Games that are better on emulators as opposed to real hardware.

[Keatah]

It has been a VERY long road, and emulation has really came a long way, and I have to admit, I am at the point where I PREFER emulation over the real thing.

Really great post all-around. But I wanted to expand briefly on this one snippet a bit.

A very long road indeed.

Back in the 70's and early 80's I always wondered when emulation would get off the ground in earnest. It sort of felt like sprinkling pepper on your meal. Every year - another shake. You keep shaking and watching it come out. And testing the new releases. And then all of a sudden you almost have too much and abruptly stop. This "too-much-pepper" is the tipping point of emulation's evolution where one can say, "Yessss! This is a genuine viable alternative to the physical thing and it makes me happy."

One can stop digging for bugs and problems and missing features. Now.. NOW! You can really enjoy the games and software for real.

I think we're finally coming to that point as more and more emulators get rounded out and polished up and the developers switch into more of a maintenance mode rather than wrestling with compatibility and deciding on the architecture and flowcharting of how it all works. I expect new features will be done for fun and not for functional necessity. I think we'll be there inside 10 years.

I'm glad to have been there to see the rise of the home computer, the evolution of the videogame, all the great home systems, and the birth and death of the arcade. I'm also happy to have seen emulation develop and mature. All the releases, the bug reports, the testing of new features, the nostalgia of playing games I thought I'd never ever ever see and hear again. It's been fantastic!

 

[DaytonaUSA]

I don't know, I'm torn on this. I don't mind using emulators, and in many ways they have their advantages (higher resolution, save states, etc). But I can't say I've ever "preferred" to play any game that way.

 

Light games with a mouse are boring. As are single stick arcade shooters. The Lost World and Star Wars Arcade for instance are both horrible in emulation, as the challenge is all but gone.

 

I think the best time for emulation is with a portable. Having multiple systems in your hands on the go has to be the best thing about emulation I can think of. And in that situation, I can think of countless games I prefer in that regards.

 

However, while I've tried over and over to "switch", I just can't. I have usb controllers that look and feel like those from the real systems. I just can't get over the feel of sitting at a PC versus on a couch. Playing through loading a rom vs pushing in a cart. Games seem to lose their value when I just have a mega list of them to scroll through. Where as if I buy a used cart or disc, I feel proud to own it and display it on my entertainment cabinet.

 

Still, like I said, playing these on a JXD s7800b while on the cough while the wife watches cable on the TV I use for games is a life saver. Heck, if the virtual console was better on the Wii U, I'd be happy with the gamepad doing the same thing. That's honestly the only reason why I've turned to emulation and the JXD. Nintendo's laziness.

[retrorussell]

I seemed to run a lot faster in Track & Field with my joypad's buttons than with the arcade controls.

[Petran79]

Regarding arcade ports on computers and consoles, I'd prefer any MAME emulated version over the original port. There are exceptions of course, but very few. Eg Primal Rage on Midway Arcade Classics on PC is better than in MAME, due to decryption issues

 

But I kinda miss the old arcade game monitors. Every arcade game had its unique color balance,refresh rate and temperature, which were engraved in my memory. Emulators destroy that feeling, since all games look the same on the same monitor.

That feeling cant be replicated. Every arcade machine was different, even if it featured the same game. Cant say the same for computers and consoles.

Edited October 12, 2014 by Petran79

[HardZero]

Most Game Gear games are better emulated. Don't have the problem of the slightly terrible screen, terrible battery, etc. No slowdown either. Any game with slowdown on any system is so much better on emulators. Most old 8bit computer stuff is great emulated. Faster load times over floppy or cart.

[Rex Dart]

Most Game Gear games are better emulated. Don't have the problem of the slightly terrible screen, terrible battery, etc.

 

Right... anything with an old pale, dim, ghosty, or washed-out crap screen like the Game Gear, Game Boy, or Lynx.

[NE146]

Oh for me, any NES/SMS/SNES/Genesis RPG is almost always better via emulation. 1, You can save any time. and 2. You can FAST FORWARD through battles. and 3.. ummm I can play it on the can using a PSP or DS.

