With the blazing speed of today's computers it is possible to write a program that simulates an entire microprocessor: inputs, outputs and timing. If a program is written that simulates the right collection of processors, for example, all the chips in an Atari 2600 game system, you have an emulation of a computer (or videogame) system. The computers and gaming systems of years gone by often still have a large base of fans, generally ex-users, and those fans have kept the systems and software alive. If you can think of an old system there is probably an emulator for it out there now, or one in the works. There has been an enormous surge of interest in emulators recently, and I'm pretty happy about it.

Do you have fond memories of these dinosaurs of the information age? I do. My first exposure was to "Sears" Pong, which was Atari Pong with a different logo on the case. Then came the Atari 2600. My Dad bought one and placed me firmly on the path to video game addiction. Thanks, Dad. I didn't own an Intellivision or a ColecoVision, but I had friends who did, and, boy, did we play. I missed out on the Nintendo years, but by that time I owned my own Atari 600XL...now that was a computer. An Atari 520ST and an Atari 1040ST saw me through University. Now, by this time, video games and computers had taken dramatically different evolutionary paths. I didn't own any of the new generation of video game systems, but I had one friend who owned all of them. (Actully, not all of them, but most of them. You know who you are, bud.) I bought myself an Intel based PC, and used it for mostly "serious" things (though there was the occasional good game available).

Meanwhile, I continued to play games. Super Nintendo. Sega Genesis. Atari Jaguar. 3DO. Sony PlayStation. Sega Saturn. Nintendo 64. May the games continue forever. We're seeing an interesting convergence of high-end computer hardware and high-end video game hardware. Will they be one and the same again? Stay tuned and find out.

Emulators and Info
	Atari 2600	The mother of all home video game systems (barring Pong).
	Atari 8-Bit	The daughters of the mother of all home video game systems, this family of Atari computers started with the 400 and the 800, and progressed through many flavours, the XL line, the XE line, and even the 5200 game system.
	Arcade Games	Ahh, arcade games. Much evolved today, but some would argue that in their early years they were at least as entertaining as todays megadose of fighting/driving games, if not moreso.

Related Links
	Atmospherial Heights	Currently my favorite page in the emulation scene. Cool graphics and great content. Here's a link to the Atmospherical Heights M.A.M.E. Page.
	Dave's Video Game Classics	Dave sounds like a man after my own heart. He keeps us current on information spanning the emulation scene, from consoles to computers, updating his pages daily at least.
	Archaic Ruins	What is the mysterious connection between Archaic Ruins and Damaged Cybernetics? Who can say? The latter is no more, but Archaic Ruins lives.
	Chemical Distortions	The Page Formerly Known As Alternate Reality. (TPFKAAR) Info on emulators and gaming in general. If you can get it to load...appears to be a 386 on a 2400 baud modem. Like molasses.
	Emulators (1)	A set of pages dedicated to software emulators running on PCs. Links galore. Last updated in August of 1997. An excellent place for a comprehensive overview of the emulation scene.
	Computer History and Emulation Homepage	A plethora of information about the history of computers, processors and the companies that made them. Want to find out about the Motorola 6502? Start here. (Or check out Motorola )!