Emulating AC!

[michealsmells]

Hey guys! So, even though we have a Gamecube in the house, we don't have the first Animal Crossing and I haven't really come across it yet. However, to tide myself over, I've realized that I can just emulate the darn thing. My first game was Wild World, and I know almost nothing about the original AC. I'm a purist who likes to play on its original platform but I at least want to see the game for myself.

Does anyone have anything they could say about the original AC? Pros, cons, all that stuff. I'm genuinely interested in how it's viewed nowadays.

 

[jae.]

Pros:

• It's a much more relaxed feel than the other games. Some might view this as a con, but it's a great "chill" game.
• No online play so every item in the game can be acquired in-game. Some are difficult (non-native fruits) but the game is entirely self-contained. There's no DLC that was only available in Japan for a small window of time, for instance.
• You know exactly where the villagers will move in. The signs with beginner tips aren't just there for decoration; those are where your villagers will move in. They might not be in the perfect-by-ACNL-standards locations, but you also don't need to worry about random move-ins destroying your trees or gardens since you can't plant stuff around the signs anyway.
• The villager personalties are a strong suit of the game. Once you play the game and get to know your villagers, you'll quickly understand why people complain about the personalities being neutered in future releases. The snooties are actually snooty, the crankies are actually cranky. And none of them act like you're their super special BFFL from the get-go; you kinda have to earn it, even with Normal villagers.
• I personally like the tiered town structure.
• It's more consistent to get jobs from villagers than in NL.

Cons:

• This is more because you're emulating it, but you won't ever be able to get Nookington's. Nookington's requires that you have someone from another town (i.e. a character from another memory card) travel to your town and shop at Nookway. I'm not familiar with GCN emulators and their capabilities, but unless you can emulate a second memory card, create a town on it, and have the second card character visit the primary card town, Nookway is the end of the line for you.
• In a similar vein, you have no control over your villagers because the only way of getting certain villagers to move in and out is to use multiple memory cards.
• Completing the art section of the museum is a bit of a nightmare. The majority of paintings can only be bought from Redd and there's no guarantee that he'll even have paintings in his stock when he comes to visit.
• It's harder to earn bells. There's no island where you can farm sharks and beetles that sell for 15k a pop. Granted, you have fewer things to spend bells on, but regardless you'll probably still find that it takes a long time to earn those bells.
• Your house is smaller and you have less storage space. Your home will top out at a large, single-room main floor, a tiny second floor, and a decent-sized basement. That's it. The only other storage space you have is a couple dozen letter slots in the post office (which are shared between all characters, so you can't make another character for extra letter space).
• "Oh you're looking for the Pokemon Pikachu? I lent that to Mitzi -" who lent it to Cookie who lent it to Rolf who lent it to Freya who lent it to Cube who lent it to Lucy who lent it to Twiggy who lent it to Apollo who lent it to Snooty who's in an igloo today so she won't give it to you, gotta wait until tomorrow to finish that. Don't forget now!

tl;dr: All in all, it's a great game that still holds up fairly well in my opinion. They changed some things for the better, but you'll find a lot of the core gameplay is similar to what you'd expect from any AC game. Unlike the other games with their online play, this is a game that you, by and large play, for yourself only. I still enjoy my GCN town because the slower pace makes it easier to chill out. Regardless, since it'll be your first time with it, I'm sure you'll find plenty of things to do that'll be new and interesting! You'd probably have more fun snagging a physical copy and a spare memory card, but emulating will work in a pinch. Have fun!

 

[kb89]

I'm currently playing AC:GC as well. Using emulation and also the original hardware. When I'm not home I use the emulator on my laptop. When I'm at home I transfer the save file from my PC to an SDCard, then use ActionReplay and GCMM to transfer the save file over to my actual memory card. It works the other way around too.

I'm currently a member of AnimalCrossingCommunity.com as well. A user is helping me get the all the fruits since I don't currently have them.

If you would like to keep in touch and trade items then you can message me on there (username - kb89) or PM me on here.

This is more because you're emulating it, but you won't ever be able to get Nookington's. Nookington's requires that you have someone from another town (i.e. a character from another memory card) travel to your town and shop at Nookway. I'm not familiar with GCN emulators and their capabilities, but unless you can emulate a second memory card, create a town on it, and have the second card character visit the primary card town, Nookway is the end of the line for you.

You can emulate a second memory card. Which would still allow people from allow over the world trade saves and visit each other's towns.