Are Consoles Necessary?

[jameseightbitstar]

This thought occured to me just now:

Do we really need console systems? It seems to me, the PC can more than handle console games.

Currently I only have an NES, SNES, Sega Genesis (with CD) and TurboGrafx (with CD), in the past I owned a Playstation and Nintendo 64, but got rid of them because I had no space for them.

But with PCs and Emulators, I could play all six without needing to hook up anything, make any special preparations, or take up precious space.

And yet, when I sit down and actually think about this and honestly consider ditching my consoles, something holds me back.

So, am I just sentimental, or is there a real, logical reason I should maintain my consoles?

[michiyoyoshiku]

Yes they are the PC Can't replicate the experence of sitting on your ass chilled on the couch with a bag of Greesy ass chips trying to beat Gannon

[jameseightbitstar]

Actually it can, and you don't even need an emulator for that one--there's a fan-port of Zelda to the PC that even allows custom quests.

[recap]

I also sold my 16-bit systems and games (Neo-Geo included) because of emulation and the lack of space. 32-bit and higher machines, on the other hand, aren't properly emulated, and I don't see that happening soon enough. A Japanese PS2 and a Japanese Saturn, if you ask me, ARE necessary.

[Weasel]

Some games just aren't the same on a PC.

Games like Beyond Good & Evil, Guitar Hero, DDR, Time Crisis, and just about any Wii game just won't control well with keyboard and mouse. I know BG&E had a PC port, but the controls suck, and it doesn't like my PS2 gamepad.

Also, consoles are relatively simple compared to PC's. Being dedicated game machines (and not tax-doing machines or letter-writing machines), they can all be created equal, and present less in the way of hardware incompatibility and performance issues. What runs on one XBox, will certainly run on another XBox. Playing a game is as simple as sticking a disc/cart in the slot and hitting Power. No need to install anything, register online, or (inadvertently) load up some malicious StarForce software that screws everything else over.

Yes, emulators are wonderful. But it's so much more satisfying to play a game on the actual system than it is to load it up through some program that may or may not emulate your game accurately (especially in the case of more recent systems like PSX, Saturn, Dreamcast, etc).

[MRSKELETON]

Emulators are cool, But as weasel says it's cool to play a game how it was meant.
And you have to remember, Not every family has the cash to shell out Upwards of 1,000$ And pay 500$ in upgrades each year, including whatever other 200$ programs and cards and lights and blinkers, Whereas a Wii may cost 250 but i'm not buying 500$ to upgrade my Wii every year



Heh. Upgrade my Wii

[jameseightbitstar]

"Upgrade my Wii" is pretty funny ^__^

Frankly though, why would you have to upgrade your PC for emulators? I do all my gaming on a 500 MHz machine running Windows 98 with a Voodoo 3 video card and a Soundblaster 16 for sound, and pretty much, anything from SNES and before will work fine on that.

Or did you mean upgrading for PC games? Personally, I don't even bother... especially as too much upgrading will mean games like Space Quest would either no longer work, or they would but I would have to jump through more hoops. And I think being able to revisit the glory days of Sierra is more important than playing Half-Life 2.

[MRSKELETON]

The difference is emulators are just, kind of illegal

[YourAverageJoe]

Who cares? Nintendo's doing it, and they were pretty much the meanest company towards emulation of them all, that and they bought up Sega, the most emu-friendly company there is!

[michiyoyoshiku]

Downloading Roms defies nintendo, that's why I do it.

Nintendo are Assholes man I'm starting to remember why I hated nintendo in the first place.

BUT I LOVE MY GAMECUBE!

[ed]

Consoles are going to be necessary until more emulators implement correct display modes (like MAME has done). Square NES screens = lose

[Malroth]

I don't know why, but I can't bring myself to complete a game on the computer. It's just so uncomfortable and...I just lose interest for some reason.

Must be some classic gamer psychological thing.

[megatronbison]

malroth said:

I don't know why, but I can't bring myself to complete a game on the computer. It's just so uncomfortable and...I just lose interest for some reason.

Must be some classic gamer psychological thing.

I think I understand this quite a bit.
Even when I played pirate games it killed the urge to game properly- unless the game was very strong it was much easier to put it down after an initially bad 5 minute experience and never play it again with the knowledge you paid next to nothing for it.

I found playing emulated stuff on a console itself made this less of a problem but even then, the urge still slipped away rather quickly...

Now I have far, far too much room being taken up by consoles and games though- thats the only problem

[dartagnan1803]

mazinsaga said:

The difference is emulators are just, kind of illegal

Emulators are safe and perfectly legal.
Hell, the police and the [insert facsist copyright organization here] can't do a damn thing even if they find 30Million emulators on your computer.

It's the illegally downloaded ROM images that will get you in trouble.

and to answer the question of the topic. . .
No, consoles aren't neccessary unless it's a Saturn, DC, or any other console released after the N64.
But I'll be damned if I play Thunderforce IV on anything other than a Genesis (or Saturn).

[Shinigami]

When you have a good PC that can emulate pretty much every game you want and a good gamepad you start to think things like, "OMG why doesn't everybody emulate!?" It's easy to forget not everyone has the same fortune as you.

Consoles are necessary, but so is the TV/Monitor you're playing on.