Your Favorite Emulators on PC

[Ventus]

I'm sure that a few of us emulate games on our Computers I know I emulate a lot of consoles I have my favorite one that I prefer to use over all other ones.

Nestopia - For all my NES emulation needs. I used to use FCEUX but for some reason or another I stopped using it... For the life of me I can't remember why I stopped using it.

ZSNES - This is literately one of the best Snes emulators I've found so many config options to mess with and use, like my favorite thing I've done with it is assign 4 save states slots to my right analog stick and I made the R3 click be Load a state and I made the L3 click be save a state. So when I'm playing I can save at anytime I want without having to let go my controller.

Kega Fusion - Damn fine Sega genesis emulator I used to use Gens+ but I finally stopped when
when I seen this emu in action through one of The Satellite' videos (I think he was doing playtrhough of levels from some Classic Sonic games.)

Project 64 - About the best 64 Emu I've used fast and smooth!

ePSXe - I had a choice between this and PCSX for playstation emulation on my computer and I went with ePSXe becuase it run the best on my old system :P

Visual Boy Advance M - GBA emulation at its best for me.

DeSmuME (DS) - I've been using this to emulate some DS games since version 0.9.9 (its now at 0.9.10) Its the fastest DS emu out there besides No$GBA.

DeSmuME X432R (Allows high textures in DS games) - I just found this not long ago and damn DS games look fine as hell with nice highres textures!

PPSSPP - The only PSP emulator that I like it runs super fast and has nice upscaling options and all that nice stuff.

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I can't say much about PS2 Emulators or Wii/GameCube emulators as I can't run them very good, I guess my dual core can't handle those games, But for all the others its fine.
I lot of the times I'll rip my own games like for PS and PSP but I will download the Roms for the games I own legally.

So what are your favorite Emulators on Computer?

[mrz84]

I use ZSNES for all my snes emulation needs. As for NES, I used to use an emulator called Nesticle. Eventually it disappeared and I switched to FCEU. I use VisualBoyAdvance for GBA games, and DeSmuME for the few DS games I play on it. :kitty:

[Brasel]

I mainly stick to ZSNES. I've been using that one since high school. I used to use Nesticle as well, but now I use the ZCUE one, whatever it's called. I honestly don't emulate too much, because I tend to blow money on old games, but they're nice to have for those harder to find games.

[SUCCESSOR]

FCEUX for NES. Seems to function perfectly if a little hard on my weak PC. Nothing very bad just a little hiccup here and there at higher resolutions.

For SNES I used to use ZSNES. It never let me down but I just cannot stand the UI. I have since been using SNES9x. It seems to be absolutely perfect.

I still have VBA for all things Game Boy but I hardly use it anymore. It isn't perfect but I never found anything better(years ago).

Recently started using ppsspp for psp emulation. The games I can get away with playing on my PC run reasonably well. I got most of the way through Maverick Hunter X before I lost interest in playing on a keyboard(still can't get my PS2 controller working on USB again).

I don't use a PSX emulator anymore but I did use ePSXe consistently. I hear there are better options now.

That's probably about it. Atleast for emulators I have used in the last couple years. I hardly play any emulated games anymore. Maybe if I get a controller up and running again.

[Chris Miller]

NES - FCEUX for playing, Nestopia for recording. I also use Nesticle for hacking. It's still the only emulator that lets you edit graphics on the fly.

SNES - ZSNES. Been using it since it first came out, and it hasn't done me wrong yet.

GB/GBA - Visual Boy Advance. I've used more Gameboy emulators than probably any other system, but this one's the best.

N64 - Project64. I've used this since the beginning too, no problems at all.

PS1 - ePSXe. Same.

Genesis/Master System - Fusion. This beats the crap out of Gens.

Gamecube - Dolphin. It's easier than finding a real Gamecube around here.

DS - DeSmuME. I'm not a big DS guy, really. Stylus controls aren't my thing.

PSP - PPSSPP. I wanted to play Dracula X Chronicles. It did the job.


Probably 90% of the games I emulate are older than the N64.

[Goriya]

NES - Nestopia
SNES - Various Emulators, depending on the game.
GBA - VBA
PS1- ePSXe
N64 - PJ64 Version 1.6
DS- DeSmuME

[Tim]

Just a few in the list already, but anyway...

