• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

Retro Emulation - playing old games on newer systems - discussion and help thread

Tailzo

Koopa
I have been enjoying emulating old games a lot lately. I don’t see it discussed much, and I struggled quite a bit in the beginning. Reading about it online, or seeing youtube videos, can be quite daunting for someone who just tries to learn the basics. So in this thread I will aim to help those interested in playing their old games on newer hardware.

Why would I bother emulating an old system?​

I don't know about you, but these are my main reasons
  • Old hardware is broken, but I still have games for the platform
  • Fast forward for slow phases in games
  • Savestates let’s me save in games with no saves
  • Patches (retranslations, balance changes, mods and more)
  • Image enhancements:
    • True widescreen (even in 2d games)
    • Improved resolution (mainly in 3d games)
    • Sharper image, since old hardware did not have hdmi
  • Preserving older games (CD rot, my children breaking my games and so on)
  • Less clutter under the TV

So what can you emulate?​

Almost everything. The PSVita is the biggest exception I know of.

What do I need to get started?​

Right now, I am using emulators on PC and xbox series X. But you can do it on a number of systems. You can use your android phone (I’m going to try that next). You don’t even need a powerful PC or a powerful phone. I’ll try to write a bit about that later too.

Getting the games themselves can be tricky. A few of the easiest ways are:
  • Get them out of your classic mini console
  • Get them from games collection sold on Steam / GOG
  • Sofmod a console to be able to rip your games (wii and wiiu for example can do that)

Is it legal?​

If you own a game physically, you are likely to emulate or own a ROM of the game. However, there's no legal precedent in the United States to say it's illegal. There is no trial on record of any company going to court over emulators or ROMs and their use. (copied from google).

What does [word] mean?​

BIOS file = A BIOS file is a copy of the operating system used by the hardware. SOme emulators require this. I cannot link to sites with these files.

ROM = what games files stored in carts are often called

ISO = A rip of a disc, in a file. For example; iso file of Sonic R, is a file that is the exact contents of my Sonic R sega Saturn CD rom. There are a few variations on iso that I can talk more about later

Retroarch = a frontend for emulators, game engines and media players.

It enables you to run classic games on a wide range of computers and consoles through its slick graphical interface. Settings are also unified so configuration is done once and for all. If you only download Retroarch, you can’t do anything yet. Retroarch uses:

Cores = a single file that is used to emulate a system. But one system can have a lot of different cores. Super Nintendo For example, has so many. Some cores can be better for having great speed on weaker hardware, while others can have built in widescreen hacks and others are very accurate, but require stronger hardware. I’ll try to talk more about this later

Standalone emulator = So if Retroarch is too daunting and complicated, you can download a standalone emulator. This is often easier. But that means configurations like controller shortcuts, widecreen hacks or other must be configured per system / emulator. While using a frontend, like Retroarch, lets you set many settings for many systems in one operation.

Example screen of Dragon Force 2, running on an XBox series X, with fast forward used:​

image
 
Last edited:
I have been going back to some old games recently and emulation is just the way to go really.

Another benefit to emulating is the ability to add patches. Though I'm still very new to this.

I understand that many emulators auto-patch a game if you have the ROM and patch named the same, but I still need to figure out how to do multiple patches per game. I'll probably just use a tool to patch them and hope it doesn't break anything.
 
I have been going back to some old games recently and emulation is just the way to go really.

Another benefit to emulating is the ability to add patches. Though I'm still very new to this.

I understand that many emulators auto-patch a game if you have the ROM and patch named the same, but I still need to figure out how to do multiple patches per game. I'll probably just use a tool to patch them and hope it doesn't break anything.
I have patched a few games. I used a patching tool, and got retranslations of a few older games, balance changes and even mods like Amy in Sonic the Hedgehog. (My daughter asked me to play as a girl).

But to auto patch, I don't know how to do that. Unless you are thinking about auto-widecreen-patches. I just checked a box, and the emulator fixed it.
 
The major reason I want a Steam Deck is for (handheld) emulation up to 3DS all on one system. Playing on original Hardware is fun and with consoles like the 3DS technically beneficial but having things like savestates and fast forward as well as upping resolution is great too. Plus all of it being on one system is very comfortable. I'm going more and more in the direction of not wanting games and gaming stuff as part of my decor anyway, and multiple consoles sitting on your desk is just an eyesore to me at this point lol
 
Remember, friends don't let friends use RetroArch ;) I'm old school and even without all the toxicity from that project it was way too cumbersome to configure and setup for me. You can setup ZSNES or SNES9x in a fraction of the time and they're far less picky about what you throw at them.

I understand that many emulators auto-patch a game if you have the ROM and patch named the same, but I still need to figure out how to do multiple patches per game. I'll probably just use a tool to patch them and hope it doesn't break anything.
Yea, you'll have to use a patching tool and apply the patches by hand in whatever order is needed.

