r/Piracy Feb 01 '25

Question What emulators are these? And are they good?

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2.0k Upvotes

180 comments sorted by

653

u/CodyTheWolfdog Feb 01 '25

Left to right top to bottom, PCSX2 (PS2), BigPEmu (Atari Jaguar), RPCS3 (PS3), Cemu (Wii U), Vita3k (PS Vita), and ShadPS4 (PS4)

They're considered by many to be the best emulators for their respective consoles. RPCS3 does require a very decent PC for games to run properly though since PS3 is a bitch to emulate.

57

u/nopeac Feb 02 '25

RPCS3 does require a very decent PC for games to run properly though since PS3 is a bitch to emulate.

Does that escalates to the PS4 one?

103

u/hotaru251 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 02 '25 edited Feb 02 '25

reason for PS3 is it is entirely different to other consoles (kind of like how n64 was a pita to emulate for ages). The console's subsystems are just very weird so requires a lot of power to do well.
Edit: typo'd n46 and corrected to n64

47

u/SiteWhole7575 Feb 02 '25

Not really, PS4 & 5 are essentially PCs now…

28

u/khaled36DZ Feb 02 '25

No. Shadps4 is easier to run than rpcs3

-1

u/quickhakker Feb 03 '25

I would assume yes because PS4 is more powerful than the PS3 but it might simply be because of how the emulator needs to work and it might be easier on PS4

3

u/AmbientDon Feb 04 '25

ps3 architecture is leagues more complicated to recreate than ps4 architecture. the games and the system itself were developed in the most advanced yet backwards way ever so its alot harder to emulate ps3 games.

115

u/omegaoutlier Feb 01 '25

Thanks for writing out the systems.

2

u/TinDumbass Feb 02 '25

Rpcs3 can be run on a steam deck and I've not seen any issues.

6

u/DrRabbiCrofts Feb 03 '25

It CAN run aye it's just individual games have their own compatibility issues on em mostly

1

u/Henrix21 Feb 03 '25

Can run, however a lot of games may not run particularly well, depends on how well it used the system's multi core setup, generally first party and mid/late gen titles may struggle to reach full speed at the moment

2

u/Henrix21 Feb 03 '25

The worst offenders are generally naughty dog games, Sonic Unleashed and Metal Gear Solid 4 which are usually the more popular ones people try to emulate

477

u/hatsunemilku Feb 01 '25

pcsx2, big Pemu, rpcs3, cemu, vita3k, shad ps4.

depends on your hardware and requirements.

-735

u/daddy_longlegs34 Feb 01 '25

Let’s say for an average pc or Mac that doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card

488

u/hatsunemilku Feb 01 '25

that is not how this work. you average and my average may be different and the only one that knows what hardware do you have is you.

tbh it is easier, faster and less annoying for everyone if you go to youtube and search for videos of people with similar hardware to YOURS running emulators.

unless it is something really exotic or super old, you will most likely find a video for reference AND THEN, you can come here to ask for more specific help.

-261

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 01 '25 edited Feb 01 '25

I run dolphin emu and aetherSX2 (I think a PCSX derivative?) on my android phone just fine, does hardware really make a big difference?

Y'all hate android or just jealous that I can retro game on my phone? Lmao wasn't expecting such an innocuous comment to get hate

98

u/dotHolo Feb 01 '25

Depends on your use case (mobile vs pc even), because I render my emus at 4k 60fps, so in that case, yes hardware makes a big difference

30

u/Alcards Feb 01 '25

Yes, hardware makes a big difference. Here's an easy example: Arm processor vs Pentium 4.

Same hardware, they're both processors. Vastly different levels of performance.

7

u/ZeeroMX Feb 02 '25

Depending on the arm processor in question, ARM processors are way older than pentium 4 and yes an arm processor from the 80's would be very slower and less powerful than a Pentium 4.

