Best Emulators List?

[bkenobi]

I was just thinking about my emulator setups and all the configs that Nologic et. al. came up with. I know there are a bunch of them out there for basically every system, but I was wondering if those people who enjoy playing with each one can maybe come up with a list of the best emu for each system. I was thinking this would be good for noobs and those who aren't afforded the time to play with each one until they know each one's quirks to determine the best one. I understand that things change from version to version, but the list would only need to be updated if something drastic happened. Otherwise, a couple could be listed. Maybe a quick description of what is better about each would be good, I don't know.

Anyway, if a list already exists, perhaps it should be stickied or put on the main GameEx.net page somewhere. Just a thought...

[Brian Hoffman]

I was just thinking about my emulator setups and all the configs that Nologic et. al. came up with. I know there are a bunch of them out there for basically every system, but I was wondering if those people who enjoy playing with each one can maybe come up with a list of the best emu for each system. I was thinking this would be good for noobs and those who aren't afforded the time to play with each one until they know each one's quirks to determine the best one. I understand that things change from version to version, but the list would only need to be updated if something drastic happened. Otherwise, a couple could be listed. Maybe a quick description of what is better about each would be good, I don't know.

Anyway, if a list already exists, perhaps it should be stickied or put on the main GameEx.net page somewhere. Just a thought...

Emus are always changing. And alot have diffrent pluses and minuses beside emulation accuracy.. Like video filters and net play etc...

I use

zsnes- supernintendo

vba- gba / gb

Gens 32 surreal- genesis,sega cd,sega 32x

nestopia- nes

nulldc- dreamcast

psx- playstation

And some others I cannot remember off the top of my head.

[Nologic]

Quick picks:

[Arcade] AAE

[Arcade] CPS-3

[Arcade] FB Alpha

[Arcade] ZiNc

[Console] Amiga CD32 (WinUAE)

[Console] Atari 2600 (Stella)

[Console] Atari 5200 (Jum52)

[Console] Atari 7800 (ProSystem)

[Console] Atari Jaguar (Project Tempest)

[Console] Bally Astrocade (MESS)

[Console] Coleco Vision (Meka)

[Console] Emerson Arcadia 2001 (WinArcadia)

[Console] Fairchild Channel F (MESS)

[Console] Fujitsu FM-Towns Marty (UNZ)

[Console] GCE Vectrex (ParaJVE)

[Console] Magnavox Odyssey 2 (02EM)

[Console] Mattel Intellivision (Bliss)

[Console] NEC PC-FX (MagicEngine-FX)

[Console] NEC SuperGrafx (Mednafen)

[Console] NEC TurboGrafx 16 (MagicEngine)

[Console] NEC TurboGrafx CD (MagicEngine)

[Console] Nintendo Famicom Disk System (Mednafen)

[Console] Nintendo N64 (1964) - updated plugins

[Console] Nintendo NES (Nestopia)

[Console] Nintendo SNES (ZSNES)

[Console] Panasonic 3DO (FreeDo)

[Console] RCA Studio II (MESS)

[Console] Sega 32x (Fusion)

[Console] Sega CD (Fusion)

[Console] Sega Dreamcast (Makaron)

[Console] Sega Genesis (Fusion)

[Console] Sega Master System (Fusion)

[Console] Sega Saturn (SSF)

[Console] Sega SG-1000 (Meka)

[Console] SNK Neo-Geo AES (WinKawaks)

[Console] SNK Neo-Geo CD (NeoRaine)

[Console] Sony Playstation (pSX)

[HandHeld] Atari Lynx (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] Bandai Wonderswan (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] Bandai Wonderswan Color (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] Entex Adventure Vision (MESS)

[HandHeld] Nintendo GameBoy (VisualBoyAdvance)

[HandHeld] Nintendo GameBoy Advance (VisualBoyAdvance)

[HandHeld] Nintendo GameBoy Color (VisualBoyAdvance)

[HandHeld] Sega Game Gear (Fusion)

[HandHeld] SNK Neo-Geo Pocket (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] SNK Neo-Geo Pocket Color (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] Watara Supervision (MESS)

[PC] Amstrad CPC (WinApe)

[PC] Commodore 64 (WinVice)

[PC] Commodore 128 (WinVice)

[PC] Commodore Amiga (WinUAE)

[PC] Dragon 64 (MESS)

[PC] Microsoft DOS (DOSBox)

[PC] Microsoft MSX (blueMSX)

[PC] SAM Coupe (SimCoupe)

[bkenobi]

Wow, thanks!

