Changes

The more accurate an emulator is, the lesser deviations there is from real hardware behavior but the more demanding it is. Ironically, that aspect might at times be at odds with how authentic the experience is, when it introduces [[Input lag]]. A similar debate surrounds CRT shaders as well. Not to mention the hardware intensive nature of very accurate emulators for later consoles may be at odds with the emulator's usability, especially with the recent collapse of Moore's Law (in layman 's terms, you can't just "buy a better PC" if semiconductor technology does not catch up fast enough with what it takes for accurate emulation that makes zero compromises for optimizing speed)

 An emulator isn't accurate when it has a large amount of visual and audio glitches and favors performance as much as possible. To work around these glitches, emulator developers typically include game-specific hacks (and prioritize popular games) to skip over problems, such as compatibility issues that can cause games to break. Many times, these emulators will be deemed incompatible with the less popular games. As byuu explains in a 2011 Ars Technica article linked below, "''Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos" '' will soft-lock towards the end due to a specific hardware edge case that isn't emulated in [[ZSNES]] or [[Snes9x]], but is properly dealt with in his own emulator [[higan]] due to his documentation of the system. This can also become very problematic when ROM hacks abuse software errors to create otherwise impossible behaviors to achieve what they can. When a ROM hack can only be used in that one specific emulator, he explains, it becomes incompatible with real hardware (either through a flash cart or printed), and that such an issue has occurred with [[ZSNES]] before and continues to occur with Nintendo 64 ROM hacks.