Is it worth the cost for real over emulation?

[Forlorn Drifter]

This is just a simple question for your opinion on things. Looking at how my time is spent, and the fact that 90% of my free time nowadays is gaming, I want to dive deeper into the retro side, which I've been neglecting as the price has skyrocketed.

But... the price has still jumped. From my glances, it appears it has dropped a bit, although not as much as I would have hoped. Certain games are still astronomically high as another factor. As the creep pushes further up, I'm thinking I'll need to go on the hunt for Gamecube and N64 stuff...but on N64 stuff, I'm thinking emulating might be the option.

So, back to business. Out of these options, which do you prefer?
1. Emulate on PC or some form of set-top box
2. Emulate with real cartridges, ala Retron 5
3. Original hardware or die

I may update with more thoughts/questions at some point, such as systems that might make good emulation boxes if I lean that direction.

[Sarge]

Emulate until you can find a bargain. I'm not paying over $1000 to play Little Samson. I'd recommend a flash cart if you want more hardware purity, but even with them, I regularly emulate.

[Erik_Twice]

Some scrambled thoughts, Forlorn:

1) I think you can collect for cheap with some caveats:
- Cartridge only.
- Think about importing Japanese games. SNES games are very cheap there, compared to the US.
- Standout titles will cost as much as a brand new game, possibly a bit more.
- If you play and try to beat the games you get, you won't actually need to buy many games. I think many of us have fallen into the trap of buying games without actually playing them.

2) Will you use a CRT? Or play on a modern display? Either way, I think that if you are not playing on real hardware using a PC is the best option. It can run all emulators, reduces controller clutter and settings can be tweaked to display games correctly.

Its main drawback is that it will require more input on your behalf. It lets you do more at the cost of more work. But you can use a Wii or something like that in the meanwhile.

3) I would write down what you really, really want to play. Depending on your needs, different solulptions may become more or less appealing.

[dogman91]

I would say the answer is no... but that doesn't stop me from having twelve different consoles with RGB and component hooked up.

I vastly prefer the real thing, but overall emulation is "mostly" the same and you can save a lot of money that way.

I use flashcarts, so that's kind of an in-between with the best of both worlds.

There's of course inaccuracies and such with emulation, but I would say overall the games play just fine so if money is a concern I would say just go with that.

PS: I have a VGA to component transcoder for my PC and hacked video drivers to output 240p - I use it for MAME but this can also apply to any emulator if you plan to use a CRT... just get a USB adapter for your official console controllers and you're set (http://mame.3feetunder.com/windows-ati-crt-emudriver/)

[laurenhiya21]

I definitely prefer original hardware, but I'm also not going to pay top dollar for a used game that I could potentially not enjoy. In those cases, I emulate when I can. Unfortunately PS2 and newer games are a little hard me for to emulate, but emulation covers most of the pricey games that I want to eventually play.

If I do end up really liking the game, that's when I'll debate about forking over the money for a physical copy.

[theclaw]

I'd also suggest flash carts. Cheaper than repros in the long run, and supporting original hardware design is more ethical.

Limit unnecessary mods as well. Like if an external box can tap existing RGB, or a cartridge converter plays the imports you want, use them.

Emulating systems like SNES, Genesis, and NES has been tolerable enough for a while now. N64 or the notorious Saturn remain buggy at times.

[Anapan]

