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What Are ROMs & Emulators?

In the mid-1990s, an enterprising group of video gamers began developed home-made programs that would let them play classic video games on their home computers. These emulators allowed their computer to duplicate the processing of other systems, giving them the ability to play games from defunct systems such as the Sega Master System and the TurboGrafx-16. The games were referred to as ROMs, a reference to the read only memory nature of cartridges.

Origins
- The mid-1990s video game emulation scene began with people writing programs that would allow them to play games from 8- and 16-bit consoles on their PCs and Macs. The programs themselves were not illegal but the distribution of the ROMs presented many legal issues, particularly for franchises that were still being marketing and offered for sale. The corporations exercised their right to their intellectual property and began having ROM-hosting sites taken offline.
Influencing Programmers
- The emulation scene was not entirely based on software piracy, however, and some people did use the emulator programs to make it more convenient to play classic games they already owned. A home-brew gaming community grew out of this emulation scene and allowed aspiring programmers to get their names out in the public by creating games for classic systems such as the Nintendo Entertainment System. The limitations of these 16-bit systems, especially compared with the computer technology of the mid- to late-1990s, allowed budding programmers to display their ability to creatively overcome technological limitations, a highly-touted skill in the game development community.
Virtual Console
- Nintendo's seventh-generation console, the Wii, provides a service called the Virtual Console. The Virtual Console utilizes emulation to allow users to play games from Nintendo's earlier systems such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Nintendo 64. Additionally, it offers support for systems such as the Sega Genesis and Neo Geo. Games, or ROMs, are downloaded, allowing players to experience a convenient and legal retro-gaming experience.
Xbox 360
- One of the big selling points of the PlayStation 3 was that it allowed buyers to play games from the PlayStation 2, as well as the original PlayStation. This gave its buyers an expansive library of older titles and allowed them to play these games from one console. Microsoft provided a software download for its Xbox 360 console that allowed the hardware to emulate the processors of the original Xbox unit, expanding its library by creating emulator-based backward-compatibility.

Classic Console Games