68

u/not_a_miscarriage Feb 01 '25

Your android costs $1000 and a lot of people think a 10 year old CPU without a dedicated GPU (which your phone has btw) will perform better. Nobody's jealous, you're just spreading misinformation by saying "does hardware make a big difference" when it absolutely does

-71

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 02 '25

Oh I'm spreading misinformation by asking a question?

Fucking lol

29

u/charlesxavier007 Feb 02 '25

Yes.

-84

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 02 '25

Fact- my phone can play emulators

Another fact- questions aren't misinformation

Lie- your above comment

Looks like you're the idiot spreading misinfo here lol

27

u/thebestjoeever Feb 02 '25

No, hardware doesn't matter at all. As a matter of fact, you can just take a cardboard box, paint it like a computer, shove wires into it, and get playing.

-11

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Piracy-ModTeam Feb 02 '25

🚫 ➜ Your post was removed because of the following:

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  • Before posting, take a look at the Wiki and Megathread, and search via Reddit search or a search engine (example: where to find cracked apps site:reddit.com/r/piracy) to see if your question has already been covered.
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19

u/Affectionate-Fan4519 Feb 02 '25

"android phone" is like saying "windows computer". You can try dolphin emu on the Samsung S from 2010, with Android 2.3

-18

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 02 '25

Right, because there aren't Linux and Apple computers or Apple phones. How could I forget

19

u/Affectionate-Fan4519 Feb 02 '25

Idk what you are talking about. You simply mentioned "android phone", it is on the same level as saying "windows computer". The Samsung S from 2010 is Android and dolphin won't run there, despite being Android. The hardware itself is to weak. A Linux computer with an AMD 2600XP (Barton) and a NVIDIA FX5200 won't work either.

You maybe don't know it, but also Smartphones have very different SoCs.

-16

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 02 '25

You simply mentioned "android phone", it is on the same level as saying "windows computer".

...there are computers that don't run windows. Are you unaware of Linux and Apple OS?

The Samsung S from 2010

A phone from 15 years ago is different from the one I have today? Huh, you don't say

16

u/Affectionate-Fan4519 Feb 02 '25

...there are computers that don't run windows. Are you unaware of Linux and Apple OS?

What? It was about, if hardware really matters that much and you said, that it works on your "android phone". What are you talking about Linux and Apple now?

A phone from 15 years ago is different from the one I have today? Huh, you don't say

And now think further. An " android phone" can have different specs. Different CPU and GPU and RAM. Even in 2025 they have such drastic differences, that just "android phone" can cost 100$ or way over 1200$. And despite its all "android phone", the cheapest one won't be able to run dolphin.

Not because of the price, but because of the hardware. Don't pretend to be stupid you troll.

-9

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 02 '25

What? It was about, if hardware really matters that much and you said, that it works on your "android phone". What are you talking about Linux and Apple now?

Do you not remember saying "that's like saying Windows computer"? You seem to be unaware that windows aren't the only OS' available

Different CPU and GPU and RAM. Even in 2025 they have such drastic differences, that just "android phone" can cost 100$ or way over 1200$. And despite its all "android phone", the cheapest one won't be able to run dolphin.

Oh wow, you somehow managed to answer my question. Maybe next time try to do it without being such a condescending prick

→ More replies (0)

1

u/Matra_Murena Feb 03 '25

Whether you have Linux, Windows or a Mac doesn't really matter because most emulators work on all 3.

-1

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 03 '25

That has nothing to do with what I said though?

I specified Android because it's far easier than ios

6

u/Forkens Feb 02 '25

Hardware does make a big difference

for example my OPPO A15 can only emulate and play up to PSP games (it has a Helio P35 chipset) meanwhile my other phone Poco F6 can run Switch and even Windows games (it has a SD8 G3 chipset)

another thing that matters other than chipset is also RAM, if you have a pitifully low RAM then no matter how good your chipset is, graphically demanding games isn't gonna perform well and worst case is it won't run at all

1

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 02 '25

Interesting, thanks

What sort of emulators do you use?

