Emulation vs. real console

[Sandi1987]

Which is better? Console emulator for PC or real console (Sony PS1, PS2...)?

 

[TheELF]

Emulation allows for high resolutions and high frame rate so it's better (for games that are well emulated) not to mention that you can have all your games on the HDD instead of piles of CDs/DVDs but a real console always has 100% compatibility with all games.

 

[Rifter]

Original hardware is always better, as its 100% perfect at running the software.

When you get into emulation it can introduce issues, anything from textures not rendering properly to bugs that cause crashes, or even imperfect emulation of the maps causing certain points of the game to become unplayable and breaking the game. Sure some games work great with emulation, but some do not. Some work great with certain emulators, but are unplayable on others, requiring alot of tweaking of settings.

If you care about all games working flawlessly with zero effort on your part go with original hardware.

If you want to try to improve graphics or just can not get the original hardware then emulation is the best option, just be prepared to do alot of tweaking and trying different emulators to get everything to work properly.

Most 8/16 bit has reached the point that emulation is near perfect, but N64 and beyond is where you will start having to put time into settings and trail and error with emulators to get games to run well.

 

[zerocool84]

Original hardware is always better, as its 100% perfect at running the software.

When you get into emulation it can introduce issues, anything from textures not rendering properly to bugs that cause crashes, or even imperfect emulation of the maps causing certain points of the game to become unplayable and breaking the game. Sure some games work great with emulation, but some do not. Some work great with certain emulators, but are unplayable on others, requiring alot of tweaking of settings.

If you care about all games working flawlessly with zero effort on your part go with original hardware.

If you want to try to improve graphics or just can not get the original hardware then emulation is the best option, just be prepared to do alot of tweaking and trying different emulators to get everything to work properly.

Most 8/16 bit has reached the point that emulation is near perfect, but N64 and beyond is where you will start having to put time into settings and trail and error with emulators to get games to run well.

Yup emulation is never 100%. Look at at the NES and SNES Classic. They are very good emulation but it's still not perfect. No thing better than than running on original hardware.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I became fine with emulation many many years ago. Sure there are 'some' things that are not perfect on 'some' games (for just about every console), but most people just avoid them as they are well documented or have workarounds etc etc, or get the hardware..etc. In many many (if not most) cases, emulation is actually better - on many fronts, as opposed to the hoops you have to go through to just play them on actual hardware these days.

PS1 still looks ugly..no matter what

 

[shortylickens]

Emulators can pause and save.

 

[renz20003]

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011...ghz-quest-to-build-a-perfect-snes-emulator/3/

 

[JeffMD]

Emulators offer multitudes of convenience with minor accuracy issues depending on the console (n64, ps1/2, anything with 3d often has more than a number of inaccuracies). As far as 16 bit systems, graphically they are pretty spot on but the audio chips are still a little off, especially the genesis. Funny enough, the playstation 1, 2, and nintendo 64 which have amazing sound chips inside them are actually quite accurately emulated.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Original hardware is always better, as its 100% perfect at running the software.

Except when your Thompson drive decides to unmount the disc while running which either shatters the disc or scratches the hell out of it - then you're left with a game that you cannot play. There's also issues of older systems getting hair/dust built up inside them or a slight smudge on the laser which causes the console to randomly lock up on a perfectly fine disc. Not to mention the multitude of games out there with shoddy save/checkpoint systems that are prone to gamebreaking bugs/glitches that leave you with a save that you can't do anything with except delete and start over. Whereas with an emulator, you can use your own save points on top of finding an updated version of the game in case you were unlucky with the SKU that you purchased from the store.

Emulation has its fair share of issues like people have mentioned, but for running games up to the PSX era, it's far better to just use an emulator. For the Gamecube/PS2 era to current gen, it's better to use the original console.

Besides, I own multiple consoles from the Atari generation through the PS3 generation and while it's always great to plug in a game to the SNES and sit back with the original controller, I can't help but feel I'm putting unnecessary wear and tear on both the console and the cartridge when I could just as easily play it on my PC or PSP through an emulator.

 

[Ichinisan]

I haven't had a positive emulation experience for PlayStation, N64, or anything newer. The inaccuracies bug the hell out of me.