It's usually fairly painless, the biggest headache is usually header vs. headerless. RHDN has an online patcher now which should be less daunting for people who aren't used to using command line utilities like IPS: https://www.romhacking.net/patch/
 
Remember, friends don't let friends use RetroArch ;) I'm old school and even without all the toxicity from that project it was way too cumbersome to configure and setup for me. You can setup ZSNES or SNES9x in a fraction of the time and they're far less picky about what you throw at them.


Yea, you'll have to use a patching tool and apply the patches by hand in whatever order is needed.

It's usually fairly painless, the biggest headache is usually header vs. headerless. RHDN has an online patcher now which should be less daunting for people who aren't used to using command line utilities like IPS: https://www.romhacking.net/patch/
Correct me if I'm wrong. But on Xbox, you have to use Retroarch to play sega saturn (with beetle core) and Gamecube (with dolphin core). Whil Retrix Gold, another front end, let's you use a lot of other older emulators. PS2 recently got a standalong emulator for Xbox though, and I would recommend that over Retroarch, as it also seems better than using th epcsx2 core in Retroarch.

Emulation on android - I'll try it soon!​


I am going to recieve an android phone with a Snapdragon 865 that I bought in a sale (just over 200$). And I'm excited to try it. I'll post about my experiences with it next week, I assume. I am quite sure I'll be able to play Sega Saturn (also Gamecube?). A handheld Sega Saturn has been a dream of mine for years. I'm going to use this:
462_494633630.jpg


It is called the Gamesir x2 kontroller. You place your phone in the midle, connect it by usb-c, and you do not need bluetooth for it to work. It also has passthrough, so you can charge your phone while playing. I've had iphones only for so many years, so this will be a learning experience for me.

I also tried this
Phone-Mount-HandGrip-Stand-for-Xbox-ONE-S-Slim-Ones-Controller-for-Steelseries-Nimbus-Gamepad-iphone.jpg_Q90.jpg_.webp

When streaming from my iphone. It works while sitting, but feels weird when I try to play it like this in bed.
 
0
I have patched a few games. I used a patching tool, and got retranslations of a few older games, balance changes and even mods like Amy in Sonic the Hedgehog. (My daughter asked me to play as a girl).

But to auto patch, I don't know how to do that. Unless you are thinking about auto-widecreen-patches. I just checked a box, and the emulator fixed it.
I patched many games as well, some which were a pain. Like Xenoblade X and Fire Emblem Fates undub, where I had to find the JP audio files and get them on my copy of the games.

Most are pretty easy if it's just a single patch file which I need to run through a tool.

What i meant with autopatching is that an emulator will automatically play a ROM with the patch applied if it's in the same folder and same title/name. So for example, when I play FFV_advance.gba and it's in the same folder as FFV_advance.[insertwhateverfiletypethepatchis] for the sound restoration, the emulator will automatically apply that patch. But if you have multiple patches, that obvious wouldn't work since they need to be the same name as the ROM, and you can't have 2 files with the exact same name.

Sorry, I'm really bad at explaining. I'll search up what I mean when I'm home.

Yea, you'll have to use a patching tool and apply the patches by hand in whatever order is needed.

It's usually fairly painless, the biggest headache is usually header vs. headerless. RHDN has an online patcher now which should be less daunting for people who aren't used to using command line utilities like IPS: https://www.romhacking.net/patch/
Thanks, I'll check that out! It's usually GBA games where I want to apply multiple patches, mostly for color correction and sound restoration.
 
I patched many games as well, some which were a pain. Like Xenoblade X and Fire Emblem Fates undub, where I had to find the JP audio files and get them on my copy of the games.

Most are pretty easy if it's just a single patch file which I need to run through a tool.

What i meant with autopatching is that an emulator will automatically play a ROM with the patch applied if it's in the same folder and same title/name. So for example, when I play FFV_advance.gba and it's in the same folder as FFV_advance.[insertwhateverfiletypethepatchis] for the sound restoration, the emulator will automatically apply that patch. But if you have multiple patches, that obvious wouldn't work since they need to be the same name as the ROM, and you can't have 2 files with the exact same name.

Sorry, I'm really bad at explaining. I'll search up what I mean when I'm home.


Thanks, I'll check that out! It's usually GBA games where I want to apply multiple patches, mostly for color correction and sound restoration.
No, it’s not your fault. I’m the one who lacks experience. I see what you mean now. I just haven’t tried doing stuff like that too much yet.
 
0
it's pretty wild to me that I have duckstation installed on my series x and can run roms off of a flashdrive without any kind of modifications
 
Awesome thread topic! I didn't see it mentioned in the reasons, but I think the biggest one that almost goes without saying is overall game preservation.

My current experience in emulation is playing NCAA14 on RPCS3 with the College Football Revamped mod which has been fantastic.

