Old games, and how to play them again

[Draconysius]

Recently, I've begun to play my favorite childhood video games again. I don't have the consoles for them anymore, but I still manage to do it... on my computer. This thread should basically show you how to do just that. This is intended to be a guide, not a snippet of spam. Some of the methods in this guide may or may not be illegal in certain countries, so use at your own risk.
NOTE: All of the websites, programs, etc. I've linked to in this thread are virus-free, so rest easy.



First, go here:
http://www.emulator-zone.com/
and download the emulator for whichever system you want to use. If you want to play old Nintendo 64 games on your PC, download one of the N64 emulators. Once downloaded, install the program. Next, you need games.

Go here http://romhustler.net/
and click on one of the systems to bring up a by-letter list of games to download. (Many free rom/iso sites are a fraud that make you vote for them, but this one isn't; trust me) Click on the game you want to download, follow the steps to download it, and once it's finished, place it somewhere easy to access. Open the emulator you downloaded earlier, click "file" then "open" (or something like that), find the game you downloaded, and open it. There ya go.

Trust me, it really helps to buy a gamepad for your PC when you fall in love with these games. It's MUCH easier to sit back and have fun that way. I bought a cheap gamepad at Wal-Mart for $13 and it works excellently.

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Now, for those of you that want to play old PC games, a good place to go is http://www.the-underdogs.info/genre....id=1&sort=name
, Home of the Underdogs. It's a great little site that hosts abandonware (games that have been made free by disbanded/retired companies. Of course, if you want more known games like Half-Life, Age of Empires, or Command and Conquer, you can always do a torrent search at http://demonoid.com

Once you find your game, you need to download the little torrent file. Then you're going to need a program to download from that file (think of it as a link). The best torrent downloader I've come across is here: http://azureus.sourceforge.net/
Open the torrent file in your torrent program and sit back. It will take a long time to download unless you have a fast connection. Be sure you save the files to a place you can easily find (I save to desktop).

Now the game's downloaded? So, you're left with a file you have no idea what to do with? What you've actually downloaded is an image of a game, like a data file of what should be on the CD of the game it comes from. Yes, you're going to need yet ANOTHER program to run this. The very best one is, of course, Daemon Tools: http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php

Install Daemon tools, run it, and right click the little red lightning bolt icon. Click "virtual CD" and then "Device 0:"(etc.) and open that little file you had no idea what to do with. It should work like a real second/third disc drive and you should enjoy it. Remember to burn your downloaded files to a CD-R in case you loose them. You don't wanna spend another week downloading them, eh?


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The games I've been loving lately:

PC:
Age of Empires II: Age of Kings/the Conquerors Expansion
Second Life (duh!)

N64:
Conker's Bad Fur Day (almost finished)
Goldeneye 007
Mario Kart 64 (one of the best games ever, bar none)
Perfect Dark
South Park
Super Mario 64

Sega genesis:
Batman Forever (atrocious game, but still a good nostalgia trip)
Sonic the Hedgehog

SNES:
Contra 3: the Alien Wars
Soccer Kid
Streets of Rage

[Morrigan_Dubh]

Wii Virtual Console ftw tbh...

http://www.vc-reviews.com/available_now.php

[Cyntrox]

Another classic for the N64 is Super Smash Brothers... You should try it!

[Morrigan_Dubh]

Originally Posted by Cyntrox

Another classic for the N64 is Super Smash Brothers... You should try it!

I enjoyed "Melee" on the Gamecube. Hours and hours of "Where am I? Oh there I am - falling off the edge"

[Kraven de Sade]

N64 emulators don't work well on my computer. It's too slow.

I also find it quite annoying trying to configure my gamepad to play N64 games.

[Clockwork]

I've been playing Super Mario World on SNES9x for years ^^

[dark_dragon_of_ice]

Some great rpgs for the snes...

[dark_dragon_of_ice]

I didnt see the best game of all METAL SLUG!!!

[SKot]

Oh, I love to make old games live and breathe again. I've become a bit of an expert at it over the years, for certain games.

I must admit I'm feeling kind of old since even NES/SNES is kind of new-school to me. I run emulators for Atari 2600/5200/7800, Vectrex, Colecovision, and Intellivision, plus a number of early computer platforms like C=64, Apple II, Texas Instruments TI-99/4a, Atari ST, the overseas Amstrad and Sinclair systems, and the obscure French Thomson TO8 system for one or two games.

I always dreamed that one day there would be a way to bring all those dead systems and computers to life again, and now there is... and all on one PC. I heartily approve.

--SKot

[Morrigan_Dubh]

The Amstrad CPC+ was my first computer. It had a tape drive and a cartridge drive. That was the "+". I remember finishing one level and having to load the next... for 10 minutes!
And I remember learning to code my first game with BASIC and saving it onto a tape.

[Cyntrox]

Does anyone know where to get Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for N64?

[bleedingheart344]

I do *raises hand* http://www.coolrom.com/roms/n64/z/ It's on there.

[Cyntrox]

Doesn't work - sais it's ESA protected

If anyone have the actual file, please add me to MSN at cyntrox@h-o-t-m-a-i-l.com or mail me at cyntrox@g-m-a-i-l.com

[Draconysius]

Here, Cyntrox:
http://romhustler.net/rom/n64/176

[hellion]

Originally Posted by dark_dragon_of_ice

Some great rpgs for the snes...

No kidding. Anyone not familiar with the following should really, really check them out:
- Chrono Trigger
- Secret of Evermore
- Secret of Mana
- Final Fantasy * (duh!)

I personally heart Chrono Trigger the most, lots of memories for that one.

Very beautiful game all around.

[hellion]

...Not to mention Tales of Phantasia or Star Ocean... The japanese know their stuff.
Many of these games can actually bring me to tears at times, with the beauty of their storylines, graphics and especially music.

[bleedingheart344]

Hey guys, I actually need some rom help. I have a good NDS emulator. I downloaded a rom for it, and I guess it only works for flash cards, I need another place that has an Animal Crossing:Wild World rom on it that will work with my emulator.

[Jarl]

Holy fuck this is awesome! I am currently playing Poke'Mon Yellow from the old Poke'mon gameboy games I love so much... Yes mock me if you will, a goth who loves the Poke'mon games (Despise the cards and cartoon but)

I'm going to re visit my Sega Megadrive days soon, and the good old Zelda games for the Super Nintendo.

*Hugs Draconysius*

[the-broken-harlequin]

Also, if you play game boy emulators (such as visualboy) you can use gamesharks, which i find extremely useful for getting that rare pokemon that you can only get at events.

[Jarl]

Whats this gamesharks you speak of ? x_x

[the-broken-harlequin]

Originally Posted by Jarl

Whats this gamesharks you speak of ? x_x

They are codes that help you manipulate your games, say i wanted infinite lives i would buy a gameshark, insert it into my console/handheld/computer and enter the code for lives.

[Jarl]

Ah right, thanks, I'll look into them.

[the-broken-harlequin]

But, mind you, those game boy advance ROMs are hard to get.

[Minyaliel]

I'm currently trying to figure out how to make the Discworld games run on my Linux box without having to pay lots of money for Cedega. Well... I'm really looking forward to playing that game

[Jarl]

I have a problem, I spent ages downloading Age Of Empires and now DEAMON tools says "this Platform is not supported" when I tried to install it... what the fuck man? help x_x