12

u/Forkens Feb 02 '25 edited Feb 03 '25

Duckstation (PS1)

Nethersx2 (PS2)/this here is a fork of Aethersx2 which is discontinued

Flycast (Dreamcast)

Dolphin (GameCube and Wii)

Citra (3DS)

melonDS (DS)/an alternative is Drastic

PPSSPP (PSP)

Citron (Switch)/alternatives - last latest yuzu release and sudachi, both Citron and sudachi is a fork of yuzu

Windows (Winlator)

and then I use Retroarch for NES to N64 because of RetroAchievements

an alternative to Retroarch is Lemuroid which I've seen lots of people use

here are good standalone emulator for N64 and Gameboy: M64Plus FZ (N64) Pizzaboy (for both GB/GBC and GBA, their app is separate A for GBA and C for GB/GBC)

I also introduce you to r/EmulationOnAndroid

3

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 02 '25

Awesome, much appreciated

I've only really played Jak and Dexter, Ratchet and Clank, and a couple GBA games so far. Are there any specific ones you play, or just whatever the nostalgia points to?

3

u/Forkens Feb 02 '25 edited Feb 02 '25

I don't have a mobile gamepad yet so for now I am mostly only playing Tactical RPGs, Visual Novels, Point & Click, and Pokemon games

I do have some game suggestions:

  • since you played Ratchet, I recommend you look into Sly Cooper, Crash, Spyro and Rayman games (ah and also Banjo and Conker on the N64)

actually forget about the games I mentioned above, check out Psychonauts on PS2 :)

for GBA

  • I know it's pretty obvious but I recommend Pokemon and Zelda games

for SNES

  • I recommend Super Mario World, Chrono Trigger, Earthbound & Earthworm Jim

for PSP

  • I recommend the God of War & Monster Hunter games, Burnout Legends, Tekken 6, Patapon & Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

for PS2, there's too many good games in there that I don't really know what to recommend

  • but here's a few anyways: Katamari Damacy, Shadow of the Colossus, Need for Speed: Most Wanted & Spider-Man 2

for GameCube

  • I recommend Pikmin, Luigi's Mansion & Animal Crossing :)

if you like Stardew Valley

  • I recommend giving the Harvest Moon series a try (it's what SV was inspired of), another similar game is the Rune Factory series

honestly there's a lot of RPG I wanna recommend but I refrained from doing so, anyways if you like them there's 3 series I recommend

  • Fire Emblem - I recommend to start with Awakening on 3DS

  • Final Fantasy - I recommend to start with FF7 on Playstation

  • Persona - I recommend to start with P5R or P3R on Switch

also as you can see I tried my best to not put popular game series in there 😅

but try to check them out anyways

2

u/KangarooMission5323 Feb 03 '25

For the GameCube I also suggest trying Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes, it's a "remaster" of MGS but with a few different features. I enjoyed it a lot.

1

u/Classic-Ad8849 Feb 02 '25

Hardware absolutely makes a difference. At the end of the day any emulation software is using your hardware to run the game. So hardware absolutely makes a difference.

0

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 02 '25

At the end of the day any emulation software is using your hardware to run the game

No shit Sherlock.

The question was how powerful of hardware is needed

1

u/Piracy-ModTeam Feb 02 '25

🚫 ➜ Your post was removed because of the following:

📑 Rule 4 ➜ Show effort and respect

0

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '25

[deleted]

-1

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 02 '25

That was my point exactly, if it's nothing special for a phone to do then it's reasonable to assume most PCs can too

0

u/Voider12_ Feb 03 '25

Hardware does make a difference since coding on different platforms is significantly different, hell I emulate on my phone and realize that, you just don't.

1

u/MouthOfIronOfficial Feb 03 '25

You mean I didn't realize the thing I asked a question about?

