VOGONS


First post, by DrLucienSanchez

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Hi, just putting this out in case anyone ever wants to use this emulator.

Works 100% as far as I'm concerned with this OS. Mileage may vary depending on hardware.

My 440BX Pentium II 400Mhz, 384MB RAM, MX440 system - runs fine, 32x too slow, need at least 700Mhz PIII to run decent. Genesis and Sega CD are CPU limited somewhat, display resolution doesn't matter, I have Vysnc and perfect sync enabled, HQ sound, 44.1Hz. FPS can vary from around 35-60, that goes for more intensive games such as Sonic 3 and any Sega CD game. No sort of stuttering with gaming motion or sound, just slower framerate, audio remains unchanged, same speed. Compatible with any game controller that is recognised by the OS, so I have used gameport Sidewinder and even a N64 controller via USB converter, no apparent input lag either.

*If using an Intel i740 video card, it will boot up with a very dark screen, which can't be resolved via the emulator GUI options, but if you go into the Fusion config/ini file, you can change this option from ForceCompatibleGFX=0 to ForceCompatibleGFX=1. This will sort out the brightness, but will essentially lock out any additional video ptions to pick via the GUI regarding the display - scanlines, NTSC aspect, filtering etc - performance with the i740 is no difference to the MX440.

My P4PE build -P4 2.53Ghz, 2GB RAM, Ti4200 and 5900XT, 98SE and XP OS - 100% speed, 60 frames be it 32x or CD, no additional tinkering with config needed, same setting as above.

😀

Classic rig - MS6156 Ver 1.0 Bx7 Slot1 Motherboard - Pentium II Deschutes 400Mhz, 320MB PC100 RAM, 20GB SATA Toshiba 2.5 via IDE/SATA converter, Intel i740 8Mb AGP, Sun Microsystems 16" CRT Monitor - PN17J0 CRT monitor

Reply 1 of 18, by Con 2 botones

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I remember Genecyst from back in the day (98-2001, the days of Nesticle, Znes, Magic Engine, UltraHLE, first Mame, etc).
It was a DOS emulator, but ran within Windows9X environment, no problems. No fancy shaders etc, nothing as complex or accurate as Kgen, sure. But hey, you could play all the Megadrive/Genesis library in your Celeron Mendocino, full speed. The emulation scene back then was very exciting.

I know there´s a Retroarch version for Windows 98. I´ve even download it but haven´t tried it yet. Have you?
I guess It would asks for at least SSE intructions present for decent performance.

Reply 2 of 18, by DrLucienSanchez

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I've never used Retroarch to be honest, I've always preferred something familiar for me to configure, think I'm just used to Kega, ePSXe and find them easy to configure and work well with all the games I like. I used to use GENS back in the day, ironically worked very well, as you mentioned, on my first ever PC with a 400Mhz Celeron Mendocino on the good old 370 socket, (basically a Packard Bell Club 60).

In my opinion from all the use and different games, emulator wise, for PSX, then ePSXe 1.9.25 is the best and most stable for me. It even works well on Windows XP, it won't launch on 98 as far as I can see when tested.

PCSX2, excellent, but use this on my 10400f, 2060 system,. But the emulator I am most impressed with is the Phoenix 3DO emulator, again modern high IPC CPU needed, and coming from someone who owned an actual 3DO, Doom is finally playable and some games that had slowdown i/e most of them on the console, increase the ARM multiplier by about x2.5, and this runs faster while maintaining stability - looks great on a CRT monitor as well.

Classic rig - MS6156 Ver 1.0 Bx7 Slot1 Motherboard - Pentium II Deschutes 400Mhz, 320MB PC100 RAM, 20GB SATA Toshiba 2.5 via IDE/SATA converter, Intel i740 8Mb AGP, Sun Microsystems 16" CRT Monitor - PN17J0 CRT monitor

Reply 3 of 18, by leileilol

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For ages, Kega Fusion's one of the best Genesis/32X/SegaCD emulators that's very hard to replace. Only recently there's been some breakthroughs that surpass it accuracywise (BlastEm, NukeYKT's YM2612/YM3438 cores, ares) in the open source scene and none of them are P2 appropriate. 😀

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long live PCem

Reply 4 of 18, by Jo22

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leileilol wrote on 2021-08-13, 21:39:

For ages, Kega Fusion's one of the best Genesis/32X/SegaCD emulators that's very hard to replace. Only recently there's been some breakthroughs that surpass it accuracywise (BlastEm, NukeYKT's YM2612/YM3438 cores, ares) in the open source scene and none of them are P2 appropriate. 😀

Thank you! 😸 You read my mind.
For a moment, I thought something is wrong with me.

Reading the first two postings made me believe that Kega Fusion is an old relic by now no one uses anymore.

