What separates inaccurate emulators from accurate ones? I used

>>3983284
>What separates inaccurate emulators from accurate ones?

Inaccurate emulators may take shortcuts to get certain games runnable at decent speeds at the expense of breaking other games in the library. More accurate emulators are generally more compatible at the cost of more CPU time.

>I used pic related for years until I kept reading about how inaccurate it supposedly was, but I would never have known otherwise.

Play some of the Kirby games or games like Final Fantasy VI or New Horizons on ZSNES, then play on a more modern emulator. Certain graphical effects don't work, and the sound is much worse on ZSNES. Many of the more popular games work fine, but outside of those titles you see issues cropping up a lot.

>>Are Nintendo's VC emulators 'accurate'?

Not at all. Each game basically has its own emulator tailored with game-specific options to get it running well on the hardware. That's the only way a N64 game is going to run well on a low-powered system like the Wii: with lots of game-specific hacks.

>>3983284
Unless there are graphical, speed, or game breaking glitches, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

>>3983290
I seem to remember Zombies Ate My Neighbors sounding like absolute dogshit on ZSNES.

>>3983284
Look bro, if you've never bothered to compare then how are you supposed to know anything? You could be playing a game with the main character as a blue ball rather than a red ball because of emulator inaccuracies and you would never know that that's not how it's supposed to be. If you've never noticed input lag it's probably because you've never bothered to compare that either.

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>>3983293

It's not like you even have to worry about TRYING finding a better emulator. There's a Wiki in the sticky, it's all there. JUST GO.

>>3983319
I wasn't speaking of zsnes specifically. MAME developers, in particular, are very retarded when it comes to "accuracy" this file has a different checksum so we can't let you play this because it's inaccurate even though other emulators play it just fine. QSound was fine yesterday. As of today every CPS2 game is broken because no known QSound dump is good, even though we have the checksum of the one good dump that doesn't exist.

>>3983329
That is beautiful.

>>3983329
I had a similar issue with MAME recently too, but moving the qsound.bin rom in with each CPS2 game that used it fixed the problem. MAME's insistence on fucking with their ROM hierarchy every release is annoying but doesn't compare to the ZSNES situation.

>>3983336
Protip, only ever use said rom set with said version of MAME or you're in a world of hurt.

Have a .151 rom set? Only use MAME (or some derivative) .151

They're tailored for each version, and yes I know about the mame.dat shit but thats a rabbit hole o it's own.

>>3983343
Protip, I started redownloading my CPS2 games for this romset when I realized the ONLY thing that had changed was qsound.bin was being moved into each ROMset. Rather than waste my time and bandwidth I just moved them in myself, shit mysteriously started working.

>>3983345
Fair enough.
Luckly it was a relatively small change from version to version that time, but god damn, sometimes they like to redo everything on how shit is named and where it's expected to be archived.
Guess my post is more directed to anyone wanting to upgrade MAME to only do so with the intent of downloading a rom set too otherwise it could be a world of frustration.

>>3983353
Back to your original post. the problem with ZSNES is that graphical glitches, sound problems and game-breaking bugs are an inevitability. Unless you're the most casual of retro gamer that you only play Mario and Zelda games, it's going to come up.

>>3983356
Different poster. I don't use ZSNES anyway, but I'm always skeptical whenever someone says X emulator is "inaccurate" because of MAME.

>>3983360
Sometimes it really is picking at nits. Mesen is supposedly the most accurate NES emulator but six months ago that title would have fallen to Nestopia. The difference between the two apart from fringe cases isn't much.

ZSNES is a whole other matter. I loved it back in the day and sometimes miss it, but it's very old and not likely to see any updates in the future. It's time to move on.

>>3983290
>New Horizons on ZSNES
No fucking kidding. Doing anything with any menu in that game will blast you with random loud beeps seconds later.

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>>3983284
>And I've never noticed input lag either. Is that another thing that only autists notice?

Think of it this way. What is the cost of switching to a more accurate emulator?

For ex, I recognize that FLAC files have superior sound quality to MP3, but I don't keep FLAC files because the switching cost is huge for me, whether in regard to disk space or ease of obtaining or mobile usage or whatever else.

Here, the cost is tiny.
>Downloading is easy.
>Since it's only SNES, the difference in CPU usage is tiny

And what you get in return is the insurance and peace of mind that (most) future SNES games will not have any significant issues.

So, why not?

>>3983290
>Not at all. Each game basically has its own emulator tailored with game-specific options to get it running well on the hardware.
A game having its own specially tailored emulator doesn't mean the game is emulated poorly.

