Best Emulator For Each System

[djvj]

This list was made in 2012, so please post if anything has changed or you have any additions to the list.

(P) = Preferred Emulator

1964 (Un-Official Homepage,Emu and Patches)
Nintendo 64

AAE (Homepage, Emu, Update #1, Update #2)
AAE (P)

Anex86 (Homepage, Emu)
PC-9801 (used for Touhou)

Arnold
Amstrad GX4000

Atari800
Atari XEGS

Bgb
Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy Color

Big Fish Games
Big Fish Games (can use PCLauncher, module is basic)

BlueMSX
ColecoVision
Microsoft MSX
Microsoft MSX2

Bsnes (Homepage, Emu 32-bit, Emu 64-bit)
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy Color
Nintendo Satellaview
Super Nintendo Entertainment System (P)

CCS64
Commodore 64

CDiEmu
Philips CD-i (P)

Cxbx
Microsoft XBOX (P)

Cygne
Bandai Wonderswan Color

Daphne (Homepage, 32-Bit)
Daphne (P)

Daphne Singe
American Laser Games (P)
WoW Action Max (P)

DCVG5K
Philips VG5000 (P)

Demul (Homepage, 0.56, 0.56 GPU Plugin, Netplay Plugin, Pad Plugin) (0.57, 0.57 DX11 Plugin)
Sammy Atomiswave (P)
Sega Dreamcast
Sega Naomi (P - but requires makaron for some games)

DeSmuME
Nintendo DS (P)

DICE (Homepage, emu 32-bit, 64-bit)
Dice (P)

Dolphin (Homepage, 32-Bit, 64-Bit)
Nintendo Gamecube (P)
Nintendo Wii (P)

Dolphin Triforce (Homepage, 32-Bit, 64-Bit)
Sega Triforce (P)

DOSBox (via Dfend)
Microsoft DOS (P)

Emu7800
Atari 7800

ePSXe (Homepage, Emu 1.7.0)
Sony PlayStation

ePV-1000
Casio PV-1000

E-Z Flasher
Flash Games

Fceux
Nintendo Entertainment System

Final Burn Alpha
Final Burn Alpha
NEC PC Engine
NEC SuperGrafx
NEC TurboGrafx-16
Sega Mega Drive

Flash Game Player (custom app)
Flash Games

Flash Player Projector
Flash Games

FreeDO
Panasonic 3DO

FourDO
Panasonic 3DO (P)

Frets on Fire X
Frets on Fire

Fusion (Homepage, Emu 32-bit)
Sega 32X
Sega CD
Sega Game Gear
Sega Genesis
Sega Master System
Sega SG-1000 (P)

Future Pinball (Homepage, Download)
Future Pinball

Gambatte
Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy Color

GameCom
Tiger Game.com

GeePee32
GamePark 32

Gens
Sega 32X
Sega CD
Sega Genesis

GEST
Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy Color

Handy
Atari Lynx

Hatari
Atari ST

ICE64
Nintendo 64

Jaguar Tempest 2000 Emulator
Atari Jaguar (Tempest only)

Jagulator
Atari Jaguar

JNes
Nintendo Entertainment System

JPcsp
Sony PSP (P)

Kat5200 (Homepage, 32-Bit)
Atari 5200 (P)

Magic Engine
NEC PC Engine
NEC PC Engine-CD
NEC SuperGrafx
NEC TurboGrafx-16
NEC TurboGrafx-CD

Magic Engine FX
NEC PC-FX

Makaron
Sega Dreamcast
Sega Naomi

MakaronEX
Sega Dreamcast
Sega Naomi

Mame
Cave
Mame
Nintendo Arcade Systems
SNK Neo Geo
SNK Neo Geo AES

Mednafen (Homepage, Emu 32-bit)
Atari Lynx (P)
Bandai Wonderswan
Bandai Wonderswan Color
NEC PC Engine (P)
NEC PC Engine-CD (P)
NEC PC-FX (P)
NEC SuperGrafx (P)
NEC TurboGrafx-16 (P)
NEC TurboGrafx-CD (P)
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy Advance
Nintendo Game Boy Color
Nintendo Virtual Boy (P)
Sega Game Gear
Sega Genesis
Sega Master System
SNK Neo Geo Pocket
SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color
Sony PlayStation
Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Meka
Sega Game Gear
Sega Master System

MESS
Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Bally Astrocade
ColecoVision (P)
Creatronic Mega Duck
Emerson Arcadia 2001
Entex AdventureVision (P)
Fairchild Channel F
GCE Vectrex
Magnavox Odyssey 2
Mattel Intellivision
RCA Studio II
VTech CreatiVision
Watara Supervision

