To Emulate Or Not To Emulate, This Is The Question
Deciding to play on real retro console or emulation is one divisive issue. There are good reasons to go with one over the other. In my case, I go for emulation for the most part, for many reasons I will outline in this article. That’s not to say that playing on real hardware is wrong, this is just my personal take on the matter. While I clearly take the side of emulation, I will do my best to be fair to real hardware.
By emulation, I am only talking about software emulation here. So hardware emulators with FPGA like mister are out of the scope of this piece (although they are a great option that can give you the best of both worlds).
Now let’s get started!
Quickly go to:-
Emulation Is Very Accessible & Cheap
This is one of the most obvious reasons for preferring emulation over real hardware. Emulation is very accessible to anyone. You can emulate retro games with the computer or phone you already own. And it can take you a long way. It’s not unheard of for a mid-PC to emulate consoles up to the GameCube, if not the original Xbox, and often at higher resolution & good frame rate. Even an old phone allows you to play retro games & provides you with access to thousands of games (well, hundreds if you are curating). Since emulating every console up to the Dreamcast doesn’t require much power (granted, some consoles like the Nintendo 64 may not be perfect, but the most known games are very playable).
Since you can totally use what you already own, emulation is very cheap & costs nothing to get into emulation. If you choose to emulate on your phone, then you can play these games anywhere, making emulation even more accessible. Smaller controllers like the 8bitdo Micro make this quite convenient.
With emulation, you don’t have to go hunting for deals on eBay or flea markets. If you want to play, say, Rules of Rose, you can find it & emulate it very easily (although multicarts & the many forms of hacking solve this problem for real hardware enthusiasts).
The Experience Is Mostly About The Games
Many real console enthusiasts say they like the experience of putting the cartridge in, holding the controller, and sitting in front of TV just like the old days. It’s a valid point of view, and I totally understand it. There were times I totally enjoyed that, but for me, retro gaming is about playing the older games themselves. I can live without feeling the original controller in my hands. The only original part of the original experience I would be missing is how some games look fantastic on a CRT. Filters may help with that to a degree.
Sometimes emulators do things differently in a subtle way, like drawing the screen in a different way. Such differences don’t matter. In some rare cases, emulators do a bad job, like failing to draw an important shadow that’s crucial to the gameplay. I rarely, if ever, encounter such issues.
I Don’t Notice The Lag
One of the key advantages of real hardware is the low latency, which is supposed to allow you to play better. While I don’t deny any of that, I find myself totally able to play games & finish them on emulators without much of an issue. It’s as if the latency doesn’t exist. It could be I am playing on mature emulators, or maybe I am too used to emulators.
Even with some latency, there are many games where that doesn’t matter. Like turn-based RPGs & the like.
Emulation Gives Me Super Powers, Muwahaha
It’s well known that emulation gives you features we wouldn’t have dreamed of back in the day. The most notable one is save states. It can be very convenient to save your game anytime you want to quit. It also allows you to save before every difficult encounter. Let’s face it, some of the older games can be hard & frustrating. One of my favorite uses of save states is to use them to train myself to get better at my favorite games. I did that with Splatterhouse 2, one of my favorite oldies. I do that by simply creating a save state at the beginning of the level or boss fight I am practicing & playing the stage again & again. That made me become very good at the game for the most part. I did this with other games too.
Aside from save states, there are other features with emulation, like rewind & fast forward (which is useful for skipping cutscenes), and even slow-motion, which I used in Madou Monogatari, since the text in the intro goes too fast.
I fully beat Pokémon Stadium 1 back in the day on real hardware, with the help of the pokemons I trained in Pokémon Yellow. One of the parts that gave me a really hard time was the Pika cup in R2. Not only was it difficult, but the opponents used some pokemons that cannot be obtained at such low levels without glitches or Gameshark. What made it even harder is that in generation 1, you can only use a TM once, so I had to replay the game over & over. Then use these precious TMs to train pokemons I was only going to use on that cup. That kinda limited the movesets of the pokemons I used. I remember my main was a level 20 Butterfree with confusion as the main attack move. I am aware that made it even harder for me, but I couldn’t waste a psychic TM there. I already used thunder, blizzard & a few others.
Now I am an adult with access to emulators. There are more ways to play Pokémon Stadium. Some emulators, like Project64 allow you to emulate the transfer pack with a save file. Even better, you can use a save file editor like Rhydon to edit a Pokemon Yellow save (which you can create using an emulator). That made it possible to create pokemons from scratch, with the highest EVs possible. That made replaying that cursed Pika Cup so much fun. Not only could I use any moves I wanted, but I could also get any Pokémon at low level. In one of my runs, I used a level 20 Articuno to wreack havoc on the opponents. The save editor allows you to add any move to any Pokémon, so say hello to Alakazam with Flamethrower, or Starmie that could transform like Ditto.
I don’t know if there’s a way to transfer the edited Pokémon Yellow save to real hardware. It would be cool to have that.
I Prefer Emulation, But There Are Exceptions
While I certainly prefer emulation all the way, there are some exceptions to this rule. The first is modern handhelds. I own both the PS Vita & 3DS, and I play with them from time to time. I totally love holding the handheld & enjoy the experience. Especially with the lovely OLED screen of the PS Vita. In the case of the 3DS, the dual-screen experience is so much fun to emulate on a computer. I actually started emulating Pokémon Ultra Moon on my PC long ago, and the emulation worked well, but it felt like a waste to play the game that way, so I ordered a 3DS along with a copy of Pokémon Ultra Moon, and I played it that way instead.
I do own the original Game Boy, Game Boy Color & Game Boy Advance, but I don’t use them because I hate their lack of backlight (I am aware you could mod them, but still).
Another exception is the Nintendo 64. While I exclusively play Pokémon Stadium & Zelda on an emulator, most of my Nintendo 64 gaming happens on real hardware, with a Samsung CRT I have had since I was in elementary school. I just love that console. Not to mention how glitchy its emulation can get (although Nintendo 64 emulation has come a long way, so don’t skip it).
To this day, I still use the Wii U to play Splatoon using Pretendo. I am a fan of the gamepad. I think that console is underrated. I hope it gets the recognition it deserves someday.
I am sure many emulation fans have exceptions. Like using a real Wii with the Wiimote instead of trying to get it working via Dolphin (which is totally possible if you bought the right Bluetooth dongle).
And Finally
I am aware this is a topic many people are divided on. The reaction to this article was a bit toxic on Reddit. But that shouldn’t matter. Play with what you want & what gives you the experience you want. Just like I go with emulation but still have exceptions to my “emulation first” rule.
I hope you found this opinion piece fun & useful to read, and see you with another Tech Fairy article. Check out the mobile apps I developed, which I hope you find useful & interesting.