Recommended Emulators
The best of the best of the best, sir!
NES:
Playability: I'd have to go with FCEUltra here. I've tried out MANY NES emulators in my day, and FCEUltra is the only one that I've never had anything bad to say about. I've never had one NES rom not work on this one, unless it was a bad dump or I patched a hack/translation incorrectly. FCE has all the features you'd expect from a great emulator.
Best Emulation: Unless there are objections, I'd have to put FCE here too.
Debugging: FCEUXD SP. Thats a LONG name. But it's the best debugger for the NES, as far as I know. Plus, it builds upon an already great emulator. Enough said.
SNES:
Playability: ZSNES. This is probably the most popular SNES emulator out there, bar none. It may not be perfect, but it has TONS of features for you to make use of.
Best Emulation: BSnes. Byuu has done a wonderful job of making an emulator that almost perfectly emulates how an ACTUAL SNES would work. You need a computer capable of world domination to run it correctly, but it is quite awesome.
Debugging: Geiger's SNES9x. Anyone who's had to do ASM hacking knows that this emulator is gold. Plus, it still has all the functions of normal SNES9x (which in itself is second only to ZSNES).
Special Honors:
- I hear that SNESGT is one of the only emulators that has pretty good BS-X support.
- SNES9x rerecording 10 or SNES9x v1.51 is good for TAS (Tool Assisted Speedruns).
Genesis/SMS/Game Gear/Sega CD:
Playability: Kega Fusion. This emulator plays games from nearly every generation of Sega consoles, and does so quite well. It also has all the features that one would come to expect from a great emulator: save states, speed toggle, great emulation speed with most games, and a nice interface.
Best Emulation: I don't there someone has done a byuu on Genesis yet.
Debugging: Not sure, haven't used any.
Game Boy/GBA:
Playability: Visual Boy Advance gets this one for me. Save States, Controller Support, Super Speed, great compatability, tons of options and such, and it runs games for two different systems (well, so did the original GBA...but still).
Best Emulation: I haven't used anything besides VBA and No$GBA. I would almost say that No$GBA should get this, what do you guys think?
Debugging: No$GMB and No$GBA have the best debuggers out there for GB/GBA. Unfortunately, you need $ to get the Debugging Version of No$GBA. Ironic, ne?
PSX:
Playability: I'd have to say that this goes to ePSXe easily. I was able to run some 2d games on my old Windows ME machine because of the plugins you're able to choose from. Very customizable. However, it is missing a Speed Key, I believe. At least, a bindable one. Still, this is the best one we got.
Best Emulation: I think ePSXe belongs here too. Anyone know of a better runner for this category?
Debugging: I've never used any PSX debuggers, anyone have a favorite?