The PTD Guide to Emulation

You know the drill:

Take the cartridge.
Blow into it until your lungs bleed
Use a Q-Tip to paint it with alcohol.
Blow into the control deck.
Stick the cartridge in.
Turn it on–to no avail.

It’s time to stop all that nonsense. You’re a retro gaming addict, but one day, your body won’t be able to take it any more. All that blow and alcohol is bad for you. Obviously an alternative is needed, but what? What can you do?

Emulation, that’s what.

While some consider the word ‘emulation’ synonymous with software piracy, it isn’t. Running an emulator is perfectly legal, however using them to run ROMs is not, unless you own the actual media for the games you’re trying to play. If you still have all your original cartridges, pack them up and stick them in your closet, the attic, your mom’s basement, wherever. You won’t need them anymore, you just need to keep them as legal proof for what you’re about to do. This article will provide a whirlwind tour through the world of emulators, ROMs, their legalities, and the best options for the systems you miss the most.

There are two main components of emulation: an emulator, and ROM files. An emulator is, for our purposes, a computer program that nearly perfectly simulates a videogame console. Jnes, an emulator for the original Nintendo Entertainment System, is an emulator that runs ROMs, computer files that act as videogame cartridges, disks, or CDs. Just as you open a console tray to insert a cartridge, you launch the emulator of your choice and open a ROM file to play a game. Most emulators, though not all, are free.

ROMs are free only if you own the original videogame media for the ROMs which you have downloaded. If you own Street Fighter II for the SNES and you download the ROM, you’re fine; nothing illegal has been done. In some cases you have to own the actual machine on which the games run (the Apple II, for instance), but for the most part, emulation is legal so long as you own the actual game media.

If you don’t, that’s when software piracy comes into play. The ESA (Entertainment Software Association) states that certain U.S. laws permit downloading a backup copy of a video game, but “the right to make backup copies of computer programs for archival purposes … does not in any way authorize the owner of a copy of a video or computer game to post or download a copy of that game to or from the Internet or make such copy available to other people for their use.”

If your cartridge is broken, dirty, or a combination of both, that’s fine; you’re still allowed to download the ROM as long as you still have the original media. It doesn’t have to be in working condition; broken or dirty videogames are prime candidates for emulation. Additionally, maybe you want to have backups of all your old favorite games in case they quit working one day. As any NES user can attest to, old systems and media fail all too often. According to the ESA, U.S. law “gives the owner … a right to make an archival copy of the actual copy that he/she legally possesses.”

It should be noted that emulation isn’t perfect for each and every videogame system. Some emulators aren’t able to run every single game perfectly. For example, many Nintendo 64 ROMs have emulation problems such as graphical glitches or slowdowns, and some refuse to run altogether. Still, most emulators possess features that cause many to wonder how they ever played videogames without them in the first place. Save State, a common feature in any good emulator, allows you to save your game no matter what you or your character is doing. Gone are the times when you had to leave your systems on for days at a time because you couldn’t reach the next save point. Simply press your emulator’s appropriate Save State button to instantly save your progress; later press the Load State key to load your game. You’ll never have to worry about save points again. Higher resolution is another benefit of emulation. While you won’t see any NES games looking as sharp as Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 titles, they will look smoother and crisper than before.

Ready to partake in emulation? Good. To get you started, we’ve listed some of the best emulators for some of the most popular systems of yesteryear on the PTD Magazine website. Happy emulating!

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