What was your first exposure to emulation?

[5thWolf]

NESticle & Legend of Zelda II: The Adventures of Link!

 

[petran79]

By the way, I was wondering if any of you tried "Bleem!" ?

I heard they were distributing CDs until they got into legal trouble.

I tried a pirated version of Bleem in order to try a pirated version of SOTN around 98, unfortunately my pc was below system requirements and game run at 2/3 speed.

First emulation experience was Callus 95 at a friend around 96. We played Capcom Cps1 beat-em-ups. Then I discovered Neo Rage X for Neo Geo games and Raine for Wwf Wrestlefest mainly. On Neo Rage we played mainly Super Sidekicks 1 and Stakes Winner 2.

 

[Mr.Yes]

I tried a pirated version of Bleem in order to try a pirated version of SOTN around 98, unfortunately my pc was below system requirements and game run at 2/3 speed.

First emulation experience was Callus 95 at a friend around 96. We played Capcom Cps1 beat-em-ups. Then I discovered Neo Rage X for Neo Geo games and Raine for Wwf Wrestlefest mainly. On Neo Rage we played mainly Super Sidekicks 1 and Stakes Winner 2.

Must have been interesting times.

 

[CactuarLOL]

For me, it was in a period where we didn't have internet or at least it barely (I mean it) worked.
My father would sometimes download some stuff in his workplace and bring it home via USB Flash. I was a little back then, I didn't fully comprehend the emulation concept,
I was introduced to "Stella" (Atari 2600 Emulator) where I played River Raid, Keystone kapers, Donkey kong and bunch of certified classics. I thought it couldn't get any better. But you guessed it, he also brought "Epsxe" (PS1 Emulator) and "Spider-man 2: Enter Electro". At the time I got very excited because I remember finishing the prequel not so long ago. And now, here we are in 2025. I am grateful.

Here's a plot twist, I didn't know I could play these games with a controller (even when I had a cheap one), I only used the keyboard to play.
What's your story?
P.S: Now that I put a question in the thread title, I feel like I'm on r/askreddit.)

Back in 1998, me and my friends used to trade roms we'd downloaded and put onto floppy disks. I remember we downloaded an early translation of Pokemon Crystal before it released in English. We put the rom, an emulator and a guide on floppy disks and were selling them in school for £5 each.

 

[S O D A]

A friend gave me a burned disc with a NES emulator called Famicommunist and a handful of roms along with a early version of VBA and some roms. I really remember a Pokemon ROM hack called Shiny Crystal being in there. That was I think 2006? Still got the disc and all the roms from it are on my computer today

 

[CheesyExplosive]

nulldc,epsxe and brothersoft.

 

[Ryderdog1332]

I have a pretty cool memory of seeing my old computer class teacher showing the entire class how to emulate Sega Genesis games on the school computers. Unfortunately it was literally my last day before I had to move to another town so I never got to actually play them :(

Besides that, it was playing Pokemon rom hack nuzlockes together with my brother.

 

[Matricks]

Not1st but First on Mobile/cell phone Samsung S100 in 2000s was WOW with Castlevania X snes emu.
Its was pretty good for that time with real clicky buttons.
[media]

My bad dementia trig. it was on ASUS MYPAL A620 POCKETPC.
pocketpc

https://www.reddit.com/r/SBCGaming/comments/15tud42/my_first_handheld_emulation_device_from_20_years/#lightbox

[media]

 

[TinRattler]

C64 my neighbour used to buy games pirate them and give me copies them take them back for a refund

 

[Jdan-S]

I had a bootleg copy of Final Fantasy Legend III, which wouldn't save even with a new battery. That led me to search online for solutions and more info about the game. Eventually, I started getting details here and there about this thing called "emulation".

I got my start with FCE Ultra and No$GMB. I didn't have a controller, so I adapted and learned how to use WASD for the dpad and the numpad keys for face buttons.

(I eventually fixed the FFL3 cart through; one loose point just needed soldering.)

 

[diet_orange]

I vaguely remember one cousin playing NHL 94 on his family computer (and then something about him getting a virus from it later) and then another cousin years later bringing over Project 64 and Smash on a flash drive that he downloaded

 

[Xugabugala]

SNES Station on the PS2

 

[Vardalis]

Depends on what you count as emulation I guess.

If it counts for emulated games on consoles from back in the day, probably something like Sonic Mega Collection or Midway Arcade Treasures 2.

