SNES9x

[DietPepsi]

I wanna air 2 of my grievances surrounding SNES9x, and before we start because I will compare the 3, I know. SNES9x plays Super Nintendo games, while PCSX2 and Dolphin emulate PS2 and GameCube/Wii games, respectively. Different consoles, different needs. But here’s the thing: good emulators evolve. And SNES9x? It feels like it stopped trying sometime in the early 2000s. (Like that transition?)

As a UX designer by trade, naturally I want to start with the complete lack of an actual UI. Open Dolphin or PCSX2, and you’re met with a well-organized interface that actually makes sense. You can easily browse your game library, tweak settings, and launch titles without digging through a maze of dropdown menus. SNES9x? Nope. Diddly dick. You open it, and it just sits there... menacingly like an empty Windows XP program, staring at you blankly. You have to manually load ROMs like it’s still 2005, and god forbid you want to tweak anything before launching a game, because the settings menu is just a chaotic mess.

Then there’s save state management. Dolphin and PCSX2 give you easy-to-use save state menus, allowing you to hit escape on your keyboard and save the game state as it is, in 2 clicks or less. SNES9x? You can do that too... but there's a few hoops to jump through. It's organized into 2 separate dropdown menus containing multiple unnamed save banks with multiple unnamed slots. IT'S CONFUSING! Did I save my progress at State 3, or was that the one where I accidentally soft-locked myself? Guess I’ll just have to roll the dice!

At the end of the day, I know I'm being pedantic and I really enjoy getting to play SNES games again. This whole thing isn't to say that SNES9x doesn’t work, it plays SNES games just fine. Great even! But compared to how polished and user-friendly modern emulators have become, it just feels... stagnant.
In my humble onion.

Best,
Diet Pepsi

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

You do realize that SNES9x is an ancient project that goes back to the mid 90s and Dolphin and PCSX2 are not only newer but also have active development communities at the moment? Pretty sure SNES9x hasn't seen a proper update since 2015. Its not a surprise one is outdated and the others are in better shape.

 

[RageBurner]

SNES9X may have an old UI style and some holdovers from a different time, but it continues to be updated where it matters: the core compatibility and functionality; ultimately one uses emulators to play games, and all else is secondary.

But then again, to each their own. I don't like using BSNES or Libretro cores.
Just to be clear, I'm not trying to invalidate your criticism, @DietPepsi, just offering a bit of a counterpoint.

 

[tenkai star]

You're right! snes9x could never achieve the perfect UI like ZSNES has. It'll never get better than this

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

You're right! snes9x could never achieve the perfect UI like ZSNES has. It'll never get better than this

View attachment 31789

ZSNES pissed me off to no end because it couldn't emulate the transparency layers for Final Fantasy V properly.

 

[RageBurner]

ZSNES pissed me off to no end because it couldn't emulate the transparency layers for Final Fantasy V properly.

Same here. VESA driver support took a while to land properly on ZSNES. I had to get used to toggling layers.

 

[tenkai star]

ZSNES pissed me off to no end because it couldn't emulate the transparency layers for Final Fantasy V properly.

I remember the sound being so wonky in Chrono Trigger, but I was naive enough to believe that's the way it's always gonna be so I pushed through anyway. Emulation has come a long way

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

SNES9X may have an old UI style and some holdovers from a different time, but it continues to be updated where it matters: the core compatibility and functionality; ultimately one uses emulators to play games, and all else is secondary.

View attachment 31779

But then again, to each their own. I don't like using BSNES or Libretro cores.
Just to be clear, I'm not trying to invalidate your criticism, @DietPepsi, just offering a bit of a counterpoint.

I didn't know that. I still have 1.6. I'll download the new update.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

You're right! snes9x could never achieve the perfect UI like ZSNES has. It'll never get better than this

View attachment 31789

That screen right there is how I first saw the SNES (well, the EMULATED version -- my neighbor had an actual Super Nintendo). It made me feel right at home, being a DOS gamer and all.

 

[RageBurner]

That screen right there is how I first saw the SNES (well, the EMULATED version -- my neighbor had an actual Super Nintendo). It made me feel right at home, being a DOS gamer and all.

I did have a physical SNES (NTSC US, imported) but only got to know the glorious breadth, width and girth of its library thanks to emulation (I had just a handful of carts back in the day).

