Utilizing the Wii’s built-in 802.11b/g Wi-Fi or connecting through a USB-to-Ethernet adapter, you can gain access to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection service. From there, a slew of great online connectivity features are available, including the Virtual Console for downloading games, Friend Codes for connecting with other players, WiiConnect24 to stay connected to the Internet while on standby, and various channels like Forecast for weather reports and News for current headlines.

All that and much more is up for grabs, but first you’ll have to get your Wii online. With access to your broadband connection, there are currently two ways to connect your Nintendo Wii console to the Internet: through a wireless router or a wired access point using the Wii LAN Adapter.

Ready to get more out of your Nintendo console? Let’s get right to it and find out how to connect your Wii to the Internet.

Wireless Connection — Search For An Access Point

Probably the easiest method to get your Wii online is through a wireless router. Nintendo has information on choosing a router compatible with the Wii here.

First, you’ll need to search for an access point. On the Wii main menu, click on the Wii button, located on the lower right-hand corner, to get to the settings screen. Then, hit Wii Settings and click on the blue arrow on the right side to go to the second page.

Select the Internet button and go to Connection Settings. Click on one of the buttons to create a new connection.

From there, click Wireless Connection and then hit Search for an Access Point. The Wii will start searching for any access points nearby. Once it’s finished, click OK to continue and view the found access points.

Choose your access point from the list. The closed padlock icons mean that a security code is required and you have to input the password or key.

Continue to save the settings and the Wii will test the connection and then perform a system update if available.

Wired Connection — Wii LAN Adapter

Since the Wii doesn’t have a built-in Ethernet port, you’ll need something called the Wii LAN Adapter. Available from Nintendo and third parties, the USB-to-Ethernet adapter is used to connect the console to your home router.

First, plug in the Wii LAN Adapter to a USB port in the rear on the console. Connect an Ethernet cord from your modem or router to the Ethernet port on the LAN Adapter.

Then, turn on the Wii and follow the same steps of going into Wii Settings and clicking on Internet. Go to Connection Settings, create a new connection, and click on Wired Connection.

Click OK to initiate a connection test and you can then perform a system update if one’s available.

Using either of these two ways to get your Wii online, you should be all good to go. It should be noted that there’s also a device called the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector. The accessory establishes a Wi-Fi connection via a broadband-connected PC, but it has since been discontinued. You can learn more about it on Nintendo’s site.

How do you connect your Wii to the Internet? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: Apeture

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Agreed, cheating is an honorably questionable thing to do, but for those who are absolutely stuck, a little pointer can do wonders.

That’s why we’ve got walkthroughs, gaming guides that’ll take you by the hand and tell you what to do. Just don’t overuse them, because they can be incredible spoilers.

Nintendo Wii Game Walkthroughs

Most Wii games don’t need as many pointers as their PS3/Xbox/PC counterparts, but that doesn’t mean they’re not needed. A lot of people still get stuck in puzzles or adventure games and need someone to point the way.

Below, we’ll be taking a look at the best sites for you to find Nintendo Wii game walkthroughs.

IGN Guides

If you’re serious about gaming, you should’ve heard about IGN. If you haven’t, I’ll tell you all about it.

IGN is one of the top sources for everything related to gaming – and has been so for a while. It’s a great place to grab a hold on the latest gaming reviews, news items and overall know-how, but it’s also one of the best places to go looking for a review.

Unlike the other sites we’ll be discussing, IGN offers a separate direction of walkthroughs – no useless searching, it’s there or it isn’t. Many of the more recent guides are extremely high quality, and written by, or in order of IGN themselves. This site should definitely be present in your bookmarks – it’s the first place to look for a more-than-decent walkthrough.

GameFAQS

GameFAQS is a project of GameSpot. For a long time GameSpot enjoyed a much more prominent place as a game source as well. It still does, although it has been under fire for some time, on the grounds of accepting money for improving their reviews.

Even if you don’t trust their reviews anymore, you can’t look past the sheer quality of GameFAQS. You’ll find a ton of info here, including planned release dates and – of course – Wii game walkthroughs.

