Weekend Post (off topic, but still fun to read):

Underground virtualization has gone mainstream.

Many old school gamers, children of the 80’s, and nerds who never owned an 8bit system are doing it. They are using emulation software on their desktops and laptops to play a few rounds of Zelda or Super Mario Brothers. Many of them never had to blow into a cartridge to get it to work. I’m not saying wiping a $50 game disc on your shirt isn’t as fun, but it just doesn’t result in the same amount of laughter. But why the real significance? Nintendo has decided to listen to the masses. They are now cashing in on their game libraries from years past.

The new Nintendo WII (pronouced WII) includes “Virtual Console,” this virtual console is able to go online and download roms of many of the favorite old school games to play in the virtual console. No more yard sale hunting (see links below). Now you can get games just like you get your iTunes music.
What does this mean for virtualization as a whole? It is bringing the word into homes, through your tv set and game console. If you have some piece of old hardware, and maybe a few games for your 64 then you are in luck. There is emulators out there for most all old systems.

The major issue of video game emulation lies in 2 fold, getting the games onto the pc, and the emulating the speed. The tiny processor of a Nintendo could easily be emulated on a low grade Pentium, but as you move up the ranks, the video power of the gaming systems is noticed. I have tried a few n64 emulators on my current laptop, and they are slow. The laptop running XP and a onboard video card doesn’t have the power left for video rendering that a n64 has (maybe something to do with windows being a memory hog). So imagine trying to render ps2 games? or now a Xbox? Those systems are dedicated devices where the processing power is focused on the video rendering. Is it worth buying a $500 video card to emulate a $300 game system? probably not.

Next some systems, such as PSP, Gamecube, and Dreamcast have propriety media. If you can get it to slide into your drive doesn’t mean it will play. And then once you get it onto your system can you even burn a copy to play it again on the console (wait that is pirating, dissregard). No the formats are very specialized to prevent the reading and writting of the media to any system other then the original media.

The release of these classic games allows the masses, to legally, cheaply, and safely play the games. No chance of getting a virus from a p2p firesharing network, no risk of the system crashing due to a bad dll, just plan and simple fun with a credit card.

Feedback and a donation of a Wii system for further testing are welcome.

Sites of Interest:

A couples 3 years of yard sales finding of classic gaming systems

Cheap A$$ Gamer Wiki

http://www.emulator-zone.com/doc.php/nes/

http://www.zophar.net/nes.html