NES - FCEUX
SNES - ZSNES
N64 -PJ64
PSX - ePSXe or psX
GB/GBA - VBA



My usual suspects.

[Saffith]

higan for NES/SNES/GB. mednafen's better for GBA for the time being. Kega Fusion for Sega systems. I'll use FCEUX if I want Lua, and ZSNES is good for ripping graphics from screenshots. That's about it. Never really bothered emulating newer systems much.

[King Aquamentus]

I really don't use emulators that *much*, but I do like ZSNES.

[Aliem]

I use higan for NES, SNES, gameboy, and gameboy color.
VisualBoyAdvance M for Gameboy Advance
Project64 for Nintendo 64
ePSXe for PS1
PCSX2 for PS2
and Dolphin for Gamecube. It also runs Wii, but I have never used it for a Wii game.

[SUCCESSOR]

I have heard good things about Higan but with a low end PC and no support for OpenGL I cant check it out. Same goes for Dolphin which I believe also requires OpenGL. Stupid integrated gpu...

[Aliem]

Yeah, higan is a double-edged sword there. It's the most accurate emulator for those systems, but because it replicates the hardware so perfectly, it is pretty demanding.

Dolphin is a bitch to configure, and the only game I ever got running well was Wind Waker. I was able to play through Twilight Princess and Super Mario Sunshine, but only Wind Waker ran smoothly for me.

[Tim]

Wind Waker was choppy for me and the audio wasn't processing right...I'll have to try it again sometime.

[Ventus]

This is the first time I've heard of the Higan Emulator. I'll have to take a look at that for sure! Though on the topic of Dolphin I've tried many times running it in the past but the only game I got running half way decent on it was Luigi's Mansion but it had an audio stutter that was totally unpleasant to listen to.

I've many GC/Wii games on Dolphin on my Current system and I just don't think my CPU can handle that emulator, but on the other hand PCSX2 does run but I just no reason use it. Not when I have my PS2 modded to play DVD-R backups using the ESR patching system.

I will say that there is one emulator that I wish I could have gotten running on my system... It was called RetroCopy it has a 3D launcher thing that is like a customizable house that you can place varios TV/Arcade of your games (Sega/NES/SNES/GB/GBC?).
I never could it to run good, I can say through I think it was made where you could make your ultimate man cave on your computer for free xD

[Gleeok]

Mainly:

SNES - SNES9X
PSX - psX
PSP - PPSSPP

I avoid higan, most (all?) ePSXe plugins and thus ePSXe, and DesMuMe simply because they will busy-loop all of my CPU into oblivion; I don't feel the need to have a dedicated gaming rig for the occasional retro-day.

[Aliem]

Mainly:

SNES - SNES9X
PSX - psX
PSP - PPSSPP

I avoid higan, most (all?) ePSXe plugins and thus ePSXe, and DesMuMe simply because they will busy-loop all of my CPU into oblivion; I don't feel the need to have a dedicated gaming rig for the occasional retro-day.Yeah those emulators alone certainly aren't worth the processing power. I like 'em, but my PC is my primary gaming machine.

I've ever tried PSP emulation, though - how is it?

[Chris Miller]

I've tried higan, but it's always been twitchy for me, even on a high-end system. I'd always end up having to play with the audio settings for each individual game.

[Gleeok]

I've ever tried PSP emulation, though - how is it?

PPSSPP is actually one of the most optimized and clean emulators I've come across. If I ever get an OUYA that's like the first thing going on there. :)

Been a year since I checked game comparability so I assume most the standard titles will be playable all the way through. Last game I played on it [Star Ocean 1 remake] there was an interesting bug where the player sprite was always drawn in front of the background layer. Turns out Tri-Ace was (intentionally?) exploiting a stencil buffer behavior quirk on the psp GPU. I've only ever had that issue plus one random crash while state-saving, and of course, the occasional game-dependent graphics glitch on every emu since systems started using GPUs.

[Ventus]

PPSSPP is really worth checking out, its updated regularly and has a wonderful GUI that easy to use. It runs most games at full speed.
Gleeok I think they have finally fixed that Star Ocean: First Departure issue. I have to game but I have to rip it to test it but I'm lazy and just feel like doing it :|
But from what I seen on the ppsspp forum the issue has been fixed at least I think it was?

[TheDarkOne]

When I do play emulators, I use these:

FCEUltra for NES
ZSNES for NES
VBA for GB and GBA
And one called Stella for real old-school Atari 2600. Yes, I still play those on the odd occassion.