MFME
Multi Fruit Machine Emulator

Mjolnir
(emu based off Mame 0100 for games based on Namco's System 21, System 22, and Super System 22 hardware)

MUGEN (Homepage, MUGEN 1.0)
MUGEN (required because some games will not work with PCLauncher)

Nebula
Sega Model 2
SNK Neo Geo
SNK Neo Geo AES

NeoPop
SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color

NeoRaine
SNK Neo Geo CD

Nestopia (Homepage, Emu 32-bit)
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Famicom Disk System

Nintendulator
Nintendo Entertainment System

No$GBA
Nintendo DS

Nostalgia
Mattel Intellivision (P)

NullDC (Homepage, Emu 1.0.4 r136)
Sega Dreamcast (P) (use Makaron for WinCE games)

Odyemu
Magnavox Odyssey

Ootake
NEC PC Engine
NEC PC Engine-CD
NEC SuperGrafx
NEC TurboGrafx-16
NEC TurboGrafx-CD

OpenBOR
OpenBOR (some games have issues and may not close fully on PCLauncher)

Parachute
Nintendo Handheld Simulators

ParaJVE
GCE Vectrex (P)

PCLauncher
Doujin
PC Games (P)

PCSX-R
Sony PlayStation

PCSX2
Sony PlayStation 2 (P)

Phoenix
Panasonic 3DO

PlayGuy
Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy Color

PokeMini SDL
Nintendo Pokemon Mini (P)
Pop Cap
Pop Cap (some games will not close properly with PCLauncher)

Project64 (Homepage, Emu 32-bit -- 1.61 Plugin (Homepage, download))
Nintendo 64 (P v1.61)

Project Tempest
Atari Jaguar

ProSystem
Atari 7800 (P)

PSXFin
Sony PlayStation

PSXMAME
PSXMAME

Radikal Bikers Emu
Radikal Bikers (emu only plays this one game)

RealSpectrum
Sinclair ZX Spectrum

Regen
Sega Genesis

Retroarch
Nintendo Game Boy Advance
Super Nintendo Entertainment System

ScummVM (Homepage, Emu 32-Bit)
ScummVM (P)

Sega Model 2 Emulator (Homepage, Emulator)
Sega Model 2

Snes9x
Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Snes9xPP
Nintendo Satellaview

SNESGT
Nintendo Satellaview

Spectaculator
Sinclair ZX Spectrum

SSF (Homepage, Emulator, Other Versions)
Sega Saturn (P)
Sega ST-V (mame may do better for this hardware)

Steam Big Picture
Steam Big Picture

Steem
Atari ST

Stella (Homepage, Emu 32-bit, Emu 64-bit, 32 & 64bit No Installer)
Atari 2600 (P)

SuperModel
Sega Model 3

T98-Next
PC-9801 (used for Touhou)

Taito Type X
Taito Type X (cannot use PCLauncher)

Turbo Engine 16
NEC PC Engine
NEC PC Engine-CD
NEC SuperGrafx
NEC TurboGrafx-16
NEC TurboGrafx-CD

TwoMbit
Sega Master System
Sega Game Gear

U64Emu Platinum Edition
Ultra64 (only plays Killer Instinct 1 & 2)

UNZ
FM Towns

Virtual Aquarius
Mattel Aquarius

Virtual Jaguar
Atari Jaguar (P)

VisualBoyAdvance-M
Nintendo Game Boy
Nintendo Game Boy Advance (P)
Nintendo Game Boy Color

Visual Pinball
Visual Pinball

VivaNonno
VivaNonno (Only plays Ridge Racer 1 & 2 and Rage Racer)

WinArcadia
Emerson Arcadia 2001 (P)

WinApe
Amstrad CPC
Amstrad GX4000

WinKawaks
SNK Neo Geo
SNK Neo Geo AES

WinUAE
Commodore Amiga (P)
Commodore Amiga CD32 (P)
Commodore Amiga CDTV (P)

WinUAELoader
Commodore Amiga

WinX68k High-Speed
Sharp X68000

WinVICE
Commodore 64

Xebra
Sony PlayStation

XM6
Sharp X68000

Yabause
Sega Saturn

Zinc
Zinc

ZSNESw (Homepage, Emu 32-bit)
Super Nintendo Entertainment System

ZXSpin
Sinclair ZX Spectrum

 

[Clutz450]

This is a good list. Thank you for making it. Is there a way you can list it so it's listed by system with the emulators below it with the "P" next to the best emulator for that system.

