With everything that’s been going on with Sony and, well, pretty much all of gaming this year, I found myself wondering if there’s really any need to keep running on the new release hamster wheel. I mean, I don’t know about all of you, but I’ve only played a small fraction of the games available on the PS4, Xbox One, and earlier consoles. Seriously, there are thousands of games still yet to be played on old hardware, and better yet it looks like you don’t even need original hardware to play them anymore! Seriously, all you need is a PC or, if you’re feeling a bit dangerous, a modded console.

As has become a pattern with posts like this, I want to add a short preface here at the beginning a couple of things. First, emulation is fantastic, but you’re only supposed to engage in it using ROMs (Read-Only Memory files) of games you already own (or, rather, possess since tEcHnIcAlLy we don’t actually “own” our games; not even the physical ones). Second, console-modding is, for both technical and legal reasons, something you take on at your own risk. So please keep this in mind as we proceed here.

Also, I’m not writing this as a “how-to” for emulating or console-modding as there are already a great many sources out there that do a much better job of it than I could. All I wanna talk about here are all the cool things I’ve learned you can do from the little bit of research I’ve done. So, with that all in mind, let’s go!

The first thing I want to talk about is game mods. Specifically mods for old games that weren’t originally on PC. Mods like Super Mario Eclipse, a fan mod project that massively expands Super Mario Sunshine. It adds 120 new shines, tons of new levels, new challenges and new playable characters, all for a game that’s 24 years old! And this is just one example! There are thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of cool fan-made mods just waiting to be played!

Playing this stuff is pretty darn easy too if you’ve got a PC that was made in the last 10 years or so. There’s competent emulators for practically everything older than PS5/Xbox series, and, due to the nature of what they are, they’re all free! A really important one is Dolphin, the premier Gamecube emulator, you’re gonna wanna grab it if you’re interested in trying Super Mario Eclipse!

(Also, getting the game ROMs for a lot of these is really simple, just do a bit of light digging on Google and you should be able to find what you need pretty quick.)

What’s really fascinating to me, though, is console mods. It’s kind of crazy that, with the right tool (digital or otherwise), you can take your old Wii, Wii U, Xbox 360, PS3 or whatever else and turn it into something that can do leagues more than you ever would have thought possible back when they were new. Take the humble Wii for example. Out of the box, it plays Wii and Gamecube games off of their respective discs, and that’s it (at least now that all online services have been discontinued).

If someone were to mod that Wii though, it can do the following and more:

• Play DVDs
• Play Wii and Gamecube games from a flash card or external HDD
• Play game for all systems that predate it, even PS1 games
• Play modded games like AM2R or Super Mario Eclipse
• Use non-Nintendo Wii/GC controllers
• And so on!

That’s pretty nuts for a little Wii, don’t you think? Imagine what more could be done with a Wii U, PS3 or Xbox 360! Also, thanks to all the dedicated modders out there, all of this functionality can be wrapped up in very clean and even fun user interfaces! Seriously, from the videos I’ve seen, the UI for these things looks so cool! It really puts what these multi-billion dollar companies are putting out to absolute shame!

Anyway, I just think all of this is really cool and just wanted to talk about it a little bit. You should check it out too if it sounds cool to you. Seriously, with gaming becoming more expensive and less usable each year, why not have a look, right?

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Have you looked into emulation, game mods or console mods at all? What do you think of them?

Image By Flickr User: Doug Kline