The Emulators Thread - RPCS3 now runs PS3 Games in 4K

I've never really liked Retroarch, the interface to it is just so clunky and counter-intuitive making using it an obtuse nightmare. I much prefer using standalone emulators really.

I like RetroArch/Libretro for things like my RetroPie - it offers a quick mechanism to get lots of different systems available in one go. But generally on my PC I much prefer to work with standalone emulators

Cheeky Devlin wrote:It's impressive, certainly, but realistically it's not something you're ever likely to sit down to play something in for more than 5-10 minutes.

But yeah, I got bored of it after a few minutes when the novelty wore off.

I would state an exception to that would probably be light gun games which would probably work quite well as Qikz has found.

ARCADE attacks VR edition when?

Since I'm getting tired of waiting for the Mini/Classic consoles I want to come out (Saturn/Dreamcast/N64) I'm starting to wonder what my best bet is for a compact/cheap all-in-one emulation machine, ideally to emulate everything up to and including PS1/Saturn/N64/Gamecube/Dreamcast/PS2.

A Raspberry Pi4 won't quite cut it, especially not for the last 3, and for PS2 I think I'm pretty much needing to look at something running Windows in order to run PCSX2.
I could run them on my desktop but I'd quite like something I can move around to have hooked up to either my Office or Living room TV depending on where I am at the time, or even to take round to other houses once life returns to some semblance of normality.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Lagamorph wrote:Since I'm getting tired of waiting for the Mini/Classic consoles I want to come out (Saturn/Dreamcast/N64) I'm starting to wonder what my best bet is for a compact/cheap all-in-one emulation machine, ideally to emulate everything up to and including PS1/Saturn/N64/Gamecube/Dreamcast/PS2.

A Raspberry Pi4 won't quite cut it, especially not for the last 3, and for PS2 I think I'm pretty much needing to look at something running Windows in order to run PCSX2.
I could run them on my desktop but I'd quite like something I can move around to have hooked up to either my Office or Living room TV depending on where I am at the time, or even to take round to other houses once life returns to some semblance of normality.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Emulate on your office PC and use something like a steam link to play on the living room TV?

Jenuall wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:Since I'm getting tired of waiting for the Mini/Classic consoles I want to come out (Saturn/Dreamcast/N64) I'm starting to wonder what my best bet is for a compact/cheap all-in-one emulation machine, ideally to emulate everything up to and including PS1/Saturn/N64/Gamecube/Dreamcast/PS2.

A Raspberry Pi4 won't quite cut it, especially not for the last 3, and for PS2 I think I'm pretty much needing to look at something running Windows in order to run PCSX2.
I could run them on my desktop but I'd quite like something I can move around to have hooked up to either my Office or Living room TV depending on where I am at the time, or even to take round to other houses once life returns to some semblance of normality.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Emulate on your office PC and use something like a steam link to play on the living room TV?

Might be hard pressed to find a Steamlink box for a good price, they discontinued it a couple of years ago.

The software is available on the Pi 3/4 if you have one to hand, though!

Chocolate-Milk wrote:

Jenuall wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:Since I'm getting tired of waiting for the Mini/Classic consoles I want to come out (Saturn/Dreamcast/N64) I'm starting to wonder what my best bet is for a compact/cheap all-in-one emulation machine, ideally to emulate everything up to and including PS1/Saturn/N64/Gamecube/Dreamcast/PS2.

A Raspberry Pi4 won't quite cut it, especially not for the last 3, and for PS2 I think I'm pretty much needing to look at something running Windows in order to run PCSX2.
I could run them on my desktop but I'd quite like something I can move around to have hooked up to either my Office or Living room TV depending on where I am at the time, or even to take round to other houses once life returns to some semblance of normality.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Emulate on your office PC and use something like a steam link to play on the living room TV?

Might be hard pressed to find a Steamlink box for a good price, they discontinued it a couple of years ago.

The software is available on the Pi 3/4 if you have one to hand, though!

