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Best Console to make an emulation machine?


Top Console Emulation Choice  

44 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Console is Best as an Emulation Machine?

    • Original X Box
      25
    • X Box 360
      0
    • PS2
      0
    • PS3
      2
    • Dreamcast
      2
    • Nintendo Gamecube
      0
    • Nintendo Wii/Wii U
      15

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The original Xbox is the best all around emulation console

 

The Wii comes in second because you can use classic controllers cheaply

 

So for 8 & 16 bit stuff I would choose the Wii since I can easily use original controllers with it. It won't run PS1 games and it has trouble with even some N64 games but you can use an N64 controller on Wii which is pretty cool.

 

All the other choices in your poll are about equal. The PS2 with a Hard Drive and the FreeMcboot memory card is great but the original Xbox is THEE king, especially if you use it for an arcade cabinet... nothing beats it, even most PCs due to how reliable the Xbox is

 

Newer consoles that can run emulators just don't have the reliability or ease of use let alone the user base

Maybe if coinops ran on the 360 it would be diffeeent but from what I have read, the architecture of the 360 makes it harder to code for

While the original Xbox is pretty much a PC.

Edited by Mark Wolfe
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I was fortunate to get one of those neat Logitech controllers for the original Xbox.

Yeah, I've got one of those too. Besides requiring batteries, there was a thing or two I didn't like about it, but I'd have to refresh my memory.

 

I really wanted the wired version, but I have found very little evidence that it actually exists.

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I've always wondered why no one built in a

Web based auto update feature into original Xbox mods or scrapers for the emulators and shit like that

 

I do like the ease of the Wii but the emulators for more CPU intensive games are just not as powerful even though the specs for the Wii outshine the original Xbox . I think it's just that the Wii is harder to code for from what I understand about it.

 

Regardless, if you just want 8 & 16 bit emulation , use the Wii, if you want a full fledged multi platform arcade and media box ... go with the Xbox

 

Or if you're, me, you have both ?

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I've always wondered why no one built in a

Web based auto update feature into original Xbox mods or scrapers for the emulators and shit like that

 

I do like the ease of the Wii but the emulators for more CPU intensive games are just not as powerful even though the specs for the Wii outshine the original Xbox . I think it's just that the Wii is harder to code for from what I understand about it.

 

Regardless, if you just want 8 & 16 bit emulation , use the Wii, if you want a full fledged multi platform arcade and media box ... go with the Xbox

 

Or if you're, me, you have both

 

^^ By the way. I highly recommend this guy if you need a modded system. Dunno if he still does it. I've soft modded xboxes before but his is the one I use. Getting a bigger HDD in your Xbox is no joke even with detailed tutorials.

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Anybody running CoinOPS on their Xbox that wants to add unsupported games, prototypes, hacks or homebrews to their games list should check out my CoinOPS Games List Editor for Windows. The program allows you to replace a game(s) you want to play with one(s) you don't. In my case I don't play any Spectrum games so I swap those out for ones I want. I started a thread about it here: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/258679-coinops-games-list-editor/

 

The program itself can be downloaded from: thedevilscompass.weebly.com

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That's cool . I'm not as interested in hacks or whatever as I am in just being able to add games easily

 

How does the app work exactly? Does it run in the Xbox or a PC ? I suppose it creates all the necessary files and names them correctly ? Do you have to have the rom in question present at the time you run the app ? Does it have a batch processor so if you wanted to add a library of games to it you can ? Like say I wanted to add all the SNES games to it or something ?

 

Does it place the files in the correct directories for you or spit out a text file that tells you where to put everything ?

Edited by Mark Wolfe
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The "perfect" all-in-one app for Xbox emulation in my opinion would be something that could sort and check all the rom sets as well as the emulators. It would sort everything, have a scraper for box scans, banners , icons, marquees, screen shots and preview videos and it would have an FTP app built in that would rename files properly & upload everything to the Xbox into the correct directories .

 

I'd pay for an app like that.

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Just a FYI for anyone interested. To not derail this thread I replied to Mark's questions regarding the CoinOPS Games List Editor over at: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/258679-coinops-games-list-editor/

The "perfect" all-in-one app for Xbox emulation in my opinion would be something that could sort and check all the rom sets as well as the emulators. It would sort everything, have a scraper for box scans, banners , icons, marquees, screen shots and preview videos and it would have an FTP app built in that would rename files properly & upload everything to the Xbox into the correct directories .

I'd pay for an app like that.


Hmm...That's a pretty tall order, Mark! :) I only deal with the ROMs and videos on my CoinOPS install. I'll have to look into all the other to see how it's named and laid out. Not promising anything but I'll definitely take a look at it.

 

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Coinops is ok when it comes to arcade emulation. But it's console emulation is waaaay behind... The standalone emulators are far improved. For example..

 

Atarixlbox - Better sound and volume (sound in coinops core is crap). Overlay support for 5200 games. Better mapping for 5200 games. 5200 analog stick support. VAPI (atx) image support. NTSC filter. Artifact mode fixed. Trackball support (5200). Lightgun support. Up to 4 drives with disks loaded and disk rotate option. Joystick port swap for games like wizard of war. Dual stick support (5200 Robotron, Space Dungeon). 6 5200 games that did not work before work now.

 

AdamX - New and better sound engine. Overlay support. Support for MegaCart games (Pac-man Collection). Support for SGM memory extension. Support for roller controller, speed roller and driving controller. Change disk function works properly (Adam mode).

 

BlissX (Intellivision) - Overlay support. Support for newer homebrew games. Intellvoice actually works. ECS keyboard mapped so ECS games are playable.

 

NeoGenesis - GensX and Genesis Plus GX core. Sound improved. Support for redump images and Darkwater Images plus they can be streamed across a network. Better 4-player adapter support.

 

BlueMSX - Fixes for numerous games (in particular konami games) and other stuff.

 

MednafenX PCE - Support for redump images.

 

Pcsxbox - Loads of compatibility improvements. Several games that did not load or play are playable. Fixed CDDA audio. Improved GTE engine. Support for redump images. Network streaming of CD games and other goodies.

 

Vice64x - Support for more recent versions of gamebase. Jiffydos support. Sound stutter on PAL games fixed. 1571 disk image support. REU image support.

 

WinstonX - Less ambigious TOS image use and naming. Overscan display properly. Autounzip of HARDDISK.zip images. Screensize modified to more accurately match the ST screen size. NTS/PAL options.

 

Winuaex -> Tons of Amiga CD32 fixes making CD32 games MUCH more playable. IPF image support. Improved "Clip excess border" code.

 

X68000x -> XF1 thru XF5, OP1 and OP2 keys mappable to the Xbox controller (some games need this). A couple other things that slip my mind.

 

A7800x -> Maria code improved fixing numerous games (like xevious, Kung-Fu Master). High score cart support. Rewind works properly. Dual stick support (Robotron). Proper two button support (Dark Chambers, Asteroids).

 

Z26 -> Better more accurate sound. Fixed games that use the booster grip ( Thrust, Omega Race ) and games with auto joystick detection (Astroblast), not released just yet.

 

These are just off the top of my head.

Edited by Shannon
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This is why all my xboxes have the stand alone emus but I'm not 100% positive that all the emus you mentioned are still out of date on Coinops 8 r8 but that being said I wouldn't even notice since I only use it for arcade emulation

 

Is anyone currently updating emulators ? I know The N64 emu was updated to 6.5 although it's not readily downloadable on the website when I checked last week.

 

As far as I can tell a lot of dev stopped around 2014 for some reason.

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You need to check out the aforementioned emuxtras link. A lot of the emu authors frequent over there. Including a relatively new one named HCF. N64 emulator is still being worked on but I'm not sure if it's state is good enough to be worth tinkering with. Weinerschnitzel the one currently working on it could probably answer more questions in regards to that.

 

Trust me concerning the coinops console emulators. I tested all the "known" issues on the mentioned console emulators and nothing has changed in coinops. It still has all the same problems because the author never updated any of the cores. He made minor logistical changes and maybe a couple fixes to SNES emulation, but that is about it.

Edited by Shannon
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I forgot to mention. But madmab still works on the emulators and has been even beyond 2014. Albeit a little slower than he used to.

 

I also forgot that he fixed an issue with Vice20x where multi-cart images could not be loaded due to a goof by x-port. Not that many people use the Vic 20 emulator. :lol:

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Haha, that's true although I bet the Xbox makes a good PC platform if you have USB adaptors for ports 3+4

 

I know coinops allows use of that, I've not tried it with any of the computer amulators but I have to guess they added that functionality

 

I always like the Amiga and still use it from time to time but I found the other commodore emus were frustrating but

 

I will admit that I have not really played with them in a really long time, not since the "Big Ass Emulators Disks" were released.

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The problem with BP is that he does not work on anything he is not specifically interested in unless he gets a ton of pestering on it. He's cleaned up the code for CO but it's still a mess . I kind wish there were competitors that would take up the task of creating a front end that is as beautiful looking but I'm happy enough that it handles the arcade games like it does ... on that front he's really done a great job. I think his adding other emulators somewhere around CO4 or CO5 was due to a lot of pestering from forum users over there. But you're right, it's def not what it could be but it's good for the passive user and inonly use it to play some console games that are either ports of arcade games or play well on arcade hardware so for my use it's perfect

 

I have a separate Xbox for "console" gaming that relies haveily on the stand alone emus along with the aforementioned Wii , PS2 & Retro Pi ... all with external USB hard drives and internal SD drives

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Yeah well I think it is more lack of ability than anything in regards to the console side of things. BP relies heavily on people who are better skilled that he has not driven away with his abrasive personality and those people happen to be on the arcade side of things. Non the less like you said.. the passive user may not be as concerned about certain things and prefer one interface over a stand alone emu.

 

I just wanted to point out that the standalone emulators are vastly improved over the older ones still used by CO. For those who may have an interest in using them. People familar with the original console "systems" can appreciate those feature more so than someone unfamilar with them.

