So, how good it the PSP at emulation anyway?

[bacteria]

When we post portables on sites, the kiddies just seem to post in their broken "txt speek" something like "why not just use a PSP" or something similar, which we all find annoying as it is just ignorance.

So, thought it good if we have a natter here and discuss exactly what the PSP does perfectly on emulation, what it fails on a bit and what it fails on badly - for each console platform it claims to emulate - you know, pros and cons of each, etc. Then when some silly fanboy gives the "sheez use a PSP" we can shoot back with facts about how their so called PSP wonder sucks at the platform in question we have made.

Thoughts?

[Negative_Creep]

SNES Emulation on PSP is not too great, it works to an extent, but a lot of games don't work correctly, and suffer from low frame rates.

Megadrive Emulation is pretty much spot on.

NES and SMS work fine.

PS1 is acceptable for the console it's trying to emulate.

GBA and MSX Emulators also seem to work quite well, GBA has a few compatablity issues but overall games that work, work quite well.

[AfroLH]

Actually, on SNES Emulators:
The games all run fine if you have your settings right.
None of the good RPGs or other Good Classics have any problems.

Also you have to have the latest emulator.

[eagle5953]

Previous posters mentioned the main systems.

N64 emulation - works good without sound if you want to play Super Mario 64. All other games I have tried either crash or have exceedingly unplayable framerates.

DOS emulation - couldn't get it to work. Tried using the DOSbox port for PSP, but typing is abysmal (try hitting 3-4 buttons in sequence per letter) Might work if they come out with a frontend for it so you don't need to type at all.

Flash game emulation - I used the internet browser for it, but there are standalone emulators as well. Games that work are limited to 1 MB filesize, I think. Framerate suffers a bit too.

I thought SNES games worked great - just a matter of messing with settings.

[palmertech]

PS1 emulation is near perfect, but the screen size is small if you do not stretch it, and it looks horrible if you do.

N64, as has been said, sucks.

SNES is good for most games, as long as they do not use transparencies. Chrono Trigger, even with custom settings, never manages to stay above 25fps for long, and the game is un-playable with transparencies off. Other than that, SNES is pretty good.

The main reason to not use a PSP is the "Authenticity". For PSX and lower, it is hard to make a truly logical argument against a PSP vs a custom built, expensive portable.

[AfroLH]

SNES is good for most games, as long as they do not use transparencies. Chrono Trigger, even with custom settings, never manages to stay above 25fps for long, and the game is un-playable with transparencies off. Other than that, SNES is pretty good.

I have to disagree.
I played through all of Chrono Trigger on my PSP with no problems whatsoever,
It's Perfectly fine.

[palmertech]

"Fine", it certainly is... But, 20-25fps vs 60fps on a real SNES, or a better emulator.

[AfroLH]

"Fine", it certainly is... But, 20-25fps vs 60fps on a real SNES, or a better emulator.

Not to start an argument,
But I just went through a bunch of my Statesave backups
And I played through a little bit of them.

Never got below 55 fps

I'll get pics later if you want!

[palmertech]

I have been proven wrong!? What madness is this!

Fine, I believe you. Perhaps this is the work of the new one using the PSP Media Engine?

Also... One more thing: Try setting the sound to 44000hz. Chrono Trigger needs awesome sound. See if the framerate falls a bit.

[AfroLH]

Also... One more thing: Try setting the sound to 44000hz. Chrono Trigger needs awesome sound. See if the framerate falls a bit.

Mine is at 44100hz
No diffrence!
But I will tell you what emu and settings I use:

Snes9xTYL 0.4.2
PSP Accel. + Accur. Soft.
Smoothing = Yes
Speed Limit Switch = Yes
Frameskip= AUTO
VSync=Yes
Sound Mode = Emulated, Output
Feq. = 4100hz
PSP Clockspeed = 300 Mhz

This runs most games almost perfectly.

Oh and Transparency works perfect now.

[grossaffe]

Also... One more thing: Try setting the sound to 44000hz. Chrono Trigger needs awesome sound. See if the framerate falls a bit.

Mine is at 44100hz

I've read that the human auditory range goes up to a frequency of about 16384 Hz. In order for a signal to correctly constructed without aliasing, it only needs to be sampled at twice the frequency of the highest frequency signal. considering that after about 8 years of age we start to lose the ability to hear higher frequency sounds, I would guess 16,000 Hz would be a fair range from which to work. Basically, 32,000 Hz sampling frequency should probably be enough to get accurate sound replication.

[AfroLH]

Also... One more thing: Try setting the sound to 44000hz. Chrono Trigger needs awesome sound. See if the framerate falls a bit.

Mine is at 44100hz

I've read that the human auditory range goes up to a frequency of about 16384 Hz. In order for a signal to correctly constructed without aliasing, it only needs to be sampled at twice the frequency of the highest frequency signal. considering that after about 8 years of age we start to lose the ability to hear higher frequency sounds, I would guess 16,000 Hz would be a fair range from which to work. Basically, 32,000 Hz sampling frequency should probably be enough to get accurate sound replication.

Pretty Interesting!

[bacteria]

Interesting comments. Perhaps the PSP fanboys have a point. I don't want one, I prefer original hardware and original and authentic games not ROMS, without a doubt - and of course, legal too.

How about sound crackling or skipping, or graphical artifacts or wrong colours, etc - how does the PSP compare - is it like for like??

[eagle5953]

Generally, the only graphical distinction I notice is that of playing it on an LCD vs. a normal TV: you can see sharp-edged pixels. Note that this would be the case even on original hardware with a PSone screen.

Of course, it will appear different if you set NES games to fill the screen entirely
or should I say E N T I R E L Y...

[Bibin]

Here's my issue with it.

Widescreen! If you want to play games fullscreen, they must be horrendously stretched and antialiased. The screen isn't high resolution enough for it to look good without filtering. If you play at 1:1 pixel ratio, it's horrendously tiny!

That, and the emulators all suffer 1-2 millisecond input lag, which is not acceptable.