Your Stance on Emulation?

[Koh]

What's your position on this matter?

I'm personally okay with emulation of things that are no longer sold and purchased through conventional means, such as Atari, NES, SNES, Genesis, GBC & GBA, etc. However, for newer things like the Wii, 3DS, and etc. that are still sold and developed for today, I wouldn't emulate that. Unless of course, it's of something that was never localized, and got a fan translation or something.

The companies can't lose any money if there isn't any money to be made in the first place. Emulation is the better option than gambling on the usability of a random person's copy from something like eBay.

[Maxpphire]

I do use emulators to play some games, but I have a harder time completing those games, or playing those games more then once.

I dunno if it's because I'm weird with games and playing them, or if it is something about playing on them, but it's difficult for me.

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

It's a different experience to playing it on the actual hardware. It's great if you want to play games that were region locked or exclusive to a system you don't have/own. When I don't have all my games or games systems with me, I can use an emulator and roms and still play. I find it's a lot more flexible than the authentic experience, and it's that flexibility that's allowed emulation to become so popular, may it be for rom hacks, tool assisting, fan translations... it's really wonderful to see what can be done in the hands of passionate players.

There are some legal issues surrounding emulation, but as long as it stays in good faith, I'm defending emulation. Without it, we wouldn't have a resource like tVGR now that I think of it. :p

[Kosheh]

It's a different experience to playing it on the actual hardware.

I want to agree with Chris here and I mostly do, but I'd rather play on official hardware than emulators if I can help it. I've actually gotten to the point of acquiring Japanese versions of games that are too expensive to purchase in English. :/

IDK, I like how games just...work, and pop on CRT monitors and everything. Maybe if I had a hugegantic fucking CRT monitor I wouldn't feel this way, but everything, from the click of the console to the controller in your hand, to the way the game isn't displayed crisp and perfectly, the sound that comes out of the speakers of the television...

It's perfect. Now, I won't argue over "oh it's not rite to emul8 rom playing scum". Earthbound is $150+ on places like eBay. It's silly to purchase something like that so you can play it once and have the "authentic experience" only to resell it again later and recoup your losses. Then, there's also the issue of romhacks etc.
If you want to play it on another console (Virtual Console included, I guess but there's something about the VC that doesn't make it half as charming, partly because you're not holding the traditional hardware in your hands) that's fine, and probably more ethical if you purchased it off the console's official marketplace.

eh idk i just like playing videogames, w/e

[Vipershark]

However, for newer things like the Wii, 3DS, and etc. that are still sold and developed for today, I wouldn't emulate that. Unless of course, it's of something that was never localized, and got a fan translation or something.

Aside from the fact that those systems are probably sitting in front of you, I don't see why not. Emulation is completely legal and assuming that you're talking a moral argument, if you bought and own the copies of the games that you're emulating then what you're doing is no different than playing them on the systems themselves.

I'm honestly not sure what stance anyone is meant to take except "illegal roms are bad" because if you're playing legally, there are basically always more benefits than any sort of losses.

[Chris2Balls [:B]]

If you offered me to play, say Super Metroid on my SNES or under BSNES on my CRT computer screen with a gamepad, I would go for the SNES hands down. I'd go for the experience the game was designed for to get the most out of it, to a reasonable extent. I wouldn't buy rare/expensive imports, for instance.

[Eno]

It'd be nice to be able to play on the original hardware but I have very few qualms about emulation. I don't think I'm losing a whole lot, at least not enough that I feel like I'm cheating myself.

[Koh]

I'd go for the experience the game was designed for to get the most out of it

This is a major dependency for me. If it's one of those trial and error games that send you all the way back to the beginning of the game, I'd rather emulate it and use savestates as my battery backup per stage. Who wants to redo like an hour of gameplay?

[Helmo]

Emulators are a god send. You can do all sorts of neat shit you cant do on real hardware, fan translations, hacks, graphical upgrades, even online and shit, etc

I prefer the real deal, but thanks to things like flash carts you can have the best of both worlds

[Quirby64]

Emulation is a yes when it's something old, or for a system you don't own. And the fact that people make various ROM hacks of you favorite games, AND YOU CAN TOO, BECAUSE IN THE NEXT 20 SECONDS I WILL OFFER-*shot*

While I do buy games that I play on an emulator every now and then, emulation is the "cheap" way to play games. Also, Emulation is a good way to check out games you plan on buying.

ALSO GAME BOY COLOR FOR THE WINNNNN ON BEST OLD HANDHELDDDD-*shot*

But, then there's the running problem that the emulator doesn't even work....(Cough,Cough,Game.Com,Cough,Cough,N64,Cough)

[Dazz]

This is another point though - in terms of Game Boy games, it is sometimes a little nicer playing on a pixel-perfect screen, with a controller. This goes for GBA, too.

I enjoy playing Tetris using an NES controller I have hooked up with a USB converter... Because Game Boy Tetris is the true Tetris.

[Vipershark]

I also prefer playing on original hardware when I can (nothing beats the feeling of popping a cartridge into your console) but emulation also allows for things like this

which the original console simply can't do.

For 2D games original hardware is cool if you can get it but for 3D games, emulation will always eventually blow the original experience completely out of the water.

(More HD DS games here: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=798812)

[BullockDS]

For me, I gotta go with actual consoles over emulation, but if I do emulate I'd prefer it to be on a console/handheld to get as close to an authentic experience as possible, especially with controllers. The biggest things for me are my lack of good USB controllers , and how my laptop monitor is fuck-awful and suffers from hideous screen-tearing plus a bit of input lag (the latter of which is only a problem with emulation; I don't have this issue with actual PC games). I'm a dirty bastard and legality has little influence on my decisions.

However, N64 emulation is especially of concern and disappoint to me, since
-the better hacks pretty much leave you no choice but to emulate on PC (since some games/hacks have compatibility problems or are too big to WAD for Wii) and IMO N64 emulation isn't pretty (but most texture packs look like pure shitola to me-I can't win); I can play every commercial release just fine on my Everdrive 64, but hacks as a whole don't work on real hardware
--particularly Super Mario 64 hacks; can't Wii WAD them due to size, can't play on actual N64 hardware (I've tried), and won't work quite 100% right on PC emulation (Star Road has bits of slowdown and Peach's Christmas Invitation won't budge beyond ~15FPS on my PC)
-N64 emulation as a whole is a tricky scene since it's a difficult system to emulate correctly; the only reason it's where it is now is because up to this point N64 emulation has required tons of per-game trickery to play as close to 100% as possible (hence why some games won't WAD on the Wii)

[Rystar]

I'd say it's a lot like putting on a vinyl record for some people: the experience of playing it, with all the "flaws" and other little things like that help in making it a truly unique experience. Hell, even setting up the game to play could be seen as a ritual of sorts. A bit over-dramatic for putting a cartridge in an SNES? Of course, but that's the only word that comes to mind :P

[Kriven]

It depends. I have a very difficult time getting into games on PC emulation, and I don't really know why. I don't have this hangup with things like the Virtual Console, which I choose to use over carts. I tend to have the problem with all PC games, though, so it might just be that there are too many distractions as opposed to a console.

Generally I prefer VC releases opposed to carts because I find they're more reliable and generally provide the same experience (or at least one that's close enough) to the original media. Homebrewed emulators tend to be really finicky and I don't have a great time using them because I'm too focused on their imperfections.