[Nologic]

Well I'll likely be giving Gens32 another try as I've discovered that after applying a patch for XP SP2 running on AMD64 X2 my issues with getting any build of Gens to run has been fixed...and Gens32 which did work prior...but stayed in memory...now no longer stays in memory...so my perspective on that one is likely to change...not sure if I'll prefer it over Fusion...but I certainly won't frown about it anymore.

[Stu1983]

Nologic I see you've choose Makaron for your Dreamcast needs, I haven't tried this yet I'm still using NUllDC is Makaron better? Or do you still have 'issues' so to speak with NullDC

Stu

[Nologic]

Some things are better in Makaron...some things worse...so its a matter of pref's right now more than one being better than the other...I don't directly have issues with nullDC...hehe just the DC.

[Stu1983]

Some things are better in Makaron...some things worse...so its a matter of pref's right now more than one being better than the other...I don't directly have issues with nullDC...hehe just the DC.

Cool, I must give it a blast

Stu

[LucasBarton]

Good list, but I'm not sure about Nestopia now. It has good compatibility, but I hate that the cursor hangs around for a second or two after the game starts and hitting ESC brings up the taskbar for a second before returning to GameEX. Jnes is a really good NES emulator that works good with GameEX.

[chooka1]

Some things are better in Makaron...some things worse...so its a matter of pref's right now more than one being better than the other...I don't directly have issues with nullDC...hehe just the DC.

I havent tried emulating Dreamcast yet. I have an arcade cab with the 6 button street fighter layout. May I ask how well Dreamcast games work when emulated and if my button config would work well? I used to LOVE Powerstone.

Chad

[bkenobi]

A 6 button layout should work fine. The DC uses 4 buttons + 2 triggers. Some of those fighting games were awkward with the trigger buttons. However, my MadCat controllers had 6 buttons + 2 triggers (the extra buttons were just remapped from the triggers and digital). As long as you have an extra button for start, you should be good (well, except you will lose the analog stick function).

[Stu1983]

I havent tried emulating Dreamcast yet. I have an arcade cab with the 6 button street fighter layout. May I ask how well Dreamcast games work when emulated and if my button config would work well? I used to LOVE Powerstone.

Chad

Dreamcast works great with a standard 6 button config, that's what I've been using for months now

Stu

[puppetj]

[Console] Atari 7800 (ProSystem)

your using the command line options in gameex right? thats the only way i can get it running, it loads up the way i want it but, for some reason the controls done work if i use the command line:

ProSystem.exe -Fullscreen 1 -Region AUTO -MenuEnabled 0 -Zoom 4 "[ROMPath]\[RomFile]"

any ideas?

[IMBerzerk]

MESS -

ColecoVision

2600

5200

7800

Channel F

Vectrex - including all overlays

NES

I use all of these under in MESS as it was easy to set up, and gives a good look with the HW Stretching enabled. Plus it's all under 1 umbrella.

I use Nostalgia for INTV support, but I might switch to Bliss. MESS does not support BIN and INT file extension, and does not support the Classic Game Controller, which allows you to play INTV games with original INTV controllers.

IMBerzerk

[Tempest]

your using the command line options in gameex right? thats the only way i can get it running, it loads up the way i want it but, for some reason the controls done work if i use the command line:

ProSystem.exe -Fullscreen 1 -Region AUTO -MenuEnabled 0 -Zoom 4 "[ROMPath]\[RomFile]"

any ideas?

I found this on the atariage forum:

Hi,

The ProSystem emulator is a great little emulator which unfortunately does not have direct support of game controllers. Hopefully, if/when there is a new version released it will add support of such devices. Currently, there is only keyboard support.

There is a way to obtain controller support indirectly though. Look for a program called KeytoJoy (Key2Joy). It maps keyboard inputs to your controller. Furthermore, many controllers come with profiling software which also can perform such a task.

-Trebor

If you really want to do this, use xpadder. As IMBerzerk said, I use Mess. It runs alot of stuff, and is easy to setup. I don't use gamepads though... of course you didn't say that you are, I'm assuming again....

