Who here plays MAME and other Emus?

[Narc0lep5y]

Sweet, I’ve been wanting Mad Max too, so that’s a helluva deal. Thanks man.

Yeah, I know it can play the standard 7z, zip, etc. Couldn’t get it to play .dec tho unfortunately which seems to be pretty popular.

I ripped all the GC and Wii games i had using the homebrew channel and CleanRip on my Wii. That creates straight .ISO files. You can then compress the ISO files in Dolphin directly which creates a .gcz file.

What dump formats are supported by Dolphin?

Dolphin supports playing games dumped in the following formats:

GCM/ISO (uncompressed dumps, should be 1.4GB for GameCube games and 4.7GB for Wii games
GCZ (Dolphin can be used to compress your games to this format)
CISO
WBFS (not supported in Dolphin 3.0 or earlier)

Note that WBFS and CISO are lossy compression formats: they remove some of the unused information stored on the discs to make files smaller. As such, we recommend you try dumping your games as GCM/ISO if you get issues using a WBFS dump.

 

[Jeff Strong]

[MENTION=6915]Citizen[/MENTION] right on, and thanks for your list too.

[MENTION=5223]Narc0lep5y[/MENTION] oh cool, that's really handy. I'll give it a shot.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Do you know how much it affects load times? I ended up taking my PSP ISOs out of the 7z's just so they'd boot faster (would take a couple minutes sometimes, even on an SSD).

 

[Citizen]

would take a couple minutes sometimes

Are you sure you weren't just playing a Neo Geo CD?

 

[bavelb]

There aren't too many to list at all.


-Legend of Legaia
-Koudelka
-Tales of Destiny 1-2
-SaGa Frontier 1-2
-Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen
-Legend of Mana
-Threads of Fate
-Vandal Hearts 1-2
-Vanguard Bandits
-Arc the Lad Collection
-Parasite Eve 1-2
-Alundra 2
-Thousand Arms
-Kartia: The Word of Fate
-Azure

I edited those I already have.
Out of these remaining, which ones are really worth seeking out?

 

[Jeff Strong]

Are you sure you weren't just playing a Neo Geo CD?

Gotta love that 1x read speed!

 

[Citizen]

I edited those I already have.
Out of these remaining, which ones are really worth seeking out?

I'd say Legend of Legaia, Parasite Eve and Legend of Mana. SaGa isn't for everyone, but I enjoy the Frontier games.

If you're an arpg fan, then the Tales games and Threads of Fate are decent too.

If you're an srpg fan, Arc the Lad 2/3 (1 is really mediocre) and Vandal Hearts are good genre entries. Ogre Battle is kind of RTS/srpg, but it's a great game regardless of how you wanna classify it.

Koudelka is a chore to play and I'd only say it's a must play for huge Shadow Hearts fans. Alundra 2 is disappointing compared to 1. Thousand Arms is interesting for its early jrpg implementation of social elements, but it's also a huge chore to play and hasn't aged well. Kartia and Vanguard Bandits are ok srpgs, but nothing a person would need to play if they aren't a big srpg fan. Azure Dreams is a just ok roguelike/jrpg/monster raising sim hybrid, only worth seeking out if that sounds interesting to you.

 

[kimkom]

[MENTION=4106]

[MENTION=2028]kimkom[/MENTION] I’m mainly sticking to platforms and consoles I owned and unfortunately I didn’t have any of those. Before I got an NES, my first system was an Atari 2600 and then a ColecoVision. I might add those, but I’m not so sure the games hold up very well, and many of the titles have better versions in the arcade. Definitely let me know if there’s something amazing I’m overlooking or forgetting about tho.

Cool, each to their own. I guess there's a lot of personal nostalgia related to whatever systems we all grew up with.

Personally, I probably wouldn't bother with the Sega Megadrive (for example) as that was never a system I got into. But I definitely wouldn't do without the older ones. Just so many great memories of playing those games for the first time, during a really magical period in gaming history, where innovation was king.

