As well as being a fun and accessible console system, the Wii has racked up quite a collection of games over its lifespan and now, thanks to the wonders of emulation and Dolphin, you can enjoy Wii games, Wiiware, Wii Channels, Virtual Console and Gamecube releases in glorious HD on your Windows or Mac computer. You can even connect multiple Wiimotes and a sensor bar for the full Wii experience, with visuals you never thought possible.

Note: Despite the fact that Dolphin works on the PC & Mac, this walkthrough has been completed using the Windows version and thus contains some advice not applicable to Mac users.

Download & Install

You can download the latest version of Dolphin from the downloads page on the official site. The official system requirements are quite vague, though you’ll need a fast processor that supports SSE2 (the more cores the better) and a graphics card that supports Pixel Shader 2.0 or better.

There are two versions for Windows – 32bit and 64bit (if you’re not sure right click Computer in your Windows menu and choose Properties) – and a single Mac OS X install. The version I downloaded for Windows was packed with 7zip, though there are a host of archive managers that will extract the files.

Once the archive has downloaded, extract it to a location of your choice, and remember where you put it. After extraction you will be able to run Dolphin by double clicking Dolphin.exe. I’d recommend testing it straight away, as you might receive a nasty error or two.

On Windows one of these errors (VCOMP100.DLL not found) is caused by a missing Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package. 32bit users can download this here, and 64bit users here. You will also need the DirectX 9 End-User Runtime if you haven’t already got it. By the time you have downloaded and installed these dependencies, you should be able to launch Dolphin.exe.

Connect Wiimotes

Next you’ll want to connect your Wiimotes so that you can actually play using a real controller. There are other options, though you can’t beat the real thing and this is what we’ll be focusing on here. If you want to use the pointer then you’re going to need to buy a wireless infrared sensor bar and set that up on top or below your monitor, though you won’t need one for every game.

Before attempting to connect your controller make sure Bluetooth is set up on your machine, either via an internal chip or external dongle. On Windows, Wiimotes are connected by right clicking your Bluetooth icon in the system tray and choosing Add a Device. When the dialogue loads, hold the 1 and 2 buttons down on your Wiimote until the LEDs begin rapidly flashing.

Your PC should have detected the Wiimote as Nintendo RVL-CNT-01, select it and choose Pair Without a Code. You won’t need to install drivers or anything – your Wiimote is now Windows ready (you’ll need to pair it with your Wii to use your console again, if you have one).

Next go back to Dolphin and click on the Wiimotes button. Hit refresh and your Wiimote should buzz and assign itself a number denoting that it’s been found. Well done, you can now use your Wiimote with Dolphin. If you want multiple controllers then simply repeat the process.

Playing Games

The exciting bit! Dolphin gives you the option of launching games via your optical drive from original game discs, and from disc image files of games. As always, I must mention that downloading games you do not legally own is against the law. Then again there’s very little wrong with creating backups from your own discs or supplementing your physical copy with a downloaded image someone has already created.

With your Wii game or disc image to hand, launch either by clicking File then Boot From DVD Drive or by clicking Open and choosing a Wii game image on your hard drive. When you’ve made your selection the game will launch, probably windowed if you’ve yet to alter display settings.

You might find that the game you launched is either too slow, too fast or glitchy. Don’t worry, tweaking Dolphin so that it’s perfectly set up isn’t too hard with the performance guide on the official site. This will also give you a few tips about playing games in HD, which basically entails turning the resolution up (if you hadn’t worked it out already).

Naturally, if your PC didn’t handle the standard resolution very well then you’re not going to have very much joy at higher resolutions.

Conclusion

That’s pretty much it! You can find lists of compatible games on the official wiki, which should help guide you in the right direction. I tried New Super Mario Bros, A Boy and His Blob and Muramasa The Demon Blade on my aging Core2Duo with an 8400m. Initially the first two were not operating at full speed, with Demon Blade averaging 70% speed. After a quick performance tweak they’re all up to playable speed, so I’d better stop writing this article and get gaming…

Did you enjoy this how to? Have you tried it yourself? Do you use Wiimotes on your PC for other tasks? Let us know in the comments below.

