Console Emulation Thread

[aloysiusfreeman]

I bought a Miyoo Mini + a while ago and that has been my pride and joy in checking out older games that I had played as a kid but never actually finished. 

 

I want to get into PS2 emulation, solely because I have yet to ever play Silent Hill 2 and would like to get close to the original before the (possibly bust) remake comes out

[Fonze]

10 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

I'm currently playing through the whole Zelda series, Ship of Harkinian is awesome and I'm looking forward to playing OoT again with randomizers (have to do Master Quest first though). How exactly do the spoiler tags work, if you don't mind me asking?

 

Nice! There are a small few zelda games I haven't played at this point and they're all def on my wishlist at some point. Not familiar with ship of harkinian and master quest rings an unfamiliar bell; are those both mods I suppose?

 

I'm not sure wrt spoiler tags tbh. The two randos I've put most time into are a link to the past and hollow knight. Both of which do spoiler logs, tho I believe hk has spoiler tags too. Not sure the difference, if there is one. I could also just be getting confused at this point as its been a month or so since my last rando run, so grain of salt I guess lol. For alttpr, the spoiler file is a text document, it lists all locations and what they have, as well as all progression chains. Spoiler logs are usually extremely long, with stuff listed multiple times throughout so ctrl+f your friend here. Alternatively, when you generate a seed there's a thingy you can click on show a spoiler log in the web browser that has all locations by category. I'd recommend just making a seed you don't care about and browsing the file, or exploring it after you've completed a seed so you have some context on read.

 

More importantly than spoilers tho I think are the tracker tools. They are a recognized tool during competitions and a standardized part of randos. If you know a game well enough, have played it enough, watched enough rando streamers, or maybe you just like to challenge your memory, hey maybe you don't need it, but don't let pride otherwise get in the way of enjoyment 😃 As somebody who has a bad habit of not using trackers often, especially when playing on mobile where some can be buggy and switching apps breaks the flow, it sucks to "give up" on a seed, checking the spoiler log only to find that I forgot something really silly that would have been obvious if I had been using proper tools. So yeah, do as I say not as I do 😂🤮💀🪦

 

I hope you have as much fun with them as I have and gl!

 

 

Also would be interested to hear the state of Saturn emulation. Saturn had some super fun games that would be nostalgic to revisit some day.

[Kinsie]

1 hour ago, Fonze said:

Also would be interested to hear the state of Saturn emulation. Saturn had some super fun games that would be nostalgic to revisit some day.

Saturn is pretty good for accurate emulation via the Mednafen core (renamed to Saturnus in Bizhawk, Beetle in RetroArch), but basically don't expect any enhancements whatsoever from that - 320x240 or get lost. Kronos has some enhancements available like higher resolutions, but accuracy is lagging behind.

 

Basically, it's good enough to play most anything but don't expect Duckstation magic.

 

1 hour ago, aloysiusfreeman said:

I want to get into PS2 emulation, solely because I have yet to ever play Silent Hill 2 and would like to get close to the original before the (possibly bust) remake comes out

The PCSX2 nightlies are miles and miles ahead of the old stable release - they finally paid off all their tech debt and the Duckstation guy has pulled in his nice UI and performed a variety of miracles in sequence re: graphics accuracy and performance.

 

For Silent Hill 2, though, you might be better off finding a copy of the PC version (where you'd do so is between you and your priest) and applying the Enhanced Edition mod which fixes all the issues and downgraded assets and applies some nice creature comforts like bug-free native widescreen support and higher framerates.

[aloysiusfreeman]

@Kinsie I'm still a sucker that uses macOS. One of these days I'll likely get a gaming PC and I can go that route.

[Kinsie]

1 hour ago, aloysiusfreeman said:

@Kinsie I'm still a sucker that uses macOS. One of these days I'll likely get a gaming PC and I can go that route.

Fair. Could probably wrangle a dual-boot if you're still on Intel, or a VM or the Game Porting Toolkit if you're on one of those fancy new ARM ones.

