Why emulators make video-game makers quake

Emulators are finally bringing into question the need for their specialized gaming platforms and dedicated gaming boxes in the first place. If every video game console is easily emulated on a personal computer, then what's the point in even having specialized formats in the first place?

Emulators herald the end of the era of the proprietary video game console because they render such dedicated gaming boxes technically superfluous. Emulation programs improve, PC hardware technology advances relentlessly -- and the notion that games must be played on the console hardware for which they were developed is becoming as antiquated as an old Atari game system. Just as information wants to be free, code doesn't want to be restricted to running on a single format. That, not simple piracy, is what emulation is all about -- and it's why the video game companies want to squash it.

Naturally, the console industry isn't going to vanish overnight. Interestingly, though, the latest generation -- and perhaps last breath -- of the proprietary game box looks a lot like a PC. Sega's new Dreamcast, a $250 box due out in the United States this fall, uses a version of a 3D graphics chipset similar to one already available for PCs, and Windows CE as its operating system. The preliminary specifications for Sony's next version of the PlayStation also carry some PC traits.

It used to be that, compared to PCs, video game consoles delivered better graphics and sound because of their specialized chips and tighter integration between hardware and software. Nowadays, as the new video game consoles take on more PC-like features, PCs in turn are catching up to the graphics and sound capabilities of the latest consoles much sooner. And so, while the new Sega and Sony systems both offer phenomenal graphics quality -- on par with that of a computer-animated movie like "A Bug's Life" -- PC graphics add-on cards will likely match these new consoles' capabilities within another year or so. This faster evolution in PC technology is narrowing the market life span for a gaming platform.

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The more PC hardware is able to match the graphics and sound capabilities of an up-to-date video game platform, the more likely it is that somebody will create an effective emulator of that console. Which raises the question: What's the point of creating a proprietary video game platform if it's possible that somebody within a couple of years will emulate it and release the program on the Net? For the consumer, the question then becomes: What's the point of buying a company's video game console, and a library of games for it, when it might be emulated in such a short time?

All of this is pushing the game industry toward a whole new structure. Once it gets beyond the next generation of consoles coming from Sega, Sony and Nintendo, the video game marketplace will probably offer a variety of affordable boxes that all operate on a universal format, perhaps based on and compatible with the standard PC architecture. Such boxes will be differentiated chiefly by the capabilities of their specific components like processors, graphics and sound chips. Essentially, the future of the video game console may very well be a stripped-down, PC-compatible unit designed to play video games and priced under $200.

The biggest winners would be video gamers who, no longer restricted to a specific proprietary hardware environment, would have a greater choice of games to play. Also, some previous gaming platforms used cartridge technology, which meant that newer systems always had a hard time running software for older units. But with the acceptance of CD-ROM and DVD as game media, there's no longer a good excuse to prevent today's games from being played on tomorrow's hardware.

The obvious losers in a universal video game console market would be the companies that now spend millions of dollars developing proprietary game boxes in order to reap the licensing fees. But even if Sony, Nintendo and Sega choose to resist an "open box" video game console format, the programming skills of the emu developers will continue to undermine the incentives to make a new hardware format proprietary.

The fear that legal threats and piracy could kill the emu scene may turn out to be unfounded. In fact, the more sophisticated emulators become, the more likely it is that the emulator developers will render themselves obsolete -- after they've done the same to the market for proprietary game consoles.

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