Tech N' Tactile

Gaming Without Barriers: How Emulation Creates Accessibility

• Tech N' Tactile • Season 1 • Episode 3

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Gaming accessibility shouldn't be an afterthought—it should be the foundation. Yet for many players with physical limitations, certain gaming experiences have remained frustratingly out of reach due to hardware constraints. Enter emulation: the unsung hero of gaming accessibility.

Remember that crushing disappointment when the Wii's motion controls made your favorite franchises suddenly unplayable? Or struggling with the N64's peculiar three-pronged controller? We've been there. In this deeply personal conversation, we explore how emulation became more than just a way to play old games—it became a gateway to experiences that hardware limitations once made impossible.

For Cody, Metroid Prime Trilogy remained completely inaccessible until emulation allowed him to bypass motion controls entirely. The sensor bar simply couldn't accommodate his need to sit close to the screen due to visual impairments. Similarly, Michael's motor control limitations made certain button combinations physically painful until controller remapping and macro functions changed everything.

Beyond accessibility, emulation preserves gaming history that might otherwise be lost. Fan translations of never-localized classics like Mother 3, preservation of prohibitively expensive titles like Panzer Dragoon Saga, and the ability to experience obscure gems that mainstream gaming history might forget—all made possible through these digital time machines.

We share our most treasured emulation memories: completing Super Castlevania IV during English class, experiencing Final Fantasy VII with its weird PC port quirks, and finally playing through Sonic Advance 2 after missing it during childhood. Each story represents not just gaming achievements but personal milestones—closing emotional loops left open for decades.

Whether you're looking to recapture childhood nostalgia or experience classics for the first time without hardware limitations holding you back, join us for this celebration of gaming's most controversial yet essential technology. What gaming experiences has emulation unlocked for you?

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Cody:

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Tech and Tactile podcast. My name's Cody and, as always, I'm joined with Michael.

Michael:

Hello, hello

Cody:

. And today I had an episode that was near and dear to my heart, that I just more or less like I don't know how to describe this. It's not a rant, it's more like a love, an ode, it's just an overall PSA about emulation.

Cody:

Yes, it's a topic that some people find sacrilege, that it's just a little bit sacrilege, but, uh, you know, for someone like me, emulation quite literally uh opened the doors to a lot of video games that were not really accessible to me and I'd love to get into it and talk about it.

Cody:

If you you've got a PC that's capable or a handheld device or anything like that, and you're just modern gaming just isn't really doing it for you, then I could not recommend emulation enough to any of you who don't know what emulation is. Well, there's certain software out there that you can use to play a lot of your games that you grew up playing, whether it's, uh, there's certain software out there that you can use to play a lot of your games that you grew up playing, uh, whether it's on, uh, you know, uh, sony devices, uh, nintendo devices, uh, oh boy, big red flag there with them and uh, all kinds of other ones. Xbox game boy, uh, atari. Whatever you think of you could, you could play it on your PC and gosh. I have so many memories, just so much that I'd love to talk about when it comes to emulation.

Cody:

And it's not just near and dear to me, like I introduced it to Michael as well. It got him through some pretty rough times, it got me through some rough times and it just it's a big topic and oh, I just have so much to talk about I don't even know where to begin, I guess. I guess, uh, for me, how I discovered emulation was I was fresh out of elementary school and, uh, I was uh in my, uh, I was uh at my school's library and I start hearing Mario 64 noises and I'm like someone brought a Nintendo 64 to the fucking library. That's cool, that's sick as shit. I need to go and play some Mario 64. What if they got smashed or something?

Cody:

And I see this person don't know who the hell he is and he's sitting there playing Mario 64 on a computer with a keyboard and I'm sitting there like like my brain just took a minute to register and I'm sitting just thinking like how the hell? What is he doing? And I approached him and I'm a completely introverted guy, I don't usually do that and I ended up asking him. And you know, it feels like this guy had all the like. It felt like everyone was asking him, cause he was pretty annoyed that I approached him. I just couldn't help it. I was like, how the hell are you doing that? And he's like if you got a flash drive, let me put this on there, click it and you'll play it. And that's how I got the project 64. It was version 1.6.

Michael:

And that was the first emulator I ever played. I think it was one point four, yep, um man, I have so many good memories with that machine, on that old laptop, that you gave me with your your original flash drive, I believe all those years ago when you gave me ZSNES, and project 64 together.

