FAQs

What is Emulation?

Emulation is the process of simulating the hardware of one machine on another machine, 
so that the second machine is able to run software made for the first machine.
The most popular form of emulation is video-game emulation.  Usually when someone wants
to play old NES, SNES, Genesis, Arcade, Atari, etc.. games on their PC. 
It is also possible to emulator other computer systems, such as amiga, PC, and macintosh, along with
calculators, and newer systems such as N64 and Playstation.

What is an emulator?

An emulator is a program used to emulate the system you are trying to use. An emulator is the system and a rom is the game you want to play. This program allows you to run games that is designed for another system, such as NES, SNES, Genesis, etc.

What are the games?

Games in emulation are known as ROMs (Read Only Memory), because of the ROM chips 
they are stored on inside the cartridges.

What is a rom?

A rom is basically the game you want to play. They are copied from the original cartridge. You run the rom in your emulator just like you would run your cart in your SNES system.

How do I run an emulator?

If you are a windows user most emulator just let you drag the rom file onto the emu program file and it runs it for you. A lot of emulators also have a Graphical User Interface which is a menu that lets you run the rom files from the emulator itself.

Why doesn't this ROM work with this emulator?

Certain emulators run certain ROMs better, depending on its compatibility issue with it. Try running the ROM with different emulators. If the ROM still doesn't work, it's most likely that it's corrupt (not playable).

Where can I find these emulators and roms?

You can find these games right here at ROM World. There are certain rules you must adhere to, but please read our disclaimer for that.

What SNES emulator do you recommend?

ZSNES is my favorite, it runs most snes roms and has a graphical user interface. It is good for snes emulation because of its customizable video and sound options.

What Genesis emulator do you recommend?

Gens is my favorite, KGEN is a close second, although there may be new ones with better compatibility

What NES emulator do you recommend?

Nesticle is my favorite, although there may be newer ones with better compatibility.

What Master System emulator do you recommend?

Meka is my favorite.

Where can I find the "*Anything*" ROM for "*Any system* "?

ROM World has many emulators and roms for many different systems.

Is there an emulator for 3DO?

None that I know of.

What is a Frontend?

A frontend is a program that lets you setup all settings in an emulator before you run it. It will really help you get things running the way you want them. If you are running a DOS emulator without a GUI, a Frontend can be a real big help if you don't know DOS well.