The GameEx Emulator Rating Project

[headkaze]

Part of the original GameEx Emulator Project I wanted to add ratings to emulators to help people decide which ones are considered the best for each system. Every emulator profile has a "Rating" entry, but currently it is left blank. So I think it's about time we got together and worked this out so it can help others decide which emulator to install for each system.

Here are the values I thought were best for this entry:

Poor - This means the emulator is of poor quality

Average - This means the emu is of average quality

Good - This means the emulator is good but not quite the best

Best - This is the best emulator for this particular system

Here is a list of all the emultors GameEx currently supports. So as people post what they think is the best entry for each system I will update this first post. If you disagree with someone's entry then debate it out so we can come to a consensus.

[Arcade] Arcade (CPS-3)

[Arcade] Arcade (FB Alpha)

[Arcade] Arcade (MAME) - Best

[Arcade] Arcade (Mjolnir)

[Arcade] Arcade (Nebula)

[Arcade] Arcade (Raine)

[Arcade] Arcade (WinKawaks)

[Arcade] Arcade (ZiNc) - Best

[Console] Amiga CD32 (WinUAE) - Best

[Console] Atari 2600 (MESS) - Good

[Console] Atari 2600 (Stella) - Best

[Console] Atari 2600 (Z26)

[Console] Atari 5200 (Atari++)

[Console] Atari 5200 (Jum's A5200)

[Console] Atari 5200 (MESS) - Good

[Console] Atari 7800 (MESS) - Good

[Console] Atari 7800 (ProSystem)

[Console] Atari Jaguar (Virtual Jaguar)

[Console] Bally Astrocade (MESS)

[Console] Coleco Vision (ColEm)

[Console] Coleco Vision (Meka)

[Console] Coleco Vision (MESS) - Good

[Console] Coleco Vision (Virtual Colecovision)

[Console] Commodore Amiga CD32 (WinUAE) - Best

[Console] Emerson Arcadia 2001 (WinArcadia)

[Console] Fairchild Channel F (MESS)

[Console] Fujitsu FM-Towns Marty (UNZ)

[Console] GCE Vectrex (MESS)

[Console] Magnavox Odyssey (ODYEmu)

[Console] Magnavox Odyssey 2 (02EM)

[Console] Mattel Intellivision (Bliss)

[Console] Mattel Intellivision (Nostalgia)

[Console] Microsoft Xbox (Cxbx)

[Console] NEC PC-FX (MagicFX)

[Console] NEC PC-FX (Mednafen)

[Console] NEC SuperGrafx (Mednafen)

[Console] NEC TurboGrafx 16 (MagicEngine) - Best

[Console] NEC TurboGrafx 16 (Mednafen)

[Console] NEC TurboGrafx 16 (Ootake)

[Console] NEC TurboGrafx CD (MagicEngine) - Best

[Console] NEC TurboGrafx CD (Mednafen)

[Console] NEC TurboGrafx CD (Ootake)

[Console] Nintendo GameCube (Dolphin) - Best

[Console] Nintendo N64 (1964)

[Console] Nintendo N64 (Project64) - Best

[Console] Nintendo NES (FCE Ultra)

[Console] Nintendo NES (Jnes)

[Console] Nintendo NES (Mednafen)

[Console] Nintendo NES (MESS)

[Console] Nintendo NES (Nessie)

[Console] Nintendo NES (Nestopia) - Best

[Console] Nintendo NES (RockNES)

[Console] Nintendo NES (VirtuaNES)

[Console] Nintendo SNES (BSNES)

[Console] Nintendo SNES (MESS)

[Console] Nintendo SNES (SNEeSe)

[Console] Nintendo SNES (Snes9x) - Best

[Console] Nintendo SNES (SNESGT)

[Console] Nintendo SNES (ZSNES) - Best

[Console] Nintendo Wii (Dolphin) - Best

[Console] Sega 32x (Fusion)

[Console] Sega 32x (GENS+)

[Console] Sega CD (Fusion) - Best

[Console] Sega CD (GENS+)

[Console] Sega Dreamcast (nullDC) - Best

[Console] Sega Genesis (Fusion) - Best

[Console] Sega Genesis (GENS+)

[Console] Sega Genesis (Gens32 Surreal)

[Console] Sega Master System (Dega)

[Console] Sega Master System (Fusion) - Best

[Console] Sega Master System (GENS+)

[Console] Sega Master System (Meka)

[Console] Sega Saturn (SSF) - Best

[Console] Sega Saturn (Yabause)

[Console] SNK Neo-Geo (Nebula)

[Console] SNK Neo-Geo (WinKawaks)

[Console] SNK Neo-Geo CD (Nebula)

[Console] SNK Neo-Geo CD (neocd)