You can browse games by alphabet, or use the search box. If there are any – and most of the time there are plenty – your walkthroughs will appear on the game’s overview page. The biggest batch of guides are written by users, and although extremely helpful, aren’t on the same level as the official IGN guides.

For plenty of games, however, you’ll also find an official GameSpot walkthrough.

MyCheats

MyCheats is the cheating/walktroughs part of 1UP, our third major (print and online) gaming sourcebig UP, you’ll be referred here for all yo. Whenever you’re browsing games on the ur less honorable gaming needs.

Again, you won’t be able to browse an index of walkthroughs. Instead, look up the game you’re interested in – alphabetically, or through a query – and see if there’s one present.

Still nothing? – Google is your Friend!

Tried all three sites and still couldn’t find anything? Don’t despair just yet, you’ve still got Google!

Nothing fancy like index pages or game overviews, but if it exists, you’ll be able to find it on Google. Just hit up the search box and be sure to use the right keywords – title, ‘Wii’ and ‘walkthrough’ or ‘guide’. If your search returned blank, you can finally let go of all your hope and start to despair.

Hopefully this guide was of help to you, and you’ve made some fresh bookmarks. What walkthrough sites do you use for the Wii? Tell us in the comments section!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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• Top 2 Sites For Nintendo Wii Game Cheats (13)
• Top 3 Sites For Nintendo DS Walkthroughs (6)
• Top 10 Websites For PlayStation 2 Free Game Cheats (14)
• DeSmuME- Free Nintendo DS Emulator to Play NDS Games on PC (21)
• Top 5 Sites With Free Strategy Guides For Gamers (7)

Note that downloading retail .nds ROMs is of questionable (il)legality – more of a black area than gray as the games are still current generation – sold and marketed as of right now. If you want to stay on the legal side, use homebrew ROMs instead.

We’ll be covering the Windows version of DeSmuME. Fetch the latest Windows binary from their website.

You should have downloaded a zip archive. Extract it to its own folder, and you should see several files, including DeSmuME.exe, which is the Nintendo DS emulator itself.

Downloading Games

We can’t condone downloading the retail DS games’ ROMs, though we’re quite sure you know the common avenues. Your second option is to find homebrew DS ROMs – this website has a small collection of them, but you may need to click through to developer websites to see more of their own projects.

In the end, you’ll usually end up downloading an archive including an nds file – this file is the one you want. For our own purposes, we’ll be downloading “Yoshi’s Bad Brother,” a homebrew game, from this developer.

Playing the Games

When all is downloaded and unarchived, you should end up with an nds file, and perhaps a readme or other files.

Browse to your nds file, and hit Open.

The game will load – the bottom half of the Nintendo DS emulator is for the “touchscreen” input, which you control with your mouse, and the top is the top screen of your “DS”.

You can find the various key bindings in the Config > Control Config.

Basic Functions

We’ll be outlining some of the basic functions of the emulator:

File

• Save State As: Allows you to save the current exact state of the emulator – everything will be the way you left it when you load this file.
• Load State As: Allows you to load the files made from Save State As.
• Save State / Load State: Does the exact same thing as the above, except it uses numbers instead of forcing you to specify a file name.
• Other functions in the File menu allow you to save screenshots, audio, and video captures.

Emulation

• Pause and Reset are self explanatory.
• The Cheats menu will be explained in greater detail later.

View

• The various options on the view menu allow you to change the emulator size, rotation, and screen separation. You can also display an FPS counter, among other things.

Cheating in DeSmuME

Cheating is quite rudimentary in DeSmuME. We’ll be showing a simple example using the game New Super Mario Bros.

Head over to Emulation > Cheats > Search. A window will pop up, asking for the number of bytes and search type. For our example, we’ll stick with the defaults.

You’ll be prompted to enter a value. Since we’re going to freeze the number of lives, we entered 10, which was our current number of lives.

The window will tell you the number of results. Close the dialog (do not click Restart).

Change the number of lives. We went in and lost a life to reduce the number of lives we had to 9. Go back to Emulation > Cheats > Search, and enter the new number (ours would be 9) and hit Search.

