Tips and tricks for Emulating safety.

[middler]

I couldn't find a thread for safe practices when it comes to emulating in the modern world.

Figured we could use a place for recommendations and advice for those of us both seasoned, and fresh to this awesome hobby. Safe places to find ROM's that aren't available here, trusted Emulators that don't infect or damage your device, MAME configurations and repositories that work well, and so on.

Try to keep recommendations simple so this can be useful to everyone.

Thanks, and happy Emulating

 

[DunkeyKong]

Well for ROMs, there's CDRomance and probably some other sites I wouldn't dare to go yet

But for emulators? My first advice would be to search their official website or official build on GitHub

If you need Bios, CDRomance has that too. But for the others like PS Vita or PS3 firmware, you need to go to the official Sony site

 

[middler]

But for emulators? My first advice would be to search their official website or official build on GitHub

If you are emulating on Windows PC I reccomend only using "portable" emulators. Portable means that it can run, and even be updated from the directory you place it in, but it dosent have to install itself into the Operating System. It isnt a perfect solution but it makes me feel a bit better personally.

 

[Waffles]

Lovely idea, dude.

Since I don't have a PC, I'm almost entirely out of the game... but I'd recommend people to be very careful with Project64. Seems that it has been very problematic for a very long time.

 

[DunkeyKong]

If you are emulating on Windows PC I reccomend only using "portable" emulators. Portable means that it can run, and even be updated from the directory you place it in, but it dosent have to install itself into the Operating System. It isnt a perfect solution but it makes me feel a bit better personally.

Yeah there's multiple versions of every emulator, unfortunately some still doesn't have the version for different OS
But yeah mostly it's available for Windows

 

[RageBurner]

A tip I can give is always keep untouched copies of your ROMs/ISOs if you can spare the space, that way whenever a translation/bugfix or whatever updates you only need to download the patch, which is much smaller.

 

[Leifang]

I switched from using 100500 emus with different versions of each to emulating almost everything in Retroarch, it uses libretro ports of popular emulators as "cores" and works on PC, Linux, Android, even consoles...

But generally, ANY popular open source software is safe because if it had trojans or backdoors, someone would have had noticed it (you can't hide anything if source code is publicly on Github).

Romance has a lot of pre-patched roms and homebrews, but you can also manually install hacks (or get emulator to autopatch them on the fly) from RomHacking net, which is a safe and fully legal site (it doesn't host roms, only patches).

Whatever isn't there, I suggest going to /r/Roms megathread, even if you don't use Reddit, it will link you to good pages on archive org and other hosters with so many full romsets! That's enough for most use cases.

A little less safe is just googling for romsets directly, especially CHD files or equivalents (i.e. "PSP CHD roms" and going to folders on Internet Archive, for big files (PS2 or Gamecube isos and the like), use any download manager.

I had to use some specific sites for obscurer platforms, is it allowed to list rom sites here or not? If yes, I will list the pages I had most luck with, safe and working well.

 

[Inkingsama]

Anyone getting into emulation should check out the video game emulation for newbies guide

 

[ATenderLad]

https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

Covers pretty much every question about what emulator to use, what this term means or that, yadda yadda.

 

[RageBurner]

I switched from using 100500 emus with different versions of each to emulating almost everything in Retroarch, it uses libretro ports of popular emulators as "cores" and works on PC, Linux, Android, even consoles...

But generally, ANY popular open source software is safe because if it had trojans or backdoors, someone would have had noticed it (you can't hide anything if source code is publicly on Github).

Romance has a lot of pre-patched roms and homebrews, but you can also manually install hacks (or get emulator to autopatch them on the fly) from RomHacking net, which is a safe and fully legal site (it doesn't host roms, only patches).

Whatever isn't there, I suggest going to /r/Roms megathread, even if you don't use Reddit, it will link you to good pages on archive org and other hosters with so many full romsets! That's enough for most use cases.

A little less safe is just googling for romsets directly, especially CHD files or equivalents (i.e. "PSP CHD roms" and going to folders on Internet Archive, for big files (PS2 or Gamecube isos and the like), use any download manager.

I had to use some specific sites for obscurer platforms, is it allowed to list rom sites here or not? If yes, I will list the pages I had most luck with, safe and working well.

That's some great insight, even though I don't like Retroarch myself.

 

[Leifang]

That's some great insight, even though I don't like Retroarch myself.

When I was sick, I got really used to Steam Big Picture, the ability to control everything, from launching games to turning off PC, with a gamepad, without getting up from the bed, was really gamechanging haha... and unlike other emulators, Retroarch is free on Steam with good support for full gamepad control.

It also helps I can emulate even obscure platforms on my phone without installing 15 separate apps... I also added Retro Achievements to it! PS2 core is crap tho, so you're better off emulating that separately in PCSX2.

BTW, Steam is a game changer in convenience, you can manually add non-Steam PC games to it and get good gamepad support, it's very helpful for playing old stuff that doesn't support XInput or doesn't have a good rebind menu. Much less awkward than Joy2Key or X360CE (for remapping) I was using before.

Last thing, abandonware sites have not just DOS and old Windows games, but also roms for old computers that need emulation, I just got translated roms for Japanese MSX/NEC/Sharp from those... there's a limitation tho, those sites will not distribute stuff that's sold on GOG or as part of some collection since by definition that's still commercial so not abandoned.

