Best Play Station Emulator?

[FPU]

Looking for a PS1 emulator, what's the best one?

[Warrior]

So far the most accurate/easy PSX emulator is Mednafen.

It is easiest to use with Retroarch, you must have the correct bios in with Retroarch system folder before attempting to load a game or it will crash.

If you need help setting it up il be happy to help.

[FPU]

Is that a GUI based emulator?

[emu75]

Bleemcast for Dreamcast is awesome (better job than the PS2) for... 3 games but there are other versions that improve the compatibility list.

[FPU]

Well I found this one, which was really easy to set and works great. GUI based.

http://www.epsxe.com/download.php

[Warrior]

Is that a GUI based emulator?

Mednafen vanilla is not, it requires frontends and is more hassle then what you are looking for.

Retroarch is the official frontend for the libretro core system, they turn emulators and such into a core and it runs inside Retroarch.

Libretro core are used in other systems as well like OpenEmu for Mac and Bizhawk which is for TAS players.

http://buildbot.libretro.com/nightly/

Go there and look for your OS, grab RetroArch_full.7z if available.

Here is my bios pack, Download Links:
Links are hidden from guests. Please register to be able to view these links. put the system folder in Retroarches root directory, open Retroarch and go to Settings>Directory>System Bios Dir and choose the system folder.

to get the Mednafen PSX core go to online updater/core updater/ Playstation (Mednafen PSX).

Retroarch is meant to use your controller to navigate but the accept/back keys are Z and X on the keyboard.

Once you have the bios path set and the core loaded go to information/core information, if the bios say Present you can load a game and test/tweak the settings.

F1 toggles the GUI, F toggles fullscreen.

You may need to go to Video settings and change a few things to optimize it such as Threaded Video.

Once you have it set up and tweaked you never need to screw around with those options again, just load a game and have at it.

To toggle Standard pad/Dualshock go to input > user 1 device type and sweet to your preferred controller type.

At this rate I really should make a guide.

[skullpoker]

From what I hear PSX or PSXFIN is the easiest to use as they don't have plugins to configure. The flip side is that they are less compatible/adaptable. ePSXe or Mednafen both have plugins, which can let you boost graphics beyond what the PS was capable of. ePSXe even let's you load in outside Hi-Res texture packs, but I have no experience with that.

And since you're using plugin based emulators, http://psxdatacenter.com/ has listings for PS games and stable plugins and configurations. Not always the best, or good for low end computers, but stable. In some cases it will even suggest a specific emulator for a game, but it's not always needed.

[Warrior]

Mednafen has zero plugins, its a all in one emulator that does not use a plugin system.

pSX/pSXfin is beyond outdated/dead/closed source , has tons of issues with various games.

Mednafen is like pSX but way more accurate and actually runs 99.9% of games correctly like it would be on a real playstation.

epsxe uses stolen code from other emulators, makes them closed source then profits off of them.

epsxe does not help the emulation community in the least.

[skullpoker]

Mednafen has zero plugins, its a all in one emulator that does not use a plugin system.

pSX/pSXfin is beyond outdated/dead/closed source , has tons of issues with various games.

Mednafen is like pSX but way more accurate and actually runs 99.9% of games correctly like it would be on a real playstation.

epsxe uses stolen code from other emulators, makes them closed source then profits off of them.

epsxe does not help the emulation community in the least.

Oh, so is it not possible to turn up graphics like you can on ePSXe?

For those who don't know, PS had a ton of small tweaks that would be included on the game disc that are analogous to a DirectX update you get installing some games on a PC. These made the graphics or sound better for that game, or changed the encoding so more data could fit on the disc, things like that. This is what makes something without plugins more difficult/less compatible. So if Mednafen managed 99.9% compatibility, that's amazing.

I'm quite sure the only place I've seen ePSXe for sale is on the Android market, so it probably is on iphone app store too. But since almost all emulators for phones either don't work or are not free, I'm not sure I see your beef. I've always had ePSXe on my PC for free and since I've started using psxdatacenter I always get good results and more options if I want a game to look better or it doesn't sound quite right.

[Warrior]

Oh, so is it not possible to turn up graphics like you can on ePSXe?

For those who don't know, PS had a ton of small tweaks that would be included on the game disc that are analogous to a DirectX update you get installing some games on a PC. These made the graphics or sound better for that game, or changed the encoding so more data could fit on the disc, things like that. This is what makes something without plugins more difficult/less compatible. So if Mednafen managed 99.9% compatibility, that's amazing.

It looks exactly as it would ran from real hardware, you can make it look better with filters/shaders.

Retroarch lets you "stack" shaders to get the lok you want, like say CRT plus blur/ghosting/CRT in a dark room glow.

give me a bit and il try to give you a sample.

