What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

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Calavera
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What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by Calavera »

I thought this could be a fun topic discussing which emulator everybody uses for which systems. I'm still using some emulators that I downloaded years and years ago and while I'm sure their are better ones out there I've just never bothered to look. You don't have to list every system obviously just the ones you emulate. I'll start it off.

NES- JNES I believe this is one of the first NES emulators I tried on PC way back in the day. I don't do a ton of NES emulation and JNES has always ran good enough for those rare times when I want to play an NES game. I haven't really tried any other NES emulators.

SNES- ZSNES I've been using this one forever. This is basically the only SNES emulator I've used on the PC since I learned about emulation in the late 90s. I remember when games like Pilotwings and Super Mario RPG wouldn't even run. I did download some other SNES emulator when I was trying to run the homebrew port of Road Avenger to SNES and I didn't care much for it. I love the ZSNES interface. I know the emulator itself is outdated but I like the interface of it so much that I've always stuck with it. I've read people saying how inaccurate it is but honestly it has never really given me any trouble. I've played many games on it and for the most part have had little to no issues.

Sega Genesis (32XCD Master System)- For the longest time I was still using Gens as my main Genesis\32x\CD emulator. I remember way back in the day seeing that Sega CD load screen coming up and just being amazed. Now I could play Sewer Shark and Road Avenger on the PC without having to replace my old Sega CD. Plus I could check out games that I never knew existed for the platform. I also remember when 32x emulation first came around and trying to run 32X games so slowly. I was really interested to play 32X games as I was a big Sega fan at the time and never got to play any as I like most people never owned one. After years of using Gens I finally discovered Kega Fusion. Ever since then it has been my main Sega emulator it plays Genesis, 32X, CD and even Master System!

Gameboy Advance,Regular,Color- I've not done much Gameboy emulation although I have a ton of games for it. The few times I've tried it out I have used VisualBoyAdvance.

Nintendo 64- I've used Project 64 since my early days of emulation. It hasn't let me down so far. I'm curious to know if this is still the one the majority of people use or is there a newer one I'm not aware of?

Nintendo Wii/Gamecube- Dolphin of course! One of the greatest emulators out there!

WiiU- Cemu is the only option and it runs a lot of games pretty damn good on my system.

3D0- 4DO. 4DO is the best 3DO emulator out there. Has played every game I've tried and even offers improved graphics on 3D games with Double Resolution Rendering.

Sega Saturn- I've only recently got back into trying to emulate the Saturn. I'm really surprised that Saturn emulation isn't much farther ahead than it currently is. In the early 2000s I remember running the hacked GiriGiri Saturn emulator and being able to run games at 2048x1536 at full speed and they looked amazing! Now in 2019 there is basically 2 options. Medafen or Yabuse. I know there is also SSF but I've never been able to get that damn thing to run correctly! As for Medafen or Yabuse I'm not sure which one I'd say is better as they both have their merits. Medafen has higher compatibility but only runs the games in their original resolution. Yabuse has lower compatibility but allows you to crank up the internal resolution making the games look much better. I'd say if the game runs ok in Yabuse then use that, if not then go to Medafen. For something like Panzer Dragoon I'd choose Yabuse as it seems to run just fine and being able to increase the resolution makes the game look so much better.

Sony Playstation- As far as I know Epsxe is still about the only PS1 emulator worth using. The compatibility is good and the games look much better than on the original system but I've never really like the interface of it. The plugin system is ok but the way it is all set up is kind of clunky in my opinion. I've never been to big into PS1 emulation. With PS1 it is usually load up a game and play for a few minutes then close it out. I don't think I've ever actually completed a game on Epsxe.

Sony Playstation 2- PCSX2 seems to be the only option. This emulator has been hit and miss with me. When trying to play Gran Turismo 4 I never could get it to run good, but Dragon's Quest VIII ran awesome. I played many many hours of DQ8 on PCSX2 with no issues that I can recall.

Sega Dreamcast- Ah the Dreamcast, if not for it this forum may not even exist and most of us would have never met. For the DC my prefered emulator is NullDC. I really like the extra geometry option which allows more of the screen to be displayed in 4:3 games, allowing them to run in true 16:9 widescreen. I've tried Demul and for DC games I still prefer NullDC. Demul however is great for Sega arcade hardware.