 

[DrunkOcelot]

You're right! snes9x could never achieve the perfect UI like ZSNES has. It'll never get better than this

View attachment 31789

Ah..zsnes snow. My feels are overloadin'

 

[RageBurner]

Ah..zsnes snow. My feels are overloadin'

I switched to fire when it got added, but the snow effect is the most classic.

 

[LiberoVulpes]

That snowy zsnes, as nostalgic as the ps1 startup sound.

 

[Skeetos]

ZSNES will always hold a special place in my heart. But SNES9x is usually my go to if I want a good experience. SNES9x not having a good UI isn't really a deal breaker for me since it emulates just about anything you throw at it significantly better than most other SNES emulators. But I understand the complaints. Emulation is all about convenience these days. But I sort of miss the old clunky emulators that weren't fancy outside of boasting about how good their compatibility was and how accurate they could emulate the hardware.

 

[Sumea]

Like pointed out, at least as a core, SNES9X has a good place in RetroArch as after Byuu roasted other SNES emulator's state with a long post with examples and released and maintained BSNES, this ended up with SNES9X getting some if not most things Byuu criticized about it updated while it still maintained much lower hardware requirements, making current Snes9x go to core for devices like switch, dual core PC's with small amount of RAM, etc. Weird backports to even older code base, SNES9x 2005+ is there for balance of good features and extra-low hardware requirements, ideal pick for systems like Vita or 3DS RetroArch. Arguably, 3DS has better standalone Snes9x by community, but vita's other choices are worse.

Still, unlike Zsnes, under the hood SNES9x evolved. Yes the standalone emulator sucks, especially when it cannot derive diagonals without weird pain of binding those diagonals. I have used standalone Snes9x only with Fightcade, other than that I have not touched the standalone emulator for years, which has indeed stayed the same, and I will personally stick to RetroArch core of Snes9x specifically on my Switch, Vita, etc.

 

[Ravl]

I wanna air 2 of my grievances surrounding SNES9x, and before we start because I will compare the 3, I know. SNES9x plays Super Nintendo games, while PCSX2 and Dolphin emulate PS2 and GameCube/Wii games, respectively. Different consoles, different needs. But here’s the thing: good emulators evolve. And SNES9x? It feels like it stopped trying sometime in the early 2000s. (Like that transition?)

As a UX designer by trade, naturally I want to start with the complete lack of an actual UI. Open Dolphin or PCSX2, and you’re met with a well-organized interface that actually makes sense. You can easily browse your game library, tweak settings, and launch titles without digging through a maze of dropdown menus. SNES9x? Nope. Diddly dick. You open it, and it just sits there... menacingly like an empty Windows XP program, staring at you blankly. You have to manually load ROMs like it’s still 2005, and god forbid you want to tweak anything before launching a game, because the settings menu is just a chaotic mess.

View attachment 31745

Then there’s save state management. Dolphin and PCSX2 give you easy-to-use save state menus, allowing you to hit escape on your keyboard and save the game state as it is, in 2 clicks or less. SNES9x? You can do that too... but there's a few hoops to jump through. It's organized into 2 separate dropdown menus containing multiple unnamed save banks with multiple unnamed slots. IT'S CONFUSING! Did I save my progress at State 3, or was that the one where I accidentally soft-locked myself? Guess I’ll just have to roll the dice!

At the end of the day, I know I'm being pedantic and I really enjoy getting to play SNES games again. This whole thing isn't to say that SNES9x doesn’t work, it plays SNES games just fine. Great even! But compared to how polished and user-friendly modern emulators have become, it just feels... stagnant.
In my humble onion.

Best,
Diet Pepsi

Seems like your main problem here is the user interface.
Me? I'm fine with, for example, Mednafen's lack of a UI. I never cared about user-friendliness, only accuracy


Also

I did not care for the UI change in PCSX2,
to be frank, I prefer how it looked before.

Like pointed out, at least as a core, SNES9X has a good place in RetroArch as after Byuu roasted other SNES emulator's state with a long post with examples and released and maintained BSNES, this ended up with SNES9X getting some if not most things Byuu criticized about it updated while it still maintained much lower hardware requirements, making current Snes9x go to core for devices like switch, dual core PC's with small amount of RAM, etc. Weird backports to even older code base, SNES9x 2005+ is there for balance of good features and extra-low hardware requirements, ideal pick for systems like Vita or 3DS RetroArch. Arguably, 3DS has better standalone Snes9x by community, but vita's other choices are worse.

