Collecting AND emulation

[lucifershalo]

With modern TVs and their lacks of old fashioned inputs

 

I am beginning more and more to go towards a strange path

still collecting games, homebrews but playing them by emulating the games on PC or on WII

 

What do you think?

AM I the only one going that way?

 

 

[Keatah]

Many people are against emulation, saying its just not the same - citing such things as 100% accuracy, CRT visual appearance and characteristics, lag, ambiance, originality, and all that stuff and more.

 

However I'm a huge proponent of emulation; despite losing respect and being looked down upon for harboring strong positive views on it.. Emulation is elegant and convenient. It has a lot of advantages like reliability and durability and immunity to failure and decay.

 

I do similar with my Apple II paraphernalia. I have all sorts of original items and this and that. I use my real hardware maybe 10% of the time. The other 90% is on emulation.

 

 

EDIT:ADDED

Emulation gets me almost all the way there regarding recreating the original experience, especially when you tweak the settings to near-perfection. But to make up for minor shortcomings it brings genuine improvements to the table above and beyond what I just mentioned above. You get new functionality. You get savestates, pause, instant access, usability on the latest display devices. You get extraordinary repeatability regarding visual output, no constant fiddling with color and geometry settings. And you have access to debuggers, cheats, and variable framerates and clockspeeds. With minimal outlay of $$$ you can wire in all kinds of controllers. You even get simulations of hardware you could only dream about when you were a kid but couldn't afford then and can't find today. And finally you save a ton of space and can bring practically the whole spectrum of classic/retro gaming and computing into any environment.

 

Many emulators are even being worked on today, and they continue to get better and better. Many developers of emulators are also active on forums such as here. And you can discuss issues and request features and all that other good stuff.

Edited May 26, 2015 by Keatah

[omegadot]

I have a mix myself. I like having the original available but emulation offers flexibility and requires 0 other monetary investment so why not.

[MrMaddog]

That's no surprise... I have all these boxed up games and no working systems or CRT to play them on. Not to mention it's impoosible to find anything in used game stores or even flea markets not made for Nintendo or Sega systems.

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

I have gone the emulation route the last couple of years. I have all the console emulators and all the roms that go with it including Mame and all the handhelds. Yes it's not 100% authentic and doesn't feel like going the original way on how it feels and plays by all tge purists. But I find it convenient, don't have to spend tons of $ on carts, and a broken console to go with it. I have a hardmodded xbox with the executer 3 chip all saved on a 500 gb hard drive. I do like to play my authentic games on my consoles, but when I don't feel like hooking something up I turn to the xbox.

[CatPix]

I do both, because I like the original hardware and games, but as retro prices goes up, emulation is convenient and cheap.

I tend to go in a middle way myself : having the original console and a multicart/flashcart.

 

I do most emulation on a PSP : it have the advantage of having good controls, is portable, but alos have a video/component output for playing on a TV.

PC emulation is sometime a MESS

[Nutsy Doodleheimer]

I also have a mame (mame4droid), NES/Famicom (John NES), SNES (Super Retro 16), Genesis/Master System, and TG-16 emulators built in my phone and use the wiimote app to bluetooth it and change the inputs to map the controllers. And use the wii classic controllet for the SNES/Super Famicom games.

[+GoldenWheels]

Yeah, both. I like to collect games physically and play on original hardware (and also very much enjoy using original controllers).

 

But I also have a modded xbox which runs all the same games plus some crazy number more with MAME/coinops etc. Super handy for when you want to cheat (savestates/codes) and see the end of games you might never see otherwise. And of course it looks a lot better (massaged) on a 120 inch screen than my actual consoles.

[BydoEmpire]

 

 

Many people are against emulation, saying its just not the same - citing such things as 100% accuracy, CRT visual appearance and characteristics, lag, ambiance, originality, and all that stuff and more.

I don't think "against" is the right word. I can't speak for others, but I'm not against emulation, and I don't think many people really are. I just don't enjoy it much because it isn't as fun for all those reasons you listed (and others). That doesn't make it bad or not useful, and I completely understand why some people spend a lot of time with it. There are a lot of advantages. But it's certainly not my preferred way of playing classic games.