[Console] SNK Neo-Geo CD (NeoGeo CDZ)

[Console] SNK Neo-Geo CD (NEOGEOCD)

[Console] SNK Neo-Geo CD (NeoRaine)

[Console] Sony Playstation (ePSXe) - Good

[Console] Sony Playstation (pSX) - Best

[Console] Sony PlayStation 2 (PCSX2)

[Fruit] BFM - Best

[Fruit] MFME - Best

[HandHeld] Atari Lynx (Handy) - Good

[HandHeld] Atari Lynx (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] Bandai WonderSwan (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] Bandai WonderSwan Color (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] Bandai WonderSwan Color (Oswan)

[HandHeld] Entex Adventure Vision (MESS)

[HandHeld] Nintendo DS (DeSmuME)

[HandHeld] Nintendo Game Boy (BGB)

[HandHeld] Nintendo Game Boy (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] Nintendo Game Boy (VisualBoyAdvance)

[HandHeld] Nintendo Game Boy Advance (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] Nintendo Game Boy Advance (VisualBoyAdvance) - Best

[HandHeld] Nintendo Game Boy Color (BGB)

[HandHeld] Nintendo Game Boy Color (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] Nintendo Game Boy Color (VisualBoyAdvance) - Best

[HandHeld] Nintendo Super Game Boy (BGB)

[HandHeld] Nintendo Virtual Boy (Reality Boy)

[HandHeld] Nintendo Virtual Boy (Red Dragon) - Best

[HandHeld] Sega Game Gear (Dega)

[HandHeld] Sega Game Gear (Fusion) - Best

[HandHeld] Sega Game Gear (GENS+)

[HandHeld] Sega Game Gear (Meka)

[HandHeld] Sega Game Gear (MESS)

[HandHeld] SNK Neo-Geo Pocket (Mednafen)

[HandHeld] SNK Neo-Geo Pocket (NeoPop)

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

[HandHeld] Sony PSP (JPCSP)

[HandHeld] Sony PSP (PCSP)

[PC] Apple IIc (MESS)

[PC] Commodore 128 (WinVice)

[PC] Commodore 64 (CCS64) - Best

[PC] Commodore 64 (WinVice) - Good

[PC] Commodore Amiga (DemoBase)

[PC] Commodore Amiga (GameBase)

[PC] Commodore Amiga (SPS)

[PC] Commodore Amiga (WHDLoad)

[PC] Commodore Amiga (WinUAE) - Best

[PC] Commodore CBM-II (WinVice)

[PC] Commodore PET (WinVice) - Best

[PC] Commodore PLUS4 (WinVice) - Best

[PC] Commodore VIC20 (WinVice) - Best

[PC] MGT Sam Coupe (SimCoupe)

[PC] Microsoft DOS (DOSBox) - Best

[PC] Microsoft MSX (blueMSX) - Best

[PC] Microsoft MSX (MESS) - Good

[PC] Microsoft Windows

[PC] SAM Coupe (SimCoupe) - Best

[PC] Sinclair Spectrum (RealSpec)

[PC] Sinclair ZX81 (Eighty0ne)

[PC] ScummVM - Best

[Pinball] Future Pinball - Best

[Pinball] Visual Pinball - Best

[Pinball] Visual PinMAME - Best

Edited January 19, 2011 by Adultery
Updated to include votes cast... But still up for discussion! :)

[fRequEnCy]

Great idea. It's ratings from emulation sites is how I usually determine which emulators to try. Great that it would be here so that we don't get repeated posts about which emulator the user should use.

[nullPointer]

I think this is a great idea for a thread! I think this will potentially allow for shifting viewpoints and opinions regarding the ultimate emulator for any given system. For instance, until about 8 months ago I would have voted zsnes as the best snes emulator, nowadays I fall rather firmly into the bsnes camp. Sometimes I look at older threads (mostly elsewhere), and hope that the user actually does a little more research before using an older out of date emulator (take Chankast for example).

A few observations:

Here is a list of all the emulators GameEx currently supports.

Does this mean that this list should be limited only to emulators available via the setup wizard? (I'm away from my GameEx machine so I can't double-check the setup wizard right now) If not, is there no love for Daphne?

Some of these choices are very subjective and/or limited by means of de facto choices. For instance, I mentioned bsnes above, so allow me to cast my vote:

[Console] Nintendo SNES (BSNES) - Best

However, a user with lesser system resources, and/or an older machine may not get a satisfactory experience from this emulator. Something like snes9x will most likely give them much better results.

[Console] Nintendo SNES (Snes9x) - Good

In other cases a given emulator may be the only choice for emulation of a given system.

Best - This is the best emulator for this particular system

As an example, cxbx meets this criteria by virtue of being the only emulator for Xbox (actually there's also dxbx - but you see what I mean). This rating quickly falls apart if one attempts to actually play games using cxbx (certainly not knocking the developers here, just calling a spade a spade).