Cody:

Oh the memories yeah, uh, boy, I gave. I don't know why I gave you like I think it's just because the laptop that you had was so ancient. The ZSNES was the best SNES emulator I could get running on there. For those of you who have no idea what we're talking about, obviously emulators have different names. There's different emulators for everything and multiple different emulators that practically do the same thing, for emulators that practically do the same thing, but uh, basically, uh, it's a program you put on your computer and then you have to get games.

Cody:

Uh, legally, of course I don't condone piracy. Sometimes it's hard to get it some, but you know there are, there are ways of dumping your old cartridges to your pc that can't really, you know, get into. It's a lot depending on your methods. But essentially, you know, you back up your games to your computer and then you can load those games onto an emulator and play them. And I will admit, as I was a younger lad in my heydays, you know I kind of sailed the seven seas a little bit. All right, yo ho, the pirate life for me. Everyone's done it. All right, like you know, you get on the internet. Everyone's, everyone's guilty of doing something like that. Eventually it no different. But essentially that.

Cody:

Yeah, my introduction was through Nintendo 64 emulation and, uh, it blew my mind because I had always wanted to play uh, I always wanted to play uh, ocarina of time or majora's mask on and, like you know, I've lost my copy of majora's mask for the n64 and I was like really depressed. I could never find it. For some reason, just where I lived, I could never get a hold of Majora's Mask. And, lo and behold, I can get it for free on the internet if I look hard enough. Don't tell Nintendo that. But but, all jokes aside, emulation not just is convenient for me, like you know, in a big part of my childhood it was a really good, it was really accessible, like it was. Probably that was the best thing about emulation that opened my eyes to. Well, kind of talking about what I'd like to talk about now when it comes to accessibility in gaming, because emulation made a lot of inaccessible games accessible to me personally, especially when it came to the wii era.

Cody:

There were a lot of nintendo wii games that I could not play because I either you know I I sit close to the tv because I can't see and, uh, I couldn't point that wii remote at the screen with the sensor bar. So I missed out on a lot of older games like metroid prime trilogy I could never play it. Uh. Mario galaxy I had trouble playing it because I couldn't point to. You know, shoot star bits, you know, pull stuff or anything like that. Um, it was the house of the dead games, like those cool rail shooters or the resident evil rail shooters. Um, and yeah, just basically, I was able to go through a lot of those games using dolphin and, uh, I can remember a core memory of about 10 years ago. I was able to go through metroid. Uh, other m.

Cody:

You know, a lot of people really have a lot of negative things to say about that game, but, uh, I took the motion controls out and was able to play it with just an xbox controller and, though it had its issues that you know everyone still complains about with the story and everything, I completed it 100 on a normal and hard mode playthrough and had a blast, and I never would have been able to do that with the normal wii remote configuration, like you know, just just, uh, it would have been completely inaccessible to me and I I owe that, I owe a lot to these wizards who put together these emulators. Man like that's all I can describe them. They're just, they're just wizards that's a good point.

Michael:

That's a good point that I wanted to make as well, because it opens so many doors for people that have that childhood nostalgia that want to relive that, however, they have their physical limitations that they just can't use those old controllers anymore. For those who have their motor control um limitations like myself, um, because that's a big one for me personally that I always kind of had to lean on is just the controller. Remapping and the ability to kind of mold your controller and whatever you're using to fit your play style is just a godsend, because the ability to tailor the game to you is so just, it's very convenient and it opens so many doors.

Cody:

Yeah, absolutely I. I mean, have you seen the n64 controller? No hate, don't anyone who's you grew up with it. I did too. I love it. I have the nso uh controller, but uh, just saying um, going back and playing first person shooters on there like goldeneye or uh, perfect dark on the n64 controller. Me, I'm used to it because I grew up with it, but for you you'd be like why the hell do I move with my right hand?

Michael:

What is this?

Cody:

shit.

Michael:

You know how much I hate having to use everything that's either on the right trigger or right stick. It sucks.

Cody:

Yeah, for you, definitely so. Uh, the ability to remap controls on emulators is just so good and, like you know so well, accessible. I mean it's wonderful and I mean I have so many core memories that I could talk about, like so many. So I could say I gave you that flash drive whenever you were Because you had your struggles growing up and didn't really have a lot of friends. So I remember giving you a flash drive and loading it with all of my favorite ROMs and I gave you Harvest Moon in particular, and I know that Harvest Moon the original SNES Harvest Moon is like a core memory for you.