Sega Model 2- Model 2 Emulator

Sega Model 3-Supermodel an awesome emulator. I got really into Emergency Call Ambulance for a short time once I found out about Supermodel.



I think that about covers most of the systems I emulate. If anybody else posts a list it doesn't have to be as detailed as mine. It can be a simple list with just the system and emulator. I get carried away on forums and sub reddits a lot nowadays and end up posting super long posts. I guess I enjoy typing but I realize not everyone enjoys reading such long posts.

So what is your prefered emulators? I feel like most of my choices are pretty solid except for NES and SNES. I'm willing to try a new NES emulator but I'm so used to the ZSNES interface that unless they make a ZSNES skin for a new emulator I think I'm gonna stick with it.
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pixel
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Re: What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by pixel »

Nestopia has really good accuracy and runs well as an NES emulator.

For the Dreamcast, I would give Redream a try. The only downside is the full version costs $5, but that's pretty good considering its game compatibility and high-level BIOS replacement.

BlastEm is what I switched to for Genesis games. It doesn't run Sega CD or 32X, but it definitely worth it for the sound accuracy.

Personally, I use Retroarch and Big Box for everything these days. I think most of the cores are the same emulators you use, except I might use SNES9X instead of ZSNES.

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Dr. Zoidberg
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Re: What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by Dr. Zoidberg »

Bsnes with the HD Mode 7 mod.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2129

The emulators in Retropie.

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Big Boss Man
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Re: What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by Big Boss Man »

Project64 for the N64. It doesn't emulate the two Shin-Nippon (New Japan pro wrestling) games though.

Used to use ZSNES but have switched to the bsnes one which Zoidy has mentioned with mode 7.

For NES, think it's called FCEUX which has the Famicom disk system supported.

For Genesis etc it would be Gens

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Re: What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by Calavera »

pixel wrote: Sat May 04, 2019 12:14 am For the Dreamcast, I would give Redream a try. The only downside is the full version costs $5, but that's pretty good considering its game compatibility and high-level BIOS replacement
It looks interesting, I'd like to give it a try but not for $5 right now. Really NullDC pretty much runs any game I want to play nearly perfectly. I looked at redream and one huge advantage it has over NullDC seems to be the Shenmue load times. Before the PC release came out I tried to play Shenmue on NullDC but the load times were atrocious. I wonder if the arcade games in Shenmue run correct on redream? One feature I'm sure it doesn't have is the extra geometry option to display more of the screen in 4:3 games to make them true 16:9. That is one of my favorite features of NullDC, it works pretty good on most games although there will be some where it doesn't work great.
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Calavera
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Re: What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by Calavera »

Well here we are almost 1 year exactly from my last post and I decided to purchase Redream. Mainly because NullDC doesn't seem to want to run on Windows 10. It is fine the only feature it is missing which I mentioned in my previous post is the extra geometry to play games in 16:9. It has an option for 4:3 or 16:9 but all that does is stretch the image. I do like the menu it has which shows the cover art for all the games you have. So all in all it is fine. It also supports save states which I don't think NullDC did. I don't find it to be greatly better than NullDC but it isn't worse either. I suppose $5 isn't that much but still pretty much every other emulator ever has been released for free. It is kind of odd to have to pay for a Dreamcast emulator when a Wii U emulator is free. I don't really know much about programming an emulator but I'd imagine making a Wii U emulator is much more difficult.
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Re: What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by Calavera »

I've changed some emulators since 2019. I can't believe I was still using ZSNES in 2019!

NES changed from JNES to Nestopia

SNES changed from ZSNES to Snes9x

I mentioned in my last post but for Dreamcast I switched from NullDC to Redream. I really like the interface Redream has with all the game boxes.

I found a much better emulator for PS1. I switched from EPSXE to DuckStation. Duckstation also has a really nice interface that shows the cover art for all the games.

For PS2 I still use PCSX2 but it now also supports showing the cover art for all the games you have which is a major plus for me.

