Hardware vs Emulation

As the games and consoles only get older with the passage of time, I find myself asking - is playing on original hardware worth the trouble? I'm lucky enough to own every mainline Nintendo console and Pokemon games from most generations, but I've been playing more on emulators than the hardware. This has gotten me thinking on the pros and cons of each one.

The obvious benefit to playing on hardware is that you're playing the game as it was intended. Everything you're playing was made to work with this specific hardware, tested on with these buttons, imagined for that screen size. This is doubly true for first party Nintendo games, which did not have to worry about cross-platofrm releases. The developers of Pokemon Platinum never had to worry about how their game would run on the PSP, though the same cannot be said for the poor developers of Sonic Heroes, who were working on a game for PC, Gamecube, XBOX, and Playstation 2.

All that being said, even if the experience is not the most optimized, playing on hardware (even for buggy games like Sonic Heroes on PS2) is the canonical experience. You will never have to worry that something weird happening to you might be an emulation bug. All the bugs you get are fresh-baked, baby. Additionally, you know you are sharing the same experience everyone else who has ever played these games on this console has had.

Some consoles have amazing emulation scenes. Gameboy Advance emulation, for example, is very accurate. Nintendo 64 emulation, on the other hand, struggles.

A related benefit is playing with original controllers. Emulators vary in their ability to mimic the feel of original controllers.

An underrated benefit of playing with hardware is that you have connectivity. You can use transfer paks on Pokemon Stadiums 1 and 2, you can trade Pokemon using a link cable, you can use the GBA-GB cable to use the tiny Chao Garden in Sonic Adventure 2, etc. Though not all games have these connectivity features, the Gameboy Advance to DS era really did. Methods for emulating these are often cumbersome and unintuitive, when they aren't just absent.

Now, let's talk about the benefits of emulation. You can play on multiple different devices - your phone, your PC, a Steam Deck or dedicated gaming device.

It's also worth pointing out that original hardware is expensive, and only getting more so with time. If you want to buy a Gameboy Advance, even not working copies cost at least $50. Don't even get me started on the Gamecube. Of course, the only legal way to acquire ROMs is by dumping the games yourself, so you're still stuck when it comes to the games. But if you have a friend willing to share their ripped copies, you can dramatically reduce the cost paid.

Original hardware can also fail. Pokemon save cartridges infamously have issues with the internal clock that will cause saves to be lost after a while. Gameboys with old batteries left in them can suffer from corrosion. While it is possible to repair these consoles, it requires learning a new skillest that not everyone may want to do. So long as you have an emulator, a ROM, and a compatible device, you can keep playing the exact same save file for as long as you like.

There is also the option of modding. In Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, the vanilla Chao Garden is pretty slow-going, even with glitches to speed up the process. It's also limited in the kinds of Chao you can get. There is simply no way to experience the world of Chao World Extended without modding the Steam version.

It is also much easier to back up saves on emulators. It is possible to do so with original hardware, but it requires purchasing additional hardware.

Finally, hardware takes up a lot of space.

When it comes to convenience, emulation simply cannot be beat. If the quality of emulation for the game you want to play is high enough, then you probably will not miss out on much by emulating.