The number of results should have dropped significantly (I ended up with 4). You can either die again and search a new number to reduce the number of results again, or just add all the values. Either way, once you’re done, hit View, and select each value and click Add.

You can either freeze the value, or change it. I opted to freeze it, and clicked Add. That’s all – for a more detailed guide, view DeSmuME’s guide.

That’s all the basic functions of DeSmuME. Download it at their website. If you have any questions or issues, please voice out in the comments.

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• Top 3 Sites For Nintendo DS Walkthroughs (6)
• Top 3 Sites For Nintendo Wii Game Walkthroughs (8)
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• Top 2 Sites For Nintendo Wii Game Cheats (13)
• How To Play Old School Console Games on Computer (17)

Sure, you could go out and buy that official strategy guide, but be honest now! That money is better spent on stuff that’s actually meaningful and fulfilling to your life, like more games. Help doesn’t have to cost you a dime and it’s all just a few keystrokes and clicks away.

Don’t smash your poor handheld to the ground just yet. Here’re the top 3 sites for Nintendo DS walkthroughs.

GameFAQs

GameFAQs is one of the best websites for guides to virtually every video game, including DS titles. Its collection is simply the biggest.

The site’s members submit their own text-based Nintendo DS walkthroughs of the game and they’re all hosted by GameFAQs and made available for everyone to view for free. There are usually even multiple guides to popular games written by different gamers, so you’ll be sure to have many takes on how to get through challenges or levels.

Other great features on the site include in-depth FAQs, with guides packed full of information just for specific aspects of the game, as well as helpful maps and charts.

IGN

The guides at IGN are always well-written and the site boasts a great collection of Nintendo DS walkthroughs to lend any gamer in need of help a hand.

IGN’s DS walkthroughs are just as good as the ones you can find for console games, providing plenty of detailed information and images to go along with it. Additional features include helpful extras like item lists, secrets, and tips on extra missions and challenges. Along with the complete walkthrough, it’s always nice to see these little things included as they can come in handy.

Also keep in mind that IGN does offer video tips, downloadable PDFs, and PSP-formatted guides, however, you must subscribe to the website for access to them.

StrategyWiki

For those who still can’t find the guide you’re looking for or feel compelled to contribute your own tips and help other gamers out there, StrategyWiki is the place to do it. As a collaborative and freely-licensed wiki, the site’s Nintendo DS strategy guides and walkthroughs are very well done and in-depth.

Along with the games’ complete walkthrough, other helpful bonuses like lists, maps, and a guide to getting started are usually included. One of the best things about StrategyWiki is that there’s only one definitive guide for each game, so you won’t have to sort through multiple plain text FAQs. The content never dies and can be updated by anyone, so feel free to contribute yourself.

If you desperately need a video walkthrough of a DS game, try searching YouTube. Some gamers have actually recorded the dual screens with a camera for gameplay footage. The quality usually isn’t very good, but it’s better than nothing.

For more resources, check out the Top 5 Sites With Free Strategy Guides For Gamers.

Where do you go for Nintendo DS walkthroughs? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: Gadgeteer

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• DeSmuME- Free Nintendo DS Emulator to Play NDS Games on PC (21)
• Top 3 Sites For Nintendo Wii Game Walkthroughs (8)
• Top 2 Sites For Nintendo Wii Game Cheats (13)
• Top 5 Sites With Free Strategy Guides For Gamers (7)
• Top 2 Sites To Play Old Nintendo Games Online (16)

If you are a believer that a game is only fun if you beat it without any help then save your time and move on to the next great Make Use of article! Here comes the cheating!

The first website up is called CCC Cheat Code Central but they also have other sites for other systems so keep that in mind when you are looking for XBox 360 cheat codes.

Once you find yourself at CCC’s website you will see 6 menu options: Cheat Codes, Reviews, Videos, Game News, Release Dates and a place to trade games. Today, we are only interested in the first item.