The only new one would be Yuzu for Switch emulation. I had Cemu listed before for Wii U but I haven't used it in years. Most Wii U games have a better version on the Switch now anyways.
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Re: What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by melancholy »

After decades of using Project64, I’ve finally switched to a more accurate emulator called Simple64. It runs games without having to mess with Glide settings, or really any settings at all.

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Re: What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by ian »

Of all the emulators you switched to Cal I don't really use any.

Duck station is really good, but still not as easy/good as burning a disc and real hardware. PlayStation hardware is so god damn abundant, piracy on the actual consoles is actually easier than using an emulator. and cheaper and more accurate. And that goes for PS2 AND 3 as well.

As for the Dreamcast, Well sir, I've emulated it in the past, and I simply won't be bothered again. Since getting my GDEMU clone, I've been enjoying the actual console more than I have in years.

About the only consoles you need to emulate are Nintendo's.. have you seen how much copies of Super Mario 64 can go for? I haven't played a nes/SNES game in like 5 years outside of a few hours of trying switch online.
It's either because I've played them all to death or have no interest in playing the ones I haven't already.

I'll have to give that one Mel suggested a shot. I've always loved project 64 because of its tendency to just work with very little fuck around, but if you reckon this is better with even less fuck around, then it must be a winner.
When I wanna play beetle adventure racing again I will try to remember this Simple64.

As for switch emulation.. I cant be assed yet, I had a friend dicking around with Yuzu... But in the time he got Tears of the Kingdom running perfectly exactly how he wanted it... the best the game can be on $5000 of PC and $7000 of screen, I'd already finished it and got sick of it, and he's played it for a couple of hours.

Some people love setting emulators up more than actually playing, and that's fine. But it's not for me.
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Calavera
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Re: What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by Calavera »

ian wrote: Tue Aug 22, 2023 3:57 am
Duck station is really good, but still not as easy/good as burning a disc and real hardware. PlayStation hardware is so god damn abundant, piracy on the actual consoles is actually easier than using an emulator. and cheaper and more accurate. And that goes for PS2 AND 3 as well.
The original PS1 is the only one of my consoles from back in the day that I still own. That is mainly because it isn't worth anything! I don't have it modded but even if I did I would still prefer emulation. With Duckstation I can immediately load up a PS1 game and have it played in high-resolution and also have the convenience of save states. If my PS1 was modded I might keep it hooked up to a CRT out in my barn with a handful of games. But overall I gotta go with emulation.

ian wrote: Tue Aug 22, 2023 3:57 am Some people love setting emulators up more than actually playing, and that's fine. But it's not for me.
I know that very well. I'm guilty of it myself. Not with emulators but with PC gaming in general. The last time I got a new graphics card I was running benchmarks in Tomb Raider and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Tweaking the settings and overclocking the card to get the best performance possible. That was over 3 years ago and I've still not actually played either one of those games. When a get a new video card it really does seem like I enjoy running benchmarks and comparing it to my previous card more than I actually care about playing the games.
melancholy wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2023 9:15 pm After decades of using Project64, I’ve finally switched to a more accurate emulator called Simple64. It runs games without having to mess with Glide settings, or really any settings at all.
I'm gonna give Simple64 a try after I finish this comment. I feel like playing some Starfox 64. I'll give it a try and report back how it compares to PJ64.
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Calavera
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Re: What do you think the best emulator is for each system?

Post by Calavera »

melancholy wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2023 9:15 pm After decades of using Project64, I’ve finally switched to a more accurate emulator called Simple64. It runs games without having to mess with Glide settings, or really any settings at all.
I gave it a go and it is OK I suppose but I'll stick to PJ64. One major feature I like that is missing is widescreen support. And I don't mean stretching the game to 16:9 but actually adding extra geometry to make it true 16:9. I think this is more of a limit of the plugin than the actual emulator.

I don't know if the widescreen setting works great in all games but the few I play it works great. I took a quick and crappy pic of my TV to show Mario 64 in widescreen. It works perfectly and looks great

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The few other games I've tried like Banjo-Kazooie and Starfox 64 also work fine. I'd imagine the only games it wouldn't work well on are 2D ones such as Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Killer Instinct Gold. Either way it is nice to have the option.
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