Michael:

Harvest Moon on it, it had F-Zero on it and it also had Super Castlevania 4, of which I also pretty much completed alongside Harvest Moon.

Cody:

Yes, yes, I put all of my favorite childhood SNES games that I grew up playing on there for you, and then N64, I think I gave you F-Zero X. Yes, obviously Mario 64. And I don't even remember. It's been so long.

Michael:

That was years ago. That was years and years ago.

Cody:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Michael:

I still have that laptop to this day too.

Cody:

Oh my goodness, I'll have to dust that bad boy out and take a look at it at some point for nostalgia. Yeah, it's back at the.

Michael:

Oh my goodness, I have to dust that bad boy out and take a look at it at some point for nostalgia. Yeah, it's back at the house.

Cody:

I, um, but yeah, back to emulation, uh like, and even back to Metroid. Like you know, I, I, I remember like a core memory of me is about, you know, 10 years ago I went through Other M and then after that I discovered a fork of the GameCube emulator called Dolphin, that does GameCube and Wii. There's a fork of it called PrimeHack, specifically for the Metroid Prime. You know it works with Prime 3 and Trilogy and everything like 1 and 2. I remember getting Metroid Prime Trilogy and I went through all of them for the first time with uh controller. You know it took away the motion controls and just gave it standard xbox controls and it was my first time going through metroid prime 3.

Cody:

Corruption, because I played through one and two before on gamecube and man absolutely loved it. Like it is a phenomenal game and I never would have had the chance to play it had it been stuck on the wii, unless nintendo, you know, decides to remaster it, which I hope they do. But like, corruption is like an amazing first-person shooter and I and like, oh man, I just I'm so glad I got the chance to play it and the way that I did get to play it, um, and a lot of companies don't really think about this. Like you know, it's something that the big end doesn't really think about, um, which kind of is sad for me.

Cody:

I felt personally like back in the Wiiii era. Like you know, I was the biggest nintendo fan in the world and when the wii came out I kind of felt betrayed, like left behind, like every game that I ever wanted to play. If it wasn't wii sports, I couldn't play it because I had to sit too close to the tv for the sensor bar to pick up anything. And there are workarounds, like you know, I've had friends where they put it like under desks or, like you know, they have it to where you can sit at a desk and, you know, you jerry rig something together. You know, get your thing to work with the sensor bar. But it just wasn't enough for me.

Michael:

I just wasn't able to do it properly and I missed out on so many Wii games up a good point that I was going to make as well with the wii controls for me growing up, because, playing through a couple of my favorite games, there's always those specific, uh, wii games that had their title support only be with the um we remote and the nunchuck. And I always yeah, I always had to make that sacrifice because you know that my dominant side is my left side and I always ever I had to keep you ever say sorry.

Cody:

I had a question did you ever switch your hands? Did you ever like?

Michael:

just put the nunchuck on your right hand so and the weirdo in your left yeah, like I was, like I was gonna say I have to. I had to make that sacrifice based off the game, because I either had to prioritize perfect movement or I had to prioritize perfect um button, um use, depending on, like, what the game demanded. Because either I couldn't control my character worth a shit with my right hand or I could control it perfectly, but my inputs would be not what they needed to be for the response time. So I always had to, depending on what I was flying. I would have to make that sacrifice depending on what I wanted to prioritize more for what the title demanded yeah, man, the wii for me was rough.

Cody:

It was. It was like a lot of people have a lot of fond memories with the wii and like, depending on the game, like there was some games I could play like donkey kong, country returns. I played through that. That was fine. I didn't mind shaking the wii remote to make him like dk roll. I uh completed that game 100% on my Wii. I remember it was Sonic and the Secret Rings Played through that, the Black Knight.

Michael:

Love that game. The Black Knight was a personal favorite of mine.

Cody:

Those games get some shit for it. They are pretty clunky to play but they have soft spots for them. Also, sonic Unleashed on the Wii, but that game lets you use a GameCube controller. Same with Sonic Colors.

Michael:

That's also a completely different game than everywhere else. It's on.

