The Emulators Thread - Preserving the past for a better tomorrow!

Welcome to the Emulators thread!

Playstation 2


What is PCSX2?

PCSX2 is a Playstation 2 'emulator', a free program that tries to replicate the Playstation 2 console to enable you to play PS2 games on your PC.

Advantages over the Playstation 2 console

-Custom resolutions, up to 4096x4096, Anti Aliasing and Texture filtering to make your old PS2 games look better than their HD remakes!
-Unlimited memory cards
-Save states, enabling you to quick save and load practically anywhere in your game
-Easy cheating using our pnach patching system
-Use any controller (PS3,Xbox360 etc) that works on Windows, keyboards and mice
-Increase or decrease the game speed by using the built-in frame-limiter for fast grinding or passing hard spots by slowing them down
-Ability to record in full HD with the built-in video recorder (F12 using the GSdx plugin)

Download: http://pcsx2.net/download/releases/windows.html
Getting Started Guide: http://pcsx2.net/getting-started.html

PCSX2 is a fantastic emulator that is in its current state, able to play pretty much every PS2 game start to finish without many hiccups. All the PS2's best games are currently 100% playable:; FFX-XII, Shadow of the Colossus, The Metal Gear Series.

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Gamecube / Wii


What is Dolphin?

Dolphin is an emulator for two recent Nintendo video game consoles: the GameCube and the Wii. It allows PC gamers to enjoy games for these two consoles in full HD (1080p) with several enhancements: compatibility with all PC controllers, turbo speed, networked multiplayer, and even more!

Advantages over the Gamecube / Wii Console:

Features of Dolphin include the ability start games regardless of region, record tool-assisted speedruns, and cheating with Action Replay and Gecko codes. Dolphin supports real Wii Remotes via Bluetooth. Its expansions, such as MotionPlus adapter, Nunchuk, Classic controller, Guitar, Drums, and Turntable, are also supported.

Like many other console emulators on PC, Dolphin supports arbitrary resolutions, whereas the GameCube and Wii only support up to 480p. The ability for high resolution graphics has been widely lauded by the gaming community and has received features on numerous gaming networks, as the emulator has surpassed the limits of the original console.

Dolphin can load customized texture maps. These can also be of higher resolution than the original textures. The emulator also has ability to export a game’s textures in order that graphic artists can modify them.

Download: https://dolphin-emu.org/download/
Getting Started Guide: https://dolphin-emu.org/docs/guides/





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PSP


What is PPSSPP?

PPSSPP can run your PSP games on your PC in full HD resolution, and play them on Android too. It can even upscale textures that would otherwise be too blurry as they were made for the small screen of the original PSP.

Even on modern Android phones and tablets, you can often run at double the original resolution.

Advantages over the PSP:

-Play in HD resolutions and more
-Play on a tablet for big-screen mobile gaming
-Customize on-screen touch controls or use an external controller or keyboard
-Save and restore game state anywhere, anytime
-Crank up the anisotropic filtering and texture scaling
-Continue where you left off by transferring saves from your real PSP

Download: http://www.ppsspp.org/downloads.html
Getting Started Guide: http://www.ppsspp.org/guides.html



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3DS
Citra



https://citra-emu.org/

What is Citra?

Citra is a work-in-progress Nintendo 3DS emulator started in early 2014. Citra can currently emulate, with varying degrees of success, a wide variety of different homebrew programs and commercial software. It's currently able to run quite a few games well, though very few can run at full speed on existing hardware, and most titles have sound issues.
Due to its preliminary state, it has not yet had a stable release

Download: https://citra-emu.org/download/
Getting Started Guide: https://citra-emu.org/wiki/FAQ/



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RETRO EMULATORS


Super Nintendo (SNES)


SNES9X

http://www.snes9x.com/

What is SNES9X?

Snes9x is a portable, freeware Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) emulator. It basically allows you to play most games designed for the SNES and Super Famicom Nintendo game systems on your PC or Workstation; which includes some real gems that were only ever released in Japan.

Download: http://www.snes9x.com/downloads.php


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Sega Mega Drive



Gens

http://www.gens.me/

What is GENS?

