Emulator

[ECKOleo24]

Like everyone else registered to this website I am new to the emulator stuff. I have heard of it but never actually done it myself. Sounds cool. So what is the first step and the steps after that. Thanks

[mhl12]

welcome to the forums.

emulation basically means you can run console games on the computer using an emulator software.

Different emulators emulate different consoles. So for example, if you want to play SNES games, you would download an SNES emulator such as znses.

[azoreseuropa]

Zsnes's gui is ugly. Get SNES9X because of gui is nice.

[Zach]

Ugly is a pretty broad term. It serves it's purpose though, looks about the same as any other emulator

[FatTrucker]

The GUI is pretty irrelevant for any emulator anyway. Once its set up just use a third party one like Mamewah. Have to say though the latest version of snes9x does seem a little superior, the sound on the title screen for EWJ2 is no longer broken for a start.

I think the site would benefit from a section for front-ends because they really add to the whole emulation experience and there are so many available. They can however be more complicated to set up than the emulators themselves. Many people who are new to emulation might not be aware that such things even exist.

Image is Mamewah as a front-end for Zsnes on my PC.

[azoreseuropa]

Nice!

Is it dos version or wins version ? Why is your frontbend different from this:

[Zach]

It looks like it supports "skinning". A process that allows users to retool their GUI in certain ways, to look different and suit their custom taste. Just like a Windows theme changes windows somewhat.

[FatTrucker]

Yup, and comes complete with a layout designer. The one in the picture was done by someone else though.
It supports multiple skins for different emulators so for example I have it set up to run about 20 different emulators and its contolled with a Playstation 2 pad.
I've mapped the shoulder buttons to cycle through the different emulators, the d-pad navigates the game list and the start button launches the game, each emulator has its own different skin. You can even set custom navigation and background sounds for each emulator.
What you can't see in the pic is that for most of the systems I have replaced the screenshots with movie previews (from emumovies.com) so it displays a little vid of the game rather than a static screenshot. Its a very versatile and customisable little front-end.

I chose most of the skins I'm using because they have fields to display things like boxart and cartridges as well as screenshots. The one I use for Mame below is excellent because you can also use the control panel and marquee pics to create the look of the original cab.