That's true.

I'd personally rather see platforms receive transistor complete emulators and then be able to just buy original ROMs to run on it.
The console manufacturers don't have a say in most of the older games. Anything from the SNES/Genesis era and earlier is no longer under patent protection.

So, the only games they would have a say in are console exclusives for which the period of exclusivity hasn't yet lapsed.

Newer consoles may have some relevant patents though.

A lot of my choices too . I've never played FFT War of the Lions (is that the correct title ? ). Is it any improvement over the original ?

The problem with accurate emulation is that the processing requirements are astronomical. The timing resolution you need to get everything running exactly right needs to be very high...

I'm of the opinion that both accurate and hacky emulation is of value. Accurate emulation is vital for the proper preservation of what will one day be recognised as an important aspect of culture. All the original hardware will stop working eventually and accurate emulation is an important part of making sure we don't lose out...
For realistic playing purposes though, hacky emulators are useful because of said processing requirements for accuracy.


I have a feeling we've had a conversation on the subject of the accuracy of emulation before. ;)

Timesplitters on the PC, that would be utterly fantastic to play on the PC with mouse and keyboard controls.

Chances of this happening are zero.

Well, I really wanted to play Deadly Premonition and it just so happens that my wish is coming true as we speak. Talking about older console games, if there is no official release like with some vintage Sega titles, then there still are emulators that can handle 8, 16, and 32 bit console games just fine.

I would like to be able to play some of the Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest games. I loved the originals on NES and 7 and 8 on PS, but I would like to play the remakes and 9 without having the expense of buying a DS. I've never been a handheld fan...

The really old stuff is just not worth the expense for them. If you want a happy dream answer I guess the original Shadowrun, or Final Fantasy IX, X and XII.

Realistically several console exclusives from the last 5-10 years have gotten really late ports to PC, like the upcoming Castlevania port. I would love to see this happen with The Darkness, Condemned 2 and Red Dead Redemption, which are pretty much the only console exclusives that bother me as a PC only gamer.

We probably have.

The main issue I have with hacky emulation is that it can lessen the incentive to do it accurately. And for uncommon or rare games, they might never be possible to emulate as a result.

But, for anything before the SNES/Genesis, there's really no excuse for not emulating the entire system, things like Ataris are not that complicated.

I though this was a matter of control over the IP, not patents.

Don't they have legal way to extend those well beyond someone's lifetime now?

I mean, the original NES is less than 30 years old...

That's old when measured by someone's lifetime, but barely teens in IP years.

However, I guess owning the IP and the exclusivity clauses are different matters (though the later would definitely limit what the holder can do with the former), but why wouldn't those exclusivity legal bindings last as long as the IP?

Putting myself in their minds: If I was a console manufacturer and had the big end of the stick at the negotiating table, I'd want the exclusivity to stick for as long as the lifetime of the IP.

Mainly from N64 onwards, 3D Mario games, Zelda games and those couple of Metroid (Prime) games.

Deadly Premonition is the game I wanted to play since I first heared about it.
If it comes to GOG, it's an instabuy for me.

Yeah, because it hasn't happened before... oh wait! Sonic Mega Collection, Konami Collector's Series, Activision's Action Pack, Sega Mega Drive Classics, Sega's Dreamcast ports... yeah, chances of that happening are zero. Also for more recent ones, it's not like Viking, Deadly Premonition and Mortal Kombat were ported to PC when nobody was counting on it anymore. Oh wait! But yeah, at least on GOG we can't count on that kind of stuff... oh wait! Raiden Legacy!

Half of those are just running in an emulator