Creating a list of Valid/Popular Emulators
7 years ago
Ireland

I'm creating a short list of the best emulators, disregarding validity as I have this list for that. Please fill it out if you can. It only has 2 very short questions regarding which emulators you use and the problems associated with each.

http://goo.gl/forms/B1tkbGtkNIg1Le243

Update: Expect this validity list in about a months time.

Puerto Rico

Here's my recommended emulators list: 1.NES - FCEUX or Bizhawk 2.PS1 - Bizhawk 3. Sega Saturn, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega CD, SG-1000, PCEngine, PCEngine CD - Bizhawk beacuse Kega Fusion is not accurate ad it doesn't have rerecording option and Gens is not stable because in some games can be changed the resolution 4.GBA,GB, GBC - VBA or Bizhawk 5.SNES - Bizhawk or Snes9x 6.N64 - Project64 or Bizhawk (recommended) 7.WonderSwan/WonderSwan Color - Bizhawk

That's the list that I recommend. Cheers!

WagnerBrasil likes this
Colorado, USA

I'm assuming for arcade titles MAME would be used, but is there a specific version? (I've been practicing games on 0.175 but wanted to be sure before doing legitimate runs)

British Columbia, Canada

I don't have a windows PC. Is it acceptable to use OpenEMU with the Mupen64Plus core to run SM64 and OOT?

I've been told that Zsnes emulator does not emulate games at the proper FPS.

Is it for all games or just some of them?

Arizona, USA

zsnes isn't approved for a lot of the SNES runs. You should look into using BizHawk 1.11 or snes9x 1.53

pld and WeaponLord like this
Brazil

Hey guys!

I really like Arcade games, mainly beat'em ups. I've been running Alien Vs Predator in FBA-RR v0.0.7 and got really good times. Right now my best is 23:28 with Predator Warrior, but I've had the chance to get a 22. Unfortunately I lost the run in last area. Anyway, how exactly emulator runs work for submission in this site? Do I have to stream to be allowed submitting a run done in emulator? Is FBA a good emulator to use?

Antarctica

Whether or not emulator runs are accepted is a community by community decision that can even differ game by game (for example, Emu is allowed for Zelda 1, but not for OOT).

You'll have to check the specific rules for that game to see what the emulator policy is. Same goes for streaming, most games will always require a video for a run that is at the top of the LBs, but some require video no matter what your time. Just gotta ask the mods of that game.

Edited by the author 7 years ago
Brazil

Thanks for the answer. How can I find who the mod for this game is?

Edit: Forget about it. Just found out that T3tsuya is the moderator for that game.

Edited by the author 7 years ago

Why snes9x >>> "1.53" specifically? Is there something special about 1.53 release? Just curious

Edited by the author 7 years ago
Antarctica

I'm assuming that release most closely emulates the SNES. Similar to how Project64 1.6 or 1.7 (I think) is more accurate than Project64 2.x - the earlier versions were closer to the actual running of the N64 hardware while later ones decided to optimize to make the games run faster.

WeaponLord likes this
Texas, USA

So, you say that for MAME, each games has rules and stuff. but what if the game I'm thinking about running for doesn't have a set rules? Been wanting to do a speed run for Wonderboy in Monsterland, but it doesn't have any rules on it. "No rules have been defined" is all it says when I click on the rules.

Antarctica

Then ask the moderators or post in the game forum to find out if there is anything specific that is banned from the category/game. Sometimes games have only a handful of runners who all know each other and all know the game so they forget to add the rules to the page, maybe hearing from a new runner will remind them to keep those types of things up to date.

Michigan, USA

how about emulators on android phones/tablets? I do what I call, LOW Budget Streaming, where I use my tablet with emulators to play games. I was looking into starting to try and do a few speedruns, but was curious if there was any official position on the emulators on Android. examples I use are: Snes9x EX+, md.emu, nes.emu, gbc.emu, gba.emu, FPse, PPSSPP and MegaN64.

Canada

What about retroarch? I mean, Bizhawk uses the same cores for snes and genesis as the ones available in Retroarch and Bizhawk is even supporting Retroarch cores now. Why not simply talk about cores used instead of emulators? That way we separate the emu FrontEnd from the actual core doing the emulation.

Roborock likes this
Västra Götaland, Sweden

I dunno if this is the right place to ask. But are there any consoles where the accepted emulators are actually good enough for you to not have to worry about being at a disadvantage to the console runners? I mean for snes most emulated gameplay seems frowned upon by top players and the input delay can be noticeable (so I'm going to wait until i got a better snes and an everdrive+capture card, unless the wii vc or softmodded is widely accepted as a decent enough console for accurate runs). While FF1 on psp seems to be widely accepted and more played on the emulator (so i assume the psp emulator is more accurate). Or is it just because in this example (a turn based game) the input delay is not relevant enough?

Antarctica

Well for PSP, capturing it can be a little tricky iirc, so I would assume emulator is possible because it is as accurate as console and is easier to stream.

As for other games, input delay can indeed be noticeable on emulation, but that doesn't make it a disadvantage. It's more than possible to get used to input delay and perform at a level comparable to console runners. With practice, you won't even notice the input delay. I had a friend who gamed on an HDTV for years. He switched to CRT and immediately couldn't do menus in his game anymore because he had gotten used to the input delay on the HDTV. He got a number of world records that way as well.

The only way emulator puts you at a disadvantage to anyone is if it runs slower than console. Otherwise, it's all practice and getting used to whatever your set up is.

Roborock likes this
Antarctica

It should be noted that Dolphin is designed to run as fast as possible, so for many games, it'll run faster than the console. Most games won't allow that due to the advantages it has over using real hardware.

Tasmania, Australia

NES - Nestopidia