I'll go ahead and say it. I love emulation. Its a guilty, well not SO guilty, pleasure. All of the games I loved and had as a kid, plus thousands that I never got the chance to play. Like most kids in teh 80's and 90's I only had one system at a time. I could only afford games for one and to play games on other systems was a fun distraction.
My progression as a video gamer was the original NES in late 87. Then in the early 90's I got a Sega Genesis model 1. This was way back when it still had "High Definition Graphics", printed in bold white letters on the top of the bad ass looking black system. Of course now its common knowlede the Model 1 was NOT Hi Def, but at the time it sounded good. Finally around the start of my Junior year I think I received my PSone, and shortly after what would easily be in my top 5 games of all time, Final Fantasy 7. . This started a life long love with JRPG'S that still rages to this day. Between Final Fantasy 7 and 9 (fuck a bunch of 8) my future was set as most of the games that I purchased where JRPG'S. Of course as an American waiting on RPG's you got to hear how completely mind blowing it was from the Japanese audience months, sometimes years before the games would be localized and ported over to an English speaking fan base. That's if they where brought over at all, many a fine game has been denied us by Nintendo of America and their sometimes completely, MINDNUMBINGLY, idiotic decisions on what games to release here in the states. This alone could drive anyone to emulation but that's only a portion of it. Many games have had WONDERFUL fan translations done that take the place of Nintendo's localization team. Baphumet Lagoon for the SNES comes to mind right away. The only way any English speaking fan can play Mother 1 and 3 or threw translated roms available freely on the web. But there is more to why I love emulation, and why RPG'S FORCED me in a small way to love it.
Fast forward to about a year ago. I have been picking up games and systems, here and there for awhile but had just decided to really try and expand my collection. WOW did i ever pick a shitty time to start formally collecting, and after about 6 months I had to completely change how and what I collected. But that is another story. It all ties in though to why I love emulation. Since the explosion in price of any game worth having its impossible to find a good deal on ebay. I refuse to pay retail markup for retro stuff personally. This is based on the 50/50. I am 50% poor, and 50% cheap. I have to be the second as a consequence of the first. I also enjoy the hunt. Finding even 1 game for a great deal makes my day. Sure if I were rich money would be no object, and i would own a $3500.00 sealed copy of Earthbound. But like most normal people I can not even afford the $180 buy it now prices for an Earthbound cart on ebay. I mention this game specifically, because it is a holy grail for me to find in the wild. YES i have played it on an emulator, I have not beaten it however. It is a great game and one that had I owned a SNES back in the day I would have surely at least heard of and rented. I just don't see paying these inflated prices , which are even more inflated for RPGS. SO that is yet another reason I use an emulator. Because there are games which more than likely will never own, and that I really want to play.
If you are about to mention the wii or xbox virtual console, I do not, and will not own a current gen system. I have a paper in progress explaining my love for the old school and my feeling that the new systems have forgotten where they come from, who they where made for, and why they where fun to begin with. I have no real desire to play any current gen games. I do want to buy another PS2 and get some of the really great RPGS I missed out on the last few years of its life cycle. But new systems are just not my thing.
I want to mention one other aspect of emulation that many people glass over that I think is really good for the person reviewing games and/or doing any real academic work involving classic video game architecture or programing, that is the massive number of tools that come with many modern emulators. Just the simple function of "save states" is such a time saving device for a video game reviewer, or competitor. Say I am recording footage for a video about MadeUPGame1. I want to show how the pattern of the boss on level two makes him really easy if you execute your jumps perfect from the first jump. I can save my game with the emulators save state function just as I come to the bosses lair. If I miss a jump, I can instantly reload the save instead of having to play the first level over to make it to the level two boss. Just that is such a time saver. Sure if you are using it to beat bosses, its technically cheating. I usually use save states to be able to actually stop playing the game, not to cheat on a battle. Its just hand to be able to stop at any time and not have to worry about finding a damn save point. It may just be me but sometimes its just too fuckin long between save points in many RPGS and you never know when you enter an area if you are going to be locked into 30 minutes of games play with no save point in between. I HATE THAT, sure saving around every corner can make an extremely challenging game much much more strategic and the odds can deffinatly be stacked in the players favor. ANY of the Baldur's Gate Series can be made much easier by slowing the pace down with constant pausing and saving after each and every battle or room progressed in a dungeon.
My point is emulation is not some devil that a small minority of militant gamers would have you believe. With a few goodies from www.retrousb.com you could be playing emulated games WITH your real console controllers in no time. So that takes away the old "can't play on a keyboard" excuse.
So thats it I like it if you don't feel free to comment. ANYBODY please comment. lol Give me some feedback.
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