Page 1 of 2

Running an emulator, when you have a console?

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 7:53 pm
by oldskool
Why emulate?

Don't get me wrong, I am an emulator freak. But the nice thing about the 3DO is you can play burns on it very easily, so why emulate? Does not everyone on this forum have a 3DO console to enjoy? If not, I can understand that. But if you do have a 3DO then what's the point? Just burn and play in your console right? Or are many like me, and like to play retro games on the go on their laptop?

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 9:47 pm
by 3DOKid
Screenshots. Put simply in my case ;)

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:47 pm
by 3DO Experience
And for testing a game to see if you wanna put down money for the cart... in 3DO's case the CD.

Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:58 pm
by Beef Supreme
i do it so i don't wear out my console , they aren't going to be making any new ones.

Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 3:31 pm
by BryWI
In my case, the laser on my 3do no longer likes CDRs. So I mostly emulate 3do. Also my older consoles, like my nes, I let my sister have. I can emualte that and get the same enjoyment.

Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 7:05 pm
by oldskool
All valid excuses.. errr I mean reasons. :lol:

I didn't know that the 3DO could get finicky with the burned discs. Maybe I should not use them much.

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 3:16 am
by alaterale
I've never had a problem with burned discs on my JP FZ10. But the reason that I typically use an emulator over the console is because for some games I want to be able to back up my save data. Granted there are only a few games like that, but there are a couple RPGs and I love the port of Wolfenstein :D

It'd be nice if someday someone releases some hardware that lets people back up their memory, but until then I emulate any game I care about keeping the saves for :)

Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 6:21 pm
by oldskool
If I recall correctly, you can back up your game saves with the Game Guru CD. But you have to manually write down a bunch of code to do so.

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 12:33 am
by Trev
I'm with you oldskool (one of the few it seems, but I'm used to minority status :wink: )

Oh, btw ... w/the exception of the Goldstar unit, burned discs always run like a dream for me ... FZ1 is built like a tank!

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:46 am
by alaterale
oldskool wrote:If I recall correctly, you can back up your game saves with the Game Guru CD. But you have to manually write down a bunch of code to do so.
Heh, I suppose I could hand write down all the hex code for the save, true :) Seems like that would take quite a while though :P

Hopefully now that the system's encryption is cracked, someone could develop software that used one of the ports for something useful. Like, take the controller and turn it into a serial port or something, I dunno.

Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:50 am
by alaterale
Trev wrote:I'm with you oldskool (one of the few it seems, but I'm used to minority status :wink: )

Oh, btw ... w/the exception of the Goldstar unit, burned discs always run like a dream for me ... FZ1 is built like a tank!
Oh I like running the games on the original system too. It's really much more fun than using the windows only, still sort of under development but kind of dead, never going open source, only emulator out there :)

And once people get to translating Dr Hauzer or Grand Chef RPG, I'm sure I'll have even more reasons to play on the original system. It's just a shame that I can't back up saves, since I don't want to lose dozens of hours on an RPG (unsure how long it really takes for Luciennes quest to get a perfect file but its probably a while).

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 12:13 am
by Silanda
oldskool wrote:I didn't know that the 3DO could get finicky with the burned discs. Maybe I should not use them much.
My FZ-1 has always been pretty marginal with them. Certain brands work OK, others not at all.

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2010 2:45 pm
by BryWI
I've been running a gamecube emulator lately on my new laptop. It runs quite nice actually since the machine is a beast. I run it to the tv via hdmi and It looks better than the original gamecube. I was also doing the same with a ps2 emulator. What stinks about the gamecube discs though is I have to find images for the discs I already own because I have no way of dumping the discs. :( But I already found the ones I really wanted so i guess it's all good. Just annoying that I have to find them.

Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 6:55 pm
by Axelord
I find its not the quality of discs, though I only use Sony which are notoriously known for being cheap trash, but rather the speed at which they are burned. Most games for 3do won't work burned faster than 4x I find. I prefer 2x or 4x. Every game I've ever burned at this speed, which is a lot, has always worked!

Unfortunately, the discs wore out and now I have to burn them again as I play :(

Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 9:50 pm
by Auto-Fox
No faster than 4x? Really? Hm. I believe my burned copies were burned at at least 6x speed, and they actually work almost perfectly on my GoldStar 3DO.

Running an emulator, when you have a console?

Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2010 3:45 pm
by Paul928
I have issues with FMV playback (gets very jerky) on my FZ-1 when I burn CDs faster than 4 or 8x.

Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2010 1:43 am
by Lemmi
i can hardly emulate atari 2600 games on my computer, there is no way 3do would even come close to working
plus i hate playing games on my computer now after wasting 2 years playing everquest

only flash/swf games for me on this POS

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 1:22 am
by phatrat1982
well I can't speak for everyone but to be honest I used to be in the original hardware only camp for ever until I got a Wii specifically for the virtual console and then I got hooked on having all my old classic games in one place so I switched to emulating and never looked back. I find for me it is just about convenience really, instead of having cables and consoles and carts and discs lying around everywhere I can have everything on one hard drive in one folder and just scroll down to the game I want double click and get going.



What I really want is to build the ultimate classic gaming machine that can run all my favorite old consoles and arcade games, build it into an arcade cabinet with Arcade Pads and Light Guns hooked up via USB and have the ultimate in home video arcade cabinet. I am about maybe 30 percent complete towards my goal I have the machine the monitor and the software I just need the cabinet and controllers and to assemble it all.

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 2:47 am
by Trev
The Wii's virtual console is easy to get addicted to. I really don't want to like it. I love original hardware, software, boxes, manuals, etc... But it is just so darn easy on the Wii! I've been pretty good for the most part, limiting my downloads to just a handful. Latley though, I'm starting to weaken.

Between it and ScummVM ... :twisted:

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 4:08 am
by phatrat1982
I have mixed feelings towards VC, honestly and I know people often hate me for saying this but honestly I only bought a Wii just for VC and after I started emulating on my PC I sold the thing and never looked back. I wanted to like it I tried to like it I stood in line in the cold all night at Kmart waiting in line to get one because of the hype and in the end I have basically stopped gaming because of it. All I do now is revert to my tried and true classics and have given up all hope for video games going forward.

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 4:34 am
by Austin
Trev wrote: Latley though, I'm starting to weaken.
haha, me too man.. Although that happened two and three years ago. I think I am up to 70+ VC titles.. ugh. Since they are non-transferrable and tied to the system, I am starting to wonder if I can sell my Wii with all of those games for a lot of money... :?:

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 4:40 am
by phatrat1982
that is what I did, I had I think like 75 games when I sold my console and I got a lot of money for it that day.

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 10:00 am
by Trev
Austin wrote:
Trev wrote: Latley though, I'm starting to weaken.
haha, me too man.. Although that happened two and three years ago. I think I am up to 70+ VC titles.. ugh. Since they are non-transferrable and tied to the system, I am starting to wonder if I can sell my Wii with all of those games for a lot of money... :?:
Can't they just be loaded onto an sd card?

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 2:31 pm
by phatrat1982
you can store them on an SD card and play them back now last I heard, but they are tied to the console they are purchased on. If you sell the Wii the only way to keep your VC games is to call Nintendo and disconnect the account tied to the system and then connect that account to the next console you buy, it was such a pain in the ass. I suppose you could copy them to the SD Card and maybe run them on a PC using a Wii emulator but I never thought to try that.

Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 5:36 pm
by Trev
I never knew that. :?

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 12:29 am
by Austin
Yeah, you can store them on your SD card, but you can't take said SD card and access the games on another console. Bummer, eh? :?

Also, I hear Nintendo won't transfer the games for you the majority of the time.. Unless something crazy happens, like your house burns down, they are hard-asses about it. I don't get it, really...

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 1:32 am
by phatrat1982
No it isn't that the way it works is you HAVE to link your Wii to a Nintendo.com account, as long as you do that they will transfer but most people are too lazy to take the extra step and register with Nintendo online. That was what they told me anyways. I did go through the steps of linking my accounts but I sold the console with the games still preloaded on it. I could have been an jerk and unlinked my account and reclaimed my games but I am done with Nintendo so no reason to hassle with that.

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 2:54 am
by Trev
Ahhh, good to know. I'm in club Nintendo and register every game I can.

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 4:03 am
by Calavera
Thats why you just run the homebrew emulators, so much easier. :twisted:

Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2011 2:14 pm
by BryWI
Calavera wrote:Thats why you just run the homebrew emulators, so much easier. :twisted:
I agree :)