While many people set up their mobile phone – such as rooting an Android, for example – to allow for tethering and accessing the cellular data network with a PC, it is a practice that is generally frowned upon by the mobile providers. However, there are times when you’re just desperate for Internet access, and you need the larger screen that your laptop offers.

In previous articles, I’ve described how you can tether your rooted Android phone to your laptop, and Dave described how you can tether a jailbroken iPhone in much the same way. My preferred method of tethering is using the awesome Wireless tether app that I mentioned recently.

Installing The Emulator

Once you have that tether enabled, and you’ve got your Wireless data Internet connection activated on your phone, the following guide will help you to conserve bandwidth so that you won’t draw too much attention to yourself while surfing.

The first step is to install a mobile phone emulator – a few options include using the Android developer SDK that has an emulator tool, or you can install the Sun Java Wireless Toolkit from Sun which includes a good emulator as well. The simplest solution is to install the MicroEmulator program to your PC.

You will need Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed on your system (if you don’t already). When you launch the MicroEmulator, it won’t look like anything at all special at first. It basically looks like a cellphone with a mobile screen. First, make sure you’ve enabled Internet access by clicking on “Options” and then make sure “MIDlet Network Access” is checked.

The beauty of this emulator is that it’ll run most mobile browsers like Bolt or Opera Mini. As far as I know, Opera Mini is just about the easiest to install – all you have to do is download the JAD and JAR files at the Opera download page. Save them somewhere you’ll remember, preferably in the “devices” folder in the MicroEmulator application directory. Then, you can load up the Opera Mini browser inside the emulator by clicking on File and then “Open MIDlet File…”

You will see “Opera Mini” appear on the main screen under the list of devices. To launch the mobile browser, just select it and click “Start”. The Opera Mini browser will launch just like you’re running it on your own mobile device – along with the streamlined bandwidth that you’d be using if you were actually using your phone.

While this is pretty cool – it isn’t good enough. The whole point of using your computer or laptop is to take advantage of the large screen, right? Let’s resize the display window to a wider display. In MicroEmulator, you do this by clicking on Options and “Select Device…”

Select “Resizable device” and then click on “Add…“  You’ll see a list of devices to choose from. Click the mobile browser you’ve installed, and then type in the size of the window that you would like.

Once you launch Opera Mini again, it’ll now be in a larger window with the size parameters you set.  Make sure to go into the Opera Mini browser settings and enable “Fullscreen” mode and enable “Load images” and set “Image quality” to medium for an optimal browsing experience. Just because you’re browsing over a mobile network with your laptop doesn’t mean you can enjoy it a little!

Now, when you launch any page that has a mobile version, you’ll notice that the site “senses” you’re using a WAP connection and will serve up the mobile version of the page – cutting down your overall bandwidth significantly. Here’s the main page of MUO displayed through this Opera Mini browser running on my laptop.

Clicking on one of the articles, the page loaded in just seconds, used only about 300 KB to fully load the page.

Loading it in a regular browser consumes over 1.5MB of bandwidth.  You can imagine how the data consumption can pile up over time if you don’t use a mobile browser to take care of your Internet needs while you’re on the road.

I am not encouraging anyone to break the terms and rules of their contract, however there are a lot of people that specifically sign contracts that allow tethering, but usage is on a metered basis. The method described above will allow you the convenience of using the nice widescreen of your laptop, while maintaining a lower data usage that won’t break your bank account.

So, give the MicroEmulator with Opera Mini a try and see if it opens up your world to new, mobile possibilities. Do you find that using a mobile browser is too limiting? Are there other mobile browsers that work well with MicroEmulator? Share your own experiences in the comments section below.

Whilst gaming took off with the mainstream crowds in the arcades, and eventually via consoles in living rooms; early computers played their part too with often entirely different playable creations. Whether you want to relive some classic gaming moments or experience the thrill (!) of your first word processing program, these emulators can help.

All bases are covered, be it Windows, Linux or Mac. In addition to an emulator, you’re going to need some games or programs (ROMs, disk images) and in some cases a BIOS file.

