Which consoles would you still buy today because you feel the emulator is not good enough?

[Mahan_Native]

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.

 

[Bagleman]

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.

Edit, Ds, 3DS, and Wiiu also.

 

[aquova]

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.

 

[solidbatman]

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.

 

[ookamij64]

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...

 

[secreto7]

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.

Edit, Ds, 3DS, and Wiiu also.

The newest and promising Saturn emulator called Ymir have implemented deinterlacing and transparencies.

Post automatically merged: Jul 1, 2025

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.

Post automatically merged: Jul 1, 2025

PS3. my beloved PS3 died recently, and I miss it so much. My potato PC is so bad that it can't even emulate a PS2 game properly.

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.

Post automatically merged: Jul 1, 2025

Can one even subject oneself to the proper Virtual Boy experience without OG hardware?

You could use the Mednafen Virtual Boy core, or the Beetle VB Rettoarch core, I used the Virtual Boy emulator port in Bizhawk.

 

[Varyag]

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.

 

[RetroSTG]

I'm just going to get a steam deck. I can put my emulators on it and buy games on sale. I'm not going to support the $80+ game prices on these current gen consoles. The last console I purchase was a switch. And I already have a modded 3ds, wii, wii u, and a ps vita. I have a back log of games and I only play a few games surprisingly. My kids enjoy the modded consoles and get to experience what I grew up with that was lost over time.

 

[kuroninneko]

I noticed PS2 emulator pcsx2 does not have true analog controls with any controller or settings. Instead of being full 360 degrees it snaps to 8 directions. Noticed this while playing Shinobi. Now im wondering if the game had full 360 movement like I remember. This ruins most action games for me and makes the emulator only usable for turn based RPGs and similar games.

 

[loopy]

I noticed PS2 emulator pcsx2 does not have true analog controls with any controller or settings. Instead of being full 360 degrees it snaps to 8 directions. Noticed this while playing Shinobi. Now im wondering if the game had full 360 movement like I remember. This ruins most action games for me and makes the emulator only usable for turn based RPGs and similar games.

PCSX2 absolutely supports true analog joysticks. either you set it up wrong, or its the game that doesn't support it. Are you using the newest version of PCSX2 2.4.0+?

Also, this shouldnt work i think, but you can try it: Press the analog button and see if it fixes it.

If not, then play with the dead-zone settings

If that doenst work, try the restore defaults button in the controller settings menu.

if it still doesnt work, try a different controller, preferably a real PS3 4 or 5 controller, or an xbox 360/One/Series controller.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

I wouldnt emulate the original xbox and ps2 . I have too much fun looking at flea markets or Retrogame-shops for the games that interest me . Often the prices aint high amd you get a good deal out of it . And i got already a working and modded xbox and a still functioning ps2 which dont wanna let it to waste .

But i think i try Dreamcast emulation . Does anybody know how far the Dreamcast emulation is ?

 

[Vardalis]

For me? Probably the PS3 and Xbox 360. I tried doing PS3 two separate times and it was such a pain for meagre results (and headaches with getting patches because one had some sort of funny DRM stamped save files, thanks Tekken Tag 2) that I just gave up with it. Never tried Xbox 360 and buying one used was cheap enough.

I did think PS2 was on my list because of anomalies in PCSX2 over the years, but after buying a physical one for homebrew and having an absolute nightmare three several hour sessions trying to get the SSD setup working and failing after multiple trips back and forth to the PC in the other room it went back in the box for the time being. I thought it was as simple as plug in the FreeMcBoot memory card, load up your SSD and away you go. Nope.

Anything else? I'm probably fine with the compromise. Handhelds are covered. Home consoles are covered. The Wii would verge on that for something like it's light gun shooter catalog but I just don't want to go through buying one used and all that.

 

[kuroninneko]

PCSX2 absolutely supports true analog joysticks. either you set it up wrong, or its the game that doesn't support it. Are you using the newest version of PCSX2 2.4.0+?