Given these observations I'm wondering if some of these votes shouldn't contain some sort of qualifying system. Maybe something like:

[Console] Nintendo SNES (BSNES) - Best*
[Console] Microsoft Xbox (Cxbx) - Best^

* Requires higher system specs (refer to emulator homepage)
^ De Facto (Uncontested)

---

Edit:
Or maybe each emulator should simply be ranked independently from the system it emulates. In other words, is the emulator in question a good piece of software regardless of the emulated system? This would certainly take into account the quality of emulation. Just a thought . . .

---

There are a few other emulators I'd love to see included in the list, if not just for developing some sort of consensus: [Arcade] Arcade (Model 2), [Arcade] Arcade (Demul), [Arcade] Arcade (Makaron). This is of course dependent upon the limitations of this list (i.e. do we only include emulators available via the setup wizard). Please disregard this if we plan to only include the listed emulators.

Any hoo, just my 2 cents (and likely worth half that). I'm probably reading way too deeply into this. On with my votes! I won't reiterate what HK has already voted as the Best as I tend to agree in most cases (or have limited experience with the specific emulator)

[Console] Atari 2600 (Stella) - Best
[Console] Nintendo NES (Nestopia) - Best
[Console] Sega Dreamcast (nullDC) - Best
[Console] Sega Genesis (Fusion) - Best
[Console] Sega Master System (Fusion) - Best
[Console] Sega Saturn (SSF) - Best
[PC] Microsoft MSX (blueMSX) - Best
(I honestly don-t play many MSX games, but as a standalone emulator I absolutely love how cleanly and intuitively this emulator has been executed - I guess it just really appeals to the software developer in me)

Well there are a few votes from me (and a lot of other BS ). I'll probably cast more as this thread develops. Sorry for the extreme verbosity! Preparing for TL;DR response!

[Adultery]

My votes for 'best' on a lower-end system are:

NESTopia, ZSNES, PJ64 (Beta version), MESS for Colecovision, Atari 2600 5200 and 7800, Intellevision and Vectrex, pSX for PSX, and DOSBox for DOS. Oh and VBA for Gameboy andv Advance, No$GBA w/ Zoomer for DS, and Fusion for Sega CD, Genesis, Master System, and GameGear. These have all been working great for me since the begining, and nothing could make me want to change. I might sub in MAMEPlus! for MAME just for the ability to filter the gfx too, but I use vanilla MAME since it's easier for me to compile my own build.

[headkaze]

Thanks for the feedback guys. To all mods' and admins' feel free to update the first post to add more ratings. I'm a bit busy right now but will update it later if not done already.

[nullPointer]

My votes for 'best' on a lower-end system are:

NESTopia, ZSNES, PJ64 (Beta version), MESS for Colecovision, Atari 2600 5200 and 7800, Intellevision and Vectrex, pSX for PSX, and DOSBox for DOS. Oh and VBA for Gameboy andv Advance, No$GBA w/ Zoomer for DS, and Fusion for Sega CD, Genesis, Master System, and GameGear.

Playstation emulators are a great example of subjective ranking dependent upon the user. I love the 'Plug and Play' functionality of pSX. On the other hand I also really like that ePSXe offers the ability to tweak settings and in some cases improve upon certain elements of an original game (this functionality may not be ideal for frontends). As such I'll cast the following votes with a certain degree of hesitation:

[Console] Sony Playstation (ePSXe) - Good

[Console] Sony Playstation (pSX) - Best

I also second Adultery's votes for Fusion. It's an all-around terrific emulator, to the point where it renders other Sega system emulators redundant (for the systems it covers). I'll expand upon my previous votes to encompass the other systems Fusion covers.

[Console] Sega CD (Fusion) - Best

[HandHeld] Sega Game Gear (Fusion) - Best

[mesk]

this is a excellent idea.

my votes so far....

nestopia---best (it currently supports the most mappers)
bsnes------best (accurate to the clock cycle...need I say more?) 
stella-----good (mess is catching up FAST)
fusion-----best for now (see above) 

more to come later I have to do some thinking

Eventually MESS will roll over all these emulators....but thats still a ways off

[wubble]

Good idea. If this project has any relation to which emulator is suitable for frontends, I think your WinUAELoader application should be mentioned alongside WinUAE. Unless we're keeping it simple at this point.

I agree with nullPointer's suggestions.

opinions:

[Console] Sega SG-1000 (Fusion) - Best

[PC] Atari 8-bit (Altirra) - Best

[PC] Sinclair Spectrum (ZXSpin) - Good *

*I haven't found a "best" speccy emulator yet, especially not for use with a frontend.

