WORST emulator you've played on?

[Queltic]

no$GB was great for me back 1999, playing pokemon blue on 3x speed with gameshark and infinite master balls. lol

 

[Retroviews]

A Master System emulator for PS1. It's impressive that they tried to develop one, but the performance was pretty poor, especially when it comes to audio quality.

 

[Bakuma1997]

A Master System emulator for PS1. It's impressive that they tried to develop one, but the performance was pretty poor, especially when it comes to audio quality.

Got one, used it as a cupholder instead (No kidding)

 

[dropsmegamega]

Say whatever you want about zsnes, but at least I didn't had to GUESS what plugins would work with what game like early epsxe, pcsx2 and project64

Also I know its not really an emulator, but I really don't like Retroarch. It was supposed to be more convenient, but anything is more convenient than having to use it. I don't need all the emulators together in one shitty interface

 

[YuriSukiSan]

I SAY PROJECT64, AND YOU SAY SORRY!

.. I had a terrible time with it. I know it's not "bad" when we considered some what has been released over the years but that little stunt they pulled handing out viruses really annoyed me. I'm so glad I don't have to use that emulator anymore it felt like I had an abusive friend sitting on my computer.

 

[fake-kun]

I know ZSNES has been mentioned already, but I think this article really shows how bad it was.

RIP Near/Byuu :'(

 

[Xdqwerty]

Agreed, As soon as i learned about RMG i dropped that shit, helps is has a UI similar to Duckstation

I wish rmg worked on my PC

Just about every Android emulator I've used that isn't PPSSPP or AetherSX2. It seems as if there aren't any good ones outside of those two.

Why?

I think the worst emulators I recall having ever tried are mupen64, blastem, visualboy advance, epsxe (although i have to use it on my game tv stick) and, if it counts, lemuroid

Mupen because it doesnt work, blastem bc uh the menu is kinda buggy, visualboy advance bc mgba is way better, and epsxe bc duckstation is also way better

 

[Skeetos]

I wish rmg worked on my PC

Why?

Mupen because it doesnt work, blastem bc uh the menu is kinda buggy, visualboy advance bc mgba is way better, and epsxe bc duckstation is also way better

I have never had good experiences with emulators on Android besides those two exceptions. I'm sure it's not as bad as all that but I just prefer PC Emulation I suppose. DS and 3DS are the two systems I don't like emulating. I need a 3DS.

 

[Bakuma1997]

I wish rmg worked on my PC

Why it doesn't work?

 

[DanCalibur]

Say whatever you want about zsnes, but at least I didn't had to GUESS what plugins would work with what game like early epsxe, pcsx2 and project64

Also I know its not really an emulator, but I really don't like Retroarch. It was supposed to be more convenient, but anything is more convenient than having to use it. I don't need all the emulators together in one shitty interface

People bashing ZSNES forget that it was meant to run on Windows XP or older and is barely functional on newer systems. I agree with you on RetroArch, that interface is not compatible with my brain, Retrobat on the other hand is much more intuitive.

 

[χKai]

I have never had good experiences with emulators on Android besides those two exceptions. I'm sure it's not as bad as all that but I just prefer PC Emulation I suppose. DS and 3DS are the two systems I don't like emulating. I need a 3DS.

What you trying to emulate on Android? I've been using smartphones only since 2015, when I got it I mainly began using it as a portable gaming device rather than anything else, so I might be able to get you put on the right emulator if you're still interested in trying it; there's really good emulators for Android these days.

 

[Skeetos]

What you trying to emulate on Android? I've been using smartphones only since 2015, when I got it I mainly began using it as a portable gaming device rather than anything else, so I might be able to get you put on the right emulator if you're still interested in trying it; there's really good emulators for Android these days.

Yeah, I assume it's much better now than before. But I also have a ton of handhelds I'd rather emulate on. Vita and Steam Deck for example. Maybe if I ever decide to get one of those fancy gamepad attachments I'll give it another go.

 

[moonbits]

No matter what, PCSX2 always runs like shit for some reason.

 

[bjork]

I'm gonna pick what I guess is an edge case: the Sega Smash Pack on Dreamcast. It's been years so I don't remember, but I feel like this thing came out and then people fixed it or had a better running version of Fusion or whatever on DC, but the Smash Pack had a good number of issues iirc.

 

[Xdqwerty]

Why it doesn't work?

Windows 8.1

 

[χKai]

Yeah, I assume it's much better now than before. But I also have a ton of handhelds I'd rather emulate on. Vita and Steam Deck for example. Maybe if I ever decide to get one of those fancy gamepad attachments I'll give it another go.