Cody:

Yeah, like I loved whenever a game had controller support. Like Smash Bros, brawl was my most played Wii game, obviously because, like Smash Bros, I love the subspace emissary and then the create a stage feature. Those are the two modes because, like you know, I didn't have a lot of friends. I was good, I just wanted to complete all the stickers and everything in that game and I loved it. Um, that was like my most played wii game.

Michael:

Also, xenoblade chronicles, when it came out oh, xenoblade, love Xenoblade.

Cody:

Because there's a few other ones. I think there was one called Muramasa. It was like a side-scrolling hack and slash beat-em-up. That was like one of them. Also, ironically enough, no More Heroes. That game used the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, but it was more of motion inputs and not IR sensors, didn't? It was more of motion inputs and not, uh right, ir sensors. Uh, that, uh. That game and its sequel were something that I played the hell out of. Those are like the only games that I could technically play, uh, irl on the wii also.

Michael:

Well, kirby's return to dreamland was pretty good too I couldn't, I could play that, no problem the kirby 20th anniversary collection probably was my most played on the week because I played the absolute everything out of that, like kirby's 20th Anniversary Collection probably was my most played on the Wii because I played the absolute everything out of that, Like Kirby's 20th Anniversary me behind with nintendo and stay with you will about the wii u, but I feel like the wii u redeemed itself for me personally, even though its games were not that you know, vast and good.

Cody:

I love the wii u because I was just glad to have a controller back in my hand but yeah emulation.

Cody:

Emulation really saved the wii for me. Uh, emulation also, uh, I mean, there's just so much I can say about it. Besides the accessibility, you got your ROM hacking. Rom hacking is just amazing. There's so many different ways you can play your favorite games. People have done all kinds of alterations to games that you would love, like making the game hard as balls or completely different. There's just a plethora of all kinds of new things you could get into.

Michael:

Whenever it comes to emulation, I always those of you I always love to see the ones that always like change the ui to make it either easier to see or have you have your like range of motion back, because I know with a lot of the older wii titles it was that sensor bar let's be real sensitive to hell and then it was either too specific to control or you had to do too much balancing between the two, which really kind of killed the experience for a lot of people. And there's a lot of stuff that the community has made these days that kind of take that out of the equation and kind of bring it back to its roots of how it was supposed to be, so to speak.

Cody:

Yeah, uh, I mean, I can't recommend prime hack enough. Anyone who ever grew up playing metroid prime trilogy and want to play that again, if you have a pc that's capable, I would recommend prime hack all day. Um, I would just recommend, uh, I would recommend just so much, man, maybe I'll get. Maybe at the end of this, whenever I've run out of everything that I really want to say, I can recommend my top emulators for everybody to. You know, go downloading, go nuts, I, I, I have so much stories and I don't know how I would cram them all into one episode here, but, like, maybe it's a topic I'd love to revisit at some point.

Cody:

But I just want to open the doors and talk about emulation and how much it means to me and how much it has been helpful whenever it comes to making more games accessible to me as a whole. For example, a lot of Game Boy games, like you know, a lot of Game Boy games I couldn't see growing up like a lot of RPGs on the Game Boy games. I couldn't see growing up A lot of RPGs on the Game Boy One in particular that I would love to talk about in the future Mother 3. Oh yeah, probably one of my favorite RPGs of all time.

Michael:

That'll definitely have a spotlight episode at some point in the future.

Cody:

One point when I get this fucker here to play it.

Michael:

I'll go back through it. Trust me, we've already agreed on it It'll happen.

Cody:

You will. Good Now, but that that that's a whole nother can of worms as it is, because that game never got localized Nintendo.

Michael:

Where's mother three?

Cody:

It never got localized. So people came together and localized it for us. So I mean, you know there's technically a way to play it. Um, with your legally obtained copy of uh, the game that you find that you dump and preserve, uh, you can apply a patch to it and go about uh. You know your journey for it and experience a damn good rpg and it only takes like 24, like 25 hours right roughly but yeah, that little rant aside, mother 3 was like a big one.

Cody:

Fire emblem uh, I missed out on a lot of the fire emblem gba games because I couldn't see them. I had a game boy player back in the day but, um, you know, you can only get your hands on what you can get your hands on.

