What are the best videogame emulators for Windows?

[raxadian]

Funny, but while you can get amazing Playstation emulation, some emulators can even improve the PSX game graphics and sound, not even Nintendo can get 100% accurate Nintendo 64 emulation on Paper Mario. That game was released on 2001 by the way.

It would be nice to either get a new Paper Mario game for the Switch or an updated re-release of the Nintendo 64 game.

 

[the_randomizer]

Just what I use, tbh I don't remember the exact reason but it's never let me down

*Shrug* nothing wrong with trying out the most recent build though

 

[Deleted User]

You don't have to download all the cores for RetroArch, you can download what you want.

yeah i know, but you still have to download them since it doesn't come prepackaged with anything, and last i used it it asks you to manually pick a core every time. it's also very submenu heavy

 

[raxadian]

There's the Blast Em Emulator
https://www.retrodev.com/blastem/

Can it run Sega CD games? Because otherwise I might have to figure out how to make my Sega CD run pirated games. It might be easy since I heard the Sega CD copy protection is terrible.

yeah i know, but you still have to download them since it doesn't come prepackaged with anything, and last i used it it asks you to manually pick a core every time. it's also very submenu heavy

Honesty, configuring the emulator to autoload cores shouldn't be that hard.

 

[the_randomizer]

yeah i know, but you still have to download them since it doesn't come prepackaged with anything, and last i used it it asks you to manually pick a core every time. it's also very submenu heavy

People sure enjoy crapping on RetroArch it seems, can't win them all I guess, it's not that hard to auto load cores or default to a core *sigh*

 

[raxadian]

People sure enjoy crapping on RetroArch it seems, can't win them all I guess, it's not that hard to auto load cores or default to a core *sigh*

It may have to be with their favorite emulator not being updated anymore.

I mean to get awesome Master System and Game Gear emulation I have to run Dosbox then run the emulator because the Windows version is crap while the Dos version is awesome and the Windows version was done in the age of Windows XP.

SMS Plus is really good and... the ports of it are not. The DOS version is still the one that works better.

 

[weatMod]

This is my current list of favorite emulators (I took it from my discord)




Project 64 (N64 Emulator):

absolutely SUCKS now , they fucking RUINED it

it is IMPOSSIBLE to get controllers mapped and working now you have to use old version , the new version is pure shit

 

[raxadian]

Has anyone gor Mupen64Plus to work? I tried but it keep crashing, might be because I tried in Windows 7 so maybe it works with an older version?

 

[Mythical]

Don't put stuff you're saying in a quote box from me pls
The controllers work just fine for me on the latest though not sure what the problem is for you
edit this was a reply but it doesn't seem to show it atleast on my end

 

[weatMod]

Don't put stuff you're saying in a quote box from me pls
The controllers work just fine for me on the latest though not sure what the problem is for you
edit this was a reply but it doesn't seem to show it atleast on my end

haha i see you are having problems too
it wasn't meant to be in the quote box

and i am not the only one who has a problem new PJ64 is broken nrage input plugin does not work it is hot fucking garbage
and you can't even change plugins , PJ 64 is complete shit now lots of people cant get it working
not sure which controller you use but i tried xboxone s and it doesn't work but worked with the older versions that let you change plugins , new PJ 64 sucks

 

[Mythical]

haha i see you are having problems too
it wasn't meant to be in the quote box

and i am not the only one who has a problem new PJ64 is broken nrage input plugin does not work it is hot fucking garbage
and you can't even change plugins , PJ 64 is complete shit now lots of people cant get it working
not sure which controller you use but i tried xboxone s and it doesn't work but worked with the older versions that let you change plugins , new PJ 64 sucks

I used ps4 controller

 

[weatMod]

I used ps4 controller

ok maybe it is just a xboxone s controller problem but that input plugin still looks like fuckning shit and it's confusing AF , the old input plugin was way better i just see a fuckton useless fucking shit that does not even work in there
they need to keep it simple , that thing is a dumpster fire and should be removed or at least put an option for the old plugin back

 

[raxadian]

ok maybe it is just a xboxone s controller problem but that input plugin still looks like fuckning shit and it's confusing AF , the old input plugin was way better i just see a fuckton useless fucking shit that does not even work in there
they need to keep it simple , that thing is a dumpster fire and should be removed or at least put an option for the old plugin back

The xbox(insert name here) controller have special drivers for Windows. Just look for the one for the controller you have.

