Homebrew Multi Emulation Machine

Smilator · Aug 27, 2017

Hello everybody,
this probably won't be the correct section to post this - so sorry about that.

Anyway, this is my question. I own the following systems: Wii U, Xbox 360, PS3 and 3DS.

I really want to create an emulation machine - i did have a (not too much old pc) with kinda everything on it, but i had to tear it apart (long story).

So i wanted to ask you: which one of the systems i own is the best for emulation?

I am interested in emulating these systems:

NES
SNES
N64
Gamecube (i guess i can do it only with the Wii U?)
PS1
PS2 (and i guess i can forget to emulate this one with any of them, right?)
Sega Master System
Sega Genesis
Sega Saturn
Sega Dreamcast (can the 3DS emulate this one? i wish i could play Shenmue on the go - just dreaming probably)
MAME (or arcade in general)

So except the Gamecube and PS2 i think that the Wii U, X360 and PS3 could emulate them all - but which one is the better and easier to handle? (actually i am not sure if the emulating on Wii U is much developed, just asking).
Still, considering i am a newbie, could you give me a link to guides about how to mod the consoles (i actually can only soft mod them, considering i have no soldering experience) and then how to install the emulators?

Thank you very much for your help.
A.

Zero72463 · Aug 27, 2017

PS2 could be done if the PS3 is jailbroken (or a phat model). But it requires soldiering for jailbreaking. So PS2 is out of the question

Search up vWii (or Wii U) hacking, the Xbox 360 requires soldiering unless you are on an old dashboard, the PS3 requires soldiering unless you are on 3.55 fw or below, and unless it's a New 3DS emulators would be limited (doesn't stop you from playing some games on-the-go though). Wii U (or vWii) is the best option for you.

Mark McDonut · Aug 27, 2017

NES - retroarch wiiu
SNES - retoarch wiiu
N64 - injected roms for hacked wiiu, n64 emulation is so-so on pc even
Gamecube (i guess i can do it only with the Wii U?) - nintendont loaded through wiiu's wii mode homebrew channel
PS1 - not well an anything but pc
PS2 (and i guess i can forget to emulate this one with any of them, right?) - not well on anything but pc
Sega Master System - retroarch genesisplusgx for wiiu
Sega Genesis - retroarch genesisplusgx for wiiu
Sega Saturn - not sure about this but maybe yabause on retroarch wiiu
Sega Dreamcast (can the 3DS emulate this one? i wish i could play Shenmue on the go - just dreaming probably) - mediocre on anything but pc and android (using reicast)
MAME (or arcade in general) - retroarch wiiu

for the wiiu retroarch, follow any of the wiiu hacking stickies, i recommend coldboot haxchi but make sure you test normal haxchi first. you need to buy a ds virtual console game and you won't be able to use it anymore for this hack.

there's also the browser exploit but i stopped using that a while back, it took too long every time i wanted to boot.

once you install coldboot haxchi you can install a homebrew launcher channel

ploggy · Aug 27, 2017

A hacked PS3 can play PS2 games and the Xbox 360 had a Dreamcast Emulator.

TheTechGenius · Aug 27, 2017

Honestly, if you want the best emulation and game support, your better off emulating those consoles on a PC.

A PC has the hardware to push beyond the limits of the older consoles, to get the best out of the emulation.

And honestly, emulation on PC is better then actually playing the game on physical console. Emulators on PC has so many more options and features, and they been around for a very long time, so they got plenty of support and development time.

But it's up to you. If you want to play with a controller on PC with emulators, you can do that too, no problem. I do it all the time.

pedro702 · Aug 27, 2017

if you want an emulation machine your gonna need a pc ...

preety much any console can play games until snes/genesis stage perfectly but after that.

nes,snes,genesis,sega master system-- everything really. even new 3ds(old 3ds might have some issues with more demanding games)

dreamcast --pc only lol asking to see if 3ds can emulate dreamcast lolol yeah you are dreaming, no console has even aceptable dreamcast emulation at all it just too much for consoles so pc only.

N64-PC while xbox 360 and wii and even wiiu have some way to play this consoles manny many games just plain dont work or have slowdowns or graphical bugs if you want a decent compatibility and speed n64 stuff your gonna need a pc.

Gamecube--wii/wiiu(vwii) or pc, the wii and wiiu(vwii mode) can play gc games perfectly altough you arent emulating them but running them through a bridge of sorts with a program like nintendont , on pc you got dolphin but you need a beefy pc to run everything smoothly.

