Emulation. What are your thoughts on it?

[Ocarina Stealer]

Do you use emulators? If so is it for your own game discs or do you download ISOs? Or are you opposed to emulation? If so what is your argument against it?

Emulation is very big at the moment and there are a lot of emulators dedicated to consoles of the past. One of the biggest emulators around is Dolphin which emulates both Wii and Gamecube games. I use Dolphin fairly regularly myself. Usually it's for games I have already but sometimes I get an ISO off the internet but only if the price range for a physical copy is over 100 euro. Because there is no way I am paying in excess of 100 euro for a used 10-20 year old game.

But the main thing is what you think. Discuss down below.

 

[Suzukipot]

Yes, I use emulators. My stance is basically only using emulators for games that I haven't bought yet or games that I can't own because they haven't been released in the Sates yet (for example, Mother 3) Once I actually buy the game, I delete it from my ROM files.

 

[Ionsword]

I'll only use emulation/ISO if I've bought the game in any fashion (Disk or Digital). I'am personally strict when it come to emulation due to the grey areas that come with it.

 

[Pachinkosam]

I love emulators i use nintendont, neo geo emulators, PlayStation 1 and 2 why buy games you don't have to worry about losing it and getting scratched.

 

[FamilyTeam]

Not only do I use them, but I also think people have zero right to judge you if you use them. First, I actually own 90% or more of the videogames I emulate, I play them to preserve my real consoles. Second, I mostly emulate arcade games, and I'm sure all of you noticed by now there's not many of them around (when they are, it's MAME anyway), só it's either play them like that or not at all, which would you realistically choose? Lastly, sometimes I emulate consoles because I have no access to them. I had to emulate the Dreamcast for years despite having one simply because I didn't know where it was.

 

[DPKdebator]

Like many of the other posters here, I'm pro-emulation. I use Dolphin, and on it I have Brawl, Project M, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and Newer Super Mario Bros. Wii. All the games were legally bought and burned with CleanRip, so I don't see any harm in emulation.

 

[Rage NF]

Well I used various Emulator in the past like Snes to play DBZ Games which never was released outside japan like Buttoden and Hyper Dimension, Nes I couldn't find a console to play my favorite games back then Super Mario and Kirby; all Sega console the same for Sonic, Altered beast, Hang-on and YS and Game Boy for Wario, Pokemon and Yu-Gi-OH Games; some games wasn't available here and I didnt like to play on Small Screen Back then.

 

[Minato]

I admit to using them. Because of it, I've actually been exposed to so many series I probably would have never encountered or experience. I won't say that this justifies piracy or that it helps sales though, I find it silly that people use that as their main argument to support it. I have used it far less now though due to a number of things. First and foremost, I'm much older now so I'm able to buy the things I want for the most part. 2nd is that the number of things to emulate are going down due to difficulty. I'm also not someone who goes out of their way to get extra things so I can play games off of SD cards or whatever for my Nintendo handhelds.

I think the stuff I mostly use it for now (as far as newer releases go) are games that are imports or have a translation patch. Even then, I import a lot of stuff still.

 

[NightmareViperSlash]

I don't know if people are going to take this in a bad way, well I have been emulating since I was thirteen when I first heard of it. During that time my parents were limited with money so I had no other way to play retro games since they were given away in California where I first lived. Only two consoles I kept were my SNES with two games and a GBC with my Pokemon Red Version. But currently I continue to use emulators since I find them convenient to use. I own most of the games in real life now (since I have a job), but I continue to play games I don't own mostly because it's because I am curious, very unlikely to buy it (rare games like Conker's Bad Fur Day), making let's play (easier to record and better quality), rom hacking (many custom games to play from), and testing out series that I haven't heard of. So personally I don't find a problem with emulators, they are convenient.

 

[FalKoopa]

I have emulated a lot of games, because most games are simply impossible to buy legally and those that can be bought (basically Mario & Pokémon) cost 30% more than the US retail price, which puts them beyond what I can afford.

Being able to play hacks, use save-states and mess around in general is a plus, too.

 

[ZafKiel]

Emulators are cool but the tradeoff is you don't get the full experience. I'm emulating Megaman Zero on my phone and it's pretty much impossible to play without the feedback of physical buttons. But emulation is almost a must since finding a good copy of Melee is hard and will probably cost a ton.

 

[Ocarina Stealer]

But emulation is almost a must since finding a good copy of Melee is hard and will probably cost a ton.

Well damn. I got my copy for £20 .

 

[ThatsBullocks]

I only use PC emulation when I absolutely have to. Essentially, that boils down to games I don't own or have a way of playing well on a console (e.g. Nintendont, Everdrive, Wii WAD or homebrew emulator, etc).