[scalliano]

18 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

If you don't mind me asking, what are your specs and how well does Xenia and RPSC3 run on your PC? Hard Corps Uprising was an awesome game, I never got too far in it though.

 

My primary (gaming) rig:

6-core i9 12900k 3.2GHz

32GB RAM

12GB RTX 3060

 

My secondary (music and creation) rig:

12-core Ryzen 9 3900X 3.6GHz

32GB RAM

4GB GTX 970 (I have a 2070 Super, but my monitor is too old to use it)

 

Both emulators run about as well as they can be expected to on both machines, the only potential issue being game compatibility (Scott Pilgrim, I'm looking in your direction). Xenia is kind of a pain in the arse though, as different revisions run different games and the newest release isn't necessarily the most compatible (there is precisely ONE revision of Xenia Canary that runs the CAVE games and another ONE that runs Quake Arena Arcade).

[Fonze]

6 hours ago, Kinsie said:

Saturn is pretty good for accurate emulation via the Mednafen core (renamed to Saturnus in Bizhawk, Beetle in RetroArch), but basically don't expect any enhancements whatsoever from that - 320x240 or get lost. Kronos has some enhancements available like higher resolutions, but accuracy is lagging behind.

 

Basically, it's good enough to play most anything but don't expect Duckstation magic.

 

Oh thats cool to know! I'm not bothered over the original res of games, just being able to play them with good frame rate, low input lag, etc. in a similar way to how I'd experience if I were to play on console. I'll have to look more into that some time soon; would be awesome to play some of those again.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

On 11/3/2023 at 9:34 AM, Fonze said:

 

Nice! There are a small few zelda games I haven't played at this point and they're all def on my wishlist at some point. Not familiar with ship of harkinian and master quest rings an unfamiliar bell; are those both mods I suppose?

 

I'm not sure wrt spoiler tags tbh. The two randos I've put most time into are a link to the past and hollow knight. Both of which do spoiler logs, tho I believe hk has spoiler tags too. Not sure the difference, if there is one. I could also just be getting confused at this point as its been a month or so since my last rando run, so grain of salt I guess lol. For alttpr, the spoiler file is a text document, it lists all locations and what they have, as well as all progression chains. Spoiler logs are usually extremely long, with stuff listed multiple times throughout so ctrl+f your friend here. Alternatively, when you generate a seed there's a thingy you can click on show a spoiler log in the web browser that has all locations by category. I'd recommend just making a seed you don't care about and browsing the file, or exploring it after you've completed a seed so you have some context on read.

 

More importantly than spoilers tho I think are the tracker tools. They are a recognized tool during competitions and a standardized part of randos. If you know a game well enough, have played it enough, watched enough rando streamers, or maybe you just like to challenge your memory, hey maybe you don't need it, but don't let pride otherwise get in the way of enjoyment 😃 As somebody who has a bad habit of not using trackers often, especially when playing on mobile where some can be buggy and switching apps breaks the flow, it sucks to "give up" on a seed, checking the spoiler log only to find that I forgot something really silly that would have been obvious if I had been using proper tools. So yeah, do as I say not as I do 😂🤮💀🪦

 

I hope you have as much fun with them as I have and gl!

 

 

Also would be interested to hear the state of Saturn emulation. Saturn had some super fun games that would be nostalgic to revisit some day.

Thank you, I'll be sure to look into it since I really enjoyed Alttp! Ship of Harkinian is a full-featured port of Ocarina of Time to PC made possible via decompilation. You can play the game in widescreen 4k with no drawbacks, and there are randomization features built-in, as well as various options (disable navi, change color of clothes/items/hud/equipment, change hud layout, make pushing and pulling blocks faster, make the ocarina faster, etc.) and support for HD texture packs and models. Eventually the 3DS assets will end up getting transfered to SoH. Master Quest was an official release by Nintendo - it's a harder version of OoT that features remixed dungeons and new puzzles. I believe it is also compatible with SoH. They are currently working on decompiling Majora's Mask, and there also exists PC ports of Mario64 and Perfect Dark. Render96 was a cool project for Mario64, but I lost track of its progress.

