Hi there peeps! Last night I was watching this video "Let's Imagine a world without Emulation" made by a youtuber called Nerrel and he brought some very interesting points I had not thought about rather thoroughly. So, I want you guys to take a look through the video after I expand on the points which called out to me the most.
First off, I'd like to start as to why emulation exists, why do we need it?
I personally see emulation as a way to enjoy classic games without having to invest a couple hundred dollars on the original hardware you're trying to play or simply not having to pay for the few releases of old games on the newest consoles since maybe you've already owned that game when it came out or simply you weren't alive when it released.
Here's where emulation comes like a radiant super hero and offers you almost endless possibilities to enjoy the games you loved the most from your past or let you experience games you never had the chance before. It's almost as simple as magic. You look for the emulator of the system you desperately want to play and then you go to a rom/iso website and you download the games you're most interested in! Poof! And you've already gotten some of the good old classics of yesterday that defined and gave a new meaning to videogames back when they came out... But there's a downside to it.
The "Bad side" of Emulation
Sure, emulating could be called pirating and might infringe on some legal rules here and there, but... Do we really have a choice? Is it okay to break the rules when we're not given what we really want? Is it okay to take restoring or making available those old pieces of art we love so much, into our own hands? It's definitely okay in that emotional sense, I really feel what people who created emulators felt while driving them to do that... But it's almost definitely not legal.
But... what would happen if one of the companies who made those games you're downloading for free, started to shut down the pages who hosted the gigantic libraries of classic games? Suing them for millions of dollars and sending Cease and Desist letters as a form of attacking those sites and the people who've worked there? What happens when a company doesn't want you to get their old games in the shape you want them? What if they only allowed the consumers like you and me to buy the classic games they prefer you to play? It's not like all of those old consoles libraries get completely ported to the newer consoles, so there's definitely a percentage of games lost from each iteration of the companies' own new virtual console/stores.
But Why do People Still Emulate?
Now that we've seen the good and bad sides that we incur when emulating older systems, we reach the point where we ask ourselves: Is it really worth to emulate older games? Is it really worth to break some laws in order to fulfill our nostalgia?
-Yeah
But why?
Oh, I'll let you know.
1.-Old and No longer Supported Hardware
You might have your SNES or your PS1 neatly cleaned on a display where you can easily plug them in and have your good old classic games at the ready, but there's this thing called time that takes its toll into every non living and living thing. Just as we get older, so does the quality of the original materials of our older consoles. Haven't you noticed how everytime you try to run Crash Bandicoot on your Playstation it's harder for the console to recognize the disc? Or how you have to blow harder on your N64 cartridge everytime you want to run Ocarina of Time? Well that has to do with usage. The console and the games themselves degrade over time, and in this day and age, support for older consoles is practically non-existant. If a certain piece of your old console is damaged, you better be willing to spend a couple hundred bucks on a new system rather than trying to repair it, given the difficulty/unavailability of the process, so this leave us thinking about a prospect of a future where we as consumers and collectors will reach a point where our old systems and games will be ruined beyond usage or reparation.
2.-No Support for Most of the Old Games, Except for the favorites
We all know that when the company who made those good old classics we want to play, is offering a virtual console service, they're going to offer the most critically acclaimed/famous games of that era. We know that we're gonna get our Mario Bros, our Zelda's and our Donkey Kong games for example on the Switch, but alas those may not be your favorite games or the ones you have fond memories with. With each new iteration of Virtual consoles or services, I think it's more likely that less known or famous games are given the good old "Oh, I forgot about you." treatment. Will your favorite be forgotten today or tomorrow? That's a problem not present if we take emulation into the case, since digital assets are not subject to degradation over time.
3.-What would happen if we couldn't play the classics?
Imagine you played the newest Pokémon and you suddenly felt this weird nostalgia of the mechanics of the game and the overall feel of it, and then you say to yourself: "Wow, I'd like to see where this game started and how it got to the point it is right now" and you can't. Imagine that the original pokemon games were no longer available in physical or digital form? What do you do then? How do you react to that? Why are they not available? Although it's very unlikely that this would happen to a game like Pokémon specifically, it's hard not to imagine this happening to other lesser known hidden gems we grew up with. We're talking here about how complete lesser known franchises could be erased or forgotten as time passes.
4.-The Sheer love of Fans Towards their Favorite Games
If you think that big name companies are eager to give you the best experience when it comes to classic games, then you haven't been up to speed with this post.
We've seen how many modders of Nintendo consoles' specifically, have built emulators INSIDE of Nintendo's consoles and how much effort they put on just trying their best for those kindof projects to work on hardware they haven't designed. It just baffles me how for example the Wii can run games from SNES to even some N64 ones, and with better interfaces/visuals and even controller support. It just speaks a million words of how fans like you and me are able to bring better experiences than what the usual consumer pays for.
If what people can do on consoles is not enough to sell you on this point, then you won't imagine what people can do when there are computers involved in the process. Haven't you heard of that time where Nintendo cancelled that fan remake of this game and that other game? Aside from Nintendo being the main bad guy of this story, I want everyone to notice how much love there is for those games that even fans have taken it up to their hands to remake or remaster them with better visuals, new stories and even new mechanics! It's astonishing to think of how someone can take a really well developed game like Metroid 2 Samus Returns and then try to remaster it. Fans love those old classic games so much that they're willing to bring even more shine to an already shiny and famous game like that. And it not only stops there, fans have even gone to the length of translating region exclusive games like the first Fire Emblems and other Japanese only releases like that. People are just so willing to give more love to the games they love, and I think that's what really matters.
As a way to conclude this post, i'd like to say that no, I do not condone piracy even if it looks like I am, but I also feel like sometimes WE as a consumer, or gamer, have to bend the rules when companies don't treat their old games like they deserve, or even as we, as loyal fans that we are, deserve.
I'm not gonna go out and buy a new (if they still exist) N64 if the one I had, stopped functioning, or a new Gamecube, or a new Wii or whatever, you get the idea. So I feel like emulation needs to exist because everyone should have the right to play the good old classics how they want. No discontinuation, no "pay a fee to buy something your dad probably already owned", no nothing. If I can't play those games in a physical way, and you're not offering me a better or enhaced way to play those games at all, there will always be another solution, be it illegal or not. END.
This is the only gamecube game I physically own to this day. The one and only that managed to stay with me, and to make matters more funny, it's a collectors edition that is no longer available for sell on regular stores. I remember seeing this same game with the same box and in the same condition at like 70 bucks last time I checked on ebay but I honestly think I wouldn't sell it unless I really needed a quick buck. It's a nice remembrance of a past time where I used to be different. I feel like it's a part of me that exists within that box and that CD but I also feel like a part of me will die when this CD stops working. It's sad, certainly, but I think I can find enough comfort in knowing that I can find a copy of the ISO online and emulate it rather than having to buy another commodity like this one.
WELL THAT TURNED OUT LONGER THAN I HAD EXPECTED. I had originally planned this post just to be a small "hey guys, check this video out!" but it turned into a completely full fledged rant, so, sorry not sorry (?) These were some feelings I had bottled up after I watched Nerrel's video and I just wanted to expand on them because of how much it really got to me. I'm a fairly common user of emulators, especially when it comes to the games of my childhood era, specifically N64 and Gamecube, so watching that video and thinking how every N64 and every gamecube will stop working someday, it breaks my heart to think that somewhere in the future I won't be able to come back to the games I grew up with. And I think no one ever should feel like that.
So that's it guys, I've finally put my thoughts into words for you to read. Hit me up at the comments or at discord with 
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