WORST emulator you've played on?

[Yousef]

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.
View attachment 12250

This is my other vote for worse emulator yeah. It sucks.

 

[HITMAN_99]

RetroArch, overcomplicated UI, too many options that aren't needed (keep it simple), not as good at emulating as a specialized Emulator.

 

[OmegaPunch's iconOmegaPunch]

Epsxe emulator.
Duckstation is better.

 

[Toppis]

Epsxe emulator.
Duckstation is better.

Yes, when trying to close the ePSXe emulator, it's a pain

 

[Hikari.EXE]

mGBA. It dosen't have IP patching in the emulator, I learned the hard way...

 

[ZEGA ZONIC]

Some of the older SEGA Saturn emus.

 

[Grumpy_Old_Man]

Not one specifically, but i really didn't like the plugin based emulators(having to constantly change them to increase compatibility), I much preferred The "plug and play kind" like Conectix(later emurayden and psx 1.13).

 

[Trainer Red]

any emulator that requires you to play for it


... just kidding ~ i get why some developers do that


.... for some reason i've always had a bit of a dislike for desmume :/ for some reason it was somewhat laggy for me ... melonds was way more stable ... but again that's just me ( more like the PC i'm using )

otherwise i haven't used an emulator that was too problematic

( geez the dislike for retroarch though o_o )

 

[Gamma]

no$GBA was one of the first emulators for me and I didn't know how bad it was until I tried better ones.
I never liked using Epsxe, the UI , even as a kid, sucked to navigate and I was so happy when duckstation came out.

 

[DanCalibur]

RetroArch, overcomplicated UI, too many options that aren't needed (keep it simple), not as good at emulating as a specialized Emulator.

Yeah, RetroArch UI was always a big source of stress. Retrobat solved that for me.

 

[popipo952]

For me, I think SSF, but I really don't blame the devs, since Saturn architecture is a mess in itself, and I think Mednafen really needs to be more user friendly to be honest

 

[Antilocal123]

Those app store mobile ones that run like someone took a camera from the 40’s.

 

[HITMAN_99]

Yeah, RetroArch UI was always a big source of stress. Retrobat solved that for me.

whats RetroBat? it is like a different flavor of RetroArch with better UI?

 

[popipo952]

Those app store mobile ones that run like someone took a camera from the 40’s.

Don't forget the ads shoved on it, sadly what happened to aetherSX2, amazing emulator but things got out of hand

Post automatically merged: Feb 19, 2025

Not one specifically, but i really didn't like the plugin based emulators(having to constantly change them to increase compatibility), I much preferred The "plug and play kind" like Conectix(later emurayden and psx 1.13).

It seems that emulators are stopping with that, PCSX2 had an overhaul and don't use plugins anymore, same for other emulators, it started with PSOne but due to necessity, now it's not necessary anymore

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Can't say I've ever used a BAD emulator, everything runs pretty decently for the most part minus a few exceptions:

-Duckstation (Rival Schools): It smushes this game

-Citra (Fire Emblem games): All the Fire Emblem games are painful on Citra, running at the speed of molasses, especially baffling since Etrian Odyssey and SMT IV run fine

-OpenEmu (DS visual novels): for some reason DS visual novels SPECIFICALLY turn sideways when playing them like Hotel Dusk or Tokimeki Memorial. Had to download Desmume specifically for this

-OpenEmu (some PSP games): a couple PSP games will have some minor errors on OpenEmu, like Riviera having a vertical line rip that never goes away. It's very specific though and not every game has them. As a result, I half have some on PPSSPPS and half on OpenEmu.

-Retroarch (certain games): recently learned how to use the thing but not every game runs. Arcade games do though so it's not all bad

-PCSX2 (Dodonpachi Daioujou): had to do some messing around to get it to run, but I don't remember what I did. The lag was AWFUL.

-Vita3K (Gravity Rush): devolves into a buggy flashy mess but I can still move around and shit

-Vita3K before V1.06 (Muramasa Rebirth): crashes the emulator after the tutorial, sometimes didn't even run at all

But if you want an emulator that I'd say is ACTUALLY bad, it's probably the browser emulators which can just die at any moment, making your files (computer file saves) useless. It's actually because of this that I have 3 different failed Earthbound runs and 2 were from browser

 

[DanCalibur]

whats RetroBat? it is like a different flavor of RetroArch with better UI?

