leileilol wrote on 2011-09-18, 03:23:Gameboy: NO$GB (req 386DX33)
Megadrive: KGEN98 (req 486DX4100)
NES: LoopyNES (req 486DX266) / NESticle (req 486SX40)
SNES: ZSNES […]
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Gameboy: NO$GB (req 386DX33)
Megadrive: KGEN98 (req 486DX4100)
NES: LoopyNES (req 486DX266) / NESticle (req 486SX40)
SNES: ZSNES (req 486DX4100 for some games, PentiumMMX 150 for most)
Further tested the above in a 486 environment, except for the Gameboy. The NES emulator NESticle seems the best by far.
For SNES, ZSNES v1.42 has high cpu requirements and an earlier version, v1.20, is missing compatibility with at least one good arcade port. There also seems to be a sbpro or higher requirement for audio, although that result may vary for others.
Kgen98 ran slow, too. Genecyst x.xx has better performance and has very good audio output as compared to other emulators that are running below their suggested system requirements. It also is compatible with a soundblaster 2.0, at least in the test case.
As an aside, for MAME, most or all of the 0.36 versions will output 8-bit video and sound compatible with a sb 2.0 or higher. These versions have compatibility with the classic arcade set, but most or all of them do not run well on a typical 486 class cpu. Also, there are issues such as inadequate emulation, such as in the blitter timings, in at least some of these games. And the Williams set does not seem compatible with frameskip. Last, in the test case these run better with tweak mode active (instead of a vesa mode), but this result would vary for other cases. An interesting case is the early 80s Williams games that run at 292x240. This does not match to a tweak mode, so it is possible to run it with stretch=no and set the resolution=320x240 (mame.cfg or at the command line). That may provide a bit more compatibility and performance. It must be easier to improve the emulation of a single console than for all the different machine types under the MAME umbrella, so it is not surprising that the console emulators achieve better accuracy in that time period.
The Williams Arcade for DOS is reportedly for a 386 or higher, but the emulation is not accurate, such as the accuracy of the timings in the blitter. These are from 1994 or 1995, so perhaps it is expected that this port is not as accurate as MAME 0.36, a version released at least a few years later than this DOS port. The Genesis port will have a higher requirement, but the frameskip=3 helps in Genecyst, along with setting the "6 button" option to Joystick 1, allowing the keyboard to potentially emulate a two stick control for one or more games in this port.