Emulation

What are your thoughts on the current emulation scene on iOS? Since Apple does not allow emus to be published on the app store, you will have to go through the tough process of either jailbreaking or sideloading with tools such as AltStore.

At the moment I know that Provenance is a frontend for multiple emulators similar to Retroarch, which is really useful considering with a normal apple account you can only side load 3 apps, including AltStore itself. Though I would still love to know other emus available for iOS

Panda3DS is still in the early stages of development. Many games boot, many don't. Most games have at least some hilariously broken graphics, audio is not supported, performance leaves a bit to be desired mainly thanks to lack of shader acceleration, and most QoL features (including a GUI) are missing.

Just saw that Gary is back home and thought some people might support him after the work he's done for the Switch scene.

Looking for opinions on what the best best front-end is for emulating. Preferably something that can be easily used with a controller.

Recently installed launch box on Windows and it’s alright but not sure if I want to pay for big box.

Excuse the bad quality, trying to snap a photo of a crt is a Royal PITA.

Mednafen set for full accuracy with no scaling or anything to the crt. Next steps either a better crt, mister fpga or a modded ps1. Will take a while.

This is pretty big for people with Mali phones. Switch emulation on Android is looking more and more viable!

One of the only games I'm really playing and not just collecting for the sake of collecting games is GTA Chinatown Wars on PPSSPP. Such a great game!

Thought I'd share this list as it contains many emus I've not heard of before and I'd love to hear people's reviews on any folks have tried.

I have a Retroid Pocket 3+ and am looking for a controller to use while it’s plugged into the TV. I have been using an old Japanese DualShock 4, but the functions of the AY and BX buttons are swapped and there’s some intolerable input lag happening.

I hear the 8bitdo SN30 Pro is really good, but the Pro 2’s PlayStation-esque design appeals to me more. I just don’t know if there’s reason it’s not as recommended as the SN30 Pro.

Any recommendations? I’m open to anything.

Mednafen is worth a go if you're looking for a lightweight set of emulators to run your dumped carts.

Edit: I'm going to leave this here, but fyi this tutorial is also in a magazine I created on Kbin for Retroid users. (!retroid@kbin.social)

NOTE: This is a tutorial a made for r/retroid on Reddit. I am migrating it here.

Open the Mupen64Plus FZ emulator from android (not from the [retroid] launcher):

Step 1A: (In Perfect Dark)

• Bring up pause menu, scroll to Options > Control
• Set Control Style to "2.4 (Two-Handed)"
• Reverse Pitch: [OFF]
• Exit the game

Step 1B: (In GoldenEye)

• Start a mission and bring up the pause menu.
• Change control style to "2.4 Goodhead"
• Next tab over, set Look Up/Down to "Upright"
• Exit the game

NOTE: If the games don’t allow you to change to 2.4, it’s likely because the is emulator is acting like there’s only one controller connected. If so, just do these steps (1A, 1B) last. It’s tricker to do after changing the controller profiles for the game, but it’s possible.

Step 2: (Mupen's Main Menu)

• Access Settings > Profiles > Controller > +NEW
• Name: “PD Left” or something you remember. Map the following...
• Z: L2 (and/or L1, if that’s more comfortable for you)
• S: Start
• A: B
• B: Y
• Analog R/L/U/D: (Use your Right stick)

Step 3: (Make a second one)

• Settings > Profiles > Controller > +NEW
• Name: “PD Right” or something you remember. Map the following...
• Z: R2 (and/or R1)
• S: Select
• A: A (Optional)
• B: X (Optional)
• Analog R/L/U/D: (Use your Left stick)

Step 4: (Return to Mupen game select menu)

• Select GoldenEye (Don't launch game) > Scroll to Settings > Controller
• Controller 1 Profile: PD Left
• Controller 2 Profile: PD Right
• Share Controller: Yes
• Return to game select menu and repeat steps for Perfect Dark.

Now just those two games games should have a more traditional dual-analog setup. Launch one of the games and see if anything else needs tinkering or toggling to better suit your personal play style.

NOTE: Crouching in game is now done by holding the left trigger and pulling back on the left stick. (Unless you’re holding a sniper rifle)

Good luck!

Edit: I'm going to leave this here, but fyi this tutorial is also in a magazine I created on Kbin for Retroid users. (!retroid@kbin.social)

NOTE: I joined Lemmy yesterday and this is my very first post. It is a guide I made for r/retroid on reddit. I'm migrating it here because I might be removing my post history from reddit soon and I think this guide should be kept around. Since I'm new to Lemmy, if there's something I'm doing poorly with regards to posting, don't hesitate to let me know so I can improve.

Disclaimer: I’m not a coder, I just took the time to hunt down some instructions on various [reddit] threads and put them together. Feel free to comment if you have a better method. (Better yet, if anyone knows how to somehow turn this into a handy-dandy Siri shortcut, that would be outstanding!!)

.chd is a lossless compression format. It can better preserve the quality of things like audio while still saving a lot of storage space. There are tools available on Windows that will allow you to compress bin/cue and iso files to chd easily, but not so much on Mac at the moment, so here’s my attempt to lend a hand until there is.

Anyhoo, here’s the guide.

——

Install Homebrew to your Mac by opening terminal and typing in the following:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

It’ll prompt for your admin password. Just type it out and press enter. I didn’t see anything get typed out, but it worked anyway.

It’ll ask you if you want to install, so hit enter to approve and wait it out.

When finished, type out:

brew install rom-tools

If it fails, it’s because (congratulations!) you are a proud owner of an apple silicon Mac! Try this fix (which was mentioned in this thread. )

While still in terminal, type:

cd /opt/homebrew/bin/

enter, then:

export PATH=$PATH:/opt/homebrew/bin

enter, then:

cd ~/

enter, then:

touch .zshrc

enter, then:

echo export PATH=$PATH:/opt/homebrew/bin >> .zshrc

enter. You should be able to install rom-tools now, which includes CHDMAN: (Same as before…)

brew install rom-tools

Now you should be ready to convert bin/cue files to CHD, and this is how I did it.

In terminal, run this script (which I pulled from an old reddit thread):

#!/bin/bash echo "Will proccess files on directory: $1" cd $1 for i in */*.cue; do chdman createcd -i "$i" -o "${i%.*}.chd"; done echo "All done"

When you run it for the first time, MacOS will ask you for permissions to a bunch of directories. I just said “yeah man, I wanna do it”, and gave it carte blanch. I had a bunch of bin/cue files in my Downloads folder and this script just found and converted them in the same directory.

If you want to convert .iso files, run the same script but use “.iso” instead of “.cue”

——

Platforms I know that can use CHD files on retroid include PS1, PS2, Sega CD, Saturn, and Dreamcast. I hope this guide works for you.

Good luck!

Chris Cool Mod's four terabyte emulation system is a comprehensive and immersive retro gaming experience. Packed with a wide range of games and consoles, including handhelds, arcade games, and popular systems like Xbox, Sega Saturn, and PS2, the system offers easy navigation and controller compatibility. It also provides game manuals, magazines, and various themes, enhancing the overall experience. Despite its complexity compared to plug-and-play devices, the build stands out for its customization, extensive game selection, and high-quality performance. It is regarded as a strong contender among similar products in the market.

Gitlab

Some highlights of the project:

• No need to install an emulator or wine to run your games, they are downloaded as appimages and packaged with the game.
• Each game config/saves are in the same folder as the appimage by default (it can be changed to use global ~/.config). Which simplifies backups, e.g., my-appimaged-game.AppImage has a config folder with the name .my-appimaged-game.AppImage.config
• Get your game running with a double click on a fresh linux install, no dependencies required.
• Smaller file sizes than loose files, since appimage uses squashfs.
• Screenshot taken with thunar file manager.
• Project developed by u/theformigoni

Welcome inbound reddit folk, now that we have patient gaming up and running, time to dust off a catch all emulation sub!

Playing Zelda: ToTK right now myself, about to set up another folder in Syncthing so that I can have cloud saves between my deck, main PC, and living room PC.

After that I have Xenoblade 3 scheduled.