Emulation - some will know about, others would have never even heard of it. A relatively unknown but incredibly powerful method of reproducing hardware behaviour of older devices such as the GameCube, the Nintendo DS, or the original Gameboy. Today, you can emulate these systems on your laptop or even play them in the palm of your hand on your phone through modern software or emulate unsupported systems and older retro video games through emulating hardware. But what actually is emulation of technology, how does it work and why is it becoming so important in the ever-evolving field of technology?
Emulation, put simply, is a piece of hardware or software that allows a computing system (otherwise known as a host) to operate or behave like another computing system (known as the guest). [1] This enables incompatible peripheral devices or software that can only be run on the guest system to be run on the host system. Another way of thinking about it is that emulators work by creating a virtual environment that mimics the hardware of a different system, allowing software designed for that original system to run on a host computer. It translates the guest system's code and hardware commands into ones that the host's hardware can understand and execute, effectively acting as a middleman between the software and the new platform.
Emulators have multiple use cases. Many printers [2], for example, are designed to emulate HP LaserJet printers because a significant amount of software is written specifically for HP models. If a non-HP printer emulates an HP printer, any software designed for an actual HP printer will also function on the non-HP device, producing equivalent print results. [3] This is more commonly used for the convenience of playing older games on modern devices as hobbyists and enthusiasts have used emulation to play arcade games from the 1980s using the 1980s machine code and data, which is interpreted by modern-day systems through the emulator.
Delving further into the uses in gaming, emulation plays a vital role in preserving digital history. Many older consoles and their games are no longer supported by manufacturers, leaving millions of titles inaccessible through legal means. When online stores and servers are shut down — as seen with the closure of Nintendo’s Wii U and 3DS eShops [4] — emulation often becomes the only way to experience these games again. Through projects like RetroArch and Dolphin, communities have ensured that gaming’s cultural legacy can still be explored by future generations. Without emulation, entire libraries of classic titles would risk being lost to time.
Beyond gaming, emulation has shaped the development of modern software and hardware. Engineers use emulators to test applications across different devices and operating systems without needing physical hardware. For example, Android Studio and Xcode provide phone emulators so developers can test mobile apps instantly. Similarly, emulation helps cybersecurity researchers safely test malware in controlled virtual environments. Even cloud gaming services, like Xbox Cloud Gaming or PlayStation Now, rely on principles of emulation to run console games on remote servers and stream them to other devices.
New media art, which are defined as artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies, also heavily benefit from the capabilities of emulation for a strategy of preservation. Cory Arcangel is an example of an artist who specialises in resurrecting long forgotten technologies in his artworks. He states that he “recognises the importance of a decentralised and deinstitutionalised process for the preservation of digital culture.” In many cases, the goal of emulation in new media art is to preserve a digital medium so that it can be saved indefinitely and reproduced without error, so that there is no reliance on hardware that ages and becomes obsolete. [5] The only problem with this is that the emulation and the emulator have to be made to work on future computers.
Despite its importance, emulation often sits in a legal grey area. While the concept of creating an emulator itself is not illegal, downloading copyrighted game files (ROMs) without owning the original copies often is. As a result, a large portion of gaming emulation may coincide with software piracy. Companies such as Nintendo have taken strong legal action against websites that distribute these files, arguing that emulation undermines their intellectual property. [6] Another concern they have is the impact on the game industry and the threat to the lives of developers; if emulation and potential piracy continue to persist, then indie game creators, which are typically creators from a small, somewhat unknown studio (although certain hobbyists tend to ignore this crucial fact when emulating and treat these indie creators as if they are part of a larger corporation), and the members of larger companies whose income relies on people buying these games may be at risk of losing out on their income, especially if it enables widespread and unauthorised access to their work. However, many preservationists counter this by pointing out that older games are often not available through official channels, leaving no legal way to access them. The ethical debate, therefore, centres on whether preserving and studying these games outweighs the strict enforcement of copyright laws.
As technology continues to evolve, emulation will likely become even more integral to both preservation and innovation. The increasing power of modern processors means more accurate emulation of complex systems, such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, which were once thought impossible to replicate. There is also a growing movement toward legal preservation through collaboration between developers and preservationists. If companies can embrace emulation as a legitimate form of cultural archiving rather than competition, the digital world could retain its history for generations to come.
[1] - https://blog.kartones.net/post/emulation-virtualization-and-compatibility-layers
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_(computing)
[3] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulator
[5] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_preservation
[6] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protection_by_Nintendo
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