 

That said, I've really enjoyed the latest Inty & CV Flashback units, so I guess I'm on board after all... my world is rocked!!!! Lol.

[SS]

I am a big fan of emulation and I have been since the late 1990s. I fell out of the emulation scene for a few years but that's only because I fell out of the classic gaming scene for the same time. For me, classic console gaming and emulation go hand in hand. I don't own my Master System collection any more, so I am quite happy to get an occasional SMS fix emulated on my Dreamcast. Heck, I bet that I play the Dreamcast port of Atari800Win every bit as much as I fire up my actual 800XL. Not to mention MAME. There's no way that I could afford either the money or space for even one arcade cabinet, let alone a hundred of them. But I can fire up MAME on my laptop and connect it via HDMI to my big living room TV and play away a virtual bag full of quarters from the comfort of my sofa. What's not to love?

 

If I have one small complaint about emulation, it would only be that sometimes a PC joypad makes for a slightly less than perfect substitute for the original console controller. I found my old Microsoft Sidewinder gameport pad to be a great jack-of-all-trades but it is simply not compatible with modern versions of Windows (let alone no longer even having a gameport option on my new PC). The new Logitec gamepad that I have does an adequate but not perfect job of being a generic stand-in for various console controllers. This really is a small complaint though.

[Keatah]

I believe most complaints about emulators are minor points. If or when there are major complaints, it typically involves a gross failure - like xyz game totally not working or seriously corrupted.

 

I recently played Tempest at 257 the other day and immediately noticed the slightly washed-out overbrightened colors. Among other subtle things that makes an arcade an arcade, they didn't have 80's music going.

 

But back at home I get to enjoy Tempest as it should be - with the bight high-contrast and vivid colors that is the very definition of "electric rainbow". And I could select from any and all 80's music. The only other times I recall seeing the Tempest playfield rendered properly were back in the day on factory new machines.

Edited May 29, 2015 by Keatah

[Cynicaster]

 

 

I believe most complaints about emulators are minor points.

 

Usually minor points, yes, and sometimes even completely imaginary ones at that. I don't have it set up anymore, but I used to have an emulation computer hooked up to a CRT TV via S-video. Plug real controllers into that box using readily available adapters and you've got a very authentic experience.

 

Some people just aren't satisfied unless they can see the old black plastic box in front of them, and emulation will never solve that problem.

[SuperDork3000]

I do both. I play emulators mostly to try games out and if I end up liking them I'll purchase the real thing. I'll also collect for consoles that don't emulate well, like the Atari Jaguar.

 

I do prefer playing on original hardware whenever possible due to 100% compatibility and ease of use. I want to pick up one of those Everdrives next, those seem like best option right now.

[+KeeperofLindblum]

Seems like a majority of people here use a mixture of emulation and real hardware.
I'd say that I'm a huge mixture of the two, but more recently I've pushed towards the real hardware versus emulation.
Problem with that is I don't really need to spend money considering how easy (and cheap) it is to emulate...
On top of that the use of RetroArch + an Xbox 360 controller makes emulation a breeze and all the configurations available is pretty awesome.
I'd recommend that particular combo to anybody!

[TheObscureGamer]

I prefer the real legit deal but I have no problem emulating consoles and handhelds.If I'm on the go and wanna play some Super Mario bros 3. or some Crash Team Racing what do I do, wait until I go home?. no i'm going to emulate on whatever I can at the moment that can emulate the game which is usually my vita. People hate on the vita but it has a lot of good RPG's and the vita is the best handheld for emulation. You can play PSP and PS1 games as well as Vita games plus countless of retro PC and consoles games(over 40) from the Odyssey and MSX to Neogeo and CPS1 games with that sexy screen and 2 thumbsticks. So i prefer real hardware but emulation is just as good honestly.

Edited May 30, 2015 by TheObscureGamer

[omegadot]

One of the areas I prefer to emulate is classic JRPGs. Without save states I effectively can't play them. It's often I can only carve out a little bit of time to play and hoping that a save point comes up just leads to frustration. Incidentally these are also the games I love the most and want to collect, so. Meh.