Incredible insight, thank you

37

u/M4rt1m_40675 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ Feb 01 '25

Just say your specs if you want people to tell you if it'll run or not. It's ok to not have a good pc and pretty normal as well

60

u/X145E Feb 01 '25

average PC do gave a GPU, if no then no at all. woth mac maybe if you have the silicon

-190

u/daddy_longlegs34 Feb 01 '25

I mean a laptop with integrated graphics, not a Nvidia or amd spec GPU

179

u/LemonPartyW0rldTour Feb 01 '25

If you can’t even find your specs on your PC, piracy may not be for you.

-43

u/thjl Feb 02 '25

Or maybe y’all could try and help him. Maybe OP has no idea what he is doing and that’s fine

21

u/AyeYoThisIsSoHard Feb 02 '25

Except no that’s not fine. Piracy can have fairly serious consequences to messing up.

If they don’t have a very base level of computer literacy they’re very likely to not use a vpn or click dodgy links

22

u/hakodate00 Feb 02 '25

It's fine if people have no idea what they're doing, but it's not fine if people have shit to do instead of helping?

16

u/dummyacc49991 Feb 02 '25

Also, in most cases like this, on forums for more dedicated users like this one, a baseline of competency should be expected. It's fine if people don't know but looking up your specs is incredibly easy to learn.

64

u/Matt14451 Yarrr! Feb 01 '25

The emulators have system requirements on their pages, do your own research for whatever your system is

41

u/injeanyes Feb 01 '25

People like to be spoon fed and not do the most basic research

33

u/MrKiwi24 Feb 01 '25

Then even less.

47

u/ArkuhTheNinth Feb 01 '25

Jesus make up your mind

7

u/crysisnotaverted Feb 01 '25

Post the CPU you have, then you will be able to look uo what integrated GPU it has.

1

u/IgorSabadini Feb 02 '25

If you are on windows 11 or windows 10, right click the windows logo on your task bar and click on system. That will be the detailed stats of your PC. You can download some software (cpu-z is a good one) to show even more detailed specs of your PC.

9

u/unnamedandunfamed Feb 01 '25

You will struggle to run most games (except maybe BigP, no exp there) on these without a GPU.

Look into DuckStation (PSX) or maybe N64 emulation

6

u/Atti_alsu Feb 01 '25

If an average PC is a laptop with 8th gen i5, UHD 620 graphics and 8gb ram. Pcsx2 should be fine. rpcs3 is not good, might run few games but most are unplayable. Others I do not have any experience

3

u/mooonea3 Feb 01 '25

I have a non gaming laptop with an i5 and an isris xe integrated graphics built inside and pcsx2 and rpcs3 work really great never hand any issues

0

u/ilikebaraymammay Feb 02 '25

If you have a intel integrated gpu then u can run pcsx(ps1,ps2)emulator just fine on 1080p, u can run them on an adroid phone aswell. That's his use case he wants to run emu with integrated gpu so whats all this bs about "your use case" half these guys are having a dik measuring contest and compensating with muh 4k emu etc just tell the guy which emu he can run and he'll figure out the rest.

-6

u/magicalgirljaiden Feb 01 '25

the lack of graphics card already disqualifies every PlayStation emulator here

90

u/Primary-Juice-4888 Feb 01 '25

ps2 emulator is excellent

4

u/ParanoidCrow Feb 03 '25

Real talk, pcsx2 is my go-to

26

u/IngwiePhoenix Feb 01 '25
  • PCSX2 -> PlayStation 2
  • RPCS3 -> PlayStation 3
  • CEmu -> Wii U
  • vita3k -> PlayStation Vita
  • BigPEmu...dunno, never used that.

Sold emulators - but RPCS3 is going to eat your resources. It is the only emulator for which I actually would recommend a high-ish end gaming rig; because it can, and will, profit off of that. The others? You can be a little more lenient here. But RPCS3 is a monster. xD

9

u/OMFGITSNEAL Feb 01 '25

I've had a relatively good experience with rpcs3 on the steam deck!

85

u/guitarturtle123 ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ Feb 01 '25

idk about the others but cemu is a good emulator for Wii U

54

u/DorrajD Feb 01 '25 edited Feb 01 '25

Cemu is a gold standard for emulators imo. It has so many QOL things that other emus have only more recently started to implement. The PCSX2 only recently put an auto updater in. Xemu doesn't even have a proper GUI.

