Emulation central - recommendations in 1st post

[newtmonkey]

I know people tend to prefer playing PS2 on PCSX2 these days, and PCSX2 has EXCELLENT compatibility. However, here's a fun option/project if you want to play on original hardware (PS2 slim) plugged into your giant ass living room TV, with no worries about emulation inaccuracies for whatever obscure game you want to play. Here, we use a Raspberry Pi 3 (NOT 4) to function as an external hard drive (i.e. emulating the optical drive of the PS2) to load ISOs from your PS2.

1. Get a Raspberry Pi 3 (must be 3 and NOT 4) and a 256 GB USB stick.
2. Get FreeMcBoot on a PS2 memory card one way or another (you can buy one on Ebay for 10-20 USD SHIPPED on Ebay, and it will open up a world of opportunity for your PS2). Plug this into slot 2 of your PS2.
3. Load your USB memory stick up with as many PS2 ISOs you can find; DVD games in a folder called "DVD" and CD games in a folder called "CD"... use a tool called OPL Manager (https://oplmanager.com/site/) to rename your ISOs so that they will be recognized and also to download cover art for all your games.
4. Write the psx-pi-smbshare (https://github.com/toolboc/psx-pi-smbshare) image to the SD card you'll put in your Raspberry Pi. This is a customized version of Raspbian.
5. Plug your raspberry Pi into the LAN port of your PS2 with a LAN cable.
6. Launch Open Playstation Loader from FreeMcBoot, configure the network settings as described in the psx-pi-smbshare instructions at the site in step 3. Save settings.
7. If you did everything right, you'll get a menu of all your ISOs. Enjoy!

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

(I do this every 4-5 years).

Decade would be enough.

Soul Hackers was the smoothest running 3DS SMT for me, possibly tied with SJR.

Soul Hackers works smoothly without slowdowns on my computer.

I can play SMT4(A) at full speed with exception of shopping districts and last dungeon of Apocalypse, SJRedux runs witouth a single problem but Soul Fuckers turns into crawl during Vision Quest of Urabe. CPU is Ryzen 5 2600, 8 GB RAM.

Damn, it one off the very few of worthwile SMT titles I haven't finished yet. I wish someone just translated PSX or Saturn port.

 

[aweigh]

u probably just need more ram maybe? 3ds emulator in general is extremely well-performing. Very good emu.

maybe try one of the other builds that don't use MINGW, i forget their name. There's different builds that use different build methods and provide different performance on different games.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

I remember playing SH to completion about two years ago without any issues. Indeed it was one of the less demanding 3DS games to emulate. While I remember the slowdowns of SMTIVA ending levels (it was unplayable on older PC).
Maybe this is another case of citra regression? I am starting to have problems with some games that I have already played without issues few years ago. An infamous case of regression is Devil Survivor 1. It was perfectly playable in older citra versions, while now it doesn't even start the game. Another case is the Alliance Alive that I stopped playing a year ago, and that I restarted recently. Now it has annoying graphics glitches that were not present a year ago. I found also other games that I tried recently, which are completely umplayabke due to graphics glitches, while on the official site were tagged as "perfect" by more than one user.

 

[Puukko]

Yeah the end game of IVA is demanding, I tried speed boosting through it cuz it's a shit dungeon but to no avail since 100% speed was all my CPU could handle.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

Maybe this is another case of citra regression? I

I haven't try olders build, thanks for advice!

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

On early 2018 build is faster indead but still no full speed during Vision Quest and combat, I have found only one topic with similar issue- guy has AMD processor as well, maybe that's the cause?

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Portal Roms has been axed.
RIP

But I've been able to get all of the torrent files of this website. So anyone wanting them just PM me.
It's quite light actually, just 55Mb.



Although does anyone know of any other trusty Rom websites?

EDIT:

all of the torrent files of this website

Scratch that. I distinctly remember getting the DeS and Ninja Gaiden Sigma torrent from here, but apparentely they aren't in the folder.
Oh well, it's quite a big library of torrents.

 

[Puukko]

3DSISO also went down. I've found Rutracker to be a good source, they have ROM collections with prepatched games, undub projects and the like.

 

[lightbane]

But I've been able to get all of the torrent files of this website. So anyone wanting them just PM me.
It's quite light actually, just 55Mb.

That's a shame, I always wanted to check that webpage. Which consoles has roms for? Can you pass me said PM so that I can check, please?

 

[flyingjohn]

3DSISO also went down. I've found Rutracker to be a good source, they have ROM collections with prepatched games, undub projects and the like.

Rutracker is a treasure trove for pc eroge and anime games.
I can't believe they are still seeding 20 year old obscure japanese games.

