Emulators for Mac OS X

Friday, May 25th, 2007

I’m not a heavy gamer, but I do like to play the classics. And that’s why I love emulators. An emulator is a software application that imitates a piece of hardware (in this case, a game console.) I’ve found emulators for all of my favorite classic consoles. Some of my favorite emulators are Nestopia (Nintendo NES), Genesis Plus (Sega Genesis), sixtyforce (Nintendo 64), and Snes9x (Super Nintendo.)

Here are some useful links to help you find emulators for your favorite consoles:

• Richard Bannister - Developer of many Mac emulators, including Genesis Plus and Nestopia. I highly recommend his software.
• Emuscene - Database of Mac emulators.
• emulation.net - Another database of Mac emulators.

An emulator alone, much like a console alone, wont be much fun. What about the games? In order to play a game with your emulator, you need a ROM file. A ROM file is actually the raw data from the original game cartridge stored in a file. Where do you find them? Can’t help you there. (Keep in mind that like stealing music, stealing ROMs is illegal.)

If you play your emulators enough, it may be a worthy investment to buy a USB game controller. I have a Logitech Dual Action gamepad that I purchased because I found controlling with the keyboard very awkward.

Game on!