God I'm old.
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Is the Nintendo 64 the hardest retro console to emulate?
- Thread starter VARIA
- Start date
God I'm old.
Goldenroad
Member
VARIA
Member
I find that interesting. I've never had an issue with Sega Saturn emulation ever since I discovered SSF. I have an old Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop running Vista with an intel core duo processor and it runs SSF and pretty much any game I've thrown at it (Panzer Dragoon series, Nights, House of the Dead etc,) perfectly.
EDIT: this is not the laptop I am using for N64 emulation. lol I currently have an HP Elitebook i5. I keep the old Dell for Saturn emulation.
BladeoftheImmortal
Member
It's not our fault you're as old as the hills.
Mupen64 runs Goemon fine on my phone.
Watch Da Birdie
I buy cakes for myself on my birthday it's not weird lots of people do it I bet
Just to be sure, you're talking about the first, open-world one, not the 3D Sidescroller?
I still don't consider SNES retro, either, which is why I'm flabbergasted by people considering N64 and Xbox retro... When I think Retro, I think like, Space War and Pong. IM OLD!! ::shoots self
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I consider a system "retro" if there's two generations of consoles between now and then. So for instance, the Playstation is now retro, as there is a two-gen gap of the PS2 and PS3 between it and the current PS4. PS2 will become "retro" when the next generation comes about and so on and so forth.
People always say this, but I've had no problem getting tons of Saturn games running fine.
VARIA
Member
Same here. I'm sure it was true at one point, but not anymore.
What emulator are you using?
VARIA
Member
I think the main thing is that SSF runs the most popular Saturn games very well, and a lot of the others are left with issues that aren't being resolved because the emulator is closed-source, being worked on by one person. SSF would be amazing by now if it were open-source. Instead, we have Yabause which is steadily catching up to SSF (and has surpassed it in a couple of areas), with a ways to go still.
The two are five years apart. Does that change your perception of what is retro between the two?
lightchris
Member
Okay then, to each their own I guess.
Personally I find it very natural that "retro" doesn't refer to a fixed point in history but is a moving target. Don't really get why I should feel older than usual knowing that today's teenagers grew up with Xbox 360 or PS3 (..while my first console was an Atari 2600).
I get crashes with SSF all the time. It's a good emulator, when it works. But I wouldn't depend on it to work through a normal gaming session.
zenosparadox
Member
Come on guys... There is no right answer for the definition of a "retro" gaming console (except maybe the Magnavox Odyssey since it was first?). It is a matter of perception based on your age and what you grew up with. Pointless argument.
That is what CEN64 is supposed to be. Hope it works out.
That is what CEN64 is supposed to be. Hope it works out.
terrisus
Member
Hey, I know that feel.
I saved up money from mowing lawns that summer to purchase an N64 with Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 on launch day.
Nice, didn't know someone had started!
Okay then, to each their own I guess.
Personally I find it very natural that "retro" doesn't refer to a fixed point in history but is a moving target. Don't really get why I should feel older than usual knowing that today's teenagers grew up with Xbox 360 or PS3 (..while my first console was an Atari 2600).
I agree with you that it's always changing, but calling something that was still getting games just over a decade ago "retro" is definitely stretching it, in my mind. I think it's fair to call the NES and the Master System retro consoles at this point, but even the SNES was getting great games in 1996 and into '97. Hell, Rockman & Forte and Fire Emblem Thracia 776 were coming out on Super Famicom less than 15 years ago, or near it. When you're younger, maybe it's more fashionable to call things retro more quickly, but I just can't see it that way, yet. Never did.
I don't know if "hardest" seems apt. It's only been the last few years that the N64 even had open source efforts being worked on, and for that direction of emulation, it's been the one to net the greatest results. Dolphin, PPSSPP, and PCSX2 have a lot of credit having to go to the fact they had constant builds made daily, and this was due to the fact they were open source. I think that direction will greatly help Xenia, RPCS3, and Citra obtain adequate emulation of Xbox 360, PS3, and 3DS respectfully. It'll also be interesting to see if Citra tries to consider New 3DS or DSiWare for efforts, considering Nintendo's upgraded hardware and that hackers are slowly finding ways to circumvent DSiWare downloads for 3DS flashcards.
Even there though I worry that Xbox 360 emulation will sort of be ignored by the community, just like Xbox emulation was. It seems in emulation circles it's mostly about Nintendo and Sony hardware.
Even there though I worry that Xbox 360 emulation will sort of be ignored by the community, just like Xbox emulation was. It seems in emulation circles it's mostly about Nintendo and Sony hardware.
Well, it's easier to attract developers who want to preserve their favorite games, so the most popular systems will get the most attention. With that said, the one thing I've been surprised by is at how tepid the Dreamcast emulation scene has been, considering how frequently it's held up as the best console of all time by certain groups of people.