Michael:

So there's a lot of games that brings back another memory that I would love to bring up as well for me. I grew up on an old sp that was sticker bombed to hell, it was cobalt blue and I had, um, quite a few games, um to note that I used to play back in the day, probably the biggest ones that I can remember being Spyro, either the Pokemon, tcg, or there's a lot of different ones. That's just to go through. But at least from my experience, when you're having an old SP in your hand, is how those old shoulder buttons were just right there Behind the hinge of the screen and they were thin, so you had to be very articulate with your presses and, lord, when you were getting into some deep stuff in gameplay and you would flail and you'd either half-press it or it wouldn't register. That was my biggest issue with the old SP was the triggers, because I just could never use them properly when I needed to Right right them properly when I needed to Right right.

Cody:

So, uh, solution is you know, you have a nice simulator with a nice controller that fits your hands properly. You know it makes things a lot easier. I like it, I really do, and there's a ton of ways to play Game Boy games. Hell, you don't even have to do it on your computer, you can play it on your phone. These days nowadays, if you have an android. You got more options there for iphone users.

Michael:

we, uh, we just finally got some emulation and, uh, it's sparse but it's there, but we do have it can confirm right you know, and again it just brings up our universal point that we always say is that we just want developers, when they're designing their game or their title with their parent company or their parent studio, whoever they're making it with to have accessibility be the first thing they build, so that they can build their game around that, so that everybody at the end of the day, once it's released and sent out into the world, so that everybody at the end of the day, once it's released and sent out into the world, that it's something that is welcomed with open arms and not losing your customers all the time with it.

Cody:

It's something I can agree on. I understand that not everyone can cater to every specific disability, but, like it, it does suck when you get a game, especially from the begin, where you're really looking forward to playing it, but because of either the hardware that they have or the game itself, you're unable to enjoy it. Like back to Metroid for me, like huge metroid fan, and, uh, I missed out on two amazing games that you know. Say what you will about other m. I liked it, um, that I didn't get the chance to play until I unfortunately had to go away from their hardware to to experience it, and that sucks. I shouldn't have to do it, but the fact that that option is out there for people is incredible.

Cody:

And, uh, you know, the one real big aspect that I also enjoy about this is the preservation aspect. A lot of these companies won't really preserve what they've got with their games like they won't they. Their games might not even exist in their vaults within the next 20 years because they're always interested in the newest thing that's coming out. And that's what emulators really help with preserving your classic childhood memories and it's not taken as seriously as it should, and to me that's kind of sad.

Michael:

I wish it were because there's so many old franchises between me and you that we've went through and neither had to completely drop, because we just couldn't play it anymore when we were younger and then we, yeah. Being able to just come back and have this wave of nostalgia for our old favorite franchises and actually being able to go through something, legitimately, that we weren't able to as kids is just. It brings back all those memories all at once and it's just that rewarding experience of finally being able to complete something that has been years in the making so, uh, what's a good memory for you?

Cody:

like you know, uh, what has emulation really brought to the table for you? That, uh was, you know, eye-opening, or, like you know, that made you fall in love with using emulators, besides me showing you that flash drive with a bunch of stuff. Because, you know, whenever you were growing up, you didn't, you had slim pickings and you barely had the game. So whenever I would come visit you, I would come visit you. I would have usually bring more roms for you, or you know, or anything like that, uh, probably probably the biggest thing that always held me back um, two things.

Michael:

they're kind of tied to each other.

Michael:

One is always going to be the controller and the controller mapping.

Michael:

Because of my difficulty with my fine motor control and how that ties into the difficulty of the game for me on a personal level, because just having a difficulty be harder because of your controls being inaccessible and it just seems like there's no difference between difficulty.

Michael:

There's no difference, um, between difficulty levels, when you're either on the easiest or the most difficult, when you don't have a controller set up that works for you naturally and you're constantly having your limbs go on fire because your muscles just can't keep up with what your body's wanting to do, um is a really just big one for me. So being able to do stuff comfortably is probably my main priority when it comes to that. Just having the, not have to worry about it, you know, just so I can play what I want to play comfortably and have fun and an enjoyable experience and an enjoyable setting. Another one, aside from just the physical aspect of the control itself, especially when was younger going through um, those games you used to get me on that flash drive probably would be save stating and the ability to either fast forward or rewind as well right, because maybe you you something happened to you and you might not have viewed it as your fault because it's something that you couldn't get around like.

Cody:

You know me not being able to see something and then I fail because I didn't see it. Well, I can just hit a button and go back. You know, I can rewind the emulator and go back and then try it again. Yeah, it could be seen as cheap or cheating, but, man, the way I see it is, whenever you have a game, play the game. However the heck you want to play the game.