Are there any good PS2 emulators out there? My PS2 died a few weeks ago and I'd rather not have to spend the money to replace it.

[Ventus]

TheDarkOne there is a ps2 emulator called PCSX2 (http://pcsx2.net) <-Homepage. It works pretty good but really needs a pretty decent computer to run it. I can run it alright I guess but I like sticking to the real deal system along with my FreeMCboot Memory card. :P

[TheDarkOne]

Well, I do have a fairly decent computer (a Dell Inspiron) but my main question is if it works like some PSX and PS2 emulators, where you can insert a actual game disk into your computer's CD-ROM drive and it will run it like it was an actual PS2. I once had an emulator (for PSX) that worked like that and I'll be darned if I can remember what it was called.

[Ventus]

Well, I do have a fairly decent computer (a Dell Inspiron) but my main question is if it works like some PSX and PS2 emulators, where you can insert a actual game disk into your computer's CD-ROM drive and it will run it like it was an actual PS2. I once had an emulator (for PSX) that worked like that and I'll be darned if I can remember what it was called.
Yeah it can run the game from the actually disk in the drive but there might be some lag playing a game that way on it. Best bet is to use something like ImageBurn and make a .iso rip of your ps2 game and load the iso of the game to play, it gives 80% performance boost!.

And that emulator for PSX you are thinking might be Epsxe I believe it has the loading from real disk option (Which was a godsend for when I started emulation xD).

[TheDarkOne]

One other question before I go downloading that emulator...does support Gameshark or CodeBreaker codes? I tend to use a couple of enhancements on the games I play. Well, okay, I cheat, but when you really think about it, the odds are stacked against you in almost every video game since their invention. So I use some cheat codes that level the playing field.

[Ventus]

One other question before I go downloading that emulator...does support Gameshark or CodeBreaker codes? I tend to use a couple of enhancements on the games I play. Well, okay, I cheat, but when you really think about it, the odds are stacked against you in almost every video game since their invention. So I use some cheat codes that level the playing field.

I believe you can use this http://pcsx2.net/download/viewcategory/44-cheating.html <- to convert codebreaker codes to .pnach where pcsx2 can use them. Heck You could also do this http://forums.pcsx2.net/Thread-PCSX2-0-9-8-Cheat-Code-Tutorial-Code-Breaker-Game-Shark-etc <- if you don't want to convert raw codes. (Its pretty simple).

Nothing wrong with cheating people can play anyway they feel they need to, heck I cheat on games as well. I play JRPGS and if I can I do cheat for max money where I don't have to grind for cash sometimes.

[TheDarkOne]

If I don't want to create ISO mages from my games, would the emulator allow me to use the CodeBreaker disk in the usual way (insert the disk, select the cheats, select the Start option, insert the game disk) or would I be required to create the CodeBreaker ISO? I ask mainly because it says the emulator wants a v10 CodeBreaker and mine is v9. The v10 CodeBreaker is extremely hard to come by, and the emulation site I know of does not offer PS2 software.

[Aliem]

I just had a Codebreaker ISO that I'd run. It works pretty much the same way Codebreaker works on real hardware.
But yeah like Ventus said, if your games run poorly, or if they're unplayable slow, rip an ISO and they should run better. This is becuase, from what I understand, PC DVD drives spin at a different speed than PS1 and PS2 disk drives.

[Ventus]

TheDarkOne Don't worry you can use your v9 of codebreaker it should run just fine. If you really want to find a v10 of codebreaker take a look around google and see if you can find an iso of it.

[TheDarkOne]

I hate to keep bugging you, but...is this emulator backwards compatible with PSX games like a real PS2? I aks because I have a few old PSX games that I still play (mainly Final Fantasy 7-9 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy)

[Ventus]

Sadly its not backwards compatiable, but you could always go get epsxe for psx emulation and you'll be perfect ;)

[TheDarkOne]

Well, I guess I can't use it, as it needs me to get the BIOS file from my PS2 which is impossible. I guess it will be much less trouble just to buy a PS2 somewhere and play it legally :P And that IS backwards compatible.

[Ventus]

TheDarkOne Ah I had that problem when I tried it too I didn't feel like dumping the bios of my system and I just downloaded some off the web, And I sent you a PM about the matter ;)