Commodore – 64 [Frodo]

The Commodore 64 has gone down in history as the best-selling personal computer model ever, with somewhere between 12 and 17 million units sold over its 12 year lifespan. Initially introduced in early 1982, the Commodore 64 had a staggering 64Kb of RAM and came in a self-contained unit, incorporating a keyboard.

The machine sold well initially as it exceeded the abilities of similar IBM machines, with improved sound and graphical abilities over its rivals. It has even been compared to Henry Ford’s iconic Model-T for its part in bringing modern, affordable technology to the masses.

Frodo is a cross-platform emulator that will enable you to sample many of the 10,000 or so commercially produced titles for the platform. The homepage is packed with extra software downloads, manuals and guides for writing your own C64 programs.

Sinclair – ZX Spectrum [Speccy] [ZXSP]

Also released in 1982, the ZX Spectrum was an 8bit personal computer incorporating the keyboard-and-computer design that was so popular at the time. There were a variety of models made over the system’s lifespan, each with differing, improved innards.

The software library features more than 20,000 titles and incredibly people are still writing for the ZX Spectrum, with more than 90 releases last year. This is more down to the popularity of emulators, and the original ZX units are highly sought after by collectors.

Speccy is an emulator which supports a range of ZX Spectrum models. It runs on Windows and Linux. Mac users might want to try ZXSP.

Commodore – Amiga [UAE] [WinUAE]

A personal computer platform that’s very dear to my heart, the Amiga range was home to some unique and important developments for both software and games. The first Amiga system, the A1000 was described as “years ahead of its time” and hailed as the “world’s first multimedia, multitasking personal computer” by PC World in 2006, and listed as the seventh most important computer of all time in the same magazine.

It was the budget Amiga models that really shone though – the A500, A600 and A1200 came through as real gaming machines, giving birth to still-playable and celebrated titles like Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder.

UAE is an Amiga emulator for UNIX (Linux, et al.) with WinUAE being the Windows port. There are plenty of ports of UAE to Mac OS and far more obscure platforms.

Microsoft – MS-DOS [DOSBox]

For those of you who are younger than the rest of us, before Windows there was DOS (which stood for Disk Operating System). Each version of Windows released prior to XP was essentially a shell for DOS, albeit with some big and fairly obvious enhancements.

Many games and early software suites thrived on the DOS platform. The growing popularity of IBM PCs in the early 90′s paved the way for PC-borne classics like Lucas Arts’ Monkey Island series, Apogee’s Commander Keen and id software’s groundbreaking FPS, Wolfenstein.

The success of the PC as a gaming machine wasn’t set in stone at this point either, with Commodore’s Amiga bringing up the rear (and somewhat failing catastrophically outside of the UK due to poor marketing on Commodore’s end). These days many franchises owe their inception and popularity to original DOS classics, and you can play these with the fantastic DOSBox emulator.

If you’re stuck and need some help, we’ve got a handy article to help you on your way.

Apple – Macintosh & Macintosh II [Basilisk II]

Who could forget about Apple, and the classic Macintosh released in 1985? This was the very first personal computer to enjoy commercial success using a graphical user interface (GUI) rather than a command line.

This soon evolved, and the original Macintosh was renamed the Macintosh 128k when the upgraded 512k version came out. In 1987 Apple released the Macintosh II, which retailed for just under $5,500. Whilst it was an expensive bit of kit, it was the first PC to use a 32bit colour display and the first to be able to display photo-realistic images without expensive add-ons

You can emulate classic Mac I & II software on your Linux, Mac OS X or Windows PC with Basilisk II, an open source emulator.

Conclusion

With these five systems there’s enough software to entertain even the mildest of curiosities. If you long for the days of floppy disks and 8bit displays you’ll do well to start with a few of these! If you’re more interested in consoles be sure to check out our emulation series, we’ve got vintage consoles, early 80s offerings, 16 and 32bit machines and some of the more recent releases too.

Any favourite classic PCs of years gone by? What did you start out on? Let it all out in the comments.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga 1200, Macintosh 128k.

As the systems get more advanced, emulation becomes more demanding and you may need a fairly recent PC, preferably a dual-core processor and a dedicated graphics card to get the most out of these.