Cody:

You know, if, if you're not having fun with your game and the game starts becoming more frustrating and everything like that, then uh, like, move on to something that is more fun to you now. Unless you're playing a game that's designed, like if you're playing a souls game or whatnot like, uh, if, if you're getting the context is key if you're playing a game that's meant to be like soul, crushingly hard, and you're getting frustrated at it, I'd just say come back later, get good and come back later. If you are having control issues and everything like that, the ability to remap and do anything that you need to do is, I think, really important. It's something that I really think that emulators do.

Cody:

Another really good thing to kind of tie that on the bow as well with um controller remapping is going to be the ability to make macros as well oh yeah, being able to assign a button that could either be used to like for turbo, where, like you, could hold a button down and it will rapidly press a button on your uh for you, so like instead of uh so like if you're playing yeah.

Cody:

So, like you know, um, a good example is I have a gameboy advanced simulator and it has an a and b button. Then it has turbo a and turbo b right where I, and I'll assign that to like x and y on my xbox controller, so I can either hold x for turbo a or y for turbo b, and then you know, it's as if you're mashing the buttons as hard as you can or as fast as you can, but instead of mashing it, you just hold down that button and it does it for you.

Michael:

It's wonderful yeah, that's a big one for me because of how, how like delayed my right side is and how the majority of controllers have the majority of stuff on the right side for their buttons and their face Right. Just the ability to be able to do that without having to like destroy my entire right arm is just really good.

Cody:

Yeah, exactly, I mean. I mean it is definitely something that I adore. I love the ability to remap your controls for people who need that. Some games are perfect the way they are. Sometimes you just got to get that little bit of tweaking to be a little more comfortable of game. Like, a lot of games do that but a lot of games actually don't, um, and that's something that emulators fix with the older games, for sure.

Michael:

Mainly toward the old days, yeah, um.

Cody:

I guess you know I've talked about my core memories with, uh, with, with emulators, but, like, what's a core memory for you? Like with emulators, but what's a core memory for you? What's something that you know, a game that you fell in love with through emulation, that you couldn't probably maybe you didn't get the chance to play, or maybe you couldn't play normally.

Michael:

Man. Like I said, my big two from back in the day is always going to be Super Castlevania 4, as well as the original Harvest Moon on the SNES. Those were my highlights of back in the day, because I went through those a millennia of times. Other than that, the only ones that I do have a particular soft spot for would be Mario 64, because I played through that a lot. Hell, I still play through that with you to this very day. I played through that a lot.

Cody:

Hell, I still play through that with you to this very day. Matter of fact, yeah, there's some cool ways to play that game nowadays and there's a lot of ROM hacks to that game. A lot of ROM hacks. Oh, yeah, for sure.

Michael:

So good, A couple of really big ones that I'm fond of as we go back through the years as well, is just going to be MVC2 as as well as I remember MVC two specifically, and then SA one and two, sonic adventure one and two.

Cody:

So Marvel versus Capcom one, uh, and then Sonic, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, um, hey, those are really good, like you know, so you experienced those first through emulation.

Michael:

Yes, later on the line, as we kind of went through the years. Yes, as the years went on after we kind of started doing stuff.

Cody:

Well, I mean, that's awesome. I discovered a lot through emulation. Like, I played a lot of RPGs I would have never even gotten my hands on, like Panzer, dragoon Saga. Oh my God, they want to talk about something obscure that costs an arm and a leg. You may as well sell your kidney if you want to get a copy of one of those games. One of that game in particular.

Cody:

I was able to go through that through Segaga saturn emulation and, oh my god, I loved it. Um, I was also able to experience, uh, parasite eve for the first time through emulation. That's a good, uh, horror based rpg. I got a lot of rpg stories like a lot of emulation for me involved a lot of jrpgs that I just didn't get to play because they were either ass expensive or, you know, you could never find them, and some of them are like mother three. Uh, you know you could never even get here in the west anyway. Um, it just opens the doors to a lot of things that you could play, um for sure another um kind of spotlight when you're talking about JRPGs that we both went through from the early days.

Michael:

For me, the classic, the one and only Final Fantasy 7 you experienced that through.

