Worst emulation experience(s)?

[Nickakyoin]

Title can be misleading, but by that I mean what were for you the worst console experiences you've tried (or attempted) via emulator in the past (or even present).

• PS1 to emulate, for me, was pure chaos with BIOS and finding the right ones. I did got the gist and made work ePSXe even in my first smartphone ever. Duckstation then made everything so much easier.
• Nowadays stuff like Dolphin and PCSX2 works amazingly, but the latter was a huge pain to make it start on my previous PCs (obviously far weaker) and when I tried to emulate many games it lagged like hell. Games like FF X and JoJo Ougon No Kaze worked fine, but then 2006 ones like Dawn of Mana or JoJo Phantom Blood for PS2 it was pure hell. 4 FPS of (already) horrid gameplay.
• Lately with VBA and Project64 I'm having some issues of optimization, but if the later can still be bearable, trying Sonic Advance 3 on VBA was atrocious. No idea since most of other games work fine. But I should learn how to use proper settings (and make it look like this)

 

[Max]

Sega saturn was a nightmare trip

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Jaguar was such a shitshow that I never fully recovered.

 

[Nickakyoin]

Sega saturn was a nightmare trip

It's a miracle I got the settings right, so happy to play the Saturn's SOTN version, Soukyuu Gurentai and Sakura Wars very smoothly. For the times that console was really a beast (just like the Dreamcast).

 

[Eclipse14]

Jaguar and the PC-88.

Jaguar because the RetroArch core straight up doesn't work with most games.

PC-88 because, apart from the games that use only a single disk, getting games to even start up can be a total train wreck. The 98 can be this way on the floppy route too, but it has a menu within the core to handle them. No such luck with the 88.

 

[χKai]

When I was a teenager and much more irritable and impatient than I am nowadays..
Which isn't much less, but oh well. Pobody's Nerfect.

 

[Danieru-Emanyueru]

I hate the N 64 Emulators. My experience with the emulating console is often associated with problems such as faulty graphics, poor performance and audio interference.

 

[Chicken]

Less bad and more annoying but for some reason when I used Dolphin back then it always had a habit of crashing when switching Wii games. Not games in general, switching between Gamecube games was fine, it was only going from one Wii game to anything else that cause crashes for whatever reason. No matter how many updates, no matter what games, and even when deleting Dolphin and reinstalling it. These days, I just use Dolphin only on Steam Deck for specific Gamecube games so it never fully bothered me, but it was still kinda confusing lol.

 

[CheesyExplosive]

any emulator that in development or... it depends on your pc.
for example: i can't play xemu because im using a fucking ryzen pro 5 2400ge.

 

[χKai]

I hate the N 64 Emulators. My experience with the emulating console is often associated with problems such as faulty graphics, poor performance and audio interference.

Tell me about it, Glide64 has been a godsend

 

[Jangiku]

Project64 for me, I gave up a few weeks back. For some reason it always crashes on me at least 4 times a play session.

 

[SoThankful]

I hate the N 64 Emulators. My experience with the emulating console is often associated with problems such as faulty graphics, poor performance and audio interference.

Same. It breaks my heart how hard it is to emulate.

 

[Danieru-Emanyueru]

Tell me about it, Glide64 has been a godsend

Project64 always had problems with the graphics settings. I tried Ares it is actually a very new N64 emulator runs reasonably well but there are still some problems with a few games. A small ray of hope is this emulator Simple64 it seems to be working well for me so far but there are sound problems from time to time and that's my N64 story so far. Let's see what else comes.

 

[χKai]

Project64 always had problems with the graphics settings. I tried Ares it is actually a very new N64 emulator runs reasonably well but there are still some problems with a few games. A small ray of hope is this emulator Simple64 it seems to be working well for me so far but there are sound problems from time to time and that's my N64 story so far. Let's see what else comes.

The only console to be such a closed-source pain in the ass, it's still just more worth it to go out and buy one 20 years later

 

[Danieru-Emanyueru]

The only console to be such a closed-source pain in the ass, it's still just more worth it to go out and buy one 20 years later

yeah that's true

 

[Mahan_Native]

PS1: ePSXe was the first emulator i ever used and i was only 7 years old so obviously it was hell for me at first

PS2: tho PCSX2 now is one of my favorite emulators, back in the days 1.5 and 1.6 versions, it wasn't a pleasant experience; had to write separate settings on paper just for different game lol.

SEGA Saturn: just the like 1.6 version of PCSX2, Saturn emulators weren't good for me either, had to go through a lot of pain to select a good standalone emulator (i had Retroarch btw) and it's a good thing Ymir is here.

Early N64 Emulation experience: before N64 emulation was not really that good. it still has some problems and sometimes is a mess, but thanks to modern plugins it's better than before.


and the other problems i had with the other emulators were just because of my laptop.

 

[aquova]

I remember being unable to get any Sega CD emulator working until like 2010 or so, then I never had any issues since.

Saturn was always a mess as well, I didn't get Saturn emulation working either until a few years ago. I still find emulating a lot of arcade machines to be a bit finicky, there's so many different configurations.

 

[moonbits]

Lately, N64 just seems to not work properly on whatever core I try on my Retroid Pocket. Project64 20 years ago didn't give me trouble

Other than that, PCSX2 always craps itself in some way or form, but that's just the nature of it.

 

[skramz]

N64 emulation... on the PSP.

majora's mask can be played at home, the moon can wait.

i quite literally met with a terrible fate from that experience...

 

[Bakuma1997]

SATURN
SATURN
SATURN!!!

First tried Yabasanshiro, couldn't even get it to start
Second tried MEDNAFEN, worked on light ones (The Twinkle Star Sprites port) but heavier ones were out of the question, and them its lack of hud made it a chore to play
Third i played Kronos, the so called Saturn's Duckstation, it ran perfectly... but it didn't detect controllers and it was as responsive as a sedated sloth anyways

Mercifully fourth time was the charm and now i emulate it with Bizhawk

 

[CheesyExplosive]

SATURN
SATURN
SATURN!!!

First tried Yabasanshiro, couldn't even get it to start
Second tried MEDNAFEN, worked on light ones (The Twinkle Star Sprites port) but heavier ones were out of the question, and them its lack of hud made it a chore to play
Third i played Kronos, the so called Saturn's Duckstation, it ran perfectly... but it didn't detect controllers and it was as responsive as a sedated sloth anyways

Mercifully fourth time was the charm and now i emulate it with Bizhawk

try sff or ssf

 

[Bakuma1997]

try sff or ssf

May consider it, FTTB Bizhawk hardly have me problems so i will stick with it for now

 

[CheesyExplosive]

May consider it, FTTB Bizhawk hardly have me problems so i will stick with it for now

Well yeah bizhawk is frankly a sidekick to retroarch but i belive sff or ssf is more useful in my case. espically if i need it as a plan b.

 

[jabeck1]

Non arcade MAME is extremely difficult and such a pain
Computer based emulators are more difficult to use (Sharp x68000, pc98, dosbox, atari st, etc.)
Sometimes old computer games had some weird quirks, like the controller having to be in port 2 you may not realize that when you're emulating (but not the emulators fault)