Your First...

[Howard_Casto]

Seems to be a lot of emulation-related nostalgia going on lately.  I'm pretty sure looking back fondly at earlier attempts for software to allow us to look back fondly at actual games we used to play is some kind of double secret probation nostalgia that could collapse the universe, but anyway. 

We all have stories of our arcade/console experiences, but I was wondering about your emulation experiences.

What was the emulator that got you hooked?  Which one was your first?

It's hard for me to pinpoint my very first emulator, I dabbled with console emulators almost immediately after I got a pc running win 95.  Fun fact:  the mp3 "id3" tag format came from the old NES rom dumps... they used to use a tag system to label the games and add the mapper flags. 

Anyway, I think the one that really got me was Callus.... that was a dos-based CPS1 emulator for you youngsters.  When I found out that I could play the arcade versions of Final Fight and Street Fighter II on my computer that was it.  Who cared if it took multiple attempts and several hours to dial into America Online and download those 2 MB roms.   

Raine soon came next.  There was this other emulator out at the time... something about pac-man... but raine supported that so it didn't interest me.  (Joke for the old timers)

Then in the fall of 1998, my freshman year of college,  I went into the Universities computer center where I worked and hear a bunch of racket coming from some guys laptop.  "Is that Callus?"  I asked  "No, this is MAME" he said.  "How many games does it support?"  "Hundreds"   

Well I was doomed after that and I've been here ever since.  Since then I've contributed source code, wrote support apps, built three mame cabs, and all kinds of crazy stuff.  I never seem to run out of new things to build, new software to write or new projects to support.  I was ~18 when I really got into emulation, and I'm currently 33 so that's nearly half of my life in this hobby. 

I'm just curious who else has been around and have actually been active that long, and what keeps them coming back. 

[yotsuya]

NESticle was my first, then some emulator that let me play Phantasy Star (SMS), then Arcade@Home and MAME32.

[SNAAKE]

it was callus for me too lol

Ive been looking for a way to play cadillacs and dinosaurs for years but couldn't even remember the name of the game. I just remember some "dinosaur game" I played in the arcade before. yup took few hours to get some games on netscape(FREE) dial up internet.

[05SRT4]

I met my best friend when in a high school programming class he showed me ZSNES. Since then every device Ive ever owned (PSP, DS, WII, PC) the first thing I look for now is a snes port for it. From there is branched out to others and eventually MAME where I then got into arcades.

[Louis Tully]

.

[retrostark]

i still play most of my older game systems because i have a majority of them, but the first emulator i ever used was nestopia.

[danny_galaga]

MAME for me. I don't bother with other emulators much, other than for 'try before you buy' with old consoles...

Having said that, I've been meaning to try out http://www.virtualapple.org to revisit my appleII days. Castle Wolfenstein anyone?

[Hoopz]

Having said that, I've been meaning to try out http://www.virtualapple.org to revisit my appleII days. Castle Wolfenstein anyone?

  Had Castle Wolfenstein on my C64 in the 80s.  Classic!

[ChadTower]

I don't remember the first actual emulator for games.  My earliest memory of that sort of thing is of an assembly programming environment "emulated" on a 486.  I am fairly certain the instruction set was watered down.  This was in an Assembly and Architecture course at UMass in 1995.

I was a heavy console collector so I pretty much ignored emulators until I discovered MAME a year or so before I discovered BYOAC.  I'm going to guess I had tried NESticle and MAME around the 2003 timeframe, mostly disregarded them, until I finally built myself a MAME cab last year.  I went straight from console collector/restorer to cab collector/restorer to pin collector/restorer for the most part.  I spend all day sitting at a PC for my job so sitting at one for much else rubs me the wrong way.

[EssexMame]

Mine was an Acorn Electron emulator called Electrem. It made me realise I could still play the games from it even though the hardware I had had long since gone. I'd like to use it in a project - either a cabinet or more likely a multi-console/computer setup I'm starting to plan in my head.

It led me onto Spectrum emulators and of course Mame. Now its starting to be all my PC has on it!

[JMB]

Retrocade was the package that got me hooked. Arcade@home was one of the first sites I visited regularly back then.

[Zero_Hour]

Mucked about with Callus, then drifted away for a bit, and really got dedicated when I found MAME. Arcade@Home and Dave's Video Game Classics were regular haunts until I found BYOAC.

[yotsuya]

It's funny, way back when - 2003-04 or abouts, I considered building a MAME cabinet, but most websites said it would cost $1000 or so, so I gave that idea up. I build my first in 2010 and have easily spent more than $1000 on this hobby. 

[Vigo]

Having said that, I've been meaning to try out http://www.virtualapple.org to revisit my appleII days. Castle Wolfenstein anyone?

  Had Castle Wolfenstein on my C64 in the 80s.  Classic!

Yes! Wolfenstein addict here as well. Beyond Castle Wolfenstein was great as well. Easier, but as soon as I decided to play the game by killing everyone first rather than using passes and bribes, it became immensely cooler.

And C64 Frodo was my first emulator experience. I had been an emulator junkie ever since.

Confession time here: On my first introduction to MAME, I thought it was pure wank. The stupidest idea for an emulator ever. I was thinking how lame it was to have an emulator to play pacman and a few other vintage games, by then there were plenty of great ports of most arcade games that I could find on Awesome Angelfire websites.. I had no clue the scope of it, and thought it could play a few games. I just ignored Mame for quite a while while exploring other emulators. It was not until I found out you could play Congo Bongo on it that I decided to see how much it could play. Suddenly it all clicked.

[lilshawn]

no$gb (no cash) emulator. played the crap out of some gameboy games I could never afford.

that thing ran flawlessly on my P133

[Howard_Casto]

Confession time here: On my first introduction to MAME, I thought it was pure wank. The stupidest idea for an emulator ever. I was thinking how lame it was to have an emulator to play pacman and a few other vintage games, by then there were plenty of great ports of most arcade games that I could find on Awesome Angelfire websites.. I had no clue the scope of it, and thought it could play a few games. I just ignored Mame for quite a while while exploring other emulators. It was not until I found out you could play Congo Bongo on it that I decided to see how much it could play. Suddenly it all clicked.

That's what I was getting at with my little joke... "something about a pacman emulator" 

Honestly mame had a serious case of bad representation in the old days.  It played tons of games almost immediately after the initial release, but all anybody ever talked about was pacman and galaxian.  Don't get me wrong, I like those games, but when a emulator supports just about everything maybe you should emphasize more than two of the oldest video games ever. 

Now people "get" mame a lot easier because it's pretty much the only arcade emulator in town. 

[ChadTower]

MAME wasn't originally created to be passed around to a thousand people and used heavily.  Yeah, that was the unavoidable consequence of its creation, but I still believe the stated purpose was an honest one.  To ensure that these games could be run in the future and not lost into time.  It was not originally so that every jerk on the net could build a cab with 15000 arcade games on it.

[BadMouth]

I wasn't aware emulators existed until I discovered BYOAC while searching for info on Megatouch machines.

Saw all these projects and what was possible, downloaded UncleT's Mala setup guide and installed everything listed in it. 
So my first experience was my join date here.

I still haven't played most of the console emulators more than a few minutes each, handhelds haven't even been touched beyond setting them up.

[geomartin]

I purchased a brand spankin' new 486 with Windows 3.1 from HP back in the nineties.  While I was in the store I grabbed a copy of Microsoft Arcade, which had a few games like Asteroids, Missile Command, Battle Zone, Centipede, and maybe a couple more.  That got me looking all over the net on my 28k modem for more arcade games.  I eventually found mame, which was at version .036 at the time.  Been hooked ever since.  I still can't believe that 486 cost like $2,300.  I wouldn't dream of spending that for a home pc these days!

