3DS: for both DS and 3DS, don't have problem with the emulation but I really want that dual screen and touchscreen experience
And Xbox 360, mainly because of how Xenia is still buggy.
And a PS Vita, because from some games like Gravity Rush, Vita3K is still not good enough.
But besides from these three I don't think really need buy other consoles.
Duckstation is already amazing and it's my favorite emulator.
Dolphin, PPSSPP and mGBA are also awesome emulators.
In PCSX2 I still ran into some problems, but I still love it.
Cemu, Ares and MAME are pretty good enough for me.
I was about to buy a Sega Saturn tho, but with recently improvements of Ymir I think I'm just gonna wait for more Ymir improvements.
I have a PS2, Saturn, Snes, N64, and Wii permanently hooked up to a nice CRT with Svideo and ypbpr inputs. Especially Saturn, heavily relies on crt rendering artifacts and even signal interference over the cable to get its transparency right. Transparency will just show up as a checkerboard in emulator.
Nintendo: Simply for the control scheme, there are some DS games where I think you'd want to still play on console (The World Ends With You for example). 3DS has also come along well, but I think you'd still have the best experience on a real handheld. For their main systems, I think N64 emulation has really come a long way, but I think you might still want the real system. Wii emulates well, but it requires some of the original controllers to play well. Wii U is still better on hardware last I looked, as well as Switch
Sega: Saturn is the big one, and while there are some really good emulators these days, you still would want hardware (although the price definitely makes emulation "good enough" IMO)
Sony: PS2 is honestly really solid for me, but I've had nothing but troubles with PS3. Vita as well, I'd stick with the real deal
Xbox: Honestly none of them seem to be too great, although I've gotten OG Xbox and 360 running decent enough.
OG xbox for reasons mentioned already. though even buying one used can be a crap shoot with the stupid capacitor issues they have. the belts in the disc drive tray also have a tendency to break so buying one used can be tricky.
Would be more inclined to say yes to the DS and 3DS family of systems, especially since I personally feel like those are easier to get access to and customize to your liking. I think the last time I tried, it ended up badly. Between the console being a bit sluggish and the PC getting a virus so bad it had to be reinstalled with Windows, never touched it since.
Same could be said for the Playstation. Mainly because I kind of grew up with the console in the house as well but the excitement that the startup sound brings before starting the game is priceless. Honestly, playing either Crash Bandicoot: Warped! or Spyro 1/2 without that to start the whole shabang up feels empty. But that's coming from someone that enjoys the remasters a bit too...
To add to the list though, I would say the Nintendo 64 to begin with. It didn't help that I used Project64 which a lot of folks would say no to, but it was one that was commonly known and I was able to run. Unfortunately, the PC was the only way to emulate said console as the new 3DS I have now has access to one and I felt like it was expert levels of tech support and there's not much I knew about it to get to a decent compromise - so I ended up deleting the app. Expansion pak might be a bit tricky to track down, but considering a lot of folks had it for either DK64 or Majora's Mask at some point it would be in the system itself anyways.
The other one I think is best to just get the console itself is the Sega Saturn. Part of why I say this is because I wanted one growing up but didn't (mainly because lack of a decent Sonic title). The other portion of the reason is mainly that I think the current state of Saturn Emulation is still in need of heavy work. I do want to play Sonic Jam so much after the slight disappointment that was Sonic Origins.
Final console is the beloved to me - the Sega Dreamcast. Even with my lack of DIY expertise in the console, I want to see if the parent still has the console just so I could see about getting her cleaned up and running again. Although I might have to see what other changes to bring for her as I remember both Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 having issues when we tried to play them. SA1 is stingy and only plays nice when it wants to otherwise - reads as an audio CD (always had to fight with the "This is a Dreamcast Game Disk" - it's not a CD player lady! I swear!). SA2 is better, but the last time I played it - couldn't load up Hidden Base and thus, game cannot be completed. But the same could be said for the Chao World portion refusing to load at all (the best part, gone). I just don't see myself playing a DC emulator when that is only half of the experience, with the other being the VMUs but I heard those are a little harder to come by nowadays. Open to being corrected as always, but the idea of playing either SA1 or SA2 without it is miserable. Also I want to check out the online stuff since I wasn't able to as a youngin. And Sega Swirl...
