Graphics, physics, sound – everything goes to the background when nostalgia takes its toll. Fortunately, now there are many emulators that give you an opportunity to run any old game on your PC.
Remember the Tanks on Dendy or Mortal Kombat on Sega? It would seem that it was so long time ago, but the memories of youth were forever in memory. Playing a new shooter on your computer, do you catch yourself thinking that it would be nice to be sitting down again for that old game?
Let’s start with the basics. In order to play your favorite old toy on the computer, you will need 2 things: directly the emulator itself, which allows you to run the game, as well as Roms, a kind of image of the game that is in the form of a file on the computer.
Search for emulator
It’s quite easy to find an emulator. Perhaps, you have any preferences in this regard, but if you are completely new to emulating old consoles on a computer, then below you will find an overview of the most functional emulators for various consoles. If you want to use an emulator that is not present in this review, then when selecting it, always pay attention to the following parameters: performance, system requirements, gamepad and cheat code support, and multiplatform. For these indicators, you probably will find a suitable emulator.
PSP Rom for Sony Playstation
PCSX Reloaded, like other PS1 emulators, is not ideal, but it performs the tasks required of it and has the necessary functionality. PSP Rom for Sony Playstation has available versions for various operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, as well as some others. If you have Windows installed, then, probably, with the ePSXe emulator, you will achieve higher performance. But due to the lack of regular updates to this emulator, it is difficult to call it the best choice. Remember that for PS1 emulation on a computer, you will need a BIOS file in any case, which you can get directly from your old console, or find it on the Internet.
Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Nestopia is a very popular NES emulator that runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It is able to emulate most games, and also has a wide range of features, including hacking games.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
SNES9X is an excellent SNES emulator that is compatible with almost all operating systems. In addition to Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, there are versions for iOS and Android. This product has a wide range of functions, making it an ideal choice among SNES emulators. An alternative is the bsnes emulator, which runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and is more demanding on computer performance.
Sega Console
Kega Fusion is an emulator for various consoles from Sega, such as Genesis, SegaSD, Game Gear and others. Works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and in fact is the only good choice among Sega emulators.
ROM
A bit about the ROM itself. There are official and “home” versions of ROM. Official versions are those cartridges that you once bought for your console and converted to a file. Home versions differ in that they are made by separate people to run on a specific emulator. Following the ethics, before starting the official ROM, you must purchase this cartridge or disk, but many companies, such as Nintendo, believe that creating a ROM is a violation of the rights of the user who bought the game.
So, we have an emulator and ROM, what next? With the consoles, everything was simple – we insert the cartridge and start playing. In our case, it is worth remembering some things.
Customize the keyboard
Most emulators are configured on the keyboard as the default input device. Accordingly, there is an initial layout of the control keys. Of course, you can find all the function keys by poking, but it’s much better to go into the emulator settings and change the keyboard layout as you like. For example, SNES9X has Config Menu, which contains the Configure Keyboard option.
Saving and pause
When we played on consoles, we needed memory cards to save games, or we wrote down special codes that encrypted our current progress. Emulators work somewhat differently, saving the data in a separate file. This is quite convenient because you can transfer the saved file to a friend. Another big plus is the ability to stop the game anywhere. Even if the game is not possible to be saved at any time (a system of control points or levels), we can still stop and save it at any convenient time for us. Find the keys in the emulator settings that are responsible for these functions and use them, as this isn’t only convenient, but it can greatly simplify the passage of the game.
Use the joystick
The keyboard is convenient for many games, and for some it’s the best controller. But in order to go deeper into the time of youth, we need the same controller that we had at that time. You can find usb-versions of joysticks for old consoles, or use modern controllers for games on the computer. After installing the controller, you must configure it. The setting is done in the same way as the keyboard. If the driver comes with the joystick, then you don’t even need to configure it in the emulator. Just make sure that the key assignments are set the same in the emulator and on the joystick.
Cheats
If you liked to use the cheats in games, then now you can again resort to their help. If your emulator supports the function of cheat codes, then it, as a rule, is in a separate menu and it can be easily found. The problem is finding working codes. If you didn’t create the ROM yourself, you won’t know which codes to use.