Gens is a Sega Genesis, Sega CD and Sega 32X emulator.

Downloads: http://www.gens.me/downloads.shtml

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Nintendo 64

Project 64


What is Project 64?

Project64 is an open source, plugin-based Nintendo 64 emulator. Project64 is currently the most compatible N64 emulator, and is a decent choice for emulating many games, both popular and lesser known. It is currently very actively developed, is capable of using a wide variety of plugins, and has a relatively user-friendly interface. However, it presently remains confined to Windows, though work is underway to port it to Android and Linux.

Download: http://www.pj64-emu.com/downloads/



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Coin Op / Arcade



MAME
What is MAME?

MAME originally stood for Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator.

MAME's purpose is to preserve decades of software history. As electronic technology continues to rush forward, MAME prevents this important "vintage" software from being lost and forgotten. This is achieved by documenting the hardware and how it functions. The source code to MAME serves as this documentation. The fact that the software is usable serves primarily to validate the accuracy of the documentation (how else can you prove that you have recreated the hardware faithfully?). Over time, MAME absorbed the sister-project MESS (Multi Emulator Super System), so MAME now documents a wide variety of (mostly vintage) computers, video game consoles and calculators, in addition to the arcade video games that were its initial focus.

Download: http://mamedev.org/
Getting Started Guide: http://docs.mamedev.org/

Is it safe to put a Gamecube disc into my computer?

Depends in which slot you put it.

rinks wrote:Is it safe to put a Gamecube disc into my computer?

You've been able to put a gamecube disc into your cd/dvd drive for ages.

But it's a MacBook Air.

Then go to www.emuparadise.org and download the games that you legally own and run the iso's. Or you can rip your gamecube games on your desktop or someone else's computer/laptop and transfer them to your macbook.

I think rinks was being facetious, which is just totally out of character for him...

OK, that sounds easy enough.

How do I connect the Wii sensor bar?

Johnny Ryall wrote:I think rinks was being facetious

Only partly. I am intrigued by the possibilities of this.

rinks wrote:OK, that sounds easy enough.

How do I connect the Wii sensor bar?

A bit of a long one, but this should provide some info.

http://www.kudzuworld.com/blogs/Tech/20070817A.en.aspx

How to hook the Wiimote to your PC
8/17/2007

Hooking a Wiimote to your PC should be rather easy, no? After all it is just a Bluetooth device. Pair it up, and go? Unfortunately no. Bluetooth sucks. Google will be enough to prove this, and if not once you see what you need to do to hook your Wiimote to your PC you will become a convert.

Bluetooth Sucks?

But my bluetooth headset works fine! My bluetooth mouse works too! Sure, simple devices like those usually work. Try something besides a mouse or a headset. For more details you can read my previous Bluetooth needs a dentist entry.

Step 1 - Hardware

Maybe your computer already has Bluetooth. If so you are probably feeling pretty smug that you do not need to buy a Bluetooth dongle. But the news is, chances are your Bluetooth adapter will not work with the Wiimote. So you will need to consider to buy a Bluetooth USB adapter anyways. You need to choose carefully, most of the dongles will not work either.

You also need to make sure you get a genuine one. There are many counterfeit Bluetooth adapters. They say they are from one company, but actually are fakes with completely different chips inside. If you guy a counterfeit one, you have no idea if it will work or not with the Wiimote.

Some devices partially work. For example, you might get the Wiimote paired, but cannot read any input. Or you might get partial input, but no motion reports. The Microsoft Bluetooth adapters that come with all the wireless mice, keyboards, and Powerpoint presenters all work that way. They tease you enough to make you think they might work, but the will not.

So how can you choose a Bluetooth adapter that will work with your Wiimote? Consult the List of working Bluetooth Devices at WiiBrew. If you find others, please be kind and update the page. http://wiibrew.org/wiki/List_of_Working ... th_Devices

Step 2 - Bluetooth Software

So now you really feel smug, you have Bluetooth hardware that is known to work. Now the problem is that your Bluetooth stack (Bluetooth software) probably does not implement the full Bluetooth specification.

