Do you prefer a different emulator for each console or one emulator front end?

I generally prefer separate emulators that are each specialized in one thing. It's good to have choices and it's nice to have emulators fine tuned to deliver the best experience for a particular console.

I never liked RetroArch. It's too convoluted and I hate how people just want to do away with everything else and push everyone into RetroArch. I'm never a fan of everybody just using and supporting one thing and one thing only.

I do however like ES-DE. I like how it puts different emulators under one roof in a very user friendly way, but the best part by far is how aesthetically pleasing it is (unlike RetroArch). The options you have for cover art, wallpaper, game descriptions, gameplay footage, etc. is great. Plus, you're still essentially accessing your different emulators and ES-DE's interface isn't absurdly complicated like RetroArch is.
 
I'm able to do a ton through just openEmu on my laptop. However, since installing other emulators, such as Redream, I play the Dreamcast games more often. I don't know why that is. Since I'm limited on what I can play at the moment (due to carpal tunnel syndrome), I installed some others yesterday just for the heck of it. I even found a site where a guy made his own emulators for many systems. Sure, there are better ways, but I kept one of his emulators too just because it simply plays the games..which in the end, is the goal. So which do you prefer? Do you find specific emulators have more features that front-ends don't have, like netplay, for example? What's the emulator you got?
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What's the emulator you got?
 
I prefer Retroarch for most but some emulators are better stand alone.

The best front end I ever used was OpenEmu sadly it´s only for MAC and no way in hell I have to money for a mac and no way in hell im gonna get my self in to a close end eco system with a company that claims to care for environment but hates that you can repair shit which would be great if people don´t buy new shit all the time if they rely cared about environment as they say they do damn lying knobs.


I wish some one could just port OpenEmu to Win/linux.
 
I'm able to do a ton through just openEmu on my laptop. However, since installing other emulators, such as Redream, I play the Dreamcast games more often. I don't know why that is. Since I'm limited on what I can play at the moment (due to carpal tunnel syndrome), I installed some others yesterday just for the heck of it. I even found a site where a guy made his own emulators for many systems. Sure, there are better ways, but I kept one of his emulators too just because it simply plays the games..which in the end, is the goal. So which do you prefer? Do you find specific emulators have more features that front-ends don't have, like netplay, for example? What's the emulator you got?
Post automatically merged:

What's the emulator you got?
This was from earlier this year. I'm mainly back to playing my ps3 now and phantasy star through retroarch lol.
 
I think most 2D era systems can be done just fine in a single interface. Ares is right there.

People are very likely to only experience things like RetroArch, and that isn't the most pleasant interface. However, people also grew up using stuff like Kega Fusion, which is a multi-system emulator and did it just fine.
 
Totally get where you're coming from. Sometimes the standalone emulators just feel better—like Redream, it’s quick, clean, and gets you straight into the game. OpenEmu’s great for organizing, but yeah, some of those extra features like netplay or better performance really shine in the dedicated ones. And hey, if that homemade emulator works, that’s all that matters! What systems did you add yesterday?
 
I use RetroArch for nearly everything up to PS1. I like having a uniform system for saves, hotkeys, shaders, overlays, etc. For more complex systems like PSP, DC, PS2, GCN, etc., I use standalone emulators for better performance.

That said, I also like having standalone devices for emulating different consoles (all running RetroArch in some form): Anbernic RG-ARC for Genesis/Master System/Game Gear, RG 280V for Famicom/NES, RG35XX SP for GBA, etc. It takes some effort to set up each device, but that's part of the fun to me.
 
Totally get where you're coming from. Sometimes the standalone emulators just feel better—like Redream, it’s quick, clean, and gets you straight into the game. OpenEmu’s great for organizing, but yeah, some of those extra features like netplay or better performance really shine in the dedicated ones. And hey, if that homemade emulator works, that’s all that matters! What systems did you add yesterday?
This was from March so a lot has changed since then haha. Then I had several on my laptop and just played around with adding different ones. Since then, I have deleted several and mainly focus on playing from my ps3, which I put HEN and retroarch on as well.
 
I use Retroarch, mainly because of Switchres on a VGA monitor and 240p resolutions on Linux. Most emulators lack customisation at low resolutions, with few exceptions (eg Redream and Scummvm) .

Also on Linux various emulators have issues, especially on Wayland.

On Windows it is more convenient to use separate emulators as a result
 
I just got this theme called GameOS on the Pegasus front end loader working on this onn 4k pro box, and wow it is amazing. Fairly time consuming setup, I would recommend if you decide to go through with it scrap the assets for one rom to get the hang of it.
 
Tried RetroArch for a bit years ago, generally found the UI a bit annoying to navigate and quickly figured out most systems had a better standalone option.
Where is the Proof of That?
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I use Retroarch most of the Time as I find it easier to use and have everything in 1 Spot

I still download Standalone Emulators in Duckstation/PCSX2/PPSSPP/Dolphin as they seem to run better then on Retroarch except for Duckstation as not found much Difference

I also try BizHawk and Ares as well

Just hate how these threads seem to turn into more a Retroarch Bashing Thread
 
always one for each, i only use retroarch for PC EngineView attachment 41655
Same, I don't know why but there really aren't any completely reliable TG16 ones. I used to use Mednafen from a command line back eons ago, and that was due to Magic engine still not emulating Order of the Griffon correctly (I had even bought ME too). But Retroarch just makes it easier to run TG16 and TGCD games. I prefer Mednafen for Saturn too, so I also leave Retroarch there for them too.
 
I tend to use Retroarch for everything prior to sixth gen excluding Dreamcast since Flycast works well enough through it.
I never liked RetroArch. It's too convoluted and I hate how people just want to do away with everything else and push everyone into RetroArch. I'm never a fan of everybody just using and supporting one thing and one thing only.

I do however like ES-DE. I like how it puts different emulators under one roof in a very user friendly way, but the best part by far is how aesthetically pleasing it is (unlike RetroArch). The options you have for cover art, wallpaper, game descriptions, gameplay footage, etc. is great. Plus, you're still essentially accessing your different emulators and ES-DE's interface isn't absurdly complicated like RetroArch is.

I like using Retroarch for the consolidated interface. Though I don't think it's the be all end all. Much like the MISTer FPGA project, I think it has a bit of an upper limit to the project (the PCSX2 implementation is just okay at best. And the Dolphin core is useless compared to the standalone).

By that standard though, even MORE consolidated interfaces like ES-DE and Batocera are better because it can run Retroarch/Libretro cores as well as the standalones.
 
I prefer separate emulators, but nowadays I only use the ones that allow for me to display those cute little rows of cover art because it makes the experience slightly more tangible. Thankfully most emulators I use support that.

Though for anything SNES and below (and GBC/GBA) I use my modded SNES mini to play them on my TV.
 

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