Your Emulation History

Just want to know:

When was the first time you heard about/got an Emulator?

How did you find it (via freind or on your own)

What was the first System you got, first game you got?

What Emulation Systems do you own?

Where did get it (Site address)

Your reaction to it (Controls, it's concept in general of someone making this ect)

Just bored. Well here are my answers

Around the begining of 2000, my freind showed me this (he is a comp nerd now, bariley goes out side , but from another freind he got it). He showed me how to download it and everything. I got it during the summer of 2000.

My freind showed me where to get it and how to download it.

I got a ZSNES, I switched the controls, I did not like the default controls. I remember SSB 64 and I wanted to get Earth Bound. I loved that game.

I own a:
SNES
NES
GENESIS
GBA (That partially works)

And I got it at VIMM.net

I loved VIMM.net because it was bairley known. I could pick up emulator games fast. Sadly around 2002-2004 was when Emulation became VERY known. Now Vimm.net has queue lines so you have to wait in line if more ppl are downloading the same game as you.

My original reaction was it pretty much was like the invention of the wheel too me. Being able to play SNES an NES Games on my comp.

My 98 comp that Ihad my emus on has a serious virus so I can't use it. I also fear getting a virus or too much spyware if I were to download an EMulator

My first emulation experience was on the Dreamcast. It was NesterDC with virtually all the NES ROMs on it. I thought it was awesome, and still do...

You shouldn't have to worry about viruses and spyware with certain sites. The emulators themselves don't cause that....

Wow really? Then I'm back on the hunt

Also how did you play emulators via dreamcast, I thought ther were only on the comp.

There are also emulators for Xbox and, supposedly, PS2. I haven't been able to try either, but they're out there. An emulator is just a program that "tricks" one computer to behave as another computer to run certain programs. I don't know any technical stuff about it, but that's about it.

I first heard about emulation in 1997 when I was searching for some information on NES. Then I was reading about it and thought that you could bulid something that would play carts on the PC like connecting the carts something on the PC..but I quickly learned that you download the games too.

First system was NES and game was the one packaged with it.

I have emulators for NES,GBA,SNES, and sega genesis. But get teh most wear out of the NES ones.

I have no idea where i got the emulators, usually the release pages.

My reaction back then was holy crap this is the greatest thing in the world. I can play Super Dodgeball without blowing. Then the love faded as I got sick of using the keyboard or the funky controller my family had at the time.
Just as a note, I don't care for VIMM.net because primarily they hexedit the NES ROMs. Which doesn't affect gameplay and it marks what they have done, but meh..

I don't exactly remember when I first heard about emulation.
It was around 2000, so much I do remember. At that time I got a SNES emulator... SNES9x I think. I wanted to play games I couldn't get here in Germany, like Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger.

After that I got Nesticle.
Then I tried a Gameboy (Advance) emulator, but that I only used for Mario's picross.

Other systems I tried emulators of:
Genesis
Master System
Atari 2600

My first conception about emulator was in 1996.. one of my friend told me that it is possible to convert the information on a cart into a file in a PC. God knows where he heard about it. At that time i was in europe and left that same year.

It took me another 4 yeras before I got a hand on experience on Emulators. I went to a Computer Fair and saw a CD claiming to have 300 hundred classic games. The snapshots seemed familiar but couldn't believe whether it was true or not. The CD consisted of 300 Sega Games and an Emulator for genesis. My god, 5 years back it would have cost me
300*45 + 100 US Dollars. But now I get it that cheap on one CD.

Later on, I tried SNES, but I was always desperate to find an NES one( I owned an actual system). Recently I searched in the Internet, and at last found a huge collection of NES emu and NES ROMs as well as this site.

It's pretty cool..

... I don't even remember the year, it was on a friend's 33Mhz 486, and the first things we emulated (as I was the one introducing him to it) was the NES. I remember playing one of the Ultima games using Nesticle. Trying to fight the king... later that day or the next we tried to emulate the SNES. We had amazing success considering the specs of his machine.

Just got my new ZSNES emu, been playing Seret of Mana. Awsome game, it's rpg but instead of the random battles and turn-based combats, you fight freely like in Zelda. The thing I hate is when you strike with a weapon, you have to wait for a meter to go to 100% so you can deal the most of what the damage can deal.

My friend Brain used to emulate SNES on his mom's IBM Aptiva. Pretty sure that was my first exposure to emulation. I think the first system I emulated at home on my old P133 was actually Atari Lynx, because I was on dialup, and the emulator was the smallest download. Also, I never got to play a Lynx, and wanted to try one out. I forget what game it was. Something with "Cop" or "Cops" in the title I think.... That was when I was in my sophomore year in high school. 1997 I think.

Now I'm a huge emulation nerd. I mostly emulate NES (to test games before I buy them) and MAME, but also do a little SNES, GBA (have a flash cart, too), Genesis, SMS, N64, and PSX. I also have a NesterDC disc for my Dreamcast, with every US ROM, and Brain had an SNES disc that I was never able to burn correctly. I also have PocketNES on my GBA (or DS) and nnNesterJ and a bunch of ROMs with me at all times on my USB Drive keychain. I'm never ROMless.

Brain and I also worked on several projects to build computers designed specifically to JUST play NES ROMs. We called it the NESDES (NES Dedicated Emulation System) and had 3 designs.

I've been collecting ROMs for years now and have complete Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, NES, Turbo Grafix 16, and MAME ROM sets. My ROM collection, not counting DC ISOs, is about 15gbs. I used to have a complete GBA collection, but I was forced to delete it for one reason or another. I'll get them back some day. Also, my complete MAME set is a little out of date, but plan on catching up soon.

My complete NES, SMS, TG16, and Game Gear collections are all online at Planet8Bit, which is posted in the ROM links thread.

Your freinds name is Brain? Thats a bit weird. I will take an apprently some what accurate guess that emulation started in 97.

That hasn't been all to lonng for me, i think when i started collecting again 1,5 years ago.
I know their around for longer but i just didn't know and wasn't really into gaming.

so basically the years of 97 and 2000 were when they were popular

I first heard of it from a friend in '99. He told me about NES ROMs and emulators. I only got FCEUltra two years later, and got Zelda. (I'd never gotten the first one for my NES)