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

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

    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.

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    Alex (Level 15) Custom rank graphic
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    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.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Gameguy View Post
    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

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    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?

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    Alex (Level 15) Custom rank graphic
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nz17 View Post
    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by Nz17 View Post
    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by Nz17 View Post
    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".

    Quote Originally Posted by Nz17 View Post
    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.

    Quote Originally Posted by Nz17 View Post
    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.

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    Great Puma (Level 12) YoshiM's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gameguy View Post
    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.


    Quote Originally Posted by Gameguy
    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.

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    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

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    I've yet to try Mesen with regular games. I've used it to test stuff in NESMaker (not that I've done much in that) but nothing past that.

    I guess I'll have to get my NES to USB adapter and give this a play >:‑)

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    Quote Originally Posted by YoshiM View Post
    I've yet to try Mesen with regular games. I've used it to test stuff in NESMaker (not that I've done much in that) but nothing past that.

    I guess I'll have to get my NES to USB adapter and give this a play >:‑)
    You've also toyed around into NESMaker? I'm quite fascinated by it myself, but it's a lot to take in at once. I'd love to wrap my head around it more, really. Either that or try learning C and coding an NES game in that.

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    Emulation does have it's place, I just don't see a reason to get overly excited over emulators. They're basically a substitute when you're unable to have the ideal setup, or you're traveling and don't have access to your collection, etc. It's like being able to watch videos on your cell phone, it's very convenient but far from an ideal way of watching anything. Plus most official collections/compilations of games released on newer systems are basically emulation anyway. None of the downloaded emulators I've used are recent though, it's been about a decade since I've downloaded any. I don't update software too often. I may mod a Wii at some point just for convenience as I've heard it's good for emulating classic games.

    Save states are very useful too, especially with poor quality games that are otherwise unplayable. I just mentioned it as one reason why emulators do play games differently than actual hardware, people just play games differently when options are available. Just like when people have an entire library of games available they tend to get bored of games more quickly.

    Emulation is certainly common when trying to play old computer games as authentic hardware is far rarer and more expensive than most consoles. It's just not an ideal way of playing games, I would do this because I have to, it's not something I'm really excited over. I'm more disappointed I don't have the real hardware available for 70's/80's era computer games.

    I do have a friend that bought PS2 games digitally on her PS3 and has it hooked up to an HD TV. The PS3 games look good, but the PS2 games just look like crap, being upscaled to a higher resolution than they were designed for. Just a blurry mess. She loves it but it drives me crazy to where it's just a chore for me to play those games with her. You can't convince me that old games look better in HD than on a standard CRT, many were designed to take advantage of interlacing or use dithering affects that only work properly with CRTs and composite signals, or techniques that only work on CRT computer monitors like ways to get around colour limitations. Modern non-interlaced displays are just a convenience factor.

    I just miss how collectors used to talk about games, like someone having a day off and just deciding to hook up their old Atari and play Pitfall or River Raid all day. Very simple. There was none of the modern constant talk of needing to install and configure various emulators, controllers, or upscalers first and save state the game constantly to beat it in under an hour.

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    I'd never pay for this but I do think the idea of it is pretty cool. I absolutely love the 3D effect and playing a 3DS game or a VR game and the depth that they provide is something I'm still impressed with each and every time I look at them. One of the few games that I'd rate a 10/10 is Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles, now, the reason why is the games level design and altogether game itself is better than that of the original Rondo of Blood. Now I wouldn't rate it 10/10 because of the graphics, but I only mention this because not only is it one of my favorite games, but there's so much detail that goes far into the background. Now this game isn't in 3D, but since the 3DS should be able to run games that were playable on the PSP, this is one port I'd have absolutely loved to have on the 3DS with the 3D effect. It was already a beautiful looking game but would have been jaw dropping in 3D.
    Everything in the above post is opinion unless stated otherwise.

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    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.

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    i agree that old games look and play better on CRT

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    Quote Originally Posted by gbpxl View Post
    i agree that old games look and play better on CRT
    You can hook up a PC with an emulator to a CRT too. It just requires some cable signal conversion.
    [quote name='Shidou Mariya' date='Nov 17 2010, 10:05 PM' post='4889940']
    I'm a collector, but only to a certain extent.
    Not as extreme as Rickstilwell though.[/quote]


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