Those that are aware of recent game news know that Nintendo recently got a game emulator shut down. Of course Nintendo is known for being absolutely ruthless, but that type of attitude is not unusual towards emulators.

Emulators are in essence game pirating. Companies hate it and have the right to take action if it begins to impact sales. Most people with morals also avoid it. It’s risky to set up as well because of the lack of regulations. But these issues are not the focus for this post.

I would like to argue that emulators are in fact an often overlooked blessing. Those that have physical limitations often find them incredibly helpful. Game consoles by design are not meant to be tampered with. The design is the property of the company and settings are often limited as well as having hardware that cannot be altered. As someone who has previously owned a Nintendo Switch, I quickly found that I could not properly reach the back bottom buttons. As a consequence, I could not use games that used them. If I was allowed to remap button layouts I would have been able to play, but I couldn’t. I was left staring at a Zelda boss I physically could not beat because of the console design. I ended up selling the Switch for PC upgrades.

Years later I tried again. This time on emulator with a mouse and keyboard. I had remapped the buttons to ones I could use. I ended up beating the boss. Yes, I was stealing, but I now had better access. Access that was equal to everyone else and that the company would not provide.

If I had the ability to still pay the company I would. The problem in my case is not a money issue but an access issue. A huge portion of the population is excluded as it stands because of a lack of representation in the design. The emulator remains a huge blessing in the meantime.