What is your opinion on Emulators?

[blexmer]

As a vastly gaming oriented Forum, i am sure some one on here uses Emulators of some sort for games that are hard to come by.
so i'm curious. what are all of your opinions on use of it.
are the older generations and that acceptable, or are they simply bad no matter what the system?

[Inu]

When I emulate, it's older systems. Like N64, Gameboy, etc. I don't see the point of emulating a newer console.

[Mellusia]

I think emulation of systems and game no longer in production won't be doing much harm except potentially to your PCs.

I myself personally don't do it, but I'm not really a crusader or anything against it. If no legit retailers are selling the systems and or games, and you can only find it from eBay and other over-priced gouging areas, the money won't be going to the original companies anyways.

But if you can still find the system and games at a reasonable price, even from second party retailers, I do think that's probably better than fudging up your PC.

[blexmer]

personally i am one who feels like all the older gen consoles are acceptable, cause they arent being used anymore. pretty much anything past PS1 is to new, but i was curious as to what people thought of them.

[Rivey]

I think the older system emulators like NES, SNES, Gameboy, etc, are fine to use, because yes, they are rarely used anymore and are no longer coming out with the particular system and games for it.
Anything that is still releasing titles and selling consoles, like PS2 and onward, I would say no.

I actually just deleted my emulators and whatnot a few days ago to free up space on my hard drive. I had SNES and N64 ones, but I hadn't used them in a couple years so they went bye-bye.

[Oxymoron]

I voted the last option, which makes me sound like a tyrant, but I really just disapprove mildly of emulators. It's true that some old games that're out of production are fine emulated. I just personally dislike it.

[Casanova]

Personally I find it hard to believe that selling video games and consoles on eBay is legal. Surely that's taking money away from companies.

I think emulation should be fine if the companies are no longer making these consoles and the games that go with them, because then the only alternative is to buy the console from someone that no longer wants it. When that happens, someone is making profit from the companies, and that's surely worse than downloading the console.

In short:
Consoles and games that are still in production, no. Otherwise, download to your heart's content. But that's just my opinion on how things should work.

[Fuyumine]

Well, you all know my stance on emulation, especially considering I'm the Emu King 'round these parts.

But since I like to run off at the jibs:

One of the reasons it is so important to go out and purchase games is the same reason it is important to buy music: it keeps the culture alive and kicking. Sure, there would still be tons of video games even if we did stop giving our money away to GameStop and the like — but that is an entirely different post in itself (I'll start a thread on that, soon). But the point is, we keep the culture alive, and the limitations of gaming will continue to expand beyond our wildest imaginations.

But these days it only helps to shell out your dough for NewGen stuff. Once a new console comes out, the previous generation has a life expectancy of about six months to a year. You'll see a bunch of companies grinding out a few games while the console makes it death rattle, but that's about it. Once everyone's got their hands on the new stuff, that old system's pretty much done for. Companies start ending production of the previous system's games, leaving gamers to seek other means of getting their hands on games they'd never got a chance to play, or to re-buy them.

In comes GameStop and Ebay. Both of these businesses specialize in selling you used stuff at a discounted price, and that's what people want—discounts. It ain't FREE, but it's next best thing. The developers and publishers of these games aren't seeing a dime of these profits, and they never will. Hell, they don't even care that they will, to be honest. Look on your favorite developer's website and check out their store. 9 times out of 10, you're not going to find an OldGen game on there, that's because they're more worried about you buying their newer, more expensive games.

So, at this point...why not emulate the game? Unless you're the type of OCD gamer that has to have the hard copy of every game you own (it's OK, I'm like that when it comes to music) there's no real reason not to emulate, quite frankly. That might seem ridiculous, but if you've read everything I've written you can't disagree.

Or can you?! Dun dun DUUUNNN!!!

But seriously, you're not obligated to own the hard copy of a game when the developers aren't going out of their way to sell it to you, and when buying the hard copy isn't going to make anyone else but the nerd selling to you profit.

