Emulation vs. real console

[Stg-Flame]

I have played n64 games fine on the latest emulators. Yet to find a title that doesn’t work.

Which emulator do you use for Gauntlet Legends?

 

[purbeast0]

I won a Pong tournament last night on one of those retro Atari 2600 things. We were using paddle controllers too was pretty weird. There were some glitches like where if you tried to move the bar too fast it would get "stuck" and not move all the way to the edge. I'm pretty sure one of the guys said that is how it was in the original Atari 2600 as well but I don't remember.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Which emulator do you use for Gauntlet Legends?

Don't have that one. What doesn't work about it? I'll try it

 

[Stg-Flame]

Don't have that one. What doesn't work about it? I'll try it

It's been a very long time, but years ago when I was trying to get it to work, it would never load. The screen would turn black and that was it. After some major tweaking, I finally got it to load, but the moment I went to the character selection, it locked up. I forgot about it until now, but it was the only N64 game I couldn't get to work on an emulator.

 

[cmdrdredd]

It's been a very long time, but years ago when I was trying to get it to work, it would never load. The screen would turn black and that was it. After some major tweaking, I finally got it to load, but the moment I went to the character selection, it locked up. I forgot about it until now, but it was the only N64 game I couldn't get to work on an emulator.

Well, it loads both in Mupen64 on the Nvidia shield and the latest version of Project 64 on windows but there is a flickering screen during game play. Not a game I'd have even tried to be honest.

 

[Ichinisan]

I have played n64 games fine on the latest emulators. Yet to find a title that doesn’t work.

I try again every few years. Without exception, I always find annoying inaccuracies within seconds of launching any game.

YouTube videos tell me this is still the case.

 

[Ichinisan]

I won a Pong tournament last night on one of those retro Atari 2600 things. We were using paddle controllers too was pretty weird. There were some glitches like where if you tried to move the bar too fast it would get "stuck" and not move all the way to the edge. I'm pretty sure one of the guys said that is how it was in the original Atari 2600 as well but I don't remember.

I doubt it was like that on the original. It didn't have any sort of accumulator or encoder wheel for the position. Just an analog potentiometer connected through a DAC and mapped directly to the paddle position on screen. The potentiometer can go bad over the years and lose full range, meaning you might not be able to reach one side at all

 

[Stg-Flame]

Well, it loads both in Mupen64 on the Nvidia shield and the latest version of Project 64 on windows but there is a flickering screen during game play. Not a game I'd have even tried to be honest.

I haven't used Mupen in a long time and Project was the only one that worked (kinda). That was one of my favorite games from the N64 era and when I got my girlfriend into playing co-op games like Champions of Norrath, we had to try that one but my brother broke our only copy and finding another one was proving really difficult without spending a huge amount of money at the time. Tried to emulate it with no success, so we just got the sequel for the PS2, but I really wanted to play the original.

I'll look into Project64 again to see if I can't get it working now.

 

[Zodiark1593]

For the era of games the OP stated Sony PS1 and PS2. You really are better off buying them, if available, off PSN. They have been remastering PS2 games for awhile. The recently released Okami HD which is actually native 4k on the x1x and maybe PS4 Pro look awesome. Even Grim Fandango and Pyschonaunts look good.

For older consoles, get whatever is cheaper. At least you have many more choices/ways available to the enthusiast archive console gamer to attach via HDMI.

Well, if one actually has a PS3/4, getting a remaster would be a good idea. Remasters are also absurdly expensive as well. Case in point, Final Fantasy XII. I do have native PS2 hardware as well for games that don't play well emulated.

For PS1 emulation, a modded PSP works extremely well and is quite easy to setup. The biggest con being lack of L2/R2 and the right analog stick, though many games will work fine anyway. I used this for the longest time to run Digimon World, until the battery failed and I never bothered to buy a new one.

 

[Ichinisan]

Real enthusiasts, real consoles:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?isR..._ssn=cyberzer0&_sop=16&_mwBanner=1&rmvSB=true

 

[ImpulsE69]

I doubt it was like that on the original. It didn't have any sort of accumulator or encoder wheel for the position. Just an analog potentiometer connected through a DAC and mapped directly to the paddle position on screen. The potentiometer can go bad over the years and lose full range, meaning you might not be able to reach one side at all

have you used an original? That is exactly how they acted. Most likely from the contacts getting dirty and oxidized over time. but going 'fast' could cause stuck/skips, it wasn't great tech.

 

[CZroe]

have you used an original? That is exactly how they acted. Most likely from the contacts getting dirty and oxidized over time. but going 'fast' could cause stuck/skips, it wasn't great tech.

He only has about 6 Atari 2600 consoles. 😉

Yes, the pots suck but the jitters are not speed-sensitive. Ichinisan can demonstrate this with our own crappy Paddle controllers.

There are also identical-looking “Driving” controllers that did have a rudimentary encoder but those were only used for Indy 500, IIRC.

 

[Triloby]

If you want the most accurate experience, then I'd suggest going with the original hardware. That said, even the original hardware won't always last forever, and that is where emulation kicks in.

Like everyone else has said, the majority of 8/16-bit systems (both consoles and home computers) are almost perfectly emulated, and 99% of the time, old titles should run very well on such emulators. PS1, N64, Saturn, and beyond is where I'd say the original hardware is better.

PS1 emulation is better than the latter two, but that's assuming that you're using a non-plugin based emulator. Otherwise, plugins will just create more inaccuracies than you'd think. N64 emulation is still pretty flawed, even with all the progress made in that area. That said, it's still doing a whole lot better than Sega Saturn emulation. Even to this day, there are only two viable emulators for Sega Saturn, and they aren't exactly faithful to the original hardware.

When it comes to emulation, I mostly use RetroArch nowadays. It's a really nice program that organizes all of your roms and emulators (in plugin format) into just one area. Helps reduce the amount of individual emulators you'd have on your desktop, and gives you nice options like shaders, rewinding, better input response time, and netplay. The fact that RetroArch is widely available on so many different systems is also a big bonus to me.

 

[ImpulsE69]

BTW, the Virtual Boy emulator is pretty f'n'g good in VR. I'd never touched one or played the games before. Pretty impressive for the time period. Most of the games suck though.

 

[Ichinisan]

BTW, the Virtual Boy emulator is pretty f'n'g good in VR. I'd never touched one or played the games before. Pretty impressive for the time period. Most of the games suck though.

I love Wario Land for Virtual Boy. It's a real gem.

Really wish someone would make a homebrew Metroid game.