Hacking which classics would you play first via emulation?

[PaulB75]

Hi,

I've just bought a psp and been reading up on the emulation scene. However having missed out on consoles prior to ps3 due to being a pc gamer, am wondering if you would kindly recommend your favourite retro games to play.

Thanks

 

[ody81]

Grab gpsp and google for Quirkys gba homebrew and you'll find Lords of Midnight, Chaos and Elite ports for the gba.

These are kickass games from when I was a youngster on pc/c64, they are amazingly good even today.

Other than that, start with the all time classics, arcade versions of ms. pacman, tempest, defender, tapper, that kind of stuff.
Depends what you're into, I totally recommend Quirkys GBA stuff though to just about anyone. If you can get past speccy/bbc graphics then you're set!

 

[TecXero]

Spoiler: GBA

Wario Land 4
Metroid Fusion
Metroid Zero Mission
The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
Final Fantasy VI (with the sound and sprite restoration patches, this port is great)
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Drill Dozer
Fire Emblem
Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade (requires the fan translation patch for those of us that don't speak English)
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (also requires a fan translation patch)
Mother 3 (requires a fan translation patch as well)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (better than the SNES version in my opinion)
Golden Sun
Golden Sun 2
Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland
Steel Empire
Mario & Luigi
Mega Man X
Mega Man X2
Mega Man X3
There are plenty of great GBA games, so this is just to start you off.

Spoiler: GB/C

Shantae
Kirby's Dreamland 2
Wario Land 2
Wario Land 3
I'm drawing a blank on this right now

Spoiler: SGG

Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic 2
Sonic Chaos
Sonic Triple Deluxe
Lunar Magic School
Tails Adventure

Spoiler: PS1

Chrono Trigger (DS version is better in my opinion, but good luck getting that version working at a playable speed on your PSP)
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy IX
Spyro
Spyro 2
Spyro: Year of the Dragon
Crash Bandicoot
Crash 2
Crash 3
Legend of Dragoon
R-type
Mega Man X4
Mega Man X5
Mega Man X6
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Spoiler: SNES

Earthbound (if you can actually manage to find a copy. If not, you can order the GBA Japanese version and use an English patch)
Gradius 3
Mario RPG
I seem to be drawing a blank on good SNES games that haven't had a superior port to the GBA or to some other handheld/console.

Spoiler: SMD/Gen

Sonic The Hedgehog
Sonic 2
Sonic 3 & Knuckles
Sonic CD
Vectorman
Vectorman 2
Shining Force
Shining Force 2
Phantasy Star 2
Phantasy Star 3
Phantasy Star 4
Battletoads & Double Dragon (SNES version is also good, it just comes down to audio preference)

That should get you started.

 

[PaulB75]

Thanks both, appreciate it and really helpful. Would be interested to hear others personal favourites and reason why. Eg I'm looking forward to playing golden axe as used to spend all my 10ps with my brother in the arcade as a kid. Guess I'm looking as much for a nostalgia thread now I've got some recommendations.

 

[TecXero]

Thanks both, appreciate it and really helpful. Would be interested to hear others personal favourites and reason why. Eg I'm looking forward to playing golden axe as used to spend all my 10ps with my brother in the arcade as a kid. Guess I'm looking as much for a nostalgia thread now I've got some recommendations.

The Golden Axes run fine, I just didn't include them due to them being more multiplayer oriented, though I probably shouldn't have included Battletoads, either. There's also some great homebrew games and ports. There's a good port of vanilla Cave Story for the PSP.

 

[Shady Guy Jose]

If you're looking for peoples' personal console favorites, I've got a big list here that you can either emulate on PSP or PC (I'll list which). I'll also try to separate by series and genre. When I suggest a whole series, I am suggesting you try the first one and play the rest if you like it, obsiously.

Actually PSP, or better emulated on PSP:

RPGs:
Pokémon Fire Red/Leaf Green (GBA) - this applies to all main series Pokémon games on GB/GBC/GBA, these are just the ones I feel may be best suited for a beginner to the series
Megaman Battle Network 1-6 (GBA)
Tales of Phantasia (PSX) - with an English translation patch you can easily find, and you will need to look up how to convert PSX games to PSP
Tales of Destiny (PSX) - released in English, though nowhere near as good as Phantasia
Tales of Eternia (PSP)
Final Fantasy VII (PSX) - I bet you saw this one coming
Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII (PSP)
Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PSP) - be sure to play this series in release order, the story is way too convoluted to juggle games

Platformers:
Sonic the Hedgehog 1-3 and Sonic & Knuckles (Mega Drive/Genesis)
Sonic Advance 1-3 (GBA)
Super Mario Bros. and World series (NES/SNES) - some are remade in the Super Mario Advance series, see below
Super Mario Advance 1-4 (GBA) - in this case, I especially suggest 4
Megaman 1-6 (NES)
Megaman X1-X3 (SNES)
Megaman Powered Up (PSP) - remake of Megaman (NES)
Megaman Maverick Hunter X (PSP) - remake of Megaman X (SNES), see below
Megaman Zero 1-4 (GBA)

Adventure:
The Legend of Zelda (NES)
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES/GBA)



Emulated on PC:

RPGs:
Kingdom Hearts 1, Re: Chain of Memories and 2 (PS2) - in this order, with Birth by Sleep afterwards
Tales of the Abyss (PS2)
Tales of Sypmhonia (GameCube)

Platformers:
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (GameCube)
Megaman X7-X8 (PS2)

Adventure:
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)



Trade-off between portability and performance or button accuracy:

Platformers:
Megaman X4-X6 (PSX) - They run perfectly on PSP, since you can convert PSX games, but having to map L2/R2 to either the analog stick or the D-Pad may be an issue with platformers, which is why I suggested the PSX RPGs in the PSP section, but these here

This is a long, but not all-inclusive list of my personal favorites. They are too many to remember. I'll be sure to write more of them if they come to mind.

 

[GHANMI]

Get Little Ralph (PS1), Super Mario Advance 4 with the e-Reader saves (GBA), and all four SNES Ganbare Goemon games.

 

[Hargrun]

All Kirby stuff to begin, mainly Kirby Super Star (that is unplayable, unfortunately).

 

[Skull Kiddo]

A Link to the Past (SNES)
Pokémon Gold/Silver (GBC)
Oh and Sonic Genesis (GBA)




just kidding dont play that rly bad port. theres a much better port out there

 

[Arecaidian Fox]

There's also Daedalus64, a Nintendo 64 emulator. It's a bit laggy, but it's decent if you don't have a phone that's got enough under the hood, to say nothing about a good Bluetooth gamepad. If you go for that, they actually have both signed and unsigned versions. I would suggest doing unsigned, as the best way to use the emulator is with CFW so you can max out the clock speed on the PSP. Otherwise your 64 games will run even slower.

EDIT: Oh, and my game of choice with that would be Star Fox 64 (Lylat Wars would be your localized version). It plays reasonably well under the conditions I mentioned above.