Emulation vs. "The Real Thing"

[digitalpress]

Sure, this topic has been discussed a million times, but it's recently come up again at the Yahoo Classic Video Games Group and I'd like someone else to answer it for a change!

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/classicvideogames/message/163

[Half Japanese]

I'm about half and half. There's something to be said for hooking up an old system to the tv, but on the other hand it sure as hell is convenient to just click a few times and plug in my ps1~usb adapter and go at it. With emulation, in some cases, come improvements. I love the "painted" look my zSNES is able to achieve for a lot of games, and I know I would never get this sharpness or clarity out of a TV. Online play is awesome as well, since I can open up my emulator and play some Contra with a friend 30 minutes, or even 3000 miles away. Plus I don't have to worry about faulty hardware and controllers (which do happen from time to time, as a side effect of aging electronics). Of course, having actual cartridges lined up on a shelf looks really nice and braggable, but at the end of the day, it's all about how much fun you have while PLAYING THE GAME.

[YoshiM]

I posted to that board just now. I am drm_stgeorge (based on my name and the name of a super hero character I created for a RPG user group) on Yahoo.

[chadtower]

For me, it's more about the hardware than the games when it comes to authenticity. If you can duplicate the hardware feel with an emulator, fine, go with it. If you can't duplicate the feel of the 2600 joystick, the NES controller, the arcade control panel... then, IMO, you've lost half the experience.

In a nutshell: Console games, originals. Arcade games, MAME with real arcade controls.

[SoulBlazer]

I play all the cart based systems (and Sega CD now) on emulation only, for three reasons:

1) I still have the original controllers for most of them with connectors for my system.

2) The quality is better then I could get with the system -- 19 inch monitor, surrond sound system, online play with friends, and homebrews of games.

3) Save States. Enough said. :D

[Retsudo]

Im split between the 2. I like to play some games on mame that can be played with my "Interact propad6". But as everyone knows, a lot of those arcade games need the actual controls to get the right feel. I wish I had all those games as real arcade machines. I only have what Im going to play, so that would make a nice home arcade :D

As for console Emul's, I dont mess with them. I like to have the actual hardware in front of me so I can play it on my 27inch Sony.

[Chunky]

I perfer the hardware as well. It's like collecting coins or bills, coins just feel better in my hand.

On another note, i have never seen anyone get excited on an old-school trip when i pulled out some roms on a disk.

Now when i pull out my old Atari or something to someone that hasn't seen it in years, you bet they are remembering the gold old times! and wanting to play it and possibly get one again.

[maxlords]

My real problem with emulation is that games don't look the same. They're not designed for the resolution of my PC monitor, so they come off looking all bleah. Real thing all the way baby!

[NE146]

These days, it's apples and oranges really.. But I'll say it again: The real thing is best, emulation is convenient.

I really do like playing all sorts of Neo Geo, 2600, Intellivision, Colecovision and arcade games in one convenient Xbox. However, as long as you are aware of WHERE IT FALLS SHORT. i.e. playing Intellivision Baseball on an Xbox controller, or probably the worst traits (hardware differences aside) are the little things that would be hard to catch by someone without knowing. i.e. stuff like garbled/missing sounds, different colors, missing/garbled graphic effects, speed, etc. If you're not aware of those.. you could just accept it "as is" and never realize the original was NOT like that.

Of course most of us here DO know however. So what's the point of emus? Like I said convenience. If I get a hankering for 2600 Tapper or Atari 400/800 Donkey Kong, it's a little easier to play it on my Xbox (or pc) that's already out, vs. breaking out the 2600 or Atari 8-bit, it's controllers, and looking for that particular cart. If I want to show it to someone or really want to play it as it was, of course I WILL do that. But in a pinch, the emu wins especially if it's just for myself. (not to mention it saves wear and tear on my old ass carts and controllers LOL). It's really on a case by case basis. For 2600 Space Invaders and several other games, the xbox controller works great. For several other game (like paddle games, or even joystick games like H.E.R.O) the pad is a poor substitute. It really depends. You take it in stride knowing you can always play the original if you want.

