samsonlonghair wrote:I have a folder on my hard drive full of emulators and ROMs. I also soft modded my wii so that I can play emulators any time I like. You know what? I never use them! I always turn to my reliable old hardware. I pop in the cartridge, and I play.
I can see the advantages of emulators, but I always prefer real hardware. Maybe I would feel differently about arcade emulation via MAME as I don't have the space or money for arcade cabinets. For everything else, I find emulation kind of boring.
Having lots of old systems and games is definitely more exciting and cool but having my PC hooked to my TV is much more practical.
Like I said, I'd love to get a true retro setup sometime but that takes space and money that I don't have ATM. I've gotta say that will probably never happen unless I get out of modern gaming completely.
Its super, super easy to mod your Wii and have it running everything. Feel free to shoot me a PM or hop on IRC if you need links/pointers.
TG and TGCD emulation on the Wii is excellent. The only game I have come across that doesn't work is Air Zonk... which just so happens to work perfectly on the VC.
Basically, you use MednaFen (which emulates several systems) to run all your TG and TGCD stuff. Even games that require the arcade card work great. I've tested most of the shmups and rpgs, and Air Zonk was the only one I recall giving me issues.
And, as an added bonus, you can use the same emulator to play Wonderswan games on your tv!
have you tried WiiFlow for your cover art? I'm thinking of modding my 4.13 Wii (the model with out gamecube controller ports) and running that. It looks hella sexy.
samsonlonghair wrote: For everything else, I find emulation kind of boring.
Just to preface this, I don't mean to knock your opinion at all:
The idea that emulation is less exciting is strange to me. Do you actually feel bored playing the games? Or do you enjoy your games more when they are part of your collection?
I guess, being forced to use Mame, I look at emulators and hardware on the same level. Both have advantages and disadvantages, and I totally get preferring hardware. If I could afford it, I would use hardware at least half the time. But, I never understood the idea that the actual game itself is lesser when its emulated (properly).
I guess my question would be: Do you feel the game itself is boring when played via an emulator (perhaps you are really keen to pick up on emulator inaccuracies that most don't notice), or is it tied to the joy of hunting down a physical copy of the game?
It's not the inaccuracy that bores me; it's the experience. I'm not talking about collecting. I'm talking about the experience of picking a cartridge off a shelf vs selecting a ROM in a folder. I like the feel of holding a cartridge in my hand feels better than a mouse click. I like the satisfying feel of pushing the cartridge into the port. I like to plug a controller into a controller port instead of a USB port.
The other thing that bores me about emulators is simply sitting in front of a computer. This probably sounds strange to the PC gaming master race, but I psychologically associate computers with work. All I do on my PC is work (and waste time on racketboy). I almost never play games on PC because of this association.
I think that's my hold-up on going full 100% emulation. Actual hardware gives you something that a PC just can't. Alot of my games have sentimental value to me. Each time I look at, hold, play, read about any one of those games gives me instant flashback to the point in my life when i discovered that game, of when I first bought it and all the feelings that came with that experience, I experience all over again. I'm not sure that
PC emulation, or even oXbox emulation, can give me that same feeling. A big part of what makes retro gaming very special to me is all the nostalgia and that is a big component missing when I choose any random ROM file to load up.
Ah okay, so its the experience prior to actually playing the game that bores you, if I understand correctly? I can see that, it certainly feels better to me to boot up a PCB in an arcade cabinet than selecting a file to run. Once the game is running though, all of the exterior stuff is gone for me. The game itself feels fine to me, which is why I was curious to hear your answer
Now, sitting in front of a computer is hardly necessary though (especially when you said you already have a modded Wii ). Even with the stuff I emulate on a computer, HDMI out to my tv makes it feel just like playing any of my hardware (as far as sitting in front of screens goes)
I also have a bunch of different USB adapters for various controllers. Helps enhance the feel of playing the game when you have an authentic controller to play it with.
personally, I've been using my PC for PS1, PS2, Saturn, Sega CD for months now. I still use the actual physical discs - so it retains that experience to me of playing a physical game rather than browsing a folder of ISO's. Now it just feels like I have this single console that plays all those games. Plus, I don't have so much clutter under my CRT anymore.
have you tried WiiFlow for your cover art? I'm thinking of modding my 4.13 Wii (the model with out gamecube controller ports) and running that. It looks hella sexy.
I haven't tried it, but I've been tempted to. Right now I have it set up so that it looks like the Wii menu, but each channel is a Wii game. Looks pretty decent.
I have emulation on my xbox. I have nes snes, sms, genesis/32x/segacd, Atari 2600,5200, 7800, msx, msx 2, neo geo pocket, wonderswarm, and turbografx 16 on one disc. Then I have close to 30 original xbox games on the harddrive and then coin ops arcade and neo geo arcade on the xbox also. So I need everything I got. I also have a 360, dreamcast and now just 2 weeks ago a ps1. So I own any retro game I need to play
BUT.
I would rather trade all of that to actually own a genesis, tg16, snes, and a nes with actual games like all my favorites and or rare gems. I had a chance this week to get a snes but after a few first party titles it would cost too much money for me to afford.
). Even with the stuff I emulate on a computer, HDMI out to my tv makes it feel just like playing any of my hardware (as far as sitting in front of screens goes)
