost forever. It would be true tragedy. Emulators save us from this terrible fate and allow for preservation of this medium.

AdrianWerner

nothing wrong with emulators, if one wants to play games on the original hardware, he still can.

the question is what will happen in 10. 20 or even 30 years time? , most likely the vast majority of these consoles will not work anymore (alot were already thrown away), and in that case, emulators might be the only viable way to play those games.

As a vintage hardware collector, I personally prefer to steer clear of them for the reason's stated by the OP but the fact of the matter is it's a good thing that emulation and online cataloging of classic software exists; otherwise entire libraries of games would be buried with the relatively short lifespan of the console they were tied to.  If, like me, a good deal of the appeal of playing an old game lies in the touch, sounds and experience of the original hardware, avoid the emulators and point your browser to eBay.

No, MAME is awesome.

The feeling of playing Goldeneye and Banjo Kazooie on my N64 is not the same as playing on an emulator on a PC. The day I played on an emulator it felt as if I had received the date I would die. mrgz940

Er, then don't play them?

I like emulators but only for 80's systems; chiefly because ergonomics, size and load-times were unimportant back in the day.

Take my Amstrad CPC for example: It's huge, it needs a joystick (they're becoming less easy to come by) for more enjoyable gaming and when you do want to play something you have to wait 10mins+ before you can.

But with an emulator i don't have to worry about setting the thing up, whether my joystick will last, and can play the games almost immediately. Granted some require a bit of fiddling to replicate the exact experience but this in itself still takes less time than the loading on the actual system would.

I currently have every game i ever owned for the CPC on my PC and they take up 10mb. And it's lovely when i just want a quick-fix of 'Chuckie Egg' or 'Oh Mummy' to be playing within a minute.

For the 'hardware enthusiasts' - http://hyperkin.com/blog/2013/03/retron-5-details-revealed-from-the-midwest-gaming-classic/

I'm looking forward to trying one out :) 

Emulators offer people the chance to play games they otherwise could not play.  Square made quite a few RPG's during the SNES era such as Seiken Densetsu 3, Bahamut Lagoon, and Treasure Hunter G.  These games never came out in Western territories.  Emulators give people the chance to experience these titles. 

I would not have known about Namco's Tales series if I had not played Tales of Phantasia on an emulator.  I played the Super Famicom version of the game, and have liked the Tales franchise ever since.  If you are able to actually purchase a title, then by all means do so.  Emulators do not ruiin anything.  Gaming cannot be ruined as a whole, but an experience can be ruined for the individual. 

i think that to use original machines is the unique way to appreciate games

No. Quite the opposite actually. They're godsend. Videogames are terribly shortlived medium. Books are eternal, movies too. Games meanwhile are tied to a specific system. Without emulators we would be loosing gaming history with each generation. It would be absolutely terrible. Imagine if all you could watch are movies made after 2005. All those classics lost forever. It would be true tragedy. Emulators save us from this terrible fate and allow for preservation of this medium.

AdrianWerner

This forum is pointless--I mean, who complains about free??? Sure, Good luck finding an original gameboy and playing older than dirt games. You should be thankful for emulators. If you think they ruin your experience, don't play them. In the meantime, have fun hunting down all that ancient hardware :p

My 8,000 game MAME cabinet would disagree.

-Byshop

It gives PC gamers the chance to play some games on the N64 without the need of buying an expensive retro console.

No, they made old console and arcade games better.

Emulated games look and run better and there are various graphics mods and filters and even online play available for them.

This is not possible on the original console hardware.

While I understand there are purists that only want to play on original hardware, I personally use almost only emulation for old games since quite a while now. (altho I own several old systems)

I have mixed feelings about emulation, but mostly I could care less if people emulate games. Not everyone can afford the original hardware and software to play a specific game. 

emulators are important to gaming for the preservation of gaming history. some day, all of these hardwares are going to die, and its good that the emulators are present so incase a functioning super nes is rare, then those games will not be lost

emulators are important to gaming for the preservation of gaming history. some day, all of these hardwares are going to die, and its good that the emulators are present so incase a functioning super nes is rare, then those games will not be lost

jsmoke03

There are some shady lines though. The idea for emulation is that legally you're allowed to do it as long as you owned the original games - so you're effectively playing a 'backup', otherwise it's just piracy.