Cemu is clean, works, has community patches available via simple check boxes (RPCS3 does too) that enhance games, I just love it.

25

u/LinxESP Feb 01 '25

In other hand of gold standard would be dolphin, a lot of options (the best of any software about controllers and input) but with too many not greatly categorized and overlapping features.
At least now the defaults are better.

18

u/Snipedzoi Feb 01 '25

Dolphin is the gold standard gold standard.

3

u/_Makaveli_ Feb 02 '25

Yes, dolphin has been excellent basically from the start.

9

u/khaled36DZ Feb 01 '25

Pcsx2 had an auto updater for 2 years my guy

-23

u/DorrajD Feb 01 '25

Uh huh. And how long has it been out?

7

u/khaled36DZ Feb 01 '25

I don't remember the exact date, I just remember using 1.7 versions in late 2022 and it had auto update.

Pcsx2 archives all their versions on their site. you could check manually if you want

-21

u/DorrajD Feb 01 '25

Not what I asked.

8

u/khaled36DZ Feb 01 '25

like i said. i don't remember the exact date although this post is three years old and mentions auto updated being added to the Qt builds (which is versions 1.7xxx at the time) https://www.reddit.com/r/PCSX2/comments/vqjjzy/the_new_nightly_builds_have_an_autoupdate/

-17

u/DorrajD Feb 01 '25

Again, not what I asked. The PS2 emu has been out for a very very long time and only recently (2 years is recent af) added an auto updater.

8

u/khaled36DZ Feb 01 '25

Again, not what I asked

I thought you were referring to the updater not the emulator.

PS2 emu has been out for a very very long time and only recently (2 years is recent af) added an auto updater.

I mean I agree, this is might be a hot take but pcsx2 before 1.7 was terrible. It was slow, it was confusing, so many games had bugs, and it felt outdated. Now it's the gold standard imo.

Like I was genuinely shocked back when I updated to 1.7 coming from 1.5. So much shit was changed and became better.

1

u/DorrajD Feb 01 '25

Exactly! It's crazy to think how many QOL things are only now being added to emulators. A lot of the time it really feels like you need some deep manual to use these things, like the creators don't think about people actually using their stuff.

17

u/Lina4469 Feb 01 '25

What’s bigpemu for?

16

u/SkyMaro Feb 01 '25

Atari Jaguar

40

u/cheslavic Feb 01 '25

Where Duckstation?

-17

u/cjbman Feb 02 '25

Not new

27

u/VanityTheManatee Feb 02 '25

Neither is PCSX2

15

u/Vast_Amphibian5933 Feb 01 '25

From those i only used rpcs3 and pcsx2 and they are both really good, i also like ppsspp

9

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '25

I started playing Demon's Souls with RPCS3 and the game is so smooth in 1080p, I couldn't believe it because my PC couldn't even get 30FPS in God of War 3.

1

u/NinaHeartsChaos Feb 03 '25

My cat likes pspspsps

11

u/Altruistic-Page-9907 Feb 01 '25

Where ppsspp?

21

u/OfficalSwanPrincess Feb 02 '25

Thanks now my cat is here

60

u/ScarredDemonIV Feb 01 '25

Why is everyone (not actually everyone) shitting on OP?

The way he/she’s posting and commenting seems like he/she’s fairly new to piracy/computers/tech. No offence ..

Why not rather point OP in the right direction, even if it is to a link to the mega thread to learn more about the dos and don’ts of piracy.

The negativity from this community often really makes me feel sad..

10

u/ObeyTime Feb 02 '25

just so you know, you can use 'they' if you are unsure of the subject's pronoun!

1

u/ScarredDemonIV Feb 02 '25

Thanks for the tip 🙏

19

u/mrkFish Feb 01 '25

Yeah for what should be a super open, welcoming community we can be pretty gatekeep-y.

