eli5: Why do we need emulators to play old games? why can’t we just make the games work without the emulator?
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I’ll take a shot at a real ELI5:
Your little 1-speed bicycle works pretty well in our flat driveway with nice, smooth concrete and you’re not allowed to go much farther than that right now. But the family has fallen on hard times and we’re moving to your uncle’s old trailer way out in the woods. The driveway is a rough dirt path with big holes of mud and plants and stuff growing in it. You’re allowed some freedom to roam a bit on the family property, but your bicycle doesn’t do so well out here in the woods. It’s still the same bike, but the environment in which it operates has changed a lot. What you really need is a bike designed for off-roading, but those are expensive and your family can’t afford it right now. Besides, you liked your little bike.
So what can you do if you still want to ride your bike? Well, you can put your bike away temporarily and only break it out when your family is going to visit your grandparents in town where there is nice, flat concrete to ride on. Maybe your friend has a nice place to ride bikes and your Mom will take you over there sometimes. In this analogy, that would be like maintaining a very old computer that can still run the game. You can do that, of course, but it gets more challenging over time and there are aspects that you don’t have control over.
OR
You can ask your dad to help you put some grippy, knobby tires on your bike to help it still kinda-sorta work out there in the woods. Maybe he’s handy and can add some gears to it to make it possible to go up and down hills. Maybe it needs brakes added to it so you don’t slide into a tree and hurt yourself. This is the equivalent of an emulator trying to help your old game work in a new environment that it wasn’t designed to run in.
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