While the rapid march of technology has afforded gamers some incredibly powerful gear capable of some amazing feats, video games have a rich legacy of titles and platforms that haven’t lost their shine over time. A game doesn’t have to match the graphics of Crysis to be enjoyable, and sometimes the combination of simplicity and nostalgia can offer even more than cutting edge software.
For years my go-to source for older games was MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). I was a child of the arcade, spending a good bit of my formative years trading quarters or tokens for a few minutes of electronic joy. While I and my friends loved arcade games, they weren’t the only means of interactive electronic entertainment’ that crown went to the titan of the day in home gaming Nintendo. Now, thanks to a recent article at OSX Daily we get news of a way to relive the games that made Nintendo a household name.
BSNES Emulator does for the SNES what MAME did for arcade games- provide a virtual environment for the original game software to run on your Mac. The emulator is a replacement for the older SNES9x emulator that works only on older versions of OSX. Per the authors BSNES focuses on accurate reproduction of the games rather than performance, and lacks the hacks and optimizations that some emulators offer.
The OSX Daily article offers some tips on how to get the best appearance and a diagram showing the keyboard control layout. If you really want to get the most out of the emulator you’re far better served by a USB game controller than the keyboard controls.
If you have fond memories of the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, BSNES is your ticket to nostalgic joy. Even those that didn’t grow up with eight bit graphics and MIDI music may discover why it so loved.