Also, is there anyone out there that has (according to them in their own opinion) the "perfect" setup for what emulators and settings they use for each system. I know "perfect" is subjective depending on the user but for someone just starting out, having a good base to start with would save a lot of time.

 

[djvj]

If you want to reorder it as systems, go ahead and I'll list both.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[nomisholman]

For anyone that is interested, I've just created a Google spreadsheet based of this original post, but merged with the info that is already in the Rocket Launcher AHK Modules.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fsg58EAcqBTQpBypcjMBLdMfQ25Ioy253Dc_gpPct28/edit?usp=sharing

Basically I scraped all the info out of the Module Headers to get supported Emulators, Versions, links and supported systems.
I have limited the list to only "Official" Hyperspin Systems (ie http://hyperlist.hyperspin-fe.com/) and "Official" Rocket Launcher Modules
This is mainly because the list is already very long.

For the Preferred Emulator, I started with this thread, then added my suggestions so that each System has 1 preferred Emulator.
I am happy to take other suggestions for preferred emulators and update this list.

I've tried to avoid setting Retroarch as preferred, as it usually has a core based on one of the listed emulators.
eg. For "Nintendo Entertainment System" the preferred emu is Nestopia, however the RetroArch Module uses the Nestopia_core as default.
The exception to this are the Sega Consoles, Retroarch uses the genesis_plus_gx_libretro core, which doesn't seem to exist as another emulator.

Finally I've added the MAME/MESS systems names and default Retroarch core for each system.

Any feedback, comments, suggestions are welcome.
Currently the spreadsheet is read-only, but I'm happy to allow a few other edit and help maintain this list.

 

[Fromlostdays]

I think Mame overtook AAE for AAE emulation a long time ago, at least, I remember reading that. You seem to favor Mame for a lot of the older systems. Wouldn't mind some pointers as to why, and by that I mean what's better about MAME than an older version of MESS (besides its dead, why should I bother moving if it works) and also MAME vs the MAME 170 core in RA. There was a time when I could have added to this discussion further, but RA is too.... too convenient. And I mean RA + Rocketlauncher is god-mode for couch/keyboardless set up, so as of now I've been using it for everything I can.

Thanks!

 

[nomisholman]

Thanks for the feedback.

As for AAE vs MAME, both seem to work fine for me, but I've never played these games a lot.
I will update the list for MAME as preferred system.

As for MESS vs MAME, basically I set everything to MAME as MESS is no longer developed as MESS.
MAME is the new MESS! It just has a new name.
For now the last MESS version 0.166 (i think) isn't that much different from the latest MAME, but slowly MAME will be improved. Plus even if the core systems aren't updated, other features like BGFX renderer or Scanline Simulation are always being improved.

For RA, I also use it for most system, as its so much easier to manage the configs, etc. But I see RA more in the category of Frontend to multiple emulators. It's really the cores that are the emulators. Maybe in the future this list will be about preferred cores in RA.

 

[Fromlostdays]

Fair point on the RA cores, especially since some systems have multiple cores. I guess it would be too much to consider whether a core works better than the original emulator exe or visa versa. I always assume they don't, but often, don't care, heh. I can't open your list right now (at work) but I would say that Mednafen / the Mednefen Core in RA (For Upscaling Resolution) is by far the best in PSX emulation, and that's even with the new epsxe. The original chart doens't have anything listed as preferred for PSX emulation.

 

[nomisholman]

Updated PSX.
Thanks

 

[jasynergy]

Hey everyone I'm a bit new to the forum however I'll chime in regardless.

As Avar suggested in his recent Official HyperSpin tutorial MAME and RetroArch both aim to one day perfectly emulate every system in existence. In many cases MAME can run games as good as, if not better than, any other emulator.

The project NonMAME documents the best open-source emulator for any given system, with priority given to MAME due to its comprehensive scope. This primarily involves arcade, computer, console and handheld systems.

In most cases MAME or RetroArch are typically recommended.