[puppetj]

I found this on the atariage forum:

If you really want to do this, use xpadder. As IMBerzerk said, I use Mess. It runs alot of stuff, and is easy to setup. I don't use gamepads though... of course you didn't say that you are, I'm assuming again....

well i said if i use the command line, the version iam using must be newer then what you used because it supports controllers, but if i use the command line options which i need to in gameex the controllers dont work. so who knows why? i email the creator and been waiting back to hear from him, its been a week but if Nologic or anyone else can help me please do, thanks

[Visitor Q]

Currently what I have sat up in Game Ex.

Arcade (Mame *Compiled 64 Bit Version)

Arcade Fighting (Mugen)

Arcade Laser Disc Games (Daphne)

Arcade Sega Model 2 (Model 2 *64 Bit Compiled Version)

Arcade Sega Naomi (nullDC)

Arcade ZN1, ZN2 and System 11 (Zinc)

Atari 2600 (Stella)

Atari Jaguar (Virtual Jaguar *64 Bit Compatable Version)

Future Pinball

Neo-Geo (Mame)

Neo-Geo Pocket Color (NeoPop)

Nintendo N64 (Project N64)

Nintendo NES (Nestopia)

Nintendo SNES (ZNES)

Sega 32X (Fusion)

Sega CD (Fusion)

Sega Dreamcast (nullDC)

Sega Genesis (Fusion)

Sega Master System (Fusion)

Sega Saturn (SSF)

Sony PSX (ePSXe)

Turbo Graphx (Magic Engine)

Turbo Graphx CD (Magic Engine)

Visual Pinball

[fRequEnCy]

well i said if i use the command line, the version iam using must be newer then what you used because it supports controllers, but if i use the command line options which i need to in gameex the controllers dont work. so who knows why? i email the creator and been waiting back to hear from him, its been a week but if Nologic or anyone else can help me please do, thanks

Unfortunately Nologic is no longer a part of this community.

Give me till later today and I'll take a look at it for you.

[fRequEnCy]

well i said if i use the command line, the version iam using must be newer then what you used because it supports controllers, but if i use the command line options which i need to in gameex the controllers dont work. so who knows why? i email the creator and been waiting back to hear from him, its been a week but if Nologic or anyone else can help me please do, thanks

Ok. Here's what I came up with. When launching with command line parameters it doesn't use the ProSystem.ini that it uses when launching without parameters. This i'm sure you have discovered and which is why it's not loading your joystick setup. Here's the fix. Just run from command line and setup your joystick again and it will work from then on.

[IMBerzerk]

Ok. Here's what I came up with. When launching with command line parameters it doesn't use the ProSystem.ini that it uses when launching without parameters. This i'm sure you have discovered and which is why it's not loading your joystick setup. Here's the fix. Just run from command line and setup your joystick again and it will work from then on.

Guys, I'm just curious. Why fight with this to make it work, when MESS works great with all Atari emulation? I have the 7800 working without an issue, but then again, I never owned a 7800. Is there something I am missing? Does MESS lack the correct setup for the joysticks?

Thanks

[fRequEnCy]

Guys, I'm just curious. Why fight with this to make it work, when MESS works great with all Atari emulation? I have the 7800 working without an issue, but then again, I never owned a 7800. Is there something I am missing? Does MESS lack the correct setup for the joysticks?

Thanks

Emulation for the 7800 is great in MESS. It is the emulator of my choice as well. But there are many emulators out there for different systems and not all of us use the same ones because of different preferences. To each his/her own.

[Visitor Q]

I never used Mess myself but then again I am not emulating 7800 (yet).

Stella works great for 2600.

[IMBerzerk]

I never used Mess myself but then again I am not emulating 7800 (yet).

Stella works great for 2600.

I was using Stella for a very long time, and when I came across MESS, I tried it. The only real difference I saw between the MESS version of anything and other emulators is that it does HW stretch in full-screen. Some of the other emulators drop it, or it doesn't look right. Other than that, I can't tell the difference. It's just easy to set-up in MESS. I guess it really depends if you own the real system, or if you were a fan of it. For me, it was the Sears version of the Intellivision. I run Nostalgia but again, it drops the full-screen HW stretch. I tried MESS, but it doesn't support the Classic Game Controller. Bliss does, but same thing, no full screen HW stretch.

So many options....