Whether or not this is relevant to the thread I’ll let you guys to decide, this is more like a “To whom it may concern” kind of post, for good or worse.
I have been game collecting and working on preserving my collection for most of my life to a point where I feel that it sometimes have been like a unhealthy, time consuming, life consuming habit and I have started to feel like this isn’t a hobby anymore, more like an obsession.
I have been emulating since 1999 which this year marks my 25th year anniversary with emulation.
It all started with that I’m a big Mega Man fan, but as I live in Sweden/Europe only Mega Man 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 was released to us here in Europe.
Mega Man 6 were nowhere to be found and importing games when you were 13-14 years old would have been a costly affair, believe me, used games was quite expensive even back then.
One day at the school yard I found out that there was a way for me to experience the 6th chapter of the NES Mega Man hexalogy.
A much older guy than me had been using something called “emulation” which back at the time was quite alienating to say the least.
I was intrigued and needed to know more so I decided to look all this up, and yeah it was true, Nesticle (what a classic name huh) was the solution to my problem.
But how would this work?? I don’t have the game and there is no way for me to buy it since it never released in Europe.
Well, I was then introduced to ROM files which opened up Pandoras Box and with our 56k Modem I got what I needed and I even put the game on a 3,5" Floppy Disk with a custom label on it to place among my Mega Man 1-5 collection.
Happy ending? Nope! There is always the question, what if?
Nesticle had something a NES didn’t have, the ability to save state and down the rabbit hole we go.
This is awesome, why would I play my games on the consoles when I could emulate and save the games when ever I wanted and I wasn’t causing any wear and tear either (instant win-win)
Back then I didn’t really care much for emulation quality, CRTs were still a thing and at some point early 2000s I remember connecting my computer to a real CRT TV and played NES, SNES and N64 games.
There were no needs for any shaders or filters, the CRT made it look like I was playing on the real thing.
If we are going to be honest and yes we will, I know what you are all thinking and yes I did emulate games I didn’t own, many many times. I tried the games and I later ended up buying the ones I really liked.
When you are young, you have a tight budget but even today I still try out games before buying them and 90% of the time a purchase is made.
Anyway, does this story have any meaning or an end? Well yes.
Being almost 40 today my interest have started to decline and I have peaked a long time ago.
I’m having false memories of how things used to look and run because I have been using emulators more then playing on the real consoles.
I have spent most of my grown up life trying to replicate my childhood experience but to what cost.
Accuracy is important, but I can’t tell the difference because 95% of everything I play is emulated anyway.
After 25 years I’m really tired, I don’t want to end-up regretting not living my life.
This will probably be one of my last posts regarding emulation for a very long while and it’s time to embark on a new journey.
As Roger Murtaugh would say: “I’m getting old for this shit”