PS1,PS2--PS3 and pc-(the wii and xbox have a ps1 emulator but dont even bother)if you got a phat ps3 you can run preety much all ps1 and ps2 games natively , slim ps3s you need to hack and runs games as ps2 classics wich has abit less compat with ps2 games than the original phat ps3s.

Sega Saturn --PC only you cant get anywhere near fullspeed on any saturn game on a console even on pc you need a decent one at that.

basicaly for an arcade machine just get a beefy pc and you can emulate anything.console emulators dont have the power the pc ones do for most of it becuase of wierd architetures and slow cpu speeds and so on.

Smilator · Aug 27, 2017

Mark McDonut said:
NES - retroarch wiiu

SNES - retoarch wiiu

N64 - injected roms for hacked wiiu, n64 emulation is so-so on pc even

Gamecube (i guess i can do it only with the Wii U?) - nintendont loaded through wiiu's wii mode homebrew channel

PS1 - not well an anything but pc

PS2 (and i guess i can forget to emulate this one with any of them, right?) - not well on anything but pc

Sega Master System - retroarch genesisplusgx for wiiu

Sega Genesis - retroarch genesisplusgx for wiiu

Sega Saturn - not sure about this but maybe yabause on retroarch wiiu

Sega Dreamcast (can the 3DS emulate this one? i wish i could play Shenmue on the go - just dreaming probably) - mediocre on anything but pc and android (using reicast)

MAME (or arcade in general) - retroarch wiiu

for the wiiu retroarch, follow any of the wiiu hacking stickies, i recommend coldboot haxchi but make sure you test normal haxchi first. you need to buy a ds virtual console game and you won't be able to use it anymore for this hack.

there's also the browser exploit but i stopped using that a while back, it took too long every time i wanted to boot.

once you install coldboot haxchi you can install a homebrew launcher channel

So about that, the Wii U is the most complete of the three, right?

TheTechGenius said:
Honestly, if you want the best emulation and game support, your better off emulating those consoles on a PC.

A PC has the hardware to push beyond the limits of the older consoles, to get the best out of the emulation.

And honestly, emulation on PC is better then actually playing the game on physical console. Emulators on PC has so many more options and features, and they been around for a very long time, so they got plenty of support and development time.

But it's up to you. If you want to play with a controller on PC with emulators, you can do that too, no problem. I do it all the time.

Yeah that was what i was thinking. I made a nice system with Windows 7 and Launchbox.
I didn't want to spend much, but I might get some stuff around.

What about android system? Maybe a tablet?
I did find the GPD XD which is cheap enough and pretty nice - i mean i could renounce to GC and PS2 for portability.

Thanks to everybody that answered!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

pedro702 said:
if you want an emulation machine your gonna need a pc ...

preety much any console can play games until snes/genesis stage perfectly but after that.

nes,snes,genesis,sega master system-- everything really. even new 3ds(old 3ds might have some issues with more demanding games)

dreamcast --pc only lol asking to see if 3ds can emulate dreamcast lolol yeah you are dreaming, no console has even aceptable dreamcast emulation at all it just too much for consoles so pc only.

N64-PC while xbox 360 and wii and even wiiu have some way to play this consoles manny many games just plain dont work or have slowdowns or graphical bugs if you want a decent compatibility and speed n64 stuff your gonna need a pc.

Gamecube--wii/wiiu(vwii) or pc, the wii and wiiu(vwii mode) can play gc games perfectly altough you arent emulating them but running them through a bridge of sorts with a program like nintendont , on pc you got dolphin but you need a beefy pc to run everything smoothly.

PS1,PS2--PS3 and pc-(the wii and xbox have a ps1 emulator but dont even bother)if you got a phat ps3 you can run preety much all ps1 and ps2 games natively , slim ps3s you need to hack and runs games as ps2 classics wich has abit less compat with ps2 games than the original phat ps3s.

Sega Saturn --PC only you cant get anywhere near fullspeed on any saturn game on a console even on pc you need a decent one at that.

basicaly for an arcade machine just get a beefy pc and you can emulate anything.console emulators dont have the power the pc ones do for most of it becuase of wierd architetures and slow cpu speeds and so on.

Thanks you were really exhaustive

I already asked that, and you might know it, what about Android?

Deleted User · Aug 27, 2017

Wii U is able to emulate most of it expect for Saturn and PS1.
That's because there's no PPC Dynarec Binary for Wii U so it can't emulate PS1 in full speed.