FreeMufasa
Junior Member
Did you consider the NES retro when the OG xbox launched?
2001-2014 - 13 years
2001-1988 - 13 years
I think the Dreamcast was bitten by the fact that many games on that system did get ports to other platforms, so it became a harder interest in working on that system. Phantasy Star Online's best version is Blue Burst for PC. Sonic Adventure 1, 2, and Skies of Arcadia have expanded editions on GameCube. Grandia II and Marvel vs Capcom 2 have PS2 ports.
Perhaps for what really stayed on the system and hasn't gone anywhere else in a major way has become a bit of a hard sell to really bother to emulate it.
I'm not a PCSX2 dev or anything, I lurk there. The software emulation (CPU only) is spot on for almost all the games the PS2 supports. Some still have black screen issues and very few won't boot.
Hardware rendering is okay - spot on for many a games, but popular ones like Jak and Daxter series/ Ratchet and Clank, any games with the Snowblind engine have issues that can't really be fixed. Other games require rounding "hacks" and stuff.
One of the top devolopers (Gabest, known for more than PCSX2 stuff) is working on an OpenCL renderer to have CPU quality with GPU speed for people with older and slower CPU's.
The GPU renderer GSdx has stagnated and needs a total rewrite supporting features that are currently not implemented and for that someone would need to be incredibly skilled in writing Direct X code and understanding the PS2 architecture.
Goldenroad
Member
mrmickfran
Member
Same for me.
Yeah, I remember how people couldn't believe it when UltraHLE came out... Zelda OOT was still a hot seller in the stores when this happened and suddenly you could play it on your PC (sort of... but for most people it didn't perform too well and you couldn't use rumble pak features so no detecting buried treasure)
But that was pretty awesome that it worked at all, and in 1999.
I had a great time with Zelda OOT much later, with Project64 and a PS2 controller with working rumble.
But that was pretty awesome that it worked at all, and in 1999.
I had a great time with Zelda OOT much later, with Project64 and a PS2 controller with working rumble.
Manmademan
Member
the questionable credentials of those groups aside, the DC likely has lukewarm response given that a very large majority of it's exclusives ended up getting superior ports on the PS2/Xbox/GC within a year or two.
outside of naked nostalgia, the DC doesn't have a whole lot going for it to warrant the effort of emulating it.
terrisus
Member
In 2001 13 years was ~68% of my life, whereas in 2014 13 years is ~41% of my life.
Relative spans of time and all that.
No kidding.
I had a friend over the day I got them, and he was so amazed by them he said he would be over any time I got a new game for it.
He didn't end up keeping up with that promise.
On the other hand, he's married to my sister now, so he's good.
Ah, though I heard certain games work better with different types of that emulator(like an older version can work better than a later on).
megarockexe
Member
In 2000, they got Zelda and Mario to run. And then that's it. It's so bad with this archaic software with random plugins with inconsistent features all to work on very old emulators. Gotta update those VooDoo graphics accelerator card drivers, guys. Your Pentium 3 can't handle these games running at full speed. Hacks upon hacks can only push it so far. Quality-wise, it needs a lot of work.
NES came out in 1983 in Japan, 1985 in US, etc.
Tribes of Trusty
Member
Unrelated to the topic at hand, but any reference to Mischief Makers is bound to make me feel all warm inside.
alas, it didn't work too well the last time I tried to play it on an emulator...
terrisus
Member
ShakeShake!
You can buy a third party N64 controller for PC on Amazon for $15.
Or you can buy a USB adapter for your first party controller for $12.
Souldriver
Member
Yeah, wut.
That quote is damning. If you make it difficult to develop for inexperienced developers, you're also making it harder for experienced ones. Why would you deliberately do that?
terrisus
Member
Sure - but it's an issue which most other consoles which can be replicated fairly easily by your standard PS2-type or XBox controller don't have to deal with.
The 1st statement does not imply the 2nd statement.
You try to subtly force developers to become committed to the platform, and thus the quality of the games.
This backfired because even Rare had issues with their games, which is why the Expansion Pak existed. A handful of the later games ran poorly on the platform, even being prone to crashing the system, and it was that extra RAM that somehow saved the day.
Yeeeeeaaaahhh.. He wasn't coming over for the video games.
terrisus
Member
jhmtehgamr20xx
Banned
It was the 90s; almost everybody not named Sony was making some..."questionable decisions"....in the console space.
Couldn't they just map some of those C-buttons to the shoulder buttons? IIRC you could even use the C-stick in lieu of the buttons playing it on emus with a GC controller (that works on Wii 64 ), so that makes it even less of an issue possibly.