Table of Contents
I. FAQ
-What are emulators?
-What are ROMs?
-Where can I get emulators/ROMs?
-Is this legal?
-What does "ESA Protected" mean?
II. Installing an Emulator
-Install links for different systems
-Quick reviews
III. Adding games/ROMs
IV. Overview
V. Copyrights and such.


I. FAQ: Frequently Asked Question

Q. What are emulators?
A. Emulators are just what they're called; they emulate, or reproduce, the effect of a gaming console/handheld.

Q. What are ROMs?
A. ROMs are the game itself. A ROM is basically a game extracted from the cartridge/CD that you would normally play the game on.

Q. Where can I get Emulators/ROMs?
A. Good question. Emulator & ROM download links will be gone over later on in the guide.

Q. Is this legal?/What is the legality of ROMs?
A. Well, there are different answers to this question. Emulators are perfectly legal to download, no matter what. ROMs have questionable legality. As far as I know, ROMs are perfectly legal if you own the game respective to the ROM. For example, if you own the Star Fox 64 game, then you can download the Star Fox 64 ROM with no worries. However if you do NOT own the game, then you're supposed to remove the ROM from your computer for 24 hours. I personally download ROMs I don't own, and I've never gotten into any legal trouble, so you should be fine.

Q. What does "ESA Protected" mean?
A. A game being ESA Protected means that you can not download the ROM for the game, period. There ARE some sites that do not comply to ESA standards; however, I probably will not be listing those.


II. Installing an Emulator

Installing an emulator is actually very easy. Most emulators either come with an easy-to-use installer, or they just come in a zip file. If it's installer, just install it to an area of your choice. I usually install it into an Emu(Game Console) folder on my desktop. For example, with an N64 emulator I have, it is installed into DesktopEmulatorsN64

-Install links for emulators
I'm just going to give you some emulator download links, with a quick review of each next to it. These all work for Windows, not sure about anything else.


NES Emulators:
NESTopia: 8.5/10. Never tried this one before(rating from TEZ)
JNes: 8.5/10. This one needs a faster PC, but it's a GREAT emulator
FCEUltra: 8.5/10. Great emulator, and easy to use.

SNES Emulators:
ZSNES: 9/10. Fullscreen/midscreen SNES emulator, and a great cheat searching function.
SNES9x: 9/10. Adjustable size, runs smoothly, and easy to use.

N64 Emulators:
Project64: 9/10. Works great, smoothly, and is overall just the best.

Gameboy(Color/Advance) Emulators:
VisualBoyAdvance: 9.1/10. Sound is great, everything about it is great, the best available. Runs ALL GB(C/A) games.

PSX(Playstation 1) Emulators:
ePSXe: 8.5/10. The best PSX emulator there is, for free. Runs very nicely.

PS2 Emulators:
PCSX2: 8/10. Runs pretty nicely, one of the few PS2 emulators.

Gamecube Emulators:
Dolphin: 8.2/10. Runs beautifully, very few flaws.

Nintendo DS Emulators:
NO$GBA: NA/10. Never used this. Supposedly a GBA emulator with NDS support.
iDeas: NA/10. Never used this. Supposedly one of the best ones out there for the NDS


III. Adding games/ROMs

Ok, there's not very much to adding games/ROMs. Go to your emulator directory(My example being DesktopEmulatorsN64) and make a new folder called "games". This will be where you place your ROMs. Simply download the ROMs and place them in this folder. I am not sure how ISO ROMs(games normally played on a CD; includes PSX, PS2, Gamecube, XBox) work. Here are a few sites with ROMs:

Vimm's Lair: SNES/NES ROMs. All are fully available to download with no ESA protection page.
CoolROMs: Has many different ROMs for many different systems. One of the better sites, except it does NOT have ESA protected ROMs.
RomHustler: Just like CoolROMs.
DGEmu: Has many different ROMs available to download with no ESA protection at all. However, downloads require points.

Anyway, just download ROMs from these sites, and save them to the respective games folder that you made.


IV. Overview

Basically, this guide goes over installing an emulator to your system, which allows you to actually play the game. It also goes over adding ROMs(the game itself) and the legality of ROMs. FAQ Questions are answered as they are asked. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in this thread.

V. Credits

This guide was made by Charlie @ DarkZtar.com, and is copyright there 2007. This guide may only be posted on DarkZtar.com and newtuts.com. If you wish for it to be posted on another forum, PM me on DarkZtar, or contact me at Newtuts , and I will register on the forum/site and post it. All emulators, ROMs, and website listed and/or mentioned in this guide are copyright (C) to their respective owners.