So, if anyone was following my threads a few weeks ago, I asked for suggestions on new laptop, well i had it for awhile now, i like it. Don't make fun of how bad or low end it is compared to yours, is not a crotch measuring contest, i'm glad i have it now for what i wanted to do, it works. I never want to buy HP brand stuff again, unless i see improvements like NVIDIA GEFORCE GPU or fixing their drivers and less bloatware.
Anyway enough about that, now this is about emulators and how i will go about using it on my new pc. So far i managed to try a few. For example, I now use SNES9X, before i used to have zsnes. Yes i know is a old as the dirt under behind your grandpa's ears, but it works and is lightweight, no need for extensive hardware power, is simple and any toaster from probably the last 2 decades can run it with no problem. Most of the reason why i now use snes9x, was cause it now has support for msu-1 which is some custom programming that takes advantages of some impressive features, if i wanted to be noob friendly of how i describe it, is probably close enough to just say "Is what the snes playstation console that could have been back when sony and nintendo was planning it." It basically allows for expanded storage of data to do things like video play back and live recorded music instead of standard chiptune music when playing games. Google some youtube videos if you wanna know what i mean.
Second reason was cause of a newly added filter zsnes doesn't have, usually i would use a emulator with a HQX filter, which is supposed to use a smart pixel blending feature to smooth out sprite pixelation, to perhaps make it look a bit more pleasing and less sharp on HD screens, i used zsnes with HQX4 filter. Snes9x has XBRZ filter, which is supposed to further improve over the HQX and not only does it improve the HQX but goes up to a scale of 6X rather than just 4X, So probably the only two reason i see to have moved, since i'm now more confident my pc can handle it. Probably not many people here who like retro games would use these filters, but i appreciate them.
Next i have what i always been using, Kega fusion, this emulator is a multipurpose system because it emulates every sega system made right before saturn, sg-1000, sg-3000, sega master system, sega genesis/megadrive, sega/mega cd, sega 32X and game gear, everything before saturn came out all with what seem flawless and perfect accuracy. (Doesn't include arcade boards) There is only a few games it may not play well, game gear golden axe doesn't work on the latest version of kega fusion, so a older one would need to play that speciffically, as well as some roms with file size over 5MB. So far Super street fighter II is the only 5MB game on genesis, but other unofficial games like rom hacks or Pier solar and the great architechs, are 8MB as well as one ultimate mortal kombat rom hack which is 10MB also don't work, the emulator was only build to play up to 6MB roms, even though both snes and genesis can play up to 8MB (Which means no official licensed rom ever used full capacity of the carts) So far only anything using Genesis plus based emultor can play these high capacity roms, so a gens plus core like in retroarch or gens plus gx on wii homebre will work.
Back on topic, Kega fusion also has XBRZ filter like snes9x, except is only up yo 4X unlike snes9x 6X. Based on knowledge i obtained, it uses a outdated version of the compiled filter 1.2 which the latest is 1.4 that supposed to have 6X scaling. Hopefully it can be done soon. How kega fusion handles the graphic filters is using external plugins. I been using this for years and quite happy.
Next is playstation, so far i only ever used epsxe, is been the go to emulator for years, and it works so well on this pc, 60FPS, full 1080P screen, also supports a experimental wide screen mod? Basically 3D games renders more data on screen than the player can see cause of the video output and tv at the time was 4:3, the emulator can force 16:9 to display more of the screen and try to center everything as if modern common wide screen. I say is experemantal cause it only seem to work with games in 3D only and even in those games have 2D sprites that are uneffected for example HUD, or 2D sprite characters with 3D graphics, how most psx games was at the time, combining 2D and 3D graphics, so any 2D games like mega man x4 won't work, and may not give great results with every game, but with most games is pretty good. This also has the XBRZ filter which is great so another addition to what was already a great emulator.
