Introduction to Emulation

Video-game emulation gives your PC the ability to play video-games that were originally designed and produced for home console sytems, handhelds, and arcades. By having emulators and thier respective ROMs, you can play these games right on your computer!

To get started in video-gaming emulation, all you need is an emulator and a game's ROM file for that respective emulator (i.e. use SNES ROMs with ZSNES emulators) and you're in business! You don't need to be a tech-head to understand how to do this; it's simple enough for even a child to get into the fun!

What is an Emulator?

An emulator is a program for a computer that emulates (mimics) a video game console, handheld, or an arcade game so that it's possible to play the games on PC or another computing device.

What is a ROM?

ROM (Read Only Image), is a file that contains a copy of the data from a video game cartridge or from an arcade machine's main board. Can be used to play a game if used in conjuction with emulators.

A Small and Understandible Guide for the Emulation-newbie!

This guide will help you out on getting your first emulated game to run. Setting it all up is not difficult at all, so there's no need to panic. Just follow these steps and you'll be fine.

NOTE: This is for for the console emulation, by the way.

First step is to download an emulator. Just grab any emulator from the Emulators Download section. Once the download finishes, extract the files (use Winzip or WinRAR) to a new folder. Name the folder after the emulator you've downloaded for easy reference and convienience so that you won't have difficulty trying to track it down when you want to use it. If there isn't a ROM folder included in the directory, create a new folder and call it "ROMs". Now, don't open your emulator just yet. You're going to be needing some ROMs now.

The next step is to download a ROM. For whatever emulator you have, pick out a ROM that matches it's counterpart (Remember that SNES ROMs will only run with ZSNES, Genesis ROMs with only run with Gens, etc...). When you've downloaded a ROM, be sure to place it in the ROMs directory in your emulator's folder.

You're ready to begin using the emulator, but you may have to locate your ROM upon the first boot-up. Start it up and click on the "File" tab. From there, click the letter drive or another location where you have your emulator folder set. After locating it (while still in the emulator), double-click it and go into your ROMs folder directory and you should beable to see the ROM file you've placed in there earlier. Double-click it and the game will run.

Congratulations, you've just emulated your first console/handheld game! If you are into arcade emulation, however, you pretty much set it all up like you do with the console games, but arcade emulators have a built in GUI so that you don't have to go through the trouble of locating your downloaded roms. Just put them in the ROMs folder and start up the emulator. Click "File" and then "Audit" or "Scan". It will scan for avaiable ROMs and they'll be ready for playing once the scan finishes.

I hope this guide was informative and helpful to all you new Emucators.

Happy Gaming and Welcome to Emucation! :D