That idea gave me some headache, because KF is my primary emulator still for Sega MD/X32/CD emulation,
just like the slightly aged ZSNES is for SNES emulation and Nestopia is for NES emulation.

I'm using Kega Fusion since the days of early DOSBox (2000s).
I even ran it just for fun in several Windows VMs (incl. Win Me).
If memory serves, I even tried running it in ReactOS at some point.

Also because I used these VMs for having different programming languages
installed and BasiEgaXorz (Basic compiler for Sega) needed an emulator for executing binaries.

PS: Does anybody of you still use Dega (or MEKA)? 🙂
It was my favorite Master System emulator,
also because it supported the FM chip and could enhance the PSG audio.

Edit: Does anybody remember YAME still? I absolutely loved thst little fellow.
Since it's multi platform (Win Lin Mac),
it was my main emulator on the go (Win CE 3.0 devices) besides Sarien/PocketDOS.
I had it running on my HP Jornada 525 (?) and later, my Casio Cassiopeia.
I fondly remember playing games like Tails' Adventure, SMB2 and the Kirby series on it. ^^
On my PalmOS PDA, I could play GB games, slowly, at best (such as Pokémon Yellow via Phoenix).

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 5 of 18, by Joseph_Joestar

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Jo22 wrote on 2021-08-14, 00:54:

That idea gave me some headache, because KF is my primary emulator still for Sega MD/X32/CD emulation,
just like the slightly aged ZSNES is for SNES emulation and Nestopia is for NES emulation.

I used ZSNES and ePSXe back in the day and I remember them running pretty well on hardware from the early 2000s. I was happy with them at the time, but later on, I discovered that they weren't so great in terms of accuracy.

Nowadays, I mostly use real consoles connected to a CRT TV using RGB SCART cables. On rare occasions when I do meddle with emulation, I usually go for RetroArch paired with accurate cores such as Higan and Mednafen, even though they need much more powerful hardware.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 6 of 18, by leileilol

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I've never used ePSXe. I was over my edgebleeding filtered unstable playstation novelties a Bleem! ago. I did use pSX however when that used to get updated. It was then a very accurate emulator that had none of the plugin shit active PSX emulation had suffered with to that point. PCSX is supposed to be a good opensource alternative (it had a HLE bios) but i didn't play much with that either (there were extreme video aspect issues, iirc). Builds of PCSX *might* work out on a P2... There was certainly an ARM-optimized fork that was popular on <insert little ARM devices here> some years later.

These days, there's Duckstation/Swanstation and Mednafen/Beetle which are VERY accurate with high compatibility and has optional "HD" bait features, but of course are all inappropriate for a P2.

apsosig.png
long live PCem

Reply 8 of 18, by Jo22

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-08-14, 04:27:

I used ZSNES and ePSXe back in the day and I remember them running pretty well on hardware from the early 2000s. I was happy with them at the time, but later on, I discovered that they weren't so great in terms of accuracy.

I guess that explains a lot then.
I've never been interested in accuracy too much.
Same goes for power efficiency and switching-PSUs, they're my natural enemies, haha. 🙂
I'm afraid I'm rather the relaxed, "let 5 be a straight number" type of user. 😂
Except if it's about aspect ratio. I can't stand stretched images. 😁

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-08-14, 04:27:

Nowadays, I mostly use real consoles connected to a CRT TV using RGB SCART cables.

Me, too. I love to tinker with physical devices, too.
However, I do have a little aversion against emulator boxes.
If I had to decide, I'd rather use a clone console than one of the new FPGA/ARM consoles.
Because, I like the idea of an old 70s/80s technology doing its job "live" in front of me.
Always makes me happy if some glitches happen from time to time.
Makes the whole situation more real (which is a bit paradox).

What I'm also have an aversion against is the RGB output.
To me, it makes sense for homecomputers that used colours.
However, when it comes to consoles, I can't help but feel that raw RGB does take away something.

Game developers of the past relied on dithering techniques and artifact colours,
which need pixels to be blended together.
S-Video, Component and RGB do not allow this, however.
That's why I prefer Composite and even RF.
Early low-res consoles like Atari 2600 or the more modern Sega Mega Drive look most natural via RF, by the way.

Composite, or more correctly, CVBS, has a big advantage over RF, though.
The frame rate can be either 50 or 60Hz, independent of the colour encoding (PAL, NTSC, SECAM)..
That's handy for running modded consoles in NTSC50/PAL60, if needed.
On RF, that's not possible, because that would have an effect on timings like the carrier signal, so TVs wouldn't be able to sync properly.

Of course, S-Video, Component and RGB can also be used to run a modded console in 50/60Hz.
But they lack support for dithering and blur.

