Retroarch for Ps3 worth it? Transferring saves, etc.

[HTBandicoot]

I know the hate for Retroarch overall, so don't respond just to hate on that lol.

Is Retroarch for ps3 HEN a good experience? I have Phantasy Star on an old phone where the battery keeps dying, and figured it would be more reliable to just move it over.

Also, is it simple to move over saves in Retroarch from one device to another? I imagine it would require just moving the files to a flash drive.

 

[Yousef]

Ehhh I’d still go for individual emulators no matter what system I use but that’s just me so it’s up to you.

 

[Sumea]

I know the hate for Retroarch overall, so don't respond just to hate on that lol.

Is Retroarch for ps3 HEN a good experience? I have Phantasy Star on an old phone where the battery keeps dying, and figured it would be more reliable to just move it over.

Also, is it simple to move over saves in Retroarch from one device to another? I imagine it would require just moving the files to a flash drive.

As "Resident professional retroarcher" first off, yes; if your settings for saving are same, mainly using subfolders or not, and using same or similar enough cores, you should be able to just copy over "saves" folder between retroarch installations between devices. I have done "transfarring" as Kojima dreamed it between switch, 3DS, Vita and PC. Should be as easy as finding Retroarch's root folder, for PS3 it is in hdd:/APP/RETROARCH or some such.

Is Retroarch for ps3 HEN a good experience?

This is hard to say. PSX-Place community edition works as well as anything can for retroarch needs on PS3. https://www.psx-place.com/threads/retroarch-ce-unofficial-psx-place-community-edition.32272/ .
There is shortcomings, not great 3D for great shader support, RetroArchievements worked but lag the system a lot, or can even crash or hang the system. Arcade emulation is good for neo geo and maybe CPS2 and more of a miss from there on. So, all retro stuff is OK, just there is fuzziness with 90's though PS1 and PS2 can be emulated with sony's own emulators on PS3 at least.
TL;DR Being "it is as good as it can be, and it is slightly underwhelming" if you are used to PC or Switch experience, but pretty on par with rest.

 

[HTBandicoot]

As "Resident professional retroarcher" first off, yes; if your settings for saving are same, mainly using subfolders or not, and using same or similar enough cores, you should be able to just copy over "saves" folder between retroarch installations between devices. I have done "transfarring" as Kojima dreamed it between switch, 3DS, Vita and PC. Should be as easy as finding Retroarch's root folder, for PS3 it is in hdd:/APP/RETROARCH or some such.

This is hard to say. PSX-Place community edition works as well as anything can for retroarch needs on PS3. https://www.psx-place.com/threads/retroarch-ce-unofficial-psx-place-community-edition.32272/ .
There is shortcomings, not great 3D for great shader support, RetroArchievements worked but lag the system a lot, or can even crash or hang the system. Arcade emulation is good for neo geo and maybe CPS2 and more of a miss from there on. So, all retro stuff is OK, just there is fuzziness with 90's though PS1 and PS2 can be emulated with sony's own emulators on PS3 at least.
TL;DR Being "it is as good as it can be, and it is slightly underwhelming" if you are used to PC or Switch experience, but pretty on par with rest.

Sounds about right for what I need it for...mainly old Sega titles and NES or SNES here and there. I haven't used retroachievements or shaders, so that wouldn't bother me much.

 

[Sumea]

Sounds about right for what I need it for...mainly old Sega titles and NES or SNES here and there. I haven't used retroachievements or shaders, so that wouldn't bother me much.

Yeah. I have a setup of retroarch in my CFW PS3 I did not check again but has worked well enough. Faster than modern core might be needed with SNES, such as SNES9X 2005+ or such cores with SNES, but I need to check my setup again.
Also, avoid 7z packed games with PS3 version. Those are a special issue I had to slightly troubleshoot as I have my ROM files packed in zip or 7z packages, 7z being better at saving space but also causes issues with weaker or generally older systems, in this case with afformentioned RA-CE-PS3.