[Kyle07]

On 11/3/2023 at 2:55 AM, Devalaous said:

 

One of the cools things about Duckstation, PCSX2 and now PPSSPP: They have built-in support for user-made achievements, which can make some old games have a fresh new breath of life when you've been invested in the modern gaming scene for so long. Personally I don't go out of my way to get emulators with this kind of feature, I was just lucky enough to have them added to PCSX2 and PPSSPP officially

 

 

I might look into that if my storage drive gets close to full, currently ive got a lot of .m3u files set up for all those multi-disc games, I feel like that might upset things there.

 

Also on the PAL-> NTSC thing, there ARE some PAL games that are technically better due to having more content or bug fixes, so its generally good to a bit of research there now and then. Its very prevalent with the PS2 especially, with stuff like Zone of the Enders 2, ICO and Final Fantasy X having much more content.

I also like the achievements. Unfortunately only NTSC games seem to have achievements, the PAL versions are missing them.

 

Yeah, I think the Crash Bandicoot series is an good example of having bug fixes or changes, which the NTSC release is missing. Also I think to believe that the Crash series is PAL optimized, so that the game is not running in slow motion. Maybe it is not optimized, but I had no compliant at all going from Crash 1 NTSC to Crash 2 PAL version. The minor framerate did not bother me, because the camera is anyway very static.

[Aaron Blain]

Finally getting into Saturn and Xbox emulation on my Steam Deck. I'm scouring game lists but I'm not seeing many good exclusives. Most Saturn stuff is better on the PSX or arcade, most Xbox stuff is better on PC.

 

Panzer Dragoon and Nights are cool. I'm excited to finally try the sequel to Beyond Oasis.

 

I'm hoping Xemu continues to develop because I really like some of the PC ports on Xbox, but most of the games I've tried so far don't work. It's cool to revisit Halo, though, and the Xbox port of Pirates! is by far my favorite incarnation of that series.

 

Also been getting into NES romhacks. Metroid Rogue Dawn is one of the best things on the console now. Some of the hacks for Zelda and Castlevania also are looking really good from what I've played so far.

 

I've been delving into the Sega Master System library but I'm barely finding anything worthwhile.

[LexiMax]

Those of us who are old enough to remember the 90's video game landscape probably remember the long list of video game consoles and accessories that didn't really catch on.  Among those, you might remember a system called the TurboGrafix-16, and if you are especially knowledgeable you might know that it was called the PC Engine in Japan.

 

However, something that you might not have known is that it was the most popular non-Nintendo/Sony game console ever released in Japan.  Yep, it sold more units than the Saturn, Mega Drive or Dreamcast.  This tiny little thing:

 

 

I've been trying out some of its back catalog and I am honestly astonished by how capable the system was.  Despite its marketing, the main CPU was actually an 8-bit 6502 variant clocked at 7 mHz.  Its graphical processor was custom-built by HudsonSoft, and its sound chip was a six channel wavetable-based synthesizer.  However, the most interesting thing about the system is that it also had a Sega CD-style attachment called the CD-ROM², and the format is actually home to many of the system's best games.  In short, it's a strange mid-point between the NES and Genesis capabilities-wise with a CD addon that was actually worth having.

 

So what kinds of games can you play on a TurboGrafix/PC Engine?  The system was mostly known for shooters and while they do make up an good chunk of the library, there are a fair number of good games that fall into other categories - Bonk's Adventure & Castlevania: Rondo of Blood if you like platformers, Dungeon Explorer, Neutopia and Ys if you like top-down action RPG style games, Valis and Splatterhouse if you like beat-em-ups.  It also had some pretty good Bomberman games, plus strangely some interesting video pinball games like Alien Crush and Devil's Crush.
 

So yeah, there was this pretty successful video game console that comfortably shared shelf space and marketshare with the Nintendo Famicom and Sega Mega Drive in Japan that most of us either never knew existed or had discounted as some sort of failed experiment in the vein of the 3DO or CD-I.