1994 ““ Sega Saturn [Yabause]

Successor to the Mega Drive and loaded with two 32 bit CPUs, the Sega Saturn proved difficult for developers and early adopters alike. Due to the dual-processor architecture (a move some attributed to Sony’s looming powerhouse, the PlayStation) optimizing and building games for the platform required a lot of skill with Sega providing developers limited tools for the job.

The Saturn did sell well in Japan, but a lack of titles and the promise of Sony and Nintendo’s upcoming consoles meant PAL and North American models were discontinued in 1998 with Japan ceasing production two years later.

Yabause is a Sega Saturn emulator designed to run both .ISO CD images and commercial games themselves on a PC. The compatibility list is pretty good, and it runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PSP and even Dreamcast.

1994 ““ Sony PlayStation [PCSX-Reloaded]

The Sony PlayStation took the world by storm and make a substantial dent on Sega and Nintendo’s market share. Over 100 million PlayStation consoles were sold in total before the latest revision of the machine was discontinued in 2006.

Nintendo certainly had a hand in Sony’s success, as they had planned on using CD technology manufactured by Sony in a joint venture as early as 1986. When Nintendo pulled out, Sony took a step back to see what they had come up with. They soon decided to direct their efforts towards a new age of hardware and video gamers, and the PlayStation was born.

You can emulate the PlayStation on Windows, Linux and Mac with one of the last remaining active PlayStation emulators, PCSX-Reloaded.

1996 ““ Nintendo 64 [mupen64plus]

After the immense success of the 32 bit Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the Nintendo 64 had a lot to live up to. Unfortunately for Nintendo the console didn’t sell as well as Sony’s PlayStation, though it did enjoy limited success shifting around 30 million units worldwide.

The N64 was Nintendo’s last home console to use cartridge-based media, and due to the expensive manufacturing process games were expensive. Still, the system was home to some fantastic titles, including Mario’s first proper 3D adventure.

The cross-platform mupen64plus emulator works on Windows, Linux and Mac with decent compatibility for most N64 ROMs.

1998 ““ Sega Dreamcast [nullDC][lxdream]

Sega’s last-ditch attempt at a home console came in the form of the 128 bit Dreamcast in 1998. It was the first console to feature online play via its bundled 56k modem. Despite never selling as well as Sega might have hoped, the Dreamcast will go down in history as a cult console for its cutting edge features and roster of genre-defining games.

Dreamcast originals like Shenmue (which might never see an end to the series), Jet Set Radio (which featured early cel-shading) and Chu Chu Rocket (the world’s first Internet play console game) have elevated the console to cult status. Some independent companies are still releasing Dreamcast titles today.

If you’re a Windows user then nullDC should suffice for all your Dreamcast needs, whilst Linux and Mac users will want to try lxdream. Both emulators are still under active development, so don’t expect every game to work. As the Dreamcast is a fairly powerful device (not by today’s standards, but in terms of emulation) you’ll need a PC with plenty of power for best results.

2000 ““ Sony PlayStation 2 [PCSX2]

The PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console of all time, shifting 150 million units so far. The console has been such a success that Sony is still manufacturing the PS2 slim model, and the system has accrued nearly 11,000 titles.

The PlayStation 2 supported network gaming (which you can still enjoy on your original console with X-Link Kai), web browsing and some of the finest exclusive originals and arcade conversions of the generation.

Windows and Linux users can use PCSX2 to emulate the system, which can successfully launch and play a large amount of games. An issue with PS2 emulation is virtualizing the multiple cores within its processor, so the more power you’ve got under the hood the better. For best results you’ll need a Core2Duo or Core-i series processor 1GB of RAM and that all-important dedicated graphics card.

2001 ““ Nintendo GameCube [Dolphin]

The GameCube was Nintendo’s first console to use optical media, in the form of mini DVDs which could store up to 1.5GB of data. It featured a chunky controller with 2 analogue sticks, a d-pad and 8 buttons. The GameCube only sold just over 20 million units worldwide, and was not a great success for Nintendo.

The ground Nintendo lost with their last console (the N64) was even harder to make-up against new competition from Sony and Microsoft. The GameCube also only had four Internet-enabled games and a handful of system link titles.

