Are "Emulators" Really That Dangerous To Use?

[Misanthrope23]

I was using one for a while, but I hear a lot of horror stories from some people who have used them. Can they really damage your computer beyond repair?

nope not at all. at least what i've experienced. i think the only "dangerous" factor is the Feds finding you have emulaters/rom and thus copyright infringement. but over the years its become less restrictive to the point where there's a super nes emulater app for windows 8. i watched channels on youtube that blantantly say they use them yet have never been penalized. though if you're looking for one that might have problems stay away from project 64. i think the newer release fixed some problems, but older versions apparently have a virus.

 

[stuff4096]

Could you imagine how powerful a computer's specs must be to use a PS3 emulator!? It must be some tricky.

A PS3 emulator? don`t you think its best to first cross the PS2 bridge? XD

For real though, its a nice idea, but I have no idea how such an emulator would work. Its gonna be at least ten years before such a thing would exists. However, if I would have to guess, id say that nowadays such a feat would be quite a catatonic experience for the average computer, and it would require having a 12 core monster with at least 1TB on the primary (drive C:/), and have a battalion of the latest 6 ATI cards installed in - all of which have the ability house more cards on them. In addition, that computer should be a Mac, and it should be empty at all times, and operate exclusively on safe mode. Only the minimal background programs should be allowed to run. Also, if you do not have at least 10 additional TB`s on a secondary drive (where you put your games, and install the EMU itself), then you have no business to even consider trying to play Mario galaxy lol. And even if you have all that (in addition to at least 10 fans, and a water cooling system built in your computer), the chances of it working more than 10 minutes, are beyond slim. Oh, and did I mention that you would also need a monitor which can support 1080p resolution - and - a 64bit soundcard. Those are quite a hassle as well. Even buying a car would be cheaper than building a custom computer which will be able to run a PS3 Emu.

So... in short:
Yeah I can imagine it. I can imagine that if you ever wondered how to really "kill" a computer with using ROMS, than I believe that running a PS3 emulator on any computer nowadays should do the trick.
And if you want to see some fireworks, try to get it running on an i3. Should be quite a show lol.

Ok. Could you please translate what all that means to computerwhatthefuckese so I'll understand?

EDIT: I just have to say that the computerwhatthefuckese joke is hands down, the poorest attempt at humor that I ever recall posting. I should be arrested for this one.

Its okay, man you wouldn't believe how many jokes ive made today..
could have gotten myself banned lol.

Anyhow. Simply out - if you wanted to play a PS3 game on a computer, you would need a really strong one. A super computer. But in case you weren't kidding all the way.. here:

TB = Terra byte (1000 Gigabyte)
EMU = short for "Emulator"
ATI / AMD Radeon = a brand of graphics processing units.
ROM = Read Only Memory (a media storage unit. The game file you load into your emulator)
Internal Water (or liquid) Cooling System = as the name implies
i3 = third generation processor (its one step "above" dual core)
1080p = high definition video mode (Mostly applied in Bluray)
64-bit soundcard = high quality sound cards, mostly used for production.

What about using Game Genie codes on your emulator? Is that safe?

Game Genie codes are as harmless as the emulator. This is my understanding of how Game Genie actually works. Typically, game data such as number of lives or amount of ammo (or any other consumable item) is stored into a fixed location in memory. The Game Genie code is generally two parts: the memory location and a new value. So basically, the Game Genie intercepts the game's instructions to write a value to a memory location and replaces it with the value specified by the code entered by the gamer. Later, when the game reads the value back from the memory location, it has no idea that the new value was modified. You die in a level, the game decrements your life count by one, Game Genie keeps the life count at the fixed value from the code, the game reads the modified life count, rinse and repeat. This is also why coming up with Game Genie codes is tricky - it requires knowledge of how the game uses memory. In any case, a bad code will simply cause the game to stop working, in which case you can just restart the emulator