Cody:

I have a fun story about Final Fantasy 7. When I first played that game, I played the original PC release of it and let me tell you it was weird because Cloud's hair I don't think you. It was weird because Cloud's hair I don't think was blonde, it was like a messed up coloration of his hair. I think he was more redheadish. If I remember correctly, all the music was midified. It was weird.

Michael:

That was my first as I kind of went through stuff. I've always been a big Fire Emblem fan. I've played every Fire Emblem to date. That's always been a big one for me and kind of branching off Final Fantasy as well my personal non-3D Final Fantasy to this day Final Fantasy VI.

Cody:

I agree, you gained my respect there. 3d Final Fantasy for our early days would be 9.9 is awesome. A lot of people give hate to 8. I don't hate 8 as much as I did. I will admit I'm not the biggest fan of 8, but I don't think it's a bad game for sure 8 is definitely not a perfect game, but it is one of the better ones absolutely, I played through.

Cody:

It's kind of funny that you say Final Fantasy, that's how I beat. I practically played through 1 through 10 through emulation and beat all of them on a computer. Um, uh, yet all through I didn't do 12. Nope, it was 1 through 10 and obviously 11 is the mmo.

Michael:

But you know another another big one for me that I remember specifically. I have the music to this game specifically stuck in my head because I believe I, I think it was. I want to say it was two or three that I had on cartridge growing up on the sonic advance series. That music has been stuck in my head to this day oh god, yeah, I loved sonic.

Cody:

So here's the thing. Uh, I was able to go through some of those games through emulation, like I. I grew up with Sonic advance one and then I got three and I never played two Right Like I. I borrowed it from friends but I never owned it and I was able to go through that finally on a GBA emulator, like quite some time ago, and I I hate that I never grew up with it.

Michael:

Right.

Cody:

Cause. That game is awesome. I love it.

Michael:

Another kind of story time that kind of just popped into my brain as we've been talking through these. I remember back in I used to be in elementary school and you know how, back in elementary school days, how you would be able to earn points going through your classes and not getting in trouble or anything, and you would eventually have your electronics day Lord. I remember vividly. Matter of fact, I remember I used to bring my little GBA SP carrying bag with me and I used to bring six cartridges and one of those cartridges that everyone always wanted to take from me was Yu-Gi-Oh the, the eternal, the eternal duelist soul. I think it was I love that game yeah, the original gba yugioh game.

Cody:

Um cannot sing its praises enough I um my one of my favorite emulation stories that I have that I look back fondly on is when I was in high school.

Cody:

Uh, I had my laptop and, being a blind kid, you know, I did everything on a laptop, with a screen reader, with headphones in, so, like you know, no one really knew what I was doing, right? But I would always sit in the back of the class so I wouldn't disturb anybody. And I remember getting all my work done in English class because I was like really good at English and I remember I would challenge myself and try and beat Super Castlevania 4 and we have these large, like like our classes are like really long because we only had four periods. And I remember sitting through English class and going through the entirety of Super Castlevania 4, right, uh, before the bell rang to leave, and that was like my biggest accomplishment. I couldn't play that game that fast nowadays, but back then I was a freaking whiz at that game. Let me tell you that was just a cool memory of going through it on a keyboard, no controller, in the middle of English class.

Michael:

Another fond memory that I had kind of going through school as well is I remember sitting down with a couple of friends one day and I believe what we kind of went through I want to say it was half the game. We definitely didn't do one sit session with the entire game, but it was Mario Land 3 I believe that was on GBA that we went through. I have a lot of fond memories of that as well oh the what is that?

Cody:

super mario advanced 3 or whatever.

Michael:

Yes, like sorry, yes, mario advanced.

Cody:

Yes so yeah, I think mario advanced 3 was. I don't remember if it was super mario world, because the time the names are really, really retarded on there, like they are like, uh, super mario advanced, uh, super mario bros 2, and then there's like advanced, like their names are like long and convoluted, right, I remember I remember specifically there were two.

Michael:

There were two cartridges I had growing up um that I used to bring in that were combo packs. One was a combo pack for spyro that I think had season of fire and Ice on it together. The other one that I remember having as well was it was a combo pack between one of the Mario Advance games and it had the original Mario Bros on it, like the original original Mario, not the Mario we know today.

Cody:

That was on all the Super Mario, so that was on a lot of them, like Mario Advance 1, 2, and 3. And even Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga. They would always have like a little sub-mini game where you could play the original Mario Brothers and fun fact, that's multiplayer Like I think it's like four-player multiplayer too Right. I've never played it but one day I'd love to and that's possible on an emulator as well, you, you can do stuff like that, definitely, um.

