have your purchasing habits changed due to emulation / flash cards?

[_joshuaTurbo]

At one point I sold my entire US collection of games along with a boxed Turbo DUO. I then used my computer hooked up to my TV for years to play my TG16 games. Unfortunately it just wasn't as fun. Yes, the emulation was good but being able to just scroll to any game I wanted somehow took away the fun of it. Something about buying a game and actually placing that said game in your real console is part of the allure. So I had to start my collection all over again.

^this.

I thought this same thing in 2008.  I sold off a Duo and a Duo R and roughly 125 games.  I went with JUST emulation for my OBEY cravings and it just wasn't the same.  I got a TG16 in mid 2009 and here we are again! 

[jeffhlewis]

When I was younger (HS/College) I did emulation more out of necessity and novelty than anything else. Now that I'm collecting again I don't even really touch emulation - no matter how "accurate" the emulation claims to be, it's never as good as the real thing and feels kind of sterile. A lot of emulation (especially Mega Drive/Genesis) really butchers the sound output.

The only thing I use emulation for these days is my MAME arcade cabinet, and that's only really because I had to sell off my arcade machines when I moved downtown. Once I have a house in the 'burbs I'll be firing up the arcade collecting again.

[majors]

At one point I sold my entire US collection of games along with a boxed Turbo DUO. I then used my computer hooked up to my TV for years to play my TG16 games. ...
... So I had to start my collection all over again.

I thought this same thing in 2008.  I sold off a Duo and a Duo R and roughly 125 games. ...
...  I got a TG16 in mid 2009 and here we are again! 

Truth from folks that have first hand experiance!

I never unloaded my TG collection, so I cannot say. Since I bought my games "back in the day", I never had to build a collection from scratch post emulation/virtual console. I just pick up random, cheap obey from time to time nowdays.

I will say that after playing Ninja Masters on NeoRageX, I did have to go out and hunt a MVS cart down.

Flash cards and PC emulation have not effected my buying habits, but PS and SS bootlegs prolly did lower my purchases of original games back in the 32-bit/5th gen. I was more selective of my games I bought since I had already played anything that was released, sort of like renting games. I could live with waiting for a used copy or clearance of games I wanted to pick up.

Once I have a house in the 'burbs I'll be firing up the arcade collecting again.

Yes! Majors fully supports this!

[CPTRAVE]

No Emulation for me just original Turbo Goodies ..

[tggodfrey]

I like Original equipment just as much as the next guy.  I use a Rom via Flash cart for USA MC.

Terry

[fraggore]

over that last 20 odd years i collected consoles when they were new, played them sold them on when newer consoles came out as cash being the main issue but i regret it now, hindsight is a fabulous thing think how much it would all be worth now. then i got into to emulating everything for years having full collections of games for all consoles at you finger tips all ready to go after a few clicks of a mouse is a amazing thing and i still love emulation to this day mame being my fav.

but i have to say having roms and chipped consoles and copy's have ruined games for me, you just have a little go get a bit stuck or a new game comes around and move on to something else never really playing games fully and appreciating them.

but there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the last few years i've been buying and collecting all my old consoles and games again, playing them properly, as i am paying for them i am enjoying games a lot more now, have to be honest i have had more fun playing retro games than games on my ps3 and 360 dont get me wrong i love cod and street fighter 4 and all the other modern games out there but there is some thing about retro games played on the original consoles on a old crt tv that just does it for me, it could be reminiscing of old times or just old 2d games are still class.

so i would say still play your new games buy some old consoles and try and stick to originals i am putting off getting a everdrive for my pc engine and megadrive as i might start browsing through games again and not playing them having fun finding and buying them.

but its well handy to have a emulator to see what games to get. and when it comes to arcade unless you have a silly amount of money and some serious space use mame even tho i would love to have candy cab.

P.S i still need to consolize myself a neogeo man i a neo geo back again.

[seieienbu]

When I was in high school and didn't have as much expendable income I recall playing a bunch of SNES games that I hadn't been able to afford.  I would start a game, play it, win, and then go on to another.  Today I have tons of roms that I've never touched that have been sitting on my hard drive for years.  I just don't get the same enjoyment out of playing an old game on an emulator as I do from playing a physical copy of the game.

[esteban]

In 1999/2000, I was in grad school, across the country, and I was grateful for emulation: magicengine, MAME, NES, etc.

I had only purchased a handful of imports (that is, PCE CD games) in the 90's. I couldn't believe all the JP HuCARDS I had missing out on. I spent at least 2-3 years exporing MAME, PCE, NES titles. Emulation prompted me to purchase more hardware (in California) even though I owned US DUO and TG-CD back in NJ. I even bought a second SMS because I was lusting for Shinobi and Wonderboy and Golvelius and 3DO! My wife thought I was crazy (she still does).

