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What is the best and most cost efficient way to go about playing the great games of my childhood? Some I missed and some I just want to replay. Crono Trigger, Legend of Zelda, Super Metroid, Super Mario World. You know the ones!
Buying an old Super Nintendo and the games is expensive and not guaranteed to work properly. You know how cartridges are.
One of my friends bought some type of system that came programmed with tons of old Sega games, and I was wondering if anyone knew of anything similar but with the old Nintendo greats instead.
I know that there are emulators you can download, but I'm not super great with computers and never seem to get stuff like that to work. I'm willing to learn though if that's what it takes. If I do that, then what about a controller? Recommendations on what to look for or a specific model. Using the keyboard is in no way how I want to play them.

Thanks for any help here.

You can buy knock off systems that play the originals, they are around $40 bucksish if I remember right. Though honestly, if its a SNES youre talking about, those are probably the cheapest systems you can buy, they were SOOO popular. As for the games, Ebay/Amazon and Craigslist would be where I look. Most games you can pick up for a couple of bucks and the thing with SNES games is if they look in good condition, they will most likely work, that system and its games are practically bullet proof. If you just do some shopping around youll be able to find all you want for pretty cheap, specially going to swap meets and yard sales, youll usually find a box full of stuff.



But Ill warn you now, Crono Trigger is LOLWTF pricey. That one youll either have to get lucky or emulate it.

Google emulator and take it from there. There are plenty of sites and guides to walk you through it.

Obligatory disclaimer that you should only be emulating games that you legally own of course.

When done right, those do work well enough. And Im with Filbert to a degree, some games though, like I mentioned, I doubt youll own because they are so costly.

BUT!

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-USB-Super-Nintendo-Controller/dp/B002JAU20W

This would help you in that vein

I play all of those games on my Wii. You can download games fom NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Turbo Graphix 16, Neo Geo, etc. It's pretty much awesome.

I'm currently playing through Secret of Mana for the millionth time.

Doesn't Nintendo currently sell a lot of their classic games through their online service?

I know that there are emulators you can download, but I'm not super great with computers and never seem to get stuff like that to work. I'm willing to learn though if that's what it takes. If I do that, then what about a controller?

With an SNES emulator, I wouldn't worry about a controller. ZNES for example allows you to bind controls to the keyboard (Super Mario for example could be easily controlled with the arrow pad, space bar, and enter or whatever buttons you find most convenient).

Here's a handy tutorial for ZNES if you decide to use go that route:




And as Filbert said it is only legal to emulate games you actually own (super technically it's only legal to emulate your physical copy but publishers don't seem to care much right now about 30 year old games).

Brazil is one of the few remaining countries that have a SNES for sale.
So you can still buy an SNES!!!!

Also emulators for a SNES work wonders.

CoolROM.com has several emulators, and ROMs for more or less every SNES game ever released.

They're very simple to set up, literally a case of download, extract, done. You might need to configure the controls, but you can easily play SNES games on a keyboard (anything with a thumbstick and you'll need a controller).

There should be instructions on the website.

I've used ZNES for a loooong time, never had any problems with it.
Intuitive, small, easy to find and has plenty of ROMs available on the internets.

You CAN use a controller if you want. I have a USB dual-shock that I purchased for less tahn 20 bucks.

Just bind the appropriate buttons and you're off!

stewy37 wrote:
What is the best and most cost efficient way to go about playing the great games of my childhood? Some I missed and some I just want to replay. Crono Trigger, Legend of Zelda, Super Metroid, Super Mario World. You know the ones!
Buying an old Super Nintendo and the games is expensive and not guaranteed to work properly. You know how cartridges are.
One of my friends bought some type of system that came programmed with tons of old Sega games, and I was wondering if anyone knew of anything similar but with the old Nintendo greats instead.
I know that there are emulators you can download, but I'm not super great with computers and never seem to get stuff like that to work. I'm willing to learn though if that's what it takes. If I do that, then what about a controller? Recommendations on what to look for or a specific model. Using the keyboard is in no way how I want to play them.

Thanks for any help here.

PM me your email, I'll send you the best SNES emulator out there, and it's incredibly easy to use roms with it. I use it all the time, and love it. Secret of Mana and TMNT: Turtles in Time are missing from your list though. I assume this is just an oversight that you intend to correct though.

 Melissia wrote:
You CAN use a controller if you want. I have a USB dual-shock that I purchased for less tahn 20 bucks.

Just bind the appropriate buttons and you're off!

Hell, if you have a PS3 or 360, you can even use those controllers.

http://www.vizzed.com/playonlinegames/

Thank me later

 Fafnir wrote:

 Melissia wrote:
You CAN use a controller if you want. I have a USB dual-shock that I purchased for less tahn 20 bucks.

Just bind the appropriate buttons and you're off!

Hell, if you have a PS3 or 360, you can even use those controllers.

You may have to jump through a few hoops to get those to work though.

Takes about 5 minutes to setup the PS3 controller for the first time with the DS3 Tool, and all it takes is simply opening the program from then on.
And for the 360 controller, you should be able to just plug it in via USB, and it'll work on a Windows based OS just fine.

I had to download a driver for it. Annoying.

As did I, and it was wonky to say the least

Chrono Trigger's on DS now, if that's a help. But emulators are the most sensible way to go about it.

Thanks for all the input. I appreciate it.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
Secret of Mana and TMNT: Turtles in Time are missing from your list though. I assume this is just an oversight that you intend to correct though.

Now that you mention it, I just forgot to inclue Secret of Mana. And I didn't think about it, but I played theheck out of Turtles in Time back in the day.

 4oursword wrote:
Chrono Trigger's on DS now, if that's a help. But emulators are the most sensible way to go about it.

I did see that, but I don't really want to play on a handheld, much less buy a DS for one single game. The Wii option might be a good one though.

SNES controller, adapter for PC and emulation gogo.

I posted a link that has USB SNES controllers for pretty cheap

With all this talk of emulators I am just going to say the only time I ever use them is if a game is in the $100+ price range. (I am looking at you Ogre Battle 64) But one game that I see that is sadly lacking from your list is Lost Vikings 2.

Hahaha, soooo should we just turn this thread in to a list of essential SNES games to play?

 Monster Rain wrote:
I play all of those games on my Wii. You can download games fom NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Turbo Graphix 16, Neo Geo, etc. It's pretty much awesome.

I'm currently playing through Secret of Mana for the millionth time.

I agree 100%. This is the only thing the Wii is good for in my opinion. I'm getting Zelda: A Link to the Past next!