Support NeoGAF

[Generic]

Because I can.

 

[Fess]

Everything old except some highly modified Commodore stuff is packed away in boxes.

 

[Shubh_C63]

If it wasn't for emulation, I couldn't have played Pokemon Red/Emerald, Mystery Dungeon and old GBA games. We got no Nintendo in my country.

 

[dragonyeuw]

I got over the need for having the physical games years ago, especially at the prices alot of the older stuff goes for now. I still have some SNES and Saturn stuff left, but asides from like 5 games it can all go. I'm kind of over the whole collecting thing.

 

[German Shocks]

The quality at which I played Xenoblade 3 and Tears of the Kingdom would piss some Nintenstans off.

I love this.
Imagine paying more money for an inferior experience.

Which, as I'm saying this , pertains entirely for game preservation purposes only.

 

[RaduN]

They look and play better than on their respective machines/hardware.

 

[MrSmooth]

Convenience, nostalgia, accessibility. Example: The wizards in the community finally have GRAW running well through Xenia and the only place I can play that is 360. I own the game, and my 360 console is dust. May as well use an emulator instead of taking my chances with another console.

 

[SenkiDala]

Prices of games and hardware became crazy. Also games were just better... I'm sorry but the SNES era, PS1 era, PS2 era... OK the graphics can be rough sometimes but the pleasure is uncomparable... Also everything runs great until the PS3 so there's an infinity of games to play.

 

[Gamer79]

I use retrobat. Have thousands of old games. Older games are more fun than newer games for the most part.

 

[Gamer79]

Performance. Image quality.

Old games and Switch games look great on PC at higher frame rates and higher resolution. It has been wonderful being able to dump my Switch games. I have a large collection of physical Switch games and some of them are just better on PC.

So, convenience, I guess?

Very good point. Switch games run much better than native hardware.

 

[L*][*N*K]

I have a device in my bag that costs like $70 and it has over 30,000 games in it, I do it for 12 years old me who would lose his mind if he saw that

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

I like to emulate games that have never come out here. Also I like to mod my game if there's any censorship

Being able to play games stuck on older consoles is a plus too

 

[Radical_3d]

I wish that part of the welcome message to new member there would be a "Please, don't go ALL of you resurrecting old threads. Maybe half of you? Could… could you restraint like that?"

 

[StueyDuck]

To play my old games better.

But I dont often emulate. Im more a mod man myself

 

[Dr.Morris79]

They look and play better than on their respective machines/hardware.

I agree with this, but there's absolutely zero way I'm dragging it all out of the cupboard, setting it up, it getting dusty, having the tape possibly mangle round the spool, waiting ten minutes for it to boot (If it even does..).

To play C64 Aliens.

Then doing it all again to play Shadow of the Beast on an Amiga.

 

[Drew1440]

Main reason is due to limited space and having multiple platforms on one piece of hardware.

 

[Paasei]

- Because they look and play better on more powerful hardware.
- Because collectors market is out of hand and so too prices of old games.
- Specific games having more options (Pokemon trading trick to evolve i.e.)
- Because I don't have the original console (anymore)
- Because I want it all on one device for convenience
- Because it's free.

I'm not going to lie and tell you I only emulate games I own a legit copy of.

 

[Area61]

Being pirate is the last thing when it comes to emulating TBH. Just ease of access is the best thing ever. If company doesn't care for their old hardware and preservation properly then why should we fear of pirating the old abandoned games?

 

[nkarafo]

What purpose does it serve if you can get a cycle accurate experience without scratching a cart or damaging a disk?

Depends on the system. I mostly agree with you but not all systems have a perfect emulator yet. N64, for instance, still has timing issues and some games are played at slightly off speeds/frame rates.

Then there's the screen issue. 6th gen consoles and older were made to play on SD CRT screens. You are losing the intended look when you only see the raw pixels on a modern panel. And it's not easy to use such an old CRT TV with a modern system to play with emulators. Sure you can use a Pandora device but those will never offer accurate enough emulation like a modern PC does. CRT shaders are good but also, not perfect.

FPGAs solve the CRT issue and can offer similar accuracy as the most accurate emulators but some of them use the original carts like analogue3D so you might as well use the real console.