Emulation anyone?

[TheCaptain53]

So I decided to jump into a little emulation earlier this week. Mainly speaking, I wanted to play one of my favourite Nintendo series - and possibly one of my favourite series of all time - The Legend of Zelda.

Obviously it's not supported natively on the PC, so I did a little digging around on the emulation subreddit. I asked one question and did a little bit of research and BOOM, struck gold.

For anyone who has an old Wii and GC or Wii titles lying around, I definitely recommend it. Read this post and all will be explained. https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/3icyxk/emulation_where_do_i_start/

As a side note, people might ask, "Why not play it on the Wii?", to which I have 3 responses:

1. The LOZ titles I ripped are actually borrowed from a friend, I can't keep them.
2. They're all neatly in one place on my hard drive, ready to play whenever I want.
3. You can scale the in-game rendering for sharper image quality.

Right now I'm playing The Wind Waker at 4:3 1440p at a solid 30 fps with no dips and stutters (and it hardly works my system at all).

 

It's super easy, pretty cheap (I only spent £20 on an SD card, card reader and a bluetooth dongle), and works really well.

[Lord_Karango17]

A little off topic, but would emulating the ps3/ xbox 360 require too much power?

[minibois]

A little off topic, but would emulating the ps3/ xbox 360 require too much power?

Yes.

They are working on a PS3 emulator now, but it is not running good at all.

 

-snip-

Cool

I assume Dolphin emulator?

[Taswell]

A little off topic, but would emulating the ps3/ xbox 360 require too much power?

that is illegal right now because sony/Microsoft still claim profit rights to those platforms. so you could potentially be in trouble with it if anyone cares enough 

 

No one cares about the older consoles though. 

[TheCaptain53]

Cool

I assume Dolphin emulator?

Yes, it is. Runs excellently!

Saying that, The Wind Waker is supposedly one of the best optimised emulated titles on Dolphin. Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time and Skyward Sword are still seeing problems (although I've only tried out The Wind Waker).

[EliasNM]

I assume Dolphin emulator?

Best one I know.

[minibois]

Best one I know.

Only Wii and GameCube emulator I know

[TheCaptain53]

Only Wii and GameCube emulator I know

Yeah, unfortunately, the Wii U hasn't been properly emulated yet (and not anywhere near a working state).

Which sucks. :c

[minibois]

Yeah, unfortunately, the Wii U hasn't been properly emulated yet (and not anywhere near a working state).

Which sucks. :c

Wii U will probably get a stable emulator before PS3 does I think.

Or maybe a little bit after

[TheKDub]

Cooleo, I've got a PS2 emulator that I've been using to play some of my old games, kingdom hearts and such run great on it, though some games such as baldurs gate dark alliance 1 & 2, Champions of Norrath, and Champions return to arms all tend to have severe graphical issues and horrible performance...

[SkywardKkalox]

Tbh, I just softmodded my Wii back in 2009 and from there I backuped all of my games in an external HDD, it also saves me the hastle of getting adaptors for my controllers to work.

[TheCaptain53]

Wii U will probably get a stable emulator before PS3 does I think.

Or maybe a little bit after

We won't have a stable PS3 emulator for a number of years because of its weird hardware, unfortunately. I love the PS3, it had some great games on it, and performed well (before I ascended to the #gloriouspcgamingmasterrace, of course).

 

 

Cooleo, I've got a PS2 emulator that I've been using to play some of my old games, kingdom hearts and such run great on it, though some games such as baldurs gate dark alliance 1 & 2, Champions of Norrath, and Champions return to arms all tend to have severe graphical issues and horrible performance...

#firstworldproblems

I'm glad that Dolphin is so stable, but apparently there a couple of games that run horrible. These are the problems with emulators.

[EliasNM]

Only Wii and GameCube emulator I know

I tested GCube before Dolphin but that's only GameCube. Never looked back ever since Dolphin.

[TheCaptain53]

I tested GCube before Dolphin but that's only GameCube. Never looked back ever since Dolphin.

[EliasNM]

-

It was a must to have my favorite games on PC coming from being a console kid for games, and using PC for productivity until that one day emulation software entered my life. GCube was my first too. Then came all the emulators I know now.

[EvilWiffles]

Every emulator favors single core performance, so it's a given that almost all modern i3, i5, and i7 chips and handle most game titles.

AMD can handle some as well, it just has a harder time keeping up.

 

Xenia is a project for Xbox 360 emulation that can already run a few titles like Minecraft. It seems to be advancing more than RPCS3, which is a tad of a shame considering most people want some Red Dead action (not really my thing, thought it was a boring title myself ). FX-8350 can handle it so it's pretty good.

