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<\/a><\/p>\nAfter not really playing emulated video games for nearly five years, I think it’s time to catch up on what I’ve been missing, as far as new emulators go.\u00a0 But first, a story about one of my computers, because I know that this sort of thing is both interesting and important!<\/p>\n
Back in 2015, right around when Windows 10 was released, I bought a little Intel NUC computer.\u00a0 I bought that thing specifically for gaming, and by gaming, I mean emulating.\u00a0 I looked at the specs, and I figured it would be able to handle most of the emulating that I wanted to do on it.<\/p>\n
And since this was at the advent of Windows 10, I figured I’d jump into that deep end and get me a new copy of that OS to install on it too.\u00a0 So I got all the parts and installed Windows 10, and started to install some of the latest versions of my favourite emulators.<\/p>\n That’s when I realized that the Intel Iris HD graphics drivers for this thing were absolutely awful back in 2015.\u00a0 Almost nothing worked properly, and I usually narrowed the problems I had down to the Intel Iris drivers.\u00a0 I had problems with any application that went into fullscreen, and I had problems with applications not exiting and crashing instead if they were in fullscreen.\u00a0 I had problems with colours not being right in fullscreen, and some emulators not going into fullscreen at all.<\/p>\n So I reformatted the hard drive and started over again with Windows 7 instead.\u00a0 There was some improvement, but I still couldn’t believe how bad the Iris drivers were even for a mature operating system like Windows 7.\u00a0 I also started to notice that many of the old emulators I’d come to rely on had big problems outside of Windows XP and a 4:3 aspect ratio.<\/p>\n I had to stop using this little NUC for emulating, and repurposed it as my main Internet computer for the next five years.\u00a0 It handled that pretty well until the bloat and sluggishness of modern websites were just too much for it.\u00a0 I actually thought YouTube had killed it when I paused a video for about 10 minutes and came back to see my poor Intel NUC completely shut off and in a prolonged beep of fatal error.<\/p>\n It wouldn’t even boot after that, actually.\u00a0 Time to get a new Internet computer, I guess.\u00a0 And I thought the old little Intel NUC was completely done for until I bought a cheap SSD and tried to boot it with a fresh install of Linux.<\/p>\n And it worked.\u00a0 Well, shit, I might as well try Windows 7 and all those emulators on it, so that’s what I did.\u00a0 And that worked damn near miraculously.<\/p>\n In fact, I couldn’t believe how well this computer handled everything from Atari 2600 right up to Game Cube with such ease and aplomb.<\/p>\n That Intel Iris driver had improved by leaps and bounds too, so credit where credit is due.\u00a0 And of course I had made sure to use the latest versions of my favourite emulators, and some entirely different emulators in some cases.\u00a0 This little NUC is now one of my go-to computers for gaming, when only recently I thought it was done for.<\/p>\n So here’s a console-by-console (and computer) list of the emulators that I’ve switched to or have updated on my little NUC that could.<\/p>\n Atari 2600<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I use Stella<\/a> to emulate this classic console on Windows 7 and above.\u00a0 For Windows XP, I still prefer Z26<\/a>.\u00a0 There’s actually a new version of Z26 now, which runs on Windows 7 and above, but I find it to be a bit crashy.<\/p>\n Intellivision<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I’m still using the great Nostalgia<\/a> emulator, but unfortunately this emulator doesn’t strictly maintain the correct 4:3 aspect ratio on a widescreen display.\u00a0 I can get the aspect ratio to be a little closer to 4:3 by using a certain resolution in the graphics settings, however.\u00a0 There is also an Intellivision emulator called jzIntv<\/a> which seems to be still actively developed, but it works via the command line only, and you know how I feel about that<\/a>.<\/p>\n Commodore 64<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I’ve now switched completely to using VICE<\/a> for all my SID and Epyx needs.\u00a0 I remember I used to use CCS64<\/a>, and I still have that installed on my Windows XP machines.\u00a0 But VICE is now the most compatible and fully functional Commodore 64 emulator.\u00a0 Also, Compuquiz<\/a> doesn’t work in CCS64.<\/p>\n ColecoVision<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I remember this was one of the first consoles I was able to emulate on my Pentium II running Windows 98.\u00a0 I used AdamEm<\/a> back then, and I’ve tried many since then, but have usually come back to ColEm<\/a>.\u00a0 ColEm has gotten pretty damn great over time, but on my Intel NUC, believe it or not I use an emulator called MEKA<\/a>.\u00a0 That’s actually an emulator that runs old Sega consoles like the SG-1000, Master System, and Game Gear.\u00a0 But it also emulates the ColecoVision!\u00a0 More about it later.<\/p>\n Vectrex<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I was unfair to this console when I did my driving game reviews.\u00a0 It actually has lots of great, fun games.\u00a0 The driving games are still unmitigated ass, though.\u00a0 But to emulate it, I use ParaJVE<\/a>.\u00a0 That emulator requires that Java from Oracle be installed on your computer, but my little Intel NUC is never connected to the Internet, so what’s a little security hole here and there?<\/p>\n Atari 5200<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The only<\/em> way to play this console’s games is through emulation, if you ask me.\u00a0 Even if you can get the shitty, faulty, defective controllers to work, they ruin almost every game because they’re non-centering, lol.\u00a0 So I use Altirra<\/a>.\u00a0 It plays the Atari 5200 games – which are usually the best console versions of those games you can get – and the Atari 8-bit computer games too.\u00a0 I actually prefer Atari800Win PLus<\/a> for those games, but it won’t run properly in fullscreen on Windows 7 or 10.<\/p>\n Sega SG-1000 \/ Sega Master System \/ Sega Game Gear<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n If you have a decent gaming PC, then you can use the awesome TwoMBit<\/a> emulator for these consoles.\u00a0 It does exactly what it should do, though it’s actually too resource-intensive for my little Intel NUC.<\/p>\n So that’s where my old favourite emulator MEKA<\/a> comes in again!\u00a0 I’ve been using MEKA since I had that old Pentium II running Windows 98.\u00a0 And I still think MEKA has one of the best interfaces out of any emulator I’ve ever used.\u00a0 So I was delighted to see that there is a fairly recent version<\/a>, which works perfectly on modern operating systems.\u00a0 There is a .bat file which needs to be run to set up screen resolutions, and that’s how you can get the program to maintain a 4:3 aspect ratio on widescreen monitors.<\/p>\n Nintendo Entertainment System<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I think there might be more NES emulators than there are games for some consoles<\/a>.\u00a0 I’ve only ever tried a few.\u00a0 Back in the Windows 98 and early XP days, I rocked FCE Ultra<\/a> and FCEUX<\/a>.\u00a0 Those served me well until I found Nestopia<\/a>, which performs on Windows 7 and my NUC when those old ones, well, don’t.<\/p>\n Atari 7800<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I used to use the ProSystem<\/a> emulator to play these… uh… special games.\u00a0 But that emulator is really, really resource-heavy, and doesn’t work at all in full-screen mode in Windows 7 or Windows 10.\u00a0 There’s also the option to use A7800<\/a>, which is basically just a specialized fork of MAME.\u00a0 But I’ve very recently discovered BupSystem<\/a>, which is a very fast and feature-complete emulator for what is still the only way to properly play Ninja Golf.<\/p>\n TurboGrafx 16 \/ TurboGrafx CD<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Yep, I’m still using MagicEngine<\/a> for these.\u00a0 Yes, I know that means I still have to use Daemon Tools lite to mount disc images to a virtual CD drive.\u00a0 No, I won’t use Mednafen.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n