Also, this shouldnt work i think, but you can try it: Press the analog button and see if it fixes it.
View attachment 98647

If not, then play with the dead-zone settings
View attachment 98648
If that doenst work, try the restore defaults button in the controller settings menu.
View attachment 98649
if it still doesnt work, try a different controller, preferably a real PS3 4 or 5 controller, or an xbox 360/One/Series controller.

Thanks I'll give this a try. Would be awesome to get it working. I got version 2.2 looks like I need to upgrade.

 

[DjQuick2008]

the original x box looks like it has some good games never owned one at all

 

[Dyne]

For me, its Playstation 3/4/5 and all Xbox systems.

Everything else I can emulate just fine for my needs.
For example, I can (and do) get a sufficient DS/3DS experience using an 8-inch tablet (in portrait orientation) and a telescopic controller. Not the cheapest option though.

 

[Matricks]

This last 8yrs I bought some new new3ds/XL, new WiiU, new Switch and Used X360, PS2, PS3, new PS4Pro Only when those SystemOS was Hacked and Games can be downloaded.
Im a modder and collector.

 

[Questless Knight]

If I was rich enough
PC-98
Sharp X68000
MSX 2
PC Engine

It´s not that the Emulators are bad it´s just they are a pain in the ass to get to work 100% of the time.


Also the reason I do own PS2 and PS3 consoles is because the emulators are ass.
The PS2 you need to fiddle with the setting for nearly each game to be sure they run smooth and look good.
The PS3 if you check the RPCS3 compatibility list they have 989 games that either can't be finished, have serious glitches or have insufficient performance.

Seeing how damn cheap the PS3 and PS2 are and that you can soft mods both consoles well yeah Frack the emulators.


Honestly I do own a Snes and N64 and Gamecube but the reason I play on emulator is I don´t have 5billions on my account the spend on the games. And sadly you can´t run snes games from a hard drive on a snes. Yes I know we have flash carts but Im not paying 100 fucking euro for that.

 

[Varyag]

Honestly I did find some really good emulators for those retro computers, but I'd kinda want to have the real thing for the actual feel of using the thing. Like an Amiga or an X68k. But at least there are solutions to play them on our modern computers too.

 

[Darklink]

If the Saturn had more games I was interested in, that would be an easy pick.

N64 is also very close as well. There's just enough annoyance with it at times that I wonder if I'd be better off getting an actual N64, or the Analogue 3D.

 

[Sheepy765]

I’d buy and Xbox because my experience with Xemu has been pretty not great, and I’d buy a PS3 because Ridge Racer 7 crashes so often on that thing it’s hard to enjoy for an extended period of time.

 

[cloudsets]

This brings to mind the instances where emulators are perfectly capable of running any game I want to play, but the hardware to run those emulators costs significantly more than simply buying a used console.

For instance, RPCS3 and Ryujinx are absolutely capable of running anything I would want to at 4K on a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and an RTX 3090, but I can buy a used PS3 and Switch for far cheaper than I can build that rig. Even for homebrew and modded games, those consoles can be softmodded. Unless someone is a professional video editor, wants to use their computer primarily for playing high-end AAAA PC games, or maybe is a hardcore hobbyist machine learning developer, I can't imagine them owning that system.

To answer the actual question posed, the first that come to mind are the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 360. Of course the newer PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S also fit that description. I don't consider any Nintendo or Sega console to have subpar emulators available aside from the Switch 2 (which I doubt will remain that way for long), but some of the more niche older systems do. For instance, the CD-i has MAME and the aptly (if uncreatively) named CD-i Emulator, but both have issues. Last I tried emulating The Apprentice in MAME, sound was completely broken, and CD-i Emulator has severe latency issues and a bizarre monetization structure. It's my understanding that MAME has gotten better, but the solutions have been hacky, and the sound emulation is still lacking.

Until recently, I would have said that the lack of good emulated VMU integration would arguably make owning a real Dreamcast preferable to emulation, but that changed at the beginning of this year. I recommend looking into DreamPotato if you have yet to.

 

[Mr. SyS]

Anything above 5th gen, really.

 

[KenShjIN]

My favourite console of all time : the allmighty N64 !