Similarly, console game came in either cartridges or CD’s or DVD’s that you couldn’t overwrite.

That part of the system memory was set to be ‘read only’ so you wouldn’t accidentally overwrite parts of the program you needed to make the computer work. ROM stands for Read Only Memory, and it was the part of early computers that stored the operating system. Speaking of the games, let’s talk about those briefly as well. The emulator needs to mimic a proprietary graphics card, sound card, CPU, and storage system seamlessly. You could actually take that game and run it on your GameCube.Īs you might expect, reverse-engineering an emulator for a twenty year old game console is pretty complex.

It’s creating a software version of the GameCube inside your NVIDIA Shield TV. It works by simulating the individual hardware components.įor example, when you play Mario Kart for the GameCube on your NVIDIA Shield TV, the emulator isn’t changing the game to run on your Shield. But it acts like a piece of hardware.Īn emulator is a program or computer that imitates or ‘emulates’ another program or computer. I mentioned earlier that an emulator is a piece of software. Over the last few years, video game emulators have become popular because they allow us to play older games on modern computers or consoles. Once you’re finished reading this article, check out my article on the best android boxes for gaming to see some of my other top choice!

While the NVIDIA Shield is one of the best platforms to run emulators on, it’s far from the only one. However, there are a few, like RetroArch that will emulate several different consoles. Most game system emulators just focus on one game system. This allows you to play classic games without having to dig it out of your closet, or find a used one on eBay.įor example, if you know someone that owns a Mac computer, but runs Windows on it, they’re actually using an emulator to do it. If you’re new to emulators, here’s a high-level overview.Īn emulator is software that funs on a modern system (PC, or in this case, the NVIDIA Shield) that imitates a classic console.

That’s where emulators come in, and there’s few better systems for emulators than the NVIDIA Shield TV. If you’re like me, you’ve probably long-since sold your older game consoles, but still want to find a way to play those classic games. Whether it’s Mario, Sonic or Lara Croft, there’s just something about those games that brings back the kid in me. I may be showing my age here, but, to me, there’s nothing quite like a classic video game.

Best arcade emulator for mac