I am certainly interested in doing more, but have no idea where I should go next. GBA and ds/3ds seem a bit simpler, although WiiU and Switch are where I eventually would want to go seeing some showcases of BOTW in 4k. My understanding is Yuzo and Ryujinx are still pretty early stages though and it might be worth holding off.

I would appreciate any directions advice for how to get started on any of the above, but otherwise will enjoy the conversation
 
For Steam Deck, I've messed around some with Emudeck and it's pretty slick - though the frontend it uses appears to default to Dolphin's Retroarch core which is horribly outdated, rather than the standalone version Emudeck also installs. Was having a ton of trouble with PSO Episode III until I realised that and switched the emu.
 
I've been doing a lot of emulation lately. It's arguably been where most of my gaming time has gone in the past year, playing some familiar classics or hacks of my favorite games. I've been using three devices for this purpose:

1. New Nintendo 3DS
3DS homebrew is relatively straightforward, with a solid step-by-step guide available for anyone who wishes to dive in. And once you do, a world a possibilities open, from being able to extract your games from carts/downloads to being able to run homebrew programs and games. But let's focus on emulation for now.

If you want to keep things looking official, you can use the New Super Ultimate Injector to add games that use the same emulators as officially released Virtual Console games - including the highly accurate GBA emulator used for the Ambassador games. It even lets you inject Mega Drive/Genesis and TurboGraxy-16/PC Engine titles, though those titles instead forward to RetroArch cores. For those who want other options, the Universal-Updater gives you easy access to plenty of emulators across the 3DS and DS(i), from RetroArch to plenty of standalone options. A base 3DS can comfortably run old Atari systems, NES, GB, GBC, GBA, Game Gear, Genesis, and the like on top of native support for 3DS and DS through backwards compatibility - and you can even forward DS roms on your SD card to the 3DS's home menu, accessing them as if they were native. New 3DS gives you more room to play with, with support for the official SNES VC emulator and even PS1 via RetroArch, with many games running at full speed. It also supports the Super Mario 64 decompilation port at a mostly consistent 60 FPS, with dips only really occurring when in 3D mode - yes, it works in 3D, which is amazing.

As for my own use cases, I mostly stick to the Nintendo systems here using the official VC emulators to keep things looking official. GBA in particular feels right at home on the device's wider screen. 3DS homebrew turns an already great Pokemon device into the best Pokemon playing machine out there, with the ability to comfortably pay all mainline games from Gen 1 up to Gen 7, plus homebrew application PKSM to serve as a local Pokemon box, editor and transfer tool alongside the official Pokemon Bank. Slap your preferred "Catch em All" or quality of life game hacks onto the device and you are good to go, the only downside being no multiplayer for Gen 3. But that's extremely minor when you have so many other options.

2. my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra)
This was primarily meant for higher-end 3D stuff, like GameCube, light Wii and the like. I still need to go and rip most of my GC/Wii disks, but I got a few games on there at the moment. I can absolutely recommend the Gamesir X2 controller mentioned earlier in the thread. Although there's no analog triggers, it has all the other inputs you could ask for and fits on even the largest Android devices.

In truth, I find myself playing more on game specific devices than my phone. Powerful games eat up a lot of battery, and I tend to use my phone more as...well, my phone. Taking off the case and putting on the controller is more of a commitment than turning on a games specific device, ya know? Still, if you want power in a device you may already have or plan on getting for other purposes, it's hard to go wrong with a good Android phone.

3. Miyoo Mini
51H-drzxyXL._SL1000_.jpg
There are a bunch of emulation-centric handheld devices out there nowadays. From Ambernic and Retroid making Linux/Android devices to higher end portable PCs like the AYANEO products or the Steam Deck, there's lots of different options for different use cases. The one that ended up fitting my uses was the Miyoo Mini, a tiny and pretty affordable device (I paid $62 for mine) that packs a lot of into a small space.

The Miyoo Mini comfortably runs PS1 and below games through RetroArch cores. It's a very small device, about the size of a deck of cards, so it's not the most comfortable for long sessions or game that heavily rely on shoulder buttons. However, it is perfect for pick up and play experiences or short bursts of gameplay here and there - though I have had hour-long game sessions on occasion. Its 2.8 inch 480p screen is perfect for retro games, and the device's small size makes it extremely portable and pocket friendly. It even came with a carrying case to protect the device in a bag.

The base experience is fine, but you'll want custom launchers to get the most out of the device. I personally use Onion OS to get the most power without having to mess with settings, and it has an autosave feature whenever you close a game or shut off the device, making the device even more pick up and play friendly than before. MiniUI is a compelling option as well. The Retro Game Corps guide was extremely helpful for setting things up.

