Tom Drake Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 I'm an old school emulator user, going back to around 1998-2000, but I haven't been too active the past decade (thanks to kids) other than a Hyperspin setup on my NVIDIA Shield. Now I'm looking at a home arcade cabinet and am really getting back into it. To get caught up on all the new emulators and how well they're working on Windows, I spent a couple days trying to compile my picks for each system I want to add to LaunchBox. Most posts and videos had some outdated options so I've updated what I could here. In most cases, I'm trying to lean towards RetroArch and MAME for simplicity and to use the bezel project. I'm sharing my list here because it might help others chose the emulators they want and I'm also hoping people will weigh in if they see a bad choice. I'm only a few days in on this so I haven't tried them all myself! Platform Emulator 3DO Interactive Multiplayer RA opera Arcade MAME Atari 2600 RA stella Atari 5200 RA atari800 Atari 7800 RA prosystem Atari Jaguar RA virtual jaguar Atari Lynx RA bettle handy Colecovision RA bluemsx Commodore 64 RA vice x64 Emerson Arcadia 2001 MAME? GCE Vectrex RA vecx Laserdisc-Based Hardware Daphne Mattel Intellivision RA freeintv MSX RA bluemsx MSX 2 RA bluemsx NEC PC-FX RA beetle pc-fx NEC SuperGrafx RA beetle supergrafx NEC TurboGrafx-16 RA beetle pce fast NEC TurboGrafx-CD RA beetle pce fast Neo Geo Pocket RA beetle neopop Neo Geo Pocket Color RA beetle neopop Nintendo 3DS RA citra canary Nintendo 64 RA mupen64plus-next Nintendo DS RA melonds Nintendo Entertainment System RA mesen Nintendo Famicom Disk System ?? Nintendo Game & Watch MAME? Nintendo Game Boy RA gambatte Nintendo Game Boy Advance RA mgba Nintendo Game Boy Color RA gambatte Nintendo GameCube RA dolphin Nintendo Pokemon Mini RA pokemini Nintendo Satellaview RA bnes accuracy?? Nintendo Switch Yuzu Nintendo Virtual Boy RA bettle vb Nintendo Wii RA dolphin Nintendo Wii U Cemu Odyssey2 MAME? Othello Multivision MAME? Philips CD-i MAME? RCA Studio II MAME? Sammy Atomiswave RA flycast Sega 32x RA picodrive Sega CD RA genesis plus rx Sega Dreamcast RA flycast Sega Game Gear RA genesis plus rx Sega Genesis RA genesis plus rx Sega Master System RA genesis plus rx Sega Model 2 Model 2 Emulator Sega Model 3 Supermodel Sega Naomi RA flycast Sega Pico MAME? Sega Saturn RA beetle saturn Sega SG-1000 RA genesis plus rx Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3 RA 81 SNK Neo Geo AES MAME? SNK Neo Geo CD MAME? Sony Playstation RA beetle psx hw Sony Playstation 2 PCSX2 Sony PlayStation Portable RA ppsspp Sony PocketStation MAME? Super Nintendo Entertainment System RA bnes accuracy SuperVision MAME? WonderSwan RA beetle wswan? Ares? WonderSwan Color RA beetle wswan? Ares? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 (edited) I like to stick to RA and MAME as much as I can as well. My choices are very similar to yours except for 3. GCE Vectrex - ParaJVE Sega 32X = Kega Fusion (Pico core has issues with a few games) Atari Jaguar - Phoenix (RA core still has issues with a few games) 3DO Interactive Multiplayer - Phoenix (RA Opera core has a few issues with some games) Edited July 18, 2020 by Headrush69 Added 3DO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Drake Posted July 18, 2020 Author Share Posted July 18, 2020 Thanks, I'll check those out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lordmonkus Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 Overall a very solid list though I would suggest a couple of alternative choices for a couple of systems. Not to say these alternatives are "better" but I would say they are equally good with their own pros over the choices given. Atari 7800 - A7800, this is a fork of Mame but only does Atari 7800 with support for the Pokey sound chip which some homebrew games utilize. Gameboy - Sameboy (RA core), this is a more accurate emulator but Gambatte is still very solid. SNES - Snes9x or Mesen S (RA cores) both of these cores to the end user in terms of gameplay are just as good as BSnes or Higan but without the special chip requirements for games that use them or the CPU power requirements. On another note, you can use the Beetle Supergrafx core for all the PC Engine stuff, you don't need to use multiple cores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulitix Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 Is this list still accurate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 8 hours ago, paulitix said: Is this list still accurate? For the most part yes, but some people will suggest standalone emus over the RA cores of the same emulation engines. Some notable changes are: BigP emu for Atari Jaguar Ryujinx and Yuzu are both excellent for Nintendo Switch Retroarch has a separate a5200 core now that works well for many games (based on same atari800 core) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulitix Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 6 hours ago, Headrush69 said: For the most part yes, but some people will suggest standalone emus over the RA cores of the same emulation engines. Makes sense....but I'm enjoying Mega Bezel too much right now to make the switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 30 minutes ago, paulitix said: Makes sense....but I'm enjoying Mega Bezel too much right now to make the switch. Same here. I wasn’t suggesting changing.😃 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpoonyOrbit Posted March 9 Share Posted March 9 I give you the WindowCast core. Enjoy. Official release thread for WindowCast core - Libretro / Cores - Libretro Forums 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nocta Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 On 3/9/2024 at 1:23 PM, SpoonyOrbit said: I give you the WindowCast core. Enjoy. Official release thread for WindowCast core - Libretro / Cores - Libretro Forums Did you find a way to make it work for all games of a system automatically? It's an amazing tool, if it could be set up easily in Launchbox, it would be amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpoonyOrbit Posted April 29 Share Posted April 29 1 hour ago, Nocta said: Did you find a way to make it work for all games of a system automatically? It's an amazing tool, if it could be set up easily in Launchbox, it would be amazing. Yes just follow the process in that thread and on github 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nocta Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 Thank you! Do you notice any lag though? The developer of WindoCast said himself that there should be a small amount due to the implementation. I wonder if using Reshade would not be actually better in terms of input lag? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpoonyOrbit Posted May 1 Share Posted May 1 3 hours ago, Nocta said: Thank you! Do you notice any lag though? The developer of WindoCast said himself that there should be a small amount due to the implementation. I wonder if using Reshade would not be actually better in terms of input lag? If your settings are optimal and your pc is powerful lag should be minimal. WindowCast is still new so give it time 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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