Cody:

well, uh, I mean, when it comes to people who don't know, like, about emulators, but they like, maybe they might be interested, uh, I'd like to talk about some of the top emulators that you can go download right now and they work on your Windows. Some of them work on Android and Linux, if you ever decide to make the switch and break free of your Windows chains. But my one that I would absolutely recommend for people is PCSX2. And it is a PS2 emulator. You will need a BIOS file, as far as I know, and all I can say is Google is your friend.

Cody:

Or, if you have a PS2 laying around, google is also your friend. If you want to dump that, google is also your friend if you want to dump that, right. Um, and also duck station, because it's running the same kind of interface as pcsx2, because the one of the, the one of the developers, basically works on both. Duck station is a ps1 emulator and it too, uh, I don't think it actually requires a bios as far as I remember, but you know you can get one, uh, to make it work um yes, that guy's a wizard for gamecube and we, I recommend the dolphin emulator.

Cody:

This thing is a godsend, and not only it's. It's such a cool emulator because not only does it do gamecube and we, it does the game boy uh player connector and it does the uh the internet adapter for the gamecube. I used it to play fantasy star online for the gamecube yeah, and it. It works like wholeheartedly.

Michael:

I played it online and was able to chat and go and do all kinds of cool stuff and it it was incredible if anyone, like me, has fond memories of their childhood going to restaurants like cc's or wherever it was that used to have their own little arcade cabinet corner. Um, dolphin also has a fun little fork it's called triforce to where you can go and go to the all those old arcade cabinets as well and boot those up and play the old ones there. If we're going down the older route as well, the big one, obviously that everyone knows is RetroArch.

Cody:

That one is a little bit more technical savvy. But RetroArch is an emulator front that basically has it's like a giant umbrella of emulators.

Cody:

Right, it has game boy, it has turbo graphics, 16 like super nintendo, uh, regular nintendo, yep, uh, it has like every four based as well, pretty much every 8 and 16 bit system you can think of, in even sega saturn, uh, ps1, um, ps2, like it's all in one emulator front. It's a little bit more technical but it is a it's one that I use quite a lot. Um, if we're talking, if you just want to play some pure Game Boy Advance and Game Boy, I couldn't recommend MGBA enough. That is one that I would absolutely go for. Mgba on computers is incredible, and if you're on a mobile device, maybe try out something like the Delta emulator on iPhone.

Michael:

Yes.

Cody:

And there's also Pizza Boy. Pizza boy, advance that, those are really good too. Uh, you can get those on your phone as well. Uh, and then one big shout out that I would say is ppsspp oh, yeah, it is. It is a psp emulator, and it too is on Windows and mobile and Linux. Uh, that is a pretty big one that I would honestly give a shout out to as well. Another, really good up-and-coming.

Michael:

One kind of branching off of PPSSPP as well would be Vita 3k oh yeah, they.

Cody:

There is a PS Vita emulator out there for those of you who lost your vita or you know just, you know, need to, can't get your vita fix enough. Honestly, 3ds simulation has been coming along. We thought it was uh going downhill, but it uh is doing really good with uh azahar, I believe what it's called. Uh, that one is really cool and basically, I mean, you know it works with 3ds and new 3ds games and is incredible and I guess, really uh. For those of you who you know have used emulators, I kind of want to pass it on to any of you guys. I'd love to hear stories about. You know how people out there discovered emulation for the first time and well, what game did it make accessible for you, like what? Is there any games that you were able to play that you couldn't have played on original hardware? Or you know, just give your emulation stories as a whole in general. I'd love to hear them.

Cody:

You know a lot of people that I've known know, just, just give your emulation stories as a whole in general. I'd love to hear them. Uh, you know a lot of people, uh that I've known think that emulation is legally gray and you know it's. To an extent, they're right, but, you know, I think emulation is a positive thing in the community, especially, like you know, for preservation and video games as a whole. I think that we would be in a much worse place without emulators, so I'd love to pass it on to you guys, wherever you are, tell me some emulation stories. I'd love to hear them, and I think that'll wrap it up for this episode. So, as always, stay accessible and have a good day.

Michael:

Indeed stay accessible everyone. Thank you.