>>3983290
>Not at all. Each game basically has its own emulator tailored with game-specific options to get it running well on the hardware. That's the only way a N64 game is going to run well on a low-powered system like the Wii: with lots of game-specific hacks.

I was always under the impression the game-specific hacks are for N64 emulators only, because of its plugin system.

I also interpreted this thread as referring to fourth-gen and lower emulation. I don't think anyone with any knowledge seriously thinks N64 emulation on the Wii is accurate, even Nintendo warn about inaccuracies in some of the games. It's on another level of inaccuracy.

>>3983284
>Is that another thing that only autists notice?

I don't think they even notice it. It's just a thing they pretend matters.

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>>3983614
I really like the GUI for ZSNES

(mostly due to nostalgia)

I use Higan these days, but sometimes I wish there was a zsnes styled frontend for it.

>>3983615
What I meant was that the emulator is sufficient only to emulate that game as accurately as it needs to be to run without glaring bugs (and even that's not true, some VC games have issues.) That's fine if you're just trying to make a buck on your console but it doesn't do anything to preserve the rest of the library.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbgXNx2q4ic

Check out this.

>>3985158
>>I use Higan these days, but sometimes I wish there was a zsnes styled frontend for it.
There is, sort of.

Look up ZMZ, it uses Snes9x as a backend but you can change it to Higan's core.

>>3985158
It doesn't make much sense to couple the cycle-exact emulation of th bsnes core with the ZSNES interface which is stuck in the 90s.

>>3983284
>but I would never have known otherwise.
You must be deaf.
>>3983614
>I don't keep FLAC files
Rube.

>>3985342
Makes total sense to experience 90s games with a 90s gui.

>>3985390

I disagree. There's no reason to not take advantage of newer technology to make older games more playable.

>>3985342
Speak for yourself, ZSNES' GUI is the one good thing left about it.

>>3985395
Not him but what does this have to do with the GUI?

>>3983284
just die.

>>3983284
Giving you an honest opinion, it's a matter of playing the games closer to how intended. Also, ZSNES has by far the worst sound engine. Take a listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbgXNx2q4ic

>>3983290
>Not at all
How so? Is it colour accuracy? frame skipping? sound or some other glitch?

>>3985158
>using a blur filter on a screenshot of ZSnes
You did that on purpose, didn't you?

>>3983615
>A game having its own specially tailored emulator doesn't mean the game is emulated poorly.

You're right. It means the game is really being PORTED, rather than emulated, per se.

>>3983284
zsnes was based on speed and just getting the game working.
if you're used to the real hardware a couple of sound effects in games will sound a bit off.

however when it comes to getting proper accuracy in other snes emulators, unfortunately its a huge performance cost in comparison.
not sure why its this way when kega fusion can run genesis games perfectly on the lowest specs.

personally I try not to use zsnes anymore because how different the ui feels to every other emulator i run.

Literally the only game I ever play on ZNES is Super Punch Out because in the middle of Mad Clown it crashes when I use SNES9x

>>3987973
While not related to Nintendo or ZSNES per se, the PS1 emulator on the PS3 is documented to pass only about 55% of accuracy tests for the platform. That may be fine to run whatever Sony is selling on the PSN store but it's not fine for preserving games. I'd wager the Nintendo emulators are about as accurate.

>>3988262
Are you using an outdated build of SNES9x?

>>3983317
>If you've never noticed input lag it's probably because you've never bothered to compare that either.
are you purposefully dumb?

>>3985390
maybe, but I'd rather not emulate 90's games with 90's code ffs

>>3989406
so somebody emulating a PS1 game on PS3 is having a different experience to someone playing that same game on PS1 hardware?

>>3983293
That's detrimental to emulation as an archive and partly why it's such a shit show even today.

>>3990198

A shit show for autist devs who get triggered by what anonymous people say on the interwebz and threaten to burn down their whole life work, but for normal people the state of 8/16-bit emulation rocks and probably 99% of games you'll never tell the difference between a rom and a cartridge.

>>3983284
Input lag makes a HUGE difference, but only if you're switching back and forth between CRT+Console to Emu (especially if LCD emu). Emu legit will feel like playing through jello.

If you play on emu all day, you obviously don't have a frame of reference to notice the input lag.

However I only ever beat Super Castlevania 4 on emulator, and falling platforms were very unintuitive because of how early you would have to input jump.

>>3983284
ZSNES kicks ass
i love it

What are the best current emulators for SNES, Genesis&CD, Saturn, Dreamcast, and, Nintendo 64?