The one major downside for me recommending this is that production is seemingly ramping down due to parts shortages, making a lot harder to find. There's a new horizontal model in the works, but I think it loses some of the charm that the GB form factor provides. Still, if you manage to find one near the default price, or the horizontal model keeps the cheap price, this is absolutely worth it if you want portable pick up and play emulation at a great price. If you want more power or a larger device, there's plenty of other options on the market, though.

I've also dabbled in PC emulation, but I love my handheld devices, so I do it less often. When I do emulate on PC, I use Mesen for NES, bsnes for SNES, Dolphin for GC/Wii, and Citra for 3DS.

If you want an expanded discussion, there's an ST for emulation, though it's been pretty quiet for a few months. I'll let the flow of the discussion here dictate whether or not we stick here or go back there. The mods can made a decision there if they want. The OP is pretty informative, though (if a few months out of date if you care about emulation handhelds), so it's worth checking out.
 
Last edited:
For emulation, I hacked my second N3DS system and for GB to SNES it is awesome because it takes straight CIA injects using the virtual console emulator.

The Wii U also takes injects for N64 and GameCube games, the former letting me remove the dark filter and the latter natively, and it’s great. Wii U is an emulation beast for NGC cause playing handheld rocks. I have RetroArch installed for Sega CD and Turbo CD games as well.

And lastly, my Vita which I use for PSP and PS1.

When I get my analogue pocket, I’ll be everdriving all GB and GBA
 
Remember, friends don't let friends use RetroArch ;) I'm old school and even without all the toxicity from that project it was way too cumbersome to configure and setup for me. You can setup ZSNES or SNES9x in a fraction of the time and they're far less picky about what you throw at them.
Similar here; I was into emulators long enough ago that RetroArch conceptually never appealed to me. I always preferred running standalone. But I'm out of the loop on toxicity with the project?
 
Also everyone who has a modded 3DS. You MUST have Twilight Menu++ on it. It will let you play DS (and many other) ROMs and works great.

I've tried the injector app, it works great, you can make anything look pretty official. But it doesn't play nice with all patched games (at least in my experience). I patched Fire Emblem Thracia 776 for example, and that just doesn't boot. Same with a Pokémon Fire Red romhack.
 
Similar here; I was into emulators long enough ago that RetroArch conceptually never appealed to me. I always preferred running standalone. But I'm out of the loop on toxicity with the project?
I haven't followed it in great detail, but I believe there were allegations that RetroArch devs (or at least the main dev) harassed emu devs including Stenzek (the Duckstation dev) and near (the late bsnes dev), as well as using emu code in RetroArch without permission.
 
I have an old base ps4 that is just keeping dust, does anybody knows how easy/hard is to jailbreak it? I wanted to use it to put some emulators
 
Yeah, New Super Ultimate Injector is great on (New) 3DS! I'd add a few things to what @VolcanicDynamo said:

  • For GBA games, you should probably use AGB_Edit for color correction, making them close to their look on a GBA SP;
  • For SNES games, follow this guide to apply the various VC patches created by Nintendo or the SNES Classic Mini community -- some games flat out do not work without them (e.g., the Quintet games). Applying those patches will turn your 3DS into a portable SNES Classic -- although games with some special chips (SA1, SFX) are still not supported, of course;
  • NSUI has not been updated for a long time now; therefore, it supports very old versions of unofficial emulators. In my opinion, NSUI is worth it if you want to make official injections -- e.g., employing official Nintendo emulators used by VC. Make sure to select the right option.

Speaking of unofficial emulators:
  • mGBA is good. Some GBA games lag, but GB/C games work great -- and they support Super Game Boy borders and palette! For games like Donkey Kong '94, mGBA is better than official injections;
  • bubble's suite of emulators provides a "good enough" alternative for NES, SNES, MD and PCE games. Sometimes the sound is a bit off, and some effects might be missing in SNES games, but the games are very playable. If you have an Old 3DS, this is the best way to play SNES games, while New 3DS users can fall back to Snes9X for special chip games.
 
Yeah, New Super Ultimate Injector is great on (New) 3DS! I'd add a few things to what @VolcanicDynamo said:

  • For GBA games, you should probably use AGB_Edit for color correction, making them close to their look on a GBA SP;
  • For SNES games, follow this guide to apply the various VC patches created by Nintendo or the SNES Classic Mini community -- some games flat out do not work without them (e.g., the Quintet games). Applying those patches will turn your 3DS into a portable SNES Classic -- although games with some special chips (SA1, SFX) are still not supported, of course;
  • NSUI has not been updated for a long time now; therefore, it supports very old versions of unofficial emulators. In my opinion, NSUI is worth it if you want to make official injections -- e.g., employing official Nintendo emulators used by VC. Make sure to select the right option.

