Emulators: Do you use them, and if you do, why?

[BorgyDudeMan]

Well, I guess this is something that could cause a debate around here...

So as the thread's title says so, this thread asks if whether or not you have played a game using emulation software, despite knowing/not knowing that doing so is illegal.

In my case, I use emulation software to play my Gameboy/DS games (all of which were Pokemon games) because we don't have enough money to buy a console or any cartridges....

 

[ReturnofMCH]

I use them only for fanslations, hacks, or games that I can't afford (which would be saying something as I own cartridge versions of every pokemon gen and mainline game)
I also use them for randomisers like fire emblem sacred stones or pokemon black 2.

 

[Zkat]

I don't use emulators very often and I've pretty much only used them for games that I would need an emulator for because they were never officially released here, like the older Fire Emblem games and Mother 3 (which I still need to actually play).

 

[Harryghost]

Yup, I have. I use them to play Emerald, Platinum and White 2 on my laptop. Though I did not know that these were illegal back when I first played Emerald. Even now that I know, I have no qualms. Most of the games and the consoles cost just too much in India, for me to afford, so yeah, guess I had/have no other option.

 

[Cookies and Creme]

I usually use them because I can't buy the console in question, either because it's outdated or because it's really expensive (though I still bought my own 3DS). My first Pokemon game was actually Emerald on GBA4iOS, back when that was a thing. Now, I try to play as "legally" as I can.

 

[Stratelier]

I have used a variety of emulators myself -- but most just don't stick around. I set it up, play a game or two for a few days, then lose interest and move on. Generally it's of games/hardware that I do physically have, but which are not set up (and would also be a pain to go find for setting up). Or sometimes the game is designed too much like a quarter-muncher and it's impossible for me to progress without, y'know, save states. (I generally save-state at places where you'd expect a game to give you a checkpoint anyway; the rest is legit. And my mom has an infamous anecdote of what can happen if you save in the wrong place at the wrong time...)

I played Illusion of Gaia on an emulator -- because back in the day, I knew nothing about it other than it was on my mom's personal banlist. And not for a good reason ... but having played it I can safely say I didn't miss much; for a successor to Soul Blazer (which I did play back in the day and liked quite a bit) I didn't enjoy the story (I just generally dislike "fictitious real world" as a setting, comparable to how I generally dislike postnuclear settings), and although it wasn't as linear as FF13 I absolutely couldn't STAND the lack of ability to freely roam and explore at your own pace (especially as compared to Soul Blazer).

I've also thoroughly played Seiken Densetsu 3 via emulator -- yup, the one entry in the series that (still) does not have any English localization.

I played a little of Pokemon Red on a GB emulator (which could even emulate link functionality between two carts), but lost interest after about two weeks and returned to my physical copies of Gen 1 and 2.

All of these are prior to YouTube, by the way. It's really convenient that if you type the name of a game into YT, chances are somebody's uploaded a LP.

 

[dig]

I emulate rom hacks. I don't think I've ever bothered emulating a game I actually own.

 

[Aulos]

I do not use emulators. I do not feel morally right doing so. I do not believe in playing games outside of the format(s) for which they have been legally released for. Guess I'm old-fashioned, but that's the way I was raised, and I'm sticking with it.

 

[King Robert]

Not since the Wii.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

I have rotten luck with cheap laptops and haven't had a desktop since I was 14, and I'm not computer savvy at all, so I don't even know the places to go to get an emulator. I've never used one. I own enough old game consoles and ports/remakes are common enough that I can usually get my hands on most games I want to play. I wouldn't be opposed to using an emulator, I just don't feel like bothering.

 

[FroyoDragon]

Surprisingly, not really.

Unless you count Virtual Console, in which case yeah, I do =P but I get that's not the point of the question.

I prefer using the actual hardware, to get the closest experience to the intended, so most emulators are uninteresting to me either way.

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

Ooh, this is going to be a long one.

The idea of running a game on something other than the original hardware has always fascinated me, especially on the more technical side of things. It takes a massive amount of programming skills, knowledge of the target hardware, and sheer dedication to build an emulator... especially one that claims to be "cycle-accurate", or to put it simply: a perfect replica of the original hardware's behavior down to the absolute smallest details. And although the computers we have today are hilariously fast compared to the likes of, say, the SNES, it still takes a relatively powerful PC to run a cycle-accurate simulation of it (and you can forget about it for even a PS1- or N64-level system). For the curious, this article gives a pretty good impression of what it takes to build a truly accurate emulator, as well as why they're so interesting from a programming and computing standpoint.

