Best Emulated Consoles?

[poofyhairguy]

So nowadays I do almost all my retro-gaming (which is like 90% of my gaming) via emulators, but as everyone knows the quality of console emulators vary greatly. Given that, I wanted to get a feel for what you all think is the best emulated consoles to make sure I am not missing something and to help me prioritize my retrogaming (no reason to put effort out for a console that doesn't have a good emulator).

Based on my research/testing, here is my list of the best emulated consoles (on x86):

1. SNES - First of all it has Higan, which is probably the best console emulator ever, as well as the excellent Snes9x or SNESGT. Doesn't get any better IMHO.

2. NES - Also supported by Higan (though SNES is that developer's baby), but the NES has a few other great emulators in FCEUX, VirtuaNES, or the classic Nestopia. Heck I just emulate the NES in Mednafen for the ease of it.

3. Game Boy (Advance) - VisualBoyAdvance alone puts this one at #3. VBA-M is magic.

4. Genesis - I have only researched a little bit but it seems like Kega Fusion is one of the all-time best emulators. And it supports Master System/32x/Game Gear/etc. too so add that here.

5. Gamecube/Wii - Dolphin isn't the best emulator ever but it is amazing considering the life of these consoles (especially the Wii). Dolphin basically convinced me that this generation money was better spent building my own HD Wii rather than buy the HD Wii Nintendo would sell me.

6. PS1 - The PS1 seems to lack a THE emulator like the top 5, but it is not due to a lack of trying. I was always a ePSXe fan, but there is also PCSX, and its one of Mednafen's best modules.

7. Turbo Grafx 16 - Seriously. First of all there is Magic Engine, and Ootake is pretty awesome as well.

8. PS2 - PCSX2 is pretty amazing for what it is, even if it needs a ton of power and compatibility isn't perfect (so many PS2 games were hacky hacks though).

9. N64 - The N64 emulation scene is all over the place. On one hand you have these AMAZING retexturing packs that basically make classic N64 games playable at high resolutions. On the other hand despite a pile of emulators (Mupen64, Project64, 1964) none are really "great" if instead of enhanced emulation you want accurate emulation. Maybe cen64 will push this console up the list eventually.

10. I don't know what goes at 10! Saturn has so-so emulation. Atari 2600 has amazing emulation but Stella's GUI drives me nuts. I don't know anything about Dreamcast or Xbox emulation. DS emulation is coming up in the world.

What do you think? Is my list off or did I miss something?

 

[ChronoReverse]

I don't have a top-10 list but DraStic is by far the best emulator for the NDS on the Android platform.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Neo Geo? I mean it's mostly done through arcade emulators but the Neo Geo console was arcade hardware though so maybe that counts? Seems to be pretty decent from my experience.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I don't have a top-10 list but DraStic is by far the best emulator for the NDS on the Android platform.

Yeah, that is where the fun is these days for emulation- on mobile.

If I was doing a mobile list it would go like:

1. SNES (Snes9x port)

2. PSX (I like ePSXe for Android more than the PC version, FPSE also rocks if you like pluggins)

3. DS because of DraStic

4. GBA - My Boy! rocks

5. NES - Nostalgia.NES Pro has some pretty cool options

Honorable mention: N64 - There are many that seem to be all Mupen ports

And of course on both mobile and PC's RetroArch is starting to pick the winners (which is good and bad).

 

[poofyhairguy]

Neo Geo? I mean it's mostly done through arcade emulators but the Neo Geo console was arcade hardware though so maybe that counts? Seems to be pretty decent from my experience.

Good point. Neo Geo is off my map completely as I have never seen one that works. But arcade emulation is excellent so it makes sense if the "home arcade console" has good emulators.

 

[SaurusX]

Neo Geo? I mean it's mostly done through arcade emulators but the Neo Geo console was arcade hardware though so maybe that counts? Seems to be pretty decent from my experience.