The Cheat Codes menu will either list All Games for you by alphabetical order by hitting the link that says All Games. Or you can click on the letter matching the first letter of your video game’s title. In this case, I was looking for Zelda Twilight Princess so I hit the link labeled Z.

Z only returned 2 entries and the second one was what I was looking for. I clicked on the Zelda: Twilight Princess link and was taken to a page for just that specific game.

Once I was on the game’s sub-page, I could scroll down and find cheats and hacks galore! Zelda does not have Cheat Codes per se but there are lots of awesome tips, tricks and ways around things here.

Next up is a game called The Simpsons Game – it is no secret that I love me some Simpsons! Matt Groening is a genius! This game does have a cheat code along the lines of that old contra code. Here you see you can get Infinite power for all characters’ by hitting Plus Left Right Plus Minus and then you will hear a tone and blamo – full power and it won’t deplete!

I normally do not go a’looking for cheat codes until I have beaten a game or otherwise given up! Don’t ruin your fun but you can add to it when you would be bored of it and would not normally pick it up. Think about Grand Theft Auto.

The second website on my list is called GameSpot and their Nintendo Wii game cheats are available for you at this URL.

There is a search feature at the top but they have links on the Wii Cheat Page’s home screen for the hottest games with cheats. You will probably see a few you want to click on. Under each title, they break down what they have for your cheating pleasure. They can be unlockables, glitches, easter eggs, secrets, FAQs and more. Check them out.

I clicked on through to Super Smash Brothers Brawl and scrolled down to some awesome unlockable features from the game, as you can see below:

They tell you what the feature is and how to unlock it. Next up is their easter eggs which are always cool! Here are some mid-battle conversations key combinations – say that 3 times, fast!

Then we have our full on password cheats. They open some new exciting places for you to check out!

What sites do you use to find Nintendo Wii game cheats? We would love to hear from you. Do you use Homebrew? What are you favorite Wii Applications? Share with us in the comments, young gamer!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Top 3 Sites For Nintendo Wii Game Walkthroughs (8)
• Top 3 Sites For Nintendo DS Walkthroughs (6)
• DeSmuME- Free Nintendo DS Emulator to Play NDS Games on PC (21)
• Top 2 Sites To Play Old Nintendo Games Online (16)
• Top 10 Websites For PlayStation 2 Free Game Cheats (14)

I have showed you FireNES in the past that works in your Firefox browser but now I am here to show you 2 more awesome sites that let you play old Nintendo games online in your browser. The first one is Java based and called VNES and the second one is flash based and is called PlayNES.

The first site had more titles but the game play was a little better on the flash site. But hey I will let you be the judge of that.

Next time you get that old school gaming itch you will know where to go to get your Nintendo fix.Thinking about Mario or Zelda yet? How about a little up up down down left right left right select start on Contra?

VNES – Virtual NES claims to be the largest website on the Internet that allows you to play your favorite classic Nintendo Entertainment System games online for free. VirtualNES.com is the official home of, and is powered by, the vNES emulator by Jamie Sanders.

VirtualNES also clams that it is able to provide you classic NES games without trampling over copyright laws. They say that they only upload NES games that they physically own and currently have at their offices. They operate off of donations so if you are feeling for them, cough up a few bucks for these old school gamers.

It might take you a few minutes to get the hang of the controls using your keyboard. But the arrow keys are your up, down, left and right buttons. You have B and A emulating the B and A buttons and control being select, and enter being start. You can see the controls and the legend below for the icons that appear on the game search screen.

If you hit the letters at the top it will take you to that listing alphabetically. I went looking for some Super Mario Brothers and hit the S key. This is what I saw along my way. Games going back as far as 1987. I was in gamers heaven and they are all available to play right here for free! Woot!

They show the game’s name, the publisher, the release date, how many players can play, the rom size and the icons to click on that you saw in the legend two screen shots above. They turn off the volume, show scan lines and shows if the game can be saved. I fired up Super Mario Brothers 1 and ran through the first board but I couldn’t hit that flag pole like I used to! Any one have any tips for me to get my mojo back?

