Basic Emulation Questions
- What is emulation?
- What is an emulator?
- Where are the games?
- Where can I find ROMs?
- Is emulation legal?
- What do I do with a file that ends in .zip?
- How do I download a file?
General Emulation Questions
- "Insert Emulator Here" Gives me an error asking for ddraw.dll
- "Insert Emulator Here" asks for dos4gw.exe
- "Insert Emulator Here" asks for cwsdpmi.exe
- Where can I find "Insert Emulator Here" for the Macintosh?
- What SNES emulator do you recommend?
- What Genesis emulator do you recommend?
- What NES emulator do you recommend?
- What Master System emulator do you recommend?
- Where can I find the "Insert Game Here" ROM for "Insert Game System Here"
- Where Can I find a ROM site for "Insert Game system here"
- Is there an emulator for 3DO?
- Is there an emulator for Sega Saturn?
- Is there an emulator for 32X?
- Is there an emulator for Sega CD?
ZSNES Specific Questions
- Why don't I get sound in ZSNES?
- Why doesn't my joystick work in ZSNES?
- How can I configure the buttons for my joystick in ZSNES?
Other Questions
- I want to link to your files, can I?
- Do you have ICQ/Can I have your UIN?
- You don't seem to have the latest emulators on your download page, so I had better send them to you in an e-mail
Don't see your question above?
Please read these:
Reasons why you are likely to get a reply
and
Reasons why you are likely NOT to get a reply
before going
Here
Basic Emulation Questions
Q: What is Emulation?
A: Emulation is the process
of simulating the hardware of one machine on another machine,
so that the second machine is able to
run software designed for the first machine.
The most popular form of emulation is
video game emulation. Usually when someone wants
to play old NES, SNES, Genesis,
Arcade, Atari, etc.. games on their PC.
It is also possible to emulator other
computer systems, such as amiga, PC, and macintosh, along with
calculators, and newer systems such
as N64 and Playstation.
Q: What is an emulator?
A: An emulator is the
software that simulates the hardware of the machine you wish to emulate.
It takes programmers a long time of
studying the internal workings of a machine to understand how
it works. An emulator is
commonly programmed in a language such as assembly, C, and C++.
READ THE DOCUMENTATION THAT COMES
WITH THE EMULATOR to figure out how to
run games with it, what games do/do
not work with it, etc. I didn't write any of these emulators, so it is
unlikely that I would know.
Q:
Where are the games?
A: Games in emulation are
known as ROMs (Read Only Memory), because of the ROM chips
they are stored on inside the
cartridges.
Q:
Where can I find ROMs?
A: A ROM can be found many
places. On Usenet newsgroups, on FTP sites, on IRC, and most importantly
on web sites. I try to keep
several links to different rom sites for each system. I am not allowed to
host
ROMs on my web site, so you will
never find them here. You will have to find the game you are looking
for yourself. Do not ask me
for roms.
Q: Is
emulation legal?
A: I can not provide a definite
answer to that, because no one knows for sure. Cases are being fought in
the courts right now to decide that
question. Generally, it is thought that emulators by themselves are
perfectly legal. There has not
been a company that I know of that has won a court battle over an emulator
(yet).
In fact, Sega worked with the author
of KGen, and is supposedly working with the authors of Bleem to release
emulators. ROMs on the other
hand are where the trouble is. You are allowed a backup of a ROM image if
you
own the original cartridge.
However, you should not possess a ROM image if you do not own the cartridge.
Not many people follow this rule, so
you should not be afraid to download a ROM. You are breaking the law
however, and there is no "24
hour rule", or anything like that that will protect you. The people
that should be
worried the most are the owners of
the ROM web sites. They are definitely breaking the law.
I wrote a research paper, which goes
into this in more detail, and also has a lot of links to this area of emulation:
http://www.realvalue.net/brian/piracy/
Q: What do
I do with a file that ends in .zip
A: Files that end in .zip
are compressed in zip format. Zip is the most common compression
format. But you may
see .rar, .ace, and a few
others. Winzip is a shareware utility
that you can use to uncompress .zip files.
Another good program is pkzip/unzip
for windows.
Q: How
do I download a file?
A: If you don't know
how to download a file, you should ask someone who can sit down with you
and personally show you what to
do. Basically, you click on the link, save it to your desktop or
whatever directory you choose, then
unzip the file. Make sure you pay attention to the folder that
you saved the downloaded file into.
General Emulation Questions
Q: "Insert
Emulator Here" Gives me an error asking for ddraw.dll
A: You need Direct X from Microsoft, It can be
found someplace on the Microsoft
site
Q: "Insert
Emulator Here" asks for dos4gw.exe
A: That file can be found here
Q: "Insert
Emulator Here" asks for cwsdpmi.exe
A: That file can be found here
Q: Where can I find
"Insert Emulator Here" for the Macintosh?