Heck there was even a Xbox360 controller that was made for PC instead of for the Xbox360 and it works quite well, I still have it.

 

[weatMod]

The xbox(insert name here) controller have special drivers for Windows. Just look for the one for the controller you have.

Heck there was even a Xbox360 controller that was made for PC instead of for the Xbox360 and it works quite well, I still have it.

i tried the one s controller and it doesn't work with rage plugin in the newer PJ 64 builds
i looked for a solution and found lots of people having similar problems, i just gave up on it because i could not make it work
and others couldn't either the new plugin is shite and the emulator is now 100% useless too much aggravation and way more trouble than it is worth , my xboxone s controller works with the old version of the emulator and i don't change any windows drivers the new input plugin just sucks and needs to be removed

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Most would probably say RetroArch and Higan. RetroArch for the ultra low (better than actual consoles) latency, and Higan for the accuracy.
I'm more old school and prefer standalone emulators, and also not a fan of the clusterfuck that is the RetroArch interface with all its various settings. And my laptop is also getting a bit old so Higan would probably not run great anyway.
I still use Project64 2.x for N64 stuff (with GLideN64 when my laptop actually runs it well - for some games I have to resort to Glide64 or even Rice Video)
VBA-M for GB/GBC/GBA, I just like the feature set and I'm used to the interface and it works perfectly for the things I use it for so why fix what's not broken, right?
Snes9x for SNES... Was still using ZSnes several years ago actually but was tired of how it didn't run Bubsy due to a regression and I had to revert it to a really old version just to make that game run so I thought fuck it, not worth the effort.
And ePSXe for PSX games. It's still the best thing around for PSX as far as I know, with the right plugins.
For PS2 and GC/Wii you don't really have much choice, PCSX2 and Dolphin are the only ones I know of for PC and while there probably are other ones I doubt they work very well.
Occasionally I load up a Sega Genesis/CD/32X game, usually in Kega Fusion because it has an xBRZ filter.
Other consoles I don't emulate much but I still have a bunch of other emulators around.

My emu folder currently looks like this and it is a bit of a mess with some old stuff I haven't bothered to get rid of yet, and some stuff that just hasn't been used (or hence updated) in ages, and for some of the consoles I am not actually sure which emulator is the best that's why I have multiple for Dreamcast and Saturn, among others:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/i6a7f015m445bj9/Screenshot 2019-11-13 00.50.52.png?dl=0

My post doesn't really answer the question in the OP at all though if someone has suggestions for what would be better alternatives for some of these feel free to tell me
Saturn is especially problematic, Yabause had pretty poor compatibility last I checked and SSF is closed source and has its fair share of issues too.

 

[the_randomizer]

I don't suggest VBA-M, it's not that good. mGBA is far superior in every way.

 

[raxadian]

I found an all in one version for Mugen64Plus (Nintendo 64 emulator)

mupen64plus-gui

https://github.com/m64p/mupen64plus-gui/

 

[osaka35]

Best is somewhat subjective.

I'm a fan of the diagrams which compare each emulator on a line, with a rate of each individual aspect as rows, with the original consoles and basic added functionality being the base comparison. Only problem with those are the unique features like the mode7 on Bsnes.

 

[FAST6191]

I'm a fan of the diagrams which compare each emulator on a line, with a rate of each individual aspect as rows, with the original consoles and basic added functionality being the base comparison. Only problem with those are the unique features like the mode7 on Bsnes.

mode7 is a feature of the SNES, though I presume you mean the fancy upscaling/rendering/extra AA of that mode it can do. In that case from where I sit it immediately goes on the extra filters line no different than some of the pixel upscaling/vector tracing ones we have seen

 

[Deleted-236924]

Personally, I can't think of any reason not to use BizHawk for any of the platforms it supports, except for the odd rom hacks here and there that only work on less accurate emulators.