 

[Stg-Flame]

Really? Pete's is a good one for PSX and is highly customizable but some games just don't want to run on an emulator or you have to tweak the settings for specific games. For the PSX, it can be a pain in the ass just to get some games running, but for the most part, it will work flawlessly if you just use the standard plugin setup. Some PSX games I'd rather just throw in my PS2 and play them normally like Vigilante 8 2nd Offense so I can get the original maps from Vigilante 8 using the CD swap.

N64 works fine for every game I've tried it on (finally got Quest 64 to work too), but the only thing is the controls. For games like Mario Kart/Diddy Kong Racing, the controls were really weird and I couldn't adjust to using the PSX controller setup. Other games like Smash, Goldeneye, Quest 64, and some of the fighting games worked perfect.

But there were some noticeable sound effects during some games that couldn't be ironed out of some games like Goldeneye and it bugged the hell out of me.

 

[JeffMD]

Playstation emulation gets worse the more enhancements you try to use on it. Its pretty perfect if you stick with the 320x240 software emulation.

 

[ImpulsE69]

The PS2 emulation is pretty good (at least on what I've used it for). Dolphin for GC/Wii is an amazing emulator as well.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Being able to play some of the old games with an arcade stick is nifty as well.

 

[Stg-Flame]

There's some old arcade games I keep trying to find that I used to play out of arcade cabinets at our local laundromat and arcade, but all the versions I find online are ported SNES copies. I miss those Aliens vs Predator cabinets.

 

[cmdrdredd]

There's some old arcade games I keep trying to find that I used to play out of arcade cabinets at our local laundromat and arcade, but all the versions I find online are ported SNES copies. I miss those Aliens vs Predator cabinets.

It available on MAME?

 

[Ichinisan]

It available on MAME?

Around 2003, I specifically remember seeing someone play an arcade brawler on MAME that featured Predator.

[edit]
Maybe the emulator was Final Burn Alpha or something.

 

[JeffMD]

capcom's alien vs predator CPS2 arcade roms are easily available for Mame.

There's some old arcade games I keep trying to find that I used to play out of arcade cabinets at our local laundromat and arcade, but all the versions I find online are ported SNES copies. I miss those Aliens vs Predator cabinets.

 

[Stg-Flame]

If I remember right, I played the MAME version of Aliens Vs Predator but it was a ported copy of the SNES AVP. A lot of the arcade ROMs I found a long time ago were just ported versions.

 

[Ichinisan]

If I remember right, I played the MAME version of Aliens Vs Predator but it was a ported copy of the SNES AVP. A lot of the arcade ROMs I found a long time ago were just ported versions.

That doesn't really make sense. SNES would receive ports of arcade titles like Turtles in Time or Street Fighter II. I don't think may MAME compatible arcade ROMs would be SNES games ported to arcade.


The exception would be Super System games, which were basically SNES games in an arcade cabinet.


Super System Games:

• ActRaiser
• The Addams Family
• Contra III: The Alien Wars
• David Crane's Amazing Tennis
• F-Zero[1]
• Lethal Weapon
• NCAA Basketball
• Robocop 3
• The Irem Skins Game
• Super Mario World[1]
• Super Soccer
• Super Tennis[1]

I don't think any of those would be titles that originally existed as arcade titles before SNES.

 

[JeffMD]

Yea I have never encountered SNES to arcade ports for mame. I did encounter genesis ports in mame because Genesis did have a play 10 style arcade somewhere.

 

[razel]

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.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Dude, get involved into the mame community and get MAME ROM PACS!

For every release of MAME, there is a formal release of a ROM pack with all the ROMS that should work with that release.

Neo Geo emulation is seemingly perfect on Mame. Any popular games should work. Some require more CPU power (MK3 and later gave me headaches till I went from an i3 to an i5)

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Oh, I'd add that if you want to play N64 games that you just get an old N64. Last I knew, the emulation was not that good. It's the first generation of emulators that also don't emulate. They use a different technique that is not mapping chip instructions.

Soemone at work wanted to learn about emulation and in 2 days had an NES emulator working. Sure, far from perfect but it actually did work to some extent.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Oh, I'd add that if you want to play N64 games that you just get an old N64. Last I knew, the emulation was not that good. It's the first generation of emulators that also don't emulate. They use a different technique that is not mapping chip instructions.

Soemone at work wanted to learn about emulation and in 2 days had an NES emulator working. Sure, far from perfect but it actually did work to some extent.

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