Where do you see the emulation scene going in a few years?

[XpOsUrE]

I myself see it getting more, and more into 3d, and eventually in the upcoming years will emulate the rest of the arcade games before the arcades die off, and will eventually become fully console based due to lack of arcades, I also see the emualtion scene getting even more inflatted with people who are just leechers so to speak...sadly :( , so where do you see the emulation scene in a few years???

[DogP]

I see near perfect emulation for older systems, and of course decent emulation for newer systems, but I think the emulation for the newer systems will be less popular because the games suck for the most part... and there will be more homebrew for the older systems since emulation will make it much easier. Well... maybe that's not how it's gonna go, but that's what I hope at least... and it does seem like it is leaning a little bit that way now...

DogP

[zektor]

I see the 3-D arcade games being emulated perfectly in the near future, as PC's just keep getting faster and faster. Older game console emulation is just about perfect as it stands right now, but I wouldn't rule out many of these emulators having to be re-written someday due to the fact that they will not run correctly on the newer machines. Sort of like how legacy DOS programs have a hard time running (or will not run at all) in a Win32 environment. I think emulation of newer game consoles...that is today's consoles....being emulated to a reasonable state within the next 5 years. As long as there is something to emulate, this scene will always be around! :)

[XpOsUrE]

Oh and also on a downside I see quite a bit of negative attention being brought to the emulation scene due to the newer systems being emulated ( WHICH BY THE WAY I DON"T AGREE WITH ) though once more the emulation scene will over come.

[The Unknown Gamer]

Where are video games headed? My answer is this there was this British
SciFi series called Red Dwarf (a very funny series) In two episodes of that
series they spoof videogames (but I say now making a prediction) in
Better than Life and Gunmen of the Aplocypse they saw total emersion
videogames where you are litterally in the game. I say give technollogy
another 25 years you to will have fun with your groinal attechment

[TheRedEye]

As more alternatives become available, and people who know how to program their way out of a paper bag become more discriminating, I see support for Windows emulation dying in the next five years or so. Consoles, handhelds, and *nix boxes will pretty much be it.

[Isometric_Bacon]

I still think the retro-arcade emulation communities will thrive. There will be plenty of purists like us who grew up playing these games that will not simply leave them be once new systems are in. C'mon, how many of us still play games that were made pre-1995? I know I do, more than I do games post 1995.

Generally coders themselves have good morals, and the emulation of "newer" consoles will probably be restricted to the Dreamcast as the next "major" emulator, and perhaps some of the newer Sega arcades. I don't think emulators for the PS2/Xbox/GCube will be available (or be very playable, apart from demo's and public domain roms) untill the next generation of systems is well entrenched into society.

I don't however see the emulation scene dying out at all. As long as it's possible, people will want to play these old classics however they can. :)