Retro games and emulation - Discuss retro shit in case you're stuck in the past or a hipster

[Caesare]

All I played was Goldeneye. I think I used WASD and the insert/home/etc keys for the face buttons, since that was the default.

More recently, I played it on my Wii using a Classic Controller and it felt a lot more comfortable. But yeah, the N64 has one of those controllers where you almost need a USB version if you wanna play emulated games from it. They do exist.

That would be your best bet, using something like that.

I'm not even talking about using the keyboard, I used an xbox one wired controller and its still goofy. It's playable, you just have to change around the buttons depending on what you are playing.

 

[Cubanodun]

All I played was Goldeneye. I think I used WASD and the insert/home/etc keys for the face buttons, since that was the default.

More recently, I played it on my Wii using a Classic Controller and it felt a lot more comfortable. But yeah, the N64 has one of those controllers where you almost need a USB version if you wanna play emulated games from it. They do exist.

i use the same configuration that i use for Gamecube emulation and it works pretty well with the Xbox 360 controller (Using the right stick for C buttons and one of the triggers for Z) is not exactly the same, the only controller that i have found dificult to configure is the sega saturn with the 6 buttons

 

[Pointandlaugh]

I brought the Gamecube Mayflash adapter for the PC and my Nvidia Shield. Works well with the Shield, bit of a pain to configure with the pc. I do prefer using my DS4 than my GC controller.

As for games I downloaded PCSX2 on my shitty laptop for the old WWE games. No problems other than six man matches.

 

[SregginKcuf]

I brought the Gamecube Mayflash adapter for the PC and my Nvidia Shield. Works well with the Shield, bit of a pain to configure with the pc. I do prefer using my DS4 than my GC controller.

As for games I downloaded PCSX2 on my shitty laptop for the old WWE games. No problems other than six man matches.

Is your laptop really that shitty or is the PCSX2 just a very good emulator?

 

[Sergeant Politeness]

Is your laptop really that shitty or is the PCSX2 just a very good emulator?

I don't know how it stacks up compared to other PS2 emulators, but my history with PCSX2 is not a good one. It makes good games look like shit (in progressive scan over component cables, Guitar Hero looked far better than the emulated version) and more often, the graphics go bugfuck anyway and my skin crawls, like the first Jak and Daxter and its missing eyes glitch.

If the game even works, that is. I dunno how taxing a six man match in a WWE game would be, but in my experience, PCSX2 is still a proof of concept more than something usable. A very advanced, impressive proof of concept, but still. Like @GethN7 explained earlier in the thread, the PS2 is an uphill underwater battle to emulate and it's a miracle it even works.

 

[Pointandlaugh]

Is your laptop really that shitty or is the PCSX2 just a very good emulator?

Intel HD graphics with 8gb ram. Everything low settings. Not many glitches with the games I have tested.

If the game even works, that is. I dunno how taxing a six man match in a WWE game would be, but in my experience, PCSX2 is still a proof of concept more than something usable. A very advanced, impressive proof of concept, but still. Like @GethN7 explained earlier in the thread, the PS2 is an uphill underwater battle to emulate and it's a miracle it even works.

For six man matches, it usually dips below 50 fps, averaging 45 fps. I didn't think my laptop would run the PCSX2 emulator. PCSX2 and Play! are the only PS2 emulators I know of.

 

[GethN7]

PCSX2 is a very weird emulator. For some games, it barely takes any processing power and can run on toasters well with no issues. Some require a strong CPU and will otherwise run poorly. And some games will barely run well unless you overclocked the shit out of the most top of the line processors of modern day.

I'm gonna toss out some ballpark yardsticks for how well you can handle PCSX2:

Updated retro games redone for PS2 that still use mostly 2-D and fighting games like Guilty Gear will work well on toasters.

Final Fantasy X/X-2 is the benchmark for average use, and if you can run this well without needing to ramp settings down or use speedhacks, about 60% of most PS2 games will run at playable speed without doing anything too special.

