Should I just emulate?

[rich2k4]

original xbox with coinops 5 does 98% of games in full screen 720p. Who wouldn't want that?

[elmagicochrisg]

Flash carts for cartridge based consoles. Original for disc based consoles.

[LentFilms]

I generally see people use a certain type of argument when referring to emulation on dedicated retro-game forums. Essentially it goes something like this,

"Emulation is merely a translation of the original hardware and thus deludes the games that run on it."

While that is true in a sense, however no one seems to bring up the possibility that emulation can also become a localization of the original. Which can have the opportunity to overcome the originals limitations.

For example, the Sega CD had very finicky hardware, prone for numerous hardware failures over time. Such as the internal system memory and the CDrom drive. Though emulation, on say, Genesis Plus GX get's rid of all those annoyances.


So yes, sometimes it is just better to emulate.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Emulation is also great for some of the more cumbersome old handhelds. I'd rather play Game Gear, Lynx, and Virtual Boy emulators than the real hardware.

[vicosku]

I'm an avid emulation supporter. My only problem with it is input latency. This testing using the Wii virtual console and a Wii port of Snes9x is the best example I've seen.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key ... utput=html

Taken from here:
http://code.google.com/p/snes9x-gx/issues/detail?id=380

My experience has been the same on Windows emulators as well. To add my own example, a friend and I were recently playing Battletoads side-by-side. I was using a real NES, he was using the Wii port of Mednafen. I got through the infamous turbo tunnel on the NES and he was unable to on the emulator with various wired and wired controllers. He switched to the NES and got through it on his first try. That level just demands an almost trance-like state of synchronization between the input, video, and sound that we just couldn't achieve on the emulator. Most games aren't that demanding though, and I don't mind playing them on emulators too much. For enjoyment in fast-paced action games though, I don't feel quite right unless it's original hardware or a competent port to another console.

[ZenErik]

I'm an avid emulation supporter. My only problem with it is input latency. This testing using the Wii virtual console and a Wii port of Snes9x is the best example I've seen.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key ... utput=html

Taken from here:
http://code.google.com/p/snes9x-gx/issues/detail?id=380

My experience has been the same on Windows emulators as well. To add my own example, a friend and I were recently playing Battletoads side-by-side. I was using a real NES, he was using the Wii port of Mednafen. I got through the infamous turbo tunnel on the NES and he was unable to on the emulator with various wired and wired controllers. He switched to the NES and got through it on his first try. That level just demands an almost trance-like state of synchronization between the input, video, and sound that we just couldn't achieve on the emulator. Most games aren't that demanding though, and I don't mind playing them on emulators too much. For enjoyment in fast-paced action games though, I don't feel quite right unless it's original hardware or a competent port to another console.

On the same TVs?

[vicosku]

I was on a commodore 1702 when I did it, he was on a Sony PVM 20m4u with the wii through component and then the NES via composite after I switched it over. So yes, he was using the same CRT display the whole time.

[elmagicochrisg]

Goddammit, every time I see this thread title I read something else for a second...

Ejaculate already and get it over with... lol

[Violent By Design]

I love it. Would never get to play games on things like the Sega CD other wise.

I do order hard copies of games, but mainly from 5th gen and up (mainly just PSX from the 5th gen era).

[sonic2041]

I recently tried out emulation for gamecube games, which doesn't work so well because it requires very high end hardware. The main reason I tried it is because I started backing up my gamecube discs using the PSO exploit.

One thing I did like about the emulation was that you could render the games in higher resolutions and apply anti-aliasing. This made the games look really good. The main issue was that the audio could not be emulated properly, or cause the game to slow down so much that it was unplayable.

If the emulation was better I would probably do that more. I do prefer to use my own backups instead of downloading them.