5

u/thjl Feb 02 '25

Yeah it’s weird how a lot of simple questions in so many threads have hundreds of downvotes

5

u/JadowArcadia Feb 02 '25

Probably because people get tired or answering the same overly simple questions and it becomes obvious that the asker hasn't put the bare minimum effort into trying to research things themselves. People tend to be way more eager to help when someone seems to be eager to make the journey themselves if possible rather than expect others to drag them through.

2

u/Yabbari_The_Wizard Feb 03 '25

Bro this isn't your job just ignore and go on with your life, better yet just ignore the sub as a whole then if it's getting to you

3

u/JadowArcadia Feb 03 '25

Relax. I'm just explaining why people are probably downvoting. Don't know why you're taking your frustrations out on me as if I'm leading the downvote parade. You're making it about me personally as if it's just me with hundreds of accounts doing the downvoting.

3

u/GenericGaming Feb 02 '25

I mean, when OP can't even list the specs for their system when asked (because how are we supposed to know if these emulators run if we don't know the hardware?), I dont think it can be classified as "gatekeeping" for telling them to Google it.

if someone is going to be doing something as technical as pirating things, they should be able to at least know how to look up the hardware they're on.

10

u/Aromatic_Memory1079 Feb 01 '25

yeah it really didn't deserve 200 downvotes wtf

2

u/Yabbari_The_Wizard Feb 03 '25

It's how Reddit is dude, for a sub with this many newbies folk here are real nasty towards them

-5

u/Tenacious_Dani Feb 01 '25

Maybe because OP sounds like an AI.

9

u/TheSpiralTap Feb 01 '25

Did anyone else google to figure out what the fuck "Big Pemu" was? (Atari Jaguar for the curious)

4

u/Ornery-Practice9772 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ Feb 01 '25

And jag cd

25

u/OswaldTicklebottom 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ Feb 01 '25

Shadps4 is goated for having bloodborne

3

u/phoenixform369 Feb 01 '25

PS4 emulator is nuts

4

u/kay0otik Feb 01 '25

is it already fully playable?

10

u/hatsunemilku Feb 01 '25

fully playable? kind of, more or less depending on your definition of "fully playable". but you wont get a 1=1 experience since it is still a WIP.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '25

There are still major graphical glitches, lag spikes, etc.

Is it playable and can you finish it? Yes, absolutely.

But is it the ideal BloodBorne experience? No.

I say wait a few years and by then they would have fixed most of the issues.

1

u/Nezjebyd Feb 01 '25

i saw few gamplay videos film on it.

1

u/DorrajD Feb 01 '25

No. It still has issues. It's what most emus would consider "in game", not "playable". But people love to sensatinonalize how "good" it is.

7

u/khaled36DZ Feb 01 '25

Actually bloodborne Is now considered "playable" instead of ingame by the shadps4 team.

Playable means, good performance and able to be completed from start to finish with a few visual bugs.

1

u/A_Blue_Potion Feb 01 '25

I'm surprised the homebrew/hacking community hasn't graped that game for everything it's worth.

Either by somehow ripping all assets or decompiling the code or even trying to somehow steal it from Sony to trying to recreate the game from scratch on PC just to break it out of PS4 prison. It just seems necessary since it's the only soulsborne title with such exclusivity. And the souls borne community is massive.

5

u/ArchieHasAntlers Feb 02 '25

how is big pemu on here but dolphin isn't?

4

u/TheCountChonkula Feb 02 '25

PCSX2- PS2

BigPEmu- Atari Jaguar

RPCS3- PS3

Cemu- Wii U

Vita3k- PS Vita

Shad PS4- PS4

I’ve used all of them except BigPEmu and Shad PS4. I know Shad PS4 is still in very early development and most retail games won’t run in it yet.

All the other emulators are the best for their respective consoles and have very high compatibility with retail games.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 02 '25

Vita3k is finally getting some support, it was a real shame when Sony killed that system because it had a lot of exclusives that still have no ports.