If you can run something like Persona 3/4 well, this means you can run most CPU heavy games. If you can run Xenosaga games well, you're doing even better.

Your GPU is not as important because the emulator is based off a system that was CPU heavy, but having a great GPU can help with games that need to emulate advanced graphical effects software rendering just sucks at or would be too slow in software. The MGS games have some issues even now in hardware, but if you have a decent GPU, you can play through MGS2 and 3 with a good CPU and GPU with minimal issues (might need to tweak things to get stuff like NVG/thermal googles to look right), otherwise you need an amazing CPU to run them in pure software mode.

If you want to stress test your capabilities, try running Shadow of the Colossus or the Gran Turismo games. If you can manage great speed and graphics at high resolutions, you have an amazing PC.

 

[WeaponsGradeAutism]

Two N64 games that are almost unplayable on emulators are Paper Mario and Yoshi's Story.

Those games work on my 4 year old Acer, actually. And I'm running project64. But they do give alerts of the problems in the emulation on each game.

 

[ASoulMan]

I currently have two emulators; ePSXe and Dolphin.

The only games I have right now are Crash Bandicoot, Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Paper Mario: TTYD, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

 

[TrippinKahlua]

Two N64 games that are almost unplayable on emulators are Paper Mario and Yoshi's Story.

I haven't been able to get Conker's Bad Fur Day to work reliably, but I just use emulators through my Nintendo Wii, which is probably why.

 

[SregginKcuf]

Those games work on my 4 year old Acer, actually. And I'm running project64. But they do give alerts of the problems in the emulation on each game.

I've also seen it through several gameplays on the internet.

 

[MysticMisty]

Two N64 games that are almost unplayable on emulators are Paper Mario and Yoshi's Story.

I've never tried to run them on emulators, but I own the physical carts so I've no reason to try.

 

[Cubanodun]

After i searched a little about the status of Sega Saturn emulation, apparently uoYabause is a good option, i have only tested with Hyper Duel and is actually pretty good, but apparently the devs are more concerned in perfecting the Android version so your mileage may vary

 

[soryu]

SSF is my preferred Saturn emulator. The only thing is the process of switching between a Japanese and US game sucks. I think the only game I had trouble playing was Princess Crown, mostly speed issues. I have a janky ass 8 year old laptop, but I think I tried playing it on my boyfriend's 3 year old desktop and it was fine.

 

[Cubanodun]

SSF is my preferred Saturn emulator. The only thing is the process of switching between a Japanese and US game sucks. I think the only game I had trouble playing was Princess Crown, mostly speed issues. I have a janky ass 8 year old laptop, but I think I tried playing it on my boyfriend's 3 year old desktop and it was fine.

SSF had a fork recently that update and fix tons of thing but it was in japanese and i did not like it too much

A little off topic but some time ago it was discovered that all the Nintendo Switch come with a NES Emulator in the firmware, well today another discovery was made, apparently the thing has the game Golf for NES and for some reason it even has support for 2 players via joy-cons the hackers still dont know how to access the game but are working hard on it

 

[Schwachkopf]

I've purchased a SNES controller with a USB support to play Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Fighting Edition) for SNES on PC, that's all.

 

[Chaos Theorist]

PCSX2 is a very weird emulator. For some games, it barely takes any processing power and can run on toasters well with no issues. Some require a strong CPU and will otherwise run poorly. And some games will barely run well unless you overclocked the shit out of the most top of the line processors of modern day.

I'm gonna toss out some ballpark yardsticks for how well you can handle PCSX2:

Updated retro games redone for PS2 that still use mostly 2-D and fighting games like Guilty Gear will work well on toasters.

Final Fantasy X/X-2 is the benchmark for average use, and if you can run this well without needing to ramp settings down or use speedhacks, about 60% of most PS2 games will run at playable speed without doing anything too special.

If you can run something like Persona 3/4 well, this means you can run most CPU heavy games. If you can run Xenosaga games well, you're doing even better.