I already have a Steamlink, I use it for streaming PC games to my living room already. Not sure how well it would work for streaming emulators though, especially when it comes to things like using the interface of the various different ones. Plus it takes away the options of taking it to other places like visiting my parents or when I'm travelling for work.

Doing some looking around though two potential options I've identified are,
Nvidia Shield - The latest 2019 Shield Pro runs the Android emulators, including Dreamcast, N64, Saturn and PS1, really well though doesn't have any options for PS2 and PS3.

The other option is the upcoming MinisForum DMAF5,

Runs Windows and runs PS2 and PS3 emulation, though PS2 isn't too great as PCSX2 tends not to run very well with AMD processors. It's not out yet but will be on Indiegogo fairly soon, with a 25% early bird discount (Though no indications of what the actual price will be yet)

Lagamorph wrote:

Chocolate-Milk wrote:

Jenuall wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:Since I'm getting tired of waiting for the Mini/Classic consoles I want to come out (Saturn/Dreamcast/N64) I'm starting to wonder what my best bet is for a compact/cheap all-in-one emulation machine, ideally to emulate everything up to and including PS1/Saturn/N64/Gamecube/Dreamcast/PS2.

A Raspberry Pi4 won't quite cut it, especially not for the last 3, and for PS2 I think I'm pretty much needing to look at something running Windows in order to run PCSX2.
I could run them on my desktop but I'd quite like something I can move around to have hooked up to either my Office or Living room TV depending on where I am at the time, or even to take round to other houses once life returns to some semblance of normality.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Emulate on your office PC and use something like a steam link to play on the living room TV?

Might be hard pressed to find a Steamlink box for a good price, they discontinued it a couple of years ago.

The software is available on the Pi 3/4 if you have one to hand, though!

I already have a Steamlink, I use it for streaming PC games to my living room already. Not sure how well it would work for streaming emulators though, especially when it comes to things like using the interface of the various different ones. Plus it takes away the options of taking it to other places like visiting my parents or when I'm travelling for work.

Doing some looking around though two potential options I've identified are,
Nvidia Shield - The latest 2019 Shield Pro runs the Android emulators, including Dreamcast, N64, Saturn and PS1, really well though doesn't have any options for PS2 and PS3.

The other option is the upcoming MinisForum DMAF5,

Runs Windows and runs PS2 and PS3 emulation, though PS2 isn't too great as PCSX2 tends not to run very well with AMD processors. It's not out yet but will be on Indiegogo fairly soon, with a 25% early bird discount (Though no indications of what the actual price will be yet)

Ah, didn't realise you were after greater mobility than just office vs living room! An NUC style PC was going to be my next suggestion, that DMAF 5 looks like an interesting option

Jenuall wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:

Chocolate-Milk wrote:

Jenuall wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:Since I'm getting tired of waiting for the Mini/Classic consoles I want to come out (Saturn/Dreamcast/N64) I'm starting to wonder what my best bet is for a compact/cheap all-in-one emulation machine, ideally to emulate everything up to and including PS1/Saturn/N64/Gamecube/Dreamcast/PS2.

A Raspberry Pi4 won't quite cut it, especially not for the last 3, and for PS2 I think I'm pretty much needing to look at something running Windows in order to run PCSX2.
I could run them on my desktop but I'd quite like something I can move around to have hooked up to either my Office or Living room TV depending on where I am at the time, or even to take round to other houses once life returns to some semblance of normality.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Emulate on your office PC and use something like a steam link to play on the living room TV?

Might be hard pressed to find a Steamlink box for a good price, they discontinued it a couple of years ago.

The software is available on the Pi 3/4 if you have one to hand, though!

I already have a Steamlink, I use it for streaming PC games to my living room already. Not sure how well it would work for streaming emulators though, especially when it comes to things like using the interface of the various different ones. Plus it takes away the options of taking it to other places like visiting my parents or when I'm travelling for work.

Doing some looking around though two potential options I've identified are,
Nvidia Shield - The latest 2019 Shield Pro runs the Android emulators, including Dreamcast, N64, Saturn and PS1, really well though doesn't have any options for PS2 and PS3.

