Modern games may feature jaw-dropping visuals and solid gameplay mechanics, but old games have their own charm. Although remakes, remasters, and ports have gained popularity recently, most older titles remain locked behind outdated consoles. This is where emulation comes in.

If you're new to retro gaming, emulators are applications that can imitate gaming systems, allowing you to play the games developed for these platforms on unsupported hardware. Emulators usually require two sets of files: the BIOS, which serves as the firmware of the original console, and the game files, which are typically called ROMs. Although certain legal issues are associated with pirating these files, you should be fine as long as you "dump" the BIOS files and "rip" the games from the consoles and disks you own.

While setting up emulators may seem difficult, they're worth the effort as they offer several quality-of-life changes to help you enjoy older games on the latest hardware. You don't need a beefy PC either; modern gaming handhelds pack enough horsepower to emulate a multitude of gaming consoles. If you're still unsure about tinkering emulators, here are four reasons you should start using them in 2024.

4 Game preservation

Without emulators, it wouldn't be possible to play many hidden gems

As next-gen consoles continue to replace the older hardware, there comes a time when it's not possible to access the bygone consoles anymore. Failed systems, like the TurboGrafx 16 and Neo Geo, can be especially difficult to find, and even if the console itself is available for sale, finding a decent monitor with suitable inputs can be a real hassle.

Thanks to advancements in emulation technology, retro games from obsolete systems continue to live on. The game preservation aspect of emulation extends beyond home consoles, with MAME, RetroArch, and other emulators helping preserve the legacy of arcade systems.

3 Save states

No need to worry about reaching the next save point

Modern games let you save your progress at the push of a button and implement frequent autosaves. In contrast, older games only had fixed save points, so it was possible to lose hours of progress due to a careless mistake.

Fortunately, most emulators support save-states, which differ from in-game save points and checkpoints. Similar to snapshots of virtual machines in hypervisors, save states allow you to instantly save the current state of the emulator, including all your progress.

As someone spoiled by the autosave systems of present-day titles, I find it hard to play older games without the save state feature built into many emulators.

2 Extensive modding support

Because mods make everything better

One of my biggest pet peeves with gaming consoles is the restriction on modding. Some ecosystems are so restrictive that you'd need to jailbreak the device and void its warranty just so you could access the debug menu to be able to install your favorite mods.

Meanwhile, most emulators are pretty mod-friendly and even include provisions to simplify the installation procedure for unofficial patches and mods. There's no shortage of mods on emulators, from simple bug fixes to graphical mods that improve the dated visuals of games developed for weaker systems.

1 Better resolution and performance

Who doesn't like playing old games in 4K and 60FPS?

Having spent a lot of my childhood gaming at 288p on my PSP, I was spellbound the first time I played my ripped UMDs at 4K using PPSSPP. Although handheld consoles had abysmally low image quality, home entertainment systems weren't all that far ahead in the resolution department. Most gaming systems released before 2005 could barely render games past 480p!

And that's before we consider the frame rate drops and performance issues on said consoles. The problem isn't unique to older systems either; even recent consoles like the PlayStation 3, Wii U, and Switch can have some performance hiccups when running graphically demanding games.

If your PC is relatively beefy, you can enjoy playing your favorite games at significantly higher resolutions without any FPS issues. Add a patch to unlock the FPS and some graphical mods, and you'd be surprised at how impressive older games can look on a modern PC.

A gaming blast from the past

Whether you're looking to digitize your physical game discs or want to enjoy your childhood games in better graphical fidelity, there are plenty of reasons to jump into emulation. Another useful aspect of emulation is that you don't need to switch between tons of consoles just to play your favorite games.

Since most emulators are CPU-bound instead of relying on a powerful graphics card, you can even convert a mid-tier system into an all-in-one emulation device capable of running games developed for both antique and newer gaming consoles.