Emulators

Emulators are applications which attempt to imitate a machine, or in this case, a video game console. On their own, the emulator applications don’t do anything. But when you download a video game ‘ROM’ file, and open it with said program it is just as if you dusted off your old console and popped the game in! By emulating games, you can take a trip back in time and re-live the games you grew up with or finally get around to playing a game that you heard so much about but never had the time to play. This section will simply point you to where you can download various emulators. A later section (below) will tell you how to hook everything up to play games properly. The earlier systems (16-Bit) are all very well emulated on the Mac, however, later systems such as the Nintendo 64 and the like slightly better emulated on the PC.

Arcade (1970′s – Present): (M.A.M.E.) The application which runs Arcade games is called M.A.M.E. and it stands for Multi Arcade Machine Emulator, but to cut to the chase, it will play actual arcade games. Now you can finally play all those games which robbed you of hundreds of quarters and actually not have to worry about running to the change machine when you die and have 10 seconds to continue! The Mac version of the emulator tends to always be slightly behind the version number of it’s PC counterpart, but unless you are trying to play some very new or random games, you shouldn’t have any issues whatsoever. Might I recommend a little 4-Player X-Men Arcade or The Simpsons?

Commodore 64 (1982): (Frodo*)

ColecoVision (1982): (Mugrat*)

Nintendo Entertainment System (1983) (Nestopia*) The little grey box that could. This entertainment system needs no introduction as nearly every single person on planet earth has in some way shape or form played an NES. Don’t worry though, you won’t need to blow on any cartridges to get this up and running. Perfect emulation.

Sega Master System / Game Gear (1985/1990) (SMS Plus*)

Game Boy / Game Boy Color (1989/1998) (KiGB*)

Sega Genesis (1989) (Genesis Plus*)

Super Nintendo (1990) (SNES9X) & (BSNES*) The Super Nintendo is easily one of the best consoles of all time. A year doesn’t go by without me itching to replay Super Mario World! This emulator plays pretty much every game you would want to play and also adds in a bunch of cool visual options to enhance the game. There are two emulators for the SNES; SNES9X and BSNES. Try both and use whichever is best for you. (Please note, because SNES9X is somewhat hard to find on the internet, I am hosting what should be the latest version, 1.52. If a newer version exists, please let me know and I will update.)

Sega Saturn (1994) (Yabause) While this emulator certainly exists, most of the games in the compatibility list are annotated with, “blank screen” or “shows stuff.” Some of the games are however playable. It looks like this is infrequently updated, but that is better than not being updated at all.

Nintendo Virtual Boy (1995): (ViBE*) This is no joke. Despite having a paltry library of only 22 games, this failed Nintendo console has been emulated so you can enjoy (or not) the few games that exist. The best part? Using a pair of red/blue 3D glasses, it is still in 3D!

Nintendo 64 (1996) (SixtyForce) The Nintendo 64 was responsible for the countless nights I spent eating candy and playing Mario 64 until 7am (I was 14). The leading Emulator, SixtyForce, does a fantastic job with most games, but for a few you will have slight audio/video problems so play with caution.

Game Boy Advance (2001) (Boycott Advance*)

Playstation 1 (1994) (PCSX Download & Instruction Link) It’s hard to believe that the PSX is actually 16 years old! You can reliably play your PS1 games with the emulator below and use your real PS1 controllers too (see Controllers section below)! I’ll never forget the day I got Metal Gear Solid… or the next day, when I had beaten it after playing it non-stop. Truly an amazing game system.

PlayStation 2 (2000) (PCSX2-Mac) Click ‘Latest Build’ to get the Emulator. You aren’t seeing things! While you can’t expect to be able to play anything very well, this emulator is actually coming along quite nicely. Consider this very, beta. Don’t go throwing your PS2 away just yet

Nintendo Game Cube/Nintendo Wii (2001/2006) (Dolphin) If might be wondering how the Wii is being emulated when the PS2 isn’t as far along. But really, the Wii is just a Game Cube with motion controls. Not only are some games playable, but you can actually run the games in actual high definition because the emulator accesses the actual texture files. Your Wiimotes will also work on your Mac assuming you have bluetooth. Here is a video which will demonstrate New Super Mario Bros. being played in 1080p.

Emulator Enhancer (Download): The Emulator Enhancer is a plugin for several of the emulators listed above with an asterix (*) next to the download link, pretty much all of them from Bannister.org. It is a $30.00 shareware plugin which allows you to use those specific emulators in full-screen mode as well as opening up the ability to easily configure controllers with a keyboard and also play your friends in the same game over the internet! It also offers a free trial mode, so be sure to install it before using the emulators, it is something that any serious retro gamer shouldn’t be without.

Additional Emulators: The list of emulators above is fairly detailed and should cover most of the consoles that you would want to play. But should you find yourself hankering for some random emulator you should check out THIS site for the emulators I didn’t include or you will need to go to my good friend Google. Just search for the console name and also add “OSX” to the search field and you should be on your way.