Quote Originally Posted by rubah
You run them as a program, and are able to load the ROMs of files. As for how their inner workings work, I don't know, but they try to emulator (hence the name) the way that the consoles work. Of course sometimes the older consoles game writers used to use mechanical tricks in their games, which make them difficult to emulate, but people are dedicated.

I'd like to know how people get the roms though. That's what's ttly beyond me:o
That's to emulate, not to emulator :p, Silly wuba. But yes, the program does it best to copy how the hardware of the system in question works, so that the end result is as close to the actual game as possible. Most emulators are not perfect, and you just have to expect a few errors here and there. They are rare on well-developed emulators though, such as Zsnes.

And how a ROM is made isn't too important. You can compare it to ripping a CD, just that you need a cardridge reader instead of a CD reader :p.