Roms and Emulators

[Robert Paulson]

What sites do you guys use to get roms (I don't want a virus and I find it hard to trust downloading from random sites sometime), and what are the emulators that you favor for each of the major systems?

[Shwiggie]

Coolrom.com

I use MAMEUI (arcade), FCEUX (NES), Snes9x (i quit using zSNES since it's a PITA with a 1080 screen), Project64, Dolphin (GC/Wii), Virtual Boy Advance (Gameboy and GBA), Stella (2600), kat5200 (5200), and Kega Fusion (Sega 8- and 16-bit).

[die]

I use coolrom, it's probably the best out there. I haven't had any issues at all with it.

Gsnes is my favorite snes emulator.

[Robert Paulson]

Sweet, thanks for the advice. I guess both of you guys are using the HTPC to play the ROMs on your big screens?

I know Die was telling me the Ouya would do it too, but does that allow for all the different USB controllers? And would it allow for two players, so old school Mortal Kombat, Contra, No Mercy would be fun, or would I need the HTPC for that?

[Shwiggie]

I still do most of my gaming on my desktop. It's fun firing up the 5200 emulator on the home theater since A) the resolution is half-VGA and therefore laughably horrid and B) the HTPC is housed in an actual 5200 console, but I generally don't play games on the HTPC setup except for the occasional jaunt to Super Mario World or something. Come to think of it, I really wish my desktop flat panel had a swiveling mount so I could throw it in portrait mode for some hardcore Ms. Pac-Man. But it doesn't have VESA mounting capabilities, alas.

As for Android emulators, I still use NESoid and SNESoid paired with a PS3 controller over Bluetooth. I don't believe in paying for emulators (or any other program, for that matter) when there are good and free ones available.