Chris F Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 *This post was inspired by Ed's Gameboy emulator for PSP thread located here. **Lets please keep this discussion to emulators themselves, and not to where to obtain game images or ROMs** The other day it was brought to my attention that the Project 64 emulator (for N64) was updated for the first time in about three years. I've never really liked the emulators available for the N64. They've been slow, required extra plug-ins to work and generally weren't very good. But I gave it a try, and it works great! I owned an N64 in the past, but never really got much use out of it. There are a ton of games that came out for it, that I never really played. Conker and Perfect Dark are two that come to mind. Now I have a chance to try these games out, with some advanced features such as anisotropic filtering and antialiasing which are available in PJ64. With all the bells and whistles turned on, I was playing PD at a silky smooth 60FPS. Official PJ64 Website - http://www.pj64.net/iedefault.htm A few years back I was heavily into emulation, mainly focusing on NES/SNES emulation and MAME. With this new release of PJ64 I decided to see what else has gone on in the world of emulation, and I figured I'd start a thread about it here. One invaluable source for news and emulator downloads that I previously ussed, and I'm currently using now is Zophar's Domain - http://www.zophar.net/. There are some pop-ups there now, so make sure you've got a good pop-up blocker set up before you trek there. I know there are some of us here on LCVG who are into emulation, and some folks that would like to know more about it. For those that are into it, I'd like to hear your recommendations for different emulators, and I'll provide my favorites as well. While my experience is limited to Windows based emulators, I know there are a ton of emulators for Macs available as well, and would welcome discussion for either platform. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 I was always impressed with MagicEngine, the TurboGrafx-16 (/ PC-Engine) emulator. Don't think it's free, though, which stinks. Back in the days when NES and SNES emulators were buggy messes, MagicEngine was running most TG16 games perfectly, which was a real treat. Love Military Madness for that system. Great to see Project 64 getting more love. I'll have to give it another try... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted May 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 I was always impressed with MagicEngine' date=' the TurboGrafx-16 (/ PC-Engine) emulator. Don't think it's free, though, which stinks. Back in the days when NES and SNES emulators were buggy messes, MagicEngine was running most TG16 games perfectly, which was a real treat. [i']Love[/i] Military Madness for that system. Great to see Project 64 getting more love. I'll have to give it another try... Magic Engine is a fantastic PC Engine/TG-16 emulator! It does cost money, and at last check it was about 15$ USD (not too bad considering its quality). I don't think it's been updated in quite a while, but it was playing everything perfectly when last I tried it. I always wanted to get my hand on the Dracula X game that was on CD for it. Magic Engine has great PCE/TG CD support if I remember correctly. My favorite emulator is still MAME or MAME32. The sheer amount of arcade goodness one can have with a decent MAME setup is astounding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romier S Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 I'll throw in a few: Sega Genesis or Genesis fans in general will want to try Gens . You can also try Fusion for your 32x/SegaCD needs. Both I've had extensive time with and are simply the best out there. Nintendo fans have alot of options but really it comes down to only a couple of programs you'll need to get the best experience. Though work hasn't continued on it, FCE Ultra is excellent in general. Though I've personally found Nester to be the best around. It's been ages since I've played around with it though. Having a modded Xbox has really moved me away from PC emulation. Super Nintendo fans only need to remember one word: ZSnes . Honestly, don't bother with anything else. I haven't found an emulator that comes close to it for the Super Nintendo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreenMonkey Posted May 11, 2005 Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 I've always liked SNES9X for SNES emulation - it's been ages though. I used SNES emulation mainly for playing fan translations - Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of mana 2, basically), FF5 before the PS1 version came out, Dragon Quest 5/6 (which I actually still haven't gotten around to playing). I've got NesterDC for my Dreamcast - NES on dreamcast is nifty. With my supercard for my GBA, it comes with pocketnes, which, although some games don't work (particularly KOEI strategy games it seems), does excellent NES emulation on GBA. DWIV on GBA, whoo hoo! Never liked N64 emulation much. Honestly nothing feels quite like an n64 analog stick, and the emulation was always buggy and slow. I haven't tried it on my new A64 system though, might be worth a shot. And WTF is up with Sega Saturn emulation, I