Poll: Emulation, your thoughts?

[Takoto]

I mostly use emulators for games I can't find anywhere, or games that were released in America but not over here. Like Jet Set Radio Advanced, which I've never seen in shops anywhere.

 

[kaziard]

I love emulators it was ePSXe that let me try ff 7 8 and 9

 

[Woe Is You]

For those of you who don't know, Emulation the term used to define playing console games on the PC.

Eh? Emulation in the computer sense is used for any piece of software that imitates a system. I certainly wouldn't call a C64 a console, nor does DosBox emulate any consoles. There are also plenty of legit uses for emulators that don't involve copying any games but pushing the respective systems to their limit.

In fact, there are whole communities (called the demoscene, FYI) based on this whole idea of pushing an old system to its very limit, programming works of art on them: Like this winning entry of ASM2005. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2szfM-lbLQE] Perfectly legal, awesome and most of all... pretty fun.

When it comes to video games, I don't know what the big deal is. There are a lot of good games that have become collector's items over the years and are exceedingly hard to find. I find nothing wrong emulating a game like that.

 

[Pumpkin_Eater]

Sure, why wouldn't you? It lets you play games that you otherwise couldn't due to availability and hardware decay. I'm also holding out hope that it can beat regional encoding so that I can play a Japan only title I've had my eye on for awhile.

I am being held back from it right now by my computer's capability. When I tried emulating a PS2 game I already owned (RE Outbreak) I got a horrible frame rate and choppy sound.

EDIT: Finished reading the OP and noticed a mistake in it. Emulation is not illegal; piracy, which often goes hand in hand with it, is. The most commonly pirated thing by people doing emulation is game systems' BIOS, which which are copyrighted by the manufacturers. To legally get them for an emulator to run you need to copy them from a console that you legally own using a special program.

 

[varulfic]

I got myself a urb adaptor for my PS2 controller, which I have plugged into my pc and use for my emulation needs. Which is alot, I play more emulated games, NES and SNES then I do regular PC titles. I'm having a blast. Thousands of classic games at my finger tips, played with the best controller ever devised, and it hasn't cost me a cent. Emulation is Gods gift to the lazy cheap nerd.

I've been thinking about acquiring one of those cables or controllers to plug into my PC.

Do it, man. It only costs like ten bucks and I've had more fun with it than I have my Playstation 2. Definitely the best gaming purchase I've done in recent years.

Alternatively, if you've got a PS3, those controllers will work since they can be plugged into a usb socket. My friend tried it and it worked perfectly. I think Xbox controllers use usb aswell.