Emulators running Steam games are nothing new, but an emulator being officially distributed on Steam? That's something. And that something is Dolphin, perhaps the best emulator you can download.
Dolphin Emulator has just announced that it plans to distribute itself via Steam sometime in Q2 2023. For those unaware, emulators are basically software that lets you play console games on PC. In the case of Dolphin, it lets you play GameCube, Wii, WiiWare, and Virtual Console games, which is a pretty massive library.
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What sets Dolphin apart from most other emulators is just how well-supported it is. According to the Dolphin site, nearly 40 percent of all GameCube and Wii games run perfectly, and the rest are at least playable with a few minor hiccups. And because Nintendo already updated a bunch of classic NES and SNES games via its Virtual Console, Dolphin is compatible with an extremely large and popular swath of Nintendo games.
We should note, however, that Dolphin is just an emulator--it lets you play old games, but you still have to own a copy of that game first. And it's not just a matter of slotting your GameCube disc into your drive, either. You'll first have to rip the game data and turn it into an ISO file before Dolphin can run it. However, it's relatively simple to find these ISOs online if you know where to look.
And that's largely why Nintendo doesn't like emulators like Dolphin. Nintendo has a habit of re-selling its older library on new consoles, and it doesn’t seem to like the idea of PC gamers being able to play their old Nintendo games without having to pay for them again. Nintendo has already issued copyright
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