know it's difficult to emulate, but geez, not a lot of progress. I want to play a translated Shining Force 3 already, all of it. If they get a working SNES emulator up and running on either Nintendo DS or PSP, I'm in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted May 11, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2005 Never liked N64 emulation much. Honestly nothing feels quite like an n64 analog stick, and the emulation was always buggy and slow. I haven't tried it on my new A64 system though, might be worth a shot. I felt the same way about N64 emulation as well, but this new release of PJ64 really surprised me. I'm half thinking about picking up an Adaptoid and a real N64 controller so I can play on my PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris F Posted May 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 Liike Romier, I've found ZSNES to be THE emulator for SNES. Snes9X is also very good, but I prefer some of the graphic options available in ZSNES. For Genesis I've been using Kega Fusion, which has excellent Sega CD & 32X support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark E Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 I'd also like to throw my two bits in about PC emulation. On the PC. Those of us with a hankering to play the classics (oh Eric the Unready, how I have missed thee) a kinda fubar on Windows XP, unless you've got a copy of DOSBox. http://dosbox.sourceforge.net It allows you to play your games in an emulated MS-DOS environment. It has a helluva time with more recent programs unless you have a bugger quick machine (I have not to this day gotten it to run Gabriel Knight 1, though GK1 has its own WinXP patch now so it isn't a big deal) and it's a pain in the ass to work with. Therefore I also recommend downloading D-Fend from the site as well, short for DOSBox Frontend. It's a windows frontend that makes running DOSBox as simple as all get out and I've been experiencing excellent success with it. I intend to fully explore some old friends now that I have such easy access to it . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secretvampire Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 Mark, thanks for the info on the frontend for DOSBox. I have pretty much all of the old consoles, so I've kinda steered away from any emulators besides MAME. But I've wanted something like this for the PC for YEARS. I tried to fiddle around with DOSBox a couple of years ago with little success, I will give it a go and see if it is easier this time around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark E Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 Not a problem. I posted it because I too was fiddling with DOSBox a few months ago and ended up just walking away in frustration because it was nigh-on impossible to use. The front-end has a nice, simple menu system, helpful manual, and worked like a breeze getting Neuromancer running. I'm hoping to test it further with some other older titles to see if it's a complete success. I might be able to justify why I've had this copy of Crusader: No Remorse with me for the last five years yet haven't played it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 Oh yeah, sweet sweet DOSBox! In recent years I used that to play through Star Control II and Flashback, and they ran pretty much perfectly :rock Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark E Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 You know you can download Star Control II under the title "The Ur-Quan Masters" directly from Toys For Bob (I think), the guys who made SC2 originally right? Accolade still owns the name, but they own everything else and have been updating it to run on XP. I believe it's in a playable alpha right now. There was a post a while back (on the old LCVG forums iirc) about how to switch it to the original format as this downloadable features the full voice of the 3DO version (and is rather distracting to be honest, not great voicework at all). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Covak Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 You know you can download Star Control II under the title "The Ur-Quan Masters" directly from Toys For Bob (I think)' date=' the guys who made SC2 originally right? Accolade still owns the name, but they own everything else and have been updating it to run on XP. I believe it's in a playable alpha right now. There was a post a while back (on the old LCVG forums iirc) about how to switch it to the original format as this downloadable features the full voice of the 3DO version (and is rather distracting to be honest, not great voicework at all).[/quote'] Yeah. It was over two years ago, though, when I played through SCII and back then the original through DOSBox worked while The Ur-Quan Masters was an odd (with all the 3DO differences), buggy mess. I've been keeping up with the new music for it, though. The new Arilou tune is beautiful. Really fits the feeling I got from the whole Quasi space experience the first time. But then, that was on a 286 (below the minimum requirements), so flying through hyper or quasi space seemed especially laid back for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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