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If you're new to the world of computers, you've probably noticed an unusual amount of
nostalgia among those who have been part of this world for
a while.
You may notice people's eyes growing misty-eyed when fondly remembering a favorite PC from
years ago, or vividly describing where they were when
they first tried Windows 95. With a passion in their
voice that is usually only heard by people at car shows
(and as baffling to those who are not part of either
world) long-time computer users are sure to remember
every second of the well-spent (not at all wasted) hours
in front of a computer while everyone else was
doing outdoor things.
Computer gamers are a notoriously nostalgic crowd. While a housewife/husband may not
necessarily pine over happy computer memories
organizing household expenses, a gamer never forgets the
first time he or she successfully beat their first virtual
bad guy. Veteran gamers have no problem admiring
the playability or blood splatters in today's games,
but they also have happy memories of finally
mastering the first level of Donkey Kong.
Nerd Nostalgia?!
Where does this nostalgia spring from? After all,
a computer is just mass-produced piece of metal
and plastic. One may as well get weepy about a
treasured blender or calculator.
The rapid rate of computer development
regularly forces people to part with machines they've
finally figured out just so they can keep pace with all
the new software and faster computing power that's available (gotta keep up with the Joneses, after
all). So all that time you spent with your Amiga while
you learned its particular operations must be put by
the wayside, along with any software you bought for it.
Amiga's parent company, Commodore, was just one of several computer companies that have
shut down in the last 20 years, leaving owners with
no technical support, repair service, or new programs.
In the 1980s, before PC and Mac platforms
dominated our lives, everyone from Texas Instruments to
Timex churned out computer systems.
Maybe the level of nostalgia is due to the
fuzziness of time — things always look better in hindsight.
Personal computers began to show up in American homes in the late 1970s/early 1980s. So hundreds
of thousands of us have grown up with these
things. Games of the past may seem like they were easier
and more fun to play after a decade has passed.
High scores are part of our happy, collective
memories, just like playing jacks was to past generations of
kids. I have fond memories of battling
monochromatic monsters and even reading text descriptions
about those monsters. (Yes kids, there were once
games where all you had was your imagination.)
Remembering Old Times
But luckily, the advancement of computers has
also created novel ways of recapturing the good times
of the past. It's now possible to recreate your
favorite computing moments without digging through
PC junk yards for parts.
Sometimes reliving the past is as easy as going
to your neighborhood computer store and buying a "hottest classic game" CD, which often contain
exact versions of your favorite PC, console or
coin-operated games from the 1980s and 1990s. What
was once a complicated, cutting-edge program now
uses fewer of your system resources than Minesweeper.
But for those who prefer to discover these
things on their own, or someone with a specific
computer memory they want to track down, there are
emulators.
What's an Emulator?
At the simplest level, emulators are programs
that make your computer think it is another computer
operating system or video game console. Once the
emulator is active, it has no problem running programs
in that format, whether they are ones you download
or input yourself. (You didn't throw out that copy
of Basic Programming for the Vic-20 did you?)
How Do Emulators Work?
The Web sites I researched gave a lot of theories
and analogies about incompatible car engines, but
said, basically that understanding emulators "is way
too technical for most people." Okay, fine. Basically,
programs for emulators (called ROMs or
disk-activated programs, depending on whether they were
originally cartridges or disks) are either created from the
original data or written by creative programmers who
try to match the original software's look and feel.
Legal Issues
This last statement brings us into a gray area.
While owning emulators is fine, some say owning
programs to play on an emulator may be illegal. Sega
and Nintendo have been especially aggressive in
busting Web sites offering things like "Download your
favorite NES titles for your PC" because these
licensed programs and the special machines designed to
play them are still for sale.
But for older, pre-1990s titles, things are a
little murkier. Many of the companies are now either
out of business or at least out of the game business.
For the most part, anyone downloading an emulator
program is doing so for his or her own enjoyment, not
to start selling them. Because many download sites
are free and the programs are not wholly the
original program, the argument can be made that they are
really shareware or freeware, and therefore closer to
the public domain.
How Good Was It, Really?
I discovered two unfortunate things in my search
for emulator information. First, as one would
expect from anything from the Internet that is produced
for fun by many different types of people, many
versions of emulators exist. Some are buggier than others
are, some versions aren't really converted that well,
and sometimes several different emulators may be
required.
The other lesson I've learned is that hindsight
isn't always what it's cracked up to be. True, no one
has captured the originality of Atari's Dig Dug or
Temple of Apshai for the Commodore 64, but some of
these games do show their age, especially for those
discovering them for the first time. "Why did I ever like
this one? What was the excitement about? I don't
remember it being this hard!"
Even nostalgia seems a bit of a stretch when
looking at Epyx's 16-bit 16-color "Summer Games"
next to today's full-color sports titles.
Well, wait a few years — you may forget again.
Emulator Web Sites
For more information about emulators, here is a selection of Web sites.
- www.classicgaming.com offers details
on what emulators are and library of old and new console games along with classic console
and coin-operated titles.
- members.aol.com/mastermu/index.html offers critiques of the various old and
new emulators for mainly consoles and console games. Includes a chat area and an
international section.
- www.rollanet.org/~khigh/emulator.htm offers mainly video game emulators,
including an extensive Pac Man section.
- www.emulators.com is a commercial
site offering conversions of PCs and Mac systems, and if you really want, several generations
of Atari computers.
- www.emulation.net offers a variety of
emulators to be used on Macintosh systems, including updates and patches for
previous downloads.
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