A Newbie's SNES Questions


Kirby

Still Fresh
Joined
Sep 26, 2003
Messages
7
Dear Fellow GP32 Fans:


I have a GP32, but I am an EXTREME newbie to it, I want to get a SNES emulator for mine and I have some Questions about the SNEs emulators on it.

1. How is the SPeed of SNES Emulators? Speed isn't too much of a Problem for me (i'm a slow learner), But i've Been told that Mode 7 and Super FX Games like F-Zero, Super Mario Kart and Starfox are nigh Impossible to play on any GP32 SNEs Emulator. I've also been told Only RPGs play decently on GP32. Is that true? :huh:

Here's one of the Responses i got over at GameFaqs, and i quote:

People talk a lot about emu on GP32 but most of the emu runs very crappily with little or no support.
.

2. I hear that SNES emulators have a Border for Resolution reasons, and at least 1/4 of the Screen goes to waste. Is there a Way to Play SNES Games without borders?

3. Can you Create a Unique Control Configuration for Snes Emulators on Gp32? Most of the Games on SNES make use of the 8 buttons and D-Pad on the SNES Controller, but the GP32 only has 6. Is there a Way you can Subsitute Two of the Intermediate directions on the 8-Direction D-pad (i.e. Southwest and Southeast) for the X and Y buttons.


4. I hear Every SNES game Minus Rpgs are impossible to play with Sound and that They will play at 50% speed without sound. I Love the tunes on the SNES, and i wonder if there is a way to play the Games with sound.

Please help answer my questions.
 
no sound, buddy... it just plays to horribly (with weird, slow sound) for now...

plenty of action games play really well. sorry i am really busy or i'd give a better reply-- spend a little time + search around the archives of these boards and you'll get TONS of answers to these questions.
 
So i shouldn't get My Hopes up in there being a decent Gp32 SNES Emulator in time for Christmas? Should i just get another PDA for SNES Emulation then
 
depends what your definition of 'decent' is.
i can't speak for a PDA's efforts at emulating a SNES (haven't ever seen it myself) or the Zodiac thingy (no one's seen it yet!) but.. as far as GP32 is concerned..

as has been said before, for the time being you'd best be able to run an overclocked snes emulator on your GP32 of at LEAST 156 MHz to get what I would consider "decent" results. Also you should know:

1. if you get a properly overclockable GP32, it's luck of the draw. They won't check before you order one - sometimes people selling them secondhand will tell you what their version will run at (and of course, you better hope they're not lying!) But it seems from what's been posted around here, 75-80% of the people (??) have been able to overclock to 156MHz (at least).

2. until recently, overclocking was considered dangerous - as in, it could physically damage your GP32. Some tests were run (at length) and no ill effects were suffered except that those who can't just get a crash (fixed as soon as rebooted). But there's never been an official word on this - the company 'officially' states that you shouldn't do it.

3. Overclocking sucks down your batteries quicker.

okay, with that out of the way-- I haven't tested an obscene amount of SNES roms on my machine yet, but I have found probably 75% of the ones I have tried to be pretty enjoyably playable. Sure, there's a little skippiness and the animation isn't as smooth as on a real SNES, but the screen has been miniturized of course so these details don't bother me so much. Games like Rtype, Simcity, Mario, TMNT all run really well considering. The better emulator of the two - Snes9x - is a 'little slower' than the other one, but it supports SRAM saving (if a game had battery backup, you can save - not "save states" like in PC emulators) and of course button remapping, and gamma control. Plus it seems to emulate some of the video effects better. SnesEmu, the other emulator, seems to consistently run faster but has none of those extra features (button remapping, gamma control, SRAM save) and also has a little grubbier GFX (sometimes) cause of the unsupported video stuff. But it's nice to choose between both programs. Also, note that both are considered "final versions," and likely we'll not see another one for some time being - but who knows? Anyway, don't hedge any bets on it.

I am not an RPG gamer but I can see being able to comfortably play RPGs on this thing (grafx, speed) - but rememeber sound is ack. Anyway I am very pleased with SNES emulation on this thing, it would be nice if it gets improved (I'll not hold my breath) but its more than capable for the time being.