This doesn’t mean there weren’t some excellent games released for the system! The fantastic Dolphin emulator plays both GameCube and Wii games on Windows, Linux or Mac (Intel OS X). What’s even more amazing is that this emulator upscales Wii and GameCube titles to high definition, a feature that’s not possible on original hardware. What are you waiting for?

2001 ““ Microsoft Xbox [DxBx]

What happens when the world’s largest software corporation enters the games console market? A big, black, powerful, online-geared behemoth is what ““ the Microsoft Xbox. Despite the lure of top-selling Halo: Combat Evolved (and its even more successful sequel) the Xbox only sold marginally better than the GameCube, shifting around 25 million units before discontinuation in 2006.

DxBx is an Xbox emulator written in Delphi. Whilst playable game support is thin on the ground, it may interest some die-hard Xbox fans. Only a handful of games run at the moment but if you’re interested in Xbox emulation development you might want to check it out.

If you really are desperate for an Xbox you can get them cheap on eBay, or play some Xbox classics on the Xbox 360.

What’s Missing?

There are a few systems absent from the list and they include the Apple Bandai Pippin (Apple’s highly unsuccessful attempt at entering the video games industry), Casio Loopy (a Japanese exclusive), NEC PC-FX (another Japanese exclusive), Bandai Playdia (yet another Japanese exclusive), Nintendo Virtual Boy (a failed, short-lived 3D experiment) and the Neo Geo CD (a reboot of the original Neo Geo with CDs instead of cartridges).

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the last few articles as much as I have writing them. Let us know what you think of the emulators, your favourite systems and games in the comments below.

Images: Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast, Xbox

This week we’ll be looking at 16 bit and (some) 32 bit consoles of the late 80s and early 90s, many of which left a lasting impression on the video game world.

As ever, cross-platform video game console emulators are reported where possible. You should know by now that downloading ROMs you don’t legally own is against the law, shock horror.

1987 ““ PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 [Hu-Go!][Ootake]

A console that never really saw a full-scale PAL release but thrived in NTSC regions, the PC-Engine (as it was known in Japan) was launched in 1987 with its identical (in terms of hardware) North American release the “TurboGrafx-16″ coming late 1989.

There were 94 game releases for the TurboGrafx-16 (system releases outside of Japan) and most of them should be playable on the cross-platform Hu-Go! emulator. There’s a Windows, Mac and Linux version. The homebrew and official forum should help out if you get stuck.

Windows users can also use the Japanese PC-Engine emulator Ootake. Just ignore the English on the homepage!

1988 ““ Sega Mega Drive/Genesis [Kega-Fusion][Gens/GS]

Following the success of the 8 bit Master System, Sega’s first 16 bit home consoles came in the form of the Mega Drive (as it was known in Europe and Asia) or Genesis (in North America).

The Mega Drive was backwards-compatible with the Sega Master System, a feature that surely helped the company rack-up an estimated 40 million plus console sales. The Mega Drive has never ceased production in Brazil, and there have even been recent officially licensed Genesis consoles produced in North America.

You won’t need to buy any Sega hardware with either the Kega Fusion or Gens/GS emulator. Both are cross-platform and run on Windows, Linux and Mac.

1990 ““ Neo Geo [NeoRAGEx][GnGeo]

The company who brought us arcade classics like Fatal Fury, King of Fighters and Puzzle Bobble (pictured below) also delivered another very cutting edge present in 1990 ““ the Neo Geo Advanced Entertainment System, manufactured by Japanese firm SNK.

The console was expensive, and marketed as a 24 bit machine as it had a standard 16 bit architecture with an additional 8 bit co-processor. Instead of using tiled bitmap backgrounds like other consoles at the time, the Neo Geo rendered 16 pixel wide sprites side-by-side to make up much of the on-screen visuals.

What better way to remember one of Japan’s greatest consoles and arcade line-up than with the NeoRAGEx emulator for Windows or GnGeo for Unix (Linux, BeOS, FreeBSD). NeoRAGEx has since been abandoned, though you can still find the last release mirrored at the above link.