Your GPU is not as important because the emulator is based off a system that was CPU heavy, but having a great GPU can help with games that need to emulate advanced graphical effects software rendering just sucks at or would be too slow in software. The MGS games have some issues even now in hardware, but if you have a decent GPU, you can play through MGS2 and 3 with a good CPU and GPU with minimal issues (might need to tweak things to get stuff like NVG/thermal googles to look right), otherwise you need an amazing CPU to run them in pure software mode.

If you want to stress test your capabilities, try running Shadow of the Colossus or the Gran Turismo games. If you can manage great speed and graphics at high resolutions, you have an amazing PC.

The PCSX2 emulator is a wild beast of a thing with games like Burnout 3 and Rogue Galaxy running at fullspeed in Hardware mode with only minor visual problems while other games like FIFA 06 or Mercenaries needing to be run in software mode and even then I'm getting 80%/90% speed on Mercenaries

edit: WWE Here comes the pain is a CPU intenstive game due to the crowds in the background taking up resources to render and the huge size of the arenas in game.

 

[King]

I know this is a emulator thread (I think) but I picked up reproduction copies of Conker's Bad Fur Day and Harvest Moon 64 on ebay for $25 all around, whether pay for this instead of $100+ for legit copies. No sense wasting that kinda of money on aging media that is beginning to show signs of bit rot in some copies of older games. Plus it looks legit, feels legit, is the same game, and runs on my N64. Also picked up some N64 end labels for cheap as well.

 

[Sergeant Politeness]

I know this is a emulator thread (I think) but I picked up reproduction copies of Conker's Bad Fur Day and Harvest Moon 64 on ebay for $25 all around, whether pay for this instead of $100+ for legit copies. No sense wasting that kinda of money on aging media that is beginning to show signs of bit rot in some copies of older games. Plus it looks legit, feels legit, is the same game, and runs on my N64. Also picked up some N64 end labels for cheap as well.

Nah, it's not an emulator thread. Nice finds. Reproduction machines and reproduction carts are pretty underrated. I remember I had this weird toploader reproduction NES for awhile. It was colored like a Famicom but looked absolutely nothing like it. It came with these SNES-looking controllers with built-in turbo fire, and it worked really well for what was, in all likelihood, a Chinese knockoff. Some of my games would only play in it, not my actual NES. The video signal was way cleaner too.

I don't have it anymore, but it was a pretty decent little thing. Not much bigger than an NES cart and weighed nothing, but played like a proper system. I might still have the controllers knocking around somewhere, though.

 

[Un Platano]

Mayflash is a saint for making all those USB adapters for controllers, but I'm starting to get pissed off at them because I've bought two of these things and both of them have died for no reason. They're a boon for emulating on a PC because they let use you the original controller (which is important if you're emulating something with a weird controller like the N64) and not a dodgy knockoff version made for USB, or a controller from a different system altogether.

I use one of them paired with one of these for all the games I play with a controller and not just emulators. I play a lot of d-pad-heavy games and the 360 and PS3 controllers aren't cut out for that at all because their d-pads are shit. The only things it's missing are rumble (not utterly important) and clickable analog sticks, which I've been able to get along without pretty fine. Don't know if I would recommend buying one though; on one hand they've doubled in price recently and aren't super rare, so there's no reason for them to cost $40, but on the other hand Hori is known for ceasing production altogether on popular controllers and causing prices of them to skyrocket (like this) and they're just not worth it.

There's also PDP Wii U controllers which are essentially the same thing as the Hori battle pad, but they're cheapo garbage. They've also nearly doubled in price recently, but it's only up from a starting price of $13 because they were then and still are inferior to the Hori ones. I've had the misfortune of using a knockoff Gamecube controller from them back in dark times and it literally fell apart, and these things look nearly identical to them. I don't get how they managed to get an official license from Nintendo for such junk. There's a good reason though for why Hori was allowed to make theirs identical to the OG Gamecube controllers and PDP had to keep using their bootleg molds.