Where emu's really sort of blow though is in Arcade games (especially pre 1984 arcade games).. even if you have the right controller.. you're always going to be missing out as lot of the older machines had dedicated hardware. How can you reproduce the ghostly mirage image of a mirrored monitor? How can you reproduce the vector brightness without a vector monitor (i.e. the shots in Asteroids). How can you get the deep bass and reverberation as it echoes throughout a wooden cabinet in a Space Invader machine. Simple.. YOU CANT :P

[Epicenter]

I prefer to play my MD and NES rather than the equivalent emulators .. the sound emulation is imperfect. The pitch is a tiny bit off on the music, and the FM in the background doesn't sound quite right. The game's music jumps out at me in a nostalgic sense when I hear it from a TV, on the real hardware. It doesn't do that on an emulator.

[Anonymous]

When it comes to MAME nothing beats an Arcade cabinet with an arcade monitor and some tweaked video drivers. It looks and feels the same.

*sighs lovingly while thinking beautiful thoughts about MAME*

As for NES emulators and all that blah; well... Hey what's That!?

*runs away*

[TripppsK]

I like emu's for the games that I particularly dont play that often or possibly havent heard of. If I read some postings or hear about a game I had never played, I like the fact that I can easily get it and try it out. If after playing it I find that I like it, I can always try to get it for my collection.
I consider myself a player who also likes to collect. With emus I dont have to waste money to find out that I dont like a game.

[chadtower]

When it comes to MAME nothing beats an Arcade cabinet with an arcade monitor and some tweaked video drivers. It looks and feels the same.

Yes there is. An arcade cabinet with an arcade monitor and an ArcadeVGA card. Much, much easier and works far, far more reliably.

[NE146]

When it comes to MAME nothing beats an Arcade cabinet with an arcade monitor and some tweaked video drivers. It looks and feels the same.

Lots of times it doesn't. I will once again pull out my oft-used (yes yes I use this all the time.. i know :D) Space Invaders dlx pics.

It's one of the simplest games around. You're telling me it looks the same in a mame cab? I think not ;) Unless of course you snag yourself one of those cardboard backgrounds, light it up nicely and got the image to display itself in a holographic way over it :P


http://www.users.qwest.net/~userid946/invader/inv_D_playfield.jpg

[evilmess]

i stumbled onto console emulation not to long ago and after messing around with it I decided i'd much rather have the real deal, so I started collecting genesis, then snes and so on.

I still use console emulators to archive the games I own and to 'demo' games I want to buy or to see what the buzz is all about after reading a review at 'shmups' or a topic here in this forum or elsewhere. And since I collect japanese games I use it to determine the playability of a foreign language game before I commit to buying.

When I do play a game on a console emulator I usually play a level of two but never the whole game because I'd much rather save the experience for when I own the game and can play it on my console at my tv.

Now in the case of mame I do play a few choice games from time to time and I will most likely have a few installed in my home mame cab along with the games that I actually own because the probabilty of me owning some rad as hell obsure arcade shmup or beat em' up is very low at the moment.

But to be honest, roms are etherware and I'd much rather own a real tangible piece of software (cart, cd, whatever) and then play it on an emu if no real hardware is available.

[Anonymous]

Yes there is. An arcade cabinet with an arcade monitor and an ArcadeVGA card. Much, much easier and works far, far more reliably.
Well yeah, but the end result is the same. Arcade action on an arcade monitor. but thanks for playing!

@NE146 - I agree with you, cabinets do make a big difference. Frogger's a lot more fun on my cocktail cabinet than it is on my upright. But for the most part, my MAME cabinet makes me happy. Just as you said, when it gets right down to it, the original can't be beat, but for convenience, Robotron on my cabinet is a lot closer and cheaper than robotron at the arcade.

[BrAInDeD]

I like both i like the real thing because yeah u can collect them and all but i like emulators because if i wanna just keep the game sealed and unplayed but i still wanna try it all i gotta do is get emulators and roms and TA DA i could play the game without ripping up the box and also the save state is pretty cool (im a slow reader) so sometimes i gotta load state 1000 to read stories that go too fast LOL also i like the way u can take screenshots record movies or record wavs theres all sorts of shit u can do on emus but it will never worth as much as the real copy so yeah.