 

[Zemus]

Some good links here I hadn't heard of! My guideline: Don't get obsessed with configurations. Just get the game you want to run on the device you want, and make minor tweaks as you playtest.

 

[DanCalibur]

When I was sick, I got really used to Steam Big Picture, the ability to control everything, from launching games to turning off PC, with a gamepad, without getting up from the bed, was really gamechanging haha...

I know exactly what you mean, once you get used to control everything with a gamepad from the couch it's hard to go back haha.. You can also use JoyXoff to have keyboard and mouse control on windows with the gamepad. I never tried Big Picture but I do the same in Retrobat, it downloads and config every emulator almost automatically, much easier to learn than retroarch for instance.

 

[RageBurner]

@DanCalibur your avatar genuinely made me smile.

 

[DanCalibur]

@DanCalibur your avatar genuinely made me smile.

Time is money

 

[Leifang]

I know exactly what you mean, once you get used to control everything with a gamepad from the couch it's hard to go back haha.. You can also use JoyXoff to have keyboard and mouse control on windows with the gamepad. I never tried Big Picture but I do the same in Retrobat, it downloads and config every emulator almost automatically, much easier to learn than retroarch for instance.

Thanks for telling me about JoyXoff, never heard about it before! Big Picture is just a mode in Steam you enter by pressing the monitor icon in top right corner, near minimize/quit, it has built-in on-screen keyboard, and lets you open Steam menu with PS/XBox button and control the mouse by holding it down and moving analog stick for games that have genius idea to add a launcher that doesn't support gamepad. I even made a setup with extra wireless mouse so I can open or pause movies away from PC.

So that's how I played games like Final Fantasy, Trails in the Sky, Arkham Asylum etc., which already have full gamepad support on Steam anyway, and it's just nice to not have to launch any external programs and have everything on one PC... Valve is far from perfect, but Gabe Newell has the right idea of fighting piracy: the only way that works is to provide a better service. So many would spend a few bucks to play some old game without needing to find an emulator bios folder or manually set bindings for each game, and it also has built-in guides, though GameFAQs is still my jam for second monitor or phone, being able to click joystick button to see the dungeon secrets map was like playing in the future! xD

 

[Clippy]

Safe places to find ROM's that aren't available here

We might have to ask Spike about his stance on linking to other romsites but I think I can safely recommend Archive.org, at least when it isn't down. It's a treasure trove for all sorts of games.

 

[Ikagura]

but I'd recommend people to be very careful with Project64. Seems that it has been very problematic for a very long time.

I need to understand because I despise the 30 seconds wait.

 

[middler]

We might have to ask Spike about his stance on linking to other romsites but I think I can safely recommend Archive.org, at least when it isn't down. It's a treasure trove for all sorts of games.

It doesn't have to be a link per se. I wouldn't recommend Miner 2049'er and Bounty Bob Strikes Back for the Atari 5200 and not offer a safe place to get them. i.e. Vimm's Lair, because games from that generation aren't found here as yet.
A game that can be found more directly, that I would recommend like Spider: The Video Game for the PS1 I would go ahead and link.
I could be wrong here (and if i am I will take my lashings) but the emulation community as a whole shouldn't gate-keep or not support each other.

 

[Boo Man]

i use launchbox/bigbox as a front end & its awesome!
highly recommend it

heres another tip, backup your roms!

 

[Clippy]

I could be wrong here (and if i am I will take my lashings) but the emulation community as a whole shouldn't gate-keep or not support each other.

I'm with you there 100% but I also know that quite a few people enjoy petty drama and simply bringing others down. For instance, some people have a beef with Spike over uploading prepatched roms. Chances are he might want to err on the side of caution and not want to bring any possible drama here by letting us link/discuss other sites too much.

Obviously, I can't speak for the man and maybe I'm paranoid but it is what it is.

 

[middler]

I'm with you there 100% but I also know that quite a few people enjoy petty drama and simply bringing others down. For instance, some people have a beef with Spike over uploading prepatched roms. Chances are he might want to err on the side of caution and not want to bring any possible drama here by letting us link/discuss other sites too much.

Obviously, I can't speak for the man and maybe I'm paranoid but it is what it is.

Its a fair point, if he or any of the moderators chime in and set me straight I will comply, I am not here to make enemies. I do not enjoy immature drama. I just want myself, and anyone else who is interested, to have access to all of the things without having to dive into unsavory waters.

I come for the games and stay for the awesome like minded peoples to gab about them with.

 

[Zemus]

We might have to ask Spike about his stance on linking to other romsites but I think I can safely recommend Archive.org, at least when it isn't down. It's a treasure trove for all sorts of games.

Soundtracks, too! Only way to get the GBA Final Fantasy ones in good quality as far as I know.

 

[ATenderLad]

i use launchbox/bigbox as a front end & its awesome!
highly recommend it

heres another tip, backup your roms!

Launchbox is a pretty great way to arrange and browse a MAME collection.

 

[Boo Man]

Launchbox is a pretty great way to arrange and browse a MAME collection.

yeah for any collection!
i tried Batocera first and it was good but it runs on linux OS and it killed my external hdd
so i dont trust it anymore. LaunchBox is way better, safer and runs on windows
the premium version BigBox is really good! and fully worth the 1 time fee although not necessary