The other option is the upcoming MinisForum DMAF5,

Runs Windows and runs PS2 and PS3 emulation, though PS2 isn't too great as PCSX2 tends not to run very well with AMD processors. It's not out yet but will be on Indiegogo fairly soon, with a 25% early bird discount (Though no indications of what the actual price will be yet)

Ah, didn't realise you were after greater mobility than just office vs living room! An NUC style PC was going to be my next suggestion, that DMAF 5 looks like an interesting option

Yeah I do really like the look of it, just hope it doesn't cost too much.

I was looking into self-build options too, but case options are pretty limited and even MiniITX cases are a lot bigger than I was wanting.

Compare the spec to something like skull canyon nuc, be interesting to see how the price compares

The Miniforum Core i3 model runs about £300, so I imagine this new one is comparable in price to the Skull Canyon.

Have you contemplated looking into a laptop? I got a refurbished one from a seller on Amazon an intel core i5 with 8gig of memory only downside is it only has intel onboard graphics for 160quid it seems to run a lot of stuff, I havent tried everything on it but its doing Mame, and such.

kerr9000 wrote:Have you contemplated looking into a laptop? I got a refurbished one from a seller on Amazon an intel core i5 with 8gig of memory only downside is it only has intel onboard graphics for 160quid it seems to run a lot of stuff, I havent tried everything on it but its doing Mame, and such.

A laptop is again a bit bigger than I'd want for something to move around between my office and living room, putting on the cabinet and hooking up to my TV.

Another option I've seen is one of the Intel NUCs with an Intel Core i5-8259U CPU but I can't seem to find any real reviews of emulation performance on it.
Cheapest price I can find that NUC for is about £360, but that doesn't include any RAM or Storage, so by the time you add those on you're probably looking at a price tag of around £450, as opposed to the £200 for the Nvidia Shield Pro, and I'm not really sure it's worth an extra £250 just to get an option for PS2 and PS3 emulation that probably isn't going to be full speed anyway.

I'll probably wait and see a little longer how much the DMAF5 is going to cost, but I'm beginning to suspect that even with Early Bird discount it's going to be at least £350 by the time you include the cost of RAM and Storage. If it really is that much I may just go with the Shield Pro and settle for not emulating PS2 and PS3.

Lagamorph wrote:

kerr9000 wrote:Have you contemplated looking into a laptop? I got a refurbished one from a seller on Amazon an intel core i5 with 8gig of memory only downside is it only has intel onboard graphics for 160quid it seems to run a lot of stuff, I havent tried everything on it but its doing Mame, and such.

A laptop is again a bit bigger than I'd want for something to move around between my office and living room, putting on the cabinet and hooking up to my TV.

Another option I've seen is one of the Intel NUCs with an Intel Core i5-8259U CPU but I can't seem to find any real reviews of emulation performance on it.
Cheapest price I can find that NUC for is about £360, but that doesn't include any RAM or Storage, so by the time you add those on you're probably looking at a price tag of around £450, as opposed to the £200 for the Nvidia Shield Pro, and I'm not really sure it's worth an extra £250 just to get an option for PS2 and PS3 emulation that probably isn't going to be full speed anyway.

I'll probably wait and see a little longer how much the DMAF5 is going to cost, but I'm beginning to suspect that even with Early Bird discount it's going to be at least £350 by the time you include the cost of RAM and Storage. If it really is that much I may just go with the Shield Pro and settle for not emulating PS2 and PS3.

I only suggested it cause this laptop I got is blooming tiny my last laptop was about 3 times the size , only downside is a smaller screen but there's a HDMI out port on it. If you wanted to limit your emulation but go small a hacked Wii is pretty good for like nes, SNES, megadrive, PC engine etc

kerr9000 wrote:

Lagamorph wrote:

kerr9000 wrote:Have you contemplated looking into a laptop? I got a refurbished one from a seller on Amazon an intel core i5 with 8gig of memory only downside is it only has intel onboard graphics for 160quid it seems to run a lot of stuff, I havent tried everything on it but its doing Mame, and such.

