5 ms·

Best Emulators (NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, and more)

18 points by fjk 13y ago

rangibaby 13y ago
Missing BSNES? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higan_%28emulator%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higan_%28emulator%29
devindotcom 13y ago
Written like someone who hasn't used these much and doesn't care. Best to do your own research, depending on the game you're after. Recommending just "MAME" (with no frontend or other tips) for arcade machines, for instance, is massively unhelpful (and saying it lacks features is massively wrong). Don't trust this list, don't use it, don't link to it, would be my advice.
- aidenn0 13y ago
  Seriously, this article could have been called "what shows up on the first page when googling for "X emulator"
zokier 13y ago
Nothing here that would qualify these emulators as the "best". And higan (aka bsnes) is not even mentioned, which makes the list bit suspect.
- jbaiter 13y ago
  Indeed, the mere fact that ZSNES is on this list makes it basically worthless. While it had its benefits a while ago (when people were running 500Mhz machines with 128MB RAM), there is no reason to use it to day, except for the fact that a few fan translations and romhacks require some of its bugs and inaccuracies. If you don't want your CPU to be at 90% when playing a game from 1992 (this is bsnes/higan, the requirements are this high because it strives for 100% accurate emulation) use Snes9x, for which byuu (author of bsnes/higan) has ported many of his discoveries and improvements.
DrewRWx 13y ago
Playing devils advocate, the author does list the most prominent/active emulators for each system and even manages to generally characterize the difference between Snes9x and ZSNES. That being said, the list doesn't meet it own criteria, even with "best" being defined in a loose, consumer sense. While I'm here, I highly recommend Robert Broglia's, http://www.explusalpha.com/ http://www.explusalpha.com/ , emulators for Android and iOS. They can be pricey, but almost all of them are GPL and Robert cites his sources. The exception is Snes9x EX(+), which is free and under a noncommercial license.
namuol 13y ago
pSX definitely deserves a mention on this list; easily the most accurate Playstation 1 emulator! http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/ http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/
- Narishma 13y ago
  Agreed. It's unfortunate that it isn't being developed anymore.
jaxb 13y ago
MESS (MAME's sister project) emulates many of these and has certain unique features (scroll down to Sonic&Knuckles): http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2013/02/11/whats-new-in-0-148u1/ http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2013/02/11/whats-new-in-0-148u...
crazysaem 13y ago
On http://www.aep-emu.de/emus.html http://www.aep-emu.de/emus.html is a pretty good list of common emulators sorted by platform. (Language of the site is german, but that shouldn't be a problem)
duomo 13y ago
A much better list: http://nonmess.retrogames.com/ http://nonmess.retrogames.com/

18 points by fjk 13y ago

Missing BSNES? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higan_%28emulator%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higan_%28emulator%29

Written like someone who hasn't used these much and doesn't care. Best to do your own research, depending on the game you're after. Recommending just "MAME" (with no frontend or other tips) for arcade machines, for instance, is massively unhelpful (and saying it lacks features is massively wrong). Don't trust this list, don't use it, don't link to it, would be my advice.

aidenn0 13y ago
Seriously, this article could have been called "what shows up on the first page when googling for "X emulator"

zokier 13y ago

Nothing here that would qualify these emulators as the "best". And higan (aka bsnes) is not even mentioned, which makes the list bit suspect.

jbaiter 13y ago
Indeed, the mere fact that ZSNES is on this list makes it basically worthless. While it had its benefits a while ago (when people were running 500Mhz machines with 128MB RAM), there is no reason to use it to day, except for the fact that a few fan translations and romhacks require some of its bugs and inaccuracies. If you don't want your CPU to be at 90% when playing a game from 1992 (this is bsnes/higan, the requirements are this high because it strives for 100% accurate emulation) use Snes9x, for which byuu (author of bsnes/higan) has ported many of his discoveries and improvements.

DrewRWx 13y ago

Playing devils advocate, the author does list the most prominent/active emulators for each system and even manages to generally characterize the difference between Snes9x and ZSNES. That being said, the list doesn't meet it own criteria, even with "best" being defined in a loose, consumer sense. While I'm here, I highly recommend Robert Broglia's, http://www.explusalpha.com/ http://www.explusalpha.com/ , emulators for Android and iOS. They can be pricey, but almost all of them are GPL and Robert cites his sources. The exception is Snes9x EX(+), which is free and under a noncommercial license.

namuol 13y ago

pSX definitely deserves a mention on this list; easily the most accurate Playstation 1 emulator! http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/ http://psxemulator.gazaxian.com/

Narishma 13y ago
Agreed. It's unfortunate that it isn't being developed anymore.

jaxb 13y ago

MESS (MAME's sister project) emulates many of these and has certain unique features (scroll down to Sonic&Knuckles): http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2013/02/11/whats-new-in-0-148u1/ http://mamedev.emulab.it/haze/2013/02/11/whats-new-in-0-148u...

crazysaem 13y ago

On http://www.aep-emu.de/emus.html http://www.aep-emu.de/emus.html is a pretty good list of common emulators sorted by platform. (Language of the site is german, but that shouldn't be a problem)

duomo 13y ago

A much better list: http://nonmess.retrogames.com/ http://nonmess.retrogames.com/