Homebrew Which SNES or GBA emulators run flawlessly or almost flawlessly?

[FrozenDragon150]

Virtual Console injection will almost always be superior to homebrew emulators, even .cia versions.

At this point, you might be better off emulating on a PC, you're nigh guaranteed to get better results there than with 3DS homebrew.

 

[N7Kopper]

Virtual Console injection will almost always be superior to homebrew emulators, even .cia versions.

Both because Nintendo have all that nifty source code and hardware schematics to help build their emulators, and because GBA VC games aren't actually emulated.
(Not even on N3DS, which could no doubt handle at least a good portion of the library - maybe Nintendo really don't want to use the extended memory trick on the N3DS)

 

[PK101]

no

 

[SimplyFedorable]

injection are the best for gba, but I have had really good results with blargsnes with my n3ds

 

[gamecaptor]

So I just did a quick test with a few different SNES and GBA emulators.

SNES
blargSNES v1.3
ActRaiser 2 - Doesn't work
Aladdin - Runs perfect
Axelay - Runs perfect
Donkey Kong Country - Runs perfect

Retroarch PocketSNES v7.2.0 (1.3.6)
ActRaiser 2 - Runs perfect
Aladdin - Runs perfect
Axelay - Runs perfect but noticed some screen tearing on the left hand side
Donkey Kong Country - Runs perfect but noticed some screen tearing on the left hand side

Retroarch SNES9x Next v1.52.4 (1.3.6)
ActRaiser 2 - Runs slow
Aladdin - Runs slow
Axelay - Runs slow
Donkey Kong Country - Runs slow

GBA
mGBA nightly build
Aladdin - Runs a little slow
Donkey Kong Country - Runs a little slow
Drill Dozer - Runs a little slow

Retroarch mGBA git (1.3.6)
Aladdin - Runs slow
Donkey Kong Country - Runs slow
Drill Dozer - locks up

Retroarch gpSP v0.91 (1.3.6)
Aladdin - Runs great. A little screen tearing
Donkey Kong Country - Runs perfectly
Drill Dozer - Locks up

Now i know there are a lot of settings that can be adjusted with the Retroarch emus, so very likely you could get better results with them (I am using default settings).

So in my opinion I would stick with blargSNES or PocketSNES for SNES stuff and gpSP for GBA stuff.

 

[ShadowOne333]

So I just did a quick test with a few different SNES and GBA emulators.

SNES
blargSNES v1.3
ActRaiser 2 - Doesn't work
Aladdin - Runs perfect
Axelay - Runs perfect
Donkey Kong Country - Runs perfect

Retroarch PocketSNES v7.2.0 (1.3.6)
ActRaiser 2 - Runs perfect
Aladdin - Runs perfect
Axelay - Runs perfect but noticed some screen tearing on the left hand side
Donkey Kong Country - Runs perfect but noticed some screen tearing on the left hand side

Retroarch SNES9x Next v1.52.4 (1.3.6)
ActRaiser 2 - Runs slow
Aladdin - Runs slow
Axelay - Runs slow
Donkey Kong Country - Runs slow

GBA
mGBA nightly build
Aladdin - Runs a little slow
Donkey Kong Country - Runs a little slow
Drill Dozer - Runs a little slow

Retroarch mGBA git (1.3.6)
Aladdin - Runs slow
Donkey Kong Country - Runs slow
Drill Dozer - locks up

Retroarch gpSP v0.91 (1.3.6)
Aladdin - Runs great. A little screen tearing
Donkey Kong Country - Runs perfectly
Drill Dozer - Locks up

Now i know there are a lot of settings that can be adjusted with the Retroarch emus, so very likely you could get better results with them (I am using default settings).

So in my opinion I would stick with blargSNES or PocketSNES for SNES stuff and gpSP for GBA stuff.

Use 1.3.3 for all RetroArch builds.
That fixes almost all the screen tearing.

 

[tatumanu]

I really just stick to VC Injects for GBA ( colour corrected if possible, save patched ) and SNES, Pocket Snes for Snes Rom's that VC can't handle and very rarely other Retro Arch or blarg for better sound.
The real issue is playing SFX chip games that none, to my knowledge, can handle decently if ever.

 

[gamecaptor]

Is PocketSNES or gpSP available outside of Retroarch (as a standalone app/cia, without the Retroarch dependencies)? I can't seem to find them if they are.

 

[kedest]

I only recently discovered how excellent SNES VC is. It runs so smooth, definitely better than the various cores in retroarch. I also really like the resume function.

 

[The Catboy]

Injections are the best way of emulation.
Homebrew emulators just suck no matter how you execute them because of poor hardware handling.