This the official site description:
"RetroBat is a software distribution designed for emulation and to be the easiest way to enjoy your game collection on your Windows computer. The supplied EmulationStation interface is fully functional and highly customizable. You can run all your games from it and search online for visuals to enhance the presentation of your collection.
RetroBat allows you to download, update and configure the most renowned emulators directly from the interface. You will discover or rediscover the best games designed for consoles, arcades and computers released to date.
No need to get lost in the options of a multitude of software, all the important options are integrated in the same unified interface.
With RetroBat, you save time that you can use to play!

 

[Pockets]

Almost every N64 emulator I've tried has been a pain to work with or any other plugin-based emulator like epsxe.

I know a lot of people love Dolphin, but for me it seems like no matter what I try I always get weird stuttering or graphical glitches. I usually prefer running emulators like Duckstation and PCSX2 in software mode to avoid those issues, but Dolphin just seems way to intensive to do that.

 

[Clippy]

-OpenEmu (DS visual novels): for some reason DS visual novels SPECIFICALLY turn sideways when playing them like Hotel Dusk or Tokimeki Memorial. Had to download Desmume specifically for this

They turn sideways because you're supposed to hold your DS sideways when playing them on real hardware. I think they called it book mode or something like that. I haven't used OpenEmu but I'd wager a guess that it has an option to rotate the screens.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

They turn sideways because you're supposed to hold your DS sideways when playing them on real hardware. I think they called it book mode or something like that.

Didn't know that, you learn something everyday. Regardless the games I was playing definitely weren't meant to be played sideways

 

[Skeetos]

This the official site description:
"RetroBat is a software distribution designed for emulation and to be the easiest way to enjoy your game collection on your Windows computer. The supplied EmulationStation interface is fully functional and highly customizable. You can run all your games from it and search online for visuals to enhance the presentation of your collection.
RetroBat allows you to download, update and configure the most renowned emulators directly from the interface. You will discover or rediscover the best games designed for consoles, arcades and computers released to date.
No need to get lost in the options of a multitude of software, all the important options are integrated in the same unified interface.
With RetroBat, you save time that you can use to play!

I'm gonna have to check this one out

 

[DjQuick2008]

n64 emulators have been problematic for me i got a new retrobat hard drive filled with N64 and the one game ive played so far runs well.

Post automatically merged: Feb 20, 2025

I'm gonna have to check this one out

retrobat is great have 3 retrobat hard drives.

 

[TsuruHime]

Any Saturn or original Xbox emulation is a pain in the dick to get working.

 

[Toppis]

Modded xbox is good for xbox emulator

 

[dilsworth]

Xebra
I thought it'll be good but boy I was damn wrong.

Unfortunately, this is the ONLY emulator that is capable of emulating Pocketstation. Took me almost an hour just to get the bonus monster Vatolka on the japanese version of Jade Cocoon, grabbed the savefile to where the said monster is and never touching the emulator ever again.

ZSNES
It was actually a good SNES emulator, but a habit of causing bad glitches or freezes. Notably when I was playing Super Mario RPG and fiddling equipment, the game would sometime freeze randomly. Also I remember the bizzare Marx glitch popping out of nowhere when doing co-op with my sister.

no$gba
Back when I was in Alaska, I was bored as hell with limited internet connection so my ex-friend recommend me this. Sound was actually awful and crackles, save problems here and there, compatability issues. You get the idea. Transitioned to DeSmume when I got a better laptop.

ePSXe
Don't get me started on the plugins. I had to google various plugins that work, only to end up the opposite. Really really got fed up working on it back and forth. When my sister then told me about Duckstation and tried it out, I immediately grabbed ALL my memory card files and called it a day.

 

[Dawg19]

I haven't used too many emulators out there, but I would say Lemuroid.

There's nothing wrong with it, its actually a really good emulator for beginners. No BIOS, little configuration, and a wide range of consoles that it can emulate pretty well.

But that's about it. There's no advanced controller configuration, no cheats, and no disc change feature. That last one really puts a wrench in the gears of someone who was looking into playing Final Fantasy VII or MGS1.