New to emulation, getting frustrated!

[Mr. DNA]

After watching countless Let's Play videos of guys playing emulated games, and eventually realising that the risk attached is quite small, I recently decided to download an emulator. I went for ZSnes, and it's sitting on my desktop working perfectly. The problem is that I'm clueless when it come to ROMS. I have both WinRar and 7zip. I'm pretty much a novice when it comes to everything computers, but I'll try and go through the step-by-step process that I'm using, and perhaps someone can tell me if I'm doing something wrong (which I definitely am)?

1. I download the ROM. I'm on Vista, and a box pops up saying "What should Firefox do with this file"- I choose "Open with- WinRAR.ZIP (default)"

2. The evaluation version of WinRAR pops up, with a window asking me to register. I assume this costs money? (Also, do you have to pay for a programme to unzip your files? I know 7zip is free but you can't use 7zip to open ROMS that are in a RAR format... can you?)

I close the window.

3. The ROM can be seen in the WinRAR programme, in this case Final Fantasy VI.

If I double left-click the ROM, an error message pops up saying:

Can not open file:
'C:\Users\John\AppData\Label\Temp\Rar$DI15.851\Fin al Fantasy III (U)
(V1.0) [T+Ita].smc' as archive'

If I right-click the ROM I get loads of options, (Add files to archive; Extract files to the specified folder; Test archive files etc), but I never manage to find a way to get the ROM playable on the emulator.

I know that I've just posted a load of newbie tosh, but I really have been at this now for a good while without being able to make headway. The really frustrating thing is that I somehow managed to get Final Fantasy V working on the emulator, and I have absolutely no idea how I did it. I need some help, folks! Thanks.

[FatTrucker]

Hi, welcome to E-Z. As far as I know Zsnes will open the files directly from the zip so strictly speaking you shouldn't need to unzip them anyway.

Simply click the emulator.exe and you will be presented with the zsnes GUI.

Go to the 'Game' menu in the toolbar select 'load' and browse to the location of your rom, double click the romname you want to open and the game should run.

If your browser is asking you what to do with a file then you want to 'save as' and save to a location in a folder or on your desktop not open it from its online location.

If you want to unzip files, winzip or winrar should do the job just fine. Both apps should give you the option of purchasing the product or continuing with the evaluation version, so just click the option to continue with the evaluation version.

The easiest way is to simply right click the file you want to open. You will be presented with a menu asking what you want to do with it. Select open with winrar or winzip or whatever program you want to use.

You can either choose the 'extract here' option which will pull the file out of its zip file and deposit it into whichever folder the zip file is in or you can choose the 'extract file' option which will extract it into a standard windows folder with the same name as the rom.

Hope that helps.

[Mr. DNA]

Hi, welcome to E-Z. As far as I know Zsnes will open the files directly from the zip so strictly speaking you shouldn't need to unzip them anyway.

Simply click the emulator.exe and you will be presented with the zsnes GUI.

Go to the 'Game' menu in the toolbar select 'load' and browse to the location of your rom, double click the romname you want to open and the game should run.

If your browser is asking you what to do with a file then you want to 'save as' and save to a location in a folder or on your desktop not open it from its online location.

If you want to unzip files, winzip or winrar should do the job just fine. Both apps should give you the option of purchasing the product or continuing with the evaluation version, so just click the option to continue with the evaluation version.

The easiest way is to simply right click the file you want to open. You will be presented with a menu asking what you want to do with it. Select open with winrar or winzip or whatever program you want to use.

You can either choose the 'extract here' option which will pull the file out of its zip file and deposit it into whichever folder the zip file is in or you can choose the 'extract file' option which will extract it into a standard windows folder with the same name as the rom.

Hope that helps.

I cannot thank you enough! For days I've been scrambling around feebly trying to understand how to play ROMS, and now I understand the process enough to download and play games without a hitch. I've been searching the internet for ages looking for the information that you've just given me. This truly is a joyous day.

[FatTrucker]

Glad I could help.....its a slippery slope from here on in......you have been warned.

[Mr. DNA]

Glad I could help.....its a slippery slope from here on in......you have been warned.

I'm in the initial stages of emulator addiction, greedily trying to gobble up as many as I can without actually stopping to play the games. But then, I've got nothing else to do whilst I wait for my USB controller to come through the door!

[FatTrucker]

Once you get your emulators up and running you can delve into the murky world of Front-Ends (sexy menu's to pick and launch your games from). Here's a link to my current setup HERE. Its about 4 posts down the list, just click on the links for the images.

[Mr. DNA]

Once you get your emulators up and running you can delve into the murky world of Front-Ends (sexy menu's to pick and launch your games from). Here's a link to my current setup HERE. Its about 4 posts down the list, just click on the links for the images.

That set-up is the stuff of a madman's dreams. It would have made my ten year-old self weep with happiness.

[FatTrucker]

Simple (and free) to do. All it really does is launch the games with your emulators, exactly the same as your doing now, it just does it from a nice Front-end with screenshots rather than you having to open the emulator and browse a list of rom folders first.

[Mr. DNA]

Simple (and free) to do. All it really does is launch the games with your emulators, exactly the same as your doing now, it just does it from a nice Front-end with screenshots rather than you having to open the emulator and browse a list of rom folders first.

I see the future... and it involves my playing every game that I've been crying out to be released on the Virtual Console. If Hudson won't get off their arses and release Faxanadu, then I'm going to have to cut some corners! It amazes me that this is the first time I've seriously tried to get into this stuff. The possibilities are so, so juicy.

[FatTrucker]

Yep, once you get tired of revisiting all the games you remember (and all the one's you missed out on) then there's the whole PC remake scene to get cracking with.

If you're based in the UK you should check out Retro Gamer Magazine, released every month and sold in places like WHSmith. I moderate over at their forum and its a fantastic mag for us elderly gaming connoisseurs.