by Brad Zimmerman

Created on: January 15, 2007   Last Updated: May 19, 2007

Have you ever been nostalgic about the video games of the past? Ever wished you could play that one game you always played as a kid but sold to make some money for college? With the power of emulators, you can once again enjoy those games and many more without spending money on expensive systems and controllers.

First off, you will need some general computer skills, a preferably fast computer with an Internet connection, and a program that unzips files. For your first emulator we will start out easy with an emulator that plays Super Nintendo Games. Now go online and search google.com for "emulators". Click on the first link and then click on Super Nintendo on the menu bar on the left side of the page. Download the program "Snes9x" and put it into a folder in your C: drive. Now unzip the file and go into it. Make a new folder in the "Snes9x" folder and name it whatever you want. Technically you are going to put roms into this file, so I usually name it roms.

Now go back online and search for "roms". Unfortunately, due to copyright laws most of the games you are probably looking for are hard to come by. Sites like romscentral.com allow you to download most of the roms you will probably want with little to no hassle at all. Also peer to peer programs like Morpheus and Limewire may help you find the game you want.

Once you have downloaded the rom(s) that you want to play, place them in the "Snes9x" folder in the folder that you named. Now open up "Snes9x" and click on the file menu. Since you have the files downloaded in a folder in the C: drive, go to the C: drive on the left and you should see your "Snes9x" folder. Open it up and open up the folder with all of your games in it. The games should appear on a list on the right side of your screen. Simply click the one that you want and you should be good to go. If you do not like that way the controls are set up on your computer simply click the "input" menu on the top of the screen and then select "Joypad Configuration". This brings up the list of buttons. If you want to change one, just select it and press a new button your keyboard.

I hope this tutorial has helped you play those games you've wanted to play all those years. Have fun!

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