Except my shortlist of favorites, all my retro gaming is done on real hardware using flash carts when possible through RGB. I don't spend too much on games unless I really cherish them. Especially on handhelds, I prefer having original hardware and cart. Depending on the game, some 3D games are much better in HD with emulation, and some are definitely better 240P with prominent scanlines. I will always choose the most aesthetically pleasing if emulation will improve the experience significantly.
With pre rendered background-type games (FFVII for example) 240P on original hardware is preferable usually, tho the fully 3D battle scenes look better emulated. For Final Fantasy 7, I really prefer the improved visuals of the fully modded PC edition, tho I played it on original hardware last time and the gameplay was still just as enjoyable.
I almost never play Wii games on original hardware anymore after I tried Kirby's Epic Yarn on Dolphin and found out that the yarn texture was actually detailed enough to be viewed in 1080P with no upscaling - there's actually individual threads visible! In this case there's no reason to have the visuals downscaled to 480P. The emulator only improves the experience.
Some emulators are not capable of proper emulation and therefore nearly all games should be enjoyed with original hardware (modded if necessary to get a clean picture). N64 & Saturn come to mind.
Playstation 2 is one where I have to decide per-game every time. If the game runs in 240P, I always want to run it on original hardware either on a CRT or through an upscaler. 480P games - usually best to run on hardware, tho some games play well in HD on emulators - depends on the game and how the emulator treats it 2D is usually the same no matter what. If it's 480i, it really depends on the game. Some can be forced to 480P and will run better on hardware, some will only look good in an emulator with tweaked settings. Interlaced games are always a challenge to enjoy progressively and I will always go to great lengths to experience them without interlace.

Worth the cost to play on real hardware? Oh, definitely. But it's subjective per-game. At this point, most retro games can be flawlessly emulated, and using USB adapters you can play any game with almot any controller from for almost any system plug-and-play.

If you're looking for a really authentic experience, you can force a computer to output a 15KHz RGB signal through it's VGA port and output an identical signal to the one an RGB moded console would to a CRT through either a UK SCART or transcoded US Component Y Pb PR.
If you just want to experience the game perfectly with the original controller and through a CRT, in most cases a computer can be made to perfectly replicate the hardware.
I'd never spend over $120 to play a game, no matter how good it is

(lies - I have and in most cases the game was not considered good) I still don't recommend it...

. The money's better spent on hardware to increase the enjoyment/authentic-experience of the software (IMO).

[darsparx]

See and I'm in a weird place for this. I have the original hardware for everything but sega(I never tracked down a genesis after I lost out on it at a local pawn shop and still burned on that one since it was complete in box too). But the retron5 saves space, and that translation feature is pretty darn nice. I don't know if I'll ever go back to the real hardware at this point considering the space saving it's doing(even though I'm now contemplating a retrode but that's a long ways off). I'd rather play on real hardware but I also don't have space for the real thing right now >_>

[Xeogred]

My interest in emulation has been boiling up again lately because of all the cool replica controllers out now that are USB/bluetooth etc for PC. That and dual monitoring with my TV, while not having to worry about expensive HDMI upscalers and such, makes it all enticing. My tolerance for the CD systems is still pretty low though, always takes an extra step or two and it seems like those are still more case by case depending on how well a game would work. So I don't really have any motivation there, but considering I still have access to all Sony systems on my TV, that about covers everything there for me.

Also if Nintendo doesn't find out an easy way to migrate over Wii U VC purchases, I'll be really pissed.

I still have tons of emulators and folders of roms from over the years. Recently found out I still have my old Seiken Densetsu 3 files around haha, so that was cool. Since the roms and all barely take up any space, to keep it organized I'll probably just create new folders and basically download everything I own (that's not hooked up) and then just get one game at a time if I want to play something.

Plus I love how good KEGA Fusion is. I forget if it does Game Gear, but it plays SMS, Genesis, and Sega CD games all in one perfectly. I was a diehard fan of ZSNES, but finally jumped over to snes9x over the years. I'm so behind that I'm pretty curious as to how the NES, GBA, and SNES emulators are at this point now.

Ideally I want to have all my stuff out and hooked up again someday when I have the living space. I've kept this old Apex TV around for a reason, has 5 AVI inputs and s-video. But until then... I've gotten so picky about picture quality and sharpness, accurate resolutions, etc, it's just a hassle to play old stuff on HDTV's at times or can get expensive.

My threshold for old game prices is around $50. If it's more than that it has to be a special case and probably something I know I loved and played before. But something like Valkyrie Profile that's over $100, sure I've heard great things, but... what if I don't like it? That's just a gamble I'm not willing to take. Luckily I own pretty much everything I really wanted on the SNES, including MMX3, etc!

[ElkinFencer10]

I'm an original hardware purist for the most part, but I do love my Retron 5 (it's close enough in my book since I'm using the original cartridge). I only emulate as an absolute last resort.