State of Console Emulation - November 2013

[marurun]

Any suggestions on PCE/CD emulators?

Yes, I do have suggestions! Ootake is free and relatively easy to use. It's pretty accurate, though not perfect. BizHawk is also easy to use has decent accuracy, though it is aimed more at TASers. Skip Magic Engine as it costs money and is no more accurate or easy to use than the two free options listed above. If you really want maximum accuracy, especially in sound emulation, you'll have to go command line (or configure a front end) and use Mednafen, which is a multi-platform, multi-system emulator that just nails PC Engine accuracy well enough that the homebrew/indie devs use it for development testing.

[Xeogred]

Cool, I just downloaded Ootake so I'll stop asking you guys (think I've asked a lot in the last few weeks since I'm hitting up emulation a lot right now).

TurboEngine sounds cool, since I love Kega. Maybe I'll check that out too.

Looks like I have a cracked old version of MagicEngine from years back, but yeah I don't recall liking it much.

[Exhuminator]

I was working on a response for Xeogred, but I got ninja'd. Oh well. I'll belatedly post it anyway:

Any suggestions on PCE/CD emulators?

I'm still oldschool and like to use Magic Engine. People think I'm silly for not using Mednafen. Well, Mednafen is console command based, unless you use a third party frontend. Even using the frontend, the end user experience is less than ideal. So I stick with Magic Engine. Another emulator called Ootake is supposed to be good, but I've never tried it and can't offer a fair opinion.

Here are tutorials for each emulator:

http://fantasyanime.com/emuhelp/magicengine

http://fantasyanime.com/emuhelp/mednafen

http://fantasyanime.com/emuhelp/ootake

Pick your poison!

One big plus that Mednafen offers that Magic Engine and Ootake don't, is that you can load .ISO files directly into Mednafen and play them. You have to use virtual disc drives or physical discs with Magic Engine and Ootake. So if you're going to be playing lots of PCE-CD games, that's something to take into consideration.

[marurun]

People think I'm silly for not using Mednafen. Well, Mednafen is console command based, unless you use a third party frontend. Even using the frontend, the end user experience is less than ideal.

BizHawk is actually based on Mednafen. It was the result of the TAS community wanting the stability and accuracy of Mednafen in a form that was more accessible to TASers. And since Mednafen is a multi-system emulator, it means that TASers can use a single tool for games on multiple platforms. Unfortunately, there are a few weird emulation bugs in the PCE module that turn up from time to time, such as Aldynes always losing sync on recordings and sometimes crashing. Also, BizHawk introduced a few audio emulation errors. It's still very good, though. I just am not sure why transitioning the Mednafen code base to a GUI emulator damaged compatibility/emulation quality a little. Definitely good enough for the vast majority of games, though. Ootake is still my choice in the meanwhile.

TurboEngine sounds cool, since I love Kega. Maybe I'll check that out too.

Turbo Engine hasn't been updated since 2010. I'm not sure that's going to be a very promising avenue, though if you discover something great about it, please let me know.

[ExedExes]

TurboEngine sounds cool, since I love Kega. Maybe I'll check that out too.

I've used TurboEngine during many Together Retro sessions. Cards and CDs work perfect and plus the familiar KEGA interface makes it great.

[Jagosaurus]

You guys read my mind. Just last night I was thinking I needed to get my PCE/TG16 game right! I'm missing out on way too many arcade action games & RPGs, my two favorite genres.

My only real experience so far has been the mednafen module on oXbox. It worked great, but I've migrated over to PC emus.

Does Magic Engine still cost money these days? IIRC, the free DL was a trial and you needed to buy a license ($15ish) for the full emu. If it's really worth it, head & shoulders above the rest, I'll purchase it.

I do like booting directly from the digital file much better in emus. Dameon Tools isn't a deal breaker for me, but I'm not burning CDs in 2017 if at all possible. For games under $60 I'd probably be more tempted to buy a game for my collection (assuming those emus run retail games from the PC tray as well) rather than burn one .

Bookmarking these suggestions for PCE. Thanks gents.

Next on my list is Neo Geo CD emulation. I looked into it some time ago & it involved more CD burning . Thoughts on NGCD emu these days?

[marurun]

Magic Engine isn't any better than the free emulators. Go with BizHawk or Ootake and you'll be fine.

[Jagosaurus]

Magic Engine isn't any better than the free emulators. Go with BizHawk or Ootake and you'll be fine.

Cool. Will DL those. Just use Dameon Tools to virtually mount CD game? No disc burning?

[marurun]

No disc burning necessary. I need to check to see if BizHawk can actually use ISOs directly. Its been a while. I know Mednafen can.

[nullPointer]

If you're interested in Mednafen but the command line interface gives you the heebie jeebies, there's also a Mednafen core available through RetroArch (meaning the GUI frontend is handled through RetroArch and is slick as can be). RetroArch itself can have a bit of a learning curve for the uninitiated ('dem configuration options run deep ) but it's amazing once it's configured properly. To be honest I've migrated almost fully into RetroArch for my emulation gaming. It's super nice having everything under one roof with one common set of configuration options. Plus, it's just that good, IMO.