Tips and tricks for Emulating safety.

[ATenderLad]

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

That's rotten luck with Batocera, I use it with a Steam Deck but it hasn't died on me yet. A little fiddly getting out a USB hub and keyboard to configure though.

 

[Boo Man]

That's rotten luck with Batocera, I use it with a Steam Deck but it hasn't died on me yet. A little fiddly getting out a USB hub and keyboard to configure though.

thats cool that it works on Steam Deck. i did like Batocera while it was working especially the themes & default music was funky af XD but yeah breaking my hdd is unforgivable, it would freeze just before booting into batocera but the OS was still flashed to the drive making it unusable. i dunno what happened there but i really hope it doesn't happen to your Steam Deck! im sure the deck can just hard reset or something anyway

 

[Don Patch]

Well for ROMs, there's ᏟDᏒ 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, ᏟDᏒ has that too. But for the others like PS Vita or PS3 firmware, you need to go to the official Sony site

We have a winner!
Pin this post

 

[Leifang]

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.

Wait, prepatched roms is literally what makes this site better than competition for games it has. Not only it helps when the game uses obscure patching methods or relies on multiple patches (I remember installing like three separate translations on top of each other for some KOEI game), you don't have to look for SPECIFIC rom version to patch and keep backups for when it updates.

As a bonus, some pre-patched roms from here are already detected by Libretro as separate releases and it just makes things easier and organized neatly instead of browsing all game's hacks to try to find ones that are major instead of just a brightness update.

But yeah, it was general forum etiquette for so long to not mention or link to rom sites, in general. Romhacking, Reddit and Internet Archive aren't those, so talking about them is like mentioning Google or YouTube. What's the site rules for hyperlinking images? I am new on this forum.

 

[newageretrohippie]

If i cant find it here, i usually check https://wowroms.com which has been solid for many years.

also check mr sujanos sources, he wont steer you wrong

Mr. Sujano

Welcome to the official YouTube channel of Mr. Sujano! I'm a gaming and technology journalist bringing you the latest and greatest news from around the world. I do my best to create daily videos from wherever I am - even when I'm camping off-grid. Topics on this channel vary from video to...

www.youtube.com

 

[RetroMule]

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.

I do this, I have a archived folder that is only for archiving and ROM patching. So if I need to patch a ROM I pull from the archive and do the work, then put it back in the archived area under ROM Hacks. Came in handy when a ROM hack needed a specific English translation version. Also be

 

[Yuki Senoue]

Always, ALWAYS use only the official site/source of emulators. Do not download from any site that's not the official source. Need help to find? This is the reliable place: https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page



AND NEVER, EVER download ANY .DLL from any place! If an emulator asks for a .DLL, it surely needs some sort of Microsoft Redistributable. Only download them from Microsoft's site!

 

[RageBurner]

Always, ALWAYS use only the official site/source of emulators. Do not download from any site that's not the official source. Need help to find? This is the reliable place: https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page



AND NEVER, EVER download ANY .DLL from any place! If an emulator asks for a .DLL, it surely needs some sort of Microsoft Redistributable. Only download them from Microsoft's site!

Excellent tips!

 

[Carlnshake]

No glove. No love

 

[χKai]

Trying to find what else hasn't been said?
Just don't be stupid and know what type of file you're running and don't download the random crap the sites with all the ads will automatically try to force you to download and you'll be alright. Sometimes the sites have a countdown until auto-starting download. This is not what I mean!! I mean like WowROMs and SteamUnlocked have these invasive ads that force automatic downloads at first on the page, and you have to get rid of these because they're fake, even if it's named after the thing you're looking for! Insane. I would not have known to do this if I hadn't been pirating games practically my whole life.

Other than that, just generally don't be stupid about downloading file types you don't know and you ought to be alright.

If it's a zipped file, rar or 7z, etc., just be sure to check what's in it  before extracting.

Always, ALWAYS use only the official site/source of emulators. Do not download from any site that's not the official source.

I will continue to use Zophar's Domain t(^-^t)

 

[Yuki Senoue]

I will continue to use Zophar's Domain t(^-^t)

That's a blast from the past, this site still exists?
Dang, it does, and it is pretty outdated

 

[thecrow2313]

That's a blast from the past, this site still exists?
Dang, it does, and it is pretty outdated

This still exists

The Emulator Zone - Your Source for Emulation!

The Emulator Zone is your source for the latest emulators for classic video game consoles and home computers.

www.emulator-zone.com

 

[RageBurner]

This still exists

The Emulator Zone - Your Source for Emulation!

The Emulator Zone is your source for the latest emulators for classic video game consoles and home computers.

www.emulator-zone.com

I'm surprised.
I'd say the best current source is https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

 

[thecrow2313]

I'm surprised.
I'd say the best current source is https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page

Agreed

 

[mmmmmpiracy]

Archive.org's "ni-roms" section has every No-Intro ROM released for every system they've done a romset for, and thanks to their wonderful directory structure, you can "View Contents" on any one of the romsets, and pull down an individual rom if needed. This has been a godsend for gaps that ᏟDᏒ/rgt haven't filled, such as recent romhacks/translations Spike hasn't been notified of or MSU-1 and MD+ ROMs, all of which need the user to manually patch. Just append the above quoted section to and life becomes way easier. Searching Archive.org for the latest unmerged MAME sets is also useful and fruitful.

RetroArch is a fantastic emulation suite for the first 5 generations of gaming, which I tend to prefer playing. The work to set up (Hint: press F5 for the Qt GUI that makes box art and manual additions easier) pays off when everything is controllable by a gamepad. Plus, if you find yourself using EmuDeck or OpenEmu, you're still using libretro cores from RetroArch anyway. It's the reigning king of emulation formats and standards. Yes, Daniel/TwinAphex is a smarmy Cluster B personality, but he's a very good programmer architect.

Honorable mentions go to Ares (RIP byuu/Near) and Mesen2 for dedication to accuracy.

For gaming during the Dark Ages (Dreamcast to PS5), the options are a little more straightforward:
Dreamcast - Flycast (better than libretro core)
PS2 - PCSX2
PS3 - RPCS3
Xbox - Xemu
360 - Xenia
Wii/Gamecube - Dolphin
Wii U - Cemu
Switch - Ryujinx
Now that all consoles are just PC's with proprietary operating systems (PS4/5, Xbox One/S/X) I just wait for PC ports; there's no real reason to own any of the "modern" consoles over a Steam Deck anymore, and timed exclusives mean I merely wait 6 months to a year for them to be on Steam.