{"id":324491,"date":"2021-08-14T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-08-14T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-are-video-game-emulators-so-important\/"},"modified":"2021-08-14T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-08-14T17:00:00","slug":"why-are-video-game-emulators-so-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-are-video-game-emulators-so-important\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why Are Video Game Emulators So Important?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3077473b511\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3077473b511\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-are-video-game-emulators-so-important\/#Collections_Arent_Enough\" >Collections Aren\u2019t Enough<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-are-video-game-emulators-so-important\/#When_Media_Goes_Missing\" >When Media Goes Missing<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-are-video-game-emulators-so-important\/#How_Emulation_Helps_With_Preservation\" >How Emulation Helps With Preservation<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-are-video-game-emulators-so-important\/#A_Secret_to_Everyone_Emulators_Help_Preserve_History\" >A Secret to Everyone: Emulators Help Preserve History<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><strong>&#8220;#Why Are Video <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Game<\/a> Emulators So Important?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"type:primaryImage size-full wp-image-745279\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/classic-video-game-controllers-in-a-pile.jpeg?width=398&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 400w, https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/classic-video-game-controllers-in-a-pile.jpeg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, 400w, 1200w\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/classic-video-game-controllers-in-a-pile.jpeg?width=1198&amp;trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"Classic video game controllers in a pile\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"type:primaryImage imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/taipei-taiwan-february-19-2018-pile-1065532730\">robtek\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Super Mario Bros will never die. Nintendo always gets around to re-releasing the 1985 classic on every new console it makes, and people always buy millions of copies.\u00a0But what about games that aren\u2019t beloved? Will they survive?<\/p>\n<p>Nothing is certain, but one thing makes preserving our history a lot easier: emulation. Getting old Atari, Nintendo, and Sega games working on your computer, while legally complicated, helps ensure that even the most obscure titles stay alive in some form.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Collections_Arent_Enough\"><\/span>Collections Aren\u2019t Enough<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If not for emulation, how would games be preserved? Well, there are collectors. People who obsessively scan eBay for obscure games, then buy and preserve them, go a long way to making sure no games dis<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ear forever.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-347535 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/shutterstock_1056459407.jpg?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"A pile of Nintendo 64 game cartridges \" width=\"650\" height=\"433\" data-crediturl=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/taipei-taiwan-february-20-2018-studio-1056459407\" data-credittext=\"robtek\/Shutterstock.com\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"imagecredit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterstock.com\/image-photo\/taipei-taiwan-february-20-2018-studio-1056459407\">robtek\/Shutterstock.com<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>One such person, Nate Duke, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/n8duke.com\/nintendo\/\">sold his collection for $25,000<\/a> after years of making acquisitions. Collectors like that, who purchase even the least-loved games, create a market for obscure titles that helps ensure they survive.<\/p>\n<p>But even that has limits. Cartridges eventually break down, CDs stop working, and in theory that could mean entire games disappearing from the world forever. And we know exactly what losing work looks like, because it\u2019s happened throughout history.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"When_Media_Goes_Missing\"><\/span>When Media Goes Missing<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Scrolling through <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lost_work\">Wikipedia\u2019s page of lost works<\/a> is downright depressing. So many writings by great minds have disappeared forever, and we only know about them because of references in other documents. Some of this happened because people lost interest, some of it happened because of fires, and some weren\u2019t kept around basically because no one saw value in doing so.<\/p>\n<p>It sounds like a problem for the ancients, but we\u2019re not much better off in the modern world, in part because we\u2019re not good at knowing what future generations will value.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a good example. In the 1960s, Doctor Who was largely seen as a silly <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a> fiction show, and the BBC saw no compelling reason to keep copies of already aired episodes around. They recorded over the originals of several episodes, largely to save money on tape (a common practice for shows at the time).<\/p>\n<p>Over time, Doctor Who became a cultural institution in the UK and beyond, and fans all over the world very much wanted to see those missing episodes. A few were recovered in spectacular fashion, as Philip Morris, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/redirect.viglink.com\/?key=204a528a336ede4177fff0d84a044482&amp;u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fentertainment-arts-24467337\">talking to the BBC,<\/a>\u00a0outlines here:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The tapes had been left gathering dust in a storeroom at a television relay station in Nigeria. I remember wiping the dust off the masking tape on the canisters and my heart missed a beat as I saw the words, Doctor Who. When I read the story code I realized I\u2019d found something pretty special.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Even with efforts like this, some episodes are still missing. It\u2019s possible they\u2019ll never be found.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_Emulation_Helps_With_Preservation\"><\/span>How Emulation Helps With Preservation<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>This brings us back to emulation. An original cartridge or CD in a display case preserves the game, in part, but it doesn\u2019t necessarily preserve the <em>experience<\/em> of playing the game. At least, not in a way that most people can join in.<\/p>\n<p>Emulators can\u2019t bring this back completely\u2014the buttons won\u2019t feel the same, and you won\u2019t be looking at the same CRT monitor.\u00a0But in terms of keeping classic titles around, in a playable state, emulators do the job.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-347532 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/archive-console-collection.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"\" width=\"650\" height=\"493\" data-credittext=\"Old consoles with available ROMs\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>And The Internet Archive is helping to make this happen. You can browse <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/consolelivingroom\">its collection of playable classic games<\/a> right now, and play them right in your browser. They <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/softwarelibrary_msdos_games\">offer DOS games too<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 role=\"heading\" aria-level=\"2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_Secret_to_Everyone_Emulators_Help_Preserve_History\"><\/span>A Secret to Everyone: Emulators Help Preserve History<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to imagine any Doctor Who episodes disappearing completely in this day and age, and piracy is no small part of that. Even if every TV station on earth deleted all copies of an episode, Usenet and BitTorrent would still offer it. It\u2019s not hard to imagine the BBC eventually grabbing the episode from there to restore their archives.<\/p>\n<p>That doesn\u2019t make pirating TV episodes legal, or even morally acceptable. But that preservation is one advantage to the current situation. And emulators and ROMs are similar.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-347534 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/retroarch-games.png?trim=1,1&amp;bg-color=000&amp;pad=1,1\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"351\" data-credittext=\"Kirby video game ROM being played\" onload=\"pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\" onerror=\"this.onerror=null;pagespeed.lazyLoadImages.loadIfVisibleAndMaybeBeacon(this);\"\/><\/p>\n<p>In a way,\u00a0setting up RetroArch, the ultimate emulator, is an act of helping to preserve history. One that is, in all likelihood, violating copyright law, of course. But one that helps preserve history all the same.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n setTimeout(function(){\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n  {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n  if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n  n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];\n  s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s) } (window, document,'script',\n  'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n   fbq('init', '335401813750447');\n   fbq('track', 'PageView');\n  },3000);\n<\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/347530\/the-importance-of-emulation-for-games-preservation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#Why Are Video Game Emulators So Important?&#8221; robtek\/Shutterstock.com Super Mario Bros will never die. Nintendo always gets around to re-releasing the 1985 classic on every new console it makes, and people always buy millions of copies.\u00a0But what about games that aren\u2019t beloved? Will they survive? Nothing is certain, but one thing makes preserving our history&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/classic-video-game-controllers-in-a-pile.jpeg?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}