State of Console Emulation - November 2013
Posted: Wed Oct 30, 2013 2:35 pm
So a question that has been rolling around in my mind for the past few days is why is there not a quick list of where we are with emulation. Meaning what consoles are emulated and to what level. What spurred this is actually arion's topic about the Zinc emulator:
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=44640
Where he had no idea that the Sony ZN hardware was emulated so he could play Street Fighter EX.
So where are we in console emulation today?
Breaking it down by generations (per wikipedia) and on Windows. These are emulated to the level that most people dont know the difference:
1st Generation:
While they are not all emulated, the Maganvox Odyssey is via Odyemy and well lets be honest, they are mostly pong machines.
2nd Generation:
Fairchild Channel F - MESS
Atari 2600 - Stella
Odyssey2 - O2EM
Intellivision - Intelliware
Atari 5200 - Atari 800
3rd Generation:
SG 1000 - Bee
NES - FCEUx, but if you want 100% - Nestopia
Master System - MEKA or RetroCopy
Atari 7800 - EMU7800
4th Generation
Mega Drive/Sega Genesis - KEGA Fusion, but if you want 100% - Exodus
SNES/SFC - Snes9x, but if you want 100% - Bsnes
PCEngine/Turbo Grafix16 - Hu Go, Ootake, or Magic Engine (Magic Engine is not free)
Neogeo AES – Nebula – runs all AES and MVS titles
5th Generation
Playstation – ePSXe or PCSX
Nintendo 64 – Project64 (while some games still have issues, it plays most games well enough for most people).
Neogeo CD – Nebula – runs the handful of exclusive CD titles well, and for the others you can just play the AES or MVS version
The following are broken down by generation and are not at a level where people consider it good enough:
3rd Generation
Action Max - SINGE - due to the game medium being VHS tapes this one may never be 100%.
4th Generation
CDI - cdiemu - poor compatibility and still needs alot of work but is being developed by one man.
5th Generation
3do – FreeDo – It has updated since I last used it, but the new compatibility list is down. Id put it at about 80% complete
Atari Jaguar – Virtual Jaguar – sadly the last update broke some compatibility, but the team is still working on it. CD support is soon.
Sega Saturn – SSF – it is almost at a level where most people don’t care though.
FM Towns Marty – UNZ
Amiga CD32 – WINUAE – runs most Amiga games fine, has trouble with a large chunk of the CD32 library.
PCFX – Xe
Apple Pippin – MESS
Playdia – None
Casio Loopy – MESS
6th Generation
Dreamcast – NullDc and Demul – Both have compatibility issues with most Windows CE games and flagship sports titles.
Playstation 2 – PCSX2 – it is getting close, but still lacking in compatibility
Gamecube – Dolphin – in two years it will be better than using a console on most pcs. It is almost there right now just is still having issues with a large chunk of titles.
Xbox – Dxbx – very much in its infancy but is showing progress
7th Generation
Wii – Dolphin – See Gamecube
If yall have differing opinions, that's cool, this is just based on my experience.
Edit - list has been updated with others suggestions.
viewtopic.php?f=27&t=44640
Where he had no idea that the Sony ZN hardware was emulated so he could play Street Fighter EX.
So where are we in console emulation today?
Breaking it down by generations (per wikipedia) and on Windows. These are emulated to the level that most people dont know the difference:
1st Generation:
While they are not all emulated, the Maganvox Odyssey is via Odyemy and well lets be honest, they are mostly pong machines.
2nd Generation:
Fairchild Channel F - MESS
Atari 2600 - Stella
Odyssey2 - O2EM
Intellivision - Intelliware
Atari 5200 - Atari 800
3rd Generation:
SG 1000 - Bee
NES - FCEUx, but if you want 100% - Nestopia
Master System - MEKA or RetroCopy
Atari 7800 - EMU7800
4th Generation
Mega Drive/Sega Genesis - KEGA Fusion, but if you want 100% - Exodus
SNES/SFC - Snes9x, but if you want 100% - Bsnes
PCEngine/Turbo Grafix16 - Hu Go, Ootake, or Magic Engine (Magic Engine is not free)
Neogeo AES – Nebula – runs all AES and MVS titles
5th Generation
Playstation – ePSXe or PCSX
Nintendo 64 – Project64 (while some games still have issues, it plays most games well enough for most people).
Neogeo CD – Nebula – runs the handful of exclusive CD titles well, and for the others you can just play the AES or MVS version
The following are broken down by generation and are not at a level where people consider it good enough:
3rd Generation
Action Max - SINGE - due to the game medium being VHS tapes this one may never be 100%.
4th Generation
CDI - cdiemu - poor compatibility and still needs alot of work but is being developed by one man.
5th Generation
3do – FreeDo – It has updated since I last used it, but the new compatibility list is down. Id put it at about 80% complete
Atari Jaguar – Virtual Jaguar – sadly the last update broke some compatibility, but the team is still working on it. CD support is soon.
Sega Saturn – SSF – it is almost at a level where most people don’t care though.
FM Towns Marty – UNZ
Amiga CD32 – WINUAE – runs most Amiga games fine, has trouble with a large chunk of the CD32 library.
PCFX – Xe
Apple Pippin – MESS
Playdia – None
Casio Loopy – MESS
6th Generation
Dreamcast – NullDc and Demul – Both have compatibility issues with most Windows CE games and flagship sports titles.
Playstation 2 – PCSX2 – it is getting close, but still lacking in compatibility
Gamecube – Dolphin – in two years it will be better than using a console on most pcs. It is almost there right now just is still having issues with a large chunk of titles.
Xbox – Dxbx – very much in its infancy but is showing progress
7th Generation
Wii – Dolphin – See Gamecube
If yall have differing opinions, that's cool, this is just based on my experience.
Edit - list has been updated with others suggestions.