If it's just for emulators you run directly, probably trying to set up something like ePSXe on my friend's laptop back in the day. We didn't need to since we had a PS3 right there with the PS1 game we wanted to play, but the idea of putting a PS1 disc in the laptop and having it run was so cool. Even if I don't remember us actually managing it after all of the trying.

 

[Moulinoski]

For me, it was during Pokémania and Pokémon Gold & Silver had just been released in Japan. While I was watching news of it like a hawk I discovered that you could play it on your computer like right now! It wasn’t enjoyable lol I didn’t understand a lick of Japanese and the early English patches were terrible. Later that winter the games came out in the US anyway.
It still allowed me to learn about emulation and to sample all kinds of games that I never knew existed. I played Final Fantasy II (IV) like that until I got the PS1 version for my birthday or something (I was just not old enough to buy things with my own money). I fell in love with Dragon Warrior Monsters through emulation which kicked off a lifelong love for Dragon Quest (and I eventually got the cart… and the remake on 3DS!). I sampled so many games this way. I say sampled because I normally wouldn’t play anything for more than a few minutes.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

Late nineties a friend of mine lent me a cd with zsnes and most of the snes catalog... Having little to no experience with computers at that point i couldn't understand why I could not save. As I later understood the whole read only businnes.

 

[solnK!]

For me, it was during Pokémania and Pokémon Gold & Silver had just been released in Japan. While I was watching news of it like a hawk I discovered that you could play it on your computer like right now! It wasn’t enjoyable lol I didn’t understand a lick of Japanese and the early English patches were terrible. Later that winter the games came out in the US anyway.
It still allowed me to learn about emulation and to sample all kinds of games that I never knew existed. I played Final Fantasy II (IV) like that until I got the PS1 version for my birthday or something (I was just not old enough to buy things with my own money). I fell in love with Dragon Warrior Monsters through emulation which kicked off a lifelong love for Dragon Quest (and I eventually got the cart… and the remake on 3DS!). I sampled so many games this way. I say sampled because I normally wouldn’t play anything for more than a few minutes.

That´s so a cute way to discover Dragon Quest

 

[Sfjeov]

FF6 on openemu's bsnes

 

[koenigmj94]

Back in 5th grade I had a friend who had a modded Xbox classic. He not only had a bunch of games saved to the hard drive but he could also play Banjo-Kazooie and Mario 64 on an emulator he had on it. Despite this, I never got curious myself about emulation until about halfway through highschool.

First I discovered Vizzed, and I did stuff on that for awhile because I'm an idiot and didn't know how emulation actually worked yet. I just knew this cool website would let me play Star Trek Starfleet Academy and Pokemon Stadium online. Then eventually I got a copy of Project 64 and had a pure nostalgic field day with it and Dolphin emulator.

The first time I ever stayed up for 24 hours it was over summer break playing emulated games while watching pirated episodes of South Park while waiting for my """WALMART""" copy of Spore to download (shoutout Grimbeard)

 

[Numubunde]

Honestly I don't quite remember but it I'm not wrong I'd say it was when I downloaded a NES emulator (can't remember which) to play Shin Megami Tensei.

 

[Insomnia_ig]

Wow, did he have separate laptops for every emulator? lolol

No just different laptops cause one was his and the other was my step brothers

 

[Lod 10]

Mine was a DVD player that had Nes games that had that circus game that I couldn't get past.

 

[Bobmeboi]

mine was boring. It was one of those Nintendo 64 emulators in your browser website.

 

[qw90700]

Mine was a DVD player that had Nes games that had that circus game that I couldn't get past.

Yeah this game: https://retrogametalk.com/repository/nes-roms/circus-charlie-japan/

While initial levels were easy enough it suddenly gets hard. I tried to beat the game but I probably never could I don't remember lol.

 

[Lod 10]

Yeah this game: https://retrogametalk.com/repository/nes-roms/circus-charlie-japan/

While initial levels were easy enough it suddenly gets hard. I tried to beat the game but I probably never could I don't remember lol.

The game control was from a mega drive and pirated games had so many classic games, there were ship games that I couldn't get through because I didn't have the patience. Then I'll try to finish the circus game so I can play it again.See if it was difficult when I was a child because I was a child or is it because I am terrible at

 

[At_Least_20_Dogs]

Uncle had a snes emulator. I remember when he showed me mario rpg I thought he was just messing with me. I was thinking "An official game wouldnt have all those random pixels and empty space and those guys arent even from any mario game"