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I was thinking the other day about the question of emulating. I have seen numerous people ask if they should just emulate, I am going to give my two cents. I do emulate many systems on my Dreamcast because the iso's are so plentiful such as the Neo Geo and the PCE because those systems are just so far out of my price range.. The problem I run into is that systems such as the NES and the Genesis get so expensive to collect for and truthfully I do not have that many favorites on those systems to feel comfortable spending tons of money on games. Since I preordered the Retron 5 I made the decision to rid myself of all of my NES and Genesis games and just buy flash carts for both of those systems. The Everdrive N8 flash cart for the NES cost me $108 which is not a bad price seeing that money NES games run around $10 if you want to get the better ones. Instead of having 10 NES games that would cost $100, I decided that I would rather pay $100 and be able to have all of the NES games. The same goes for the Genesis, I payed $53 for the Mega Driver flash cart which plays all Genesis, Megadrive, Sega 32x, Master system, and even Sega Cd games. When it comes down to it I am saving tons of money by emulating those games but I feel better and more satisfied because I am emulating them on actually hardware instead of sitting hunched over a computer. The Sega Saturn is my absolute favorite console and you would be absolutely correct if you were to say that it is an expensive console to collect for but with saving all of the money from emulating my cartridge games I am able to put most of my attention to collecting Saturn. So my belief is that you should collect physical copies of games for your favorite console or consoles but the consoles that you do not really touch that much I find it more beneficial to emulate using Flash Carts. The Saturn was my first console to I have a special connection to it and it is the system that I have spent that most time playing over the years.
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depends on what kind of emulating we're talking about, because there are legitimate forms. playing gamecube games on a wii, or PS1 games on a PS3 are both emulation, but completely acceptable forms. if we're just talking about downloading an entire system library worth of roms, that's very much piracy and illegal, not to mention often buggy. even though it's still technically illegal, the only cases where i would find it acceptable are where there are literally no reasonable means to get the games otherwise. like if there are neo geo MVS exclusives that can only be played on the original arcade (no home console re-release), and cost thousands due to rarity, then i would be somewhat ok with that. not everyone has room for a full size arcade cab, or the funds for a game that will likely never be remade but is outrageously expensive on the used market.
if it's just downloading every game and playing them for free, i feel that's nothing more than being cheap and lazy.
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I'd like to nod towards the techwizard's last paragraph. I'd also like to point to the difference between emulating and piracy, which are not the same thing and should not be considered so. That being said, I'd like to draw you away from the not-gray area of piracy (which is pretty much what we are talking about) and point towards the question of authenticity and accuracy, which is what conversations about emulation should be centered around. Now, for my main point: While I've heard that there are certain console emulators out there that can boast 100% speed accuracy, specifically in the SNES arena, but I've never had an emulation experience where it could hold up to a fully functioning console game in one area or another. Some games run great, but have sound glitches and vice versa. Contra III used to be a bit one for that: The game ran great, but the sounds were always just a bit... inaccurate.
So, should you just emulate? I hate to say this but I don't have a direct moral/immoral answer for you. I'm a Libertarian. Me, all I can say is that you will not get 100% accuracy with an emulator, and if that is your goal then there is your answer.
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I've got a lot of opinions on emulation (and, er, everything) that I've mentioned in past articles, including the need for it in terms of gaming history preservation. I'm of the thought that emulating is best served not to play a luxury item you can or cannot afford, but rather to enjoy gifts that the original authors have kindly released for free to the public. This includes everything some certain arcade games, to homebrew and experimental titles, to even entire console libraries such as the Vectrex.
A quick search for public domain roms will give you more games than you can play; here are two starters.
http://www.vectrex.nl/games.html
http://pdroms.de/about-pdroms
(By the way, I know this diverts the question on playing non-public domain roms of commercially released games, due to a game's cost, accessibility, or ease of use. Arguing about the technicality of illegality is not a subject I am unwilling to discuss, but it has to be a careful conversation between open-hearted individuals; one side tends to be considered thieves and the other side tends to argue about unavailability, non-injury to involved parties, and how money would not be exchanged regardless. It is a topic best served with specific parameters, otherwise it devolves into side issues that become circular, while rising the temperatures for each debating party. Thus, the topic would have to be addressed more specifically and not as broadly, in order to come to any conclusions, much less agreements.)
Also, since I don't think I've said it, welcome to the site and thanks for the posts!
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