 

This makes it infinitely more enjoyable in my opinion. For example, I would have never ever replayed Dragon Warrior 1, or SMS Phantasy Star today (despite beating both back in the day). But being able to play them and just zip through the grinding battles and saving on a whim made them very enjoyable even with limited play time. I even maxed out my level in Dragon Warrior to 30.. something I didn't do when it came out.

Edited October 14, 2014 by NE146

[christo930]

One of the joys of emulation is when you have a handheld device that can run emulators. I have a GP32 and GP2X, both of which can run emulators for most 8 bit systems pretty well all the way up to the GBA. It allows you to play the games in places you couldn't otherwise play them, they have save slots and pausing ability, even if that's just hitting a hotkey to get into the config settings which auto-pauses the game and removes clutter because you can also hook this to a TV. The downside is the LCD screen. The old games simply weren't built to be played on LCD screens and so it tends to make the graphics look worse because the detail of the screen is so well defined.

 

 

It's also problematic when the original screen is smaller, like the GB, GBC, GBA, LYNX, SMS and a few others. I think the native resolution of the screen is 320x240, so if you run GB games at native resolution, it's 1/2 the screen and the games don't look entirely 'right' when scaled even with the hardware scaling. Gamepark was also not known for excellent controllers. Only the GP2X Wiz had a proper D pad and an outstanding OLED screen though because of orientation it could create tearing at high speed scrolling games, though the GP32 had a good controller. The GP2X F200 had a great controller for 4 way games, but I've heard that diagonal movements weren't that easy. The last machine they made was the Caanoo who's controller I hear is pretty good for an analog controller.

 

A lot of C64 games are better on emulators because you can reassign the joystick. Like I don't like platform games where jump is "up", so I can change the joystick up to 'left option' (right next to left CTRL), which make games like Rainbow Islands much better to play. Same thing with Amiga, the ability to use remapping makes a lot of games much better to play. Also, there aren't as many drawbacks to Amiga/ST games because they were originally being played on monitors that aren't that far from a VGA monitor and so the graphics are closer to the original.

 

Overall though, playing games on the original hardware is almost always best for most game systems, particularly with sound. I find a lot of the old games don't sound the same on emulators as they do on the original hardware.

Edited October 20, 2014 by christo930

[christo930]

 

I don't know, I'm torn on this. I don't mind using emulators, and in many ways they have their advantages (higher resolution, save states, etc). But I can't say I've ever "preferred" to play any game that way.

 

Light games with a mouse are boring. As are single stick arcade shooters. The Lost World and Star Wars Arcade for instance are both horrible in emulation, as the challenge is all but gone.

 

I think the best time for emulation is with a portable. Having multiple systems in your hands on the go has to be the best thing about emulation I can think of. And in that situation, I can think of countless games I prefer in that regards.

 

However, while I've tried over and over to "switch", I just can't. I have usb controllers that look and feel like those from the real systems. I just can't get over the feel of sitting at a PC versus on a couch. Playing through loading a rom vs pushing in a cart. Games seem to lose their value when I just have a mega list of them to scroll through. Where as if I buy a used cart or disc, I feel proud to own it and display it on my entertainment cabinet.

 

Still, like I said, playing these on a JXD s7800b while on the cough while the wife watches cable on the TV I use for games is a life saver. Heck, if the virtual console was better on the Wii U, I'd be happy with the gamepad doing the same thing. That's honestly the only reason why I've turned to emulation and the JXD. Nintendo's laziness.

 

 

Do you know where you can still get one of these JXD S7800b? I tried ordering one from DX, but it appeared that everything worked and then I got some notification that my purchase was never verified and it was IMPOSSIBLE to get any customer service. I would really LOVE one of these things. Also,what do you think of the screen? Is it as good as a kindlefire (original)? I would love to have a good reading device with game controlls on it. Barring the JXD, what's the next best thing in the same price range? I recall seeing a few competitors that seemed pretty good. One had a 5" screen instead of the 7 (which I would rather have for reading). I hope you can help.