It's a topic that seems to flare up every so often around here, so I think maybe we need a thread for it.

Let's lay down some ground rules, folks: This thread isn't about finding ROMs. Nobody is asking where to find ROMs. Not me, not you, not anybody. Besides, I don't need to find ROMs. I have my sources.

ALL THE WORLD'S ROMS ARE MINE TO DO WITH AS I SO DESIRE.

So, let me speak seriously here. Yes, I emulate. Frequently. I don't see anything to be ashamed about it, and while I admit it has its flaws, I feel like it shouldn't really be considered bad, per se, to actually do it.

Some people say real hardware is better. That's subjective, really. I do enjoy using real hardware, when I'm actually able to. It does provide a very different feeling than playing something in front of your monitor, and I can appreciate that. Blowing on catridges and watching the gentle curve on an old-fashioned CRT gives me "the warm fuzzies" for sure, not going to lie. But the thing is, for me, personally? It's just not feasible.

For one thing, I'm working with a very limited amount of space. I keep all my gaming stuff in my room, and I don't even have enough room as it is to comfortably place my Nintendo 64, which I actually do own. Now factor in all the other stuff I emulate frequently, including the Amiga, and you can see where I'm coming from, hopefully.

And then there's the legality aspect of that, and... well, that's where things get a little more muddled. All I'm going to say on this front is that I'm really not any sort of angel when it comes to this sort of thing, but there a few times when I think it's justified. Some games are hard to find or way more expensive than they should be, and the IP owners probably ended up getting swallowed by Activision, if you're lucky. Personally, I feel that if nobody's going to end up making money from the game, I don't see any real harm in that sort of thing. If it ends up on Nintendo's Virtual Console or Good Old Games, though, then yes, then you should actually go and spend money on it. But that's just my opinion, so feel free to take it as you wish.

Also, I feel that, in some ways, while it might not be the original experience, it's actually an improvement on the original experience. Take the Amiga. I don't have to swap disks. I don't have to buy new parts. I don't have to own several models. I can just tweak the settings as I like and be ready to play whatever I like, with no hassle.  Heck, sometimes emulation even improves a game. Look at all the translation patches all over the internet for Japanese games, for one example.

I'll say now that emulation isn't some kind of wonder technology that solves all problems. For one thing, it doesn't always work. I bought another N64 a long, long time after I sold my original. (A while back, sadly, I had to sell ALL my old gaming stuff to pay for computer parts.) I really appreciate having the original system, because in that case, you just can't play N64 stuff on your computer in a way that's comfortable. And then there's the Jaguar, which seems will forever remain a mystery to me. I always make sure to never use emulation to replace the stuff I already own. Even if N64 emulation stopped being terrible for anything beyond Super Mario 64, I can promise you I'd still keep mine.

That, and I feel like emulation's a great way to actually LEARN about games. If you don't know what something is, play it! What, do you think Retro Gamer is going to tell you anything useful about it? I've learned everything I know about European computer games from emulation. So when I say stuff like Superfrog is really not that good you guys, Sonic isn't about collecting stuff, etc. etc. I can explain why I feel that way because I'm able to play it in a mostly hassle-free way.

So that's just how I personally feel about the whole thing. You're free to disagree, I'm just saying that I don't think it's as much of a cardinal sin as I feel like it's made to be around these parts. For me, emulation's a supplement to real physical media, not a replacement. A sidekick. But it's still damn helpful.