How many of you play emulated games

[Team Andromeda]

yeah i love playing the old games, i originally got the neo emu so i could sheepdip for the games i wanted to buy

now i rather boot up the emu than set up my neo system, cant be bothered getting it all out

Same here mate.
Saves me getting out my Mega Drive and Snes games. So I just play most of them on the X-Box. My Amgia and ST, ZX Spectrum have long gone (had to make room). So play them on emu as well.

Plus EMU is great to Play Arcade games that were never ported

[Kubrick]

most people only play old games via emulation

Visit the GameFAQs board for a newly-released GBA game and that argument gets blown out of the water...

[monkeymook]

I've really enjoyed my snes and amiga emulators and agree that emulation can be like a VGmuseum. I play my pcengine emulator daily, the soldier series of games are the bollocks. I bought Ikaruga becuase I had been getting into V-shmups through emu, and I'm currently looking for SuperStarSoldier for gamecube, which I wouldnt have been if not for the emu, and if anymore soldier games come out on gamecube i'll be getting those too. Does no-one else play pce emu?

[Pacman555]

Yep, I've always liked emulators, esp now I've got a Nokia 7610 and I can play a Megadrive emulator on the bus .

[Yakumo]

companies like Sega could archive all their old games as roms online and sell them like itunes does music 99p/a couple of quid a download or sommet with scans of the manuals and stuff

Sega already do a service like this in Japan. You can download Saturn or Mega Drive / CD games to play on your PC via a Sega Emulator.

Yakumo

[Leon Retro]

Why are videogame publishers so stingy with their retro game paks?

Putting a few really old games on a CD for ?20-30 is blatantly a piss take.

Through emulation we all know that you can fit 4000 games on a DVD. If Konami, Capcom, Namco and the like want to sell retro games they need to make them more appealing. Maybe having a really cool interface and a lot of info on the titles as well as many extras. I want all the classics, and that includes 90's 3D titles, not a CD that contains at least 25% obsure average games.

Isn't recording the radio and tv illegal? If it is, then everyone should be sent to prison now, except the weird hermits in the hills of wales that have never seen one of those magic glowing boxes.

[Lyle]

I definitely agree with you on that, kingston lj. I would prefer to have "official" emulation myself. I resort to M.A.M.E 32 because there is no alternative (well, apart from owning PCBs). And as you said, the lack of arcade retro compilation is all the more frustrating that it would be so easy to take, say, 50 or 60 pieces of code, design an interface, put all that on a CD and sell it for 30-40 euros. If Konami, Irem, Taito, Namco, Capcom or Sega did it, they would do thousands of retrogamers a favour and I think they could some money. It's profitable for everybody.

By the way, I heard that Taito plan to release something like that but with 20 titles or so.

[monkeymook]

Originally Posted by Smegaman companies like Sega could archive all their old games as roms online and sell them like itunes does music 99p/a couple of quid a download or sommet with scans of the manuals and stuff

Sega already did this yada yada #4, ever wish you'd never asked smegaman?

[bangaio]

oh ffs - you're right it is boring, but theft is theft, yes your remedies are different but you dont own the 1s and 0s. Get it?
I emulate, i have some roms, and translation so i am holding modified IP too but all i was saying is how the law stands and no matter what people say to find their way around it it is illegal.

[baad bwoy]

oh ffs - you're right it is boring, but theft is theft, yes your remedies are different but you dont own the 1s and 0s. Get it?
I emulate, i have some roms, and translation so i am holding modified IP too but all i was saying is how the law stands and no matter what people say to find their way around it it is illegal.

In some ways you have a point, but the way you are expressing yourself here, sounds harsh and accusatory, that might be why your posts are getting the responses they are.

[bangaio]

agreed, that's the web for you! All along and in the other thread I have specificaly pointed out that all I am trying to do is clear the bs about owning games already, downloading for 24 hours, try before you buy etc. as there is so much of it, the law is very very clear. Similarly i have in most posts been very clear about the fact that i am not debating the moral issues, or accusing or having a go, just drawing everyone to the actual facts. I think most people when they understand copyright law are surprised by it but thats cool, it's all cool.

Still give me a real snes and tv any day though ;-)

[endo]

Well pointing out the ins and outs of copyright law is all well and good, but I think most people are under no illusions as to the legality of it anyway- they just couldn't care less.

Why would they? We're not talking about something that really matters in the grand scheme of things here.

[bangaio]

No...people are confused, the firt post of this thread stated that the question relates to playing them without owning the originals and feeling guilty - this is still illegal. Of course it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, i never stated that it did just there is so much crap floating around about using roms that it defies belief especially when the law is clear. End of - i hope.

[Duddyroar]

Why are videogame publishers so stingy with their retro game paks?

Putting a few really old games on a CD for ?20-30 is blatantly a piss take.

Through emulation we all know that you can fit 4000 games on a DVD. If Konami, Capcom, Namco and the like want to sell retro games they need to make them more appealing. Maybe having a really cool interface and a lot of info on the titles as well as many extras. I want all the classics, and that includes 90's 3D titles, not a CD that contains at least 25% obsure average games.

Amen to that my friend.

I never fails to amaze me how videogame companies choose to ignore the 'retro' market. If you look at the music and film/TV markets, companies are re-releasing old films, TV shows and albums every week. The biggest albums and films are always 'in print' so to speak, and continue to sell in modest numbers. Ok, so they won't top the charts but considering the films/albums are already recorded and 'paid for', it's bonus points for the respective companies who release them.

Now why don't videogame companies do this?

Ok, so it's not as easy as finding the master copy and spinning off a few copies - the hardware that runs older games is now no longer in production. However, as it has already been pointed out, an emulator of some kind could easily be produced to run the games perfectly. We know this is possible because it's being done now! Companies just need to take it seriously. For those of us who take our hobby seriously, playing 'old' games is all part of the fun, just like sticking a copy of 'London Calling' by The Clash, or watching Star Wars for the 1,000,000th time, or sticking Black Adder in your DVD player. Just because it's old doesn't mean people don't want to experience it any more. The music/film/tv markets re-release products because they're considered as 'artforms'. Videogames are not, and that has to change.

Sticking a handful of obscure games on a disc is not the way to go about it. We could have single-game re-releases of the classic titles (Mario 64, Zelda, Sonic, etc) for under a fiver. Or we could go the other way and stick 100+ of Sega's classic arcade releases on one disc and roll it out for under a tenner. I think the ?20 price point of many of these retro packages is too high, even if it is less than a full-price game. However having said that, I would gladly pay full whack for a disc containing Sega's 2D arcade hits (I need to play a decent home version of Golden Axe: The Revenge of Death Adder before I die.)

However I feel like we're pissing in the wind here. I can't see companies taking the retro market seriously for a while yet. Games are seen as a 'fad' and in spite of all the work that has done to bring gaming to the 'mature' masses, videogames are still seen as something that people 'grow out of' (unlike films and music). Until this viewpoint is changed, retro gaming will be seen as nothing but a fad as well.

[Blu3Flame]

I like the way everyone brings up "sega should do this and that" when infact they are the one company actively using emulators and supporting the emulation/retro scene. You can pick up all old SEGA PC games on budget re-release in any gamestore, and they released packs of their old games on the PC under the Sega Smash/Puzzle Pack titles and also again on the Dreamcast under Sega Smash Pack, and I believe they did something similar with the sonic titles for the Gamcube.