Best emulators for each console?

[placebo_yue]

I see there's no sticky for this, and i've spent the last few days trying a lot of emulators and retroarch cores and i'm a bit tired of going around three different cores and a standalone emulator trying to find the right ones, so.. do we have some sort of emulators guide that's updated? if not, perhaps we can make this thread be it?

I'm particularly struggling with FBA, i tried downloading from a romset on archive org and MVSC worked, but KOF98 did not. I tried a standalone neo geo app, and many retroarch cores, they all fail. "finalburn alpha" seems to be the most solid one of the bunch, but perhaps i should use "neo" with a different romset? it's very hit and miss, some core works with some roms, some other works with another, one works faster, the other slightly glitchy, and so on...

SNES.. again im a bit lost. I think the 2003 or so core works fine? but i get the feeling that the FPS are slightly below what should be. The standalone snesx9 emulator also seems to work just fine but perhaps slightly slow? i'm all ears for suggestions here. I don't care for accuracy just full speed

Now, gameboy. mGBA core seems to do the job just fine, but certain games like pokemon gold don't get the supergameboy borders, while others (kirby dreamland 2) do. Besides that it's perfectly functional (while other cores are hit and miss, or work fine but have little configuration options)
For GBA games i think gbSP is better than mGBA, am i right? Don't see a reason to use the standalone app for mGBA, it can't open gameboy for some reason, the explorer can't go up from the data folder, you have way less config options, and the performance is as good as gbSP on retroarch

for genesis i'm inclined to use picodrive, as i've been using it on PSP a decade ago and it's functional. Maybe the other core has better options and such but it often failed me, not opening games, or getting subpar performance.

daedalux64 has very nice speed often than not, although graphics are a bit glitchy here and there on some games. I tried all settings and i can't get around those glitches. We can't change the renderer? i'd gladly accept lower resolution and no bilinear filtering as long as the glitches go away (as they did on PC using angrylion renderer)

flycast? i can't get it running. I installed kubridge and that library with many C's, still gives me error.

PSP and PSX don't need to be mentioned i suppose, adrenaline works perfect as far as i've tested. NES works even on a toaster so again, no need to mention it i guess

Is there android emulation? i can't think of any games worth playing from android but maybe i could use that as a workaround to run my unity games...

 

[elpapadelospollitos]

I use all this on retroarch, no standlone for these systems:

FCEUmm: For nes, great performance, no problem at all, you can even remove the real console flickering on some games like kirbys adventure.
SNES 9x 2005: For almost every snes games, great performance, no problem at all most of the time, but some games will have issues like secret of mana music sounding distorted, or will stutter like yoshi island or kirby dream land 3, also some games won't boot at all like recent super mario world romhacks.
SNES 9x 2010 (overclocked): For some recent super mario world romhacks that don't work on 2005.
SNES 9x 2002: Only use it for actual snes games that don't work on 2005 like yoshi's island as it runs it perfectly, also runs secret of mana without sound issues, it also runs kirby dream land 3 perfectly but the water transparency is broken so you're screwed on those levels as you won't see anything.
Genesis plus GX: For master system, game gear, genesis, sega cd (you need the bios), great performance, no problem at all, you can even remove the real console flickering on master system/game gear games like sonic 1 and gg aleste.
Beetle PCE Fast: For turbografx-16 and turbografx CD (you need the bios), great performance, no problem at all.
Gambatte: For gameboy /gameboy color, great performance, no problem at all
gpSP: Use it for most gba games and it works perfectly, however there are some issues:
First one: Some games simply won't work well, like dragon ball legacy of goku that doesn't lets you continue or will freeze at the intro like kingdom hearts chain of memories.
Second one: If you restart the game, be it from the retroarch menu or directly in game (for example some games do this when you die), the game is prone to freezing at some point, if you don't restart the game it won't happen.
Third one: I found the hard way some games won't work okay in this core at some parts, for example the final final boss on castlevania harmony of dissonance will never appear, but the rest of the game worked perfectly for me before that.
Conclusion: All in all this is the best gba emulator in the vita in my experience, as the performance and comptability are very good, and the issues are very rare.
Vba next (overclocked): I use this core for all the afore mentioned games that don't work well on gpsp, of couse the performance here is worse hence the overclock.
Beetle cygne: For wonderswan, it worked perfectly for most games, however some games like dicing knight crashed on me, I got my vita like a year ago and downloaded the latest retroarch at the moment, but I downloaded an even earlier version of retroarch and swapped the recent (at the time) beetle cygne core with the old one and then I could play those games again without problems, as I said this was a year ago so I don't know if they fixed it on newer builds or if you still have to do this and if those old versions are even available anymore.
Beetle Neo pop: For neo geo pocket/pocket color, great performance, no problem at all.
FBA Alpha 2012 CPS-1: For CPSI, great performance, no problem at all.
FBA Alpha 2012 CPS-2: For CPSII, great performance, no problem at all.
FBA Alpha 2012 Neo geo: For neo geo, great performance, no problem at all.
MAME 2003 PLUS: For other arcades like mappy, burger time, bombjack, snow bros, outrun, hang on, alien syndrome, etc. also for some other beat em ups like tmnt (overclocked), x-men (overclocked), hook (overclocked), etc.
FB Alpha 2012: For those weird arcade games that won't work on mame 2003-plus and aren't CPSI, CPSII or Neo geo games, the only one I found like this is the simpsons arcade (overclocked)

