Miyoo Mini
Something about the wire on a NES controller that makes it feel right.
As someone who owns most of the consoles, has Pvm etc don’t play the scalpers game just emulate. Thankfully the bubble has burst on a lot of markets, and we’re seeing more reasonable prices, but the OG hardware can only last so long. If anything grab a controller for each system you love, even saying that, 8bitdo have really stepped up, and I would say surpassed a lot of the old first party ones.
The used game market is still insane, I’m seeing $20-30 for even shit-tier, obscure, normally worthless nes games. If you bought the console while it was new it’s still worth keeping, but absolutely just get a flash cart instead of subjecting yourself to the price gouging retro market.
It helps that emulators have caught up in the last ten years. When I started collecting consoles there wasn’t a good emulator for the Saturn and even emulating the snes on a mobile device with similar power to a pi was inaccurate at times.
I have less and less reason to want to use original hardware other than nostalgia.
8bitdo is amazing
I have a friend like this, I’m a Nintendo collector and enjoying the hardware is my hobby. I know it’s an expensive endeavor, and I don’t expect anyone else to do it. I genuinely think any game should be up for piracy and emulation support, and it’s incredible what can be done to make games look, sound, and play better than the original. But when I’m sitting there having fun with Metroid Fusion on my GBA SP and you sit there going “why would you ever do that when emulating is cheaper and better” I don’t think you’re conversing in good faith.
Side note, if anyone knows how I can play Splatoon on an emulator using my Wii U gamepad, I’m all ears lol
Do you have original hardware? I hacked my Wii u recently and it’s so easy. Pretendo just let’s you play like normal, no problems
Definitely, I think there was even a hacked splatfest at one point, which would be SO cool to do regularly. I just meant to say that, as far as I’ve seen, the gamepad can’t easily be used to play with if you were to emulate.
Are you trying to use your gamepad as a second screen while you emulate Wii U games on your PC? Unfortunately, I don’t think that has been done yet. I believe the Wii U uses Wifi to send video to the gamepad and no one has made PC software to handle that yet (to my knowledge).
I had heard of people using the Gamepad to mirror the game playing on their PC.
- https://www.slashgear.com/1343071/use-nintendos-wii-u-gamepad-computer/
- https://gbatemp.net/threads/use-the-wii-u-gamepad-on-pc.627503/
If you are trying to use your gamepad as a second monitor for Wii U games you would probably have better luck getting a Steamdeck (Youtube link may contain helpful comments).
I sold my Wii U already so I don’t think I can be of actual help to you.
Yeah, effectively I’d want to use it as you could on Wii U, both displaying the second screen and interacting with the touchscreen. Splatoon in particular is extremely underrated with second screen use, being able to see and interact with the map in real-time is so much more useful than blocking your screen in future Splatoon games
That’s really cool and I’m glad people want to maintain the heritage of gaming, but I’m the exact opposite. I never want to play on old hardware or even use old style controllers again if I don’t have to.
Some controllers are almost integral to the experience. Intellivision and Colecovision come to mind. Having said that, emulation and modern controls are generally great, and generally my preference.
It’s difficult to play N64 games without an N64 controller.
I like to use controllers that have new tech but the old layout for the beat of both worlds
This is kinda sacrilege, but old games kinda suck by modern standards. They lack a lot of quality of life stuff that has long since become standard and tend to be more focused on providing a difficult and frustrating experience.
There seems to be a sweet spot in the early 2000s 2D games and later 00s 3D games, where games started to become more forgiving, included meaningful mechanics, and the graphics were getting good enough that you’re not just squinting to try to figure out what this blob is supposed to be. Plus that’s also the timeframe that a lot of current major franchises were started or at least got perfected so you’re now digging into current franchises backlogs
I never really cared until I emulated Super Mario RPG and literally could not make a specific jump in Booster’s Castle because of the frame skipping. I never have any trouble on an actual SNES there. Can’t ever make it emulated. :/
Why do you even have frameskipping enabled on a snes game? Surely you can emulate it at full speed?
Can’t turn it off on the android version of snes9x, where I usually emulate retro games.
I would try RetroArch personally. It’s more complicated to set up (due to it being a mult-system emulator) but the pay off is worth it.
There’s also emulation station for Android now, as well! On top of retroarch, it makes for a great experience
Emulation Station is such a better way to launch games compared to RetroArch. I didn’t know it got an Android port, thank you. Is there something like emudeck on Android to even make the process even more easier?
Not that I’m aware of. Still easy though. Download arch, download Emulation station, then play to your heart’s content
I have been emulating many different systems (including SNES) on lots of platforms, and have almost never been bothered by lag in the emulation itself.
