Flack
Member
- Joined
- Apr 7, 2003
- Messages
- 488
I am one of the lucky people who have been handed betas of Rlyeh's fNES32 emulator for the GP32. As such, I haven't really felt a need to try out these other NES emulators that have cropped up. Inspired by 100+ degree weather (it's too damn hot to go out today!) I decided to put these two emulators head to head and see who came out on top.
Disclaimer: Both of these emulators are still considered betas. I am using the May beta of fNES32 vs Little John 0.21.
As a gamer, I set up the following categories: Video, Audio, Options, Compatibility/Speed, Overall.
Video
Both Yoyo's Little John (LJ) and Rlyeh's fNES32 (fNES) do a good job in the video department. The biggest problem is that the NES has a resolution of 256x254, versus the GP32's screen size of 320x240. While both emulators look good, LJ gives users a couple of different screen resolutions / scale modes to choose from.
Winner: LJ
Audio
I don't use headphones on my GP32, so both emulators sounded the same to me. They both sound like I remember my old NES sounding, that's about all I can say.
Winner: Tie
Options
Here's where LJ begins to pull away from fNES. With autofire modes, gamma correction, zapper emulation, the ability to load/save states and zipped rom support, there's no comparison here. LJ is the clear winner here.
Winner: LJ
Compatibility/Speed
Really, this is the bottom line. Options and sound are all secondary to how fast and how many games the things play, right? So, how do these two emulators stack up against each other?
Basically, every NES rom I tried can be divided up into three categories. Games that ran equally well on both emulators, games that ran slower on fNES, and games that didn't run at all on fNES.
Archon, Battle Chess, Defender of the Crown, Excitebike, Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, Ghosts'N Goblins, Super Mario Brothers I and III, and Tecmo Super Bowl all played flawlessly on LJ. Some of those wouldn't run at all on fNES. Others ran slow (SMB3), had graphics glitches (Tecmo Super Bowl), or messed up when scrolling (Gauntlet, Excitebike). The majority of other games I ran (Tetris, Dr. Mario, etc) were playable on both systems.
Winner: LJ
Overall
For me, the overall winner was LJGP32 0.21, much to my surprise. I really had it set in my mind that Rlyeh's fNES32 was going to be the best NES emulator to ever appear on the GP32, however, I was seriously impressed by Yoyo's emulator. LJGP32 played everything fNES32 did, played many games faster, and played several roms fNES32 choked on.
As one final disclaimer, let me remind everyone that fNES32 is still in development, and the final version will probably play many more roms and be much quicker than the current beta. That being said, those sitting around waiting for it instead of trying out LJGP32 are doing themselves a huge injustice.
Disclaimer: Both of these emulators are still considered betas. I am using the May beta of fNES32 vs Little John 0.21.
As a gamer, I set up the following categories: Video, Audio, Options, Compatibility/Speed, Overall.
Video
Both Yoyo's Little John (LJ) and Rlyeh's fNES32 (fNES) do a good job in the video department. The biggest problem is that the NES has a resolution of 256x254, versus the GP32's screen size of 320x240. While both emulators look good, LJ gives users a couple of different screen resolutions / scale modes to choose from.
Winner: LJ
Audio
I don't use headphones on my GP32, so both emulators sounded the same to me. They both sound like I remember my old NES sounding, that's about all I can say.
Winner: Tie
Options
Here's where LJ begins to pull away from fNES. With autofire modes, gamma correction, zapper emulation, the ability to load/save states and zipped rom support, there's no comparison here. LJ is the clear winner here.
Winner: LJ
Compatibility/Speed
Really, this is the bottom line. Options and sound are all secondary to how fast and how many games the things play, right? So, how do these two emulators stack up against each other?
Basically, every NES rom I tried can be divided up into three categories. Games that ran equally well on both emulators, games that ran slower on fNES, and games that didn't run at all on fNES.
Archon, Battle Chess, Defender of the Crown, Excitebike, Gauntlet, Gauntlet II, Ghosts'N Goblins, Super Mario Brothers I and III, and Tecmo Super Bowl all played flawlessly on LJ. Some of those wouldn't run at all on fNES. Others ran slow (SMB3), had graphics glitches (Tecmo Super Bowl), or messed up when scrolling (Gauntlet, Excitebike). The majority of other games I ran (Tetris, Dr. Mario, etc) were playable on both systems.
Winner: LJ
Overall
For me, the overall winner was LJGP32 0.21, much to my surprise. I really had it set in my mind that Rlyeh's fNES32 was going to be the best NES emulator to ever appear on the GP32, however, I was seriously impressed by Yoyo's emulator. LJGP32 played everything fNES32 did, played many games faster, and played several roms fNES32 choked on.
As one final disclaimer, let me remind everyone that fNES32 is still in development, and the final version will probably play many more roms and be much quicker than the current beta. That being said, those sitting around waiting for it instead of trying out LJGP32 are doing themselves a huge injustice.
Well I've written it. From my testing, I found that fNes plays a lot of rare games that LJ doesn't support as it runs a standard core, and shares (in)compatibility with Nester.