[wubble]

Requesting an addition, What's the best Atari ST emulator for use in GameEx, besides MESS?

[Draco1962]

You may want to take a look at the following:

Steem - last updated 12/2006

WinSTon - last updated 7/2009

SainT - last updated 12/2009

Hatari - last updated 6/2010

ARAnyM - last updated 2/2011 (this runs according to the author similar to DOS Box.

I have not ventured into ST emulation as of yet so cannot give a recommendation to any one specifically.

[headkaze]

It would really be nice to get this project finished. Can I rely on a mod to take over this by editing the first post? Once we have all the entries done I'll write a little app to add these into the profiles.

[Adultery]

Sure. I'll jump on it today! I'm off work all day and nothing to do.

[wubble]

Many thanks Draco!

[celly]

[HandHeld] Nintendo Virtual Boy (Mednafen) BEST - It runs so much better than Red Dragon or Reality Boy.

[HandHeld] Nintendo DS (No$GBA w/ No$Zoomer) BEST

And finally, [Console] Microsoft Xbox (Cxbx) POOR. It's a waste of time!

[GimmeClassics]

Is this still up-to-date ?

I'm working on installing other emulators (besides Mame) as part of my GameEx setup so I would very much like to know which emulator is the best for each system

Any thoughts ?

[nullPointer]

I think it's mostly still current. I would swap around some of the suggestions, but I like weird stuff, so I might very well have swapped around some of the suggestions even at the time. Also bear in mind that for some systems (IMO) there's actually no one best emulator, so you wind up using a few different ones depending on the game (N64 is a big one here, but I also use a few different PSX emulators as well). Plugin systems throw a whole new wrinkle in terms of these suggestions (again I have to mention N64 here). Here's the modifications that I myself would make to the above list as of today.

[Arcade] Arcade (ZiNc) - No Rating: As of today MAME emulates ZN-X systems just fine on modern systems. ZiNc no longer has a home on any of my systems. It's still good for older systems.

[Console] Atari 5200 (kat5200) - Good: (if not Best) This is what I use for 5200. It's got a couple hiccups here and there, but that's pretty much par for the course.

[Console] Atari 7800 (ProSystem) - Best: Hands down my favorite 7800 emulator.

[Console] NEC TurboGrafx 16 (MagicEngine) - Good
[Console] NEC TurboGrafx 16 (Mednafen) - Best: I swapped these ratings. There will definitely be those who disagree with this swap, but that's my experience. Seems to me Mednafen receives more regular updates and development, making it at least as good if not better than MagicEngine. All other factors being equal, the fact that MagicEngine is not free puts Mednafen in the lead for me. The only thing MagicEngine offers over Mednafen is (an admittedly pretty cool) GUI interface (not a factor when run through GameEx)

[Console] NEC TurboGrafx CD (MagicEngine) - Good
[Console] NEC TurboGrafx CD (Mednafen) - Best: Same swap as above, for the same reasons.

[Console] Nintendo SNES (ZSNES) - No Rating

[Console] Nintendo SNES (bsnes/Higan) - Best: Yeah, I drank the kool-aid on this one. It might be tricky to configure correctly, but it has cycle accurate emulation. It's pretty rare that any other emulator offers that at all, SNES aside. From what I understand ZSNES is pretty well filled to the brim with game specific hacks.

[Console] Sony Playstation (ePSXe) - Best
[Console] Sony Playstation (pSX) - Good

[Console] Sony Playstation (Xebra) - Good: At the time this list was originally compiled ePSXe hadn't received updates in many years. Now ePSXe is two full versions ahead of where it was when this list was made. It's pretty much the best Playstation emulator available right now (even giving Xebra a run for the money). pSX is still (and probably always will be) easier to configure.

[HandHeld] Atari Lynx (Mednafen) - Best: I guess I'm kind of a Mednafen fan, but it simply emulates the systems it handles very well. Heck it even handles PSX emulation reasonably well (although it can't yet touch the ones mentioned above IMO). It is better than Handy for Lynx emulation at this point.

[HandHeld] Nintendo Virtual Boy (Red Dragon) - Good

[HandHeld] Nintendo Virtual Boy (Mednafen) - Best: Sounding like a broken record here ...

There are also some changes I'd probably make to some of the emulated systems above that don't yet have ratings, but the above represent the changes I'd make as of today for the emulators with ratings.

[fRequEnCy]

A great source I always recommend is NonMESS for console emulators and NonMAME for arcade. Then I resort to emulator sites and see which emulators are recommended by the community. Also it's a matter of preference. We all will choose different emulators for different reasons. Best to get an idea and then test for yourself and see what features you're after.

[GimmeClassics]

Thank you NP and Freq for your recommendations

This will help me choose the best emulator for each system I'm interested in. Thanks !