Current NonMAME Recommendation List (04/09/2016)

MAME (Driven to Maturity)
Acorn (Series) (Computer)
ADAM (Computer)
Alice32 (Computer)
Amstrad CPC (Computer)
Apple II (Non-IIGS) (Computer)
Apple IIGS (Computer)
Aquarius (Computer)
Arcadia 2001 (Console)
Atari 400/800 Series (Computer)
Atari 2600 (Console)
Atari 5200 (Console)
Atari 7800 (Console)
Central Data 2650 (Computer)
ColecoVision (Console)
CPS Changer (Console)
CreatiVision (Computer)
Cybiko (Handheld)
Dreamcast Visual Memory System (Handheld)
FM Towns Marty (Console)
Game Boy (Handheld)
Game Boy Advance (Handheld)
Game Gear (Handheld)
Genesis (Console)
Instructor 50 (Computer)
Intellivision (Console)
Lynx (Handheld)
Macintosh (Non-PowerPC)
Master System (Console)
MC-10 (Computer)
MO Series (Computer)
MSX Series (Computer)
Neo Geo AES (Console)
Neo Geo CD (Console)
Odyssey2 (Console)
Othello Multivision (Console)
Pico (Handheld)
PIPBUG-based Systems (Computer)
PocketStation (Handheld)
RX-78 (Computer)
Sega Computer 3000 (SC-3000) (Computer)
Sega Game 1000 (SG-1000) (Console)
Sega Super Control Station (SF-7000) (Computer)
Studio II (Console)
SuperGrafx (Console)
SuperVision (Handheld)
TO Series (Computer)
TurboGrafx 16 (Console)
TurboGrafx CD (Console)
Vectrex (Handheld)
Videopac+ G7400 (Console)
WonderSwan (Handheld)
X1 (Computer)
X68000 (Computer)
ZX Spectrum (Computer)


RetroArch
32X (Console) (PicoDrive Core)
3DO (Console) (4DO Core)
Dreamcast (Console) (Reicast Core)
Game Boy Color (Handheld) (Gambatte Core)
Jaguar (Console) (Virtual Jaguar Core)
Neo Geo Pocket / Neo Geo Pocket Color (Handheld) (Mednafen NeoPop Core)
Nintendo 64 (Console) (Mupen64Plus Core)
Nintendo DS (Handheld) (DeSmuME Core)
Nintendo Entertainment System (Console) (Nestopia Core)
PC-FX (Console) (Mednafen PC-FX Core)
PlayStation (Console) (Mednafen PSX Core)
PlayStation Portable (Handheld) (PSP1 Core)
Saturn (Console) (Yabause Core)
Sega CD (Console) (Genesis Plus GX Core)
Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Console) (bsnes Accuracy Core)
Virtual Boy (Handheld) (Mednafen VB Core)


Dolphin
GameCube (Console)
Triforce-Based Hardware (Arcade)
Wii (Console)


Alto (Series) (Computer)
Best Emulator: Salto


Amiga (Series) (Computer)
Best Emulator: FS-UAE


Atari ST (Series) (Computer)
Best Emulator: Hatari


Commodore 64/128/PET/VIC-20 (Computer)
Best Emulator: VICE


Discrete Circuitry-Based Hardware: Miscellaneous (Arcade)
Best Emulator: DICE


Discrete Circuitry-Based Hardware: Monaco G.P. (Arcade)
Best Emulator: HBMAME


IBM Mainframes (Computer)
Best Emulator: Hercules


Laserdisc-Based Hardware (Arcade)
Best Emulator: Daphne


Macintosh (PowerPC) (Computer)
Best Emulator: PearPC


Model 3-Based Hardware (Arcade)
Best Emulator: Supermodel


PCW / PcW16 (Computer)
Best Emulator: JOYCE


Personal Computer (Computer)
Best Emulator: DOSBox


PlayStation 2 (Console)
Best Emulator: PCSX2


PlayStation 3 (Console)
Best Emulator: rpcs3


Xbox (Console)
Best Emulator: XQEMU


Xbox 360 (Console)
Best Emulator: Xenia

 

[skylinekiller]

is it possible to post a RetroARch.ini that has this laid out and setup or does that not work this way. Don't these settings get saved in the :\RocketLauncher\Modules emulator folder?

 

[Gema]

This is an old post but very helpful. I was looking for emulators on google and run into this one.

This is my list:

Sega CD
Emulator: Kega Fusion

PS2
PCSX2

Nintendo Wii
Dolphin

Commodore 64 Tapes
VICE

Nintendo GameCube
WhineCube

3DO Interactive Multiplayer Emulators
FreeDO

Bandai Wonderswan
RetroArch

 

[muro]

I will make a list of emulators that I have already try:

GBA Emulator
Emulator: mGBA

NDS
Emulator: DeSmuMe

N64
Emulator: Mupen64Plus

SNES
Emulator: Snes9x

Gamecube
Emulator: Dolphin

Sega Naomi Emulators
Emulator: DEmul

GameBoy Color
Emulator: GB Enhanced+

PSP
Emulator: PPSSPP

All emulators I write are working on Windows software (PC).