I moved on to a little Simpsons vs. The space aliens which I loved playing in the arcade even before it came out on Nintendo. The controls appear in the upper right for your easy reference during game play

You can also check out these interesting sections of games you may have never seen or heard of:

• Pirate Original Games
• Unreleased Games
• Homebrew Games
• ROM Hack Games
• Translated Games

You can save and load your games just like you could on the actual NES. But you should note that it works with pasting long codes and context menus are unavailable inside vNES. To copy, hold down the Control (Ctrl) key on your keyboard and press C. To paste, hold down the Control (Ctrl) key on your keyboard and press V. To select all text, hold down the Control (Ctrl) key on your keyboard and press A.

Next up to play old Nintendo games online is the flash based PlayNes. This is what they have to say about themselves:

PlayNes.net is an online NES ( Nintendo entertainment system) emulator for which you do not need to provide the games. You can play over 800 of your favorite original games! For Free! Due to recent administration decision we have decided to expand the website to include thousands of flash games too.

Similar to the other site they have a listing of all of their games (here they list some non-nes ones as well) they have ratings, how many times the game was played, an added date and if there is  an online manual which is a very nice touch.

I went right to the L’s and found me a little game called The Legend Of Zelda 2. I fired it up and it started instantly. The game controls are shown on the right hand side while you play. You will see the start button is Enter, the select button is space, A is X and B is Z, Hit p to pause and C to save and l to load.

Hitting the S button will prompt you to which slot you want to save your progress to. I saved mine to Slot 1 and then hit the L key to load it back up. They show you each slot but not what is in it. If you highlight it it will show you a screenshot of where you are in the game. This is a VERY nice feature.

And talking about saving games they also offer save states where you can play someone elses saved game at cool points in a game. For instance play Zelda with 99% completion so you can go and do as you please in the game…

Oh well back to work (hmm but an hour break might be what I need to get my Nintendo fix on!) Do you know of other sites that you can play classic NES games online with? Share them with us in the comments won’t ya?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Play Old School Console Games on Computer (17)
• DeSmuME- Free Nintendo DS Emulator to Play NDS Games on PC (21)
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• Top 3 Sites For Nintendo DS Walkthroughs (6)
• Top 2 Sites For Nintendo Wii Game Cheats (13)

They’re people "who spend their free time (and probably their work time) talking about how great Nintendo is," according to Urban Dictionary, and they’ll defend the company to death.

Are you one of them? There could be one in your life, or maybe you’re loyal to the big N yourself. Where exactly do all these fanboys hang out on the Web? Let’s have a look-see at some of the best websites for Nintendo fanboys.

Club Nintendo

Club Nintendo is a loyalty program that offers members rewards for collecting points.

Once you join Club Nintendo, it’s simply, really. You register certain first-party hardware and software titles by Nintendo and complete surveys. In doing so, you’ll earn Coins that can be redeemed for products in the rewards catalog.

Nintendo8

Relive the magic of the good old NES days with Nintendo8.com.

With an array of classic Nintendo 8-bit games like the Super Mario Bros. series, Bomberman, Galaga, and Contra, no download is necessary. You just play your favorite titles right in your browser and it’s all free.

Learn more about how to play old school games on your computer here.

Nintendo Online Store

The official Nintendo Online Store offers anything a Nintendo gamer would need.

From parts, accessories, and manuals for your system, to magazines, player’s guides, and trading cards, and even toys, clothing, and gifts, the website is a Nintendo shopper’s paradise.

Miyamoto Shrine

Nintendo legend and fanboy heartthrob Shigeru Miyamoto has his own dedicated fan website. MiyamotoShrine.com is all about the creator of the franchises of Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and more.

As for why the website was ever created? "Because we find him sexy" is unsurprisingly one of the many reasons.

GoNintendo

GoNintendo is a popular one-stop shop for all the latest Nintendo scoops and news.

The website is continuously updated, making it a favorite destination to keep fans occupied and happy.

Nintendo Power

One of the longest running remaining video game publications, Nintendo Power is a monthly news and strategy magazine. You’ll have to check out the magazine itself for most of the content, but the website is worthwhile to catch a sneak peak at the latest issues, with sample pages routinely made available for free download.