But one day someone was harping on about lag in an SNES game, so I loaded it up (Android RA SNES9x core) just to double-check before arguing with them… and indeed found the lag quite noticeable. But I also found two ways to reduce the lag significantly.
The first thing is to try different cores. There are multiple versions of SNES9x available on most versions of Retroarch, and there’s a reason for it. The different cores can give surprisingly different results for a single game.
The second thing (which had the greater impact for me) is to enable Retroarch’s look-ahead emulation for one or two frames. Just as it sounds, this will cause the core to emulate the next n frames with every possible combination of inputs. It increases the processing requirements exponentially, but for something like the SNES, many platforms can handle it. I know it seems counterintuitive (if it can emulate hundreds or thousands of possible frames in realtime, why can’t it do just one?) but it worked for me. It must be some kind of throughput vs. latency thing.
Sorry, that’s almost it but they don’t emulate hundreds or thousands of frames, you’re right in thinking that would be implausible. Basically what happens is retroarch makes a savestate every frame and keeps a running list of the last few. When you press a button, retroarch will load one of those states from a few frames ago, press the same button then, then disable video and re-emulate those “rewound” few frames in fast forward. Then once it’s caught up to the present it re-enable video rendering. The end result is that you see the effect of your input happening the frame after you press it, instead of the normal input delay of 2 or more frames. It’s pretty neat. But yea, this means that they’re only emulating an extra 3-5 frames or so not hundreds, and they only have to do it when you press a button, not all the time.
Ah, that makes much more sense. Thanks!
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to stick to original hardware, if you already have it or can afford to buy it.
Setting up a Pi or other single-board system as a dedicated retro game emulator is also an absolutely valid choice IMO. It’s a fun, generally affordable little project that you can tinker with forever, e.g. changing cases and controllers, UI tweaks, ROM file organization, per-game settings optimization. But I don’t think that it’s ever been the “best” emulation option for anyone who didn’t already have their heart set on “doing something fun and interesting with a Pi”.
The smartphone you already have, dedicated retro gaming handhelds, Android TV boxes or sticks, and cheap/secondhand/already-owned PCs (desktop, notebook, or kiosk) all arguably match or exceed the performance and value-for-money of any Pi-based system.
Yet in any thread where someone new to emulation is asking for advice, there’s always a flock of folks who suggest getting a Pi like it’s the only game in town. It honestly baffles me a little. Especially because almost all of them are just running a pretty frontend over Retroarch, and Retroarch is available for virtually every modern consumer computing platform (and so are a lot of pretty frontends, if that’s a selling point).
For context, I’ve got a dozen or so retro systems, but I prefer to emulate as much as possible.
Emulation is nice because it removes a lot of the friction between deciding I feel like playing a given game and actually playing it. Dealing with worn out controllers, dead parts, wonky connections just to squint at a fuzzy screen. I much prefer seeing it upscaled on my modern screen and grabbing whatever controller is convenient to play with
A controller that looks like an old SNES with a PS2 form factor is all the retro authenticity I need
Like this?
That’s the bitch
Oh, no fucking way.
I feel this in my very soul.
I love old consoles… but old media (carts, cds/dvds) not so much. Flashcarts have been a revelation for me. I’m happy to help out the collectors out there by lowering the demand for original cartridges for my NES or gameboys.
And honestly its a much purer and more fun experience than an everything emulator where you spend most of your time setting it up and then deciding which game of all the games ever created you feel like playing right now. But I do also enjoy setting up emulator devices be they handheld or set top, and playing on them. I’m not a snob, it’s all good stuff and its a great time no matter what your choice, tbh.
Does anyone “prefer” emulation?
To get the top quality output I like out of a NES, I have to mod it for RGB/SCART by removing its PPU. Getting it out without damaging it is tricky, because it’s soldered to a large ground plane that is very good at soaking away the heat in your soldering iron.
To get the NES to stop the damn blinking light, I have to use a new cartridge slot that grips extremely strong and is a PITA to get the cartridge back out again. Or use the top loader with worse audio. (Ninten-Drawer seems to be better than the Blinking Light Win here, but reviews note it’s still pretty tight.)
To get decent loading times out of a Playstation 1, I have to mod it for an SD card (PSIO). This involves shaving away some very thin traces and soldering to them.
To get decent image quality out of an N64, I need a game specific GameShark code, a game patch with an EverDrive, or a mod. That mod doesn’t have a DIY version, and must be sent to an approved modder.
To get games to work reliably and with high quality images and good loading times on any of these with emulation, I have to download a thing.