 

[Tortuga]

It's okay, unfortunately not much alternative for ps3
I had few problems with retroarch on HEN more specifically system freeze, its very rare but happened with me few times

 

[Sumea]

It's okay, unfortunately not much alternative for ps3
I had few problems with retroarch on HEN more specifically system freeze, its very rare but happened with me few times

Yeah. My own experience is running RA-CE on 2000 model with CFW instead of HEN.
Did you use some official build or one of the later PSX-Place community editions?
Also indeed, currently this unofficial build, lacking in updates as it is, is one of best options for emulation on PS3 these days.
I would guess PSX-place version has been made "with awareness" of HEN systems though there is limitations still with HEN versus CFW.

 

[Tortuga]

Yeah. My own experience is running RA-CE on 2000 model with CFW instead of HEN.
Did you use some official build or one of the later PSX-Place community editions?
Also indeed, currently this unofficial build, lacking in updates as it is, is one of best options for emulation on PS3 these days.
I would guess PSX-place version has been made "with awareness" of HEN systems though there is limitations still with HEN versus CFW.

Yeah i have RA-CE from psx place
I think i only got freezes when i enable fps and temp counter via webman, if i don't i think RA don't freeze at all, might be wrong tho.
Also thinking to try FB Neo since i know it can emulate some 8/16 bit systems too but never really bothered.

Since you use RA on ps3 might as well ask, did you tried PC engine CD games on it? From my experience normal pc engine games works fine, but CD just don't work

 

[Bonkers225]

If it's all you have, it's fine. If you have some money to play around with, get an OG X-Box or 360 for emulations

 

[Sumea]

Yeah i have RA-CE from psx place
I think i only got freezes when i enable fps and temp counter via webman, if i don't i think RA don't freeze at all, might be wrong tho.
Also thinking to try FB Neo since i know it can emulate some 8/16 bit systems too but never really bothered.

Since you use RA on ps3 might as well ask, did you tried PC engine CD games on it? From my experience normal pc engine games works fine, but CD just don't work

I think I would have thrown in an image of Rondo of Blood on the PS3, and I usually use CHD files but I have no idea was there an issue or not, I have installed and made a small library available to me on my PS3 but I have not tried it out since I have other, better systems that run RA, so I only tried running some fighting games and other 2 player games on it. I could test it out though.

Post automatically merged: Today at 6:10 PM

If it's all you have, it's fine. If you have some money to play around with, get an OG X-Box or 360 for emulations

OG-Xbox is not really that great of an experience when it comes to emulation, PS3 and modern builds of retroarch beat that at least, not to mention value of HDMI connection versus HDMI with an expensive adapter. 360 might be better with same ease of development logic but it might been abandoned and not really updated in years, not to mention modded xbox 360 is not a plug-and-play type of softmod you can do to PS3 systems for many years now, as well as to older systems before availability of browser exploit tools.

 

[Tortuga]

I think I would have thrown in an image of Rondo of Blood on the PS3, and I usually use CHD files but I have no idea was there an issue or not, I have installed and made a small library available to me on my PS3 but I have not tried it out since I have other, better systems that run RA, so I only tried running some fighting games and other 2 player games on it. I could test it out though.

Not big deal, i usually emulate on pc anyway
Just find strange that PCEcd and DOS are the only two system that don't work on ps3

 

[nobitakun]

Nowadays, you can get a 50€ Mini PC more powerful than a PS3 for emulation, but for 0 cost, you can use your PS3 :)

I am more than pleased with Retroarch because I want every single emulator to use the exactly same mappings. As I use mostly Batocera, I have already created my template with the gamepad I use most, plus some other configurations, so every time I have to re-do a device, I just install it, copy the roms and the template. I admit Batocera can be a little pain in the ass to configure, and many settings are just reverted back to default because devs can't understand the value of power users, but it's the best system I've tried so far.