Good NES Emulator?

[hot_pastrami]

My mum has been hooked on Dr. Mario for the NES for years, all starting after we kids moved out of the house and abandoned the NES there. Sadly, her NES took a nosedive recently. I could find her a replacement somewhere, but probably at a greater cost than it is worth for a single game.

So, can anyone point me to a good NES emulator? I've never messed around in the emulator world, so I don't have a guess which ones are the most stable and smooth. If possible, support for two players would be best, but not necessary... she liked to have head-to-head matches with my sister when she got the chance.

Thanks.

[vsp]

For DOS/Windows, presumably?

The one I used for years was NESticle, but according to <a href="http://www.zophar.net/nes.html">Zophar's Domain</a> (a good emu site), it's now outdated. I've used the Dreamcast version of Nester, which was good, as well as a port of fwNES, so I'd say that either NNNesterJ or FCE Ultra (PC versions of the above, linked at Zophar's above) would be worth looking into.

[perth]

nester is a damn good reason to buy a dreamcast.

fce ultra is what i use. not perfect, but it gets the job done.

what happened with the nes? ive got a couple that went kaput on me and i was able to raise them from the dead by replacing the connectors in one case and in the other, by removing the connector, pushing the connectors up, and putting it back in place.

~james

[SteveDallas]

I don't know diddly-squat about emulators, but is an NES really that expensive? I would have thought you could get one for a song these days.

[vsp]

NES units pop up at yard sales all the time for cheap; only PlayStations and Atari 2600s are as common.

The trick with yard-sale acquisitions is that you're hoping you're getting a unit in better shape than the worn-out one you're replacing, of course...

Some of the typical preowned vendors want crazy cash for their NES units, as if they were suddenly rare or collector's items. GameStop, for instance, has a ridiculous $60 price tag on an NES-with-one-game deal; they're actually charging more for an NES than they do for a preowned Super Nintendo ($50), N64 with a Pikachu game ($35), PSX ($30), the newer PSOne model ($40), a Game Boy Color with a game ($40), or even a SEGA DREAMCAST WITH A GAME ($50). Hell, a preowned GAMECUBE -- three systems NEWER and not even two years old yet -- is only $30 more than that...

Let's put this in perspective: For $50, you can buy a used Dreamcast from GameStop... which, with a copy of NesterDC, can play the same exact games that the $60 NES can (with hundreds of games on one disc), and can play the entire Dreamcast lineup as well. (And can also play Atari 8-bit games, Atari 2600 games, ColecoVision games, TurboGrafx/PC-Engine games, Genesis games, Sega Master System games, some Super Nintendo games, some NeoGeo Pocket Color games, many Game Boy/Game Boy Color games, and ports of Doom, Descent, Quake, Heretic, Hexen, Z-Machine (Infocom text adventures), VCDs, MP3s, low-resolution DIVX movies, and even LINUX.)

That, as they say, is ri-goddamn-diculous.

[hot_pastrami]

Well, my folks tossed the old NES, so a repair is out of the question. I just figured that a new NES would cost about $50, where an emulator costs $0... and right now after buying a house and wedding rings and whatnot, my funds are a little tight, so $50 can go a long way.

I'll grab a copy of FCE Ultra and give it a whirl. Thanks.

[hot_pastrami]

Originally posted by vsp
...I'd say that either NNNesterJ or FCE Ultra (PC versions of the above, linked at Zophar's above) would be worth looking into.

Well, I downloaded FCE Ultra and the Dr. Mario ROM file, and it works really well, I think she'll be happy. Thanks!

[Happy Monkey]

Originally posted by vsp
For DOS/Windows, presumably?

The one I used for years was NESticle...

One would probably like to avoid recommending 'Nesticle' to one's mum, anyway.