What Is It With Emulation??

[8bit]

Sometimes emulation can be a thing of beauty when the game in question may not have been released in your country or in your language for that matter. My link in my signature is a perfect example.

[Evildeadmanwalking77]

I find it overwhelming actually. I don't think I'll ever get to play everything on it unless I had absolutely no life but I just enjoy the games I love and hope to discover some hidden gems along the way with whatever time I have to put into playing emulated games.

[Croooow!]

The only time I've enjoyed emulating with large amounts of ROMs is when my brother would go through NesterDC and look for the hilariously bad games, check games with weird titles, and break that up with rounds of Tecmo Super Bowl and Jackal.

[Gunstar Green]

Emulation has helped me discover a lot of hidden gems. If I find a new game I like I'll often buy an original copy of it right away and stop playing it on the emulator at once. If I really like a game I want to do it justice and play it the way it was meant to be played. Also I find owning the physical medium to be a lot more rewarding though I know for some people that's not important.

That said I love emulation for games that are just too costly, difficult to acquire, or on consoles that I really have no drive to collect for. It's still not the same as the real deal no matter how you slice it though.

[Key-Glyph]

Having a tangible quality makes a huge difference to me. A huge library of roms can be overwhelming because it's just a list of filenames to the eye. Even an equally huge library of physical games would be less so because the objects themselves have memory-triggering shapes, artwork, and textures.

This. I've often noticed that with strictly intangible media -- emulated games, iTunes downloads -- I forget that I own the product. It's as if they're packed away in an attic, dormant until I sift through boxes and uncover them. I wouldn't incorrectly deny that I possess the thing in question if you asked about it specifically, but it needs to be referred to directly in some way for me to become aware of it again. Not so of my physical things.

But along with shapes, artwork, and textures solidifying something, I would add the category of context. If the context surrounding something otherwise intangible -- an iTunes song, for instance -- is unusual enough to color the whole experience (e.g. my computer was in an usual spot for a while, some major event had occurred that day, a particular friend was with me at the time, etcetera), it puts down some roots and the virtual song is much more likely to spring to mind alongside my recollections of albums I physically own.

But when most of these products are obtained through the same computer on the same desk in the same apartment, context loses its power. My high school and college selves would have remembered all this stuff, because there was a much more complicated web of unique contextual roots to put down all year long (what semester it was, what classes I was taking, which teachers I had, what dorm I was living in, who my friends were, what my favorite haunt was, etcetera, all at once!) to solidify those intangible objects. Now that much fewer day-to-day things change, it's harder to put a sharp pinpoint on things.

[dunpeal2064]

I am in the same boat as a lot of folks that already posted here. I dunno, I could download a game that I think I will totally love, but not putting any effort into actually obtaining it, I just kinda die out on the excitement.

I don't even like using emulation to try games out. Even something really expensive. If I want to try it, I'll just buy it. Worst case scenario, I have to go re-sell it for what I bought it for, and I get my money back.

I will youtube games before buying them, of course. Just blindly buying stuff would be silly. But, its an entirely different feeling searching for a game for weeks, sometimes months, finally finding it, waiting for it to come in the mail, cracking it open, and popping it in the machine to finally give it a go, on a nice crt with s-video.

Emulating just can't compare. I'm a collector at heart though. I play every single game I buy, but I enjoy actually getting the game, checking out the packaging, popping it in a system I have played a thousand times, and then thining "Holy crap, this is possible on this system!?"

[gtmtnbiker]

I play every single game I buy

You're a better man than I am. I probably have about 300 games and played maybe 10% of them. I do a good job of sticking with a title till the end or almost the end unless it's really bad.

[arion]

I think it's because you can't emulate the rush being out of quarters and on your last life.

Sure you can limit your credit use in a emulator but the option for a continue is always there.

[o.pwuaioc]

I think it's because you can't emulate the rush being out of quarters and on your last life.

Sure you can limit your credit use in a emulator but the option for a continue is always there.

Certainly - emulation makes you a sloppy gamer, at least until you can resist the temptation of using save states.

[swiftzx]

I play every single game I buy

Yep, I will buy a game if it interests me, as i try to emulate as little as possible.