 

[peter8]

@ placebo_yue : For android, the games must ported each single one, tons of work. flycast, there are not many games good working, we have a testing topic. daedalux64 has very usefull settings, but not all rom files works, so you have to find out, the PSP version is to slow. I use Picodrive over Adrenalin works perfect SMS SMD GG SCD. For GBA I use mgba over VITA. SNES over PSP Adrenalin. NES over PSP Adrenalin the same as you.


@ elpapadelospollitos : thanks for the info and testing.
But can retroarch also emulate Doom.WAD files and Wolf3d files ? The retroarch on the PS2 and Wii can play Doom files but not Wolf files. Would be great to have this. The wolf3d port for VITA dont have the mission pack from Spear of Destiny. The PSP version is a great port and all mission packs works great, but this port only allow EASY difficulty, there is no hard mode, what ever reason.

 

[elpapadelospollitos]

@ placebo_yue : For android, the games must ported each single one, tons of work. flycast, there are not many games good working, we have a testing topic. daedalux64 has very usefull settings, but not all rom files works, so you have to find out, the PSP version is to slow. I use Picodrive over Adrenalin works perfect SMS SMD GG SCD. For GBA I use mgba over VITA. SNES over PSP Adrenalin. NES over PSP Adrenalin the same as you.


@ elpapadelospollitos : thanks for the info and testing.
But can retroarch also emulate Doom.WAD files and Wolf3d files ? The retroarch on the PS2 and Wii can play Doom files but not Wolf files. Would be great to have this. The wolf3d port for VITA dont have the mission pack from Spear of Destiny. The PSP version is a great port and all mission packs works great, but this port only allow EASY difficulty, there is no hard mode, what ever reason.

Haven't really tried doom or wolf on retroarch, however I know that vitaWolfen does support spear of destiny and its mission packs, just put the files in the same folder, and even supports vanilla wolfenstein mods (if you replace the original files with them, you can't have the mod and the original game sadly)

 

[peter8]

So far I understand Vitawolfen dont support the mission pack, only SOD1. But you say I have to delete SOD1 and just replace the files with SOD2 and than its works ? hm Maybe the same like Sahdow Warrior and its mission pack on vita.

Anyway I have a big problem with VitaWolfen the run button is on /_\ and I am to stupid to change it to a other one, or a autorun funktion or something.

 

[Shin Akuma]

I really wished somebody could perfected GBA emulation tho :/ i think the Vita is very good in power terms to be able to do that but some games like the great ones Golden suns etc have lot of slowdowns on some spells etc.
Id rather have the 3ds's VC for gba that plays these games 101%

 

[placebo_yue]

Id rather have the 3ds's VC for gba that plays these games 101%

open_agb_firm and gbarunner2 on DS mode also work wonderfully. I do have a 3DS and yes, it's better for GBA emulation. But nobody's gonna stop me from trying to emulate every possible console and game on every device i own lol.

 

[Shin Akuma]

open_agb_firm and gbarunner2 on DS mode also work wonderfully. I do have a 3DS and yes, it's better for GBA emulation. But nobody's gonna stop me from trying to emulate every possible console and game on every device i own lol.

Yes i know bruh, i just mean id rather have the VC on vita than these emulators that dont work properly.
I have a hacked N3ds with VC games like the ones i mentioned and there is not a slight slowdown.
How comes there wasnt some kind of port of GBA VC on vita? :o

 

[placebo_yue]

How comes there wasnt some kind of port of GBA VC on vita? :o

doesn't VC use the hardware? so technically is not emulation? there's no way to port that to vita if that's the case

 

[Shin Akuma]

doesn't VC use the hardware? so technically is not emulation? there's no way to port that to vita if that's the case

yeah as far as i recall it runs on the SOC of the ARM7 cant remember welltbh

 

[elpapadelospollitos]

So far I understand Vitawolfen dont support the mission pack, only SOD1. But you say I have to delete SOD1 and just replace the files with SOD2 and than its works ? hm Maybe the same like Sahdow Warrior and its mission pack on vita.

Anyway I have a big problem with VitaWolfen the run button is on /_\ and I am to stupid to change it to a other one, or a autorun funktion or something.

No, thats just for mods.

You can have wolfenstein shareware, wolfenstein full, sod shareware, sod full, sod mission pack 2 and sod mission pack 3, just put all the files in the vitaWolfen folder.

 

[r1vver]

I can't stand RA crap, so I use pEMU/pGEN for Genesis (standalone Genesis-Plus-GX port).
So far got only one trouble - trembling BGM in Pier Solar (PCM track-list stutters not as badly as FM). Haven't noticed any other issues yet.

