Emulation: CPR For Electronic Nostalgia

First of all, before I start this article, I want to thank Wraggster for giving me the idea for this topic. He was trying to generate some publicity for me on the Vintage Gaming Network, and in doing so, he said something I had yet to bring up. Quote: "For those of you who are interested in reading viewpoints on emulation and the effect good or bad on the gaming world..."

I realized that I had yet to chime in on emulation, although I've been a huge fan of it for years. When my NES died from wear and tear, I lost my ability to play my old favorites (also, when NES cart batteries die, what can you really do for a kid who doesn't know squat?). Same thing happened to my Sega Genesis. To top it all off, in my neighborhood, I can't really find an arcade that still has all of my old eighties favorites. Nothing that isn't more than 30 or 40 miles away, anyhow.

I first got into emulation in search of a game I longed for ever since my Atari died, which of course was Gyruss. Michael Cuddy had been toying around with games like Time Pilot and Gyruss for a while, and I just happened to stumble on it because I was looking so desperately. I would've been okay with a homebrew clone or something... but it seemed to be such fortune, to find actual arcade emulation, where you had to actually enter in a coin (emulation-style) to be able to start the process.

I thought I was dreaming. I was able to find the roms on this old site, known at the time as Dave's Video Game Classics (which turned into VGN, as most of you know). At the time, the site hadn't been hit with requests from the ISDA about copyright infringement, and roms could be downloaded openly. Along with old arcade stuff, I was able to find emulators for the Nintendo (back when Bloodlust Software's NESticle was the best of the best, even if it couldn't play Mike Tyson's Punchout!! faithfully), and fledgling offerings for older systems.

I think you've got enough history (shows you how long I've been around). I think you should now hear my view on emulation.

We've all got a problem with legalities, in one form or another. Whether we've been playing games we've longed for for years, been listening to songs we don't own, or watching movies that haven't come across our favorite chain store to buy for twenty bucks... there IS a pinhole leak in the profits of the companies that put this stuff out, whether it was years ago or fairly recently. Notice I said 'companies that put it out,' not the artists who created the works. Artists (whether it be music or video games) normally only see pennies on the dollar for their works, because everyone in the chain has to be paid. For some to say that the intellectual rights are being abused... you're 1/50th right.

As for the 'games that don't see a profit anymore,' whether it be console or arcade or whathaveyou, if companies are really gonna sweat the classics, they should release the romlist en-masse, instead of 5 games at a time for an un-depreciated value.

Now that the legals have been mentioned, let me now say that emulation is one of the greatest things to ever happen to video gaming. One, it breathes new life into once-thought-dead games. Two, it's like watching Mr. T whoop it up on Conan O'Brien. Did you not all watch, starry-eyed when you saw your old Clubber Lang yelling "I Pity Da Fool!" with the pale white guy? It brings a joy that has been long gone from some of us nostalgia freaks. Three, emulation does what the originals could not; throttle, state save, rom patch, and life-of-product-extend. Was I the only person whose Legend of Zelda cartridge couldn't withstand the test of time, because the battery went out (I know I already said this... but damn, I was pissed)?

I'll probably go into longer rants about this topic later on, when I feel I have more to say... there's so much about emulation that's good, and so much that's bad. I can't really state it all in one little article.

What do you think? Feel free to post your responses in the Consolevision Forums.