1990 ““ Super Nintendo Entertainment System [ZSNES]

Building on the success of the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super Nintendo sold just short of 50 million units worldwide. The graphical and audio capabilities of the SNES matched other consoles available at the time, whilst many SNES releases had enhanced chips built into the game cartridges to really push the system to its limits.

There were 784 games in total released for the SNES (including US, European and Japanese releases) not including the many homebrew creations available.

In order to play the SNES classics, try ZSNES, one of the best SNES emulators around for Windows, Mac and Linux. I’ve never had an issue running a single ROM under ZSNES, plus the extra graphical, control and ‘save state’ options don’t get much better.

1993 ““ 3DO Interactive Multiplayer [FreeDO]

Time Magazine’s product of the year in 1994, the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was a console originally produced by Panasonic and later Sanyo and Goldstar. Whilst it enjoyed a high-profile marketing campaign, the dizzying $699.95 asking price at launch was too much for most and Panasonic never enjoyed the success like Nintendo or Sega did.

The only emulator I could find for the 3DO is FreeDO which works on Windows, with limited success. There’s a fairly dedicated 3DO emulation forum here, which might help resolve any issues.

1993 ““ Atari Jaguar [Virtual Jaguar]

The Atari Jaguar doesn’t technically belong on this list, so before the comments come flooding in ““ I apologize. For those of you sat there scratching your heads, the Atari Jaguar was a high-performance games console utilizing Atari’s 64 bit “Jaguar” chip.

It didn’t make much difference, the Jaguar’s reception was enough to put Atari off home consoles altogether. It is thought that less than 250,000 Jaguars were sold in total, with a poor software library and needlessly complicated 15-button controller probably to blame.

Virtual Jaguar is an emulator which completely removes the need for you to ever touch an Atari Jaguar. There are Windows, Mac, Linux and BeOS versions available and compatibility is (on the whole) good.

1993 ““ Commodore Amiga CD32 [Akiko][WinUAE][UAE]

The CD32 was the world’s first 32 bit console that solely utilised CD-ROM media and was released worldwide in 1993 before being discontinued in 1994. The CD32 was technically very similar to Commodore’s Amiga 1200 home computer, and sold especially well in the UK quickly swallowing 50% of the CD-ROM market share.

The CD32 only shifted around 100,000 units in total before manufacturers Commodore went bankrupt in 1994, putting an end to an era of computer hardware, software and video games for the Amiga brand.

You can emulate the CD32 on Windows with Akiko. It is a specially adapted port of UAE, the Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator designed for Linux (which does not support the CD32 on its own). Experienced Amiga and Linux users might want to check out UAE anyway, as many of the CD32 games were simple ports of A1200, A600 and A500 classics.

WinUAE is another Windows port with ever improving support for Amiga CD32 games.

What’s Missing?

There are two systems missing from this list, the Amiga CDTV (which flopped ““ badly) and the CD-i, a system known for having some of the worst titles imaginable (despite the odd appearance from Nintendo favourite Zelda).

Next time things get serious ““ 1995 to 2001; systems, emulators and a little history lesson. Be sure to join me!

Any favorite video game console emulators from this list? Did you own a Jaguar or CD32? Everyone had a SNES, right? Sound off in the comments.

Image Credits: 3DO, Atari Jaguar

As with the previous list, emulators are cross-platform where possible. You’ll need games to play, known as ROMs, and just a reminder that, provided you own the original game, it is not illegal to possess digital copies. Please don’t ask us where to get these ROMs from though, we won’t tell you!

1982 ““ Atari 5200 [Atari++]

Introduced in 1982, Atari’s 5200 SuperSystem was manufactured as a competitor to the popular Intellivision console. The hardware in the unit was virtually identical to Atari’s 400/800 early home computers, except the 5200 was a gaming machine lacking keyboard input.

There were 69 officially released titles for the machine, most of which were arcade ports.

Atari++ is an 8 bit Atari emulator for Windows and Linux. Windows users can download the binary for their OS whilst Linux users will need to compile from source. If you’re no dab hand with the console then there’s full instructions on how to do this on the homepage.

