ARTICLES

Lamers in Emulation

By: uzplayer

1999 has seen many things happen in the emulation scene. For one, we got the first N64 Emulator that played commercial ROMS, two businesses released retail PSX Emulators and one lost it's fight with Sony over it, we have seen more new emulators surface so far this year then I remember, and improvements in performance, speed, and graphics in the current emulators. Seems like a year to remember. Doesn't it?

Unfortunately, that will not be the case. We are not going to remember the achievements that emulation has brought us this year, but the downfalls. All those achievements will be drowned out by ROM beggars, flamers, fake EMU contests, various debates on free emulation, and the actions of commercial companies towards us.

I say this because of what I have seen form in the past year. Some of the most notable ones are the Bleem! bashers, supposedly fake EMU's such as Assassin, and just general people's opinions.

I remember when Bleem! was first announced. Everyone loved the leaked beta saying it was fast and accurate. Definitely a technological achievement worth mentioning. What happened? When Bleem! LLC had to fight Sony Computer Entertainment, all I saw were angry consumers demanding for their product. It is not feasible that a three-man company (which I am sure it's more then three right now) could meet the market demand at the current time. People instead of banding together and letting Sony know their opinion started calling Bleem! a bad business citing that they are out to rip people off. I mean come on! If you have a huge company like Sony breathing down your neck, you can't tell me that it wouldn't effect your business. Of course, people didn't understand that and just kept bashing Bleem! right up to the last minute. And then FINALLY they got their product, and they still bashed Bleem! I mean after what they have been through, I salute them! It's very hard to fight a company like Sony who is set in their ways.

Another notable thing that has happened recently is the Assassin Emulator. I mean come on. You look at the thing, no REAL screenshots, no knowledge of what it's going to emulate, and the author is anonymous. Smells like a fake? Of course it's a fake! Now I could be wrong, and I still stand on my word that I will issue a public apology if it is in fact a real working emulator, but the evidence is too damn overwhelming! Look at the screenshot, the black screen in that window looks like it was drawn in, and the person doing the screenshot couldn't even decide how to censor it as some parts have XXX's and others have black rectangles over it with the word censored on it. Even JoseQ posted it on his Rumor Mill that he agrees that it's a fake EMU. No one is that stupid to do publicity stunt like that. In my opinion, the webmasters of Emutech2000 are just out for publicity and that is the best way to bring surfers to their website. Just on a side note, there is a Fake EMU contest going on in Emualliance (which as I mentioned, has changed their layout more times then I have crashed my car, about 6 times in the past 6 years to be exact). You can draw a judgement for yourself on that.

Finally, you come across general people's opinions. I think a post on Retrogames that I remember reading sums it up best when it says there are classifications of emulator people. You know where I fall under though? None of the Above. People wish EMU to be completely free. I have news for you. Emulation has been a business practice since the day of the radio. Everything is an emulator. You put a CD in a CD player and it reads the CD, and translates the bits of data into sound. You put a game cartridge in your system, the system reads the data and translates it into a signal a TV understands. Ok if you want to go further, the radio receives signals, and translates the data it receives and sound comes out of your speakers. If you want emulation free, then that would mean all of these items would have to be free too, which will never happen. At the same time, if companies like Nintendo and Sony get their way, by law they wouldn't be able to put their systems out too. Essentially it works both ways. This is my solution. Emulation should be both, free and business based. If someone wants to make a free emulator, let them. At the same time, if someone wants to make a business around an emulator, then let them do that too. If you don't want to pay attention to the free EMU and get the commercial one, then go for it, or if you don't want to get the commercial one and get the free one, then you can do that too.

Overall, the emulation scene isn't perfect. It has it's upfalls and downfalls, but rather then remembering what good came out of this year, people are going to remember 1999 as the year Emulation dipped down to the lowest morality level ever.