I have a PS2, Saturn, Snes, N64, and Wii permanently hooked up to a nice CRT with Svideo and ypbpr inputs. Especially Saturn, heavily relies on crt rendering artifacts and even signal interference over the cable to get its transparency right. Transparency will just show up as a checkerboard in emulator.
Would be more inclined to say yes to the DS and 3DS family of systems, especially since I personally feel like those are easier to get access to and customize to your liking. I think the last time I tried, it ended up badly. Between the console being a bit sluggish and the PC getting a virus so bad it had to be reinstalled with Windows, never touched it since.
Same could be said for the Playstation. Mainly because I kind of grew up with the console in the house as well but the excitement that the startup sound brings before starting the game is priceless. Honestly, playing either Crash Bandicoot: Warped! or Spyro 1/2 without that to start the whole shabang up feels empty. But that's coming from someone that enjoys the remasters a bit too...
To add to the list though, I would say the Nintendo 64 to begin with. It didn't help that I used Project64 which a lot of folks would say no to, but it was one that was commonly known and I was able to run. Unfortunately, the PC was the only way to emulate said console as the new 3DS I have now has access to one and I felt like it was expert levels of tech support and there's not much I knew about it to get to a decent compromise - so I ended up deleting the app. Expansion pak might be a bit tricky to track down, but considering a lot of folks had it for either DK64 or Majora's Mask at some point it would be in the system itself anyways.
The other one I think is best to just get the console itself is the Sega Saturn. Part of why I say this is because I wanted one growing up but didn't (mainly because lack of a decent Sonic title). The other portion of the reason is mainly that I think the current state of Saturn Emulation is still in need of heavy work. I do want to play Sonic Jam so much after the slight disappointment that was Sonic Origins.
Final console is the beloved to me - the Sega Dreamcast. Even with my lack of DIY expertise in the console, I want to see if the parent still has the console just so I could see about getting her cleaned up and running again. Although I might have to see what other changes to bring for her as I remember both Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 having issues when we tried to play them. SA1 is stingy and only plays nice when it wants to otherwise - reads as an audio CD (always had to fight with the "This is a Dreamcast Game Disk" - it's not a CD player lady! I swear!). SA2 is better, but the last time I played it - couldn't load up Hidden Base and thus, game cannot be completed. But the same could be said for the Chao World portion refusing to load at all (the best part, gone). I just don't see myself playing a DC emulator when that is only half of the experience, with the other being the VMUs but I heard those are a little harder to come by nowadays. Open to being corrected as always, but the idea of playing either SA1 or SA2 without it is miserable. Also I want to check out the online stuff since I wasn't able to as a youngin. And Sega Swirl...
For PlayStation emulation you could try Duckstation, it's very good and the recommended standalone these days.
The PS booting screens and sound work, just make sure that the option to skip them isn't checked in the settings.
For playing N64 you should use RMG (Rosalie's Mupen GUI). It's the recommended standalone too, it's easy to use, comes with the necessary plugins, and if you choose the parallel RDP and RSP pair of plugins, you don't have to tweak anything.
Don't lose hope! Perhaps you could save some money and buy a relatively modern low tier PC, I only have a Ryzen 3200g CPU with integrated graphics and it plays PS2 nicely, and even some Switch games (I beated Super Mario Odyssey on Yuzu, not fullspeed all the time mind you).
For PS3, sadly it seems good to have a real one at hand.
I own an old model 3DS but it's a bit broken, I'd like to fix it. I'd also probably want to hack a new, bigger model 3DS. And a Vita, both to play the Sony libraries (PSP, PS1) but also as a homebrew/emulation machine.
Maybe an XBox 360/One for the retrocompatibility, but honestly whatever console I'd even consider getting would have to be open to sideloading games. My ass is NOT spending money on physical copies of all the games I wanna play. Which is why I continue sticking to PC.
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