>>3992459
>SNES
bsnes (bsnes-mercury for RetroArch)

>Genesis&CD
Genesis Plus GX (GC/Wii and RetroArch only)

>Saturn
Yabause or Mednafen's Saturn Core (RetroArch, etc.)

>Dreamcast
Demul, I think. There's no one really good solution.

>Nintendo 64
See above, N64 emulation sucks. RA has a decent Vulkan core for N64 though.

>>3990256
8/16-bit emulation are only good because people put the work into it. Attitudes like yours aren't helpful for preservation.

>>3990108
Someone emulating PS1 games on PS3 are only getting a sample size of whatever Sony feels like offering on their store. Anything outside of that (most of the PS1 library) is fucked. That's why you need good emulators, not "good enough" ones.

>>3992475
>SNES
snes9x or bsnes if you need higher compatibility
earlier bsnes can also do super gameboy properly

>Genesis&CD
kega fusion

>Saturn
ssf

>Dreamcast
null dc

>Nintendo 64
pj64

>>3992489
>snes9x

bsnes-balanced will run on any machine made from the Core 2 Duo era and up. The only reason you should still use snes9x is if you're running on some toaster older than that.

>kega fusion
Wrong.

>ssf
Fringe cases only. Closed-source shit that's picky about disk images.

>Dreamcast
Situational.

>pj64
Go fuck yourself.

>>3992475
>>3992489
Thank you, I'll check them out

>>3992493
is it better to run bsnes/higan via retroarch? I seem to have issues loading roms through retroarch

>>3992538
Yes, that way you don't have to deal with standalone higan's baggage.

>>3992541
not all my roms appear visible in retroarch. why is that?

>>3992546
Don't waste your time trying to add them to a collection. Just load them directly from the Load Content menu.

>>3992538
RetroArch has less input lag than standalone Higan. SNES emulators in general have pretty bad input lag, and Higan in particular is notoriously terrible about it.

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Hey /vr/, what are your go to sites for roms?

>>3992493
>Go fuck yourself.
Do you have a better alternative?

>>3992567
Anything else.

>>3992564
http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Need_Games%3F

>>3992579
Like what?

>>3992594
Literally anything else, you illiterate piece of shit.

>>3992597
There's literally nothing better than p64

>>3992604
He wants you to stick wires into a piece of toast and try to play games with that.

>>3992604
Mupen64+ or Parallel. PJ64 is shit and its devs are not to be encouraged.

>>3992609
That is correct.

>>3992610
>its devs are not to be encouraged.
What did they do to you?

>>3992621
They literally packed their installer with malware. Not making this up.

>>3992652
You don't have to install it, I shit you not.

>>3992652
This. And even after they removed the malware they just put nagware notifications in to annoy you instead.

>>3992660
It should have never been there in the first place.

>>3985395
A GUI style has nothing to do with making games more playable. As long as a solid design exists there. I don't like ZSNES's GUI for only one reason, it can be a bit confusing, but that didn't stop me from using it for at leasy seven or so years.

>>3992660
They don't provide executable downloads, the only way to use PJ64 is by installing.

>>3989406
How's PS1 emulation on the PSP by comparison? Comparably low?

>>3992483
You can use PS1 discs of any game on PS3.

Older emus are nice if you have a weak PC. For instance, I use psxfin for most PS1 games because it runs on a toaster and I never cared for graphical enhancements.
On the other hand, I doubt you're gaining anything by using ZSNES over Snes9x.

>>3992564
Emu Paradise

>>3992804
Shame psxfin is dead and not getting updates.

>>3992785
Thanks for the correction, but even still you run into bugs and issues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_PlayStation_and_PlayStation_2_games_compatible_with_PlayStation_3

>>3992774
The only emulator glitch I had was in Lunar 2. If a nighttime effect and a textbox come up at the same time, the display glitches

>>3992825
>Shame psxfin is dead
It is, but at least you have a fairly large compatibility list for 1.13 so you can quickly check if a game is gonna run well.
It would be nice if people who abandoned their emulators released the source.

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>>3990198
>emulators exist for almost every platform
>which play games almost perfectly
>projects like bsnes/higan are in active development
>it's such a shit show even today
wow, you must be really good at writing emulators if all this isn't good enough.

>>3992479

The games are already preserved 100%, that is what ROM dumps are for.

What else is the purpose of writing an emulator but to play games? Get out of here with this "muh preservation" shit. Do film studios spend all this time and money cleaning up and restoring films just for the sake of restoring them or so people can keep watching them (and make a few more bucks reselling you the same movie along the way).