The only reason I wouldn't use PC emulation much is because my laptop is a wimp; can't even run Melee smoothly at original GCN resolution.

 

[Sari]

I usually emulate only if the game is unavailable to purchase, or if I've already purchased the game before.

 

[FamilyTeam]

Although I did say earlier I do emulate, I must admit I infinitely prefer playing on the original console, yes.
You shouldn't believe what the developers tell you: No emulator is 100% perfect.

• You can't look at N64, Dreamcast and PS2 emulation and say that's anywhere near complete.
  
• To this day, NES, SNES and Mega Drive emulators have sound issues.
• Arcade emulators (even dedicated ones such as M2 for the Model 2 arcades) still have trouble with textures, sounds and occasionally even framerate.
• Also, you can't use accessories in emulators, if that wasn't obvious enough. If you emulate lightgun games, you're gonna have to use a mouse instead of the gun, assuming your emulator even allows that, and it really isn't the same experience. You can't use any of the special controllers, no nothing.

I still like emulation, but if your consoles are alive and kicking and you don't feel like preserving them, you really have no reason to emulate a machine you already have.

 

[KevN くコ:彡]

Emulation is also a good way to try out games before you buy them. Most of my current Dreamcast games I bought because I tried them out on an emulator.

 

[ZafKiel]

Well damn. I got my copy for £20 .

I would kill for a deal like that LOL. Most ones I'm finding are 60$ minimum.

 

[Spak]

I emulate makes that I own, and refuse to emulate anything besides that.

I won't say that this justifies piracy or that it helps sales though, I find it silly that people use that as their main argument to support it

I second this. Let's just look up the best-selling game of last year and find how much money they lost due to pirating. Look at the numbers for how much money from 2014 was lost in the video game industry because of pirating:

http://gearnuke.com/video-game-piracy-rise-will-cost-industry-much-makes/#

For those of you unwilling to read the article, the numbers are $73.1 billion pirated vs $83.6 billion in revenue. Games are being pirated nearly as much as games are being bought, and while it would be foolish to think the revenue of the video game industry would double if pirating were eliminated, the industry's profits would still go up a lot. Someone could make an argument about a 10-15 year old game being emulated not doing significant damage to the industry (unless there is a way to buy a copy from the manufacturer), but emulating a game that just came out will cripple the industry and people who buy the game legitimately feel cheated because their neighbor got the same experience for $60 less. Saying that you'll buy a game if you like it is all fine and dandy, but if you play a good amount of time on any game illegally and refuse to buy it, you're no better than someone who never intended to get the game in the first place.

 

[LeifEriksson]

I only use emulators for romhacks and games I own. In the past I used them all the time and now I feel guilty, so now i'm trying to buy some of the games I emulated a lot.

 

[Babycowland]

I guess you could say I'm opposed to emulation. I think there are definitely arguments to be made that emulating certain games (i.e., those that can't be bought anymore or that were never released in your language but have fan translations now) makes a certain amount of sense. I also understand that some people emulate games they own too.

But even if some people emulate games they own, having emulators allows people who don't own and have no intention of owning games to play them without paying for them. I don't really think that's ethical, especially for new games which are still readily available. I get that games can be pretty expensive. That's unfortunate. I don't think it justifies emulation/piracy though...

 

[Reila]

I love emulation. I have been emulating games since ~2004 or so. I remember emulating Majora's Mask and finishing it over and over again back in the mid 00s. Recently I haven't been emulating much, since Steam games are keeping me busy, as well as Splatoon on the Wii U, but I still beat Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime, for the second time each, on Dolphin last year. I wanted to experience these two fantastic games with better visuals and improvements the Wii would never be able to offer. And I did pay for my Wii and for my games, so I have absolutely no shame in emulating. Playing Super Mario Galaxy with better IQ (image quality) was so good. Also, playing Shadow of the Colossus with resolutions the PS2 could only dream on reaching was amazing. I love that game and I was happy to play it in greater conditions. I could go on, the list of games I replayed on emulators is fairly long. I only really avoid emulating handheld games, because in my opinion, it tends to hurt my enjoyment with the games.

Emulation is amazing.

Also, I would like to clarify somefin. Even if someone download games illegally to emulate, that IS NOT theft. Yes,. it is considered a crime, a wrong and imoral thing to do and I will not argue about that, but they are still not stealing anything from anyone. It is a different crime.

 

[Spak]

Also, I would like to clarify somefin. Even if someone download games illegally to emulate, that IS NOT theft. Yes,. it is considered a crime, a wrong and imoral thing to do and I will not argue about that, but they are still not stealing anything from anyone. It is a different crime.