 

Dive into the library sometime, you might surprise yourself with what you find.

Edited November 5, 2023 by LexiMax

[Kinsie]

The PCE/TG16 is definitely a good time, especially if you're a fan of arcade-style games. Less meat on the bones for people who prefer deeper experiences like RPGs, but there's still some good stuff there like Ys 1&2 CD-ROM.

 

Also: I cannot emphasize just how small the Japanese console is. Far, far superior to the artificially-enlarged US model.

[Coopersville]

The first game I emulated in NESticle was Kirby's Adventure. Nowadays I have a modded Wii, a Miyoo Mini handheld, and an Everdrive for N64. I use them a couple times each week; last night I was playing some Shadows of the Empire. Before I got my Miyoo Mini, I had a Retroid Pocket 2 and a GPD-XD, but wasn't loving emulating on Android so I eventually gave them away as gifts. In the past I've dealt with jank famiclones like the SuperJoy III, so I'm pretty grateful for the emu scene we have now. I'll probably get a MiSTer next. 

[Dark Pulse]

Oh yeah. Been doing emulation for a long, long time. I remember trying to get Corn (an N64 emulator that could only emulate two games... poorly) to emulate Super Mario 64, I remember trading for ROMs in pre-Torrent days via P2P - that was fun. Heck, I still even got an image or two from that time.

 

 

Real emulation fans might be able to name one or two of those emulators in that quick launch bar. I'd expect only an elite to get all of them, though.

[taufan99]

45 minutes ago, Dark Pulse said:

Real emulation fans might be able to name one or two of those emulators in that quick launch bar. I'd expect only an elite to get all of them, though.

Hey, I remember (Win)Kawaks and ZSNES!

[scalliano]

I see MAMEUI in there too.

[Devalaous]

PCSX2's custom achievements just added sets for Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier and GTA Liberty City Stories, so its a good time to finally get into the console version of those. My brother and partner tease me about being an 'achievement hunter' but really, its just a fun way to experience classic games again

[Panzermann11]

Being a long-time Xbox fan, I just wish Xbox emulators would recieve the same amount love as RPCS3 and PCSX2 sooner. Xenia's UI is still too archaic and lacks features such as a proper menu, controller bindings, custom configurations for each game, support for peripherals such as Kinect and Guitar Hero, managers, proper BIOS/firmware and much more.

 

Plus, more games made playable would be nice. And Xemu... Tried Black on it, it seems to run like dog piss (read: constant stuttering), even in the main menu, and I don't know why. Even Xenia, an emulator for the old Xbox's successor runs games more faster than that.

Edited April 5 by Panzermann11

[Kyle07]

On 11/5/2023 at 8:39 PM, Aaron Blain said:

Also been getting into NES romhacks. Metroid Rogue Dawn is one of the best things on the console now. Some of the hacks for Zelda and Castlevania also are looking really good from what I've played so far.

Rogue Dawn is so nice! It is so cool to see what can be achieved with the Metroid 1 engine, which was in 1986 one early NES title.

The soundtrack is also memorable, I hear it again only when I think about it.

 

The composer, Optomon, made other great tracks on the NES. Some of them are for Castlevania hacks, which unfortunately never released. Here is his YT channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@Optomon

[MrFroz]

I am actually playing Silent Hill: Origins with PCSX2 right now. Last time I played this game, as well as Silent Hill: Shattered Memories was back in 2010 when I still had a slim PS2. I think it was only fairly recently that these two games became playable on PCSX2, and I really enjoyed playing each to completion. In fact, I started a second playthrough of Origins on the emulator. I think that I like it more than Silent Hill 4, although definitely not more than the first three games in the saga.

[Panzermann11]

On 10/31/2023 at 12:16 PM, LexiMax said:

Funny that you bring this up.  I actually found out a month or two ago that there is a cottage industry of handhelds made in China that are basically designed for playing emulators.

