3dSen, the NES Emulator for PC & VR that Runs 2D NES Games in Real-time 3D Polygons (Windows, Mac, Linux)

[Nz17]

Basically, 3dSen is an emulator that converts the graphics from any NES game into real-time 3D voxels (polygonal pixels).

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1147940/3dSen_PC/

Has anyone from here tried this emulator? The videos and screenshots shown on its Steam page are from homebrew games - however, the 3dSen emulator can dynamically run any NES game regardless of its age or official status from any region this way. It seems fairly cool! And yes, it supports save states.

[Gameguy]

I remember when emulators were made available for free, by people who liked the community and just found writing programs fun. Still I suppose this has it's audience, namely people who love NES games, except for the way they look, the way they sound, the way they play, the monitors they're designed to play on, the hardware they were designed to run on, and the hardware they were designed to be controlled with. So modern collectors.

[gbpxl]

I remember when emulators were made available for free, by people who liked the community and just found writing programs fun. Still I suppose this has it's audience, namely people who love NES games, except for the way they look, the way they sound, the way they play, the monitors they're designed to play on, the hardware they were designed to run on, and the hardware they were designed to be controlled with. So modern collectors.

I kinda agree with this

[Nz17]

There are still dozens of free emulators. This emulator only adds a third dimension to the graphics. It doesn't change the way the games sound nor the way they play. If someone is using an emulator, then he doesn't generally care much about the monitors nor the other hardware that the games were originally designed for. NES controller to PC adapters have existed for decades. Wouldn't collectors be interested in collecting original video games and hardware no matter how they play the games?

[Gameguy]

There are still dozens of free emulators. This emulator only adds a third dimension to the graphics.

Beyond saying "That's really neat" I don't see the point in it, at least not enough to actually pay for it. I like old games for the old style graphics.

It doesn't change the way the games sound nor the way they play.

Emulators are never perfect, they aren't exactly the same as actual hardware using original sound chips. Especially with Genesis sound emulation in my experience. Emulators also add in save states so games are far easier to play than they used to be on actual hardware.

If someone is using an emulator, then he doesn't generally care much about the monitors nor the other hardware that the games were originally designed for.

Exactly. This seems to be how modern collectors are as all I ever seem to hear about old games now is how to play them on new hardware, or how to upscale them to new monitors. Just hooking up a console as originally intended and playing a game doesn't seem to exist anymore. You play old games to stream on Twitch or upload to Youtube for hipster points, also known as "likes".

NES controller to PC adapters have existed for decades.

Barely anyone owns these, most people playing emulated games on PC just use a generic PC controller.

Wouldn't collectors be interested in collecting original video games and hardware no matter how they play the games?

Basically Nintendo Age collectors. Just collect the carts on a shelf, or even sealed, and just play the games on a modded console or PC.

[YoshiM]

Emulators are never perfect, they aren't exactly the same as actual hardware using original sound chips. Especially with Genesis sound emulation in my experience. Emulators also add in save states so games are far easier to play than they used to be on actual hardware.

It's true they aren't perfect, but on many levels, emulation is pretty much "there" for many people. The SNES Mini is a perfect example-it's pert-near perfect (as far as I can tell). And as for save states, well, middle-forties me with not a lot of time in one sitting to play an old school game that has an end to it, lose all my lives and then have to restart from the beginning again like I did thirty years ago. I don't mind playing that way, mind you, but sometimes life happens and I have to stop for a length of time. At least with save states I have a chance of finishing a game.

Exactly. This seems to be how modern collectors are as all I ever seem to hear about old games now is how to play them on new hardware, or how to upscale them to new monitors. Just hooking up a console as originally intended and playing a game doesn't seem to exist anymore.

To play the devil, it's not like CRTs are on every street corner nor does everyone have room for a big box, which has an unknown lifespan. So what you to do, stop playing a NES because you don't have a CRT or the one you had gave up the ghost?

I find it ironic: back in the day, myself and other people I knew were trying to get the sharpest image possible from our TVs. Friends drooled over those when they saw a NES hooked up to a Commodore monitor-vibrant color and defined pixels. Now people want to go the other way.

[TimTendo]

Both emulation and real hardware have their place. I think a lot of you are misinformed on how emulation fares these days, especially compared to real hardware. For instance, emulators like Mesen or bsnes provide cycle-accurate emulation to people with reasonably powered computers (basically, anything that isn't a potato), and equivalent emulation for other consoles exist pretty plentifully. Emulation has come a long way from the days of NESticle and ZSNES.

How you play your retro games should matter way less than being able to play them. This is a hobby that demands accessibility or else it will go the way of the dinosaur. YoshiM is totally right: not everyone has the time nor energy to go find some old TV, ensure that it's good enough for their uses (or worse, trying to pair period-correct hardware), hook everything up, and accept that if they're using a consumer-grade television with standard RF or composite/RCA hookups that the image quality is going to be distinctively blurry and fuzzy. Now, some people love this look - I happen to like it most of the time - but a big appeal of retro gaming for a lot of folk is the pixels! The sharp, defined pixels... which is something that is the default look of the concept of emulating.

My problem with 3dSen is not that it mucks with how the games are meant to be played (after all, it's only ever an alternative), it's that if I recall it used to be an open source emulator like the majority of them, but the creator decided it would be more worthwhile to commercialize it. Going from commercial product to open source is a cause of celebration in programming circles, but the other way around is (understandably) much more frowned upon - why take something that used to be easily glimmed through and allowed people to fork over and make it harder to contribute to just for the sake of money? It's not a good look, really. You can argue all you want about programmers deserving compensation for their work and I'll absolutely agree with that, but this is a gimmick emulator for nearly 40 year old hardware the creator had no involvement in other than giving it a fairly nifty look when you play. Not my thing, really.

I play on real hardware and I find myself using emulation. There's no wrong way to game

[Rickstilwell1]

People complaining about the emulator not being free... have you tried looking for a cracked copy of the emulator on torrent sites? There's probably a way to get it for free, just like the roms you can play on it.