I’ve been using emulators on my PCs since the late 1990s. I remember messing about with DOS based NES emulators (such as the legendary Nesticle) on my P100. Yes, they weren’t accurate emulators but they allowed me to play games I previously hadn’t had access to.

And even today, I use emulators like BigPEmu, Duckstation, Project Phoenix, Kega Fusion, etc to do the vast majority of my retrogaming on. And it isn’t because I don’t own plenty of original hardware. I do. I’ve every Nintendo machine from the NES right up to the Switch 2. I’ve the entire western Sega set of home consoles. I’ve got a frigging Panasonic 3DO unit! But emulation has 1 distinct advantage over all of those: Convenience.

You see, setting up my retro systems is a ballache. I’ve got limited space sharing as I do a 1 bedroom flat with my long suffering wife. So I have but a single desk in the corner of the open plan kitchen/lounge. And this means setting up a console is a rare occurrence these days. So i sue the PC that’s sat there and fire up an emulator. It’s quick, easy, and more often than not a perfectly good experience. Hell, in some cases (hello, Duckstation) it’s actually a better experience than the original hardware could ever produce.

But, to a certain sub-set of retro gamers, emulators are dirty. They are not “real” or “proper” retro gaming. The lack the authenticity and accuracy of using real hardware. And I get that. I absolutely love playing Streets Of Rage 2. it’s my all time favourite videogame, bar none. And while it’s fun firing up Kega and playing it, it doesn’t quite fire the nostalgia neurons like sticking the cartridge I own into one of my Mega Drives (A Mega Drive 2 for maximum nostalgia feels as that was the version I owned back in the day). But the experience is more than good enough on my PC.

The games generally play as they should. They generally look right, and sound perfectly good. And this is where the “purists” get angry. They split hairs about “cycle accurate” behaviour, and minor, undetectable to most pitch variances in sound output. Yet in almost no case I can ever think of has this ever made a game feel or play any differently to when I’ve played it on real hardware.

This “real hardware only” purity is a symptom of something I truly hate in any fandom or subculture: Gatekeeping. Thes purists want to try and police the hobby. They want to control who can access it and how they do so. And it’s all bullshit. Me or you playing Splatterhouse Wanpukku Graffiti in an emulator in no way diminishes anyone else’s experience of the same game on real hardware. It doesn’t “cheapen” the experience in any way, shape or form. I mean, in reality it opens up a vast array of games to people that they otherwise would never get to experience. And to me, that’s a good thing.

So next time some Gatekeeper on social media or YouTube starts blathering on about how bad emulation is, and how it’s not the “proper” way to play, just ignore them, block them, and carry on enjoying games they way you choose. Because frankly, it’s nothing to do with them. It’s all aboput you.