They make amazing bluetooth controllers nowadays from a company called 8bitdo, I've had a couple so far and they are the most responsive bluetooth devices I have ever used, and I have never had an instance of input-lag.

The only issue I've ever encountered is that I tried using two at once, playing 2P on Legend of Mana for Playstation; not only could we not move our characters fluidly en motion, we had an issue where the controller inputs would swap controls with each other at random, and holding a direction to move was akin to tapping the direction at random and hoping it moves your dude in a 5 second span. It was ridiculous.

 

[Skeetos]

They make amazing bluetooth controllers nowadays from a company called 8bitdo, I've had a couple so far and they are the most responsive bluetooth devices I have ever used, and I have never had an instance of input-lag.

The only issue I've ever encountered is that I tried using two at once, playing 2P on Legend of Mana for Playstation; not only could we not move our characters fluidly en motion, we had an issue where the controller inputs would swap controls with each other at random, and holding a direction to move was akin to tapping the direction at random and hoping it moves your dude in a 5 second span. It was ridiculous.

That's hilarious lol. But yeah, I love 8bitdo's products. I have the 2.4 GHz Ultimate controller in purple. It's been my favorite controller since getting it 4 months ago. I want to get some of their other stuff too. Namely that PS2 adapter they have and maybe one of their old style controllers like that Sega controller they have.

 

[χKai]

That's hilarious lol. But yeah, I love 8bitdo's products. I have the 2.4 GHz Ultimate controller in purple. It's been my favorite controller since getting it 4 months ago. I want to get some of their other stuff too. Namely that PS2 adapter they have and maybe one of their old style controllers like that Sega controller they have.

Right now I use this

And I use to have this, but the R button broke and at some point I lost it, along with my camoflauge laptop, affectionately referred to as my Camotop.

Both worked amazingly, and I miss having the n30 for it's NES style surface. The L2 and R2 buttons being concave to the rest of the controller was a nice change-up to make the controls fit on such a neat little device. It fits in my pocket and it's nice for long bus rides.

 

[Skeetos]

Right now I use this
View attachment 12070
And I use to have this, but the R button broke and at some point I lost it, along with my camoflauge laptop, affectionately referred to as my Camotop.

Both worked amazingly, and I miss having the n30 for it's NES style surface. The L2 and R2 buttons being concave to the rest of the controller was a nice change-up to make the controls fit on such a neat little device. It fits in my pocket and it's nice for long bus rides.

I want the SN30 but I don't want to get it until they bring back that super nintendo design in the picture there, my friend has one that looks like the NA SNES controller with the blue and purple buttons.

 

[Ikagura]

Right now I use this
View attachment 12070
And I use to have this, but the R button broke and at some point I lost it, along with my camoflauge laptop, affectionately referred to as my Camotop.

Both worked amazingly, and I miss having the n30 for it's NES style surface. The L2 and R2 buttons being concave to the rest of the controller was a nice change-up to make the controls fit on such a neat little device. It fits in my pocket and it's nice for long bus rides.

My older gamepad had the buttons stick for some reasons...

 

[χKai]

My older gamepad had the buttons stick for some reasons...

Mine fell in the tub but it still works

 

[Ikagura]

Mine fell in the tub but it still works

Ah, good then.


I feel that third party stuff are either hit or miss.

 

[χKai]

Ah, good then.


I feel that third party stuff are either hit or miss.

Yeah, it's not like those old Madcatz controllers at all like one would expect from 3rd party game controller hardware, 8bitdo has more professional work than most major companies in the business. It's the closest to feeling like an actual Nintendo controller that I can get.

 

[G78]

I want to share my experience with the Gamma PS1 emulator on iPhone. When it was first released, I decided to give it a try, but honestly, I was extremely disappointed. During the first few months after launch, it was very poorly optimized software: constant crashes, lags, and terrible game compatibility . Maybe things have improved now, but back then it was nearly unusable.

 

[Dumbshenanigans45]

For me, it definitely has to be Play! emulator. It was back when I was still getting into emulation, I wanted to emulate Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 for the ps2, the only experience I had with emulation at that point was on Openemu with nintendo ds, gameboy advance and other stuff. For some inexplicable reason, I mentally couldn't comprehend how to set up PCSX2 and I opted for Play!, in general I'm kind of a dumbass (and I proudly still am one to this very day) so I decided to use Play!.

When I loaded into a match on Budokai Tenkaichi 3, the shit was literally destabilising by the second, it was unimaginably laggy and my fps was dropping rapidly, it was rapidly decreasing faster than you could say "Final Flash!". I eventually deleted Play!, I did try reinstalling it to see if there was some hope left but I gave up. Thankfully, I got PCSX2 working and I've generally been more careful when looking for emulators and doing the proper research into emulators before using them.