Though nowadays gamers can choose between lots of expensive eye-catching video games, the representatives of the previous generation still miss console games, so naïve and simple, but authentic and fun. Maybe, some of your friends still try to find old consoles and cartridges on eBay, while some lucky ones blow the dust off their old toys and rub their hands together anticipating much fun. And what about you? Do you want to know how to start playing old-school games without any console and cartridges? In this article, we are going to tell you how to run legendary SNES game on your PC with the help of the ZSNES emulator. So, if you’re ready to take a trip to the past, let’s get it started!

A Few Words about the ZSNES Emulator

ZSNES is considered one of the most advanced and thus popular emulators for Nintendo. The given tool boasts of some special rendering techniques that make it possible to emulate commercial games without lags and freezes, which can be a commonplace on other popular SNES emulators. You can play retro games on your Windows, Mac, and Linux OS.

In contrast to such a sophisticated emulator as RetroArch, which also often used for emulating SNES, ZSNES is pretty easy to use and configure. It has a user-friendly basic interface, where you will be able to select the game and start playing it at this very moment.

The experienced emulator users who likes configuring and setting up their toys can knock themselves out, too. They can adjust video resolution settings or remap the keys to their liking from the Config-Video and Congit-Input menus. Still, we would recommend that you refrain from incorporating any changes into the ZSNES settings, if you are not familiar with the subtleties of adjusting and configuring emulators.

Downloading the Emulator

If you’re ready for downloading and installing the ZSNES emulator on your comp, let’s not waste any time. You can search for the necessary program on the web or ask somebody who already owns this cool thing to share it with you.

Make sure to download ZSNES from reputable sources only. You don’t want to end up dealing with the computer virus infection, after all.

So, when you find the website you trust completely, scroll down the list of the offered emulators until you find ZSNES. Follow the link next to the program.

Select the x86_64 folder if you’re using the 64-bit Windows. By doing so, you’ll prompt the computer to show you the files for this system. Still, if you’re on the 32-bit system, select x86_32, instead.

Select your emulator file to start downloading them.

Once the download is finished, make sure to install the acquired .zip file, which can be decompressed by means of any unarchiver software you have on your comp.

After that, you’ll be required to create a folder for ZSNES.

Copy the entire content of the downloaded file into the created folder.

Double-click on the ZSNES emulator to launch it.

Getting Some Games for Playing on the New Emulator

Now that you have the necessary program installed on your computer, you can proceed to downloading the games to play on it. The games you can run on your emulator represent computer back-up of the game cartridge. There are two possible ways of getting the ROM files for playing on your new ZSNES. You can either make them yourself by means of the homebrew option on the physical console or download them from the Internet. While the former is quite legal, the latter is considered a piracy, since it’s considered copyright infringement to get the copies of the game you didn’t purchase. Still, it’s up to you to decide whether you want to download ROM file for ZSNES in the so-called illegal way or not. There are lots of good sources on the Internet that offer nice ROMs for the emulators. For instance, you can download SNES games on RomsMania, the online source that offer high-quality digital products you can definitely benefit from.

Playing Retro Games on the PC

Finally, you can reunite with your favorite SNES characters, such a Mario, Zelda, or Kirby. All you need to do is to fire up your ZSNES, access the main menu and select the ROM file of the game you want to play. It’s quite an elementary thing to do on your ZSNES. At this very moment you can start enjoying retro classics on your PC!