 

[sonictopfan]

I use all this on retroarch, no standlone for these systems:

FCEUmm: For nes, great performance, no problem at all, you can even remove the real console flickering on some games like kirbys adventure.
SNES 9x 2005: For almost every snes games, great performance, no problem at all most of the time, but some games will have issues like secret of mana music sounding distorted, or will stutter like yoshi island or kirby dream land 3, also some games won't boot at all like recent super mario world romhacks.
SNES 9x 2010 (overclocked): For some recent super mario world romhacks that don't work on 2005.
SNES 9x 2002: Only use it for actual snes games that don't work on 2005 like yoshi's island as it runs it perfectly, also runs secret of mana without sound issues, it also runs kirby dream land 3 perfectly but the water transparency is broken so you're screwed on those levels as you won't see anything.
Genesis plus GX: For master system, game gear, genesis, sega cd (you need the bios), great performance, no problem at all, you can even remove the real console flickering on master system/game gear games like sonic 1 and gg aleste.
Beetle PCE Fast: For turbografx-16 and turbografx CD (you need the bios), great performance, no problem at all.
Gambatte: For gameboy /gameboy color, great performance, no problem at all
gpSP: Use it for most gba games and it works perfectly, however there are some issues:
First one: Some games simply won't work well, like dragon ball legacy of goku that doesn't lets you continue or will freeze at the intro like kingdom hearts chain of memories.
Second one: If you restart the game, be it from the retroarch menu or directly in game (for example some games do this when you die), the game is prone to freezing at some point, if you don't restart the game it won't happen.
Third one: I found the hard way some games won't work okay in this core at some parts, for example the final final boss on castlevania harmony of dissonance will never appear, but the rest of the game worked perfectly for me before that.
Conclusion: All in all this is the best gba emulator in the vita in my experience, as the performance and comptability are very good, and the issues are very rare.
Vba next (overclocked): I use this core for all the afore mentioned games that don't work well on gpsp, of couse the performance here is worse hence the overclock.
Beetle cygne: For wonderswan, it worked perfectly for most games, however some games like dicing knight crashed on me, I got my vita like a year ago and downloaded the latest retroarch at the moment, but I downloaded an even earlier version of retroarch and swapped the recent (at the time) beetle cygne core with the old one and then I could play those games again without problems, as I said this was a year ago so I don't know if they fixed it on newer builds or if you still have to do this and if those old versions are even available anymore.
Beetle Neo pop: For neo geo pocket/pocket color, great performance, no problem at all.
FBA Alpha 2012 CPS-1: For CPSI, great performance, no problem at all.
FBA Alpha 2012 CPS-2: For CPSII, great performance, no problem at all.
FBA Alpha 2012 Neo geo: For neo geo, great performance, no problem at all.
MAME 2003 PLUS: For other arcades like mappy, burger time, bombjack, snow bros, outrun, hang on, alien syndrome, etc. also for some other beat em ups like tmnt (overclocked), x-men (overclocked), hook (overclocked), etc.
FB Alpha 2012: For those weird arcade games that won't work on mame 2003-plus and aren't CPSI, CPSII or Neo geo games, the only one I found like this is the simpsons arcade (overclocked)

I prefer standalone emulators personally, I wish these cores get standalone seperate emulators.

 

[placebo_yue]

I used to prefer standalone emulators too, but when standalone emulators have less settings, worse performance, or some annoyance like "you gotta put the roms in this folder or the emulator can't find them" i start to consider retroarch.

I'm still a bit lost with FBA, it's many cores, and the different romsets. It's something that bugs me about arcade since decades ago, i wish it was easier. Someone needs to come up with a permanent solution, it's not like those games are being updated or there's any performance improvement done to them over the years huh? Like.. despite the emulator, if i run the same pokemon blue rom i used in 2009, it works. Why can't that be the case with MAME and it's alternatives?
I also can't run sonic adventure on flycast, managed to make the emulator run but it crashes when the level's supposed to start. I'm about to give up on that...

 

[elpapadelospollitos]

Set self-modifying code checks to reduced on advanced settings when playing sonic adventure if you haven't

 

[peter8]

@ placebo_yue : flycast
Not all games are working and the framerate is slow on most titles. But there are tons of titles that will not crash ! It also depends what you use GDI,CDI, or CHD, PAL NTSC and there are tons of settings like downclock, plus tons texture settings. I had not tested Sonic, but we have a testing list here.
Try Biohazard 3, Nanatsu no Hikan, Fighting Force 2, The Ring Terror Realms, Prince of Persia this titles are playable and works mostly great.
I also get Quake III mostly perfect working without crash, but only without enemys. Its still all testing and homebrew, deal with it.

 

[ciarli-b]

I really wished somebody could perfected GBA emulation tho :/ i think the Vita is very good in power terms to be able to do that but some games like the great ones Golden suns etc have lot of slowdowns on some spells etc.
Id rather have the 3ds's VC for gba that plays these games 101%

Maybe it's worth to try latest mGBA standalone release (0.10.0), also

 

[Shin Akuma]

Maybe it's worth to try latest mGBA standalone release (0.10.0), also

yep tried ofc day one on 10.0 release but still the same, lots of slowdowns :/