Emulation
| |
| Emulation | |
| Developer | numerous |
|---|---|
| Publisher | numerous |
| Systems | numerous, see Emulation |
| Released | 1902-present |
| Added to Museum | numerous, see Emulation |
Emulation is a process by which an application, called an emulator, mimics another device to allow applications to be run on another device as if they were running natively.
Computer and video game companies have used emulators to run applications and games from past systems on modern hardware.
Microsoft
Microsoft provides backward compatibility in its video game console through emulation. The Microsoft Xbox 360 had a custom emulator to play a selection of Xbox games. The Xbox One has emulators to play a selection of Xbox and Xbox 360 games. The Xbox Series X/S has emulators to play a selection of Xbox, Xbox 360, and Xbox One games.
Rare Replay had custom emulators to allow the Xbox One to play the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Ultimate Play the Game games as well as arcade, Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, and Xbox Rare games included in the compilation. The Xbox 360 games used the standard Microsoft emulator.
Nintendo
The Nintendo Virtual Console store, for Wii, Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, contains several custom emulators which run the games offered for sale on the device for which they were purchased, including emulators for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Sega Master System, Genesis, NEC TurboGrafx-16, SNK Neo Geo AES, Commodore 64, MSX, and arcade.
NERD developed the Nintendo Entertainment System emulator used in the NES Classic Edition and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System emulator used in the Super Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition. The Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online service for the Nintendo Switch is based on NERD's NES Classic Edition emulator. Likewise, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System – Nintendo Switch Online service for the Nintendo Switch is based on NERD's SNES Classic Edition emulator.
Sega
The Astro City Mini and Astro City Mini V contained several arcade games. They contained custom emulators and were published by Sega Toys.
Sega released several Game Gear and Sega Master System games via emulation. Master System games were available on Virtual Console on Wii and Game Gear games were available on Virtual Console for Nintendo 3DS. In addition, single emulated Master System games have also been released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, iOS, and Android. Sega released five versions of the Game Gear Micro which had several built-in Game Gear and Sega Master System games played via an emulator created by M2.
Sega also released several Sega Genesis games for various systems via emulation. The Windows version of the Sega Smash Pack used a version of KGen98 by Steve Snake. Sega Smash Pack Volume 1 for Dreamcast used a custom emulator. The Gameboy Advance version of Sega Smash Pack contained ports rather than emulated versions of the games. Sega Genesis Collection was developed by Digital Eclipse and was released for PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection was developed by Backbone Entertainment and was released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Sega Mega Drive and Genesis Classics was developed by d3t and was released for Linux, macOS, Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Sega Ages was developed by M2 for PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Switch. Previous Sega Ages titles were ports rather than emulated versions. Several Sega Genesis Flashback video game consoles with built-in Genesis games were released by AtGames. Early consoles used System-on-a-chip hardware while later consoles ran games through emulation. The Sega Genesis Mini was a console published by Sega that contained several built-in Genesis games played via an emulator created by M2. Single Sega Genesis games were also released for various systems through emulation. In addition to the Virtual Console on Wii, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS, emulated Genesis games have also been released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, iOS and Android.
The Sega Genesis Mini 2 console contained several Sega Genesis games as well as Sega CD games. Like the previous console, the emulator was developed by M2.
