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

[ElSeven]

Turbo/PCE emulation has been around for years now, but over the past ten years the scene has evolved into its current state where you can not only play PCE on your home computer, but on other systems such as PSP, XBox and Wii.  Portable systems such as Caanoo, GP2X, Dingoo, etc are mainly used for emulating old consoles as well.

Flash cards are not new either, as even BITD there were Game Doctor devises to backup hucards onto floppy disks.  Currently we have more sophisticated devices such as the Turbo EverDrive, which loads up roms without much effort at all.

I'm curious to find out if these modern conveniences have changed how we collectively purchase/collect/play turbo.  Any thoughts?

[lukester]

Before I started collecting, I bought many Virtual Console ports.

Now that I collect the real thing, I kind of regret this.

[Tatsujin]

never pirate, always originate.

[vestcoat]

No. Years ago an ebay seller gave me a bunch of "back ups"... I played twenty minutes of Kaze Kiri and forgot about them. Two years ago I bought a SNES-to-USB converter thinking I might start using emulators... haven't touched it. A friend gave me his modded Xbox chock-full of hucards... I've played the emulators once (although I do use the Xbox for Meteor Blaster and my Ys IV patch to save my Duo from CD-R stress.) That's my experience with emulation.

There do seem to be a lot of gamers like Lukester who discovered the TG on the VC. I'm curious to hear from more members.

[sonikthehedgehog]

I have tons of roms on my 360, PSP, Wii but I never play them.. I always just go and play the originals. Something feels off about playing a rom on a newer console.

[nectarsis]

The ONLY time I use emulators is on my psp for portability (primarily trips, etc)....and a vast majority I already own the legit cart/cd.

[RoyVegas]

I prefer the real deal. So no change here. 

[Bernie]

I admit I use my Wii for emulation for certain Gamez.  High dollar Pce ones and translations.  Maybe even for games like MM3 that use the entire file cabinet.  But there's nothing like the real thing.  Even though I have all my games backs up, I still like the original hardware.

[SignOfZeta]

Emulation has changed my buying habits in that now I flip through that huge folder on my computer and try out games I don't recognize and then if they are cool I buy them. Before emulation I would often be too chicken to just buy random games from eBay or whatever.

Other than that significant change though, things are pretty much the same. I don't really enjoy emulated stuff. Flash carts are cool, but only recently have we actually had good ones, and the good ones are kind of expensive. I'd rather just have something real.

I can't actually afford every game in existence, but I don't have time to play every game anyway. What good are 5000 ROMs on my computer?

I'd rather play the same Ms Pac Man machine exclusively for the rest of my life than play the first 3 minutes of every Genesis game in an emulator.

I do want to get a flash HuCard though, mainly for the homebrew and translations.

[ElSeven]

I have mixed feelings about the modern options.

I purchased a caanoo to emulate consoles while traveling, and for this reason I will prob never want/need to play a turbo express (or an LT for that matter).  The fact that the screen on the caanoo is worlds better, and that it does not need batteries really makes that decision pretty easy for me.  Save states are also nice    The authentic TurboExpress experience is cool, but IMO it's just too crippled by said factors, making the emulation option a natural evolution for my gaming enjoyment.

For console gaming though, I have no desire to play turbo on anything else but my original Duo or PCE-CD setup.  The enjoyment of using the real hardware with real software just can't be replaced.  The main difference between this and the caanoo/express replacement is that console gaming has no inconveniences in my eyes.

As far as buying games, at this point I won't buy a loose HuCard now that flash cards are so easy to use.  I still buy plenty of games, but if they are easy to emulate, I may as well spend a little extra to get the manual/case  if I am going for the real thing.

[chadti99]

I prefer playing a game on it's original system any day over an emulator.  I did pick up a Turbo EverDrive for the convenience, but I still enjoy collecting the originals.  I'll say that after checking out some games via the EverDrive I may not be so quick to pick up the physical counterpart, haha.

[Nando]

I'm curious to find out if these modern conveniences have changed how we collectively purchase/collect/play turbo.  Any thoughts?

Yes, I am aware of way more games and I also end up wanting/buying more games as a result

I use emu's to play test games before I buy. For me, there's no replacing playing the game on its original console.

[reno5]

I don't have any roms. I don't have enough time to play the games i purchase so i don't see the point in having even more games on emulators !

[RoyVegas]

I don't have enough time to play the games i purchase

 

[Necromancer]

I play on an emulator only if I need good screenshots for something, and I mostly use the flashcart for translated roms or out of convenience (no f*ckin' around with the region converter).  I still buy games, even the pricier ones.