Never forget it's an entertainment medium first, so don't cry when the masses care more about being entertained than reading all the little scientific details that go into what made it happen. There is a reason special features on DVDs are only reserved for film nerds, most just want to watch the movie and that's it, no fault in that however.

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>>3992907
>born too late to colonise the New World
>born too early to explore space
>born just right to emulate any commercial game that ever existed

>>3989408
I very well could be - I usually run Super Punch Out on 3DS now that my toaster broke, so it's hard to say

>>3983284
Is SNES9x best SNES emulator?

>>3992479
Heh, okay byuu.

>>3983284
ZSNES is arguably better to use for gaming than other emulators, but note that I said for GAMING. It's fast. Not accurate. Developers, use something else.

>>3993839
bsnes is the best unless you have a PC more than a decade old. But Snex9x 1.54 works fine for most games.

>>3993839
best debugger

>>3993850
You do your gaming on a Pentium II?

>>3993857
Seems silly to ask until you realize that people actually want to game on Raspberry Pi.

>>3992940
The software is preserved, yes. But then you have to make sure to preserve the hardware via emulators. The "good enough" attitude does not work. Nothing is lost by going the extra mile to ensure accuracy, especially when we have computers that aren't 486s that can handle the extra workload.

>>3993860
There's no Raspberry Pi port of ZSNES, so that's not an excuse either.

>>3993850
>okay byuu

Now now SP, not everyone who's isn't you is byuu.

>>3993850
SNES9x is fast too but loads more accurate. Your comparison sucks.

>>3993867

No one should say we should stop at "good enough", accuracy should be something to strive for but not at the cost of crippling games to where no hardware in the world can run them. If no one can view or run the game then it is not truly preserved, it's just code on paper. Thankfully this really isn't an issue for most early consoles as even bsnes-accurate will run fine on most modern machines, but it's still a big deal for MAME though which has alot of games that are purely unplayable in the name of "muh accuracy".

You should be preserving the human experience of a particular piece of art just as much as the object, and if a human can't experience it then is it truly preserved?

>>3993932
>the cost of crippling games to where no hardware in the world can run them
>mfw hyperbole

If you want to use dead, inaccurate 90s emulators than knock yourself out. Just don't go around justifying your bad taste to others.

>>3994027

Obviously you can't read since I said this is no issue for early consoles, but it is one for MAME.

>>3992558
right, so Higan is the most accurate emulator, yet has the worst lag. Seems like the trade-off isn't worth it.

>>3994129
That's why you use bsnes-mercury with RetroArch. Input lag should be similar to Snes9x.

>>3994091
>brb, moving this goalpost

People justifying the use of ZSNES, Nesticle and other broken emulators with the delusions of "it just werks" is the whole point of this post. Try again.

>>3994150
The reason why people use it IS because it just works, to them; they like the interface. Only a turbo autist cares about the accuracy of an emulator as long as the games play accurately enough that the average person would be hard pressed to point out differences between hardware and emulation.

Look at other things like byuu's bsnes bullshit with all the gay ass library crap and waaaay over engineered gui bullshit. Who cares if the emulator is accurate if you have to wade through that shit?

It really comes down to the GUI, and you can't deny that ZSNES and Nesticle have good clean GUIs with a lot of functionality.

>>3994153
>turbo autist
Glass houses.

>average person would be hard pressed to point out differences between hardware and emulation
This is wrong and others have already cited easy examples where you can tell ZSNES falls short of real hardware. Time to move on.

>byuu's bsnes bullshit
Good thing you can use his emulation core w/ RetroArch. You get both a good GUI as well as a good emulation core.

>It really comes down to the GUI
Good GUIs don't justify bad emulation.

>>3994153
ZMZ exists for the actual, literal autists who are unable to adapt to a new GUI. There is no excuse for using ZSNES.

>>3994158
>Good GUIs don't justify bad emulation.
They do for the average person, whether either of us like it or not

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>>3992564
I downloaded the no intro set a year or two ago and have been adding to it with the occasional PS1 download

>>3992805
When will it get the CoolROM treatment?
Ride can't last forever.

>>3994214
>average person, salt of the earth, morons

Thankfully the preservation and emulation of retro games isn't up to them.

>>3994226
No reason to give shitty ROM sites clicks when you can just grab No-Intro sets from the Internet Archive or via torrent.

>>3994226
They switch IP, MAC, and DNS addresses every month

>>3992564
GGn

>>3983284
>Are Nintendo's VC emulators 'accurate'?
Of course they're not, Nintendo does not have the autism and their hardware is too shit for accurate.