Thinking back to games like Impossible Mission on the C64 where each play through had the early makings of being 'procedurally generated', as well as being the first time I heard speech on a home system. Classic game.

 

[Narc0lep5y]

Cool, each to their own. I guess there's a lot of personal nostalgia related to whatever systems we all grew up with.

Personally, I probably wouldn't bother with the Sega Megadrive (for example) as that was never a system I got into. But I definitely wouldn't do without the older ones. Just so many great memories of playing those games for the first time, during a really magical period in gaming history, where innovation was king.

Thinking back to games like Impossible Mission on the C64 where each play through had the early makings of being 'procedurally generated', as well as being the first time I heard speech on a home system. Classic game.

C-64 - Raid on Bungeling bay, M.U.L.E or Sid Meier's Pirates- So great, even now. RoBB and M.U.L.E. both had NES versions though that are just as good, and you might as well play later versions of Pirates instead.
As for Genesis - I played both and I really love the games that have both an SNES and Genesis version when they actually made different games for each. Alien 3 for example. Great games on either platform. Aladdin is probably the most recognizable. Complete list Here

My top Genesis/Sega CD games
Spider-Man (Sega CD Version remix is better)
Sonic 1-3 (& Knuckles)
Sonic CD
beyond Oasis (ARPG)
Silpheed (SegaCD)
Alien 3 (different from SNES)
Jurassic Park (also different from SNES)
Strike Series (Desert,Jungle, Urban) Also on SNES
Shadow Dancer & Shinobi series
Ecco the Dolphin (tough, you can play the sequel if you like punishment, get the SegaCD version of the original though)
Mutant League Football
Contra Hard Corps
Heart of the Alien (Out of this world 1&2 on CD)

 

[Citizen]

My top Genesis/Sega CD games
Spider-Man (Sega CD Version remix is better)
Sonic 1-3 (& Knuckles)
Sonic CD
beyond Oasis (ARPG)
Silpheed (SegaCD)
Alien 3 (different from SNES)
Jurassic Park (also different from SNES)
Strike Series (Desert,Jungle, Urban) Also on SNES
Shadow Dancer & Shinobi series
Ecco the Dolphin (tough, you can play the sequel if you like punishment, get the SegaCD version of the original though)
Mutant League Football
Contra Hard Corps
Heart of the Alien (Out of this world 1&2 on CD)

Good list. Some I'd add for Genesis:

Castlevania: Bloodlines
Shadowrun
Rocket Knight Adventures 1-2
Road Rash 2-3
TMNT: Hyperstone Heist
General Chaos
Blaster Master 2
Crusader of Centy
Herzog Zwei
Gargoyles
X-Men 1-2
Sub-Terrania
Cyborg Justice
Rolling Thunder 3

I grew up with the SNES. Love Genesis games and wouldn't have a setup without them.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Road Rash 2-3 were must-haves.

Bioshock Battle was one I used to play quite a bit.

The Genesis version of Aladdin is actually pretty fun as well. I remember my little brother getting it for Xmas or something, and I thought it'd suck and be a kiddy game, but actually ended up playing quite a bit.

...and of course Streets of Rage series.

Currently I'm working on my SoulCalibur collection. Got 1-3 and Broken Destiny working. Already had SC2 on Gamecube which kicks all sorts of ass. SC3 was a bit of a biatch to get working properly on pcsx2 (black lines as soon as you try to bump up the internal res), but I finally got the video settings sorted. Also enjoying the Dreamcast version of SC1 for the first time. As I said before, I have fond memories of the arcade version, so this is a real treat. It's impressive how well SC1 still holds up. Took a bit of tweaking to find the best DC setup. Tried Redream first, but you have to pay extra for a build that let's you increase the internal res, so was only able to try the standard version. Turns out Demul is smoother anyway.

 

[Citizen]

It's impressive how well SC1 still holds up

For sure. They may not have the content levels of the newer games, but gameplay-wise, the first 3 Soul games are still better than the next 3. I haven't put any time in VI yet.