Next i have fight cade, if anyone doesn't know, this is basically a arcade emulator like mame, it uses final burn alpha which is another arcade emulator, i suppose it has better compatibility than mame or maybe is more recently updated. Anyway fightcade is a online multiplaer client for final burn alpha, so in other words it lets you play arcade games online with friends, or strangers. Just sign up for free, download the fight cade emulator at the website, grab some roms, and join in. I have played a games to test it and it works, but i didn't play any with anyone online, i didn't have anyone to test it yet. So if you would like to help test with me, that be nice.
Next is Dolphin emu, probably the one and only, most popular gamecube and wii emulator on the internet, capable of playing gamecube and wii games, but also playing them in HD resolution, 720P Yeah, 1080P Yeah???? Well now how bout higher, really like 5K! Yeah, that is impressive, it also has things like custom textures as well, seen some HD projects, one like Wind waker HD project for specific that dolphin emu (Yes is HD on wii u but wii u play 720P upscale to 1080P, dolphin render native video output to higher resolution.... don't ask me how it works, i just use these things not make or program them.
It also has online modes, playing games online up to 4 players, even gamecube games. Sadly i haven't tried that yet either, and i would like to. But so far with Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050TI is playing 1080P at 60 FPS, happy enough for me, i never really was concerned about 4K. If anyone wants to test it with me, i welcome it, i only have one game so far, sonic adventure 2 battle, i wanted to try my save data from my game cube memory card, it had my level 99 chao from like decade ago when i played it on gamecube. But i want to try it, try 2 player game, 4 player game and maybe more other player games as well, like bomber man wii i guess has more than 4 players.
So far is all i managed to try, my next test is a Nintendo 64 emulator, so far not sure which is the best, project 64 or Mupen 64 maybe the top 2, NES emulator, not sure which to try, i usually use NESTOPIA, but maybe try fceux, thoght none would need any special hardware like the nvidia gpu for any reason so maybe it doesn't matter. NEStopia has best compatibility i guess, but fceux has tas tools. PCSX2 is probably the best ps2 emulator, so there is no debate for it i guess, Visualboy advance i think is the best GBA emulator, though when i used it i had some sound issues, i dunno how to fix it or why, also wish it had XBRZ but it doesn't at this time.
Well if anyone can suggest some emulators for me, that be nice, for the record i use windows so only windows emulators.
Anyway enough about that, now this is about emulators and how i will go about using it on my new pc. So far i managed to try a few. For example, I now use SNES9X, before i used to have zsnes. Yes i know is a old as the dirt under behind your grandpa's ears, but it works and is lightweight, no need for extensive hardware power, is simple and any toaster from probably the last 2 decades can run it with no problem. Most of the reason why i now use snes9x, was cause it now has support for msu-1 which is some custom programming that takes advantages of some impressive features, if i wanted to be noob friendly of how i describe it, is probably close enough to just say "Is what the snes playstation console that could have been back when sony and nintendo was planning it." It basically allows for expanded storage of data to do things like video play back and live recorded music instead of standard chiptune music when playing games. Google some youtube videos if you wanna know what i mean.
This basically running on SNES emulator, you can potentially port PSX and NDS extra game content to snes with rom hack and msu-1.
Second reason was cause of a newly added filter zsnes doesn't have, usually i would use a emulator with a HQX filter, which is supposed to use a smart pixel blending feature to smooth out sprite pixelation, to perhaps make it look a bit more pleasing and less sharp on HD screens, i used zsnes with HQX4 filter. Snes9x has XBRZ filter, which is supposed to further improve over the HQX and not only does it improve the HQX but goes up to a scale of 6X rather than just 4X, So probably the only two reason i see to have moved, since i'm now more confident my pc can handle it. Probably not many people here who like retro games would use these filters, but i appreciate them.
