Dec 10, 2014 - The Legend of Zelda and Megaman 2 on the Nintendo Entertainment. Then Windows or Mac OS updates render languishing emulators unstable. Head to OpenEmu.org and click the arrow to the right of Download Now.

For me, Nintendo has always been the gold standard in gaming. I’ve not been without a Nintendo console in decades now, and I’m an enormous fan of the Zelda, Mario and Metroid series (and F-Zero, and Animal Crossing, and Starfox, and so on). With today’s powerful Mac (and PC) hardware, we can rediscover all of our favourite vintage Nintendo games via emulation - and you can even use the original controllers, if you have them. Notes on emulation Emulation of videogames consoles is legally questionable at best. Second-hand consoles are readily available to buy, and you should seriously consider grabbing them for fun and nostalgia. If you’re like me, you probably already have many or all of these systems in your basement or attic, waiting to be used again. Downloading games that you don’t own is definitely illegal, of course, and it hurts the content providers.

The only reason that we have games to play is because people pay for them - so please don’t download ROMs of games that you don’t actually own. It’s easy to buy huge packs of second-hand console games on ebay, often with the actual systems included, and it doesn’t cost a lot of money.

Having said all that, most of us probably have several gadgets (including current-generation games consoles) hooked up to our televisions, and may not have suitable ports or connections to keep old systems plugged in too. It can be much more convenient to play those older games on the ultra-sharp, vivid screen of your Mac instead.

Every previous Nintendo system has an emulator available for OS X, and they all run just fine on 10.8 Mountain Lion. On joypads All emulators can be played using the keyboard and/or mouse, or any generic USB gamepad. Here’s my advice: choose your pad very carefully.

Most older systems used a D-pad as the primary directional input device, and not all D-pads are created equal. RSI and wrist injury are a very real possibility, particularly if you’re not ten years old anymore.

Nintendo spends a great deal of time designing and testing their input devices, and they build products to last. I’ve consistently found that the original official controllers are by far the most pleasant to play with. They can all be used with your Mac without modification, using cheap USB adapters which I’ll talk about shortly. How to save a publisher file for mac. Precision is also important, and the original pads won’t let you down. You’ll find the NES controller’s D-pad to be firm and quite springy, and the SNES to be softer and feel more settled.

Both will give you many years of retro gaming pleasure. If you do decide to use a third-party replica pad (or perhaps even a modern USB pad), exercise caution and see how your wrists are handling it. Cheap knock-offs don’t go through anything like the Q&A of Nintendo’s official pads, and you’ll also almost certainly have to replace them much sooner. (As an aside, if you have any spare official Nintendo controllers for any system that are in good condition and perfect working order, I’d be very interested in obtaining them.