Due to Emulation, what Gems have you discovered for the first time?
 

For me, using Genecyst (Megadrive/Genesis), I discovered Comix Zone for the first time.

Really nicely laid out, good graphics and very original idea.

What have you discovered due to emulation and thought 'yeah, pretty cool'?

Sensible Soccer...

WHDLoad!!

Well I got a PC and ADSL and that allowed me to download a shitload of stuff.. inc WHDLoad, which I have started a renaming proj with 2 other members :D

The joys of Emu's


Oh and Sonic & Knuckles!!!

not really found any new Gems... but now i can keep them all, as i don't run out of virtual floppy disks.... tell i lie... i got SuperFoulEgg ( a meanbean machine clone )...

but there was so many games i couldn't play because i upgraded to AGA.... its nice to be able to play all those OCS/ECS games again!!!

Phantasy Star IV on Sega Mega Drive. Completed it immediately. This is a wonderful japanese RPG :)

I won't say I discovered any gems through emulation at all. But through talking to people on the net and reading reviews and then thanks to emulation sites I managed to try a lot of gems.

Won't say that comix zone was one of the things I discovered through emulation though. Tried that the first time some time ago in the windows version at a friend and then later found the emu version.

I discovered a lot of arcade games I've never seen before through emulation. Callus was my 1st Arcade emu back in '98 and the first game was 'Knights Of The Round' and I was really excited :crazy ... good ol' days

I discovered many MANY systems which I now own, because of emulating them first! MSX2, Spectrum 128K, Amstrad CPC to name but a few...

I also discovered a bunch of really nice games, like Puyo Puyo!

But I will now say that back then I was possessed by the EVIL lameulation devil and now I am clean of commiting such crimes against the Real Thing Conssortium®

Puyo Puyo rlz!

Me too, have discovered many cool systems I had only heard about. The C64 for example, it may be the most sold machine ever or whatever, but it was unheard here in Brazil (I only saw one in my whole life, and it wasnt working), or the Amstrad CPC. The best thing on those machines was seeing european games that I only had seen before in the crap speccy ports from the MSX. Games like Bounder and the Monty series had better graphics in those systems.

And I also could try for the 1st time the PC-Engine, which now has one of my fav games ever: Soldier Blade.

Also through emulation I could play arcade games that probably were never available here in Brazil, like Armed Police Batrider, Dodonpachi, Elevator Action Returns, and many others. I could also play for the 1st time the arcade version of Rainbow Islands, a game I had only seen in the Amiga before, and a game that I just love :)

Mmmmm let me think. Grand Turismo 2 for PSX. I never had a PSX and the emulators gave me the chance to play this great game. Silent Hill was the second best...

Well, if you count 'em as gems, I discovered funny things like Duke Nukem 3D, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Fighter vs. Tekken, Super Mario World and others for Mega Drive/Genesis thanks to Gens. ;)

But commercial games wise, emulation allowed me to finally play Gunstar Heroes for the first time (I'm ashamed to say I never did get to grab it originally!). Oh, and Columns III and Vectorman 1+2, to name a few.

For me I discovered through emulation two of the greatest games of all time. They are the brilliant "Legend of Zelda: O carina of Time" on the N64. I use the Project64 emulator for this. The other gem is the frankly astonishing "Chrono Trigger" on the SNES. I emulate this using Snes9x. Both of these games everyone has to play. Especially Chrono Trigger. Both games have a lot in common. Incredible depth of gameplay, amazingly complex storyline and both games feature time travel heavily which introduces all sorts of paradox situations. These are two of the best games I've ever played. All thanks to emulation.

Speris Legacy
 

...was inspired by Chrono Trigger

Nether Earth on the Spectrum. Never owned such a machine unfortunately, but this game is just great!

Oh yes, those SNES RPGs.. .I discovered those too, they are brilliant.

Speris definitely looks Chrono-inspired:) That's not a bad thing, though!

Yeah! Chrono Trigger! How could I forget that? :D

Method, Duke Nukem 3D nad Virtua Fighter 2 for Mega-Drive are commercial titles.

I was lucky to have played Gunstar Heroes, Alien Soldier, McDonald's Treasure Land and Yuyu Hakusho all in the real thing. Then, only with emulation, I discovered those games are all made by the same company, Treasure, who also created Dynamitte Headdy and Lighting Crusader, and become one of my fav dev team ever.

I only have a 56k connection. Would it take me silly time to download this ROM? Ive always wanted this game but I aint gonna buy a N64 just for that. Should I bother?

It's an amazing game which draws you in and doesn't let go. I've heard a lot of major magazines tout it as possibly the greatest game of all time. As in EVER. So the answer to your query is a simple yes. Get it right now, it's worth the download if you can find it. Even if it takes a day to download it's so worth it. Be warned though you'll need a fast computer to emulate it. I run Project64 with a 600Mhz Athlon and it's slow in the big outdoor areas. Ideally you want 1Ghz+. Also if you can get it try Super Mario 64 which is another absolute corker.

My PC should be enough to handle it (1.4GHz) and I know how good it as my mate used to have it, ITS BRILLIANT. Its just the download time Im curious about.

Im off to search.

56k will take about 5 to 6 hours to download. Are you on a free connection or do you pay per minute?