Advice - What emulator to use with each system?

[Anonymous]

Morning All,

 

I'm looking for the best emulator\s to run the following systems below. I've complied a list of systems I want (on the left) I need help filling the gaps of emulators I've not listed. And would you agree I've chosen the best emulator to run that system on the right?

 

And if using Mame what version should I be using for each system?

 

Any advice would be great.

 

 

 

System                                                        Emulator

 

 

-Atari Classics.                                             Mame

-Atari 5200.        

-Atari Jaguar

-Capcom Classics                                       Mame

-Capcom Play System III                          Mame

-CAVE.                                                           Mame

-Colecovision

-Commodore 64.  Vice

-Commodore Amiga.                               WinUAE

-Commodore Amiga CD32.                    WinUAE

-Daphne.                                                     Daphne

-Future Pinball

-GCE Vectrex.                                            ParaJVE

-Irem Classics.                                           Mame

-Konami Classics.                                     Mame

-MAME.   Mane

-Midway Classics.                                    Mame

-MSX

-MSX 2

-Namco Classics.                                     Mame 

-NEC TurboGrafx-CD.                            Ootake

-NEC SuperGrafx.                                   Ootake

-NEC PC-FX.   Ootake

-NEC TurboGrafx-16.                             Ootake

-NEC PC Engine.                                     Ootake

-Nintendo 64.  Project64

-Nintendo Classics

-Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) Nestopia

-Nintendo Famicom.                           Nestopia

-Nintendo Famicom Disk System.  Nestopia

-Nintendo Gamecube.                        Dolphin

-PC Games.                                             Dos Box

-ScummVM.                                           Scumm vm

-Sega Saturn.                                        SSF - Already setup

-Sega 32X.                                              Kega Fusion

-Sega CD.                                               Kega Fusion

-Sega Dreamcast.                               Null Dc or Demul

-Sega Naomi.                                       Null Dc or Demul

-Sega SG-1000.                                     Kega Fusion

-Sega Genesis.                                     Kega Fusion

-Sega Master System.                       Kega Fusion

-Sega Model 2.                                    Model 2

-Sega Model 3.                                    Supermodel

-Sega Classics.                                     Mame

-Shotgun Games

-SNK Classics.                                      Mame

-SNK Neo Geo.                                    Mame

-SNK Neo Geo CD

-Sony Playstation (PS1).                   Epsxe

-Sony Playstation 2 (PS2)

-Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES).   ZSnes

-Sinclair ZX Spectrum.                     Spectaculator

-Taito Classics.                                   Mame

-Taito Type X.                                     Tx2 launcher

-Visual Pinball

[Avar]

Some swear buy RetroArch for most of their emulation but I don't care for it personally. As such, here's a list of what I'm currently using in hopes of being of some help:

 

Note: My builds has been stable for some time so this isn't the most up to date information. I'm in the process of doing an audit and update. Soon I'll be upgrading or re-installing everything as part of the official hyperspin tutorial series. In the meantime, you can use this as crossreference.

 

All unlisted arcade sets use MAME

 