[Gray_Area]

It was not until I found out you could play Congo Bongo on it that I decided to see how much it could play. Suddenly it all clicked.

That's funny.


My experience was I think basic, though not quite direct: I got the idea to play old arcade games through seeing some JacksTV-like dealies at the store, but the one I brought home was not an arcade version. I went online, not having any idea what to look under except 'arcade games', and eventually found MAME. After getting my feet wet, I looked for Atari, and particularly Odyssey2 and Vectrex, both of which I tried in dedicated emus as well as MESS, but haven't been back to them at all in a few years. I'm mostly an arcade game player. Sometimes I remember pinball and fire up VP.

I purchased a brand spankin' new 486 with Windows 3.1 from HP back in the nineties.  While I was in the store I grabbed a copy of Microsoft Arcade, which had a few games like Asteroids, Missile Command, Battle Zone, Centipede, and maybe a couple more.  That got me looking all over the net on my 28k modem for more arcade games.  I eventually found mame, which was at version .036 at the time.  Been hooked ever since.  I still can't believe that 486 cost like $2,300.  I wouldn't dream of spending that for a home pc these days!

No doubt. My 1.8ghz P4 in '02 (with monitor and sub addition) cost about $1200 shipped. Now I wouldn't spend more than $500 on a system.

[Howard_Casto]

I can remember when I thought I was high rollin' because I had upgraded my Packard hell from 4 mb to 12 mb of ram and the 33 MHz processor up to 100mhz. Pretty sure that was 300 dollars worth of upgrades back then. 

[yotsuya]

I can remember when I thought I was high rollin' because I had upgraded my Packard hell from 4 mb to 12 mb of ram and the 33 MHz processor up to 100mhz. Pretty sure that was 300 dollars worth of upgrades back then.

I took my parent's Packard Bell up to 4mb from 2mb for $200 and thought I was a p1mp!

[Vigo]

My first computer meant for real computer work was a brand spankin' new Power Mac 5200.  This is when Macs were cool. Not a lame hipster cool like it is now, definitely not a gaming cool, but that snobby, "my GUI is better than your GUI" cool. Well, I felt pretty badass with 75 mhz of processing, 8 glorious mb of ram and 500 mb of hard drive space. I tell you, the minute I learned how to modify resource forks in Resedit, I felt like I could take on Fisher Stevens in a "hack battle". Yep, this was right after the movie Hackers came out...... 

And us mac snobs couldn't had no need to upgrade our computers. We had Myst, hypercard, and our text program could talk to us. When our computer crashed,  we told our windows using friends that at least our computer crashed in a cooler way. Anyone with a different computer could "suck it". 

[ark_ader]

My first emulator was made by Dave Spicer and it was Sparcade.

You cannot get better than that, even though his talents made MAME what it is today, his legacy still lives on in my 560 thinkpad.

[lilshawn]

I can remember when I thought I was high rollin' because I had upgraded my Packard hell from 4 mb to 12 mb of ram and the 33 MHz processor up to 100mhz. Pretty sure that was 300 dollars worth of upgrades back then.

I remember buying an 8mb stick of ram for $80

[SNAAKE]

MAME wasn't originally created to be passed around to a thousand people and used heavily.  Yeah, that was the unavoidable consequence of its creation, but I still believe the stated purpose was an honest one.  To ensure that these games could be run in the future and not lost into time.  It was not originally so that every jerk on the net could build a cab with 15000 arcade games on it.

why are they "jerks"? not like those games are hot hot in the arcades(whats an arcade looool?) and making bank and people are playing them for free. arcades are dead and emulation is the only the reason these games are not completely lost/forgotten. we should thank all these jerks for still caring about ancient game.

