We chat about videogames and videogame accessories.

Ultimate preservation needs to take into account the fact that someday, the original hardware will effectively cease to exist. Effort would be better spent improving emulators.

Here’s the thing: You don’t have a good emulator without a very thorough study of the hardware, and besides, the multiple projects all target the same hardware—ergo, there is only one “correct” model; all others will fall short in some way (even bsnes, even though the inaccuracies left in it are strictly academic). We already have plenty of Mario hacks that only work on ZSNES, which hasn’t seen an official update since 2007, and will almost certainly be incompatible with these hacks when there is a new release (I have faith, but I’d have more faith if they didn’t decide to hide their development activity years ago), and a good number of NES hacks that only work in That DOS Program with the Filthy Name. I mean, as long as I’m stealing quotes from some Ancient Roman dudes, who emulates the emulators?

Moreover, the SNES is mighty simple compared to a lot of consoles that came afterwards, yet getting every single game emulated correctly and each chip examined microscopically was a herculean task somewhat attributable to the confirmed fact my personal belief that byuu is some sort of Terminator sent to save a dystopian Nintendoless future. Not to discredit anyone working on any other emulator, but if people aren’t working insanely hard towards a similar goal for their system, they aren’t going to see those kind of results.

As for Nintendo’s being better at emulating things: they also happen to have access to the kinds of system specifications, probably original source material, and often even the original creators of the particular materials that would make it possible for them to do this. This is akin to how NASA can pull out a museum piece, study it in excruciating detail, and refine its design. No other space program has a successful moon rocket design, much less one they can crib notes from like that. Such is the kind of challenge when a small team of ragtag misfits tries to make a one-for-one copy of the workings of a complicated device bankrolled by a multinational corporation; not only is it a difficult kind of program to perfect, the only time I recall any console manufacturer lending a hand to any independent third party making one was when Sony bought Connectix Virtual Game Station (to cancel it immediately / perhaps put parts of it in the PS2) after losing the lawsuit.

(I hope this sort of pouring my brains out is not frowned-upon discussion, but this sort of thing has been a big part of my life since I was in elementary school and it’s too late to take it back.)