Those of you who have been kind enough to frequently read my musings here surely have realized by now that I'm hardly a member of the vanguard of the gaming world, instead in fact being a bit nostalgic and retrospective in my gaming preferences. I'm not going to bore you with the details of exactly how my gaming proclivities have evolved; rather I just thought it was worth mentioning as an introduction to this particular post.
Before I had a computer, an XBox, a PS2 or even the original Playstation I had the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo, consoles which when I was just a wee Neko kitten were handed down to me by my older brother. (I even had a GameBoy!) Though these days I play a wide variety of PC games on a system I assembled myself, I've not forgotten my gaming roots or those days of my youth when I was falling in love with video games for the very first time.
I've discovered that these days, rather than attempt to track down these old console machines in pawn shops and what-have-you, it's much easier and convenient to download console emulators and ROM versions of their games that I can play on my PC when I'm feeling nostalgic (or just feeling like a big kid). For just about every gaming console in existence someone has created a PC emulator, but to cover them all in a single blog post would be quite the volume of writing. Thus today I just want to talk about the emulators for the first games I ever played, those good ol' Nintendo games.
Several emulators for the Super Nintendo have been created, but with my custom system running Windows 7 the best one I've found thus far is the SNES 9x. Simply download it and a few ROMs, briefly navigate a simple GUI setup and before you know it you'll be playing your favorite old games in all their classic glory:
But I mustn't forget to mention the VirtuaNES:
...and the GameBoy Color emulator KiGB (though apparently I prefer B&W):
With these (and a cheap gamepad) it's easy to relive the golden age of Nintendo like we never left!
There are many sources for emulators and game ROMs on the internet, free of charge and requiring no membership, but here are the ones I've frequented thus far (I assume they're the most popular ones because they were the easiest to find):
CoolROM.com
DopeROMs.com
EmuAsylum.com
Brothersoft.com
The Emulator Zone
Get Your ROMs
Now, I know for most of you this would be a huge step backward and you might wonder why I even bother. As I said earlier, it's mainly just a matter of nostalgia. Sometimes we all miss our childhood days, and things like this can bring back great memories... as well as put those old memories to the test. Do you remember where the secret power-up is on level 15?
Anyway, as always I hope this info will be useful to somebody (even if they'd be ashamed to admit it) and that in some way I've helped to enrich someone's gaming experience, if only a tiny bit.
Until next time, game on...
Before I had a computer, an XBox, a PS2 or even the original Playstation I had the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Super Nintendo, consoles which when I was just a wee Neko kitten were handed down to me by my older brother. (I even had a GameBoy!) Though these days I play a wide variety of PC games on a system I assembled myself, I've not forgotten my gaming roots or those days of my youth when I was falling in love with video games for the very first time.
I've discovered that these days, rather than attempt to track down these old console machines in pawn shops and what-have-you, it's much easier and convenient to download console emulators and ROM versions of their games that I can play on my PC when I'm feeling nostalgic (or just feeling like a big kid). For just about every gaming console in existence someone has created a PC emulator, but to cover them all in a single blog post would be quite the volume of writing. Thus today I just want to talk about the emulators for the first games I ever played, those good ol' Nintendo games.
Several emulators for the Super Nintendo have been created, but with my custom system running Windows 7 the best one I've found thus far is the SNES 9x. Simply download it and a few ROMs, briefly navigate a simple GUI setup and before you know it you'll be playing your favorite old games in all their classic glory:
Also, as you might have inferred from these screenshots, there are some enjoyable hacked (modded) versions of those classic games available as well. One of my personal favorites is Super Metroid with the Justin Bailey (bathing suit) hack...
There are many sources for emulators and game ROMs on the internet, free of charge and requiring no membership, but here are the ones I've frequented thus far (I assume they're the most popular ones because they were the easiest to find):
CoolROM.com
DopeROMs.com
EmuAsylum.com
Brothersoft.com
The Emulator Zone
Get Your ROMs
Now, I know for most of you this would be a huge step backward and you might wonder why I even bother. As I said earlier, it's mainly just a matter of nostalgia. Sometimes we all miss our childhood days, and things like this can bring back great memories... as well as put those old memories to the test. Do you remember where the secret power-up is on level 15?
Anyway, as always I hope this info will be useful to somebody (even if they'd be ashamed to admit it) and that in some way I've helped to enrich someone's gaming experience, if only a tiny bit.
Until next time, game on...
Some of my earliest gaming experience was with the Atari 2600 and the Commodore 64. I spent quite a bit of time on the SNES, some of it getting my butt handed to me by the (at the time) girlfiend's 5 year old.
ReplyDeleteEnmeshed as I am right now with Fallout and Oblivion, Classic Doom is about as nostalgic as I will most likely get anytime soon. That said, it is nice to know that I can broaden my gaming horizons at a later time, once again thanks to your interest in being a Digital Necromancer ;)
I recently set up a SNES emulator (bsnes, accurate but with brutal requirements). It's too much fun :)
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about those hacked roms though, have to check them out, especially the translated japanese ones after Neverwinter Nights stops sidetracking me :P
I'm afraid to load my NWN on my computer. I am distracted enough from my projects as it is ;)
ReplyDeleteA very wise decision :)
ReplyDeleteI also have all the Infinity Engine games (and more) sitting here calling out to me :O
Wow, finally a post regarding a system I actually know something about (have had an install of SNES9x since 2004 or before).
ReplyDeleteAlso have GENS (a Sega Genesis emulator). Very handy since both my consoles went MIA a couple moves ago. I'm sure they're around someplace... but damned if I know where.
Ah, the old classics. Half the reason I have a Genesis emulator is for Phantasy Star IV. Was the first JRPG I ever spent any significant amount of time with, and will always hold a special place in the lump of obsidian I call a heart.
One thing I will caution you about though, Ms. Neko: unless laws have changed recently, it's considered a copyright violation to download a ROM for a game that you haven't purchased a physical copy of. I sort of doubt that there are agents of Nintendo trawling the web looking for people to pop for downloading illegal copies of Super Mario World... but you never know.
Now, all that said, where the hell did I leave my USB game pad? I haven't dropped in to see Alys and Rika lately...
@Kirtai:
ReplyDeleteI've got a post planned for the Infinity Engine games and the widescreen mod; I should be posting it fairly soon.
@Nos:
Thanks for the warning; guess I'll have to go round up all those old K-Mart sales receipts...
@Druuler:
This is why my gaming habits are so unpredictable; I have so many games I can never figure out which one I want to play or mod!
Yeah, I know: I'm a downer. It's in my contract.
ReplyDelete