As for whether or not I've actually played games on an emulator before, the answer is not until very recently. Before that, I mostly played around with public domain ROMs and tech demos covering everything from the NES to the N64, which were especially exciting for me to see because they often pulled off some seriously fancy graphical tricks and generally just showed exactly what those old consoles were really capable of when you pushed them hard enough. Nowadays, I've used an emulator for some old SEGA games from the Mega Drive/Genesis era that I purchased from Steam, and in those cases I used an external emulator as opposed to the included one because the latter was reported to be inaccurate and bug-ridden (and I'm very serious about the former when it comes to emulation that I pay for).

As far as my personal stance on emulators goes: I don't think that there's anything wrong with emulators themselves, and in fact, I think it's a good thing that they exist. Besides the fact that they're just cool, they're also a great way to help document and preserve video game history, because there's going to be time where all of the 30+ year old consoles and cartridges that are out there are just going to stop working, and at that point, all but the most famous games will only exist as IP catalogs and files hidden deep in the computers of random office buildings somewhere rather than as games that people can actually play, as they should be. And those games should be playable on emulators that approximate the behavior and feel of the original consoles as closely as possible, not just for preservation, but because there's really no reason to aim for anything less than that in general.

That said, I definitely don't believe in using emulators as a way to play games "for free" when legitimate ways to play those games are readily available (like Nintendo's Virtual Console service). And I do feel that the piracy scene has somewhat tainted the reputation of emulators due the latter's obvious usefulness for playing illegally downloaded games, which is of course something that video game companies very publicly disapprove of. But how do I feel about using emulators to play games that don't have an official re-release available, or were never released in a certain region at all? From a "moral" standpoint, I think that I would personally feel somewhat uncomfortable for at least a little while about playing a copy on an emulator on an emotional level, but on an intellectual level, I don't think that I would have any real problem with that at all. And really, if it weren't for people using emulators to run illegally downloaded games from consoles they don't own, would we ever have had a ROM hack scene or an translation scene for old games as large as they are now, assuming that we would ever have them at all? And would some of the more obscure games from the past ever have gotten exposure for new generations of gamers to enjoy, or would they have remained forgotten forever?

As far as the overall "moral" argument for emulators goes, it's a double-edged sword, I think... it all depends on what you actually use them for. Are you using them as a programming challenge or to help accurately preserve old consoles and games? Are you using them to play games that you would have otherwise never been able to play legitimately? Are you using them to add something new or improved to something that was once old or flawed? Or are you using them to simply play games for free instead of actually buying them? The first three sound like perfectly decent moral reasons to use emulators... not so much with the latter, though. That said, the legal question of emulation is still a highly controversial matter and will likely remain so for quite some time, regardless of how strong or questionable the moral arguments may be. But personally, I do hope that the legal side of emulation catches up with the moral side one day... we'll see.

 

[henrymidfields]

I used to play on the Emulator for the GBA games, including FE Sacred Stones and the remake version for Earthbound. Now, however, I'd rather buy the real thing if I can. Although I may have to get an emulator for the SNES/SFC Fire Emblem games, as they are not only on a console no longer widely available, but also only available in Japan.

 

[Nero the Giant Whiscash]

I don't know if this classifies as emulation in the truest extent but I do use stuff like the ever drive flash cart on my Genesis largely because it has become to burdensome to unpack my 200 + cartridge collection for that platform and the fact constantly removing and placing in cartridges over the years is starting to damage the pins of the connectors on both the system and cartridges themselves thus allowing me to leave one cartridge in there at all times and thus minimize anymore damage


PS i also have a similar device for my snes as well for the same reason AND NO I'M NOT ADVOCATING PIRACY HERE

Also since were talking about emulators here one of my friends owns and uses a retron 5 for his retro cartridge collection of NES, Famicom, SNES, Super Famicom, Genesis, Mega Drive, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance game .
Interestingly enough because the console is basically a glorified emulator as it uses android as the base OS and android emulators for the games, when you place a cartridge placed into cartridge slot it dumps the rom temporarily on the internal memory for use by those emulators

 

[Steel_Justice]

I use them to play games when physical copies and the required hardware expire so I can continue enjoying them. Or start playing them if I didn't get to play/finish them in my childhood like Final Fantasy 6. Also to play games that were before my time.

 

[zakisrage]

Do ROMs count as emulators? I've used ROMs for older games, as well as ROMs that were fan translations of Japanese-only games.

 

[Stratelier]

Do ROMs count as emulators? I've used ROMs for older games, as well as ROMs that were fan translations of Japanese-only games.

Yes and no? "ROMs" refers to the game files themselves, not the emulator used to play it. As in, you don't find many emulators capable of playing the original cartridges, nor do you find much hardware capable of playing arbitrary ROM files....

 

[Chibster]

I've used them mainly to play games that haven't been released officially in the U.S (MOTHER 3, EarthBound Zero at the time, older FE etc.) There have been some times when I've used them to play older games that I couldn't purchase at the time, like Chrono Trigger or NES games.