Microsoft Stack

Using the Microsoft one in XP, Vista, or the software that came with Microsoft hardware? Surely that works? Nope. It was designed for basic devices like mice and keyboards. It does not know what to do with advanced input from a device like the Wiimote and discards data beyond simple button presses.

BlueSoleil Stack

Many people have found success with BlueSoleil. I was never able get BlueSoleil to work, even after a lot of fiddling. The only thing I have ever been able to do is crash Windows, and many users have contacted me with the same results. If you have no other choices though, try BlueSoleil, it works for some. BlueSoleil Tutorial
WIDCOMM Stack

The WIDCOMM stack is bundled with many popular dongles and is reported to work properly. Just because the WIDCOMM stack is bundled with a specific device does not mean the device itself will work, so be sure to stick to devices known to work.

Toshiba Stack

The Toshiba Stack seems to be the best and most advanced stack available. It is the stack that I am using. The Toshiba stack however has some non-technical issues. If you have a Toshiba laptop, or your laptop comes bundled with Toshiba drivers (Motion Computing and several others) then you can download the latest Toshiba Stack for free and upgrade.

If you have any other computer, the Toshiba Stack will not install. In the past you could buy the stack for around $60, however Toshiba has stopped selling it as a separate offering. There are forums describing how to install the Toshiba Stack on non Toshiba and non bundled platforms but such usage is likely illegal in most countries.

Step 3 - Pair your Wiimote

Fortunately once you have successfully passed steps 1 and 2, it is easy from here. To pair the Wiimote, hold down the 1 and 2 buttons at the same time. The blue lights on the bottom should start to blink. Now start the pairing process in your Bluetooth software. Keep holding down the buttons until pairing is complete. If you let up, the Wiimote will time out and turn off. If it does this before pairing is complete, pairing will fail. If you are using the Toshiba stack, after you have connected the Wiimote it should look like this. Note the green and yellow markings on top, these signify it is connected, and not just paired.



Step 4 - Access your Wiimote

Now you have to access the Wiimote. The Wiimote is implemented as a HID device. Which in some ways might be thought of a serial device over USB. You can send commands to trigger rumble, turn on and off the blue lights, etc. To get reports of buttons, accelerometer, etc you can either poll it, or receive updates. Nintendo did not document all of this in public view, but fortunately hackers have reverse engineered it. If you want to have a go at it, you can check out Wiimote Protocol at WiiLi. There are also many libraries available for .NET, Delphi, C++ and more. For .NET I use Brian Peek's WiimoteLib.

Another link to help you connect a wiimote to a pc.


http://www.wiiprojects.org/bluetooth.html

I think I might have gone off the idea. I'd only be doing it for the sake of doing it, and it all seems like a bit of a faff now.

EDIT: The Wii stuff, that is. No reason not to try the GC emulation.

Been waiting for the 3.0 update. Now it's here I'll be getting my dolphin fix again. Awesome!
Does Twilight Princess still run like shite on Hyrule Field?

I've not got that far into Twilight on PC yet. I run it at 720p as even my cpu isn't beastly enough to do all the games at 1080p.

I run a core i5 2.8ghz and a lot of games that were unplayable due to low fps are now playable at fullspeed on 720p.

The latest build is at the top of the downloads page.

Using my 360 wireless controller to play gamecube games at night from my bed on my pc. Console lulpremacy.

Has Galaxy 2? Couldn't run for gooseberry fool when I last tried it

I'll put that on my download list and post results. Not tried it out yet.

rinks wrote:Is it safe to put a Gamecube disc into my computer?

It's safe but unless you have a 816* model dvd drive your PC will be unable to read the contents of the disc. Same goes for Wii discs.

As for the sensor bar, just keep it connected to your Wii turned on or buy a cheap wireless 3rd party sensor bar.

Keep an eye on the NeoGAF Dolphin thread: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=395121 - there are quite a few configuration guides to get the best performance from games.

Galaxy 2 looks amazing in HD!

Rik wrote:Look at all those Peter Crisps with their dumbed down games and inaccurate controllers

OMG I can play Wii games on my PC

Correction, GAMECUBE.

Also, no more crybaby tears about the wii having any exclusives.