Oh yeah. For the NeoGeo I'd definitely go with the MAME emulator. I've never had a problem using that.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Geez, if NeoGeo can piggyback on MAME that would put it around #3. Only higan is a better emulator IMHO.

 

[smackababy]

Oh yeah. For the NeoGeo I'd definitely go with the MAME emulator. I've never had a problem using that.

I'd recommend a side project of MAME, as the problem with MAME is 100% accurate emulation, not playability. Some things are playable while others aren't, and that changes between versions and builds.

Besides, everyone knows the best arcard games were on NAOMI and there is already NAOMI emulators out there.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I've been out of the DC emulation scene for some time, but back in the day Bleemcast was actually really good...and that was over 13 years ago. I don't know if anyones picked up with a decent one since.

Otherwise the only emulators I use these days with any regularity are PCSX2, ePSXe and Dolphin. I used to really like SNES9x but haven't really messed with snes emus for years.

And...not quite what you are talking about, but in the MAME realm is VPinball and Future Pinball. By themselves, they are quite cool "simulator/emulators (PinMame)" but create a cabinet, and they are jaw dropping (if you like pinball).

Same could be said once you do a MAME cabinet.

 

[mmntech]

4. Genesis - I have only researched a little bit but it seems like Kega Fusion is one of the all-time best emulators. And it supports Master System/32x/Game Gear/etc. too so add that here.
?

There's two options when it comes to Genesis emulators: Gens or Kega Fusion. Both work really well but I find Kega has a better feature set and handles full screen better.

I've had trouble with Dolphin for GameCube emulation. I've messed around with Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. The latter is especially tricky but I get frequent frame rate drops for both. It doesn't like dual GPUs for starters, though a single HD 6850 should be enough. I think it needs a faster CPU. The Phenom IIs were cheap performance but never powerhouses. Haven't tried Wii games with it but they supposedly run better than GC.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Dolphin has it's share of issues. The most common one I find is sound related. Popping sound etc is annoying and some titles have it worse than others.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Dolphin has it's share of issues. The most common one I find is sound related. Popping sound etc is annoying and some titles have it worse than others.

LLE with my DSP rom fixed my issues with sound.

But yes you have to throw a lot of power at Dolphin for some games. My Dolphin machine is my fastest one, a 2500k at 4.5GHz.

 

[cmdrdredd]

LLE with my DSP rom fixed my issues with sound.

But yes you have to throw a lot of power at Dolphin for some games. My Dolphin machine is my fastest one, a 2500k at 4.5GHz.

That doesn't fix all games. Xenoblade Chronicles for example. It's still very much work in progress I think too.

 

[poofyhairguy]

That doesn't fix all games. Xenoblade Chronicles for example. It's still very much work in progress I think too.

Oh yes, Dolphin is not finished. Heck maybe PS2 emulation is ahead of Gamecube/Wii.

 

[Fox5]

Dolphin is pretty solid for Gamecube emulation, less so for Wii, mainly due to performance.

Playstation and N64 emulation are pretty good too, and it looks like Dreamcast is pretty solid as well despite lower interest in the platform.

The 2d emulators are the closest to perfection though.

 

[Aikouka]

I downloaded a PSP emulator (PPSSPP) on my NVIDIA Shield, and it works surprisingly well. The only complaint that I have is that the Shield's d-pad is probably even worse than the 360's! Honestly, that alone makes Lumines rather frustrating at times.

 

[Graze]

10. I don't know what goes at 10! Saturn has so-so emulation. Atari 2600 has amazing emulation but Stella's GUI drives me nuts. I don't know anything about Dreamcast or Xbox emulation. DS emulation is coming up in the world.

What do you think? Is my list off or did I miss something?

The Saturn has SSF which is very good especially given the number of processors that need to be emulated and synced.

 

[sweenish]

PCSX2 is hands down a better emulator than Dolphin. It's compatibility list is much larger, and it's a ton easier to use.

psX, while not active anymore, is a dirt simple and great PSX emulator. I can't remember if there actually is anything holding it back from being one of the top emulators for the PSX.