But from my point of view, why would anyone spend not-inconsiderable amounts of money for a decent-condition NES or Master System just so they can see what old console games were like? I might want to see what some of the CPC games i didn't have are like; games that are nigh-on impossible to find nowadays. Technically that's still piracy even though the games are 30 years old and on a defunct system.

Then again, it's good for Original Hardware collectors, because while emulation exists it means that random folk aren't going to be buying games on a whim that may or may not be sought-after by collectors.

-

Also as stated above; most modern consoles have an expiry date and it gives peace of mind to know that if my remaining two PS2's die, i'll still be able to play my games through emulators on a PC.

(though not yet as you still need a serious-capability PC for PS2 emulation)

[QUOTE="jsmoke03"]

emulators are important to gaming for the preservation of gaming history. some day, all of these hardwares are going to die, and its good that the emulators are present so incase a functioning super nes is rare, then those games will not be lost

BarbaricAvatar

There are some shady lines though. The idea for emulation is that legally you're allowed to do it as long as you owned the original games - so you're effectively playing a 'backup', otherwise it's just piracy.

But from my point of view, why would anyone spend not-inconsiderable amounts of money for a decent-condition NES or Master System just so they can see what old console games were like? I might want to see what some of the CPC games i didn't have are like; games that are nigh-on impossible to find nowadays. Technically that's still piracy even though the games are 30 years old and on a defunct system.

Then again, it's good for Original Hardware collectors, because while emulation exists it means that random folk aren't going to be buying games on a whim that may or may not be sought-after by collectors.

-

Also as stated above; most modern consoles have an expiry date and it gives peace of mind to know that if my remaining two PS2's die, i'll still be able to play my games through emulators on a PC.

(though not yet as you still need a serious-capability PC for PS2 emulation)

I own rare copies of Biohazard games, i emulate Biohazard NGC games due to my GCN not being able to play them, otherwise, my PS2 games look far superior on PCSX2, the ones that will not work properly due to PCSX2 not being a 100% win all the time, i fire it up on the PS2.

I have no issue with emulators

I have a ton of retro consoles and I pefer to play the games how they were released and I do not like using emulators as it does not feel the same IMO. However people who do not have old consoles Emulators are fine.

[QUOTE="jsmoke03"]

emulators are important to gaming for the preservation of gaming history. some day, all of these hardwares are going to die, and its good that the emulators are present so incase a functioning super nes is rare, then those games will not be lost

BarbaricAvatar

There are some shady lines though. The idea for emulation is that legally you're allowed to do it as long as you owned the original games - so you're effectively playing a 'backup', otherwise it's just piracy.

But from my point of view, why would anyone spend not-inconsiderable amounts of money for a decent-condition NES or Master System just so they can see what old console games were like? I might want to see what some of the CPC games i didn't have are like; games that are nigh-on impossible to find nowadays. Technically that's still piracy even though the games are 30 years old and on a defunct system.

Then again, it's good for Original Hardware collectors, because while emulation exists it means that random folk aren't going to be buying games on a whim that may or may not be sought-after by collectors.

-

Also as stated above; most modern consoles have an expiry date and it gives peace of mind to know that if my remaining two PS2's die, i'll still be able to play my games through emulators on a PC.

(though not yet as you still need a serious-capability PC for PS2 emulation)

Not true, piracy protection is only valid for a certain number of years. There are tons of games that you can legally play for free on emulators without the original copy. As for systems that require certain bios or other data to boot up, like NG, PSX, 3D), Saturn, PS2, Xbox, DC, etc. they change it so that, even if you own.owned the original games, you can use an emulator to play them, but you have to dump your own bios/etc from your own system and not the ones provided in the internet. I believe 30 people were arrested in 2011 from bios websites that were undercover.Jakandsigz

All this means is that if you own something legitmately and it's old enough, then you aren't breaking the law by figuring out how to crack it/make it work on an emulator/etc. It does -not- mean that after X number of years you are allowed to download certain ROMs because they are now "up for grabs". You are still legally required to own anything you want to play on emulator.

-Byshop

no, you dont have to play on an emulator if you dont want to