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He is indeed absraisive. I once suggested to him a project to work on together and he was anything but diplomatic about it... reminded me not to go into projects with kids

 

I will def follow up on what stand alone emus have been updated from what I currently have . It's been a little over a year since I upgraded everything.

 

I've been chasing down a lot of the emuxtras stuff which I peovioualy ignored due to hard drive space but now I'm gonna be rocking 2TB drives so I can afford the disk space to make everything look nice

 

I think one of the main appeals of coinops is that it is available fully configured . I've only ever seen one other emulator come with skins and screen shots that was easy to find and download and that's Surreal64 - V6 looks really nice, you can download it complete from the right sources

 

I think the days of having to host emulators without the roms has long since passed . It's 2016 and everything is on broadband cloud servers all over the place and the newest of the Systems that we classic gamers want are now a decade old and more ... the genie is long out of the bottle

 

I think the places like theisozone & arcadepunks have the right idea for how emulator packages should be served up.

 

The RPi community has to save face by maintaining a specific decorum... I get it, but it's really quite ridiculous when you think about it. There should be regular 64GB builds of retropie in my opinion, it's a pain to configure and the scrapers don't work so well all the time. The only unofficial one I've ever found was at arcadepunks ?

Edited by Mark Wolfe
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He is indeed absraisive. I once suggested to him a project to work on together and he was anything but diplomatic about it...

I don't think they make computer programmers who don't have abrasive personalities =) It's just a matter of finding someone where you don't rub each other the wrong way (so to speak).

 

I think the days of having to host emulators without the roms has long since passed . It's 2016 and everything is on broadband cloud servers all over the place and the newest of the Systems that we classic gamers want are now a decade old and more ... the genie is long out of the bottle

But for most consoles, it's still pretty illegal to bundle non-PD ROMs with an emulator, let alone entire sets.

 

Also, there's people like me who don't need the Barbie games, or pony games, or PAL, foreign language, Goodset overdumps, bad ROMs, pre-retail betas, etc. etc. etc. Especially if you're going to bundle it with screenshots/videos/etc, that's just a huge waste of space.

 

Although there used to be a private torrent site I liked, where you could grab a well-seeded torrent from ReDump/DarkWaters/NoIntro/etc. and only checkmark the ones you want.

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Sorry about the typos ... I'll edit

 

But yeah of course it's "illegal" but very few are chasing after people who are "breaking the law" in the rom world (for the sake of this discussion let's keep it to stuff that the original Xbox can play or anything prior)

 

It's a double standard and a huge hypocrisy. I've yet to hear a valid argument as to whom it actually "hurts" other than perhaps moral objections that I heavily disagree with.

 

unless it is someone who blatantly makes a profit from it, I don't pick nits. those of us who obtain software for personal use and don't impead software devs from making a living, I just don't see a problem. And if it's software that is for obsolete platforms, then I actually think it helps the industry rather than hurts it.

 

 

Most of us, I'm sure you're probably one... buy a shitload of games (and hardware) every year and find ourselves buying some games more than once on diffeeent platforms (fuck you Nintendo). Emulation is why we have seen such a huge spike in everything retro. Had retro games been allowed to die, they would have been forgotten save a few "legal" greatest hits compilations or reissues.

 

Like I was saying, it's 2016. We don't "need" private torrents for this shit anymore when places like MEGA.nz exist. (That being said I do love a good private torrent)

 

It's a new world and roms or readily available in at least a dozen prominent websites and none of them seem to have legal issues that keep them from serving up the classic game love. Many of them have been around for years, some are newer.

 

I think the game companies could get together and start a server for folks that would have a fee like MEGA does or any of the others and do it all legally and it would make a profit if they had the right people working on it and a team to go out and shut down any for profit file servers but to do that you would have to hire people like us and I've not gotten my phone call, have you? I know there are services like steam but we need something that lets us do our thing however we wish to do it without restriction

 

/steps off soapbox and relinquishes thread from the grips of off-topic-aholicism

Edited by Mark Wolfe
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Well I think I'll stay away from that one. :lol: Only to say one thing.. Nintendo seems to be the only one that actively pursues distribution of ROMs for their older systems.

 

Moving on.. a couple things I forgot to mention. There is a pretty decent size community for CO so it is pretty easy to find various "sets" for all of the different systems it supports. The people who work on those sets do somehow manage to get along with BP well enough to be able to work with him. Although I do know of one person who did a large amount of the console setup for him in return for something that BP never delivered on.

 

I also forgot to mention that he added launch support for numerous xbox homebrews like doom, duke nukem, openbor, etc. As well as a handful of xbox games to make for a decent launch point to access all of that stuff.

 

Believe me asaki... BP is a special breed of difficult. Pretty much none of the devs in the xbox community get along with him. He has pretty much alienated every single one of them. The person who does support him (hands him drivers for the arcade games) is not an xbox developer but moreso a developer for the PC side of things.

Edited by Shannon
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