 

[Baron Dupek]

HODE (Heart of Darkness Engine) ported to PSP.
Currently on Vita and Switch.

 

[Puukko]

Came across a weird issue in Beetle PSX HW on Retroarch. I was a few hours into Chrono Cross CD2 when I restarted the emulator. Loading either CD would only list my saves from before the disc swap a few hours prior, which shouldn't even exist since I've overwritten them all. I had one save state from CD2 but whenever I tried exiting the area it would just give me a black screen with music playing. What I had to do was load CD1, enter the in game disc swap prompt, load CD2, then load the save state after which it would let me continue as normally and I only lost 10 mins of progress as opposed to some 3 hours. I don't know how to avoid this and have it detect my CD2 saves properly after restart, so I guess I'll have to be extra careful and make sure I have save states I can rely on.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Came across a weird issue in Beetle PSX HW on Retroarch. I was a few hours into Chrono Cross CD2 when I restarted the emulator. Loading either CD would only list my saves from before the disc swap a few hours prior, which shouldn't even exist since I've overwritten them all. I had one save state from CD2 but whenever I tried exiting the area it would just give me a black screen with music playing. What I had to do was load CD1, enter the in game disc swap prompt, load CD2, then load the save state after which it would let me continue as normally and I only lost 10 mins of progress as opposed to some 3 hours. I don't know how to avoid this and have it detect my CD2 saves properly after restart, so I guess I'll have to be extra careful and make sure I have save states I can rely on.

Maybe it is due to the fact that retroarch creates a different memcard/save file for each cd? I would check the save files in the retroarch folder (or where it usually saves)

 

[Puukko]

Came across a weird issue in Beetle PSX HW on Retroarch. I was a few hours into Chrono Cross CD2 when I restarted the emulator. Loading either CD would only list my saves from before the disc swap a few hours prior, which shouldn't even exist since I've overwritten them all. I had one save state from CD2 but whenever I tried exiting the area it would just give me a black screen with music playing. What I had to do was load CD1, enter the in game disc swap prompt, load CD2, then load the save state after which it would let me continue as normally and I only lost 10 mins of progress as opposed to some 3 hours. I don't know how to avoid this and have it detect my CD2 saves properly after restart, so I guess I'll have to be extra careful and make sure I have save states I can rely on.

Maybe it is due to the fact that retroarch creates a different memcard/save file for each cd? I would check the save files in the retroarch folder (or where it usually saves)

Hmm indeed, I do have two .srms. Did they really think this one through? Multi disc games are hardly uncommon.

 

[spekkio]

It's a toggle in core options (shared memory card). But yeah - playing multi disc games requires some skill in RA.
But normal people quicksavescum anyway, so they don't care about "console" saves.

 

[Goi~Yaas~Dinn]

I only quicksave if the game has no save option to begin with.

 

[Alpan]

Hi, I'm interested in playing NieR (2010) at some point. I have no PS3, and even if I did have one it would be very difficult for me to get a copy of the game where I live.

I use emulators to play SNES and Amiga games, and I have never emulated a modern console before. Can I play that game with RPCS3? Can I use my Xbox One controller with it?

I checked the compatibility list, but still felt like asking in case someone had first-hand experience. Sorry for the newbie questions.

 

[Abu Antar]

It should be no problem to play Nier on RPCS3. Never used an Xbox controller with it, but I don't see why that wouldn't work.

 

[Puukko]

Any controller works fine, just that you have to mentally map the physical controller buttons to the ingame ones.

 

[spekkio]

BROS. Just a heads up for Avast users trying to emulate Xinput via x360ce. Latest update of Avast's Behavior Shield breaks x360 compatibility. You won't be able to configure the emulator (x360ce.exe) at all:

You have to disable this shield to launch the exe:

OFC adding the exe / directory to the list of Exceptions doesn't work and the Shield does not log its activities (the way File Shield does, moving suspected files to shitbox and stuff).

Only disabling the Behavior Shield works. Or uninstalling Avast...

Naturally figuring this shit out took me some sweet time...

 

[spekkio]

Update: This shit also fucks up some installers. Esp. old ones:

Uninstalled shield, if problems persist, will uninstall Avast...

 

[lightbane]

^Isn't that one in GOG and thus allegedly fixed already?

 

[Miner 2049er]

PS2/PCSX2:

After years the translation for Berwick Saga is completed. https://forums.serenesforest.net/in...erwick-saga-translation-translation-finished/
A 2D fire emblem like game from Shōzō Kaga (First 5 FE games). Thanks to everybody involved. I'm having a blast.

 

[aweigh]

wtf why would anyone use Avast software?

...or even use an AV ?? that's something grandpas do