Before I end this - you should know that Sega Genesis emulation has finally been released, again it's early but very fast (esp. when overclocked) and comaptibility is nice (50 percent?) . It looks GREAT on the GP32 screen - a few grafx issues and it needs save support/gamma control (SO DARK!), until then I won't use it too much - but very very promising. Also, check out the PC-Engine emulator for GP32 - console of the same generation as Genesis and SNES. It's got a lot of great arcade-y games, and it's quite underappreciated if you ask me. It's actually very competitive with the current batch of GBA games, esp. if you like retro-style games -- and emulation on GP32 is excellent, MUCH better than the others mentioned above. I bought my GP32 for that emulator alone, anything else is bonus. Download an emu for your computer and check it out if you haven't.

ok enough typing! Hope this helps a bit.
 
I would never trust what anyone says on gamefaqs. Its the scum of the internet. Its a shithole.
 
ralp99 posted on Sep 27 2003 at 02:45 AM said:
depends what your definition of 'decent' is.
i can't speak for a PDA's efforts at emulating a SNES (haven't ever seen it myself) or the Zodiac thingy (no one's seen it yet!) but.. as far as GP32 is concerned..

as has been said before, for the time being you'd best be able to run an overclocked snes emulator on your GP32 of at LEAST 156 MHz to get what I would consider "decent" results. Also you should know:

1. if you get a properly overclockable GP32, it's luck of the draw. They won't check before you order one - sometimes people selling them secondhand will tell you what their version will run at (and of course, you better hope they're not lying!) But it seems from what's been posted around here, 75-80% of the people (??) have been able to overclock to 156MHz (at least).

2. until recently, overclocking was considered dangerous - as in, it could physically damage your GP32. Some tests were run (at length) and no ill effects were suffered except that those who can't just get a crash (fixed as soon as rebooted). But there's never been an official word on this - the company 'officially' states that you shouldn't do it.

3. Overclocking sucks down your batteries quicker.

okay, with that out of the way-- I haven't tested an obscene amount of SNES roms on my machine yet, but I have found probably 75% of the ones I have tried to be pretty enjoyably playable. Sure, there's a little skippiness and the animation isn't as smooth as on a real SNES, but the screen has been miniturized of course so these details don't bother me so much. Games like Rtype, Simcity, Mario, TMNT all run really well considering. The better emulator of the two - Snes9x - is a 'little slower' than the other one, but it supports SRAM saving (if a game had battery backup, you can save - not "save states" like in PC emulators) and of course button remapping, and gamma control. Plus it seems to emulate some of the video effects better. SnesEmu, the other emulator, seems to consistently run faster but has none of those extra features (button remapping, gamma control, SRAM save) and also has a little grubbier GFX (sometimes) cause of the unsupported video stuff. But it's nice to choose between both programs. Also, note that both are considered "final versions," and likely we'll not see another one for some time being - but who knows? Anyway, don't hedge any bets on it.

I am not an RPG gamer but I can see being able to comfortably play RPGs on this thing (grafx, speed) - but rememeber sound is ack. Anyway I am very pleased with SNES emulation on this thing, it would be nice if it gets improved (I'll not hold my breath) but its more than capable for the time being.

Before I end this - you should know that Sega Genesis emulation has finally been released, again it's early but very fast (esp. when overclocked) and comaptibility is nice (50 percent?) . It looks GREAT on the GP32 screen - a few grafx issues and it needs save support/gamma control (SO DARK!), until then I won't use it too much - but very very promising. Also, check out the PC-Engine emulator for GP32 - console of the same generation as Genesis and SNES. It's got a lot of great arcade-y games, and it's quite underappreciated if you ask me. It's actually very competitive with the current batch of GBA games, esp. if you like retro-style games -- and emulation on GP32 is excellent, MUCH better than the others mentioned above. I bought my GP32 for that emulator alone, anything else is bonus. Download an emu for your computer and check it out if you haven't.

ok enough typing! Hope this helps a bit.
It kind of Helped. I heard on Antoher GP32 Board (http://pub179.ezboard.com/fgp32frm15.showMessage?topicID=28.topic ) that there were some New SNES Emus in the Works. Were htese Abandoned?
 
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Kirby posted on Oct 3 2003 at 03:42 PM said:
ralp99 posted on Sep 27 2003 at 02:45 AM said:
depends what your definition of 'decent' is.
i can't speak for a PDA's efforts at emulating a SNES (haven't ever seen it myself) or the Zodiac thingy (no one's seen it yet!) but.. as far as GP32 is concerned..

as has been said before, for the time being you'd best be able to run an overclocked snes emulator on your GP32 of at LEAST 156 MHz to get what I would consider "decent" results. Also you should know:

1. if you get a properly overclockable GP32, it's luck of the draw. They won't check before you order one - sometimes people selling them secondhand will tell you what their version will run at (and of course, you better hope they're not lying!) But it seems from what's been posted around here, 75-80% of the people (??) have been able to overclock to 156MHz (at least).