I don’t think these are merely a matter of space/time/money. It takes quite a bit of knowledge and skill to achieve the mods, and you might end up with broken consoles in the attempt. I have enough soldering skill to do the PSIO mod. I haven’t managed to get a PPU out of a NES without damage, though I think I know some tricks now that could make it work.
Yes. Original hardware is a pain in the ass.
I want to play on my nice PC or steam deck, with save states, whatever gamepad I prefer, and an unlimited library.
I do - but I don’t necessarily think it’s “better”.
I do because I just don’t want all that stuff around. Save states are also a blessing for folks like me with endless skill issues.
I do. I have Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock on PS3. Console has 300ms latency which is a dealbreaker while RPCS3 on laptop or even just Clone Hero has much lower latency. If you have multiple consoles, emulation can bring all your consoles into one. I also have H.A.W.X 2 which drops frames on PS3, maybe emulated could run better. I want to freely approach frigates from low altitude without factoring in FPS drop when I blow them up :)
I actually do. Upscaling, fast forwarding, modding, cheats, save states are all nice QoLs. A lot of emulators for these retro consoles are pretty platform independent too, so I can run them from anything from a PC, a handheld device, phone, other gaming consoles or smart fridge with my choice of peripherals.
You can also use any controller you want with emulation. You can even replicate a crt filter or even get a real crt and emulate onto that to replicate the good ol days. I’d say a crt helps more than original hardware. Even with original hardware, pixels are too sharp and clean on modern screens. Old games benefited from smoothing and blurring the lines, which helped create a more realistic image.
I’m in my 40s and basically have two jobs on top of housework. If I do play a retro game, I want things like save states since I’m probably playing more for a nostalgia kick than anything else and want to be able to put it down and pick it up (as well as not have to re-do things in games with save points few and far between).
https://youtu.be/ywWwUuWRgsM?si=Hv4-fVm5hNGF9MUZ
take a look at this and then tell me with a straight face that I should be playing Ocarina of Time on an n64.
Recompilations and reverse engineered games are actually not emulation, they’re ports. But yeah they’re amazing and almost always the best way to play a game when available. See !source_ports@lemmy.sdf.org and !opensourcegames@lemmy.ml
While everything you said is correct, think about the perspective of someone who doesn’t care how it works, only that it does. In this context, ports and recompilation live in the same space as emulation. You and I understand the difference, but we’re nerds. I’m playing the game I bought years (possibly decades) ago, on my pc instead of on a console, with various enhancements depending on what software I’m using and a controller that doesn’t hurt my hands. It’s emulation.
Also, the video I linked probably wasn’t the best choice to make my point, I chose it anyway because it blew my damn mind with how far the community has brought emulation-adjacent gaming.
Sure. You can fix frame rate drops, play with any controller you want, easier to play with mods, save states, speedup when replaying a game, easier to record video or stream. If you’re playing a 3d game you can run in higher resolution with better anti aliasing. For a 2d game sometimes one of the upscaling filters will look good. You can use CRT filter if you want and you don’t have a CRT TV. You could do it on Steam Deck and cloud sync your saves with your PC, and even your phone (especially for turn based games)
There’s even fun achievements via retro achievements!
If I had unlimited space and could set up one of those retro game rooms, I’d love to use my old systems. However, it’s way easier and practical for me to keep my collection in boxes/shelves and have a little pc hooked up to the TV that’s actually made to output hdmi.
When it’s the only way is probably the only good answer to this; whether because you don’t have hardware or can’t set it up properly for whatever reason etc
I can see the appeal for that… Except for the NES.
I gave my last cartridge blowie a long time ago.
This is like people who insist building your own PC is easy.
No. It’s not.
It is if you know everything about it sure, but that applies to most things.
I don’t care about your raspberry Pi that I have to house, program, etc. I just wanna pop in a game and have it work. Easy peasy
I agree that it’s easy in the sense that you can learn enough to do it via YouTube.
It’s certainly not always easy to actually do the thing though.
Sure it ain’t as easy as just using a console, but batocera on pi is ridiculously easy compared to most other solutions:
- Download the batocera image
- Flash it with raspberry pi image writer
- power on the pi
- connect a Controller
- connect it to network
- the pi will automatically appear as network share, just drag and the Roms
- play
If you already have used a pi and disregard the download time this can easily be done in less than ten minutes. I know first hand using something like a Gameboy/DS is way more convenient, but compared to how long it took me to get the game running that came with my Xbox one that’s at least twice as quick (not even considering Xbox 360 games on one) so I’ll gladly take the time to learn how to setup and then do it
Aren’t they kinda of hard to get a hold of still? During the pandemic they were going for 100$ and up
you can at least get them directly instead of paying scalpers now, but yeah it’s still $80 for an 8GB board.
