mindless ramblings

Every once in a while, I seem to get into this nostalgic mode and yearn for those awesome games I played when I was younger. Thankfully, with the help with the internet, it is all too easy to find emulators to relive those moments.

Sega Genesis/Mega Drive
I spent much of my youth in front of the TV, mashing away furiously at my Mega Drive controller. Thus it is only natural that the vast majority of my games now are for the Mega Drive. The easiest way to get into Mega Drive emulation is probably to use a PC based emulator like Gens. For maximum pleasure you’ll definitely want to pick up a gamepad. Contorting your fingers on the keyboard is a good way to get carpal tunnel syndrome. An excellent alternative is to run emulators written for current generation consoles, both the XBox and PS2 have Genesis emulators. I personally use PGen for the PS2. The graphics are even better than the Genesis as the PS2 is connected using component video inputs and optical output for sound.

Need games? Well I can’t help you there but Google might.

Nintendo Entertainment System
The NES was my first console back in the 80s. Games like the Mario series, Donkey Kong and Zelda have really shaped the way games are made today. Nesticle used to be the emulatore of choice for me, but it’s really old and hasn’t been updated in ages. A more recent alternative is FCE Ultra. It runs on most desktop platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) and game compatibility is supposedly very high. A PS2 emulator called It Might Be NES exists, but I couldn’t get it to work on my PS2. Your mileage may vary!

Good Tools
Now that you have emulators and games ready to go, you’ll need to organise them if you are to maintain any semblance of order. THE tool to use in this situation is actually a series of utilities called Good Utilities. These utilities scan your ROMs and rename them to the proper names, as as well help you do housekeeping. Unfortunately, the tools are all command-line based, which definitely is a pain to master. Thankfully there is an excellent GUI for all the Good tools. GoodGUI is written in C#, runs on the .NET platform and definitely easier to pick up than the command-line.

If you want emulators for other systems, Zophar’s Domain has a huge listing of emulators for everything from the Commodore 64 to Neo Geo. If the arcades are your thing, then MAME is for you! With all these applications at your disposal, reliving your childhood has never been easier!