CPS1, CPS2, CPS3 - One Emulator to Rule them All?

[Saraph]

I was wondering if there was an emulator that can do all 3 easily? Are bios files needed?

Thank you my emulation friends!

[Lordmonkus]

Retroarch and yes bios files are necessary, they will go in the same location as your  game roms.

[Saraph]

What would be the best core? I see the FBA cores and MAME, a combination perhaps? Would you know the file names to the bios files?

I think what I'm mainly missing here are the bios files, tbh. I can get the MAME core to launch but it is always getting stuck at initializing or loading at some random percent, but mainly 99%.

[Lordmonkus]

FBA is better than the Mame core. The core I use is fbalpha_libretro.dll, which one that is exactly in the core updater I can't remember.

The bios files would be neogeo.zip and qsound.zip.

Also just using the standard stand alone Mame is an equally good choice and in some ways better. The way I think it is better is with Mame I can use an HLSL shader setup which works perfectly with both horizontal and vertical oriented games whereas in Retroarch if you are using some sort of CRT scanline type of shader they only work well for the horizontal games. Now if you aren't using a CRT scanline shader that won't matter.

[Saraph]

Thank you sir! I'll try these out as soon as I get home!

[Charco]

I don't think I have ever bothered with adding the qsound.zip and all my CPS2 games run just fine in RetroArch FBA. Is it really needed?

[Lordmonkus]

It may not be needed but I always have it there anyways.

[Saraph]

So I messed around with things, tested, tried different cores, deleted over 300GB worth of files, redownloaded, and FINALLY think I figured out the issue.

I needed ROM's for FBA as opposed to MAME.

 

 

 

[Lordmonkus]

Weird, my set works fine in both FBA and Mame.

[Saraph]

I think you have a good set. What I had... I can't even tell you. It's working now which is the most important thing.

Have you been using the new saturn core?

[Lordmonkus]

I haven't been playing any Saturn games for a few days.

Why ? Anything I should be aware of ?

[Saraph]

The mednafen core is amazing! Best Saturn emulation I've ever seen! It has some issues regarding game compatibility but that's not a big deal. Only a small number of my games wouldn't work because of the way they were ripped.

[Lordmonkus]

Oh I thought you meant the new core as of a recent update.

Yeah, I have been using the Retroarch Mednafen core since it got released

[kostas]

hello guys once again i need your help lordmonuks and everyone else if they happen to know!! Im super satisifed with how easy it was to make lists with cps1 ,2 and 3 compare it to neo geo where its just impossible. 

But only prob is that when i boot game controler doest working or i dont know witch button to press for insert coin can somone tell me how to map my controler thorugh retroarch but only for the cps systems thx in advance!!!!

[Lordmonkus]

With the core and a game loaded open up the Retroarch Quick Menu (F1) then go to Settings > Input > Input User 1 Binds > User 1 Device Index and make sure your controller you want to use with it is selected. It usually is by default but sometimes it may not be and if you have multiple controllers you may have to tell Retroarch which one you want to use. Also while in the Retroarch UI see if your controller is working in it, if it is then you are good to go.

Once your controller is selected and working in the UI navigate back to the Quick Menu > Controls section and here you can setup your bindings how you like them. The default settings are generally setup pretty good depending on the controller you are using, in this menu you can see what the default controls are set to, for example Insert Coin and Start are generally by default set to the Select and Start buttons on your controller but again of course these can vary depending on the controller you are using.

If you make any changes make sure to save out the changes as a Core Remap if you want that setup to be the default setup for the FBA core or if it's just for that game save a Game Remap. I generally have different remaps for the 6 button fighters like Street Fighter.

[kostas]

thx alot lormonkus i think i was presing start for inster coin and tried all other buttons except sellect 

:PP

[Lordmonkus]

hehe well there ya go then

[kostas]

well i rush to get exicted some of the games wont launch through launchbox ?

and some omf them crush after some play time?:(

[Lordmonkus]

Do the games that crash through Launchbox load in Retroarch outside of Launchbox ? It could either be a rom file that the emulator doesn't like or when you imported your games you selected the copy or move file when you should choose to use the files in their current location. Moving or copying will cause issues with arcade roms because of their requirement to have parent and bios rom files in the same folder as the game rom itself such as the qsound.zip and neogeo.zip files.

Games crashing after some play time is extremely weird and to me that indicates and issue with your computer rather than the emulator or rom.

[kostas]

i never move the files or unzipe them either i gues its the rom files that launchox and retroarch doesnt like i had to delete some and keep going cause they dont play at all  but the best ones are playing lets hope all sf games will launch they are my favorite the rom packs i found where from emuparadise do you think it might be the site , maybe i shoud download from isozone or somth else thx !!