Emulation vs Hardware

[BogusMeatFactory]

For me, I stick to hardware when emulation doesn't replicate the experience. For instance, the Sega Saturn emulator has a lot of problems with my Dragon Force copy. Also I keep games that I find to have sentimental value. I will never sell the saturn games, nor the dreamcast, but everything else is fair game unless I have an attachment to it like Sega CD FMV games.

[BoneSnapDeez]

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.

You reminded me that I need to get Kega Fusion on this computer.

I may be wrong, but don't ISO's load faster?

I make ISO's from my own physical discs, I don't download them. It's like I'm "installing" the game.

[noiseredux]

I may be wrong, but don't ISO's load faster?

I make ISO's from my own physical discs, I don't download them. It's like I'm "installing" the game.

maybe/probably?

I've thought of doing the same. But not for all games. I mean, MG took me 2 days to beat so no big deal. If I were playing a longer game or playing a lot of a game I'd probably "install" it too. But yeah, I basically think of my PS1, PS2, Sat, SCD (and I guess TGCD or NGCD) games a an extension of my PC library at this point haha.

[Violent By Design]

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.

You can burn Xbox games onto its harddrive? I'm assuming they run perfectly?

[oxymoron]

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.

Couldn't you do all that with a flash cart?

[Hazerd]

I honestly dont play any retro games before PS2/GCN anymore, if i do, i usually emulate them or play them via emulation on my Wii's HBC.

My main gaming is done on my PS3/Wii/PS2/DS/3DS.

Im loving my Wii right now, been taking it to a friends and playing Mario Party 2 via VC, and Mario Party 5 and 7 via backwards compatibility.

Also been playing Alien Vs Predator 3 player Arcade on Retroarch (better than SDLMame on the Wii)

DIOS MIOS is great, but i pretty much have all the sought after GCN games at this point Z(except that pesky Skies of Arcadia Legends), its convenient if you have a large SDHC card or dedicated portable usb HDD to store Wii and GCN games if you dont want to lug them around, you can rip your own games via the Wii disc drive if you dont want to download the ISO's.

But i prefer physical hardware when possible, its annoying finding the right graphics settings when playing on ePSXe or PCSX2 i still think it looks better hooked up to a good old CRT.

I must say i played a little of Rule of Rose on PCSX2 cause that damn game is expensive as hell.

[CavZee]

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.

You reminded me that I need to get Kega Fusion on this computer.

I may be wrong, but don't ISO's load faster?

I make ISO's from my own physical discs, I don't download them. It's like I'm "installing" the game.

It's generally recommended to use ISO's for best performance especially with PCSX2 and Dolphin though many emulator's for earlier systems can work just fine.

Does anyone else have one of those specific LG DVD drives that can dump GameCube and Wii games? I bought one off of ebay a year or so ago and threw it into an external enclosure to dump some games for Dolphin. The program you have to use goes really slow though. Much faster to use a homebrewed Wii to do your dumping. But it's a neat novelty I guess.

[samsonlonghair]

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.

Getting out of modern gaming completely is exactly what I have done.

Couldn't you do all that with a flash cart?

I don't know, ox. Maybe I could do most of that. I have the feeling I would still be loading files from a menu. If I could buy a reliable flashcart for twenty bucks, I would have already tried one out, gotten over the novelty, and gone back to real cartridges by now. Or maybe I'd love 'em. If I ever get the chance to try one, I'll let you know.

[CavZee]

Getting out of modern gaming completely is exactly what I have done.

I really can't see myself ever doing this though. Much of the "AAA" PS/Xbox games I could care less about now but there's still plenty of games that interest me in the present and future.

[Hazerd]

Getting out of modern gaming completely is exactly what I have done.

I really can't see myself ever doing this though. Much of the "AAA" PS/Xbox games I could care less about now but there's still plenty of games that interest me in the present and future.

Yeah most of the games i want to currently play are modern.