Emulation General

[kj979]

A general topic about emulation.

Ideas for sub-topics: ROMhacks, Ethics, Technical support/recommended emulators.

NOTE: One of the rules of the board is "no warez." This means no linking to ROMs in the thread. Google is your friend.

My Emulation

-I emulate NES/SNES/GB/GBC/GBA games on my jailbroken iPhone, using NES.EMU, SNES9x EX, GBC.EMU and gpsPhone, respectfully. (http://www.explusalpha.com/home - first three emulators, really good IMO. I'd recommend GBA.emu also, but it doesn't seem to work on my device.)

-Some of my favorite games to play on mobile are the Pokémon series (right now, I'm enjoying the ROMhack, Yet Another Fire Red Hack, I also enjoy the official pinball spinoffs), Advance Wars 1 and 2, Earthbound, and some of the original Zelda games.

-On a PC, I run Dolphin (http://www.dolphin-emulator.com/) for Gamecube games.

-Some of my favorite games I've emulated so far on PC are Kirby Air Ride, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Mario Kart Double Dash.

Ethics

I consider it ethically OK to emulate in the cases of:

a.) The games weren't localized in your country

b.) The games aren't being sold anymore, or are extremely hard to find

c.) ROMhacks (much more difficult otherwise)

d.) Restrictions of any kind block you from using the original console


So, how about everyone else? Do you emulate? How, and with what? Do you play ROMhacks? Got recommendations of old games to play? What's your view on emulation ethics?

[q0099]

My emulation live started in early 2000s, when passing near cot stall at the subway station I noticed a jewel case CD with Earth Worm Jim on the cover. "Oh, they ported original Jim to PC!" I though and took a close look. There was few Sega Genesis and SNES emulators and huge library of ROMs. And after, there was a weeks of finishing old games I couldn't pass as I was a kid and playing a new games I never saw before. And after, from my factory coworker I found there was emulators for more advanced consoles as PSX, Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn and GBA, which I could find on the Internet.
And that's how it started.

I recommend to play:

NES:
- Solomon's Key 2 (very interesting puzzle)
- Yoshi (quite original alike-yet-not-tetris game)
- Adventure Island 3 (very nice platformer)
- Mr. Gimmick (awesome platformer)
- DuckTales series (very good platformer)

Sega Genesis:
- Sonic 3 & Knuckles (conjuncted ROM is the most awesome 2d platformer in the whole franchise)
- Resq (puzzle/platformer, unpublished gem)
- Contra - Hard Corps (awesome side-scrolling shooter)
- Earth Worm Jim series (hilarious platformer)
- Wonder Boy in Monster World 3 (interesting platformer)
- Monster World 4 (also an interesting platformer)
- Lost Vikings (awesome puzzle platformer)
- The Pitfall (short but amazingly made platformer)
- Crusader of Centy (Zelda-like adventure)
- Fatal Labyrinth (roguelike, satellite-translated game, which explains poor graphics and music)
- Beyond Oasis (really epic adventure)
- Ristar (very good platformer)
- Boogerman (just to see it)
- ECCO - The Tides of Time (I like this game more then the first one, especially the future levels)
- Mega Bomberman (hey, why not?)
- The Ooze (just to see they could implement cellar automata logic into game)
- Phantasy Star II
- Phantasy Star IV
(rare jRPG on Genesis, both are really good ones)
- Ranger-X (side scrolling shooter with interesting graphics)
- Sparkster (nice platformer)
- Star Control (the genre could be described as strategy with arcade flight battle elements)

SNES:
- Kirby series (especially Kirby Super Star and Kirby 3, as they are the perfect examples of currently developing conception of "jump-in-jump-out" multiplayer)
- Fushigi no Dungeon
- Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Furai no Shiren
(examples of how roguelikes could be perfectly fit into graphical interface and gamepad control scheme)
- Bushi Seiryuuden - Futari no Yuusha (turn-based tactical platformer)
- Terranigma (very interesting adventure)
- Front Mission (turn-based tactics)
- Front Mission Gun Hazard (suddenly, a side-scrolling mecha simulator/shooter)
- Hamelin no Violin Hiki (interesting platformer)

PSX:
- Breath of Fire 3 (very nice jRPG)
- Spyro series (one of very few good 3d platformers)
- Rhapsody: The Musical Adventure (real musical in your PSX: a bit girlish, a lot awesome)
- One Piece (not about pirates, but about householder)
- Treasure Gear (roguelike)
- Ehrgeiz: God Bless The Ring (for fighting roguelike part)
- Tail Concerto (nice adventure)
- Rockman DASH series (dungeon crawl platformer)
- Tall Infinity
- Tall Twins Towers
(which are underrated gems of puzzle games)
- Moon Remix RPG (jRPG deconstruction from former Square employees)
- Puzzle Bobble 4 (action puzzle, the versus mode is pure epic)
- Panzer Bandit (beat-em-up)
- Oddworld Series (grimdark puzzle platformer)
- Xenogears (awesome jRPG)
- Front Mission 3 (turn-based tactics)
- Rapid Reload (sidescroll shooter)
- Kula World (one of the best puzzle games ever made)
- Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (very nice platformer)

GameBoy:
- Trip World (nice Kirby-like platformer)

WonderSwan:
Klonoa: Moonlight Museum (the series took a twist to the puzzle, which made it only better)

GameBoy Advance
- Klonoa: Empire of Dreams
- Klonoa: Dreamworld Tournament
(both are very nice puzzle plaformers)

And there are so many games for PS2 and GameCube I would like to play, as Dark Cloud series, some Nippon Ichi stuff, Rogue Galaxy, Stretch Panic, and much more, but my PC is on it's edge to simulate them properly. As for current era of handled consoles emulators, the only thing for 3DSi I downloaded (but never played) was Solatorobo: Red the Hunter. I would also like to look into Prinny: Can I be a Hero series.

[KarjamP]

I might run emulators on my phone if it was a Sony Xperia Play.

[kj979]

My ... series.

Wow! That's a great list. I'll definitely check out some of those games.

[KarjamP]

Also, there's no such thing as a 3DSi.

[q0099]

Found out Dicing Knight Period for WonderSwan.
So much win!

[kj979]

Found out Dicing Knight Period for WonderSwan.
So much win!

Nice find! I hadn't heard of that.