 

 

After doing some research, I actually bought a Retroid Pocket 3+ and filled it with my own ROM collection, and from there started to catch up on playing various Mystery Dungeon games like Shiren the Wanderer.  And yes, it runs Doom.  The official Bethesda port made for Android, in fact.

I've got a BSP D3, which is a gamepad for phones. One of the things I love about it is the face buttons have PlayStation's symbols and Xbox's letters altogether.

I really wish I could find more gamepads like this. Would've saved me from a lot of confusion when playing emulated PS games.

Edited February 16 by Panzermann11

[Halfblind]

This year I have been learning about all the classic games and consoles from the NES to the Wii. After watching most of the videos from the Virtual Gaming Library on YouTube (youtube.com/@VirtualGamingLibrary) I have quite a long list of games that sparked my interest.

 

NES/SNES

 

Emulators: Mesen is the best dedicated NES/SNES emulator that I have found. It supports NES, SNES and Game Boy games. It also supports modern controllers like the XBOX 360 controller which makes playing racing games much easier because it allows you to map the D-Pad controls to your desired thumb stick.

 

Favorite NES Games:

1. Formula One: Built to Win - Despite having Square Softs Rad Racer on the system hands down my favorite NES game has to be Formula One: Built to Win. This game is not just a classic arcade racing game, but it also has an RPG system bolted on. While playing the game you earn money to upgrade your car and then later you earn a license which allows you to purchase a better vehicle. The best thing about running this game through and emulator is that you can use a modern controller which allows you to map the D-Pad actions to your desired thumb stick. This actually gives you better control over the car which allows you to feel the road better. Here is my imgur screenshot gallery.

Favorite SNES Games:

1. Shoot 'Em Ups - There is surprisingly a large number of quality Shoot 'Em Ups (SMUPS for a lack of a better acronym). These include: BioMetal, BlaZeon, Darious Twin, Earth Defense Force, Gradius 3, Phalanx, and Darius Force. All I can tell you is that these games look good, but I can't tell you how well they play because I suck at these kinds of games.
2. Skyblazer - Then there is Skyblazer. This game is by far my favorite looking SNES platformer game visually. Again, I cannot tell you how good the game is gameplay wise, because I suck at 2D hack 'n' slash platformers. Despite my lack of skill this game is perhaps my favorite 2D side-scroller game on the system. This may seem blasphemous, but I think it is even better that Super Mario brothers in my personal opinion.

--

 

Next time I post on this thread I want to provide a list of the best Sega Genesis games visually. I'm posting this here as a reminder.

 

--

 

Quick PS2 List:

 

If you are in the market of buying a modified PS2 or emulating PS2 games on the PC here is a quick list of games that I think are highly underrated and are literal diamonds when it comes to hidden gems. I'm not going into a lot of detail here, but I might later, but I am providing a list here as a reminder to myself to talk about them later.

1. Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition Remix
2. Need For Speed: Carbon Collector's Edition (Out of the box runner up the XBOX 360 edition)
3. 187 Ride or Die
4. Burnout: Takedown
5. Burnout: Dominator
6. Burnout: Revenge
7. Cart Fury
8. Ico
9. I-Ninja
10. Maximo: Ghost to Glory
11. Maximo: Army of Zin
12. Okami (Remastered and available on Steam)
13. The Punisher
14. Red Dead Revolver
15. Soul Calibur 2
16. Soul Calibur 3
17. Scaler
18. Scarface
19. Shadow of the Colossus
20. Splashdown
21. The Thing
22. Whiteout

Please note that the Burnout games are probably better played on the XBOX but minus Burnout: Legends and Burnout: Paradise the PS2 has most of them on the same console.

 

 

[Dark Pulse]

13 hours ago, Halfblind said:

Skyblazer - Then there is Skyblazer. This game is by far my favorite looking SNES platformer game visually. Again, I cannot tell you how good the game is gameplay wise, because I suck at 2D hack 'n' slash platformers. Despite my lack of skill this game is perhaps my favorite 2D side-scroller game on the system. This may seem blasphemous, but I think it is even better that Super Mario brothers in my personal opinion.