Nintendo Papercraft

For those interested in paper models, there’s Nintendo Papercraft.

The website offers tons of free and downloadable guides to building papercrafts themed to Nintendo characters and games, including Animal Crossing, Kirby, Star Fox, and much more.

Iwata Asks

"Iwata Asks" interviews give fans a rare glimpse into what goes on inside the world of Nintendo. The big N’s president Satoru Iwata asks developers questions about upcoming games or products, and the whole transcript is published on official Nintendo websites.

Interviews have been done about the Nintendo DSi, Wii Fit, Wii MotionPlus, and most recently Wii Sports Resort.

Nintendo Comics System

The Nintendo Comics System was a short-lived series of comic books published by Valiant Comics between 1990 and 1991. The comics are hard to come by, but luckily, scans of the books are available for free online.

The series featured popular Nintendo characters and games, including Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, and Captain N: The Game Master.

VGMusic

Those classic Nintendo tunes can be heard once again with VGMusic.com. The website’s directory of Nintendo music has close to 4,000 MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files to listen to, including a long list of sounds and music from classic titles.

For more gaming soundtracks, check out the top 3 sites for video game music.

Torrel

A $50 shirt may be a bit on the steep side, but for the Nintendo fanboy, money is certainly no object when it comes to Torpedo Ted or Bomb-omb.

Torrel is one of a limited number of companies that produce officially licensed Nintendo clothing, and their website offers a variety of urban wear, including shirts, hoodies, and jackets.

A full list of other Nintendo apparel manufacturers and their products is available here.

Nintendo Database

With everything from its classic arcade hits to the current generation, the Nintendo Database (NinDB) archives information on all the video games developed and published by Nintendo.

You’ll find titles from the home consoles of NES through Wii, portable systems from Virtual Boy to DS, and even classic arcade and Color TV Game systems. NinDB is a definitive resource for everything Nintendo.

If you have a favorite Nintendo website, be sure to let us know about it in the comments.

Image Credit : GameDaily

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

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Those who’ve been around long enough will be able to recall the days of the good old SNES (Super Nintendo Entertainment System). Teenagers of the last generation might still remember the Nintendo 64 and (who can forget) the GameBoy Advance. These are the three systems we’re going to take a look at today.

If you’ve followed the previous guides, you’ll be relieved to see that emulation of these somewhat older systems is a whole lot simpler.

How to Play Super Nintendo Games on PC

Let’s start with How to Play Nintendo Games on PC. ZSNES is one of the most advanced SNES emulators on the block. Using some special rendering techniques, it can emulate commercial games that are still a lot buggier with the other emulators. At first, this was a DOS-only project, though it’s been ported to both Windows and Linux. Mac users should try out SNES9x.

Once installed, ZSNES delivers a pretty basic interface. It allows the user to select a ROM (an image of the game, read more about this further on in the article; use GAME-LOAD) and start playing right away.

More advanced users might be interested in some further adjustment of the emulator. The most significant might be the video resolution in the CONFIG-VIDEO menu and the key configuration in CONFIG-INPUT. Just be sure not to change anything if you don’t know what it is.

Play Nintendo 64 Games on your Computer

Now let’s talk about, Nintendo 64 emulation using Project64. The Nintendo 64 was the successor of the Super Nintendo. Even though it had to compete with the Sony PlayStation, it managed to stay on its feet. I still remember going to play it at my friend’s, getting pawned at GoldenEye 007. Maybe it’s about time for a rematch…

Project64 has been developed for the Windows platform. Linux and Mac OS X users can try out Mupen64Plus.

The graphics of the Nintendo 64 are a little bit more up-to-date compared to those of the Super Nintendo. This means you might not want to try it on your old Windows 98 PC. If you have a computer with a Pentium III with 256 MB or more, you shouldn’t worry.

Project64 delivers a very easy to use, multilingual interface, which even less experienced users should be able to handle. You can select your ROMs using the File menu, but you can also set a ROM directory. This will enable your ROMs to be listed in the main window (read more about ROMs below). Before taking off, you might want to change your screen resolution (Options – Configure graphic plug-in), as well as enabling full-screen in the basic settings menu.