If you feel that bad, PlayStation Store, XBox Live, and the Wii...store thing have a bunch of classic games that they've re-released, some even got prettied up with NewGen graphics! Otherwise, emulate until you pass out!

[Doubt]

If the game can't be played on PSN, or Virtual Console, and it is not current gen (anything below PS2, plus GameCub), then go for it. I like to own a copy (I still buy new, sealed GB and GBA games), but especially when it comes down to translation patches (ie: Innocent Sin), I don't mind emulating it on my PSP or PC.

[blexmer]

Well, i feel alot better about my geek status now. 6 out of 8 people agree with me. 1 completely opposes what i see, and 1 goes farther. XD.

[BlackJack]

I emulate GBA/GBC/GBP, SNES and N64.

[Viorahn Ehllenfort]

I'm using an emulator to try out a Fire Emblem game, other than that, don't use.

[Catgrenade]

I emulate SNES, GBA, and a little bit of PS2.

My opinion on it? I try to buy a copy if it's easily accessible, plus, not new gen stuff.

[Fatal Impurity]

My opinion on things is that everything is acceptable as long as you can cope with the stupid amount of glitches and problems you get with the newer emulators.

I personally don't play anything higher than a PS1 emulator purely because the emulators are just NOT upto scratch, it's an unavoidable problem. When a new system comes out, they start work on an emulator but it takes them around 5-6 years to get that emulator to a playable state which is the lifespan of the console anyway. Hell the Gamecube STILL hasn't been emulated to a point where me and my friends can have a bash on Super Smash Bro's Melee and not throw our PC pads across the room in glitch influenced rage's. By the time you play on the highly complex Xbox 360 it will probably be in bargain bins everywhere for like 20 quid.

So there you have it, the coder's aren't geniuses so the big companies really have nothing to worry about. So if you can play an emulator do it, but I think I'll be sticking to my hard copy of Final Fantasy 12 for a while yet.

[Catgrenade]

My opinion on things is that everything is acceptable as long as you can cope with the stupid amount of glitches and problems you get with the newer emulators.

I personally don't play anything higher than a PS1 emulator purely because the emulators are just NOT upto scratch, it's an unavoidable problem. When a new system comes out, they start work on an emulator but it takes them around 5-6 years to get that emulator to a playable state which is the lifespan of the console anyway. Hell the Gamecube STILL hasn't been emulated to a point where me and my friends can have a bash on Super Smash Bro's Melee and not throw our PC pads across the room in glitch influenced rage's. By the time you play on the highly complex Xbox 360 it will probably be in bargain bins everywhere for like 20 quid.

So there you have it, the coder's aren't geniuses so the big companies really have nothing to worry about. So if you can play an emulator do it, but I think I'll be sticking to my hard copy of Final Fantasy 12 for a while yet.

That's why you use something like ESR, where you're actually running it on your PS2.

The only problem I've had with it so far is that Gitaroo Man doesn't run ;~;

[Darkside]

Although I know emulation is a bit wrong in my opinion I can't resist them.I usually don't have an emulator older than snes I use the wii and ps2 emulators to see if a game is really worth buying.I'm not a fan of buying used games but i want to try a game first before I buy it so thats why I use emulators kind of a stupid excuse but thats just me.So in the end although I know its bad and its taking money away from some video game companies I would rather not end up giving them my money for a horrible game.

[mian_afi143]

I'm not really a crusader or anything against it. If no legit retailers are selling the systems and or games, and you can only find it from eBay and other over-priced gouging areas, the money won't be going to the original companies anyways.

[mian_afi143]

i am sure some one on here uses Emulators of some sort for games that are hard to come by.
so i'm curious. what are all of your opinions on use of it. what are all of your opinions on use of it.
and you can only find it from eBay and other over-priced gouging areas, the money won't be going to the original companies anyways. PS1 emulator purely because the emulators are just NOT upto scratch