You're stealing something without paying the owner or having permission to use the product; that's pretty much the definition of theft.

 

[SimonBarSinister]

I don't use any emulators currently, though I have, at one point or another, expressed interest in using them to play games I've wanted in the past, or games that I've enjoyed playing before but don't have any access to anymore. Though legal implications are the primary reason why I haven't indulged in using them.

 

[Murlough]

This seems like a decent topic in the debate hall.

I use an emulator for the DS and GBA games I can't play anymore but thats pretty much it. Since I've got my own 3ds I don't even bother with it anymore.

 

[Bassoonist]

I do not use emulators. I do not believe in them. I suppose it was just the values I had instilled in me. It's just a matter of fact that Nintendo and other companies have not licensed these titles to be downloaded to be used through emulators. They have licensed them to be used only in the way they were originally released.

I am not one to get onto people for emulating games that are not likely to/will never make it to the US, like Mother 3. However, even in those cases, I can not bring myself to get an emulator and download them. It feels so intrinsically wrong to me.

 

[Cheerilee]

Just want to put it out there these are all independent categories:

1. Breaking a copyright claim.
2. Endorsing a product that breaks a copyright claim.
3. Utilizing a product that breaks a copyright claim.
   
4. Committing a right or wrong action.
5. Committing a moral or amoral action.
6. Being a moral or amoral person.

If there's any other caveats people want to make that I somehow missed please let me know so I can update the list e.g.

"I use an emulator but..."
"I don't use emulators but..."

 

[Fox who?]

I rarely use emulators. I mainly use them for games I used to play a ton but don't own anymore (Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, for example) or for ssb64 netplay (which I rarely use anymore). The only games I'll regularly emulate anymore is the original mario and galaga. I try to buy games I want to play for a number of reasons:

1. The experience of playing on the authentic console is leagues above emulating. Emulating is much less user-friendly, despite so many advances in the field.

2. I love the hype of finding and buying a game I want way too much. In fact, that is sometimes the most enjoyable part for me. Getting a hold of an original copy of SSB64, Ocarina of Time, and Shootout (Atari) were all heartstopping and super-hype.

3. I simply lost interest after a while. I lost the desire to keep on emulating. I got caught up in other games, not to mention the fact that the rest of my time is caught up in college and work.

I suppose in the future, I'd emulate some more again, but for now, I think it's a poor substitute for the real thing. I don't think it's a bad thing to emulate. I would categorize myself as pro-emulator. However, emulation is not nearly as good, smooth, or enjoyable as the real thing.

 

[Cheerilee]

Fox who? An emulation, however, is not synonymous with using an emulator. Take for example the Ocarina Stealer 's starting post that mentions ISO files which can be taken from a game e.g. The Legend of Dragoon or Final Fantasy IX and port them to be mounted and played on a PSP. The experience in playing these games on a PSP is highly attuned to the inputs from the PSP and feel intuitive to the initial inputs you would put into a Playstation Controller. In addition, there is the option to play emulators on the computer through a controller input. Although this isn't an "authentic" experience considering the hardware interface is different, presuming there is no changes in graphics or processing then the experience is comparable, if not identical save for the interface that is used.

As for the later point that emulating is less user-friendly, it is relative to the competency of the user in question considering how well adept they are to adapting to the many advances in the field. There are some people that never scale into some of the most user friendly applications like word processors or still have difficulty navigating through a GUI interface. Keep in mind that MS DOS was a predecessor to GUI interfaces that increased the ease of user interface and reduced the complexity of operating systems.

 

[ArikadoSD]

Considering how ridiculously hard it is to get old games, I emulate very frequently. In fact, I'm currently playing GBA Fire Emblem titles on an emulator using my phone.

 

[LunarWingCloud]

For me it depends on the game and the system but a vast majority of the time the answer is no. I'd rather have a genuine system to play the game on. However if the game in question is kinda hard to get or too expensive online, and it's for an old system that can be emulated easily, I might go for it. But for anything on a Nintendo system I've seen absolutely no need to emulate because the libraries are almost constantly compatible with older systems or getting an older system is easy as hell to do. But for like SEGA games on anything that's not a Genesis, yeah, I might turn to it. Just as an example.

It comes down to
1) do I really want to play X game?
2) do I have a properly function emulator to play X game, and cannot get the system and the physical game itself to play it properly?
3) do I REALLY want to play X game?

 

[Fox who?]

Cheerilee Call it personal bias, I just don't think it feels the same. Data-wise, the ISO is spot on. I guess it just bothers me a bit.