Speaking of unofficial emulators:
  • mGBA is good. Some GBA games lag, but GB/C games work great -- and they support Super Game Boy borders and palette! For games like Donkey Kong '94, mGBA is better than official injections;
  • bubble's suite of emulators provides a "good enough" alternative for NES, SNES, MD and PCE games. Sometimes the sound is a bit off, and some effects might be missing in SNES games, but the games are very playable. If you have an Old 3DS, this is the best way to play SNES games, while New 3DS users can fall back to Snes9X for special chip games.
Yeah NSUI is great. Only three games give me issue. Marvelous Another Treasure Island, since I believe that game used high resolution UI for text, and it doesn’t quite look right. The other is Wonder Project J which glitches a lot on me. And finally, Far East of Eden Zero that won’t load up.
 
it's pretty wild to me that I have duckstation installed on my series x and can run roms off of a flashdrive without any kind of modifications
Yes, Microsoft did a good thing. I can't think of a good reason to hack an xbox now :)
Awesome thread topic! I didn't see it mentioned in the reasons, but I think the biggest one that almost goes without saying is overall game preservation.

My current experience in emulation is playing NCAA14 on RPCS3 with the College Football Revamped mod which has been fantastic.

I am certainly interested in doing more, but have no idea where I should go next. GBA and ds/3ds seem a bit simpler, although WiiU and Switch are where I eventually would want to go seeing some showcases of BOTW in 4k. My understanding is Yuzo and Ryujinx are still pretty early stages though and it might be worth holding off.

I would appreciate any directions advice for how to get started on any of the above, but otherwise will enjoy the conversation
I haven't tried any Switch emulation yet, but I should start to reasearch it, as I'm pretty sure my Switch will die soon (in the mean time I am using my daughtsers Switch lite).
For Steam Deck, I've messed around some with Emudeck and it's pretty slick - though the frontend it uses appears to default to Dolphin's Retroarch core which is horribly outdated, rather than the standalone version Emudeck also installs. Was having a ton of trouble with PSO Episode III until I realised that and switched the emu.
Oh, thnak you for mentioning that. I am thinking of buying Launchbox. It might just do the same.
I've been doing a lot of emulation lately. It's arguably been where most of my gaming time has gone in the past year, playing some familiar classics or hacks of my favorite games. I've been using three devices for this purpose:

1. New Nintendo 3DS
3DS homebrew is relatively straightforward, with a solid step-by-step guide available for anyone who wishes to dive in. And once you do, a world a possibilities open, from being able to extract your games from carts/downloads to being able to run homebrew programs and games. But let's focus on emulation for now.

If you want to keep things looking official, you can use the New Super Ultimate Injector to add games that use the same emulators as officially released Virtual Console games - including the highly accurate GBA emulator used for the Ambassador games. It even lets you inject Mega Drive/Genesis and TurboGraxy-16/PC Engine titles, though those titles instead forward to RetroArch cores. For those who want other options, the Universal-Updater gives you easy access to plenty of emulators across the 3DS and DS(i), from RetroArch to plenty of standalone options. A base 3DS can comfortably run old Atari systems, NES, GB, GBC, GBA, Game Gear, Genesis, and the like on top of native support for 3DS and DS through backwards compatibility - and you can even forward DS roms on your SD card to the 3DS's home menu, accessing them as if they were native. New 3DS gives you more room to play with, with support for the official SNES VC emulator and even PS1 via RetroArch, with many games running at full speed. It also supports the Super Mario 64 decompilation port at a mostly consistent 60 FPS, with dips only really occurring when in 3D mode - yes, it works in 3D, which is amazing.

As for my own use cases, I mostly stick to the Nintendo systems here using the official VC emulators to keep things looking official. GBA in particular feels right at home on the device's wider screen. 3DS homebrew turns an already great Pokemon device into the best Pokemon playing machine out there, with the ability to comfortably pay all mainline games from Gen 1 up to Gen 7, plus homebrew application PKSM to serve as a local Pokemon box, editor and transfer tool alongside the official Pokemon Bank. Slap your preferred "Catch em All" or quality of life game hacks onto the device and you are good to go, the only downside being no multiplayer for Gen 3. But that's extremely minor when you have so many other options.

2. my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra)
This was primarily meant for higher-end 3D stuff, like GameCube, light Wii and the like. I still need to go and rip most of my GC/Wii disks, but I got a few games on there at the moment. I can absolutely recommend the Gamesir X2 controller mentioned earlier in the thread. Although there's no analog triggers, it has all the other inputs you could ask for and fits on even the largest Android devices.

In truth, I find myself playing more on game specific devices than my phone. Powerful games eat up a lot of battery, and I tend to use my phone more as...well, my phone. Taking off the case and putting on the controller is more of a commitment than turning on a games specific device, ya know? Still, if you want power in a device you may already have or plan on getting for other purposes, it's hard to go wrong with a good Android phone.