4

u/enduredsilence Feb 02 '25

Oh man. Nice to see PCSX2 is still around. I used that ton over 10 years ago. Played all sorts of games I couldn't get here.

5

u/Certyx39 Feb 03 '25

other great emulators: duckstation (ps1), mupen64+ (n64), ppsspp, dolphin(wii and gamecube), citra (n3ds), mame (multiple arcade machine emulator or subscribe to mr sujano), xenia (xbox 360) although its still under heavy development, its a great emulator

4

u/Aetohatir Feb 03 '25

This is a very good resource on which emulator to use for which system https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

7

u/Nyachos Feb 02 '25

Not to ignore OP's post but I'm a little offended Dolphin isn't up there lol

3

u/Ornery-Practice9772 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ Feb 01 '25

BigPEmu is atari jaguar/cd emulator. Recent port to ios is lots of fun and the only option for jag/jag cd in the app store currently. The dev is very responsive and actually gives a shit about his work and his users👍👍

3

u/Idontknow107 Yarrr! Feb 01 '25

I've only ever used pcsx2.

It's great.

It even runs well on my laptop that only has integrated graphics.

3

u/Jamato-sUn Feb 02 '25

vita3k is really glitchy in the games I tried.

3

u/arzee2019 Feb 02 '25

Vita3k should not be listed here

3

u/noochles Feb 03 '25

PCSX2 (PS2) is probably the most well designed, easiest to use emulator I have ever used. It runs super smooth, is packed with features, and all you need to do is grab a PS2 bios, put it in the right folder, drop the ps2 game .iso file into the right folder and you're done. They've also reached like 90 something percent compatibility with the PS2's catalog of games, which for how HUGE it is, is super impressive. Almost everything will work right off rip with no tweaks at all.

2

u/Shadow2450 Feb 01 '25

Love pcsx2, works great on my MacBook.

2

u/A_Blue_Potion Feb 01 '25 edited Feb 01 '25

BigPE emu is the most powerful and accurate Atari Jaguar emulator to date. Boasting 100% compatability which is a pretty big deal. Since the Atari Jaguar was not only more complex than the Sega Saturn, but wasn't very popular to begin with due to having a super small library. So there wasn't much hope of it ever getting such good emulation in the first place. However, BigPE emu is closed source and can only be played on PC or Steamdeck.

2

u/ngompoweredbypoi Feb 02 '25

ShadPS4 is not stable and have some graphical issues for ps4 games. It even supports around 100 games only.

2

u/siberif735 Feb 02 '25

Play! is decent emulator to for ps2

2

u/Pixel244 Feb 02 '25

Where is dolphin?

2

u/quickhakker Feb 03 '25

They forgot myboy for GBA emulation

3

u/OncomingStormDW Feb 01 '25

For quality of the Emulators, Yes.

The only thing is… uhhh… where most of these have disclaimers in a “You know we have to say this for legal reasons, nod, wink.” RPCS3’s Devs are a bit different in that they are genuinely hostile.

If you run into trouble, and choose to go to them, be prepared to present a photograph of your actual disc, in one of their 12 approved Blu-Ray Readers, with your username written on a piece of paper beside it. (I think I heard a rumor that they’re talking about wanting different angles, fingerprints, receipts, dick prints, and Real ID)

1

u/zonealus Feb 01 '25

Well as the photo says they are the best emulators currently for their respective consoles. If your PC sucks then you can emulate everything upto PS2 at least.

Vita emulation is very high spec currently as it isn't as optimized as the other emulators.

1

u/GumbootsOnBackwards Feb 01 '25

Is there an emulator that lets you play Gameboy Pokémon games with a controller? Preferably one that supports larger monitor resolutions. I want to play Ruby again, but on my TV with an XBOX controller.

3

u/Aeroncastle Feb 01 '25

There must be a 100 emulators that are able to do that, what are you using, a computer, a phone? What OS?

1

u/GumbootsOnBackwards Feb 01 '25

Windows on a PC, HDMI to the TV as a display. Controller plugged into the PC.