TheTechGenius · Aug 28, 2017

Android could emulate most of the older systems, but not all, and its not very stable on Android, and you wouldn't have most of the features that are on Windows.

Its probably because on Windows you can run the emulator in DirectX, and since Android is based on Linux, Android has OpenGL. I could be wrong though, I know Linux can only run OpenGL, not to sure about Android, or if android even has OpenGL or a dedicated Video Rendering Driver Software.

With that being said, just about any Windows PC or Laptop can run any Emulator out there, with the exception of maybe the WiiU Emulator for Windows, since that requires a decent Hardware setup to run properly.

I have a $400 HP Laptop that I use for small tasks, such as web development and Server Management, and even that laptop can run every emulator at very stable Framerates, except for the WiiU Emulator of course (Even though I never tried running CEMU on the laptop, im sure it wouldn't be stable enough to play).

But as for all the other Emulators, any modern PC or Laptop should be able to run and play any supported game at very stable framerates. If you go a quick google search for the emulator of choice, it should have a WiKi list of games and it should show you if the game is stable on the emulator or not, with a list of settings used to make it stable, along with the version of the emulator used.

The best thing I like about PC emulators, they are all open-source. So anyone could contribute to the project to make it better.

Deleted User · Aug 28, 2017

TheTechGenius said:
Android could emulate most of the older systems, but not all, and its not very stable on Android, and you wouldn't have most of the features that are on Windows.

Its probably because on Windows you can run the emulator in DirectX, and since Android is based on Linux, Android has OpenGL. I could be wrong though, I know Linux can only run OpenGL, not to sure about Android, or if android even has OpenGL or a dedicated Video Rendering Driver Software.

With that being said, just about any Windows PC or Laptop can run any Emulator out there, with the exception of maybe the WiiU Emulator for Windows, since that requires a decent Hardware setup to run properly.

I have a $400 HP Laptop that I use for small tasks, such as web development and Server Management, and even that laptop can run every emulator at very stable Framerates, except for the WiiU Emulator of course (Even though I never tried running CEMU on the laptop, im sure it wouldn't be stable enough to play).

But as for all the other Emulators, any modern PC or Laptop should be able to run and play any supported game at very stable framerates. If you go a quick google search for the emulator of choice, it should have a WiKi list of games and it should show you if the game is stable on the emulator or not, with a list of settings used to make it stable, along with the version of the emulator used.

The best thing I like about PC emulators, they are all open-source. So anyone could contribute to the project to make it better.

Even my cheap Windows tablet can emulate Dreamcast, PSP, NES, SNES just fine. GC not so much and PSX crashes instantly.
Android only has OpenGL driver.

TheTechGenius · Aug 28, 2017

Felek666 said:
Even my cheap Windows tablet can emulate Dreamcast, PSP, NES, SNES just fine. GC not so much and PSX crashes instantly.
Android only has OpenGL driver.

That's what I thought.

OpenGL doesn't work to good in emulating console games. OpenGL may work for just a few games, but most games are to unstable in OpenGL. Well that's what I experienced anyway.

Yeah, anything should be able to emulate those older consoles, especially the older handheld consoles.

The crazy thing is, emulation has come such a long way, but to emulate anything beyond a Wii, you need a pretty decent GPU and CPU. I remember when CEMU first came out, omg it was so unstable. Even when BOTW first came out, CEMU would run it at about 1FPS, and it didn't matter what hardware you ran it on. People were using cheat engine to apply a speed hack that made it look like it was running at 24 to 30 FPS, but it really wasn't. lol.

I can't wait for the day that we can play all console games on PC or a tablet. Just think, all the greatest games on one device. That is a pipe dream though. lol. Maybe in the next 50 years or so? Lol.

pedro702 · Aug 28, 2017

TheTechGenius said:
That's what I thought.

OpenGL doesn't work to good in emulating console games. OpenGL may work for just a few games, but most games are to unstable in OpenGL. Well that's what I experienced anyway.

Yeah, anything should be able to emulate those older consoles, especially the older handheld consoles.

The crazy thing is, emulation has come such a long way, but to emulate anything beyond a Wii, you need a pretty decent GPU and CPU. I remember when CEMU first came out, omg it was so unstable. Even when BOTW first came out, CEMU would run it at about 1FPS, and it didn't matter what hardware you ran it on. People were using cheat engine to apply a speed hack that made it look like it was running at 24 to 30 FPS, but it really wasn't. lol.