A: There is an Excellent site for Macintosh
emulation at www.emulation.net
Q: What SNES emulator
do you recommend?
A: I don't have much experience with SNES
emulation, but ZSNES is my favorite
Q: What Genesis
emulator do you recommend?
A: Genecyst is my favorite, KGEN is a
close second, although there may be new ones with better compatibility
Q: What NES emulator
do you recommend?
A: Nesticle is my favorite,
although there may be newer ones with better compatibility.
Q: What
Master System emulator
do you recommend?
A: Meka is my favorite.
Q: Where can I find the
"Insert Game Here" ROM for "Insert Game System Here"
A: I have provided links to plenty of ROM sites.
I will never search for a ROM for you.
And I will never send one to you from
my personal collection, my connection is way too SLOW.
Q: Where Can I
find a ROM site for "Insert Game system here"
A: I have listed EVERY ROM site I
know of, I'm not hiding some "super" site or anything.
Try looking on IRC, Newsgroups,
search engines, or buying rom CDs from someone if you are desparate.
Q: Is there an
emulator for 3DO?
A: None that I know of
Q: Is there an
emulator for Sega Saturn?
A: I don't know much about the progrress of
sega saturn emulation, but here are links to a few supposed emulators:
Satan ss emu dos ssemu linux ssemu windows
Q: Is there an
emulator for 32X?
A: 32X is emulated now. Try the emulator list on
Zophar's Site.
Gens 2.00 works great for me, but see the comment below about Gens and
McAfee VirusScan.
Q: Is there an
emulator for Sega CD
A: Sega CD is emulated fairly
well now. Try the emulator list on
Zophar's Site.
Gens 2.00 worked the best. If
you use McAfee VirusScan, you MUST disable it, or else you may not be able to
unpack
the zip file, and use gens without
your system freezing. Apparently it's because of the compressor that they
used. Other
People are having the same problem
with zsnes too.
Kega
also
worked for me. I got an actual Sega CD work fine, as
well as an ISO/mp3 working half way.
ZSNES Specific Questions
Q: Why don't I
get sound in ZSNES?
Q: Why
doesn't my joystick work in ZSNES?
Q: How can I
configure the buttons for my joystick in ZSNES?
A: The old answers to these
questions are no longer valid, since you can now configure the sound and
joystick options through the GUI menu system. Take a look at the files
"wingui.txt" and "zsneswfaq.txt" for more information.
Other Questions
Q: I want to link to your files, can I?
A: No.
No one should ever link to anyone else's files.
ROM's or Emulators.
Linking to someone's files can take a site down
FAST. DON'T DO IT!
There is almost nothing that brings down good
sites faster than lamers linking files.
Q: Do you have ICQ/Can
I have your UIN?
A: I don't use ICQ, AIM, MSN
Messenger, or any instant messaging programs anymore.
Q: You don't seem to
have the latest emulators on your download page, so I had better send them to you in an
e-mail...
A: WRONG!
Do NOT send me files for several reasons...
1) I have a fairly slow
modem, and do not want to sit and wait for a file that I probably already have.
2) I probably already have
the file, ask me before you send it.
Rather than sending me the file, give me a URL
where I can find the file, or get my permission first!
Reasons why you are likely to get a reply
- You tell me of pages where ROM's are available for download.
- You tell me of a new emulator that is out/New utilities.
- You have a compliment about the page.
- You have a way I could improve the page.
- You tell about broken links.
- You tell of some information I may have wrong.
- You wish to have a link to your page changed/removed
- You wish to have a link to your page added
- You tell me of lamers stealing stuff from my page
I have authorized NO ONE to copy anything from my pages.
Reasons why you are NOT likely to get a reply
DO NOT ASK FOR ROMS, YOUR E-MAIL WILL BE IGNORED!
-I provide you with the links to pages that containing ROM's, it is up to you to find them your self.
-If you want, ask the authors of those ROM pages, they might be happy to help you find a ROM.
- You complain about the page.
- You ask for commercial version of the programs.
- You don't write in English :)
-I can decipher the even worst English, but not Japanese :)
- You didn't look in the documentation that came with the program
-Most answers ARE found the the documentation! That is what it is there for.
-Before asking me, ask the author of the program, on a message board, newsgroup, etc..
- Do NOT Send files!! (unless approved first)
If you feel still qualify, and want to send me e-mail, go ahead:
brian@briansemu.com
Be aware, that I get 20-30 Messages a day, I DO read every single one. I may not respond
quickly, but I do eventually.
Ok, that's a lie. Now days I'm lucky to get 1 e-mail a day with about 20
spams.
DO NOT ASK FOR ROMS, YOUR E-MAIL WILL BE IGNORED!