STATUS: I am grateful that emulation got me back into games. I had stopped playing for many, many years (I would play a little during my hiatus, but it wasn't part of my daily/weekly routine).

BOTTOM LINE: If I have the option, I opt for real hardware and CRT. NO SAVE STATES. No mods. There is a bit of a "purist" in me that embraces all the flaws and hardships of aging electronics. I'm not an idealogue (at least I don't think so), but I have argued for an appreciation of imperfection when it comes to sound signals/video output/etc. Again, I'm not completely barmy (I had composite in 1987 for NES, ran the mono audio to a nice receiver). RF sucked in 1987. BUT, I'm OK with composite in 2013 (I know, I'm insane).

FLASH CARTS: I have two but haven't tried them yet (my windows desktop died). I think they will make me very happy because I simply don't have $$$ for Terra Cresta II and kin (I only tried it on emulation; can't wait to play it on real hardware).

[jeffhlewis]

I do use flash carts for fan translations on original hardware - playing through the Phantasy Star1 re-translation WITH fm audio was awesome.

[Damon Plus]

I prefer to play games with the original system, and that's why I've been collecting games until now. I considered getting a flashcart sometimes (for the Snes, Genesis and Turbografx), but I don't know if it would lose its magic when I did.

What really worries me, and why I have slowed down almost to a halt collecting classic gaming, is that someday, my original systems will stop working (as it happened to my Dreamcast last Christmas

But now, just a little find, a game I didn't really expect sparks the flame again and I start searching Ebay, forums, looking at games I still need. I really can't decide if I want to keep collecting or not.

[-D-]

If anything, emulation(in particular: the Virtual Console) was a strong reminder that I needed to act on that 20+ year old desire to buy a TurboGrafx-16 and start getting into the platform.  I think the biggest reason I kept putting it off was the confusion over the various platform configurations, regional issues, and the cost of an all-in-one solution.  

So I probably spent at least $100 on TG-16 games on the Virtual Console starting from right after Wii launch, but after about 2 years realized I'd be better off saving up and spending my money on the real deal.  Finally jumped in just over a year ago now, still only own about 30 games, but I plan to eventually have well over 100.  Never looking back, I've always been a big fan of shmups, and even though SNES was the first console I ever personally owned and all I owned during that generation, I already know this platform is more up my alley in terms of genres.  

I've been playing Raiden lately and I put Raiden Trad into the SNES to compare, and holy hell, it amazes me how astronomically better the TG-16 version is!  Don't get me wrong, Super Aleste is amazing; but SNES is pretty piss poor overall for shmups.

In general, I thought downloads would completely devalue original retro stuff, but that hasn't happened at all; and I only spent a lot of money on download games for about 2 years then stopped, and mostly just buy retro games now.  Original games on original hardware is the way to go.

[GohanX]

I hate piracy in general, but I'm getting to the point where having dozens of game systems with dozens of games on each is just way too much clutter. I also prefer playing things on original hardware, so I have been kicking around the idea of getting rid of most of my collection and only keeping my most favorite games, then playing the rest on flash cart. For CD based systems that support CDrs, I would ditch the physical media and keep images on my hard drive, and just burn a disc when I wanted to play.

The thought makes me feel a little slimey though.

[td741]

I hate piracy in general, but I'm getting to the point where having dozens of game systems with dozens of games on each is just way too much clutter.

I've gotten to the point where I put all of the cases in storage and just leave the bare carts + instructions around.  I'm debating storing all of my CD and DVD games into cd/dvd travel pouches and just catalogue the games on the spines.  But I have been looking at flashcarts and disk images as a way to reduce clutter as well.

I've moved some of my smaller collection of CD games (i.e. 3D0, Sega CD and Saturn) into thin CD jewel cases (putting the original gargantuan cases in storage) and it saved lots of room.  I'm debating doing that for all of my disk media.

[shabba]

Emulation is like the blow up doll to a console's real vagina. They both get the job done, and the end result is more or less the same, but that part in the middle is sorely lacking with emulation. I can play MM3 all day long on my PC with Dosbox, but there is so much more to playing it on a Duo with the actual disc and controllers.

I'm not knocking emulation. I think it has its place and a lot of folks have touched in it as a way to see what you like before you shell out a buttload of money. In most cases, it looks as good as the original. However, I'm a purist in the sense that a game should be played as it was intended. ActRaiser is not the same on my computer as it is on my SNES.

[ElSeven]