Tuesday, October 9, 2007

As part of a grade in a class toward a library certification, I had students compose Web2.0 assignments. This assignment was done by Julie Lord

Assignment #176

Video Game Emulators

I'm sure you remember the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, also known as the SNES. It was quite popular in the 90's after the Nintendo Entertainment System (Also known as NES) became out-of-date.

You can download the "System" itself onto your computer. This System is called an "Emulator". There are different types of Emulators for the
SNES, but I've found that the program ZSNES works best. You can download this emulator at http://www.zsnes.com . When you are at the ZSNES
website, you will notice on the left, a box with the title ZSNES Blip. Within the box, you will see the "Latest Version", which should be 1.51.
Now download the appropriate operating system you are using, from Windows, to Linux, or even DOS. When the file is done downloading, it'll
be in a Zip file, located wherever you saved the destination to.

Now you can simply Unzip the file titled "zsnesw151.zip". Unzip the file to whatever folder you'd like to place it into. I made my own subfolder
within my "My Documents" folder. If you run the program right now (zsnesw.exe), you won't be able to play any games just yet, however, you
can customize the window size to fit your screen by setting its resolution in the "Config" tab, then choose "Video". A list of
resolutions will pop up and you have to choose the appropriate one. Now, to configue buttons for the emulator, you can locate it at "Config" tab,
again, and click on "Input". From here, you can see what the buttons are to press, or even reassign them to new buttons.

Now, to download games for the ZSNES program, you can go to http://www.coolrom.com . "ROM's" are what the "Games" are called for all
Emulators. There are many types of emulators. You can find emulators for SNES, NES, Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, Playstation, Gameboy, and
many, MANY more. For my project, however, I'm showing you the SNES emulator and it's games (ROMs). Now, at the http://www.coolrom.com
website, to find ROM's for the ZSNES, click on the "ROM Files" tab on top. It'll take you to a list of Emulators. The emulator we're looking
for is "Super Nintendo", so find it in the list provided, and click the link.

From here, it'll take you to a whole list, categorized Alphabetically. If you've played the SNES before, you can look for your favorite game
you remember, and simply click on it. If you are not familiar with the Super Nintendo, then I would suggest clicking on the "F" tab and then to
scroll down and look for "Final Fantasy III". When you find the link, click on it. It will take you to a new page, where you will have to wait
for about 15 seconds for the site to get the ROM ready for download. When the 15 seconds have passed, there should appear a button that says
"Download Your File". Click on the button and save the file to wherever you'd like it to go. Again, this file also comes as a ZIP file, just as
the Emulator did.

When the file is downloaded and complete, find it on your computer wherever you saved it to. Unzip the Final Fantasy III.zip file and place
the "Final Fantasy III.smc" file into your ZSNES folder. When this is done, you can turn on the ZSNES program. Go to the "Game" tab and click
on "Load". It'll open a new window within the emulator, where you can search for the Final Fantasy III.smc; However, the ZSNES should be able
to detect any ROM's you've downloaded and placed into the ZSNES folder. Find the ROM you would like to play, click on it and highlight it. On
the lower right side should be a "Load" button. Click it and enjoy the game.

Play!!

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