List of Current Suggested Emulators

[SoulBlazer]

Sorry if this is'nt the best place for this, I was'nt really quite sure where to post this.

It's been a few years since I did anything with emulation of the classic systems. Now I'm convienced that my emulators are WAY out of date. And the sites I used to vist that had good lists and links, like Zophar's Domain, are pretty much out of business.

Can anyone suggest some good emulators or a place that has information on all of them? I'm mostly looking for emulators for the NES, SNES, Genesis, and Game Boy.

FYIW, i have a Pent 3.40 Ghz running Windows XP.

Thanks, Greg

[Sudo]

I'll tell you the ones I use, for what it's worth:

NES: Nestopia
SNES: ZSNES
Genesis: Fusion
Gameboy/GBA: Visual Boy Advance
TG-16: Magic Engine (not free)

[Trebuken]

http://www.ngemu.com/

That's a good site for newish stuff (PS1 on).

I too would like a good source for older emulators (are they updated any more?).

Is MESS a good solution for older emulation?

[ssjlance]

MESS isn't bad, but I've found it's best to have separate emulators for each system. Sudo's list looks about in order, really. ZSNES is the best NES emulator by leaps and bounds, and Nestopia was good back when I was on XP.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

You know, I used to swear by Nesticle ... until I saw this thread and out of curiosity tried out Nestopia.

That is now my current standard NES emulator, and one HELL of an NES emulator in general.

[BHvrd]

TG-16: Magic Engine (not free)

That emulator is SO worth buying. You can control everything "even menu and rom selection" with a usb controller. I use the xbox 360 usb controller myself.

Being able to go from one rom to another, snapping screenshots and changing any and all settings with a controller is just beyond the call of duty.

This emulator imo should be the basis for every emulator, I just can't say enough about it...

[roushimsx]

TG-16: Magic Engine (not free)

Ootake and Mednafen provide better emulation accuracy and both are free. I'd strongly recommend Ootake over Magic Engine to pretty much anyone (except GaijinPunch, I guess!) because it has a functional GUI, extremely frequent updates, and it has an absolute minimum amount of input lag. Not sure if ME has bothered correcting that since it was highlighted, but given the infrequent rate of updates for the emulator, I'd doubt it.

Also, wasn't there a thread about this same topic like a week or three ago?

[diskoboy]

I use FCEU Ultra for NES games and ZSNES for SNES.

[XYXZYZ]

You know, I used to swear by Nesticle ... until I saw this thread and out of curiosity tried out Nestopia.

That is now my current standard NES emulator, and one HELL of an NES emulator in general.

Huh? NESticle was deemed obsolete and abandoned by the masses in 2000 or so...

[ssjlance]

NESticle was great back in the day. It is by no means a bad emulator considering when it's from. But yeah, better ones are out now.

[outofkeyslightly]

No emulator collection is complete without MAME. I suggest mame32 plus, but that's just me...

I also suggest getting a psx to usb adapter if you don't have one already...

[roushimsx]

Looks like SSSPSX has been rendered completely obsolete now. ePSXe just received its first update since Aug '03 and it's a a hell of a big one. Tons of new games supported (Need for Speed, Shadow Madness, Formula 1 2001, Future Cop LAPD, Vib Ribbon, etc) and improvements to old games (Metal Gear Solid, Valkyrie Profile, Gamera 2000, etc) plus some neat enhancements (toggle between the hardware and software renderers on the fly with the F7 key, expanded disc image support, neat little optional screen shaking vibration support, etc).

So yay for having a three way shoot out between ePSXe, Xebra, and pSX Emulator. If only Xebra's interface would evolve into something less like a cluster fuck of random options...

[GaijinPunch]

There was a thread about this (with a list) just last week. Can't be further than page 3 ATM.

[layzee]

There was a thread about this (with a list) just last week. Can't be further than page 3 ATM.

It's been a few years since I did anything with emulation of the classic systems. Now I'm convienced that my emulators are WAY out of date.

Can anyone suggest some good emulators or a place that has information on all of them?

I was in your exact position 1 year ago so that's why I went ahead to collate my own list:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/show...5&postcount=24

The forum that the post is from is temporarily down so the list is only very slightly outdated. The only major change is to use VBA-M for your GBA needs.

[Trebuken]

So what is the best way to maintain in an organized fashion all those emulators on a single PC? Is there a good front-end that will handle some of them? So you associate file extensions with certain emulators? Do you think it is a good idea to setup a PC just for emulation?

[diskoboy]

Looks like SSSPSX has been rendered completely obsolete now. ePSXe just received its first update since Aug '03 and it's a a hell of a big one. Tons of new games supported (Need for Speed, Shadow Madness, Formula 1 2001, Future Cop LAPD, Vib Ribbon, etc) and improvements to old games (Metal Gear Solid, Valkyrie Profile, Gamera 2000, etc) plus some neat enhancements (toggle between the hardware and software renderers on the fly with the F7 key, expanded disc image support, neat little optional screen shaking vibration support, etc).

So yay for having a three way shoot out between ePSXe, Xebra, and pSX Emulator. If only Xebra's interface would evolve into something less like a cluster fuck of random options...

I LOVE ePSXe. It's how I currently get my Vib Ribbon, Einhander, and Nitrous Oxide fixes...

[vintagegamecrazy]

Is there a competant Genesis, GG, SMS emulator that allows controller input? Fusion is nice but it would be nicer if I could use a controller.

[Sudo]

Is there a competant Genesis, GG, SMS emulator that allows controller input? Fusion is nice but it would be nicer if I could use a controller.

I use a controller with Fusion. I've been using a PS2 controller via an adapter I bought at Radio Shack for $10 and it works fine with all of the emulators I listed, as well as MAME.

[Sweater Fish Deluxe]

I use a controller with Fusion. I've been using a PS2 controller via an adapter I bought at Radio Shack for $10 and it works fine with all of the emulators I listed, as well as MAME.

I think he means he wants to use a controller to navigate around in the emulator. If so, I suggest installing XPadder. It'll let you set up your controller to act like a keyboard and/or mouse in Windows.


...word is bondage...

[roushimsx]

Is there a competant Genesis, GG, SMS emulator that allows controller input? Fusion is nice but it would be nicer if I could use a controller.

Piggybacking on Sudo, but I've never had a problem with using controllers w/ Kega Fusion. Might be a problem with your controller, the drivers for your controller, or both. For strictly Genesis games, you can try getting your fix w/ Regen, which is to Genesis emulation what bSNES is to SNES emulation or KGB is to Gameboy emulation.

See if perhaps that works out better with your setup.