Gaming@NINA

Hey there, a friend of mine wants to know what an emulator is and what roms are, unluckily i can't explain it correct, could someone explain it here for him?

A ROM image, or simply ROM, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video game cartridge or from an arcade machine's main board. The term is frequently used in the context of emulation, whereby older games are copied to ROM files on modern computers and can, using a piece of software known as an emulator, be played on the newer computer.

ROM images are also used when developing for embedded computers. Software which is being developed for embedded computers is often written to ROM files for testing on a standard computer before it is written to a ROM chip for use in the embedded system. At present, this article deals mainly with the use of ROM in relation to emulation.


A software emulator allows computer programs to run on a platform (computer architecture and/or operating system) other than the one for which they were originally written. Unlike simulation, which only attempts to reproduce a program's behavior, emulation attempts to model to various degrees the state of the device being emulated. High-level emulation uses a combination of the two approaches in an attempt to retain as much accuracy as possible while having the advantages of simplicity and speed provided by simulation.

Source: Wikipedia

ok, thanks for your help, my friend'll appreciate it