3. Miyoo Mini
There are a bunch of emulation-centric handheld devices out there nowadays. From Ambernic and Retroid making Linux/Android devices to higher end portable PCs like the AYANEO products or the Steam Deck, there's lots of different options for different use cases. The one that ended up fitting my uses was the Miyoo Mini, a tiny and pretty affordable device (I payed $62 for mine) that packs a lot of into a small space.

The Miyoo Mini comfortably runs PS1 and below games through RetroArch cores. It's a very small device, about the size of a deck of cards, so it's not the most comfortable for long sessions or game that heavily rely on shoulder buttons. However, it is perfect for pick up and play experiences or short bursts of gameplay here and there - though I have had hour-long game sessions on occasion. Its 2.8 inch 480p screen is perfect for retro games, and the device's small size makes it extremely portable and pocket friendly. It even came with a carrying case to protect the device in a bag.

The base experience is fine, but you'll want custom launchers to get the most out of the device. I personally use Onion OS to get the most power without having to mess with settings, and it has an autosave feature whenever you close a game or shut off the device, making the device even more pick up and play friendly than before. MiniUI is a compelling option as well. The Retro Game Corps guide was extremely helpful for setting things up.

The one major downside for me recommending this is that production is seemingly ramping down due to parts shortages, making a lot harder to find. There's a new horizontal model in the works, but I think it loses some of the charm that the GB form factor provides. Still, if you manage to find one near the default price, or the horizontal model keeps the cheap price, this is absolutely worth it if you want portable pick up and play emulation at a great price. If you want more power or a larger device, there's plenty of other options on the market, though.

I've also dabbled in PC emulation, but I love my handheld devices, so I do it less often. When I do emulate on PC, I use Mesen for NES, bsnes for SNES, Dolphin for GC/Wii, and Citra for 3DS.

If you want an expanded discussion, there's an ST for emulation, though it's been pretty quiet for a few months. I'll let the flow of the discussion here dictate whether or not we stick here or go back there. The mods can made a decision there if they want. The OP is pretty informative, though (if a few months out of date if you care about emulation handhelds), so it's worth checking out.
Thak you so much for such a great reply! So much information here I will read in detail. Also, I see now that this thread could just have been a reply to that thread. Maybe we should merge this into the ST thread?
For emulation, I hacked my second N3DS system and for GB to SNES it is awesome because it takes straight CIA injects using the virtual console emulator.

The Wii U also takes injects for N64 and GameCube games, the former letting me remove the dark filter and the latter natively, and it’s great. Wii U is an emulation beast for NGC cause playing handheld rocks. I have RetroArch installed for Sega CD and Turbo CD games as well.

And lastly, my Vita which I use for PSP and PS1.

When I get my analogue pocket, I’ll be everdriving all GB and GBA
I used to use my Vita for PS1, PSP and Vita games, but I just sold it. I want those games enhanced now :) My New 3DS is broken, and even broken (I wrote that it was broken, and no better than garbage), I sold it for 670 NOK, around 67$ the other day. Maybe I'll be able to emulate 3ds.
Also everyone who has a modded 3DS. You MUST have Twilight Menu++ on it. It will let you play DS (and many other) ROMs and works great.

I've tried the injector app, it works great, you can make anything look pretty official. But it doesn't play nice with all patched games (at least in my experience). I patched Fire Emblem Thracia 776 for example, and that just doesn't boot. Same with a Pokémon Fire Red romhack.
I would've done that if my 3ds was working, but two with two broken buttons, randomly shutting off and big scratches after my kids were playing with it, it was beyond saving.
I have an old base ps4 that is just keeping dust, does anybody knows how easy/hard is to jailbreak it? I wanted to use it to put some emulators
Sorry, I have no idea. If you do find out anything by googling, please let me know :)
 
Why didn't I do this sooner? :D

Look at this! I started Shenmue again, I have for the first time in many, many years started splaying Evolution for Dreamcast (that my mother bought for me so randomly in France), I have Phantasy STar Online for Gamecube, sega saturn working... This is incfredible! And I'll just let this phone be in that controller, since it has a passthrough for charging. No lag either, since it is connected by usb c. I just LOVE this!! :D :D

emu1.jpg


emu2.jpg


emu3.jpg
 
0
I'm on a quest looking for the ultimate emulation experience but so far I haven't found the sweet spot.

I have a LG V60 with Dual screen (nds, 3ds) but using a touchscreen for controls is very counter intuitive.

I bought (and broke) some kind of Ipega controller which was the worst experience ever.

I bought (and sold) the GameSir x3 because it wouldn't work properly with my V60. (Tried everything really)

Still looking for a way I could use my V60 for proper emulation, maybe some kind of hardware hack or homebrew solution idunno.
 
I'm on a quest looking for the ultimate emulation experience but so far I haven't found the sweet spot.

