Playing on real hardware instead of emulation
by Pixel Pusher
I love emulation. I remember when I first saw and found out I could play all my old consoles on my mac was a great day. The challenges for me was getting the right controller and managing game saves. I could never get that to be 100% reliable. I love the ability to discover new games I missed growing up. I also enjoy revisiting old games I have nostalgia for.
However emulation is not perfect. There have been major advancements in emulation. Emulation has also contributed in enhancing the visual fidelity of older games. Sometimes emulation is not perfect. Still having all my old consoles I wanted to play these games on the original hardware when possible. This journey with RGB has aided in my going back and playing old consoles. Also I enjoy the feeling of the original controllers and authentic experience of playing on real hardware.
So the path I took is not the path most traveled to playing these old games but it is a path I’m very happy with. I took the long way round. For most people the best option to playing old games is to get a raspberry pie and make a retro pie out of it and just emulate all these games. The market for retro games has changed quickly and still continues to be harder to get into with the rapid rising costs of games. Having all my systems and games since I was young I have had a head start. Also picking up retro games here and there my whole life helps. I keep saying I wish I was more aggressive picking up older titles but I then remember that I never stopped picking up games for one system or another over the years.
Also a major catalyst in playing on original hardware was the discovery of flash cartridges. This was a dream as a kid having a cartridge that I could load up nearly any game for and play it. This was kind of reverse emulation. With emulation comes the access to the whole library of games for a system. With most Flash Carts you can get the benefit of playing nearly any game for the system the cart is for. Flash Carts seem like a nice way to play games on original hardware without emulation and enjoy hacks, homebrew and translations. You would think that getting a flash cart would replace seeking out original cartridges but it really helped formed buying decisions. I have really been enjoying more the hacks and translations these days.
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