Old Console Games

[juxtaposed]

a while back my brother found a program on line that would allow him to play old snes, genesis, etc., games on his computer, an emulator i think it was called. do those still exist? i remember having a lot of trouble with it back in the day, it was always really buggy. are there any good ones out there? or are they even legal?

[Rob]

Legal, definitely not, and any website that claims otherwise is full of it. However, I am willing to look the other way if you are willing to look the other way on all of my SNES emulated games.

They are definitely still around, and depending on the system, can be quite stable. What system are you wanting to emulate, I can point you to a quality emulator and games.

[juxtaposed]

snes is probably the one i'd want to play more. it has some of the better classics on it.

[Rob]

You want Vimms Lair (http://vimm.net/) for the games and emulator. I have been using them for years without any issues or viruses. Go to the Emulation Lair link and grab ZSNES for the emulator. You are going to have to play around with the settings a bit, but it is the most stable and plays the most games. If you like JRPG's, Vimm's also has a lot of translated games on the site, so you can play the likes of Final Fantasy 5, Secret of Mana 2 and a whole bunch of others.

I recommend staying away from the N64 emulators, as they can be a huge pain in the butt.

And do yourself a huge favor and get a controller with a good D-Pad.

[juxtaposed]

awesome rob thanx!!

[juxtaposed]

what would you recommend for en economical controller. i haven't ever bought one for a pc

[juxtaposed]

so i got zsnes and downloaded: chronotrigger, secret of evermore, secret of mana, breath of fire, and one of my favorite of all times Uncharted Waters 2, im gonna have me some good old fashion 90's video game fun!

[Rob]

I would just run down to Wal-mart and grab a $15 controller, it doesn't have to be anything fancy, just need a solid D-pad. Unfortunately I am stuck using a 360 gamepad at the moment, and they notoriously have a horrible D-pad.

If you are looking to spend some money, you can get this USB SNES adapter (http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Smartjoy-PC-Controller-Adapter-Converter/dp/B0009VIZSY) to plug an official controller in. This would be the most ideal quality wise, but probably the most expensive route, since you will need to get a controller as well.

Or you can grab a USB SNES controller. (http://www.snesusb.com/) This is probably the best economical route. I have not used any of these, but the reviews seem favorable, and the controller should work well for SNES, NES and Genesis emulation.

[Rob]

In ZSNES, I recommend running in 1024x896 DR W mode, and then hit the Filters tab (under the video config) and select the HQ Filter 4x, and the graphics, especially text, should look much better. If you are feeling adventurous, you can even set up a fast forward and rewind key, which can help get through some tedious moments.

[Rob]

How is everything working out for you juxtaposed?

[juxtaposed]

works pretty good. the controller i got was a logitech, play station style.

the only thing i don't know is if i am actually having a side affect (effect?) from the colors/movement on the screen. i've been playing it for a couple days now, and for those last couple of days i've had a very low grade low pain headache, and this morning i almost fell over because i got really dizzy when i got out of bed. am i crazy? could this be because of the game or did i just get a bug that conveniently showed up when i started playing. i even came home from work early today because i feel like im in a cloud, and the headache is worse. granted the headache might be from caffeine withdrawls...but the weird dizzyness that's persisting?

...when did this become a health thread? sorry

[Rob]

I have never heard of this to be honest, and that is over 15 years of playing on emulators. A couple things, double check your video settings and turn frame skip off and vsync on, which should smooth out any stuttering problems, though with your system that shouldn't even be an issue.

You may have already had the start of a headache, and playing on the computer made it worse, that one hits me the most, but I suffer from migraines as it is. And yes, it could be caffeine, one of the main ingredients in Excedrin is caffeine, so it is a strong possibility. If I am having a migraine and can't get to any Excedrin, drinking a Coke and laying down does help ease the pain.

If you are playing in windowed mode, maybe concentrating for a long time on a small portion of the screen is having an effect. I am not sure, but might want to take a computer break for awhile regardless.

[tonofclay]

Emulators rule! I use em on the wii...spent a lot of today playing NBA Jam Tournament Edition with my buddy, took a little while to find a button combination that worked properly but it was worth it!

[juxtaposed]

wow...nba jam, one of my favorite games ever...i love the catch lines, 'he's on fire', 'nail in the coffin'...love it

[Rob]

They are doing a update/remake for the Wii http://nba-jam.easports.com/home.action. I am looking forward to it, just hoping it comes out for XBLA or PSN as I hate the Wii controller, but we will see.

[Optimus]

Emulators are legal, they are original creations from reverse engineering hardware behavior. It's the game software and BIOS software that are not original and thus "illegal," although I don't think anyone has ever gotten more than a C&D for distributing games no longer being sold.

juxta, I noticed that you have a pretty modern CPU. I would actually recommend bsnes over ZSNES in that case. It's got way less bugs, better sound emulation, and a more modern GUI. It actually comes with a huge set of importable cheats, and if you use multiple savestates per game, you can give descriptions to them in the state manager. Give it a shot:

http://bsnes.googlecode.com/files/bsnes_v064.zip

[Rob]

Welcome to the forums Optimus, glad you to have you.

I have never used BSNES, but I am going to give it a shot. I actually haven't had any issues with ZSNES, so there hasn't been much incentive to try anything else.

Emulators are legal, they are original creations from reverse engineering hardware behavior. It's the game software and BIOS software that are not original and thus "illegal," although I don't think anyone has ever gotten more than a C&D for distributing games no longer being sold. That is correct as far as the emulators and ROMS are concerned, but I know first hand of Nintendo coming and suing the pants off of someone for selling the games. There was a Christmas kiosk set up in the mall which sold a SNES bootleg system with a few hundred games built in, we are talking Mario, Zelda, MegaMan, Chrono Trigger and the like. Once Nintendo gained wind of the setup, they descended on them rather quickly.