I have a LG V60 with Dual screen (nds, 3ds) but using a touchscreen for controls is very counter intuitive.

I bought (and broke) some kind of Ipega controller which was the worst experience ever.

I bought (and sold) the GameSir x3 because it wouldn't work properly with my V60. (Tried everything really)

Still looking for a way I could use my V60 for proper emulation, maybe some kind of hardware hack or homebrew solution idunno.
On paper, the v60 looks like a dream come true. But googling it, it seems like most people settle for touch screen controls:

Kp3TeqD.jpg

Su9DZOW.jpeg


I hope that in the future, we will get some kind of gamesir for dual screen phones type of controller.
 
Sony needs to stop pretending to care about the Vita. Not sure why they still do updates. I have games I bought off of PSN and I cannot even log in to re-download them (they went away after doing a system reboot). Just get an error message. Thanks Sony. My Vita has been hacked for 5 years zero issue and I guess whatever they did to the PSN store fucked me over.
 
Sony needs to stop pretending to care about the Vita. Not sure why they still do updates. I have games I bought off of PSN and I cannot even log in to re-download them (they went away after doing a system reboot). Just get an error message. Thanks Sony. My Vita has been hacked for 5 years zero issue and I guess whatever they did to the PSN store fucked me over.
Last time I tried to browse psn with a Vita, it was slow and barely working at all. 😕

Vita is good as an emulation machine though.

Btw, I got PS2 working what looks like full speed on my cheap android phone! What a time to be alive 🤯
 
So, since I'd like to put together a new desktop sometime... soon (within like, the next half year or so please), I probably should figure out what GPU I should aim for. I'm min-maxing to go heavy on the CPU, light on the GPU, so ideally I'd pay an entry tier price. But the only 'real' option in that price bracket in this time frame would potentially come from Intel. (I'm not buying a Turing in 2022/2023, nor am I buying a gods damn converted laptop card)
The catch is of course, Intel's drivers seem to be a burning pile of trash for non-DX12/Vulkan. So the question is:
How do the Intel Xe drivers play with OpenGL? Would I be able to expect Intel's Alchemist cards to play nice with emulators?
 
So, since I'd like to put together a new desktop sometime... soon (within like, the next half year or so please), I probably should figure out what GPU I should aim for. I'm min-maxing to go heavy on the CPU, light on the GPU, so ideally I'd pay an entry tier price. But the only 'real' option in that price bracket in this time frame would potentially come from Intel. (I'm not buying a Turing in 2022/2023, nor am I buying a gods damn converted laptop card)
The catch is of course, Intel's drivers seem to be a burning pile of trash for non-DX12/Vulkan. So the question is:
How do the Intel Xe drivers play with OpenGL? Would I be able to expect Intel's Alchemist cards to play nice with emulators?
My knowledge here is limited. But I do know that if your desktop is mainly for emulation, having a good cpu is the most important. I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but I seem to remember intel CPUs being the better choice for emulation.
 
Sony needs to stop pretending to care about the Vita. Not sure why they still do updates. I have games I bought off of PSN and I cannot even log in to re-download them (they went away after doing a system reboot). Just get an error message. Thanks Sony. My Vita has been hacked for 5 years zero issue and I guess whatever they did to the PSN store fucked me over.

IIRC the purpose of the updates is actually to prevent like, credit card information from being stolen from the PSN. The goal is to reduce possible hacking weakpoints so that it's not susceptible to something like the 2011 PSN hack again. It's something Sony has to care about unless they stop allowing you to access the PSN on the Vita entirely.
 
IIRC the purpose of the updates is actually to prevent like, credit card information from being stolen from the PSN. The goal is to reduce possible hacking weakpoints so that it's not susceptible to something like the 2011 PSN hack again. It's something Sony has to care about unless they stop allowing you to access the PSN on the Vita entirely.
Fair enough. Unfortunately I can’t access the games I purchased anymore so :(
 
Fair enough. Unfortunately I can’t access the games I purchased anymore so :(

Yeah to be clear it still sucks. I had to recently buy a new Vita since my old one broke and I had a hell of a time just logging in. I gave myself an estimated amount of time to hack my Vita before going on a trip, and I ended up just barely having enough time to even log into the PSN in that allotted time lol. I had to do some stupid shit with doing a factory reset and turning off and then turning 2FA back on for it to work.
 
Yeah to be clear it still sucks. I had to recently buy a new Vita since my old one broke and I had a hell of a time just logging in. I gave myself an estimated amount of time to hack my Vita before going on a trip, and I ended up just barely having enough time to even log into the PSN in that allotted time lol. I had to do some stupid shit with doing a factory reset and turning off and then turning 2FA back on for it to work.

Yeah, I may have to factory reset and start all over again and re hack my vita and see if that helps. Luckily I have a back up of my SD2Vita.
 