I can't wait for the day that we can play all console games on PC or a tablet. Just think, all the greatest games on one device. That is a pipe dream though. lol. Maybe in the next 50 years or so? Lol.

you will never be able to becuase in 50 years you will have the ps30 or xbox 25 and then will have siliar specs to your pc so emulating it will not work

soncoles will keep reaching pc speeds.

Deleted User · Aug 28, 2017

TheTechGenius said:
That's what I thought.

OpenGL doesn't work to good in emulating console games. OpenGL may work for just a few games, but most games are to unstable in OpenGL. Well that's what I experienced anyway.

Yeah, anything should be able to emulate those older consoles, especially the older handheld consoles.

The crazy thing is, emulation has come such a long way, but to emulate anything beyond a Wii, you need a pretty decent GPU and CPU. I remember when CEMU first came out, omg it was so unstable. Even when BOTW first came out, CEMU would run it at about 1FPS, and it didn't matter what hardware you ran it on. People were using cheat engine to apply a speed hack that made it look like it was running at 24 to 30 FPS, but it really wasn't. lol.

I can't wait for the day that we can play all console games on PC or a tablet. Just think, all the greatest games on one device. That is a pipe dream though. lol. Maybe in the next 50 years or so? Lol.

OpenGL is better than DirectX in emulating in most cases. Like PSP emulation and dreamcast emulation

castdreams · Aug 28, 2017

The Wii U can emulate most of these, with a few exceptions:
PS1: technically playabale, but performance is shite.
PS2: Either get a phat PS3, mod a newer PS3, or play on PC
Saturn: I think technically there's a port of Yabause, but I sincerely doubt it runs well. Saturn emulation on PC is even kinda sketchy.
Dreamcast: The only good Dreamcast emulators are on PC (NullDC and DGEmu), and Android (reicast).

Also N64 is a little tricky since you need to use VC injects, and I can't say how good the compatibility is. There's also the vWii VC games you could use, which give youa wide variety of consoles to emulate.

The Wii U is probably the best console of the ones you mentioned to set up as an emulator machine, but it still won't be as good as a PC.

Smilator · Aug 29, 2017

Thanks for all the replies, so i am not gonna open another topic (even if i am gonna go a little bit off).
I meant to ask you guys what about the GPD WIN? I like the thing that it is an handheld device that runs windows - and from what i saw on youtube it can run the Gamecube pretty decently.
What about the PS2? I am kinda convinced on saving some money for this cute thing.

Thanks again!

The Real Jdbye · Aug 29, 2017

Smilator said:
Hello everybody,
this probably won't be the correct section to post this - so sorry about that.

Anyway, this is my question. I own the following systems: Wii U, Xbox 360, PS3 and 3DS.

I really want to create an emulation machine - i did have a (not too much old pc) with kinda everything on it, but i had to tear it apart (long story).

So i wanted to ask you: which one of the systems i own is the best for emulation?

I am interested in emulating these systems:

NES

SNES

N64

Gamecube (i guess i can do it only with the Wii U?)

PS1

PS2 (and i guess i can forget to emulate this one with any of them, right?)

Sega Master System

Sega Genesis

Sega Saturn

Sega Dreamcast (can the 3DS emulate this one? i wish i could play Shenmue on the go - just dreaming probably)

MAME (or arcade in general)

So except the Gamecube and PS2 i think that the Wii U, X360 and PS3 could emulate them all - but which one is the better and easier to handle? (actually i am not sure if the emulating on Wii U is much developed, just asking).
Still, considering i am a newbie, could you give me a link to guides about how to mod the consoles (i actually can only soft mod them, considering i have no soldering experience) and then how to install the emulators?

Thank you very much for your help.
A.

For Saturn you really have no choice besides a PC, as the only emulator that works decently is SSF and it's closed source and I believe Windows only. Yabause plays a number of games well, but compatibility is not great.

Smilator said:
So about that, the Wii U is the most complete of the three, right?

Yeah that was what i was thinking. I made a nice system with Windows 7 and Launchbox.
I didn't want to spend much, but I might get some stuff around.

What about android system? Maybe a tablet?
I did find the GPD XD which is cheap enough and pretty nice - i mean i could renounce to GC and PS2 for portability.

Thanks to everybody that answered!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Thanks you were really exhaustive
I already asked that, and you might know it, what about Android?

You might want to look at the GPD Win instead, it could possibly even run PS2 games (though likely not GC/Wii games)
You'd be able to run SSF as well on that.

Homebrew Multi Emulation Machine

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