[TheCaptain53]

Every emulator favors single core performance, so it's a given that almost all modern i3, i5, and i7 chips and handle most game titles.

AMD can handle some as well, it just has a harder time keeping up.

 

Xenia is a project for Xbox 360 emulation that can already run a few titles like Minecraft. It seems to be advancing more than RPCS3, which is a tad of a shame considering most people want some Red Dead action (not really my thing, thought it was a boring title myself ). FX-8350 can handle it so it's pretty good.

I'm thinking of building a second PC with a G3258 with its nuts overclocked off and a GTX 750 Ti, so I could use that as a LAN emulator as well, which would be fun. :')

I want to see a PS3 emulator really bad as I've got LOADS of titles for the PS3, including one of my favourite games of all time - The Last of Us. Being able to play that awesome title on my PC would be a dream come true.

[AlwaysFSX]

that is illegal right now because sony/Microsoft still claim profit rights to those platforms. so you could potentially be in trouble with it if anyone cares enough 

 

No one cares about the older consoles though. 

Actually the only illegal thing is the BIOS and ROMs as far as I'm aware. But the emulator is completely legal.

[TheCaptain53]

Actually the only illegal thing is the BIOS and ROMs as far as I'm aware. But the emulator is completely legal.

Ripping the ROMs would be breaching copyright law, but downloading them from the internet would be breaching piracy law.

Either way, emulation is sketchy from a legal standpoint, although the actual emulation itself is the most legal part.

Not that anyone gives too much of a shit, so we're covered there, at least.

[SolarNova]

Dolphin is a great emulator, not only do u get to play all ur old games without having to dig out ur old console or buy a new one, but u can upscale the image for better quality and, if ur lucky, the game your playing may even have a community forum thread dealing with new/improved custom texture packs.

 

Whilst Dolphin can upscale games very well, it cant do anything about the low standard definition textures in use, BUT it does allow for texture dumping and loading of textures from file, thus custom textures can be used.

 

Xenoblade Chronicles is a great game that got shit on by the crappy Wii hardware, but up-scaling to 4k and using the massive Texture pack available on the Dolphin forums (that even I contributed to) makes the game look a lot better.

 

Monster Hunter Tri is also a game I highly suggest trying out if u like the Dolphin Emulator, it again was a game that should not have come out on the Wii only, as it suffers greatly from the weak hardware. Up scale it though and its the best Monster Hunter experience currently available on PC... until Monster Hunter Online is final finished.

 

As for hardware requirements, ull need a beefy Intel CPU to handle some of the more complex games. OCing recommended.

 

PCSX2 for Playstation 2 emulation is another great emulator, nothing like playing Primal, Dark Cloud/Chronicles, Klonoa 2, or Drakenguard in some up-scaled goodness.

[EvilWiffles]

I'm thinking of building a second PC with a G3258 with its nuts overclocked off and a GTX 750 Ti, so I could use that as a LAN emulator as well, which would be fun. :')

I want to see a PS3 emulator really bad as I've got LOADS of titles for the PS3, including one of my favourite games of all time - The Last of Us. Being able to play that awesome title on my PC would be a dream come true.

 

The G3258 is a perfect CPU for emulation, love it lots. I want to make a cube PC for emulation myself, maybe put it in an old PS2 case or Gcube case? Hmm, that's look pretty shnazzy.

[TheCaptain53]

The G3258 is a perfect CPU for emulation, love it lots. I want to make a cube PC for emulation myself, maybe put it in an old PS2 case or Gcube case? Hmm, that's look pretty shnazzy.

GC case definitely! That would be awesome!

When I build an SFF rig I'll be using a Cooler Master Elite 110. It's so cute!

[RetroSmoo]

I love emulation, from ps1, n64, snes to ps2, wii, gamecube, dreamcast to arcade emulators and psp etc lols

[kirashi]

Tbh, I just softmodded my Wii back in 2009 and from there I backuped all of my games in an external HDD, it also saves me the hastle of getting adaptors for my controllers to work.

 

Same here. Plus, softmodding saves wearing out the DVD drive in your Wii that happened all too often. Sorry Nintendo; I do enjoy your games but you can't expect users to replace their console just because your DVD drive's motor can't hold up to regular use. Heck, I've still got a Slim PS2 with a working motor. (The laser is burnt out for the second time, so I softmodded that too.)

[Sky Daddy]

oculus rift + dolphin  vr = amazingness

 

seriously, vr gives old games new life when you are basically teleported into your games

 

played some windwaker and seeing characters 'in person' is a unique experience you would never get in the original