Next i have what i always been using, Kega fusion, this emulator is a multipurpose system because it emulates every sega system made right before saturn, sg-1000, sg-3000, sega master system, sega genesis/megadrive, sega/mega cd, sega 32X and game gear, everything before saturn came out all with what seem flawless and perfect accuracy. (Doesn't include arcade boards) There is only a few games it may not play well, game gear golden axe doesn't work on the latest version of kega fusion, so a older one would need to play that speciffically, as well as some roms with file size over 5MB. So far Super street fighter II is the only 5MB game on genesis, but other unofficial games like rom hacks or Pier solar and the great architechs, are 8MB as well as one ultimate mortal kombat rom hack which is 10MB also don't work, the emulator was only build to play up to 6MB roms, even though both snes and genesis can play up to 8MB (Which means no official licensed rom ever used full capacity of the carts) So far only anything using Genesis plus based emultor can play these high capacity roms, so a gens plus core like in retroarch or gens plus gx on wii homebre will work.
Back on topic, Kega fusion also has XBRZ filter like snes9x, except is only up yo 4X unlike snes9x 6X. Based on knowledge i obtained, it uses a outdated version of the compiled filter 1.2 which the latest is 1.4 that supposed to have 6X scaling. Hopefully it can be done soon. How kega fusion handles the graphic filters is using external plugins. I been using this for years and quite happy.
Next is playstation, so far i only ever used epsxe, is been the go to emulator for years, and it works so well on this pc, 60FPS, full 1080P screen, also supports a experimental wide screen mod? Basically 3D games renders more data on screen than the player can see cause of the video output and tv at the time was 4:3, the emulator can force 16:9 to display more of the screen and try to center everything as if modern common wide screen. I say is experemantal cause it only seem to work with games in 3D only and even in those games have 2D sprites that are uneffected for example HUD, or 2D sprite characters with 3D graphics, how most psx games was at the time, combining 2D and 3D graphics, so any 2D games like mega man x4 won't work, and may not give great results with every game, but with most games is pretty good. This also has the XBRZ filter which is great so another addition to what was already a great emulator.
Next i have fight cade, if anyone doesn't know, this is basically a arcade emulator like mame, it uses final burn alpha which is another arcade emulator, i suppose it has better compatibility than mame or maybe is more recently updated. Anyway fightcade is a online multiplaer client for final burn alpha, so in other words it lets you play arcade games online with friends, or strangers. Just sign up for free, download the fight cade emulator at the website, grab some roms, and join in. I have played a games to test it and it works, but i didn't play any with anyone online, i didn't have anyone to test it yet. So if you would like to help test with me, that be nice.
Next is Dolphin emu, probably the one and only, most popular gamecube and wii emulator on the internet, capable of playing gamecube and wii games, but also playing them in HD resolution, 720P Yeah, 1080P Yeah???? Well now how bout higher, really like 5K! Yeah, that is impressive, it also has things like custom textures as well, seen some HD projects, one like Wind waker HD project for specific that dolphin emu (Yes is HD on wii u but wii u play 720P upscale to 1080P, dolphin render native video output to higher resolution.... don't ask me how it works, i just use these things not make or program them.
It also has online modes, playing games online up to 4 players, even gamecube games. Sadly i haven't tried that yet either, and i would like to. But so far with Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050TI is playing 1080P at 60 FPS, happy enough for me, i never really was concerned about 4K. If anyone wants to test it with me, i welcome it, i only have one game so far, sonic adventure 2 battle, i wanted to try my save data from my game cube memory card, it had my level 99 chao from like decade ago when i played it on gamecube. But i want to try it, try 2 player game, 4 player game and maybe more other player games as well, like bomber man wii i guess has more than 4 players.
So far is all i managed to try, my next test is a Nintendo 64 emulator, so far not sure which is the best, project 64 or Mupen 64 maybe the top 2, NES emulator, not sure which to try, i usually use NESTOPIA, but maybe try fceux, thoght none would need any special hardware like the nvidia gpu for any reason so maybe it doesn't matter. NEStopia has best compatibility i guess, but fceux has tas tools. PCSX2 is probably the best ps2 emulator, so there is no debate for it i guess, Visualboy advance i think is the best GBA emulator, though when i used it i had some sound issues, i dunno how to fix it or why, also wish it had XBRZ but it doesn't at this time.
Well if anyone can suggest some emulators for me, that be nice, for the record i use windows so only windows emulators.
