[cc182]

Wicked blog, loved your opinions on both.

For me, the wii's biggest selling point was,....being a Nintendo console, I'd of prolly of bought it nevertheless even if it wasn't a great console.

I'm a huge retro gaming fan, I think the only advantages the virtual console has is, its convenience (download, play, no swapping, no wires), the fact its a good source of retro gaming and easy access, and of course back to the first point, they're all stored in one box,

however, from playing on these consoles for so long, there's a clear thin line for me between an emulated game, and an original.

All of the games on the VC are emulated, of course. Actually take the time to think what emulated means, an emulation! That can be like watching a shoddy pirate copy of, say Gladiator, then watching either the DVD or Bluray original copy, any dirrerence?

Of course thats an extreme example, but is true to some of the games offered, Lode Runner for example (I own the original on my Atari, one of my fav's ever) on the Turbo Grafix it's so poorly emulated the screen doesnt even tune in centered, and theres no way you can resolve it.

Mario Bros is also quite a poorly emulated release, as many other people might tell you,

But, from saying that, Nintendo have done a great job with the majority of the titles, and even the most experienced player would find it hard to pick faults with (Donkey Kong Country ftw!)

I don't know, maybe its me, but you just cant beat holding and original gamepad, be it a nes or megadrive and playing the game in all its glory on stand-alone hardware thats been specificily made to run the software.

All my consoles are stacked around my room, neatly presented away, with all trailing wires tied neatly at the back away from sight, I use a switch and scart box for connection, so its simply a case of plugging in the right power supply, and picking out the game and pad!,

If you take your time carefully creating a good set-up, then there's really no argument over wires/having to connect the console etc,

of course, for some people, in good reason, this might be out the question,


Overall, I'd say the VC is still a great thing to have, people who might not even be able to have access to old consoles can still play some amazing titles aswell as preserving the retro games and reminding people that without those games, we might not even be close to where we are today in gaming,...

so for that I can't really fault it and would say the virtual console is a great thing to have