Still, unlike Zsnes, under the hood SNES9x evolved. Yes the standalone emulator sucks, especially when it cannot derive diagonals without weird pain of binding those diagonals. I have used standalone Snes9x only with Fightcade, other than that I have not touched the standalone emulator for years, which has indeed stayed the same, and I will personally stick to RetroArch core of Snes9x specifically on my Switch, Vita, etc.

The lower power requirements are great, using more than 1 frame Run Ahead with bsnes is a mess on my pc.

 

[fake-kun]

Snes9X UI is perfectly fine. It's just different.

 

[Iguana-0]

I like it. Not too much going on. Something to even fall asleep to

 

[mlastes1987]

I'm a BSNES guy myself but that's just my preference. I only use SNES9x if something doesn't work on BSNES. Or I use the BSNES/SNES9x cores for RetroArch. Sometimes the SNES9x core works better for MSU-1 games. Like Chrono Trigger Plus kept freezing at the Sun Stone dungeon before the boss fight before I used the SNES9x core. Sometimes it's a mixture of preference and performance.

 

[thecrow2313]

Where's the love for Mesen2 @ https://github.com/SourMesen/Mesen2#development-builds

 

[DietPepsi]

You do realize that SNES9x is an ancient project that goes back to the mid 90s and Dolphin and PCSX2 are not only newer but also have active development communities at the moment? Pretty sure SNES9x hasn't seen a proper update since 2015. Its not a surprise one is outdated and the others are in better shape.

Yeah I know! I just figured that web application design was advanced enough by 2015 that they could've put a simple menu listing all your games instead of an empty black abyss.

Post automatically merged: Feb 24, 2025

SNES9X may have an old UI style and some holdovers from a different time, but it continues to be updated where it matters: the core compatibility and functionality; ultimately one uses emulators to play games, and all else is secondary.

View attachment 31779

But then again, to each their own. I don't like using BSNES or Libretro cores.
Just to be clear, I'm not trying to invalidate your criticism, @DietPepsi, just offering a bit of a counterpoint.

No worries! You make a very excellent counter point, SNES9x remains debatably one of the best programs for emulating Super Nintendo, thanks to these updates. My only real qualms were really with the graphical side of things, it's still a fantastic emulator and I enjoy it immensely!

Post automatically merged: Feb 24, 2025

That screen right there is how I first saw the SNES (well, the EMULATED version -- my neighbor had an actual Super Nintendo). It made me feel right at home, being a DOS gamer and all.

Love it! I used to use a Gameboy emulator in high school to play the games I couldn't buy way back when.

Post automatically merged: Feb 24, 2025

Seems like your main problem here is the user interface.
Me? I'm fine with, for example, Mednafen's lack of a UI. I never cared about user-friendliness, only accuracy


Also

I did not care for the UI change in PCSX2,
to be frank, I prefer how it looked before.

The lower power requirements are great, using more than 1 frame Run Ahead with bsnes is a mess on my pc.

Oh yeah my critiques are entirely UI based. Like I said in my post I'm a UX designer, so front end design is the first thing I notice whenever I use a new program.

 

[RageBurner]

Oh yeah my critiques are entirely UI based. Like I said in my post I'm a UX designer, so front end design is the first thing I notice whenever I use a new program.

Also, please don't think I'm saying UI/UX doesn't matter entirely, it absolutely does; for instance, Mednafen, as good as it is for emulating, is downright unusable without a good frontend (thankfully it has one in Mednaffe).

Another example is SSF, an absolutely legendary emulator that made even entertaining the possibility of emulating the Saturn a reality, but it has an UI that is even worse than some DOS based emulators like Genecyst and KGen98 (and those were super basic).

 

[DanCalibur]

Fighting the urge to suggest Retrobat?

 

[Sumea]

Fighting the urge to suggest Retrobat?

It is quite offtopic but that is a cool, windows based thing for self made arcade cabinets, which I find cool. I think windows base instead of basic linux lakka/bacotera/etc. Makes it so you can put more modern fighting games to the list more easily, if that even is a possibility.

 

[ThirteeTooBeets]

I get your frustration but in all honestly for something like the SNES the only thing I care for is if it run the games well, and as long as any emulator does it I don't really care for the rest