Aamber Pegasus - MESS

Acorn Archimedes - Arculator

Acorn Electron - MESS

American Laser Games - Daphne Singe

Amstrad CPC - CPCE

Amstrad GX4000 - WinApe

APF Imagination Machine - MESS

Apple II - AppleWin

Apple IIGS - MESS

Atari 2600 - Stella

Atari 5200 - Kat5200

Atari 7800 - ProSystem

Atari 8-Bit - Altirra

Atari Jaguar - Virtual Jaguar

Atari Jaguar CD - Project Tempest

Atari Lynx - Mednafen

Atari ST - Seem SSE

Bally Astrocade - MESS

Bandai Wonderswan - Mednafen

Casio PV-1000 - MESS

ColecoVision - MESS

Commodore 64 - WinVice

Commodore Amiga - WinUAE

Commodore Amiga CD32 - WinUAE
Commodore CDTV - WinUAE
Commodore VIC-20 - WinVICE
Creatronic Mega Duck - MESS
Daphne - Daphne
DICE - DICE
Emerson Arcadia 2001 - MESS
Entex Adventure Vision - MESS
Epoch Game Pocket Computer - MESS
Epoch Super Cassette Vision - MESS
Fairchild Channel F - MESS
Fujitsu FM Towns - UNZ
Future Pinball - Future Pinball
GCE Vectrex - MESS
Hartung Game Master - MESS
Interton VC 4000 - MESS
Magnavox Odyssey - odyemu (WIP)
Magnavox Odyssey 2 - MESS
Mattel Aquarius - MESS
Mattel Intellivision - MESS
Microsoft MSX - BlueMSX
Microsoft MSX2 - BlueMSX
MUGEN - MUGEN
NEC PC Engine - Mednafen
NEC PC Engine-CD - Mednafen
NEC PC-FX - Magic Engine FX
NEC SuperGrafx - Mednafen
NEC TurboGrafx-16 - Mednafen
NEC TurboGrafx-CD - Mednafen
Nintendo 64 - Mupen64Plus/Project64 (various versions)
Nintendo DS - DeSmuME
Nintendo Entertainment System - Nestopia
Nintendo Famicom - Nestopia
Nintendo Famicom Disk System - Nestopia
Nintendo Game Boy - VisualBoyAdvance-M
Nintendo Game Boy Advance - VisualBoyAdvance-M
Nintendo Game Boy Color - VisualBoyAdvance-M
Nintendo GameCube - Dolphin
Nintendo Pokemon Mini - PokeMini
Nintendo Super Famicom - Bsnes
Nintendo Super Game Boy - VisualBoyAdvance-M
Nintendo Virtual Boy - Mednafen
Nintendo Wii - Dolphin
Nintendo WiiWare - Dolphin
OpenBOR - OpenBOR
Othello Multivision - Meka
Panasonic 3DO - FourDO
Philips CD-i - MESS/CDiEmu
Philips VG 5000 - DCVG5K
Pinball FX2 - Pinball FX2
PopCap - Casual Games
RCA Studio II - Emma 02/MESS
Sammy Atomiswave - Demul56/Demul57/Demul58
ScummVM - ScummVM
Sega 32X - Fusion
Sega CD - Fusion
Sega Dreamcast - NullDC
Sega Game Gear - Fusion
Sega Genesis - Fusion
Sega Master System - Fusion
Sega Model 2 - Sega Model 2 Emulator
Sega Model 3 - SuperModel
Sega Naomi - Demul57
Sega Pico - Fusion
Sega Saturn - SSF/Yabouse
Sega SC-3000 - Fusion
Sega SG-1000 - Fusion
Sega ST-V - SSF
Sharp X68000 - XM6
Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Spectaculator
SNK Neo Geo CD - MAME
SNK Neo Geo Pocket - Mednafen
SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color - Mednafen
Sony PlayStation - ePSXe
Sony PlayStation 2 - PCSX2
Sony PSP - PPSSPP
Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Bsnes
Taito Type X - PCLauncher
Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer - MESS
Tiger Game.com - GameCom
Touhou Project - PCLauncher
Visual Pinball - Visual Pinball 9
VTech CreatiVision - MESS
Watara Supervision - MESS
WoW Action Max - Daphne Singe

 

 

Anything non-arcade that I didn't list I don't bother keeping in my primary setup right now due to a general lack of support or functionality.

[JoyStickKilla]

There are lists like this on the forum already and many other forums I have seen.  A simple search should take you there 

[hyperspidey]

Have you checked out MESS? I was struggling with finding good emulators that let me configure, most importantly, the exit button. MESS is just like mame, Im using it for atari 2600, nes, snes, genesis, and sega master system. Only problem I had with it was setting up the command line parameters, since Im using hyperlaunch I think. I just pointed hyperlaunch to call a batch file, which in turn calls mess. Hyperlaunch was putting the parameters in the incorrect order, which could probably be configured somewhere but I didnt look much into it.

[hardcorehubz]

Matters what you really want, accuracy, bells and whistles, or ease or use. I aim mostly for accuracy but for example NES i'm using Nestopia Core under Retroarch because I love the CRT filters so much. Also I have a weird issue with PuNES having scrolling issues randomly. Retroarch and MESS will cover you quite well though.

[Avar]

It changes slowly yet regularly as well for a number of systems vso I try to keep a baseline of "best" or at least most functiuonal emus then monitor for updates.

[bulbousbeard]

MESS doesn't exist anymore. There's just MAME.

 

I don't really understand why people say they "don't like" Retroarch. What's to not like about it? You can just run games through the command line like anything else.

[Avar]

Some people just prefer a more modular approach and don't care for shaders.

[hyperspidey]

To get rid of my mess.. Would I just dump all my bios files into mame, and then keep my roms seperate for each system? Then simply launch mame for all my roms?

