Portable emulation devices - give suggestions?

[Gyron_Oldvic]

What kind of emulator/handheld console thing would be best useful for following systems?

NES, SNES, and the Game Boy line

Sega Master System, Mega Drive and Game Gear

Arcade emulation (The Classics, CPS1/CPS2 and Neo Geo)

...

Note: I normally use No-Intro PAL ROMs because I like accuracy and clean stuff ^^

Any other details would be nice about recommendation because, well ^^

Thanks!

A worthy mention should go to the GP2X-F100/200 and Dingoo a320. They can emulate the devices you have listed. I have both, but prefer my GP2X-F100, so I'll list some stuff for that.
The NES emulator (GPFCE) is pretty much perfect, and can run FDS stuff too. This emu can be underclocked for most games 140~170mhz.
The SNES emulator (Pocketsnes) is decent and runs a lot of the collection at full speed. Some roms that had extra hardware are unplayable (Pilotwings, Stunt Race FX and some others). F-zero and Mario Kart work fine with some overclocking.
Game boy and GBC are emulated in Lemonboy2x and GnuBoy2x. I'm pretty sure everything runs at full speed (I haven't used this in a while as I tend to play Game Boy stuff on my DS via GameYob).
Master System/Game Gear games via the emulator Alexkidd2x run at full speed underclocked. FM sound is emulated too if the rom supports it. DrMD also runs Master System and Game Gear games, although FM sound is not supported.
The Megadrive emulator (Picodrive) is one of the best on the system and can run most games full speed underclocked. Virtua Racing runs full speed with a little bit of overclocking (around 230mhz if I remember correctly). Mega CD games run fine too (some need a little bit of overclocking, I remember rebel assault being one). Supports the six button pad.
Arcade emulation is done via Mame4all. This is a very good emulator and runs most of the classic stuff very well. Some games can underclocked, some need to be overclocked.
FBA2x can emulate CPS1/2. Neo Geo and some arcade stuff. A very good emulator which runs many games at full speed and supports Unibios.
CPS2EMU is a dedicated CPS2 emulator and again runs many games at full speed. Also has save states.
GNGEO is a dedicated Neo Geo emulator. Many games run at full speed at stock speed (200mhz). Also has Save states and supports Unibios.
I should also mention the PC Engine/PC Engine CD emulator Temper (by Exophase). It runs everything including CD's at fullspeed (regular games can run at fullspeed underclocked to about 170mhz) and is one of the best emulators on the GP2X. Supports the six button pad.
The ZX Spectrum emulator GP2xpectrum is perfect too.
Doom/Doom II run at full speed via PrBoom. Also running at full speed are Heretic and Hexen,. All support Pwads. Duke Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein3D and Descent all run at full speed. Quake runs fine with some overclocking and supports mods. Rise of the Triad runs at full speed underclocked.

The GP2X and Dingoo are getting a bit long in the tooth now (the GP2X is 11 years old), but are still very good devices for 16 bit and earlier. The GP2X uses 2 AA's and will only last about 4 to 5 hours on a very good set of high mAh Ni-MH rechargeable batteries. Battery Life is also dependent on overclocking/underclocking. The Dingoo battery lasts longer, but I prefer the bigger screen and better speakers of my GP2X-F100. The GP2X supports SD cards and Micro SD cards (in an adapter). I have a 64gb Micro SD in mine and it works fine. The Dingoo supports Mini SD's and Micro SD's via a MiniSD adapter. I have a 32gb Micro SD in a SanDisk Mini SD adapter in my Dingoo a320.
The GP2X and Dingoo also seem to be getting a bit expensive these days. A GP2X-F100 seems to be going for around £50ish whereas I picked up a spare 5 years ago for £15 (my SD card at the time cost more than the device itself). The Dingoo a320 seems to go for a little more. If you could pick up one of these devices for sub £40, it would be worth getting.

 

[Localhorst86]

The GP2x has a horrible joystick, though, as does is predecessor the GP32. Plus, both devices are not very powerful to begin with.

Gesendet von meinem Elephone p6000 mit Tapatalk

 

[Gyron_Oldvic]

The GP2x has a horrible joystick, though, as does is predecessor the GP32. Plus, both devices are not very powerful to begin with.

