I'm all for emulation, ESPECIALLY on my XBox (via MednafenX, thank you very much
), and Wii Virtual Console. It's a treat to play a game on my 50" plasma in 1080i with a bunch of graphic filters turned on thanks to the Xbox. No, it's no the originally way or the way it was "meant" to be played, but it IS 'better'
. Not to mention I have an almost unlimited choice of controllers to use (thanks to XBox's USB, and easy hack-ability of controllers). You can "customize" your experience to a certain extent.
Prime example: GOT. I find the sound FX way too loud and annoying, taking away from the killer soundtrack. With an emulator you have the ability to turn down the sound FX (or turn them off) in relation to the music, if the option isn't present in the game. I have the sound FX in GOT set to 50% of what they are supposed to be, plus Super 2xSAI turned on. Oh baby - finally able to circumvent some of the "limitations" presented in old consoles. I'd play GOT like this any day over the Wii's VC implementation. I'm also not terribly crazy about shelling out another $8 for GOT et al...
I still 'prefer' playing the games on the original console with the original controller, but I think that's mainly nostalgia. Long live the likes of Mednafen, Hugo and Magic Engine!
OD