How can a person play console games on a PC?

Playing Console Games on a PC

You can play console games on your PC using an emulator. An emulator is a program that replicates a certain games console and all the chips and programming language that are contained in it. So basically, an Emulator is a software version of a games console. Emulating a console isn't officially endorsed by games and console manufacturers but there are a few sources, such as Emusanet (www.emusanet.com) and Kazza where you can download emulators. The most common emulators are the Sega Mastersystem and Megadrive/Genesis and the Nintendo NES, SNES and Gameboy. There are Playstation and Saturn emulators where you can insert the game disc if you have it, into your computer CD drive and play it. For cartridge based games you can download these files on Emusanet and File sharing programs such as Kazza and then load them into the emulator. Most of the games come with a .rom extension. There are 1000s of games available on the Internet. Currently the 8bit and 16bit Nintendo and Sega consoles are the most popular and best emulated machines. The Playstation and Saturn machines run OK for some, but not for others. I tried an N64 emulator once but you need a powerful PC to run it. You're talking 1.5Ghz with 256Mb RAM and a decent 64Mb graphics card to get it running smoothly. Give www.emusanet.com a try and download the Megadrive/SNES/NES/Mastersystem games and an emulator for each one. There are people working on trying to emulate every console there is. Some are more difficult than others, as you can imagine, but as time goes on, they'll eventually be cracked. For the meantime you can successfully play 8 and 16bit console games on your PC.

Here are more answers and opinions from other FAQ Farmers:

• There are many ways to do this. As someone already answered, you can play a console game on a PC using an emulator. But I would like to focus on other methods that work for newer consoles like PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube. It's quite simple really. All 3 aformentioned consoles are available with composite video out, or s-video out. You can purchase a PC video card that has a composite video in or s-video in connector (usually on video capture cards), and this will display the console on your computer monitor. There are all kinds of adapters to make this possible. For example, I want to play my Gamecube on my PC. I have the default connector that came with the Gamecube, RCA (composite) connectors. On my PC, I have an Asus V8200 deluxe, which has a 4 pin s-video in jack. Using an adapter that has a female composite end and a male 4 pin s-video connector, I am able to get the video on screen. There there is sound. Radio Shack sells an adapter that will take the standard red/white RCA connectors from the back of your console, and convert them to a mini stereo in connector that is in your PC's sound card. There there are products you can buy that will take your consoles video output and turn it into a vga output so you can plug the console directly into your monitor. Some are simpler than others. Some are cheaper and require progessive scan games, and others are more expensive and do not require progressive scan games. Search google, it will tell you everything I just did :)

• I have a Radeon Saphire Atlantis 9600 with 256mb and it works great. It doesn't, however, have jacks for video input. Don't bother buying a video card JUST for the jacks. Look around and you can find converters that allow you to put your moniter into a box thing and on the other end you hook up your console and you can play with your moniter. As for emulators... N64 is the only thing that my Pc can run at a smooth rate. but its a VERY smooth rate!!! I have an Asus P4 2.8GHz, 512 Pc3200 RAM, the video card I already stated, 80BG hard drive, and a 17" moniter... N64 runs well. When it came to gamecube, well it ran, but the graphics were unbearable. I think it didn't work well because PS2, XBOX, and gamecube emualtion are only at their beginning, the still have a long way to go. Sa ya, the gamecube game ran fine, but the graphics were messed.

• I'd like to add to my previous answer to the question. When you connect your console to your PC via your video card, there may be some quality/resolution loss. It depends on your video card. Some are better than others. Most of the new console systems support HDTV, and I've only heard of one card that supports HDTV so far, but there may be more by now, I haven't looked for several months. Anyway, if you go with the option where you buy an adapter that converts your console's video out to a VGA connecter so you can plug directly into the back of your monitor, I beleive you will get pretty good resolution/quality. I went with the option of connecting to my video card because I didn't have to buy anything extra, I already had the video card. You should check out your options thouroughly before buying anything.

First answer by Ciaran McCrisken. Last edit by ID1148911790. Question popularity: 281 [recommend question]

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