They are not only gray-bearded retro gamers who love playing Nintendo games, but also true connoisseurs of original, primordially fun games that were made in the golden era of video gaming. Most modern players wonder if it’s possible to play Nintendo retro classics on PCs. We often hear people complain of their inability to get a retro console, which, according to them, is necessary for retrogaming.

Of course, presently, getting a physical vintage console, especially when it comes to playing NES or SNES games, which may seem ancient relics to modern players, is almost unreal. But this doesn’t make retrogaming impossible! Of course, there is no chance we can insert an old cartridge into our comp and start playing. Still, there is nothing impossible for advanced technologies whose main purpose is to fulfill your digital wishes and whims.

Probably, you’re casually familiar with such programs as emulators, special programs users install on their computers and thus turning them into a retro device. You can also turn your PC into an old Nintendo console and start playing classic titles on it. Though it’s not difficult, but searching for, downloading, installing, and configuring an emulator, as well as getting good Nintendo ROMs, is a responsible and time-consuming process, which requires proper preparation. We’re ready to instruct you in the ways of retrogaming right now!

Emulation Tools

So, as you have understood, a reliable emulator is a prerequisite for smooth and unproblematic retrogaming. There are lots of emulation software offers on the Internet. Still, don’t make rush decisions. High quality emulators are provided by reputable websites that sometimes are not easy to find, given the abundance of online sources offering emulation tools.

Among the most popular and time-tested programs that can emulate different Nintendo games are 80five, FakeNES, HalfNES, MarioNES, Nestopia, Jnes, and many others. Select the one that can best run Nintendo games on your PC (just take minimum hardware requirements into consideration!).

Games to Play

Downloading the Nintendo emulator alone won’t be enough to start playing. Your emulator acts as a retro console, whereas there must be something to acts as a cartridge. The images of the cartridges you used to insert into your old vintage machine are called ROMs. Technically, they’re the same good old Nintendo games, but adjusted for playing on computers.

Nintendo ROMs can be found online, as was the case of emulators. We suggest downloading your favorite Nintendo ROMs from RomsMania for you not to experience any problems with running your classic titles on the emulator.

• Some players are afraid of downloading ROMs, and with good reason. Indeed, downloading the images of the games whose physical versions you don’t own is considered piracy. Still, there is no need for you to refrain from downloading ROMs from the Internet. Firsts of all, try to remember what Nintendo games you purchased in the past. There is a good chance you acquired a good many of Nintendo games back in the day, which means that you have every right to avail yourself of the ROM files of the titles you paid for. Secondly, you can use the Romsmania website, which offers the ROMs acquired legally.

Using Emulators

Installing and configuring emulators vary depending on the type of the program you’re using. Still, in the majority of cases, they don’t come with an installer file, which means that it’ll be necessary to extract the content of the downloaded ROM file into a created folder in your Disk C. Remember to place the downloaded ROM files in this folder, too.

Start your emulator by double-clicking on the .exe file.

Select “File” and “Open” and navigate through the list of the available games. Choose the one you want to load now by double-clicking on it.

Many emulators have external controller support, which enables to connect a gamepad to your comp. Feel free to take advantage of such an option if you want to make your gaming experience more old-school.