My knowledge here is limited. But I do know that if your desktop is mainly for emulation, having a good cpu is the most important. I’m not sure if it’s still the case, but I seem to remember intel CPUs being the better choice for emulation.
Oh yea, that advice has been around for a while. It's not exactly still the case nowadays, but there's nuance to that. Hmm, actually I can break that down a bit for the readers:
First off, there is historical basis for this thinking. For much of the 2010's, AMD's CPU offerings (Bulldozer and its descendants) were flat out inferior. Things were bad enough that it nearly ended AMD. Their comeback started with Zen and Zen+ in 2017/2018 closing much of the gap (but not entirely on a individual core basis). It's when we get to Zen 2's launch in mid 2019 when we get to the point that you can really go either Intel or AMD and be fine for emulation for the most part.
IMO, the major cutoff point is the combination of both the AVX2 (and FMA3) instruction set extensions as well as SIMD throughput of 2x256 bits. Zen/Zen+ has AVX2 support, but its SIMD throughput was 2x128 bits, which meant that for AVX code, it was still behind Haswell and later. Zen 2 widened SIMD throughput from 2x128 to 2x256, matching Intel.
Why am I citing the AVX2/FMA extensions? Because later emulators like them. RPCS3 wants AVX2/FMA. Yuzu wants FMA. Xenia wants AVX(2).

Now, I said 'you can really go either Intel or AMD and be fine for emulation for the most part'. And before that, I mentioned that there's nuance to that. I was thinking about RPCS3 in particular. I'll write out my deductions based on the tier list put together by the staff.
First off, the RPCS3 website lists either 6 core/12 thread or higher, or 8 cores or higher, Zen 2 or newer, or Skylake or newer as their recommended CPU requirement. Their definition of recommended is that a machine that satisfies that baseline performs at least as well as real PS3 hardware for games marked Playable in their compatibility list. If you go under the recommendation, you're on your own. Maybe things still work out great for your use case, maybe not, but they make no promises. If you go over the recommendation, you probably secure at least better-than-real-hardware performance on Playable and possibly can still extract sufficient performance from some not-Playable games.
Ok, now to sort the recommended CPU generations from worst to best.
Zen 2 - the 'worst' of the recommended. You have the core/thread count. You have AVX2 support. You have 2x256 SIMD throughput. What hurts you though, is how Zen 2 cores are organized. Physically, they're in groups of 4 (and the AMD name for these groups is Core Complex, or CCX). Communication between cores within the same CCX has very low latency. But communication between different CCXs have significantly higher latency. For less intensive games that can fit within one CCX, you don't have a problem yet. For the heavier games that simply just can't fit within one CCX, this is where you start falling behind.
Skylake (Kabylake/Coffee Lake/Comet Lake) - primarily a step up from Zen 2 because the cores are organized differently. They're not broken up into smaller groups, so you're not going to run into the issue mentioned above for higher thread count games.
Zen 3 - there was a major adjustment to core organization. The CCX changed from 4 cores to 8 cores. And RPCS3 does not need more than 8 cores/16 threads. And Zen 3 itself is generally a better core clock-for-clock compared to Skylake.
Rocket Lake - generally, this generation is considered to be terrible value for consumers, especially at the top end. But for emulation, it's still fine. And for RPCS3 specifically, it works out nicely because it has AVX-512 support. RPCS3 likes AVX-512.
Alder Lake (2022) - so, the Golden Cove cores in Alder Lake (ie, the P-cores) physically have AVX-512 support, but early this year, Intel started hard disabling them, hence the '(2022)'. But it just ends up being the case that Golden Cove's architecture is still pretty friendly to RPCS3. Without AVX-512 support, apparently Alder Lake slightly edges out Rocket Lake. If you have to buy a CPU for RPCS3 usage right now (and can't wait a month or two), Alder Lake's the generation to go with.
Alder Lake (2021) - congratulations, AVX-512 support wasn't lasered off yet. As of this post, this is the king of RPCS3 emulation.

In the very near future though, AMD is expected to launch Zen 4 (September, I believe). And Intel's launching Raptor Lake before the end of the year.
Current expectations are that Zen 4 will have AVX-512 support while consumer Raptor Lake probably won't. So there's a real chance that Zen 4 becomes the new king of emulation, while I'd expect Raptor Lake to slide in as a slight improvement over Alder Lake (2022) but behind Alder Lake (2021). However, Zen 4 will require purchasing DDR5 ram, while Raptor Lake allows usage of DDR4 if you prefer. I've already bought some DDR4, so my eyes are on Raptor Lake.
 
@Look over there thank you for the informative reply! This is a great writeup for anyone thinking about building a PC for emulation.

I'm using emulators on my new cheap android phone with a huge grin. Loving how easy it is to play a bit of Shenmue, then jump out and play some Nights.
 


Back
Top Bottom