Gesendet von meinem Elephone p6000 mit Tapatalk

To be honest I've never minded the Joystick on the F100 mk2. I thought the earlier versions were pretty bad (I had a first edition). I have an F200 too, which uses a d-pad style controller but with buttons (it works ok). The Dingoo and GP2X are getting on a bit now, and like you say, are low powered spec wise, but so is the PSP (I have a 2000). There's not really much between them all emulation wise. But for what he's trying to emulate (all older stuff) I think all three would suffice. Some of those emulators for the GP2X were highly Arm optimized, so didn't need high processing power to run full speed. Look at Temper and Picodrive on the GP2X, you can underclock them and they still easily outperform the same emulators on a heavily overclocked Dingoo. Picodrive also made use of the 2nd CPU (ARM940T). I also have a Pandora and a Caanoo, but didn't mention them to him, as I thought they were expensive overkill (both still go for over £100) for what he's trying to emulate.

 

[TheKawaiiPug]

How do you overclock stuff I don't exactly want to **** things up on it...

:hap:

 

[Gyron_Oldvic]

How do you overclock stuff I don't exactly want to **** things up on it...

:hap:

Most Emu's have the cpu speed setting in the Menu. You can't screw anything hardware wise, it just crashes if you go beyond the device's capable overclock. So you would have to switch off and on again. You get used to how far you can overclock on your own devices. I know my GP2X-F100 will do 290mhz stable, my GP2X-F200 does 275mhz, and my Dingoo will do 452mhz before it falls over. My Caanoo can do over 800mhz, and my Pandora can do near enough 1ghz. I remember a nice little app on the Dingoo a320 where you could set the CPU and memory speed, and the next app/rom you start would run at the chosen speeds.

 

[TheKawaiiPug]

Ah, I see now I thought you meant hardware overclocking the CPU, thanks!

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I doubt overclocking actually mess anything up, it just optimizes programs that aren't optimized. For example, Games on 3ds when some work better on new 3ds cause of the better enhanced power like super smash bros, makes the game load faster, on new 3ds but slower on the other kind cause it does not have the extra power, even though the game runs without new 3ds hardware, it just makes it more optimal.

Doesn't mean it will mess things up. The psp is the same thing, any psp that isnt the original launch one like the one dubbed "psp-1000" Has extra ram inside that increase load times. Some games also don't take full advantage of the processing chip and will just decide how much it needs and only uses that much, but with cfw you can decide too use the maximum processing speed all the time for any game to make it perform better. Though just remember overclocking will make batter drain faster.

 

[mino_o]

I am newb in consoles. I bought classic snes console+games (quite expensive because i like old game. But i want some portable device, i am looking then for some portable emulator witch is capable to emulate snes, old segas and maybe ps1(not needed) its PSP 3004 best choice(i readed here the sound is not very good for snes games, its bad with headphones too?) and how dificult is to hack and emulate the console (never did smth like that)
Or should i buy some android console? JXD? something else?
Maybe nintendo 3ds xl?
I dont have problem to spend some money on it, if it will be working good, without problems and i can just enjoy my games.

 

[TheKawaiiPug]

Android or PSP is your best bet. SNES sound sucks balls because Snes9x 1.51's sound emulation is shit but far easier to port.

 

[cvskid]

I am newb in consoles. I bought classic snes console+games (quite expensive because i like old game. But i want some portable device, i am looking then for some portable emulator witch is capable to emulate snes, old segas and maybe ps1(not needed) its PSP 3004 best choice(i readed here the sound is not very good for snes games, its bad with headphones too?) and how dificult is to hack and emulate the console (never did smth like that)
Or should i buy some android console? JXD? something else?
Maybe nintendo 3ds xl?
I dont have problem to spend some money on it, if it will be working good, without problems and i can just enjoy my games.

You just might have to tweak the settings on the snes emulator for psp to get the best results. Also for games like Yoshi's island you can play the gba versions instead.

 

[TheKawaiiPug]

@cvskid gba version of smw2 was amazing. music isn't botched badly unlike SMW's either

 

[mino_o]

So psp 3004? PS Vita is bad for emulating?
Witch device for android? Is android consoles easier to emulate? or they have emulators instaled?

Flash it and instal emulator is doable by myself by the youtube videos?

 

[TheKawaiiPug]

Dunno with Vita-PSP comparisons.
PSP cheaper and easier to mod tho.

Android? You mentioned the JXD, I heard it's good

 

[cvskid]

So psp 3004? PS Vita is bad for emulating?
Witch device for android? Is android consoles easier to emulate? or they have emulators instaled?

Flash it and instal emulator is doable by myself by the youtube videos?

The ps vita for emulating isn't bad, just somewhat complicated. If you do the e-cfw or vhbl psp mods on the vita then you are basicly doing the same things that you would on a psp 1000 model. There is also rejuvenate which has emulators running in native ps vita mode but that is harder to setup vs e-cfw/vhbl and it has to be on firmware 3.51 or below last time i checked.