[Sotenga]

I'm highly pro-emulation. The main reason is that I lack the proper amount of cash to get all of what I want. Hey, I'm unemployed, so that's to be expected. It's not quite the real thing, but emulation is close enough for me. Emulators will do until I end up owning the real thing, and even then, I go back to Castlevania on the FCE Ultra emulator just because I'm too lazy to fire up the NES. The other main reason is that regarding MAME, I'm able to play many games that have not been ported to a home console, or if they have, then the translation sucks badly. Overall, I'm more of a gamer than a collector, so if I have to play the original arcade Rastan on my computer, I'm not adverse to that.

[Dr. Morbis]

I'm anti emulation. I consider emulation to be, like eBay, a necessary evil. It is great for:

-screenshots
-'try before you buy'
-convenience
-playing 'super-rares' that you will never see.

My biggest problem with emulation is SAVE STATES. I hate those. It's like playing a PC strategy game where you can save every 30 seconds. Where's the challenge? Beating ANY game with save states is a foregone conclusion. I like challenging games that take skill, not just time, to beat. With save states it is simply a matter of time.

For me, it's gotta be the real thing.

[badinsults]

Emulation got me into snes gaming, big time. In general, though, I only put significant play into games I own.

[BrAInDeD]

Yeah well morbis when you have a game u can finish in hours but have to go you can just save state i never really download new game emulators just nes and snes basically and most of them dont have save files so i just save it where i left off.

[hezeuschrist]

Emulation got me into snes gaming, big time. In general, though, I only put significant play into games I own.

That's pretty much it. If I want to play a game a lot or see it through to the end, I'll own it. Emulation for me is a one trick pony that doesn't have much appeal to me, because if I wanted to play those games, I would own them. Really. The only thing I greatly enjoy about emulation is online play with kickass oldschool arcade beatemups.

[leonk]

Emulation..

oh.. my favorite evil!

Lets see.. I love collecting NES games.. I've tried to emulate it.. it's not the same as that controller in your hand on that nice big TV.

But with Arcade.. it's a bit different. Some games (the really really old ones, during the learning stages of the arcade era) can never be emulated well (since they use equiptment that can't be replicated today).

But lucky me, I'm a bit too young for those games (i.e. less than 30) and hence don't play them.. don't like them.. don't care MAME can't emulate them.

Then you got games that emulation on todays hardware is simply too slow (99.99% of all games that need CHD's to run).

So MAME IMHO is perfect for late 80's to mid-late 90's arcade games (WOW! The time I did go to the arcades!) to top it off, the hardware used during this era can easily be reproduces with equiptment off the shelf!

Now when it comes to SNES/Genesis.. I do have those installed on my MAME arcade machine.. and you know what.. it's not the same. The video is tweaked for Arcade output which is different from TV, so the colors aren't 100% correct.. and playing those games with an arcade stick/buttons is not the same..

verdict:

consoles -> the real thing
old arcade games (pre mid-80's) -> the real thing
new arcade games (late 90's - current) -> the real thing
mid-80s to late 90's arcade -> MAME only on real arcade machine

[GaijinPunch]

I don't like playing emulators on the PC.
on the Xbox is another story. I like the controller, and I love the fact that you can play teh games on the TV.

Some of the emulation still has a long way to go, but the Megadrive/megaCD emulator is fantastic. Whenever I buy a new MegaCD game, I just rip it to MP3, and put it on my Xbox. Don't have to fumble w/ the discs... or dig out the system!

[Ed Oscuro]

I never have fun playing on an emulator. Savestates...savestates. Sure, they've let me finish some nearly impossible games and clog my hard drive with screenshots, but at the end of the day it's not why I'd get a game. :P

[boatofcar]

I use the real thing for everything but NES--I use Nester DC and it works great. If the dreamcast ever comes out with a SNES emu that will run at full speed, I'll probably put the SNES in the closet too. Just like everyone else, I prefer emulation because f convenience, but you just can't play 2600 games with a gamepad :)

[toddst]

Besides MAME, the only emulation I use is on my phone, PDA, & GBA. I prefer playing games on the original system. Playing emulated games just does not compare since, to me, the original hardware is all part of the game. It is for this reason that I built a MAME cabinet. It is the closest that I could get to the original arcade games since I am not about to buy all the arcade games that I want. (It's a space and money issue.)

-Todd