[amendonz]

No$ gb emu for me too, mainly to play dodgy 70% translations of Pokemon games since they weren't out yet

[Howard_Casto]

MAME wasn't originally created to be passed around to a thousand people and used heavily.  Yeah, that was the unavoidable consequence of its creation, but I still believe the stated purpose was an honest one.  To ensure that these games could be run in the future and not lost into time.  It was not originally so that every jerk on the net could build a cab with 15000 arcade games on it.

why are they "jerks"? not like those games are hot hot in the arcades(whats an arcade looool?) and making bank and people are playing them for free. arcades are dead and emulation is the only the reason these games are not completely lost/forgotten. we should thank all these jerks for still caring about ancient game.

While I agree with this 100%... piracy is the very reason that a project like mame remains popular and as a consequence the games are actually preserved and documented, as opposed to sitting on a lone server waiting to be forgotten..... we are going to ruin this thread real quick if we start up that discussion.  I think it's best just to let this one go. 

[popsicle]

Mucked about with Callus, then drifted away for a bit, and really got dedicated when I found MAME. Arcade@Home and Dave's Video Game Classics were regular haunts until I found BYOAC.

+1

[ChadTower]

I refer to the general internet population as jerks mostly because... well... you've been on the internet, yes?   

[Ginsu Victim]

My first emulator was either Gameboy or NES (pre-NESticle). There was no internet in our area yet, but I had a free email account I could access via 800 number. I found a txt file explaining how to send an email requesting files from the internet and they would be emailed to me. Somehow during this process I downloaded my first emu and roms.

I also used 800 BBS numbers to get more roms and emus. Ah....the good ol' days. 

[Xiaou2]

When a guy I worked with told me I could play console games on PC, I was over at his house in a flash.
Fired up an ancient Sega Master system emulator for me.  Cant recall if mame was even out yet at that
time.. but that was all I needed...

 For the longest time, Id had an Amiga 500... and it pretty much spanked anything the ibm / 'PC' put out.
I found it laughable that if you bought a PC, you had to actually buy a sound card for it as well.
The Amiga, much older than the PC of that time, had brilliant stereo sound built in.  It also had
some incredible games.  Nothing like Shadow of the Beast, nor Battle Squadron, was out for the
PC.

 My first experience with a PC was when Wolfenstein was out.  That and SimCity.  Played them on
my ex's pc when I was like 22.   It really didnt impress me.  The sound was pretty awful too.

 It wasnt until the emulation stuff came out, that I decided to actually purchase a pc.  An
AMD 233mhz, hot off the press.   I had  Mame, System 16, Raine, Meka, Jas, M72, Juno First, callus,
Retrocade, Rage, Shark.. and many others.   I think Id filled my 2gb HD to capacity with roms.

 Emulation was hot back then.  Used to visit Daves Classics, Retrogames, and JoseQs Emuviews. 
And soon to find this wicked site,  "Arcade controls".

[lilshawn]

i had a similar experience regarding the Amiga and (at the time) Commodore 64. always played C64 at an older buds house, was cool and all.  One day we went to on of his older friends house. He had an Amiga. I'll never forget him loading up F-14 tomcat on that puppy and being BLOWN AWAY by the graphics...the sounds...the everything.

the Amiga was certainly an underrated machine in it's time.

[Ginsu Victim]

Used to visit Daves Classics, Retrogames, and JoseQs Emuviews.

Hell yeah. I used to be a moderator at Dave's Classics for a little bit, until I couldn't get any help from Dave taking care of spam/flood attacks and imploded. 

[Howard_Casto]

Did you know Retrogames is still up?

It's a shell of it's former self and not worth visiting imho, but it's still up. 

[Ginsu Victim]

As is Zophar's Domain.

[Gray_Area]

Some things on Zophar's are occasionally updated.

[mgb]

I remember first finding out about emulation probably in the late 90s.
I was really wanting to play one of, if not my favorite game from childhood, Jumpman (c64 version).
I came across a C64 emulator and I don't remember what it was called.
Then I was like what else is emulated and then I found something called MAME and I was like hmmm, this is cool.
The rest is history, but then again I guess also what I typed above is history.