2. until recently, overclocking was considered dangerous - as in, it could physically damage your GP32. Some tests were run (at length) and no ill effects were suffered except that those who can't just get a crash (fixed as soon as rebooted). But there's never been an official word on this - the company 'officially' states that you shouldn't do it.

3. Overclocking sucks down your batteries quicker.

okay, with that out of the way-- I haven't tested an obscene amount of SNES roms on my machine yet, but I have found probably 75% of the ones I have tried to be pretty enjoyably playable. Sure, there's a little skippiness and the animation isn't as smooth as on a real SNES, but the screen has been miniturized of course so these details don't bother me so much. Games like Rtype, Simcity, Mario, TMNT all run really well considering. The better emulator of the two - Snes9x - is a 'little slower' than the other one, but it supports SRAM saving (if a game had battery backup, you can save - not "save states" like in PC emulators) and of course button remapping, and gamma control. Plus it seems to emulate some of the video effects better. SnesEmu, the other emulator, seems to consistently run faster but has none of those extra features (button remapping, gamma control, SRAM save) and also has a little grubbier GFX (sometimes) cause of the unsupported video stuff. But it's nice to choose between both programs. Also, note that both are considered "final versions," and likely we'll not see another one for some time being - but who knows? Anyway, don't hedge any bets on it.

I am not an RPG gamer but I can see being able to comfortably play RPGs on this thing (grafx, speed) - but rememeber sound is ack. Anyway I am very pleased with SNES emulation on this thing, it would be nice if it gets improved (I'll not hold my breath) but its more than capable for the time being.

Before I end this - you should know that Sega Genesis emulation has finally been released, again it's early but very fast (esp. when overclocked) and comaptibility is nice (50 percent?) . It looks GREAT on the GP32 screen - a few grafx issues and it needs save support/gamma control (SO DARK!), until then I won't use it too much - but very very promising. Also, check out the PC-Engine emulator for GP32 - console of the same generation as Genesis and SNES. It's got a lot of great arcade-y games, and it's quite underappreciated if you ask me. It's actually very competitive with the current batch of GBA games, esp. if you like retro-style games -- and emulation on GP32 is excellent, MUCH better than the others mentioned above. I bought my GP32 for that emulator alone, anything else is bonus. Download an emu for your computer and check it out if you haven't.

ok enough typing! Hope this helps a bit.
It kind of Helped. I heard on Antoher GP32 Board (http://pub179.ezboard.com/fgp32frm15.showMessage?topicID=28.topic ) that there were some New SNES Emus in the Works. Were htese Abandoned?
There might be a full speed emu by christmas. Rlyeh said that he's going to work on fsnes, and LJ's secret project might be a snes emu.
 
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i'll eat a shoe if there's full speed emu by xmas (THIS xmas) - with sound or without, and no frameskip.

i don't see it happening. maybe, MAYBE by sometime next year - but I am not expecting it. anyway, someone's goign to have to do more than a port to wring that out. More like a ground-up rewrite, which you don't really see much of in GP32 emu's so far.

don't hold your breath! if you MUST have full speed with sound, I'd honestly suggest you spend your $$$ on a different product.
 
Kirby posted on Oct 5 2003 at 04:57 PM said:
I hope So. Do you mean Full speed With sound or without?
*If* yoyo's secret project is snes, you should look forward to full speed snes emulation with sound.
 
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Azure posted on Oct 6 2003 at 01:39 AM said:
Kirby posted on Oct 5 2003 at 04:57 PM said:
I hope So. Do you mean Full speed With sound or without?
*If* yoyo's secret project is snes, you should look forward to full speed snes emulation with sound.
Any news when this "secret" project will be revealed or released? Also how long do you think till there will be a good genesis emulator?
Thanks B)
 
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kotd posted on Oct 5 2003 at 09:54 PM said:
Azure posted on Oct 6 2003 at 01:39 AM said:
Kirby posted on Oct 5 2003 at 04:57 PM said:
I hope So. Do you mean Full speed With sound or without?
*If* yoyo's secret project is snes, you should look forward to full speed snes emulation with sound.
Any news when this "secret" project will be revealed or released? Also how long do you think till there will be a good genesis emulator?
Thanks B)
All I know about the his *secret* project is that now he is spending most of his time working on it. I think that we will see a good (full speed with sound on at least FS 4 or 5) genesis emulator will be in a couple of months ir maybe less.
 
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