1982 ““ Vectrex [ParaJVE]



Without a doubt one of the most innovative consoles in the history of video gaming, the Vectrex was an all-in-one console and vector monitor which did not require a television to play. It came with an Asteroids clone called Minestorm which is still fun to play today. You’ll find original working Vectrex consoles on eBay, but even today they aren’t cheap!

There were just short of 30 Vectrex games released, though there is a large amount of homebrew available too. The ParaJVE emulator does a great job of emulating this iconic system, and runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, provided you’ve got Java installed.

1982 ““ Emerson Arcadia 2001 [WinArcadia]

Following the Vectrex came the Arcadia 2001 from US manufacturer Emerson. The company licensed the console to other manufacturers worldwide, though due to differences in hardware and cartridges not all games are compatible with all systems.

This resulted in multiple systems being released with hilarious names like “Rowtron 2000″ in the UK and “UVI Compu-Game” in New Zealand. 51 games make up the game library for the Emerson (and its derivatives) and you can play most of them with the WinArcadia emulator for Windows, AmigaOS (yes, really) and the GameBoy Advance.

1982 ““ ColecoVision [ColEm]

The ColecoVision went head-to-head with Atari’s 5200 which had superior hardware but less commercial success. There were just under 150 game cartridges released for the system in total, though with the controversial first expansion module released added compatibility with Atari’s popular 2600 console.

ColEm is an open-source ColecoVision emulator for a variety of systems. Official support comes in Windows, Linux, Maemo and Symbian flavours (amongst others) whilst there are ported versions for Mac and the PSP.

1983 ““ Sega SG-1000 [Bee] [Kega Fusion]

Marketing for Sega’s first console, the SG-1000, was focused mainly at the Asian and Australian markets, and thus the console never really gained any ground in Europe or North America. If you’re amongst those who missed out first time round then Bee is the emulator for you.

Compatibility is high, and the emulator works on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Bee also emulates a couple of other systems including the ColecoVision and Atari 2600. Kega Fusion is an emulator for Sega consoles will also emulate the SG-1000, on all three major operating systems.

1983 ““ Nintendo Entertainment System [FCEUX] [MESS]

Launched the same day as Sega’s SG-1000 in Japan, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was a tremendous success for Nintendo. The company shifted more than 60 million units worldwide and IGN singled the console out as the greatest of all time in a list of 25.

Nintendo introduced the current standard of licensing software to third party developers for use on the NES, which combined with the console’s appeal resulted in over a thousand games. You can enjoy these with the help of FCEUX, an emulator favoured by the die-hard NES community.

FCEUX comes in Windows and Linux flavours or if you prefer, the multiple system emulator MESS will also play NES games.

1985 ““ Sega Master System [Gens] [Kega Fusion]

First released under the name Sega Mark III in Japan, the Master System was a direct competitor to the NES and sold a respectable 13 million units. The Master System is still being produced in Brazil, with 132 built-in games and no catridge slot.

If you’d like to relive some classic Sega action then you can with the Gens emulator for Windows. The emulator covers a few Sega systems, and emulation is pretty much perfect. Linux and Mac users can use Kega Fusion for Master System and other Sega emulation.

1986 ““ Atari 7800 [MESS] [ProSystem]

Released as a direct challenger to the NES and Master System, Atari’s 7800 finally hit the market in 1986 after Atari encountered financial difficulties. There were 59 licenced games for the system, a handful of after-market releases and the 7800 was compatible with all Atari 2600 games.



You’re going to need the 7800 OS ROMs, and luckily you can get them here (PAL) and here (NTSC). To emulate the 7800 on Windows, the ProSystem emulator works a treat. MESS will also emulate the Atari 7800.

What’s Missing?

The only home console from this era missing from the list is the Casio PV-1000 which was released in Japan in 1983 and had just 15 games available. The console enjoyed very limited success. If you do find a capable emulator for the PV-1000 then let us know in the comments.

If you enjoyed this article then be sure to join me next time when we’ll be taking a look at consoles and their respective emulators between 1987 and 1993.

Do you have any favourite games from these systems? Sega or Nintendo? Sonic or Mario? Atari or nothing? Reminisce in the comments!

Image Credits: Atari 5200, Atari 7800