Do you think Emulation preserves videogame history?

[Specineff]

I would have gladly played a real cab featuring Samurai Shodown if there was one around my place, when I first got my computer. There was none. Guess what I turned to get my fix?

[Ed Oscuro]

Never made a sequel to Cyber-Lip or Mutation Nation. :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o

Quite possibly the biggest reason they died.

Too much focus on crappy fighting game storylines (also not enough on expanding the genres of games on the console, although that focus and fan niche is the only thing that kept them alive, just not healthy, so many years)

[evil_ash_xero]

i support emulation of older stuff and stuff that is no longer actively marketed in order to preserve this stuff for the future...but i disagree with emulation of newer stuffs, cuz its basically helping to kill that which we love....

for example, naomi GDroms have been cracked and are now emulated....not all but quite a few titles are working....this is a bad thing IMO

why not wait until the stuff is harder to find and outdated before you make it freely available to people.....why go to the arcade if you can play it on your computer...why buy the hardware when you dont need it.....

this is not helping to preserve anything...it is decreasing the likelihood of future arcade releases....cuz if there isnt money to0 be made, the developers will dry up and cease to be

just my opinion

There are no arcades, man.

I actually play at local arcades games that have perfect home versions or are emulated, just so I can get some different competition.

You're pretty lucky. The American arcade scene is pretty barren.

s/m

[evil_ash_xero]

no, it's just illegal. it's wrong because it is against the law

That's just ignorant. The laws are written by imperfect people - How can you argue that it's immoral to break rules that were imposed by people who didn't fully understand the issues or were not fully acting in the interest of the state?

By your logic, in the US abolitionism and interracial marriage would have been immoral. Gay marriage would be immoral. Armpit sex in the state of Michigan would be immoral. This is the height of stupidity!

Here here! I have a friend who said the exact same thing recently. And I called him a pussy.

s/m

[neorichieb1971]

Legal or illegal, I don't find myself getting excited about free wares whether its 1 year old or 25 years old. As for preserving the data, that would be fine if it were for the purposes of vaulting it for the companies to redistribute it later. As it stands, its just hackers doing there thing sticking their middle finger up to the companies they are ripping off, something I have no time for.

I will say though that over the gaming history I have witnessed, some companies are reluctant to dive into the vaults and that has a certain frustration element to it which emulation can deprive you of.

[lgb]

Yes. Older games are usually expensive or hard to find.

[jonny5]

There are no arcades, man.

I actually play at local arcades games that have perfect home versions or are emulated, just so I can get some different competition.

You're pretty lucky. The American arcade scene is pretty barren.

s/m

and do you think perhaps the fact that you can just play a lot of the games on your computer contributed to this?

[lgb]

and do you think perhaps the fact that you can just play a lot of the games on your computer contributed to this?

No. Emulation didn't really get popular till the end of the '90s/beginning of '00s, and I think arcade gaming started to die a good bit before then.

[honorless]

When it comes down to it—yes, emulation does preserve gaming history. This is undeniable.

An example: One of the reasons there will never be an English translation of Princess Crown is because Atlus Japan has lost the source code. The PSP version is—guess what?—emulated! Were it not for emulation this game would have been restricted to those who could find a used copy and owned a Saturn that could play JP games.
Unfortunately, less popular games won't even get that treatment; they'll just disappear forever. So I applaud the MAME team (and other dumpers) for their efforts.

I would quite happily pay the original company (no, not some asshat "KEEP YOUR GAME SEALED" profiteer) for the right to play older, long out-of-print games. A lot of people would, but in most cases we aren't given the chance. This is what burns me up about piracy.

and do you think perhaps the fact that you can just play a lot of the games on your computer contributed to this?

Yeah, I would, but only to a very small extent. By that, I mean it's only hurt the pockets of the die-hards who kept their cabs running after the mainstream arcade scene had already died.

The USA's arcade scene was killed by home consoles. Maybe bootlegs hurt, especially in SNK's case because the real thing was so insanely pricy. But not emulation.

When you can get a similar experience in your house with even more variety than an arcade, plus you can play whatever you want whenever you want...what do you think the average Joe Schmoe is going to choose?

Hint: Most people don't really care that the experience isn't the same; they want the most bang for their buck. These are the people who watch 4:3 programs in 16:9 because they paid for all that screen and GOSH it'd be silly not to use it! Why would you want to look at those ugly black bars anyway?

Frankly, I'm not sure emulation was even that far along when arcades were big (at least in the USA.) Even if it was, the aforementioned Mr. Schmoe was completely unaware of it.