State of Console Emulation - November 2013

[Jagosaurus]

Edit:
Okay, Looks like below is referring to the native running of ISOs. For example, KFUSION will boot Sega CD games without a virtual drive. Here's video proof you can use Dameon Tools to run CD games in Magic Engine. Now, you have to use advanced mounting as a SCSI drive. The video uploader has DT Ultra. Can you use SCSI natively in the free version?

https://youtu.be/b4bxWYIefv0

Good news there! If you have to pay for advanced mounting, I may be paying up.


Edit End
--- original below ---

Well... a quick search revealed this. Bummer. No ISO loading for Magic Engine and Ootake.

There's another thing that might turn you off about MagicEngine (and Ootake). CD games can only be played via your CD-ROM drive. It does not support booting CD games from ISO. That really sucks because we don't really use CD-ROM drives anymore. Mednafen, a multi-system emulator, does allow you to boot CD games from ISO. That being said, that doesn't mean you should drop everything and marry Mednafen for all your TurboGrafx16 needs. It's not easy to use. MagicEngine is far better in the usability department.
...

Booting a CD game
The first thing you need to do is download the BIOS syscard files. I have them right here:
PC Engine CD Syscards (429 KB)
Extract the BIOS files from their zip file and place them in MagicEngine's folder like this . Then open up MagicEngine.
Insert your TurboGrafx16-CD/PC Engine CD game into your CD-ROM drive. Give it a minute for Windows to detect it.
In the main menu, click or press Enter on Boot CD. You'll see your game pop-up in a little sub menu. Click or press Enter on it.
*If you're using an old version of Windows (Windows XP, Windows 98, Windows ME) and MagicEngine does nothing when you try to boot your CD game, try installing ForceASPI.
The first screen you'll see is the BIOS screen, prompting you to press Run to continue. Go ahead and do so. You will always see this screen when you boot a CD game. Then your game will begin. Enjoy!
Loading a CD game from ISO

I need to disappoint you: MagicEngine does not support running TurboGrafx16-CD/PC Engine CD games via ISO files. And the authors of MagicEngine intend to never add ISO support. It's a shame because MagicEngine is the #1 emulator. Anyhow, hope isn't lost. There are two workarounds you can try.

Workaround 1: Use Mednafen
The easiest way to play games from ISO is to use another emulator: Mednafen. This is a multi-system emulator. It's not the most user friendly, but it works and loads ISOs fine.

Workaround 2: Burn your CD games to CD
If you burn your ISO to a real CD (a CD-R disc), you'd have no problem playing your games with MagicEngine. I have burning directions below.

MagicEngine Tutorial
http://fantasyanime.com/emuhelp/magicen ... e-from-iso

I still need to try to load an ISO via MEDNAFEN on oXbox. Haven't gotten around to that.

Anyone confirm if this will work on or BizHawk?

@Mods/Nick, Should we maybe remove the "2013" from the thread title as we're 5 yrs down the road?

[marurun]

Magic Engine has a easy UI but it really is not a particularly good or accurate emulator compared to the competition. Ootake is pretty accurate and easy to use. BizHawk is also fairly accurate and easy to use, and includes TAS tools. Mednafen is the most accurate and all around best but is command line only, though some front ends like RetroArch can ease some of that pain. Just use a virtual CD drive with Ootake if you want the easiest and most accessible experience.

[Tanooki]

Well I got Magic Engine running Hu card ROMS. I'm pretty impressed.

I will eventually attempt a CD game iso via a virtual mount program.

Wow hey what inspired you to fire that up of all things? You warez it or buy it back in the day? I actually paid for it when it came out because I had a strong interest in my Duo I freshly bought 20 years back and used it as a test bed as I had access to a LOT of Hucards (J+E) locally and it was vital. It has very few games it has problems with, mostly un-readable Japanese garbage that no one ever bothered to translate thankfully (both CD and HuCard.) It's an amazing program and well run for something that's not had an update insanely for going on a decade now.

I recently fired it up myself after picking up (not here yet) a Core Grafx II system to try playing around with a few things and it's still amazing (both the games and emulator.) I don't like it forces the use of real discs, the other best out there Ootake does too and it's a little more clunky but still updated. There is another called BizHawk, it's mainly created for those TAS types but ultimately it uses the best info possible for around I think like 15+ consoles/handhelds as a catch all device and does it admirably though the emulator is very skinny on options in the menu outside of recording record runs. That one as far as I could tell will run a ISO+CUE setup though.

For me it's just Magic Engine, always has been, and if I have to have a disc, burn it, it works. That way at least there's a wall there to make you want to play it more isolating fewer options to play around with.

Above all avoid mednafen. I tried to use that piece of crap yesterday for about an hour and it was infuriating. It's all command line based, and when I tried to use a GUI or two they got all twitchy and bitchy and I just erased the mess. I have a pretty good tolerance for emulators and setting them up and that pushed me too far. It may be the most accurate, but the headache involved isn't worth it.

What mounting tool are you looking at for Magic Engine? I've never really attempted that but rarely back in the day (15~ years ago) with old daemon tools.

[Tanooki]

Nevermind re-read that post, Daemon Tools Ultra. I'll have to find that.

[Jagosaurus]

@marurun, I should have preferenced my discussion by stating I don't own any TG16/PCE hardware to compare the emulator to. Overall, it seems fairly accurate to footage I've seen and heard. Of course, folks who have a ton of experience with actual hardware may think otherwise or notice nuances between them. I plan on eventually trying out all 4 of the main ones.

@Tanooki, I ended up with a registered copy from a friend who wasn't using it. I didn't torrent it or hack it. I've had it for a couple months, I just wanted to get my PCE/TG16 game right today . My son also loves cavemen movies/cartoons so I wanted him to play some Bonk!

Yeah the video maker used DT Ultra. I have the free one, DT Lite which I'll see if it let's you mount a SCSI drive. I think you may have to cross the pay wall for the advanced options.

My experience with Damon Tools ia fairly limited but it's very user friendly. I've used it in DOSBox and few random disc based emus (3DO, PSX) with no issues.

Luckily if I have to revert to MEDNAFEN it's a canned version on oXbox with a built in front end. Reportedly it runs images fine but I have yet to verify that.

[Jagosaurus]

Okay, as an update...

Good news: the free Dameon Tools light does allow you to mouth a SCSI drive.

Bad news 1: I couldn't get Magic Engine to recognize an iso/cue (as seen in the video above) or a bin/cue. Looks like my version might be a bit older as I can't auto select the system card but either way, it doesn't see the disc files once mounted.

Bad news 2: oXbox mednafen sees the files but had trouble opening them. I only tried an iso/cue vs a bin/cue due to time constraints

I still need to try BizHawk and Ootake. Now that I have Dameon Tools running on my newer emu box & a few disc files to try, just need to find time to DL those emulators and test.

If I fail on both those I'll start a dedicated "help me" thread .