Retroarch/Libretro team made these emulators portable to most hardware and OS types.

There is another PSX emulator being tweaked to run on non ARM hardware, PCSX ReARMed which is actually a fantastic fork of PCSX.

it lets you make it look like epsxe and uses way less power to run, all the plugins are baked in the core so all you gotta do is go yo the GUI and switch the video plugin to suit your taste.

Regarding my "beef" try clicking on the epsxe splash screen after launching it and that will give you a slight understanding as to why.

[skullpoker]

It looks exactly as it would ran from real hardware, you can make it look better with filters/shaders.

Retroarch lets you "stack" shaders to get the lok you want, like say CRT plus blur/ghosting/CRT in a dark room glow.

give me a bit and il try to give you a sample.

That sounds pretty awesome. I don't like the way ePSXe makes 2d look with texture filtering effects, it's horrid. I want something more like 2xSAI on NES and SNES emulators that makes thing look more smooth/rounded and less pixelated, so if Mednafen does that I will have to check it out.

Regarding my "beef" try clicking on the epsxe splash screen after launching it and that will give you a slight understanding as to why.

I'm looking at the splash on PC, which says support us by buying the android version. Nothing happens when I click on it. I don't like that they don't make the android version available for free, but whoever made ePSXe definitely deserves some support. It's a great emulator, if a pain to configure. It seems to be a trade off between ease of use and Glorious Options! Plus the Plugin system let's me use [PEC]. Does RetroARCH do Gameshark or Action Replay?

[Warrior]

That sounds pretty awesome. I don't like the way ePSXe makes 2d look with texture filtering effects, it's horrid. I want something more like 2xSAI on NES and SNES emulators that makes thing look more smooth/rounded and less pixelated, so if Mednafen does that I will have to check it out.

ya its very obnoxious.,

Regarding shaders that is EXACTLY what you can do.

If you need help setting it up (not that hard really) il help you.

I'm looking at the splash on PC, which says support us by buying the android version. Nothing happens when I click on it. I don't like that they don't make the android version available for free, but whoever made ePSXe definitely deserves some support. It's a great emulator, if a pain to configure. It seems to be a trade off between ease of use and Glorious Options! Plus the Plugin system let's me use [PEC]. Does RetroARCH do Gameshark or Action Replay?

Plugin based emulators are a scourge and if you are a emulation enthusiast you will know they use stolen code,close the source so no one can audit the code and then sell it and push the agenda.

Mednafen and PCSX ReARMed are honestly a million times better.

Retroarch uses cheat codes yes, still needs to be hooked to mednafen psx though.

BTW sent you a vid skullpoker.

[skullpoker]

It wasn't easy to find the RetroArch_full.7z since I expected it to be at the top of the list. Anybody trying this out, make sure you scroll down or Ctrl+F and search for it after you select your OS.

[Zorlon]

This all depends on what the user is after at the end of the day

Myself I still have the original hardware and still use it from time to time and emulation often takes place on my Xbox (with PSX/PS2 pads) rather than a PC anyway

Bleem!cast comment made me giggle a bit, I love my Dreamcast and those do look nice but a DC pad for PSX games is not great especially MGS a game I love does not feel nice on a Dreamcast

ePSXe can be a pain but you can also get great results for those wanting to push the visuals up a notch or two via 3D enhancements or 2D enhancements done via plugins
RetroARCH is a nice simple way to emulate in general once you have that setup correctly

As far as getting perfect emulation with no hacks ect this does not personally interest me and does not provide fast emulation at the end of the day, there are lots of emulators like this in recent years mostly because the PC's around now can handle a lot more so not as much need for speed hacks or other speed boosting methods unless you don't have a high end PC, that not everyone has including myself for a while and I'm not on a top of the line PC or anything

MAME for example prides itself on accurate emulation without the aid of hacks ect (I do actually like MAME though it is not that easy for everyone to use/setup though I think it is very simple myself) but in doing so some games are emulated faster and without glitches as far as the user goes (there are some games that will still be glitchy) with other emulators, some do take code directly from MAME to do so, others don't and have been done with there own code

There are not that many emulators that don't have some sort of issue and not all of those issues are outwardly obvious.

[treos]

this reminds me, i've been thinking of trying that retroarch emulator thing but looking at that download link in one of you're older posts in this thread, warrior. a 2-5.5GB download seems WAY too big just so i could emulate games sadly. it'd take me days, if not a week or so, to download this thing. (i'm guessing i'd have to download 1 or all of those huge files in the windows section?)

that guide you spoke of making would probably be really helpful too since it sounds (might not be as complicated as i'm assuming) like a fair bit of work just to get it all setup and running.

i'll stick with easier stuff like epsxe for now. :/