All-In-One Emulators?

[Luriden]

So now that I've actually got a gaming PC worth a crap, I'd like to get emulators working on it. I've been dabbling with emulators here and there since the 90's, but just to play a game here and there. Now I'm trying to get the best-of-the-best emulators with complete romsets for every system I've been playing since I was a kid.

I've seen the lists here about the best emulators on PC, but now with applications like RetroArch, are single-console emulators a thing of the past? What's everyone using nowadays?

Ideally, I'd like to be able to control everything with my 360 controller (maybe even add the emulators as non-Steam game shortcuts in Steam), so some of these all-in-one emulators do sound appealing. I tried RetroArch though, and it looks hideous and is also lacking in features compared to standalone emulators. Is there a no-brainer go-to all-in-one emulator that everyone's using nowadays, or is it best to stick with the standalone emulators for each console?

 

[Taleweaver]

Retroarch is the only multi-emulator I've heard of (aside from things like visualboygx that play gameboy AND gameboy advance games). Considering it's open source, has so many plug-ins for emulators and is ported to so many systems, I can understand that they don't put visual appeal high on the priority list.

For now, I'd just stick to standalone emulators.

 

[trumpet-205]

Stick with standalone emulator. They have higher compatibility anyway.

 

[Luriden]

Retroarch is the only multi-emulator I've heard of (aside from things like visualboygx that play gameboy AND gameboy advance games). Considering it's open source, has so many plug-ins for emulators and is ported to so many systems, I can understand that they don't put visual appeal high on the priority list.

For now, I'd just stick to standalone emulators.

I think the other ones I've been looking at are frontends, where you have it point to standalone emulators to launch the games. They look like a pain to configure though.

 

[Enigma Hall]

Can wiflow be run at emulator?

 

[migles]

I think the other ones I've been looking at are frontends, where you have it point to standalone emulators to launch the games. They look like a pain to configure though.

thats doesnt even sound like an emulator, it suppose its an organizing software or "pointer" it is just a program which uses "open rom with .exe"

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

There aren't any AIO emulators worth a damn at this point. RetroArch works pretty well for some of the older systems, but it doesn't compete with standalone emulators.

And here's a list of the (arguably) best emulators for a majority of the systems nowadays.

NES: FCEUX
SNES: SNES9X
GB/C/A: VBA
Genesis/Master System: FUSION
Dreamcast: nullDC/Chankast
N64: Project 64/MUPEN 64
PS1: ePSXe
PS2: PCSX2
GC/Wii: Dolphin
Arcade: MAME

Your best bet is either using one of the many multi-system frontends out there, or just dealing with the emulators yourself.

 

[the_randomizer]

There aren't any AIO emulators worth a damn at this point. RetroArch works pretty well for some of the older systems, but it doesn't compete with standalone emulators.

And here's a list of the (arguably) best emulators for a majority of the systems nowadays.

NES: FCEUX
SNES: SNES9X
GB/C/A: VBA
Genesis/Master System: FUSION
Dreamcast: nullDC/Chankast
N64: Project 64/MUPEN 64
PS1: ePSXe
PS2: PCSX2
GC/Wii: Dolphin
Arcade: MAME

Your best bet is either using one of the many multi-system frontends out there, or just dealing with the emulators yourself.

Actually RetroArch does use the latest iterations of most of the standalone emulators. Snes9x 1.53 is used in the PC port, Genesis Plus is also one of the best (surpasses Kega Fusion last I heard as that's no longer being worked on), the others, well, yeah, they're quite good. I'm glad no one mentioned Zsnes lol. NES: Nestopia has been revived and I think it's now called Nestopia Undead or something like that, it has higher accuracy, and oddly enough, its requirements are actually not that high

 

[MrEl]

By the way, people say it will take another decade to play PS3 and xbox on PC...

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

By the way, people say it will take another decade to play PS3 and xbox on PC...

I would probably lower that down to maybe another 5 years until we get a good chunk of games that are playable. There are already PS3/360 emulators that can launch retail games (albeit 99% of them aren't playable at all).

RPCS3 and Xenia.

 

[Ace Overclocked]

I know one that runs pretty much every emulatable system so far, it's a software but it's like steam, its store lets you download roms so i can't name it here. It's a software that compiles every emulator, lets you download games from inside the software without external sources. Pretty neat, kinda like a station for roms, look for it,

 

[MrEl]

I would probably lower that down to maybe another 5 years until we get a good chunk of games that are playable. There are already PS3/360 emulators that can launch retail games (albeit 99% of them aren't playable at all).

RPCS3 and Xenia.

Really? I heard all they are fake, and only REAL emulator exist can run home-brews only, not retails.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Really? I heard all they are fake, and only REAL emulator exist can run home-brews only, not retails.

Nope. RPCS3 and Xenia are both real and can launch a couple retail games. As said, they aren't exactly playable but they're on the right track.

 

[MrEl]

Nope. RPCS3 and Xenia are both real and can launch a couple retail games. As said, they aren't exactly playable but they're on the right track.

OMG! That's so great! By the way, does that "launch" mean literally you can "launch" it? Or is that PLAYABLE? I know very high specs will require to actually emulate PS3/xbox system on pc.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

OMG! That's so great! By the way, does that "launch" mean literally you can "launch" it? Or is that PLAYABLE? I know very high specs will require to actually emulate PS3/xbox system on pc.

Nope. RPCS3 and Xenia are both real and can launch a couple retail games. As said, they aren't exactly playable but they're on the right track.

 

[MrEl]

Oh I was just too excited there and missed it. Thank you for pointing it out for me

 

[gman666]

How bout a decent front end instead of an all in one? Hyperspin comes to mind. If not then retro arch is the only AIO I can think of.