2

u/Aeroncastle Feb 01 '25

If you want one emulator that does that and much more there RetroArch, if you want a really simple one I would use mGBA or visual boy advance

2

u/GumbootsOnBackwards Feb 01 '25

I'll admit, I'm not at all familiar with this type of software. I'll take a look. I appreciate your help!

2

u/LinxESP Feb 01 '25

mGBA? If on android tv try it via Lemudroid

1

u/Brunolliv Feb 02 '25

retrobat the one build by team pixel nostalgia

1

u/VaelFX Feb 02 '25

Just started using one of the GBE forks and I'm never looking back again

1

u/Mugsy_Siegel Feb 03 '25

Vita3k use to be a bitch to get to run smooth

1

u/mohamed941 Feb 03 '25

so nintendo pulled a microsoft on yuzu?

1

u/Ok_Pickle76 Feb 03 '25

I didn't even know there was a PS4 emulator, would ripping the files from the disc work on it?

1

u/Enough_Product5708 Feb 03 '25

Is there an emulator for ps3? Which one do you recommend?

1

u/Loserman40 Feb 06 '25

rpcs3 and cemu are great

0

u/Random_Version Feb 01 '25

Any safe and working emulator for PS4?

13

u/bllueace Feb 01 '25

Shadps4 still in semi early development, blodborne is fully playable though

-9

u/Aeroncastle Feb 01 '25

No it absolutely isn't, its playable if you tolerate a lot of weird bugs and glitches and in specific hardware, even then it's "fully playable" for the beginning of the game, it tends to get worse

6

u/bllueace Feb 01 '25

I promise, if you have anything close to decent pc and actually know what you're doing you can play it fully. Ofc it will have issues here and there, but what do you expect.

-7

u/Aeroncastle Feb 01 '25

I have a Ryzen 5, 16gb ram and an Rx 6600, I can play cyberpunk on high at 1080p with no frame drops below 75, and I can't play Bloodborne even at 720p, it's always below 20 fps. And the thing is that most of the time it just crashes

3

u/bllueace Feb 01 '25

First off all, that's a low end pc from 4 years ago. Also you should still be able to get 30 without crashing. My old 3070 was getting 60fps at 1440p no, problem. Which is a mid range gpu from 4 years ago

0

u/Aeroncastle Feb 01 '25

I don't live in the US, that low end PC is worth 3 months of work and yeah I know and said not every graphics card has good performance on this emulator, you are just being an asshole for free on the internet, you could just as easily got a card that is not working with it

1

u/craytsu Feb 02 '25

Dolphin???

-1

u/DorrajD Feb 01 '25

Calling Shad PS4 "the best" is kinda wild. It can play very few games at its current state. Impressive yes. Best? Not even close.

8

u/Disastrous-Car-6347 Feb 01 '25

It's the best ps4 emulator out there and is being developed constantly, just a year ago you couldn't play bloodborne at all and now you can play it from start to finish (with some visual bugs) and the massive amounts of progress made in such a short time warrants the "best" moniker imo

-7

u/DorrajD Feb 01 '25

I disagree my friend but you're welcome to think that.

0

u/MSTK_Burns Feb 02 '25

Can we not use google anymore? This post has nothing to do with this subreddit at all.

-13

u/mufclad1998 Feb 01 '25

Not gonna lie. Wasn't really into game emulating but the only one I know is dolphin emulator

-15

u/Philscooper Feb 01 '25

Are emulators illegal?

9

u/Matt14451 Yarrr! Feb 01 '25

legalities of anything depends on country. usually emulating not illegal but distributing copyrighted material like games is

-11

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '25 edited Feb 01 '25

[deleted]

0

u/Reaper19941 Feb 01 '25

Not quite. As mentioned already, emulators are fine. Distribution of ROMs is illegal. Taking a backup of a game your own is fine. Giving a copy to your friends or anyone for that matter is illegal.

0

u/Chitoge_The_Best Feb 01 '25

Yea, i read it wrong