[ChinMuzik]

Thanks for your list.

@Avar Question - why would you opt for MESS to run c64 and not WinVICE?

[Avar]

Thanks for your list.

@Avar Question - why would you opt for MESS to run c64 and not WinVICE?

 

You're correct, thanks. Just a typo on my part; I am using WinVice for it. I don't think there's ever even been a RL MESS module for C64 lol

 

To get rid of my mess.. Would I just dump all my bios files into mame, and then keep my roms seperate for each system? Then simply launch mame for all my roms?

 

I'm in the process of switching over to the latest MAME build now myself but when I do it I intend to use the MAME software list roms and chds.

[Styphelus]

Some people just prefer a more modular approach and don't care for shaders.

 

I don't even know what that means. To me it says you like doing extra work and go through the pain of dealing with all the problems every single emulator will throw at you. 

 

We've all been there a few years ago when Retroarch didn't exist. What a pain it was!

 

Retroarch takes a "modular" approach in a way. It's more like a front end for different emulator cores.

 

If you use Retroarch and Mame, you can cut that list of yours by two thirds and get better results. It's not just about shaders. It's easy to configure, can make your systems look uniform and is a lot more reliable than a lot of emulators it borrows the cores from.

 

One of the best features of Retroarch that no one ever talk about is how you can re-size the screen to remove those pesky black lines on the top and bottom of games on a per game basis, or along the left side (Sega Master System - I'm looking at you)

 

Plus shaders don't hurt if you want true looking emulation.

[Avar]

I hear ya but better results is subjective in this insance. For someone like me where everything's already setup and working, retroarch doesn't offer a whole lot. It also doesn't offer as much to someone who's only interested in a select few systems. It can make sense for newcomers or people using fewer dedicated controllers though. There's nothing wrong with using RetroArch and there's nothing wrong with using standalone emulators. I'm glad enthusiasts have both options.

[Awakened]

Some of the stand alone emulators have frontend issues and haven't been updated in years though. Kega Fusion launches into and exits full screen really badly. Nestopia has terrible input lag on some systems with vsync on and audio likes to go out of sync after awhile. You can't even trust Project64's official installer not to put adware on your system. RetroArch doesn't have any of those issues. It's constantly updated and coded in such a way that it should be easy to update for new OS's as long as people are interested in it.

 

Not to mention cores that have libretro only features. Mednafen PSX has up to 8x internal resolution (you need a pretty beefy CPU for even 4x though), subpixel accuracy, a dithering toggle, scanline cropping and a BIOS skip option. Desmume lets you control the touchscreen's cursor with either of the analog sticks. The BSNES cores let you load normal zipped ROMs so you don't have to convert them to folders. And Mupen64Plus has some bugfixes for specific game issues not in the stand alone release.

[SkyHighGam3r]

Here's my personal list:

Sega Master System - RetroArch

Nintendo NES - RetroArch

NEC TurboGrafx 16-CD - RetroArch

 

Sega Genesis-CD-32X - RetroArch

Nintendo SNES - RetroArch

SNK Neo Geo - RetroArch

Panasonic 3DO - RetroArch

 

Sega Saturn - SSF

Nintendo 64 - RetroArch

Sony Playstation - RetroArch

 

Sega Dreamcast - RetroArch

Nintendo Gamecube - Dolphin

Sony Playstation 2 - PCSX2

 

Nintendo Wii - Dolphin

 

Sega Game Gear - RetroArch

Nintendo Game Boy/Color/Advance - Visual Boy Advance-M

SNK Neo Geo Pocket/Color - RetroArch

Nintendo DS - RetroArch

Sony PSP - PPSSPP (RetroArch has a PPSSPP core, but I can't get it to work for some reason)

Personally, I like it because I could just set the controls and visual settings SO easily. I don't know why people say it's hard to setup. Just get the program, download the cores you need, set your default settings and tweak each system as necessary. DONE lol.

I also don't know what anyone is talking about when they say 'run from the command line' I've never seen a command line once with RetroArch, just a simple easy to navigate GUI.

Anything else I use is 100% because it's not in RetroArch yet. SSF being the best example...

[Avar]

That's a big part of why I'm saying it makes sense for newcomers. With some standalone emus the latest version isn't even the best one to use by far. If someone has their setup running properly already though I don't currently see the value in switching. I'll likely change my tune as RA improves but for now I'm perfectly happy with what I'm using.