How long have you been emulating games?

[thanonyx thanonyx]

I got my start back in 2012 on the PS1 emulator ePSXe. The first game I emulated was my favorite video game of all time, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.

 

[ZEGA ZONIC]

I started emulating in 2013 with Kega Fusion.

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Who knows, laptops used to come with a pre installed build of mame + a couple hundred roms, I think the first time I did everything myself mustve been around 2011\2012 with ePSexe

 

[nachito]

Maybe 20 years? Not sure.

 

[JackNoir413]

started in 2016(i think) when they gave us student laptops in school and it got popular to emulate GBA pokemon. i liked emerald the best out of the ones i played.

 

[Danteh]

Probably when i was 12 years old when i tried Kega Fusion with a rom of Sonic & Knuckles and Mortal Kombat

 

[frankied85]

Probably 1997 or so with early versions of Nesticle on a 486.

 

[fake-kun]

About ten years or so.

 

[Strategist's icon Strategist Strategist]

I am an old fellow. As soon as I got internet access I was searching for game news, walkthroughs and eventually emulators, roms and even language hacks. Around 1996/1997. Nesticle and ZSNES were my first emulators.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Since 1999.

Got my start with Pokemon Yellow.

 

[Zemus]

You are all making me feel old I tried them out in around 2005 with pokemon games on the old gameboy emulators that I cannot remember the names of. Watching twitch plays pokemon felt like a fever dream and I really thought in a world with twitch plays pokemon we wouldn't still be having drama with sites and companies.

I remember how amazed I was by BGB and VBA in 2005. Back then, the idea of savestates felt like being able to reload candy I had already eaten. It was insane to me that game cartridges weren't limited to their intended use on their intended platform and that something as important as a company would ever lie.

Of course, with all the means to enjoy things, we start to lose the internal capacity to enjoy them...as so many games like to say, the previous humans still desired more, and eventually destroyed their own planet...

 

[tropicalavera]

My dad had me playing hit ZX Spectrum emulator 'Speccy' sometime back in the late 90s - and I remember migrating to Nesticle in the very early 2000s. I was just a dumb kid though and this was all my dad's doing (honest, officer...). I wouldn't start getting my own hands dirty until maybe 2006ish? - 16bit consoles were finally on the menu for me and I spent most of my time playing weird PC Engine shmups, GBA trash, and Earthbound. It's been such an ever-present part of my life that I do genuinely forget that some people aren't overly familiar with emulating.

 

[RetroLaw]

Around 2000, maybe a couple years after ?

That went like that:

Friend : "you can play Chrono Trigger in Us on an emulator"
Me : "What's that ?? "
Friend : " You just need a pc for that"
Me : " Say no more"

And that's why I bought my first Pc.

 

[Yousef]

Since 1999.

Got my start with Pokemon Yellow.

When did you first emulate 3D games? (Or at least had the capacity to)?

 

[Stookymalarkey]

I think it was back in 2003 when a buddy introduced me to SNES emulation. Thankfully, 16 bit games were small enough that it didn't take hours to download with dial up! I started out with the ZSNES since my PC was low spec but I moved over to SNES9x later on once I discovered issues running certain games like Earthworm Jim 2 and Super Mario RPG.

 

[Yousef]

As for my answer I can’t say for sure but I’ve “done it when possible”. I think maybe more than 10 years.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

When did you first emulate 3D games? (Or at least had the capacity to)?

20...11? I was without a PC from 2007-10, then I started working and needed to fulfill requests (PS1 games were insanely popular).

 

[RetroLaw]

Dang remembering about how I discovered emulation, all these games I never found in any store finally at the palm of my hand, is giving me a massive retro boner.

I need to go home and play Mystic Defender so bad.

 

[Yousef]

20...11? I was without a PC from 2007-10, then I started working and needed to fulfill requests (PS1 games were insanely popular).

How hard do you remember it being? We didn’t have the emus we have now. I know the n64 was problematic.
Also damn I had a no-pc period too it was really painful.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

How hard do you remember it being? We didn’t have the emus we have now. I know the n64 was problematic.
Also damn I had a no-pc period too it was really painful.

N64 had no footing, and having to turn down almost every request on the system bothered me immensely... as a new writer coming into the scene I really couldn't afford to do that. The only games I could review were Pilotwings 64, Banjo-Kazooie and Pokemon Stadium 2. And I actually did a playthrough of the first two to compensate.

 

[ladyerrant]

Pokemon Red on no$gb back in 1998/1999 (might not have been no$gb, but I'm sure about the timeframe because I was in high school at the time).

 

[Cu-Neo]

Since 2011 I think. My brother introduced me to the concept of emulation with a GBA emulator and later I learned how to work with PSP ISO's while I was sick making a english presentation for school. I remember visiting Cdromance in the computer class and being like "OH the English translation for 7th Dragon II is out! ?️?"

 

[YuriSukiSan]

2009! I played a few different emulators back then but mostly focused on older generation stuff.

 

[Yousef]

introduced me to the concept of emulation with a GBA emulator and later I learned how to work with PSP ISO

ME TOO!!! Although I was the “older sibling” hahahaha. My first psp iso was gta VCS actually. It’s the only 3d gta without a modern re-release. Playing it again after a 14 year break genuinely blew my mind. There’s something really nice about a game being “just as good as you remember it” except for me it was even BETTER than i remember it. (I’m the gta freak for a reason don’t be surprised lmao)

 

[OmegaKatanaXIII]

Personally I first started with an emulator called VBA advance due to wanting to play the fan translated verison of SRW J. Then I started playing gba/GB series of games then moved to the nes then snes then genesis then the arcade starting with Winkawaks then mame then the flipping playstation with epexe the bios took a while to get used to then the dreamcast. All of this from the early 2010s.