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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One option is the old game without an emulator you need the original hardware and software configuration it was made for. All hardware and software do not work the same way and the game requires what is was made of to work. You could make new compatible hardware too, but it will be expensive and every player needs to purchase the hardware. So quite an impractical and expensive option in most cases
Another option with no emulator is to make a variant of the old game for the current platform, which requires a lot of work and can be made to be identical. You need to repeat the conversion for another game you will run.
Those are impractical and time-consuming alternatives. Instead of making new hardware or changing the code of the game why not create software that can emulate the hardware and software functionality of an old platform?
That way a single emulator can when it is completely run all games from a platform, you only need an emulator per platform not per game. You can write an emulator that works on multiple platforms that can be modified in the future when the system changes. That is more flexible than converting individual games.
There is also a legal reason. If you make a variant of a game for a new platform you will run into a copyright problem if you reuse old graphics and other stuff. You need a license from the copyright owner, how it is possible to get it or if it is needed if the original company no longer exist is not obvious.
An emulator of hardware on the other hand is legal. So you can have an open source project that developed an emulator publicly and people can cooperate freely. The a lot murkier part, getting the old game part can be separated. You can get old games’ legacy for example by purchasing the old game and loading them into your device yourself. A lot of people will get the game in a way where the legality might be questionable but the emulator project can keep away from that
So you do not need an emulator it is just a quite practical way to do it compared to compatible hardware or a new variant of the game.
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