That's why I decided for myself that I use CVBS/RF on a CRT for the real consoles and raw RGB in emulators.
Because, that's what emulators can do best.
That way, I also have access to authentic graphics on the physical consoles.
If needed, I will use shielded cables and filter caps to improve signal quality.
Or use an external TV tuner box that has CVBS outputs.
Because, emulation of CVBS/RF is in an early stage ironically.

Kega Fusion is doing it rather well, I admit, but it's too blurred.
What none of the emulators gets right currently is emulation of a black/white TV over RF.
That's ironic, I think. The oldest format is the one that's understood the least. 😉

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-08-14, 04:27:

On rare occasions when I do meddle with emulation, I usually go for RetroArch paired with accurate cores such as Higan and Mednafen, even though they need much more powerful hardware.

Ah, I see. I remember BSNES. It was horrific in terms of performance.
I guess it's just me, but I was very disappointed of it.
Maybe because I was so amazed by the demoscene productions of the 90s.
ZSNES, Nesticle and No$GMB were nifty pieces of software made my true blue computer freaks/geeks.
BSNES, on the other hand, seemed like the work of a professor on an university who had been using Java.
Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the author's work.
It's just something that I don't wish to use right now.
It defies its own purpose, I think. Using an actual SNES is much better for the environment than using a PC with 90% CPU usage and screaming fans,
that needs several hundres watts to emulate a 30 years old console.
BSNES is nice as an educational tool, I suppose. Or as a development tool when writing SNES games.
But even here, an FPGA could be an alternative. 😀

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 9 of 18, by Joseph_Joestar

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Jo22 wrote on 2021-08-18, 07:08:

If I had to decide, I'd rather use a clone console than one of the new FPGA/ARM consoles.

I have heard good things about those FPGA devices, but I don't have any need for them at the moment since my original consoles still work fine. If they become irreparable at some point, I might take a look at some FPGA alternatives.

What I'm also have an aversion against is the RGB output.

Perfectly understandable. As you say, developers used dithering tricks for transparency effects and other stuff back in the day, and those look best on Composite or even RF. Here's a nice video which shows this.

That said, I grew up with RGB SCART as it has been available in Europe since the late '80s. You could buy SCART cables during the SNES and Sega MegaDrive era here, and for every console that came afterwards as well. Granted, their quality wasn't as good as the professionally made cables that you can get from various retro outlets today, but it was still much sharper than RF or Composite.

Ah, I see. I remember BSNES. It was horrific in terms of performance.

I think the latest versions of BSNES have been optimized a bit better, but it's still quite demanding. As for other SNES emulators, I think SNES9x provides a nice middle ground between accuracy and performance, at least from what I remember.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 10 of 18, by lwc

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Jo22 wrote on 2021-08-14, 00:54:

That idea gave me some headache, because KF is my primary emulator still for Sega MD/X32/CD emulation,
just like the slightly aged ZSNES is for SNES emulation and Nestopia is for NES emulation.

I've switched to Snes9x (no longer developed and yet 12 years newer than ZSNES, plus supports netplay). Nestopia UE is cool (it's not actively developed anymore but still years newer than FCEUX which is nice too).

Reply 11 of 18, by Eep386

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I used to use Genecyst extensively for ripping graphics from old Genesis games back when I was into Mugen. (I still occasionally kick it around to listen to the unique distortions it'd put into the sound of some games.)
Nowadays I still use Kega Fusion, as it 'just works' for all the games I have. (I am apparently, ironically, fortunate enough not to have any of the games that supposedly break this old emulator.)

Life isn't long enough to re-enable every hidden option in every BIOS on every board... 🙁

Reply 12 of 18, by Jo22

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Eep386 wrote on 2021-08-23, 20:54:

I used to use Genecyst extensively for ripping graphics from old Genesis games back when I was into Mugen. (I still occasionally kick it around to listen to the unique distortions it'd put into the sound of some games.)
Nowadays I still use Kega Fusion, as it 'just works' for all the games I have. (I am apparently, ironically, fortunate enough not to have any of the games that supposedly break this old emulator.)

Funnily, despite its age, Kega Fusion does seem to run most recent demo scene productions for the Mega Drive jsut fine.
It runs the Titan Overdrive demos (1+2) flawlessly, while a commercial emulator box fails at them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDx5J7LsIwY
https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=61724

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 13 of 18, by Eep386

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That's hilarious 🤣
Kega Fusion, the (now) ancient emulator that just keeps on trucking.

Life isn't long enough to re-enable every hidden option in every BIOS on every board... 🙁

Reply 14 of 18, by Jo22

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DrLucienSanchez wrote on 2021-08-13, 11:08:
Hi, just putting this out in case anyone ever wants to use this emulator. […]
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Hi, just putting this out in case anyone ever wants to use this emulator.

Works 100% as far as I'm concerned with this OS. Mileage may vary depending on hardware.

