Hardware Vs Emulators

[D.D.D.]

I have over a dozen consoles, 100s of games, and I am certainly limited by the number of connections, clutter, and space I am willing to devote to gaming. Even though I have space, I don't want to have every single console connected.
At my TV right now is: Wii, PS3, PS2, Saturn, and Xbox. With 5 systems I cover 15+: NES, SNES, N64, GEN, SMS, PCE, GB, GBA, GC, PS1 (+ Wii, PS3, PS2, Saturn, and Xbox) and more via emus if I choose. I will connect my N64 soon as VC & emus don't cut it for that system for me.
With 5 systems and the proper authentic console controllers + adapters, I am quite comfortable with the quality of emulation these days.
Of course, time and time again I do bring out the original systems because nothing beats the real feel and nostalgia.
Otherwise, emulation lets me play more and have less to worry about.

[alexis524]

after emulating for years, i decided to go all hardware, all the way. Emulation is great and convenient, but i absolutely love and adore my console collection that currently stands at 24 that includes everything from 8 bit days to current gen. You can't smell a rom, but you can smell that freshly opened box and instructions nothing like it!

[Opa Opa]

I only use emulators so that I can try out a game before I buy it. I always end up purchasing the games I emulate unless I don't like the game; in which case I'll delete the rom.

For me, it seems that a collection of games is better looking on a shelf than a folder on my computer's desktop.

I don't want to touch the legal issue. A lot of people say it is legal and others say it isn't. I know the actual programs themselves are not illegal but roms are something I don't have a right to talk about. I'm not a lawyer.

[h8b1llg8ts]

Hardware all the way.

But I have messed with emulation twice in my life. The first time was an arcade MAME. At the time my arcade collection was growing and the thought of having an all in one arcade seemed appeling. But after all was done it didn't feel the same. The look and feel of the real arcade is what I truly wanted. Plus sitting in the garage all by myself wasn't as fun as my local arcade so I sold it all.

My current emu involves my soft modded Crystal oXbox. About two years ago my daughter, who was three at the time, expressed intrest in gaming. But for those who have children know that they are not as delicate as you are. Ocassionaly, I would catch her trying to put a Genesis game in the NES. She meant good but my heart would skip a beat every time. But she does know how to take care of CD's very well so I set up, my current set up, an all CD based gaming. And emulated NES, SNES, N64, Genesis, 32x, and MAME.

I do have to admit that MAME is getting the most use these days thanks to our two arcade sticks. Also, we shall be moving into a larger house this year so space will no longer be an issue so all my systems soon will come out and play and be displayed.

[Flake]

Hardware. For some reason if the game isn't something I've invested money or effort into getting, I just don't care.

The only exception being that when I was in the military, emulators were very nice for deployments.

[Limewater]

Hardware is better by most measures that matter to me.

1. Hardware is usually legal (except for pirate carts, I guess).

2. Upscale and filter all you want. None of that looks quite as good as TV's warm glowing warming glow. TV, in this case, being a CRT. This isn't just nostalgia talking.

3. Emulators hide the hardware limitations that were imposed upon game designers. I haven't used ever emulator out there, but I've never encountered slowdown on an NES emulator. I've seen it a bunch on the actual NES. I'm not saying I'm a fan of slowdown, but it exposes the design constraints on the game developers, and exposes the reasoning for some design decisions. This leads me to...

4. "Impressive" feats, like Donkey Kong Country, Kirby's Adventure, and Gunstar Heroes are difficult to appreciate when you aren't playing on the original hardware. When I first walked through a portal in Dragon Warrior III and the whole screen went all wavey before fading away, I was really impressed. I had already played through Link to the Past on the SNES, but I had not previously seen that effect on an NES game. The first and only time I ever played VectorMan was on a Sega Dreamcast. I should have been really impressed with its technical feats, but I wasn't.

And then there are a bunch of other reasons already covered by others.

[flamepanther]

Playing on the real hardware nearly always feels better to me. Even if I have to use a downloaded ROM image to play a game, I try to find a method for playing it on the original console. I have "backup units" for my SNES and N64, a Saturn mod chip, and a GBA flash card for this reason.

The main exception I can think of so far is PlayStation 1 games. 3-D games on that console are SO painful for me to look at now, but with a higher resolution and some texture filtering it becomes much more tolerable. Plus, I'm able to notice little details in games like Silent Hill that I wasn't able to see on the original hardware.

[irixith]

Emulation. I've got the original controllers + adapters, and to me the controllers are generally the missing link. Visual filters, save states, cheat searching, etc, etc etc -- why would I want to deal with things like RF output with today's display technology? I'm not keeping around an old CRT television -- they're huge, heavy and suck too much power.

I'm completely happy with the state of emulators for all the things I like to play. I have no want whatsoever to collect up all the physical carts and systems and such. I've already been there once, and it means absolutely nothing.

[jeffesaurusrex]

I prefer the hardware. I do however play some games on emulators on my PSP, because it makes it so convenient. I also emulate games I might not be able to afford, or don't yet have in my collection.

For example right now I'm emulating FF7 on the PSP as well as Metroid Zero Mission. I don't collect PS1 or GBA so I just emulate those instead of buying them. However just because I finish it on an emulator doesn't mean I won't buy it in the future. I must have played through Chrono Trigger 50 times on an emulator, and when I started collecting it was the first game I bought outside of the 10 or so games that came as part of the deal with the SNES I bought.

[CRTGAMER]

Alot of my friends are gamers and to be honest, it's starting to get on my nerves. Today I had a guy literally write me a book on Facebook explaining to me why emulators are so good and yadda yadda yadda. Give me a break, I wasn't born under a rock.

What do you guys think? Anyone here share the same opinion?

Contradiction of terms.

The Real Deal
Of course the real thing is always the best, be it nostalgia factor from the controls to popping the cart in. Playing Atari 5200 Centipede with a trakball, CRT lightgun games or Dreamcast Samba de Amigo with maracas is hard to emulate. The real thing will always have the best original controllers, original frame speed, original sound and original non upscaled pic. Yes EMUs might improve that video in upscaling, but maybe takes away from the original charm of that game's raster scan image.

The EMU
As for emulation, more convenient that you can have all the carts on a couple space saving CDRs or installed on the hard drive. In the case of Arcades not too many people have the room or money for all the Mame or Neo Geo games. EMUs not limited to the computer either. Having an original system is great, but also cool that ALL the games are in the PS2 hard drive or in a Gamecube Gecko SD card. One or two SD cards vs all those game carts, kind of amazing.