How people play Nintendo games on a computer, and why that's probably illegal

Whether or not you've used a video game emulator yourself — and if you have, it's okay, I'm not gonna snitch — it's impossible to deny their prevalence. Since the age of modern computing, people have figured out how to use code to mimic game consoles like NES and Genesis in order to play them on everything from laptops to smartwatches. Sometimes it's a near-perfect recreation of a childhood memory. Sometimes it's a virtual reality "remix" of a popular cartoon fighter (blatant self-promotion) or something indescribably trippy. In either case, it's probably something the game's developer and publisher are pretty mad about. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices