What's the most impressive emulation you have seen?

[dumpster]

Emulation has always been of interest to me, with perfect emulation of a classic console always being the goal. But the goalposts have moved as emulators become more impressive and the host systems become more powerful.  Emulators can go above and beyond the original hardware and some games run under emulation in ways far and beyond how they ran back in their day.  Digital Foundry recently did a video demonstrating a powerful PC emulating Metal Gear Solid 4 for the PS3, running in 4K.  It looks amazing but also it looks like a current gen game.  

 

Then there are the HD texture packs for older games.  The game runs under emulation but the graphics are replaced with modern day redrawn textures.  The best example I have seen is the Resident Evil 4 HD project which transforms the original base game. 

 

I've been blown away by how similar Burnout Revenge for PS2 and 360 are when running on the series X/S consoles. The PS2 game is so similar to the Xbox 360 game, despite the 360 version being genuine HD while the PS2 game is SD upscaled.  And the PS2 version of Burnout 2 is the ultimate way to play it if you play it on a Xbox Series.

 

But for me the most impressive thing I've seen is the PSP emulator for the Oculus Quest 2.  It takes the 2D handheld PSP game and upscales the graphics to HD and 4K.  But then it lets you play in genuine 3D, rendering environments for each eye.  But then it also lets you play in a VR world. Different combinations of these options give different results from game to game.  But Split Second for PSP on a large screen in 3D is great fun with crashes and explosions leaping out of the screen.  And Ridge Racer 2 works brilliantly in both VR and 3D mode together.  Use an interior car view and switch of the HUD and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were playing a genuine Namco product designed for the VR. 

 

So what have you seen that impressed you in the world of emulation?   

 

 

[robdood]

I think the MiSTer project is just mind-blowing, from a nerdy, tech perspective. 

 

https://www.polygon.com/22640171/mister-project-classic-gaming-retro-fpga-board-chip-io-explainer-usb-hub

 

Emulating hardware THAT accurately is just nuts and cool and I'm here for it. 

[dataDave]

MiSTer.

 

After 25 years of fucking around with emulation that's a very easy answer. The amount of "tinkering" required to get one set up and configured is massively exaggerated, compared to say RetroArch or Raspberry Pi or pretty much anything else.

[Qazimod]

It's probably "most impressive recently" rather than "most impressive ever", but I kind of admire what's been achieved with Fightcade and its integration with FinalBurn and the like. In the dark ages of IP swapping and Kaillera the idea of netplay with emulators was still a bit niche, but I feel like things blew up with GGPO and Fightcade. It was especially useful when the pandemic affected tournament attendance and people were looking for reliable online solutions. I guess I'm impressed with its staying power - lots of other netplay tech kind of disappeared into obsolescence but it seems like I can tune into a stream of a classic fighter and they're using Fightcade.  

[Monkeyspill]

This is quite impressive for the hardware:

 

 

[Dimahoo]

 I think MiSTer will be my next purchase. 

[PikaStu]

The emulators in VR are awesome. When the PSP launched, if someone told you that in 15ish years you’d be playing those same games in VR, you’d slap them silly. Really impressive!

 

UltraHLE back in 1998/99, running hi-res Mario 64 on my PC. That was unbelievable!

 

I’d love a MiSTer connected to my Sony CRT but I can’t see that happening, crazy expensive 😢

[Siri]

PGXP correction methods on Duckstation is pretty neat, as is any team providing translation patches to obscure videogames that never saw the light of day in the West.

 

Edit: shit, I forgot about the amazing work that's been done on PCEm. Really nice virtualization of PC hardware, including that 90s era where Voodoo 3DFX stuff was the norm and had different rendering to what it's like today.

 

Also, if we're talking about FPGA solutions, there's also room for discussion about compatibility layers doing wonders for PC games - of course, there's a certain device that's made possible because of them.

[PikaStu]

57 minutes ago, Siri said:

 

 

Edit: shit, I forgot about the amazing work that's been done on PCEm. Really nice virtualization of PC hardware, including that 90s era where Voodoo 3DFX stuff was the norm and had different rendering to what it's like today.

 

Oh I’ve never heard of this?! Running this with a CRT monitor would be amazing and far less fiddly than setting up an old PC!

[ScouserInExile]

12 hours ago, dataDave said:

MiSTer.

 

After 25 years of fucking around with emulation that's a very easy answer. The amount of "tinkering" required to get one set up and configured is massively exaggerated, compared to say RetroArch or Raspberry Pi or pretty much anything else.

I keep thinking I should pop into the MiSTer thread and ask this, but now seems a good time for it: what's the entry price point for MiSTer? If I wanted a basic setup that I could hook up to a TV,  plug a controller into and get going, how much would that cost? And what can it emulate at that basic level?

[ZOK]

It’s a pity @Gorf King isn’t here any more, because the title of this thread works perfectly in time with the opening of his gorgeous track Goodbye Tennessee, and I think he’d like that:

 

 

[bear]

For me it was probably getting NES and Megadrive emulators working on the Ngage QD. I'm sure the quality of the emulation wasn't up to much but getting Super Mario Bros running on my phone without a load of messing aboout felt like the most futuristic thing ever. 

[Kevvy Metal]

MiSTer by a country mile. It won't support anything chronologically post PS1/Saturn but everything is does is basically close to perfect replication. 

 

43 minutes ago, ScouserInExile said:

I keep thinking I should pop into the MiSTer thread and ask this, but now seems a good time for it: what's the entry price point for MiSTer? If I wanted a basic setup that I could hook up to a TV,  plug a controller into and get going, how much would that cost? And what can it emulate at that basic level?

 

The MiSter thread could do with a couple of build suggestions. But imo, there's an argument that the DE10 Nano plus a set of accessories from https://misterfpga.co.uk/ is kind of a necessity that shouldn't be compromised on. 

The DE10 Nano is the actual board that you need and it's gone up in price to around £240. 
You save a few pounds going for a digital I/O but imo you should just get the analog out as one day you might want to use it with a CRT. 

The whole thing is around £440 I'd say. Totally worth it.  

[dataDave]

1 hour ago, ScouserInExile said:

I keep thinking I should pop into the MiSTer thread and ask this, but now seems a good time for it: what's the entry price point for MiSTer? If I wanted a basic setup that I could hook up to a TV,  plug a controller into and get going, how much would that cost? And what can it emulate at that basic level?

 

https://www.misterfpga.co.uk

 

You want a Terasic DE10-Nano before anything else. You can emulate a number of systems with just this alone. 

It has onboard ethernet, although I find the little WiFi dongle for a tenner does away with the need for a bulky/ugly cable sticking out the front all the time.

128MB SDRAM module. You can compromise here, but the 128MB one will cover all of the beefy NeoGeo and GBA ROMs)

Mean Well PSU. HIGHLY recommended. The included AC lead was not designed for a MiSTer stack.

The copper heatsink cooler. You can get a generic £3 heatsink instead of this one at £9. Or you can risk long-term wear on the chip by going without.

Analog I/O board for the buttons and VGA/analog output if you have a CRT. I went with the Noctua fan build because it was a few quid extra. You actually don't need any I/O board at all if you don't want a fan or physical buttons, as the DE10 has a HDMI port.

USB hub board. You can use a generic USB hub if you prefer a mess of cables.

A reputable SD card. Or any old SD card if you value a few quid over potentially hours of organising SD contents multiple times.

An enclosure or perspex top and bottom plates to get started. These are not required, but I don't like seeing dust build up on bare components.

 

You can find the above from https://www.misterfpga.co.uk

 

That's everything I started with, and that's still everything I have to date almost two years on (excluding controllers, adapters, external DAC and headphone amp).

 

 

 

[PikaStu]

@dataDaveI have to ask, what’s the beautiful little tube amp on the right?

[Vimster]

3 hours ago, Siri said:

Edit: shit, I forgot about the amazing work that's been done on PCEm. Really nice virtualization of PC hardware, including that 90s era where Voodoo 3DFX stuff was the norm and had different rendering to what it's like today.

 

What are the main differences between PCEm and DOSbox? Is it easier to set up and use?

[Kevvy Metal]

It's also super easy and streamlined to set up now. 
An intial install of MiSTer to the DE-10 Nano using the Mr. Fusion script - https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/mr-fusion

Followed by copying over the Update-All script - https://github.com/theypsilon/Update_All_MiSTer

and running that is all you need to do to get MiSTer on the go. 

[MW_Jimmy]

Perhaps not as technical as other answers here - but I am regularly playing Phantasy Star Online on private servers, and across hardware generations. I have the game running on WiiU emulating Wii emulating GameCube and GameCube Broadband Adapter.

 

I've also applied a number of hacks to display in progressive scan and proper wide-screen (originally only 4:3) and QOL changes such as a vastly expanded quick item select (from 6 to 24) and a doubling of the items you can store in the bank. Also the server hosts every single online quest that ever existed and folks have designed brand new quests from scratch.

 

Recently the community has figured out how to solve the Xbox Live protocols protection and so, Xbox players can now play online with Nintendo players.

[dataDave]

2 hours ago, PikaStu said:

@dataDaveI have to ask, what’s the beautiful little tube amp on the right?

 

It's just a generic 'One Little Bear' headphone amp I found off of AliExpress. It cost around €50.

