Help A good standalone PC-Engine emulator?

[KeySpirits]

Magic Engine is amazing for carts, but CDs are impossible to play since it doesn't read isos or any virtual format. What is a good standalone emulator that can play CD games?

 

[Nelson2001 Nelson2001]

In Windows, no idea, but on Android it's PCE.emu (although this one is paid) but Emulates PC-Engine CD too.

 

[Segadude113]

Magic Engine is amazing for carts, but CDs are impossible to play since it doesn't read isos or any virtual format. What is a good standalone emulator that can play CD games?

Video Game Emulators | All popular classic gaming emulators

All of the popular video game emulators of classic gaming systems for Windows.

fantasyanime.com

Post automatically merged: Sep 3, 2025

be sure to get the Bios for CD games

 

[Clippy]

It's been a while but last time I emulated PC Engine I used Ootake. It worked alright. You'll need the BIOS for CD games and I remember that it had problems with some fan translated ISOs.

 

[NardoBoom]

https://github.com/drhelius/Geargrafx is great and it's standalone.

https://www.mesen.ca/ Mesen also emulates other systems but it's PC Engine core is one of the best

 

[HikaruKitsune]

Magic Engine is amazing for carts, but CDs are impossible to play since it doesn't read isos or any virtual format. What is a good standalone emulator that can play CD games?

I seem to remember getting it to boot ISOs if they were set as mounted virtual drives...

 

[Stookymalarkey]

The Ares Emulator can play PC Engine games pretty well. Not sure if you'd consider it standalone since it emulates several systems, but it's a decent alternative to Retroarch.

 

[UnDubious]

Ootake is usually great. It's a Japanese emulator but it's easy enough to use.

 

[NardoBoom]

The Ares Emulator can play PC Engine games pretty well. Not sure if you'd consider it standalone since it emulates several systems, but it's a decent alternative to Retroarch.

Mesen is better. I tried Ares and it's good but it's still needs some work for CD games. I know it will get there soon but for now Mesen and Geargrafx are way better

 

[Deleted member 132407]

Release Geargrafx 1.6.3 · drhelius/Geargrafx

🎮 Add gamepad support for L2 / R2 buttons (triggers) 🎮 Update game controller database 🔈 Improve adpcm audio filter ⚙️ Improve Memory Editor in Debugger 🖼️ Add option for saving sprites and backgro...

github.com

 

[KeySpirits]

I seem to remember getting it to boot ISOs if they were set as mounted virtual drives...

I did try that with Rondo of Blood, but for some reason I couldn't mount it as it was marked as "corrupted" (I got it from the repo)

 

[Deleted member 132407]

I did try that with Rondo of Blood, but for some reason I couldn't mount it as it was marked as "corrupted" (I got it from the repo)

It works. Peace.

Post automatically merged: Sep 4, 2025

I did try that with Rondo of Blood, but for some reason I couldn't mount it as it was marked as "corrupted" (I got it from the repo)

Be sure to mount BIOS before you mount image.

Post automatically merged: Sep 4, 2025

I did try that with Rondo of Blood, but for some reason I couldn't mount it as it was marked as "corrupted" (I got it from the repo)

That one was from the repo but I converted it to .chd
for /r %%i in (*.cue, *.gdi) do chdman createcd -i "%%i" -o "%%~ni.chd"

 

[E0N]

https://github.com/drhelius/Geargrafx is great and it's standalone.

https://www.mesen.ca/ Mesen also emulates other systems but it's PC Engine core is one of the best

Can you suggest some good PC Engine games? I know Japanese so the language is not a problem.

 

[Stookymalarkey]

Can you suggest some good PC Engine games? I know Japanese so the language is not a problem.

Off the top of my head, there's Devil's Crush, Ninja Spirit, Splatterhouse, Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, Tengai Makyō II: Manjimaru, and Gate of Thunder.

 

[NardoBoom]

Can you suggest some good PC Engine games? I know Japanese so the language is not a problem.

Neutopia 1 and 2, Rondo of Blood, Lords of Thunder, Legendary Axe, The Bonk games, Alien Crush, Devil Crush, Spriggan Mark 2, Far East of Eden.

 

[petran79]

In my case Geargrafx crashes when I try to load chd pcengine games, despite setting the bios.

So I pick pce core in Retroarch as #1 option

 

[NardoBoom]

In my case Geargrafx crashes when I try to load chd pcengine games, despite setting the bios.

So I pick pce core in Retroarch as #1 option

Do you have the latest version? It works fine for me

 

[petran79]

Do you have the latest version? It works fine for me

I do. Gearboy and Gearsystem work fine, but this one has issues. Will report it to Github

 

[AceWhatever]

I did try that with Rondo of Blood, but for some reason I couldn't mount it as it was marked as "corrupted" (I got it from the repo)

Can you show with screenshots how exactly did you mount the ISO? And which version of Magic Engine are you using? I didn't know people were running it past Windows XP.

 

[NardoBoom]

Can you show with screenshots how exactly did you mount the ISO? And which version of Magic Engine are you using? I didn't know people were running it past Windows XP.

Why would you use an old emulator that has not been updated in years when you can use Mesen, Bizhawk, Geargrafx and even Ares.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I used to dislike multi-hardware emulators because I wanted one per console yet Mesen is the only one that consistently worked for PCE-CD games for me.

Mesen is better. I tried Ares and it's good but it's still needs some work for CD games. I know it will get there soon but for now Mesen and Geargrafx are way better.

I tried Ares for Dawn of Ys and I had hiccups in the sound recording during voiced dialogues.

Maybe it has been fixed but I prefer staying on Mesen. I use Ares for Genesis mostly.

 

[NardoBoom]

I used to dislike multi-hardware emulators because I wanted one per console yet Mesen is the only one that consistently worked for PCE-CD games for me.


I tried Ares for Dawn of Ys and I had hiccups in the sound recording during voiced dialogues.

Maybe it has been fixed but I prefer staying on Mesen. I use Ares for Genesis mostly.

Yeah, Ares PC Engine CD emulations is still experimental. Mesen and Geargrafx are better. I would use Mesen for PC Engine CD because I love Mesen but all my PC Engine CD games are on CHD and Mesen does not support the CHD format and i don't think the developer wants to add it. Btw, the mesen developer is working on a sega genesis core. Let's hope it's as good as ares or jgenesis.