Play All of Your Game Systems on Your Computer

I am sure many of you remember playing your old (super)Nintendo Entertainment Systems, N64s and PS1 back in the day, along with some arcade games. Well, now with the MANY game system emulators, you can relive all of your old games right within the comfort of your computer! This article will be covering most of the mainstream emulators. The end will also have a quick tutorial on how to actually play the games!

Emulators for Windows:

          Nes: Jnes, Nestopia

          Snes: Zsnes, Snes9x

          N64: 1964(amazing compatibility), Project 64

          Dreamcast: Chankast(Need: Dreamcast BIOS file, google it)

          PS1: ePSXe (Need: BIOS and Plugins, Google them)

          Arcade: Mame

          Sega SG1000 through Sega/Mega CD and 32X: Fusion

Emulators for Mac

          Nes: Richard Bannister’s Nestopia (google his name)

          Snes: Snes9x, Zsnes

          N64: Mupen64plus, Sixtyforce(shareware)

          Mame Arcade System: MacMame

          PS1: PCSX (unsupported Test version)

          More Emulators: http://bannister.org/software/index.htm, Google

Emulators for Linux

          Nes: Nestopia

          SNES: Snes9x

          N64: Mupen64plus

          PS1: ePSXe, pSX

Once you have chosen your emulator(s), it is time to download them. Just type the name of the emulator in Google and add “Emulator” to the end of it. For example: “Nestopia emulator”

You are ready to find the ROMs. ROM is the read-only file which was stored within the game cartrige for a system. For PS1 games, you are instead looking for an ISO file. Google is you friend here. The format you should use when searching for ROMs: “(game name) (game system) ROM” For example: “Super Mario 64 N64 ROM” or for PS1 games: “Metal Gear Solid PS1 ROM”   You will want to keep all you ROMs or ISO in the same folder as your emulator, or in a sub-folder named “ROMs”

You are almost done! Now you need to open the emulator, and find the game, generally by clicking “File” -> “Open File” or “Open Rom.”  You will then need to locate the rom within Finder, Explorer, or your linux file manager! Your game will open, and you will now be playing the game you remember!

One other thing you will need to know, is how to configure your controls in the emulators. Most emulators have different ways to do this, as well as set up USB controllers as well. Happy Retro-Gaming!