You can use either your keyboard or a gamepad and can up to four different inputs.

How to Play Gameboy Advance Games on PC

When i comes to GameBoy Advance emulation there is a tool called VisualBoy Advance. The VisualBoy Advance is the most successful GameBoy Advance emulator up to date. It allows the emulation of almost all commercial games in a very smooth manner. The VisualBoy Advance should run on all PCs with Pentium III or up. It is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux.

Except perhaps changing your key configuration (Options – Joypad – Configure) you can start playing right away.

VisualBoy Advance offers a wide variety of extra options, like screen capturing (image or video), importing GameShark files and a Cheat Search.

ROMs

A ROM image is a computer back-up of your game cartridge. You can either make them yourself, using homebrew on your console, or download them. With old school consoles, a lot of games’ patents are outdated, or in a lot of cases, the company doesn’t mind the online circulation of their games as long as no one makes money from it.

CoolROM is an online inventory of ROMs. You can also download the ROMs that aren’t still protected by the ESA (Entertainment Software Association). Sadly, about all Mario and Zelda games, as well as a major part of the GBA games, are still protected.

Don’t forget though, that if you own a game, it’s nearly always legal (laws may differ from country to country) to download it using torrents or P2P software like frostwire.

What are the best old school games in your opinion? Are you aware of any other ways to play console games on a computer? Are they available on CoolROM? Please let us know in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Top 2 Sites To Play Old Nintendo Games Online (16)
• DeSmuME- Free Nintendo DS Emulator to Play NDS Games on PC (21)
• 5 Sites To Play Old Computer Games Once Again (49)
• Top 3 Sites For Nintendo DS Walkthroughs (6)
• Top 2 Sites For Nintendo Wii Game Cheats (13)

I’ve got a WII, and I love it, and one of the big reasons I do is for the emulation. Sadly however, I can’t bring my WII to work or to the coffee shop down the street – but I can bring my laptop, jump on their WiFi and fire up these four awesome sites for a quick old school gaming fix!

VirtualApple (Apple II and Apple IIGS)

I don’t know about you but every now and then I get a craving to hunt square rabbits, hire unfit workers, make them walk too far and then lose three days because I’ve got scurvy. Virtual Apple always satisfies my Oregon Trail fix; but don’t other classics like John Elway’s Quarterback, Crystal Castles, and Max Headroom (don’t lie, you remember Max Headroom).

c64s.com (Commodore 64)

My family’s first computer was the UPS-brown Commodore 64, so this one really takes me back. I even remember “modding” the case to the newer, more angular style when it came out. Yikes. Thrill to such Commodore favorites as Zork, Wizard’s Lair and Pakacuda. The site has all the titles categorized by genre and features screenshots – further underscoring the real graphical prowess of the C64!

Virtualnes.com (Nintendo Entertainment System)

vNes has a huge catalog of NES cartridge titles available for play on their site via a Java-based emulator – 765 of them to be exact. I’ve noticed a few problems with slowness on a few titles, but all in all it’s an excellent place to play old games online and satisfy your urge to jam on Super Mario Brothers, Zelda, or one of my favorites: Ivan Stewart’s Super Off Road.

Playnes.net (Nintendo Entertainment System)

Another big catalog of NES titles, but you’re able to register which gives you the ability to save states in the games you’re playing. You can even open other people’s states – meaning that when your buddy gets stuck trying to battle through the ninjas, you can swoop in, rescue the President, and prove just how bad a dude you really are.

GetBack.Com Arcade

Unlike the rest of the sites I listed, GetBack isn’t strictly a gaming site. It’s kind of a “throwback culture” site. The upside is that they do have several games in their arcade that you can play, like Intellivision Backgammon and River Raid.

What about you? Where do you go to satisfy your vintage gaming urges? Let us know!

(By) Lee Mathews is a blogger who writes to share downloads, links, and tech advice with other slightly frustrated users at Unsightful.com.

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