Topic: How many of you use emulators to play games from older consoles, and if you don't, why not?

My question is already in the title but i'll say it again. How many of you use emulators to play games from older consoles? And if you don't, why not?

Do you emulate games for consoles you already own?

I'd really like to know as i've turned to emulation to play classic games i've heard were good/ to save money by not buying new games - and its been pretty great!

I used them only for some games in the past, but as time went on and more games released... I don't have time to even play my current backlog, let alone for past games.

So well... not really using emulators yeah. Found them to be fiddly and annoying most of the time. The only reason I want to use emulator now is just fanmade stuff maybe, like that tectonic or that fanmod for PMD Explorers of Sky...

These days, I tend to use the Delta app on my phone, but I would really like to grab a dedicated portable handheld for playing the classics one of these days.

I'd also like to use a handheld PC to fulfill the same purpose, but perhaps for more demanding retro games (such as those on GameCube), and of course classic PC/DOS games.

Not right now, but the more time goes on, I'll probably be looking into that for games I already have.

As time goes on definitely tempted to look into this kind of thing for games which will likely never get re-released especially for things like psone.

really my only concern is things like having to worry about settings for 3d games and whatnot since thats an aspect im not a fan of in PC gaming, would much prefer to be able to just choose a preset and have it run as it should.

I play PS2 and N64 games on my Steam Deck right now. It really does have money but I already own the physical editions of the games I play on emulators.

I can see that changing in the future as companies become more and more anti-consumer. Then I will definitely play some games for "free".

I have done so in the past and will again.

That's a weirdly dramatic sounding sentence for this.

Anyway, half of my Let's Plays were done with them. But, I haven't done it in a while because nowadays I have so many games not only that I own and haven't touched yet but also NSO has been a good enough source of random retro games to not feel much of a desire to do so.

I have an Anbernic portable which has a bunch of games from the NES/DOS/GB through to N64/PS/DC. Mostly I use it for playing GameBoy though because the form factor suits it well

I also have my Steam Deck which I use for Wii U emulation strangely. Which is a bit odd given most of those games came to Switch but still. I have the ability to emulate Wii/GC but a lot of those games deserve a resolution bump so I rarely bother

But yeah, as others have said, despite the ability to do it there's often too much new stuff to really bother with it. And when I want to scratch that retro gaming itch there's plenty on NSO

I use to in the early 2000s before I found out it was illegal. Besides it being illegal, using them was just s hassel for me. Nowadays almost all of the retro games I want to play I own in some form or another. Be it in its original form, a compilation on a current Gen console like the Cowabunga Collection or a service like NSO. I dont have to deal with finding an emulator, then finding the ROMs then hoping they work or messing around with settings and what not to get them to work correctly. So using them just.doesnt.appeal to me.

No, I prefer to play them on original hardware (if I have it) or via modern ports. It's not necessarily a moral thing and I might consider using an emulator if i really want to play a particular game that I have no official access to, it's just not what I'm used to doing.

I used to download roms in the past, but I stopped, partly because I was scared I would get prosecuted.

More recently, I was tempted by the retron console and it's like - because while I own a modified SNES, it's such a hassle to get it all set up. I tried getting one on ebay, and was sniped at the last second, so ultimately, I got something called a sanni cart reader.
It can copy the contents of a game cart (SNES/Super Famicom, NES, GameBoy/Advance, Megadrive and N64) onto an SD card and use it on an emulator.

The steam deck has a third party app called emudeck that can allow you to catalogue a library of such roms, and it's how I play my collection. I had to hack my WiiU, Gamecube and PS3 for some games, but they work just as well.

I've transferred over my Wii games in the same manner, but I haven't really figured out how to get remote controls working properly yet. Similarly, while a game like Xenoblade Chronicles X works fine, and I can press a trigger on the controller to switch to Gamepad display, it's probably more convenient to play it on the WiiU for me.

My pride of my collection includes Captain Rainbow (A birthday present - I really want to get the controls working for this in particular), A cheaper Japanese version of Path of Radiance, Wonder Project J2 and Persona 3 FES.

I play them on a monitor through the steam deck, and it's a pretty convenient set up for me.

I made backups of all my DS and GBA games, and I have them ready to play on my tablet.

The actual hardware is aging noticeably, so for some of my older games that’s the way I prefer to revisit them nowadays. But newer cartridges still get use on real consoles.

No. I'd rather play my games the official way, whether it's the original hardware, Virtual Console, or NSO's Nintendo Classics apps.

I do not use Emulators at all as I prefer to play games on original hardware. This being said I don't have an issue with people that do. I've been gaming since the early 80s (I'm 47) so I'm fortunate enough to own pretty much all systems going as far back as the Spectrum Zx and Atari 2600.

I mostly play on my consoles, but I do use emulators on occasion. There are certain games that are rare/expensive or never saw release outside of arcades that emulation is perfect for. The Alien Vs Predator beat 'em up, which is an amazing game I'd never be able to play otherwise is one such example.

I do use emulators, but only really for games that haven’t been released on modern consoles and are stuck on old consoles. I do have the Delta and Gamma emulators on my phone, but I have not touched them in a while, and if I’m being honest the touchscreen controls on such a small screen are hard to use, especially the N64 games and their controls do not translate the best to touchscreen controls. I mostly prefer to play them on console, since using the controller is way easier for me and I usually found the old controls translate better on a modern controller.

I do, either to play games I used to own or play games I wanted to try but never got a chance to that hasn’t been rereleased (doubly so if it’s a very expensive game like Radiant Dawn)