Atari Jaguar Emulation

[zorkiii]

Hi, I'm using Retroarch virtualjaguar_libreto.dll to run my Atari Jaguar games, and am running into a lot of issues. The games that are working fine are fun, but it seems to be running a hair too fast. Any tips on slowing this down a touch?

Also I'm having trouble using that core with the following games:

Battlesphere (not loading)
Club Drive (retroarch crashes after driving for a second or two)
Cybermorph (sound seems to not work for everything)
Iron Soldier (won't get past gun assign screen)
Tempest 2000 (super choppy at menus and transitions)
Dino Dudes (screen cut off on right)
Hover Strike (can't control ship)
Power Drive Rally (freezes on race screen)
Wolfenstein 3D (will not launch)

I had other issues, but this is the primary stuff it seems. 

I looked up some other emulators and tried Project Tempest for Tempest 2000 and it works great for that specific game, which is nice since it's one of my favorite Jaguar games. I used the custom loader at this thread here, and it launches from Launchbox without any issues: https://www.gameex.info/forums/topic/9199-project-tempest-loader/ - but it doesn't work so great for a bunch of the other games, just a few seemed to do well.

Anyone having the same issues using the virtualjaguar_libretro.dll core? Also anyone using a different emulator for Jaguar that is running games with fewer issues?

Thanks!

Edited May 20, 2017 by zorkiii

[Lordmonkus]

Jaguar emulation is hit and miss at best, it's the way it is right now for that system.

[SentaiBrad]

You may be able to artificially slow it down, but it could introduce input lag.

[smpetty]

Tempest 2000 works a lot better with the Retroarch Virtual Jaguar core when you enable the fast blitter (Quick menu --> Options --> Fast Blitter).  

You have to do this after loading the core and Jaguar content, otherwise it will say that "No core options available."

Like lordmonkus said, Jaguar emulation is messy at best.  I use Retroarch - Mame Jaguar drivers are improving release by release.  

I still have my old Jaguar console and kept it to play one game - Tempest 2000.  IMHO, that's one of the best video games ever made.  Anything by Jeff Minter is gold.  Even his iPad games are a blast.  The Yak rulez!   

Just tested Wolfenstein 3D - I thought that it worked on my setup, and it does.  May want to check your ROM and make sure you have the latest Retroarch version and Virtual Jaguar core.  Battlesphere won't start on RA or Mame.

Edited May 22, 2017 by smpetty

[Zombeaver]

8 minutes ago, smpetty said:

 

Tempest 2000 works a lot better with the Retroarch Virtual Jaguar core when you enable the fast blitter (Quick menu --> Options --> Fast Blitter).  

You have to do this after loading the core and Jaguar content, otherwise it will say that "No core options available."

 

It should be noted that these can be saved on a per-game basis as well - since you might not necessarily want this for all your Jaguar games. You have to enable "content specific core options" and then save them for the game on the core options screen. I've got more detailed instructions here.

Jaguar emulation in general isn't too great. There's a lot of cross-platform stuff though and you're basically always better off using a different version (like PSX). Unfortunately, there are several exclusives that don't seem to work at all or very well.

[smpetty]

Found a good rundown on which games work with which emulators.  They're testing Virtual Jaguar directly, not through Retroarch, but it likely applies to the VJ core in Retroarch as well.

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/264464-virtual-jaguar-project-tempest-compatibility-list/

[zorkiii]

4 hours ago, smpetty said:

Tempest 2000 works a lot better with the Retroarch Virtual Jaguar core when you enable the fast blitter (Quick menu --> Options --> Fast Blitter).  You have to do this after loading the core and Jaguar content, otherwise it will say that "No core options available."

I still have my old Jaguar console and kept it to play one game - Tempest 2000.  IMHO, that's one of the best video games ever made.  Anything by Jeff Minter is gold.  Even his iPad games are a blast.  The Yak rulez!   

Just tested Wolfenstein 3D - I thought that it worked on my setup, and it does.  May want to check your ROM and make sure you have the latest Retroarch version and Virtual Jaguar core.  Battlesphere won't start on RA or Mame.

That's great, thanks for those tips! I also am a huge fan of Tempest 2000 and Jeff Minter. I appreciate the input on getting this to run in retroarch, I was planning to experiment some with settings. I will check my Wolfenstein rom, I tried two different versions, one TOSEC and one from somewhere else and both seemed to have the issue. It did run in Project Tempest pretty well, but I couldn't adjust the joystick sensitivity in that emulator it seemed.

4 hours ago, Zombeaver said:

It should be noted that these can be saved on a per-game basis as well - since you might not necessarily want this for all your Jaguar games. You have to enable "content specific core options" and then save them for the game on the core options screen. I've got more detailed instructions here.

Thank you Zombeaver for that info, I will definitely check that out and use it for situations like this. 

3 hours ago, smpetty said:

Found a good rundown on which games work with which emulators.  They're testing Virtual Jaguar directly, not through Retroarch, but it likely applies to the VJ core in Retroarch as well.

https://atariage.com/forums/topic/264464-virtual-jaguar-project-tempest-compatibility-list/

Also thanks for finding and linking this list. This is kind of what I was hoping to spark here, to get a list of which games work best with which emulator, and tips on settings and such. I recall having a slightly different experience with a few of the games in the PDF from the other thread there. This helps having some options now for these games to play them, rather than removing them from your games list. 

Edited May 22, 2017 by zorkiii