PSP overall is easier to setup for emulators, and you can have much more memory card space over using a ps vita which has cheaper memory to deal with vs expensive ps vita memory cards.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

So is there actually people who would play gba port of snes over SNES?

Which games and why? The gba games do offer more than the snes ones since it has more content in some cases, or just being available in the language not previously possible. But when do you play the gba port over the snes?

 

[cvskid]

So is there actually people who would play gba port of snes over SNES?

Which games and why? The gba games do offer more than the snes ones since it has more content in some cases, or just being available in the language not previously possible. But when do you play the gba port over the snes?

I do, like donkey kong country 3 for example. The gba version features new content within it as well as a new soundtrack by composed by David Wise, who worked on donkey kong country 1 and 2 soundtracks for snes.

Also games like mickey to donald magical adventure 3 which is a super famicom only game for consoles which never got an official english release until the gba where it is called magical quest 3 starring mickey and donald so the complete magical quest series is in english on gba unless you don't mind either getting a english repro cart or getting the super famicom version to have the complete series on snes.

 

[the_randomizer]

Android or PSP is your best bet. SNES sound sucks balls because Snes9x 1.51's sound emulation is shit but far easier to port.

I'm glad someone else agrees with me on that, Android is pretty much the only portable platform that has a port of Snes9x 1.52+, which has Blargg's S-SMP core; PSP doesn't have a good port of Snes9x at all. If he goes the Android route, an nVidia Shield K1 tablet with a decent Bluetooth controller will make it a near-perfect emulation device IMHO

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

I'm glad someone else agrees with me on that, Android is pretty much the only portable platform that has a port of Snes9x 1.52+, which has Blargg's S-SMP core; PSP doesn't have a good port of Snes9x at all. If he goes the Android route, an nVidia Shield K1 tablet with a decent Bluetooth controller will make it a near-perfect emulation device IMHO

I dunno what blargg is but i mean i use the Snes9x Emulator by EXplusalpha and it works Great, sound is never a problem, and looks good on HDTV Including the filters that go with it. You can see the obvious difference without the filter.
But i always wondered there was some games that advertised dobly digital surround sound like Super Turrican, Has anyone been able to use a emulator and surround sound at all?

 

[the_randomizer]

I dunno what blargg is but i mean i use the Snes9x Emulator by EXplusalpha and it works Great, sound is never a problem, and looks good on HDTV Including the filters that go with it. You can see the obvious difference without the filter.
But i always wondered there was some games that advertised dobly digital surround sound like Super Turrican, Has anyone been able to use a emulator and surround sound at all?

View attachment 55628 View attachment 55629 View attachment 55630

Blargg wrote the sound core for Snes9x 1.52 and above, which is the same audio core Bsnes/Higan have, giving cycle-accurate audio emulation; most emulators prior used inaccurate audio and sound horrible, I'd be more than happy to compare the two quite easily. That particular port is based off of Snes9x 1.43 which was before the better sound was implemented, people need to be educated on just how bad it sounds on the PSP.

Many games, like Earthworm Jim 2, have missing/garbled audio on inaccurate emulators.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Blargg wrote the sound core for Snes9x 1.52 and above, which is the same audio core Bsnes/Higan have, giving cycle-accurate audio emulation; most emulators prior used inaccurate audio and sound horrible, I'd be more than happy to compare the two quite easily. That particular port is based off of Snes9x 1.43 which was before the better sound was implemented, people need to be educated on just how bad it sounds on the PSP.

Many games, like Earthworm Jim 2, have missing/garbled audio on inaccurate emulators.

I never really used snes9x to be honest. The only reason why i do is cause most consoles (with homebrew) only have that, like the wii, android, playstation consoles.... ect. why all of them use Snes9x is not really important, since it works well and i guess considered well developed the best among people but on my pc i alwaysed uses Zsnes. Regardless of what people say about that emulator it works and it simple. I know i have to switch between 1.53 and 1.42 since the latter has the special chip emulation for some games like Super FX and SA-1 But is simple, has some fun options and the easy navigation. I do realize people use snes9x little more being it was designed as a windows program and zsnes was ported to windows from dos (I may be wrong) But i like it and it works.

Some of the sound settings i don't really understand like "Gaussin" or "Dyneric" Or some others but i just leave it alone. If i knew which each means then i guess it be different or think each game benefits from different settings and get better quality instead if trying to repoduce accurate console quality emulation like most enthusiast.