I was looking at buying an old system but came across emulators and ROMs. Don't know much about them, though.

Main reason I was looking at the systems was because I was going to get the Game Genie to use cheat codes.

More specifically, I was looking at the Super Nintendo games from my teenage years such as Smash TV and Contra.

I'll have to double check when I get home, but have used SNES9X for an emulator.

Retro Pi. Not sure how it works with Game Genie but you’ll be able to play a lot of games

I bought a Retro Pi last Christmas. It has every Atari, Sega, Nintendo, Super Nintendo and N64 (I think another system, but can’t remember). If he’s still making them, I can get in touch with my guy if you want. I think it was right around $100.