Emulate...the act of imitating the large, flightless bird, the Emu. These birds are so badass they evolved past their need of wings and instead God gave them raptor talons for feet. They secured their right to terrorize tourists visiting their grazing lands after defeating the Australian military in what is now known as the Great Emu War. Emulation is often used as a form of intimidation.
Tara's favorite tactic to terrorize the school yard children was to emulate by putting her hands up above her head forming the Emu's long neck and using her downward pointed fingers as a beak. She would then chase the children off of the playground, pecking and wobbling her "neck" at the same time.
by HungLowAsian October 10, 2016
A program used to imitate another device. The most famous types are console/handheld emulators.
Emulators are often used to play games that are no longer in product, but nowadays, they are also emulating brand new systems. Examples are XBox, PS2, and GameCube emulators. While none works yet, all are beginning to play commercial games well while some other commercial games are played well already. However, the Gameboy Advance emulator came out BEFORE the actual handheld did and it emulated it excellently.
The biggest problems with emulator is speed and compatibility. Emulators need PC much more powerful than the actual system it's emulating in order to run at full speed. Also, some emulators tend to sacrifice compatibility for speed or vice versa.
Some notable things about emulators is that you need ROMs to use it. However, ROMs are completely illegal. The rumor that you can own a ROM if you own the original is false.
Emulators are often used to play games that are no longer in product, but nowadays, they are also emulating brand new systems. Examples are XBox, PS2, and GameCube emulators. While none works yet, all are beginning to play commercial games well while some other commercial games are played well already. However, the Gameboy Advance emulator came out BEFORE the actual handheld did and it emulated it excellently.
The biggest problems with emulator is speed and compatibility. Emulators need PC much more powerful than the actual system it's emulating in order to run at full speed. Also, some emulators tend to sacrifice compatibility for speed or vice versa.
Some notable things about emulators is that you need ROMs to use it. However, ROMs are completely illegal. The rumor that you can own a ROM if you own the original is false.
by BusinessMan July 4, 2005
Great computure programme that can play all the classic console game system games from: snes, nes, atari.ect.But it costs you money to get an emulator.(the best thing to do is get a burned version from a friend who has already got one, like I did, lol) It also slows your computure right down. But its great fun. You can change the colours of the games you play. You can play the games with a special controler. You can also get weird versionnof games, like sonario which is a sega sonic game with mario as sonic. It's so cool. The roms are illegal but who cares, no one is gonna care.
by Nereek July 19, 2005
A hardware that permits PCs to mimic gaming console systems for games to be played on. There are many reasons for emulation. Firstly, it is worth investing in emulation to combat against greedy gaming publishers, who want to scam people with micro-transactions, overpriced retro and modern games, DLC, seasonal passes, pre-order bonuses, lack of content, etc. Secondly, gamers pirate games online because they are either poor or games are becoming too expensive in the market, similar to rip-off textbooks that costs about 1000 bucks in American universities and a lot of college students pirate textbooks for free in PDF form to reduce student debt. Thirdly, gaming publishers get careless when they throw away the gaming source code like what they did with the first 3 Crash games and they will only put a handful of retro games on their consoles to prevent gamers from playing any chosen games. To conclude this, emulation makes the gaming world less garbage, to cut down on runaway capitalism, to maintain creativity, and to cut down on corporate slavery.
Without video gaming emulation, retro games would have been lost forever. Gaming discs and cartridges can break down easily over time eventually, so you can't play your favorite Halo: Combat Evolved on the Xbox 360 or Chrono Trigger on the SNES when discs and cartridges freeze constantly. Besides, ROM games online can be downloaded/copied and deleted for unlimited number of times. Even if Nintendo threatened ROM uploaders with lawsuits to shut down a few ROM sites, such as Emuparadise and CoolRoms, there are other ROM sites, scattering everywhere on the internet. As long as the ROM community still lives, there will always be new sites popping up. The ROM community existed for a few decades. Gaming companies will never stop the technological progression of emulation on the internet.
If gaming companies want us to buy their modern games, then they should bring back demos of all games. Moreover, games should be way cheaper as 10-to-20 dollars, depending on the condition of the game. Games shouldn't have any micro-transactions, overpriced retro and modern games, DLC, seasonal passes, pre-order bonuses, lack of content, bugs/glitches, etc. Finally, all retro games that cost about 3 bucks or less, should be in stores to mix together with modern games to draw in more consumers, so it won't be so difficult to find them anymore in stores and there would be less pirating.
If gaming companies want us to buy their modern games, then they should bring back demos of all games. Moreover, games should be way cheaper as 10-to-20 dollars, depending on the condition of the game. Games shouldn't have any micro-transactions, overpriced retro and modern games, DLC, seasonal passes, pre-order bonuses, lack of content, bugs/glitches, etc. Finally, all retro games that cost about 3 bucks or less, should be in stores to mix together with modern games to draw in more consumers, so it won't be so difficult to find them anymore in stores and there would be less pirating.
by TheUnknown21 January 27, 2020
Programs people use to play illegal copies of console games (ROMs), which are usually obtained through a file-sharing program of some sort.
by Vyryn May 25, 2004
A drunk/stoned way of calling a person emo (person with long black hair with one white strip in the middle, usually has scratches on his arms). This is only funny when you're drunk.
by seripap March 5, 2007