My 440BX Pentium II 400Mhz, 384MB RAM, MX440 system - runs fine, 32x too slow, need at least 700Mhz PIII to run decent.
Genesis and Sega CD are CPU limited somewhat, display resolution doesn't matter, I have Vysnc and perfect sync enabled, HQ sound, 44.1Hz.
FPS can vary from around 35-60, that goes for more intensive games such as Sonic 3 and any Sega CD game.
No sort of stuttering with gaming motion or sound, just slower framerate, audio remains unchanged, same speed.
Compatible with any game controller that is recognised by the OS, so I have used gameport Sidewinder and
even a N64 controller via USB converter, no apparent input lag either.

Hi again! I'd like to apologize for being kinda rude in my first post.
It's just very confusing to me that KF is now a classic piece of history. To me, it's like yesterday that I started using it (and I'm too young for 30+ parties, even).
I do really appreciate that you opened this topic, by the way - Kega Fusion is an awesome emulator for sure.
Even runs via basic DDraw graphics, including scaler/shader plug-ins! That's remarkable, I think.
That's why I took some screenshots (MD games) for you on my Pentium MMX laptop. 😀

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"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 15 of 18, by Jo22

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Eep386 wrote on 2021-08-25, 16:19:

That's hilarious 🤣
Kega Fusion, the (now) ancient emulator that just keeps on trucking.

+1

Here's Fusion running the first Titan Overdrive demo..

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"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 16 of 18, by Jo22

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lwc wrote on 2021-08-21, 08:59:
Jo22 wrote on 2021-08-14, 00:54:

That idea gave me some headache, because KF is my primary emulator still for Sega MD/X32/CD emulation,
just like the slightly aged ZSNES is for SNES emulation and Nestopia is for NES emulation.

I've switched to Snes9x (no longer developed and yet 12 years newer than ZSNES, plus supports netplay). Nestopia UE is cool (it's not actively developed anymore but still years newer than FCEUX which is nice too).

Thanks for the tips! I have to check Nestopia Undead somewhen. 😀

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-08-18, 07:52:
I have heard good things about those FPGA devices, but I don't have any need for them at the moment since my original consoles s […]
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Jo22 wrote on 2021-08-18, 07:08:

If I had to decide, I'd rather use a clone console than one of the new FPGA/ARM consoles.

I have heard good things about those FPGA devices, but I don't have any need for them at the moment since my original consoles still work fine. If they become irreparable at some point, I might take a look at some FPGA alternatives.

What I'm also have an aversion against is the RGB output.

Perfectly understandable. As you say, developers used dithering tricks for transparency effects and other stuff back in the day, and those look best on Composite or even RF. Here's a nice video which shows this.

That said, I grew up with RGB SCART as it has been available in Europe since the late '80s. You could buy SCART cables during the SNES and Sega MegaDrive era here, and for every console that came afterwards as well. Granted, their quality wasn't as good as the professionally made cables that you can get from various retro outlets today, but it was still much sharper than RF or Composite.

Ah, I see. I remember BSNES. It was horrific in terms of performance.

I think the latest versions of BSNES have been optimized a bit better, but it's still quite demanding. As for other SNES emulators, I think SNES9x provides a nice middle ground between accuracy and performance, at least from what I remember.

Thanks for the explanation and your understanding, friend! Not many people are as tolerant as you are. 😎 👍

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 17 of 18, by lwc

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Jo22 wrote on 2021-08-26, 02:00:

Thanks for the tips! I have to check Nestopia Undead somewhen. 😀

I can't believe it, the very day you wrote it Nestopia UE was re-risen from the dead and released a new version!

Reply 18 of 18, by gerry

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Jo22 wrote on 2021-08-14, 00:54:
[ PS: Does anybody of you still use Dega (or MEKA)? 🙂 It was my favorite Master System emulator, also because it supported the […]
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[
PS: Does anybody of you still use Dega (or MEKA)? 🙂
It was my favorite Master System emulator,
also because it supported the FM chip and could enhance the PSG audio.

MEKA; yes and i still do. It was the second SMS emulator i used a long time ago (the first was a command line emulator i have forgotten the name of)

Meka has a nice UI and as it emulates multiple systems is a go to for me

for genesis it was genecyst, gens, fusion with occasional use of others

because so many emulators of such quality existed in the early/mid 2000's i still use them on older PCs where their low requirements mean they will run happily on sub 1ghz machines

I actually prefer jumping from emulator to emulator, each with their own quirks and ui, rather than having an all in one system with single interface (like retropie, which is great too)

i realize that newer emulators may often have more accuracy or be portable, or more cleverly integrated into all in one emulation front ends etc - but i hardly ever notice the difference in almost any game, not to the point where i think the game is compromised anyway