Is it worth the cost for real over emulation?

[Xeogred]

Forlorn: Well like people argue above with the Genesis, you can never fully recapture that exact sound. So he's maybe just talking about authenticity there.

On a random note I know Castlevania 3 is a real tricky case, it doesn't work with most of the third party NES/multi console clones out there. Think I heard it works with the Retron but I'm not sure.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Retron 5 supports virtually (perhaps literally) all retail games at this point and will even boot repro carts and the like.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Forlorn: Well like people argue above with the Genesis, you can never fully recapture that exact sound. So he's maybe just talking about authenticity there.

On a random note I know Castlevania 3 is a real tricky case, it doesn't work with most of the third party NES/multi console clones out there. Think I heard it works with the Retron but I'm not sure.

Ahh, that makes sense. Similar to dasparx, I don't really have a comparison for Genesis music, so I probably wouldn't notice.

@bone,
I love the idea of the Retron, but cost is again an issue. Probably cheaper than buying all those consoles, but I still have to shell out for the games, which aren't cheap. My "too much stuff" paranoia also kicks in, when I consider the future and my children/the state trying to get rid of all that crap.

[Sarge]

Yeah, the system where emulation factors in a little more prominently is the NES. Lots of mappers, lots of quirks between games. I've got an Everdrive-N8, and it's mostly perfect, but my understanding is that the timing is very slightly off with some of the mappers like the MMC3. It's still closer overall than full emulation, although I'm pretty sure Nestopia is cycle-accurate emulation.

Don't knock using the real hardware, though. There's something special about it that way. It's as accurate as you're going to get without having the legit cart, at any rate.

Also, there are certainly clean ROM dumps out there. Stuff from the Everdrive or No-Intro sets are generally the best available dump out there. A lot of the "dirty" dumps are ones that were made years ago, or were dumped incorrectly, but have been saved for preservation purposes nonetheless.

[darsparx]

Retron 5 supports virtually (perhaps literally) all retail games at this point and will even boot repro carts and the like.

Too bad I got rid of my repros a long time ago, in favor of the sfc version(only owned like two). Admittedly there's still things wrong with the patch I'm using for Tales of Phantasia. It's otherwise perfect but there's little things I'm noticing here and there. Especially if you go back to Beladum and talk to lenios. You usually get something like

Lenios:
Lenios: I'll go visit him someday...

[Forlorn Drifter]

I guess another thing to potentially consider are things like the NES Mini. IMO, it's lacking some killer app titles, but it's official release. I think of Nintendo could work with rights owners and really work it right, something like that with new SD cards or some such loaded with games could be a high seller.

I keep going back and forth at this point. I look at some prices and think it isn't that bad, but then I check the cost of something like Conker's or Demon's Crest or Secret of Mana and cry.

[darsparx]

See and Nintendo has a long way to go with online services compared to sony or microsoft. If they could do it right, they could've just done bundles of games to celebrate it and be cross platform between 3ds/wii u/switch. Now that would be awesome. For all the love I have for nintendo their online services still suck....

[Forlorn Drifter]

Switch will be interesting from an emulation perspective. Being Android, it should be easy to crack open, and it is both a portable and home solution.

EDIT: Also, I'm curious, how many of you use any form of play excluding original carts on original hardware? I feel like we have a lot of people using flash carts.

Another question- how good is the Nintendo VC for retro-stuff? Obviously it won't cover everything, and that leaves out Non-Nintendo games, but it would be a way for me to get legitimate games with no issue, which I can later emulate, as I already have the ROM.

[Jagosaurus]

Flash carts are not emulation. You console sees the ROM as if it is exactly the same data coming off a retail cart. If the ROM dump is clean, it's identical when playing on original hardware.

There are a few exceptions when original carts used helper chips. Then some flash carts can emu this at times (Castlevania 3 VRC6/MMC5 sound chip), or can't (such as the SNES FX chip on SD2SNES).

I'll be blunt, the technical aspects are lost on me. I assume by this that ROMs you would get for emulation are not clean dumps. The point I was aiming for (although if I'm wrong, please correct me) is that there are small technical differences, ones that I likely wouldn't notice, but when it comes to overall playability the difference is minimal.

IMO, it just seems silly to buy the original hardware and a flash cart... so I can use ROMs that I could have just as easily loaded onto a PC or emu-box.

No worries. Some of here tend to probably dive too deep into it all

The vast majority of ROMS will be clean files. Some systems are known for it tougher to track down clean ROMS. While I haven't really gotten into this scene (soon!), I have heard/seen that from the PC-E/TG16 forums posts.

Essentially, except for a very small handful of games, the flashcarts are 100% accurate. That coupled with the actual hardware makes for the "real" experience for some. No worries about PC settings, firmware versions, etc. Also, no changing of carts or buying expensive games. I know some folks are running flashcarts to better preserve their actual carts.

Another huge plus is the mix of both worlds. The newer flash carts allow for save states in addition to mimcking traditional S-Ram battery saves. Then of course, having the entire library (including imports) at your fingertips.

Now .isos are a different story. There are a lot of bad .iso files out there for disc based systems.

I should note, I have recently gotten into emulation via emus running on the PS2 and the original xbox and it is awesome. I'm a laptop user, have been for 10 years, no desktop since around 2005. A lot of folks, including myself, just don't have a PC hooked up at all times. This is a great alternative as these systems are already hooked up with controllers ready.

For me again, it's a mix:
- Save money
- Save space
- Ease of access
- oxbox & ps2 already hooked to TV with emus & retail titles loaded
- Entire system libraries loaded onto SD carts for cart systems
- No desktop hooked to TV at all times
- Preservation! ... I want to be able to load up games long after the games are gone. This is a good halfway step for me, as eventually all the consoles will fail also and We'll be looking at emu specific boxes or mini PCs IMO.


That brings me to...

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.

This same thought recently got my butt in gear to modding a PS2 and oXbox to play retail released off the system's internal HDD. Soon I'll dive into playing PS1 games off PS2 HDD as well, via popstarter homebrew app.

It is pretty nice to have a library of bootable games right off the HDD. You can rip retail copies from your personal library directly from the console drive itself or load a .iso/.xbe from a PC.

Next in line is modding project is my Wii for playing retail Wii & GCN titles off SD/USB.

[Forlorn Drifter]

I'm not personally worried about disc-based games (excluding possibly Sega CD and Saturn, but I'm not sure if there's much there for me). I'm mostly focused on cart based games currently, because things are getting high with no end in sight. The question at this point boils down to- am I willing to spend enough for the real deal (at least the real carts), and if not, what console or box would be my best option?