Game Emulators: Preserving our gaming history or destroying the gaming future.

Game Emulators are both the salvation of our gaming history and the destroyers of our gaming future. I know, I know big statement, but when I really think about this, I can't help but to both love Gaming Emulators and fear their technology. According to about.com, "An Emulator is a software application that can accurately imitate another computer, mobile phone, device or even arcade machine and run software from that computer." So a Game Emulator is an emulator that basically allows another computer to run a video game. Currently there are emulators that allow users to play multiple consoles including the Game boy, the Nintendo 64 and even the Xbox. When the emulators first came out I loved using them, I thought to myself "wow now I can play every game I want". But being a well-informed consumer, I had to check out the Pros and Cons of these emulators.

So now let’s explore Game Emulators: preserving our gaming history or destroying the gaming future.

Game Emulators: Preserving our gaming history (Pros)

1. Game Emulators are Free:
• Yes, they are found on the internet, downloadable and free.
2. Game Emulators have an extensive array of games that are available to play:
• Most emulators have a large variety of games, a good example would be the Game boy Advance Emulator (Visual Boy) http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/gba/vboyadvance.html
3. Game Emulators preserves old systems online.
• Emulators allow for old video game systems to be readily available to the general public. 

Game Emulators: destroying the gaming industry's future (Cons)

1. They are free:
• Since they are free, the companies don't make money off of them.
2. While using emulators are not necessarily illegal, the usages of different companies games (ROMS) are illegal.
• Since many program developers don't have the permission from those companies to use their games, it is illegal to play and not pay, so technically while Emulators are not illegal, the use of their game without payment is.
3. The Emulator Technology has been known to copy even current games
• Games such as World of War craft have been currently copied for emulation servers; this means there are currently dozens of players who are illegally accessing this game.

I personally don't think emulators are necessarily bad things for preserving old games, but I think that there should be regulation in some manner. Emulator in my opinion are a gift and a curse for the gaming industry. Everyday individuals are producing new emulators for our more current system  like the PS2 or the Nintendo DS. Does this mean that soon we can play the WII on the computer.

So what do you think?

Should emulators be banned?

-Kevin James

P.S. Feel free to check out some emulators online:

All Known Emulators!!!!


References:

About.com http://about.com/video+games , date accessed 9/17/2010

Yahoo Answers, http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081002203054AA00Qtp, date accessed: 9/17/2010