Nintendo's consoles tended to be the most commonly studied, for example the most advanced early emulators reproduced the workings of the Nintendo Entertainment System, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Game Boy. Few manufacturers published technical specifications for their hardware, which left programmers to deduce the exact workings of a console through reverse engineering. These early programs were often incomplete, only partially emulating a given system, resulting in defects. Emulators are also a useful tool in the development process of homebrew demos and the creation of new games for older, discontinued, or rare consoles.īy the mid-1990s, personal computers had progressed to the point where it was technically feasible to replicate the behavior of some of the earliest consoles entirely through software, and the first unauthorized, non-commercial console emulators began to appear. More often than not, emulators carry additional features that surpass the limitations of the original hardware, such as broader controller compatibility, timescale control, greater performance, clearer quality, easier access to memory modifications (like GameShark), one-click cheat codes, and unlocking of gameplay features. JSTOR ( February 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ī video game console emulator is a type of emulator that allows a computing device to emulate a video game console's hardware and play its games on the emulating platform.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: "Video game console emulator" – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.