 

 

The onboard DAC on the DE10 is rubbish if you want to extract analog audio to headphones or old speakers, hence my external DAC setup. Digital audio through either the HDMI or optical out is fine. The amp provides a little extra juice while also adding some warmth to the tone. This works with the MiSTer's 4-8kHz low-pass filters marvelously. Playing Final Fight sounds like someone's bent an old arcade cabinet into the shape of headphones and put them on my head.

[PikaStu]

It looks awesome, thanks!

[Colonel Panic]

Mister connected to an arcade cabinet is another great usage. I know a PC with GroovyMame can achieve the same thing, but this is so much simpler. 
 

 

[Giddas]

I recently bought a Mister from AliExpress (RetroCastle Store) fully configured for £365 all inclusive.

 

Ordered on 27 October & received on 12th November.

 

 

[Siri]

51 minutes ago, Vimster said:

What are the main differences between PCEm and DOSbox? Is it easier to set up and use?

 

My understanding is that it's the same case scenario as emulators Vs FPGA, although in this case both are using the same hardware to achieve different goals. DOSBox basically interprets DOS software to work correctly on modern PCs, while PCEm creates an environment to pretend to be period-accurate hardware. Neither methods are particularly accurate, but they do things differently to one another.

 

DOSBox is better if you want to just slam in a game and play - PCEm needs you to create a virtual drive, and then install Windows or DOS to get started even before you install/play games. However, that does mean PCEm can pretend to be things that DOSBox might not be able to do right, like 3DFX Glide and such.

[Vimster]

26 minutes ago, Siri said:

 

My understanding is that it's the same case scenario as emulators Vs FPGA, although in this case both are using the same hardware to achieve different goals. DOSBox basically interprets DOS software to work correctly on modern PCs, while PCEm creates an environment to pretend to be period-accurate hardware. Neither methods are particularly accurate, but they do things differently to one another.

 

DOSBox is better if you want to just slam in a game and play - PCEm needs you to create a virtual drive, and then install Windows or DOS to get started even before you install/play games. However, that does mean PCEm can pretend to be things that DOSBox might not be able to do right, like 3DFX Glide and such.

So fi you're up for some hot CONFIG.SYS-editing action it's PCEm.

[Siri]

45 minutes ago, Vimster said:

So fi you're up for some hot CONFIG.SYS-editing action it's PCEm.

 

Pretty much, yeah. It's also magnitudes more resource heavy than DOSBox - the Ryzen computer that gobbles up power in my place can just about pretend to be a 240mhz Pentium MMX with a Voodoo 3 Card. Although at least once you set up one Windows 98 SE drive, you can just clone it infinitely so it's like you have a fresh PC for every game 

[dataDave]

2 hours ago, MW_Jimmy said:

Perhaps not as technical as other answers here - but I am regularly playing Phantasy Star Online on private servers, and across hardware generations. I have the game running on WiiU emulating Wii emulating GameCube and GameCube Broadband Adapter.

 

I've also applied a number of hacks to display in progressive scan and proper wide-screen (originally only 4:3) and QOL changes such as a vastly expanded quick item select (from 6 to 24) and a doubling of the items you can store in the bank. Also the server hosts every single online quest that ever existed and folks have designed brand new quests from scratch.

 

Recently the community has figured out how to solve the Xbox Live protocols protection and so, Xbox players can now play online with Nintendo players.

 

I wouldn't mind a piece of this action myself. I've never played PSO (but did play PSU a ton).

 

Can I set this up on my regular CFW'd Wii?

[Fry Crayola]

2 hours ago, MW_Jimmy said:

I have the game running on WiiU emulating Wii emulating GameCube and GameCube Broadband Adapter.

 

I had thought that was all hardware support rather than emulation.

[Uncle Nasty]

Me downloading an entire NeoGeo Romset from Usenet on a 56k modem in 1998 and getting them to run on a G3 Powermac was pretty impressive, I'd say.

[MW_Jimmy]

2 hours ago, Fry Crayola said:

 

I had thought that was all hardware support rather than emulation.

 

Hardware emulation is still emulation 😉

 

It's a mixture of the native emulation and various tools that make it all work - the BBA adapter isn't recognised by the native emulator on Wii and WiiU doesn't take physical GC discs. And all the server stuff is emulating defunct servers right?

 

@dataDave Yes absolutely! Head over to here for instructions on setup:

 

https://schtserv.com/forums/app.php/pso-gc-connection-guide?sid=30e088e35c907e55bddef8feb80932a0

 

There are plenty of players online but they do tend to be higher levels so if you want to team up once you have the hang of things let me know!

[Fry Crayola]

6 minutes ago, MW_Jimmy said:

Hardware emulation is still emulation 😉

 

Yes, but was it emulation in the Wii? I had just thought it was like the PS1 support on the PS2, entirely native.

 

In any case, my favourite emulation isn't really emulation either, as it's the Xbox's terrific BC support.