Hell yeah, Skyblazer! Beat that one as a kid. Hidden gem. Solid soundtrack, too.

 

(Also it has the word "breast" in it, which is kind of surprising since Nintendo of America was still in full "censor it all" mode for a few more years yet.)

 

 

Edited December 11, 2023 by Dark Pulse

[Devalaous]

17 hours ago, Halfblind said:

Emulators: Mesen is the best dedicated NES/SNES emulator that I have found. It supports NES, SNES and Game Boy games. It also supports modern controllers like the XBOX 360 controller which makes playing racing games much easier because it allows you to map the D-Pad controls to your desired thumb stick.

 

 

It also supports PC Engine/Turbografx 16 and all its variants, meaning I can play stuff like Lords of Thunder with its CD audio booming out of my amazing sound setup and shaking the room in the process. I took the below screenshot to send to my partner to prove that Mesen could play at least 5 versions of SMB1 on the same program, spanning NES, SNES, Famicom, VS System and Game Boy Colour.

 

[Master O]

On 12/10/2023 at 6:08 AM, Halfblind said:

Favorite SNES Games:

1. Shoot 'Em Ups - There is surprisingly a large number of quality Shoot 'Em Ups (SMUPS for a lack of a better acronym). These include: BioMetal, BlaZeon, Darious Twin, Earth Defense Force, Gradius 3, Phalanx, and Darius Force. All I can tell you is that these games look good, but I can't tell you how well they play because I suck at these kinds of games.

 

Gradius 3 is a greatly improved and balanced port of its infamous Arcade game namesake.

 

The Arcade version is considered nearly impossible to beat.  It makes Final Doom: Plutonia look easy in comparison.

 

Darius Force is one of the few Darius games with a non-fish-themed boss fight in it.

[Dynamo]

I do remember trying Gradius III, but there were some performance issues, which I believe also happened on real hardware. Maybe with specific emulators those could be circumvented nowadays? The rest of the changes for the SNES port seem rather good.

 

In terms of SNES shmups, one worth considering is Space Megaforce. It was made by the same developers as Compile, and indeed the Japanese name is Super Aleste, and so it has some shared elements as Compile shooters on Turbografx-16 and Mega Drive. If you're into that style it is well worth checking out.

 

But as far as emulation goes, I've been playing mostly PS1 and PS2 games this year, with duckstation and PCSX2. I've been playing Choro Q 3, which got an English translation patch, as well as replaying Burnout Revenge which works beautifully on the PS2 emulator. I look forward to trying some more racing games of the time. Also, Racing Lagoon, a much-coveted PS1 racing game, recently got a fan translation too after many years, that'll probably be the one I play next.

[Kinsie]

23 hours ago, Devalaous said:

 

It also supports PC Engine/Turbografx 16 and all its variants, meaning I can play stuff like Lords of Thunder with its CD audio booming out of my amazing sound setup and shaking the room in the process. I took the below screenshot to send to my partner to prove that Mesen could play at least 5 versions of SMB1 on the same program, spanning NES, SNES, Famicom, VS System and Game Boy Colour.

 

I still need to update Mesen past the last NES-only release...

 

12 hours ago, Dynamo said:

I do remember trying Gradius III, but there were some performance issues, which I believe also happened on real hardware. Maybe with specific emulators those could be circumvented nowadays? The rest of the changes for the SNES port seem rather good.

Check out the SA-1 Patch. It modifies the game to use the SA-1 co-processor chip, dramatically reducing slowdown and load times.

[Devalaous]

36 minutes ago, Kinsie said:

I still need to update Mesen past the last NES-only release...

 

https://www.mesen.ca/ Here you go

[Kinsie]

2 hours ago, Devalaous said:

 

https://www.mesen.ca/ Here you go

Grazie. Not sure whether I'll use it for non-NES stuff since I already have other emulators (Ares/bSNES, Bizhawk/Mednafen...) that are either equal or better accuracy, but it never hurts to keep up to date.

[Marmiteman02]

I've recently got back into emulation with PS1/PS2 and Sega CD.