 

[poofyhairguy]

The Saturn has SSF which is very good especially given the number of processors that need to be emulated and synced.

SSF is pretty good I will admit, but it is a closed Windows-only binary. All the rest of the consoles in my list either have good open-source emulators or at least cross-platform emulators.

Of my two emulation stations one is Linux, and I like to emulate on my Macbook often so I run into this stuff. Plus if SSF was open we could have a good Android Saturn emulator like the N64/PS1/SNES have.

I am keeping an eye on Yabause, that could soon change my mind about Saturn emulation.

 

[Sonikku]

If there's one thing SNES emulators lack, it's an ability to output the games in their original resolution that would fill a standard def tv. How cool would it be to output to your Sony Wega standard def flat screen from your video cards S Video out and get the actual look of an SNES game running on a Super Nintendo? Pretty awesome, I'd say. The best I can do is a super zoomed in, super pixelated look that fills maybe 3/4 of my standard def screen. The graphics are way too small on my 1080p monitor and making it full screen just makes it look awful so there's little I can do outside of firing up my old Nintendo.

 

[poofyhairguy]

If there's one thing SNES emulators lack, it's an ability to output the games in their original resolution that would fill a standard def tv. How cool would it be to output to your Sony Wega standard def flat screen from your video cards S Video out and get the actual look of an SNES game running on a Super Nintendo? Pretty awesome, I'd say.

I was doing that back with ZSNES in the day. It allows you to set a resolution that it will run full screen. I had it hooked to my old CRT when my original SNES died.

I will admit I haven't messed with that in ages. CRTs are dead to me, I only keep one for eventual grey haired nostalgia.

The graphics are way too small on my 1080p monitor and making it full screen just makes it look awful so there's little I can do outside of firing up my old Nintendo.

I will admit many old consoles look pretty terrible on LCD/LED monitors. The sharpness is too unforgiving compared to our old CRTs. My Panasonic plasmas do a much better job than any LED I have seen with retogames, but only when they get an excellent digital source (so only emulators).

But with Snes9x you can run custom OpenGL filters to fix up the picture quality. Run an anti aliasing OpenGL filter along with maybe 12% scanlines and you have something that looks downright nice without losing the retro feel on a HD LCD.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

10) Find me an Atari 5200 emulator.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Oh yeah. For the NeoGeo I'd definitely go with the MAME emulator. I've never had a problem using that.

I have a Mame Cab at home. I would definitely say that Mame is THE way to do Neo Geo.

And to clarify something. The arcade Neo Geo systems were just the home consoles - modified to accept 4 cartridges.

 

[poofyhairguy]

PCSX2 is hands down a better emulator than Dolphin. It's compatibility list is much larger, and it's a ton easier to use.

Sure, I don't use PCSX2 enough to argue against that. I gave Dolphin a boost in my list because it emulates a more modern console, but really that is only because the Wii was "two Gamecubes taped together" or whatever. Plus I use Dolphin more because some Wii games are actually pretty good when the graphics aren't low-res crap. Unlike every other console in the list my first Wii gaming experiences are mostly coming via emulator. Heck I stopped playing Zelda TP back in the day because "one day I will be able to run this game at 1080p and do it justice."

 

[tential]

Oh yes, Dolphin is not finished. Heck maybe PS2 emulation is ahead of Gamecube/Wii.

PS2 emulator is ahead of the Dolphin emulator.

Dolphin has the capability of making newer games though look like technological pieces of art with a good system (Ok took a little far but who doesn't want to play the latest Zelda game with supersampling?).

The emulators that mattered to me most though were SNES/NES emulators. These worked perfectly on the PSP basically allowing you to have a handheld emulator. SNES, NES, PS1 games (GBA too I just didn't have it), were all capable of being played. So I'm partial to SNES/NES/GBA becuase of the number of mobile platforms you can play them on.