General Category > General Discussion
To Repro or to Emulate?
JakeHC:
Hi everyone,
So I'm tossing up two options, I've been emulating a lot of my snes games lately - in particular Dragon Quest 1 and 2.
I've been looking at getting a repro made but I generally choose to emulate for the speedy grinding. I also like owning the original cartridges where possible so I've come to a fork in the road. My options are:
1 - Buy the Japanese carts where they're ranging from $6-10 dollars a cart, get an original and most likely emulate.
2 - Buy a repro which at the most will at least cost me $30 dollars a cart and it's not an original and I'll still most likely emulate.
I at least was thinking of doing it for the cheaper games. Games like Adventures of Hourai High look to be very expensive in Japan so I'll opt for a repro of that.
What would you guys do in this situation?
Arseen:
I tend to buy Repro to play and Jap CIB copy for cover (and possibly manual) making.
shenske:
I buy the original Japanese version with the intention of reprogramming them to English versions. I have not done this to many games yet but eventually i will. I figure i own the legitimate version and it never came out in America its as close as i can get. (I do not offer this service as I barely have enough time to do these for myself).
If the game is a hack I would prefer the game on a cartridge. I feel a stronger sense of ownership when i can actually hold it in my hands. Emulation is basically just a demo for me.
My most recent collecting craze is finding games that cannot be reproduced. "Hong Kong Originals" is what i call them. Basically games that use a brand new mapper that is not present in any other commercially released game. ie: Donkey Kong Country 4 or Final Fantasy VII on NES. Most games are pretty bad but there are some fun ones ;D
sheep2001:
Emulation and digital media in general definitely has its place, but as a collector I need the physical cart. I want to get into eprom programming to do my own eventually, but I just don't have the time.
Just bought a raspberry pi, so will probably use that as a dedicated emulation machine for now. Although, I also just bought a new pc, so I want to build the old pc into an arcade machine for emulation too. So many projects, so little time. lol.
So, I've not really answered your dilemma, other than, buy everything, and emulate it too. 😉
delinom:
I don't see much value in collecting repros. I'd rather have the original japanese game and emulate or use a flash cart to play translations/hacks.