A laptop is again a bit bigger than I'd want for something to move around between my office and living room, putting on the cabinet and hooking up to my TV.

Another option I've seen is one of the Intel NUCs with an Intel Core i5-8259U CPU but I can't seem to find any real reviews of emulation performance on it.
Cheapest price I can find that NUC for is about £360, but that doesn't include any RAM or Storage, so by the time you add those on you're probably looking at a price tag of around £450, as opposed to the £200 for the Nvidia Shield Pro, and I'm not really sure it's worth an extra £250 just to get an option for PS2 and PS3 emulation that probably isn't going to be full speed anyway.

I'll probably wait and see a little longer how much the DMAF5 is going to cost, but I'm beginning to suspect that even with Early Bird discount it's going to be at least £350 by the time you include the cost of RAM and Storage. If it really is that much I may just go with the Shield Pro and settle for not emulating PS2 and PS3.

I only suggested it cause this laptop I got is blooming tiny my last laptop was about 3 times the size , only downside is a smaller screen but there's a HDMI out port on it. If you wanted to limit your emulation but go small a hacked Wii is pretty good for like nes, SNES, megadrive, PC engine etc

The main systems I'm looking to emulate are Saturn/N64/PS1 and Dreamcast, so I don't think the Wii has anything for those.

Assuming you've got a budget of £200-£300 that you can't break, then your going to have to either budge on performance, or size.

For that budget I really wouldn't expect much beyond PS2 level. PS3 is still early days and needs a lot of muscle to properly push it.

Ultimately the smaller you go, the more expensive it gets.

https://www.youtube.com/c/ETAPRIME/ - This is great youtube channel for exactly this kind of discussion. He does breakdowns of builds specifically for emulation and spends time looking at NUCs, SSF PCs and even Android devices. He also has some good guides on how to build a budget oriented system by re-furbing an old one. I got an older system and a GeForce 1030 for about £180 last year based on one of his videos (The PolyMega killer video from a while back) and I get up to 4k on GC, Wii and even some PS2 stuff.

So yeah, I think you may need to compromise somewhere depending on budget.

EDIT: Here's an example. It's more expensive than I think you would like, but it gives you an idea of the content he does.

First video goes over the build and components.



2nd goes over emulation performance tests.

I did actually watch a few ETA Prime videos, that's where I became aware of the DMAF5.

From looking around the expected price for it is going to be $399, so around £320. If that really is the price I may pick one up as for a price/performance ratio it seems really good, and even manages some PS2 and PS3 emulation.

So I've done some more research on the new/upcoming Asrock A300 Mini PC and the prices I'm getting are surprisingly pleasing. I've specced it up in 4 different configurations on Scan.co.uk and come up with the following setups,

(All are based on the AsRock A300 Mini PC + 500GB WD Blue M.2 Storage. Ram is Dual-channel as Ryzen CPUs work better with Dual-channel than single channel I believe)

Ryzen 3 3200G + 8GB RAM = £333
Ryzen 3 3200G + 16GB RAM = £362

Ryzen 5 3400G + 8GB RAM = £386
Ryzen 5 3400G + 16GB RAM = £415


Honestly those are significantly better prices than some of the Intel NUCs I've been looking at.

The Ryzen 3 comes with Vega 8 graphics whilst the Ryzen 5 comes with Vega 11 graphics.

Incase anyone is interested these are the actual product pages I've been looking at,

Asrock A300 Barebones Mini PC
Ryzen 3 3200G with Vega 8 Graphics
Ryzen 5 3400G with Vega 11 Graphics
Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR4 SODIMM
Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB DDR4 SODIMM
WD Blue 500GB M.2

The one issue I'd face is that the stock cooler that comes with the Ryzen processors looks to be around 8cm tall from what I can find online, whilst the A300 only has room for a 4.6cm tall cooler.

Go for a noctua L9i, it's a fantastic cooler.

That's not a growth wrote:Go for a noctua L9i, it's a fantastic cooler.

Seconded.