 

[Jeff Strong]

My brother and I had talked about picking up VI this weekend when he’s here, but honestly we’d have just as much fun, if not more, playing 1-3.

Also got Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Tony Hawk 1-2 running on the Dreamcast as well. The latter look so much better than the PS1 versions I’m accustomed too.

 

[bavelb]

I grew up with the SNES. Love Genesis games and wouldn't have a setup without them.

Genesis just never ever clicked for me, ever. Not the machine nor the games. I'm pretty sure this isn't a "I was a nintendo-kid so sega sucks" either. I didn't really know that was a thing untill way later. I never had 8-bit or 16-bit consoles as we didnt have the budget for a machine like that (I got an Atari 2600 in 1986/7 instead...I was salivating over a NES and instead I got this. Trust me I have NO nostalgia for those blocky-ass 2600 games whatsoever lol). The day I got my own gameboy...man. That prettier looking gamegear just could not hold a candle to it.

Nothing about Sega interested me. I never 'got' Sonic or the more edgier games Sega put out over the years. I still don't. When I look on youtube at the games you guys list I just shrug. I do have some games on my emulators, but most of them because they are very similar to Nintendogames (Wily Wars, Castlevania Bloodlines, Beyond Oasis,
crusader of Centy, Contra Hard Corps). I can't put my finger behind why all that is though.

All that said, here is some more recommendations that I got through youtube channels like SNESdrunk and MetalJesusRocks:
Alien Soldier (can't believe noone listed this or GH yet...or are those a given?)
Gunstar Heroes
Klax
Shining Force
Monster World 4 (english patched)
Landstalker
Pier Solar

And a whole bunch of shmups (that SNES tended to suck at due to slowdown)
Busterhawk Gleylancer
Gaiares
Thunder Force III/iV
Steel Empire
MUSHA
Wings of Wor (not a typo)

 

[Narc0lep5y]

Do you know how much it affects load times? I ended up taking my PSP ISOs out of the 7z's just so they'd boot faster (would take a couple minutes sometimes, even on an SSD).

Missed this before. Not by much that i see. But that sounds like a PSP emulation issue more than anything. Dolphin is installed on a HDD but it's pulling the roms off a home server directory and they load in just a few seconds over the network. I don't know if there's a difference in load times between compressed or uncompressed but it was never really slow enough using compressed that i was looking for more speed.

 

[Narc0lep5y]

Alien Soldier (can't believe noone listed this or GH yet...or are those a given?)
Gunstar Heroes

I thought about putting an "anything by Treasure" on my list but even though they are some of the most popular games for emulation now, they never hit my radar back then so I didn't feel right recommending them. Plus my list was already long enough.

 

[Citizen]

I never 'got' Sonic or the more edgier games Sega put out over the years. I still don't.

I've never really been a Sonic fan either. Genesis had much better platformers, like Rocket Knight Adventures and Dynamite Headdy (which I should have listed before).

Alien Soldier (can't believe noone listed this or GH yet...or are those a given?)

Gunstar Heroes is absolutely a given. Like Narc0lep5y said, anything Treasure. It's a good mantra to live by. I should have listed Alien Soldier, though, even though it's also Treasure.

Klax
Shining Force
Monster World 4 (english patched)
Landstalker
Pier Solar

And a whole bunch of shmups (that SNES tended to suck at due to slowdown)
Busterhawk Gleylancer
Gaiares
Thunder Force III/iV
Steel Empire
MUSHA
Wings of Wor (not a typo)

All great games too. Nice to see Gleylancer mentioned. "Anything Masaya" works for me too (except Ranma 1/2: Hard Battle, lord that's bad).

Love me some Shining Force, those are among my favorite srpgs. Genesis also has great srpgs like Langrisser 1-2 and the recently translated Vixen 357 (both also from Masaya).

 

[The loafer]

Mention genesis and not mention EA's NHL series is a crime. Many non-sports fans end up loving those games, especially NHL 94. Yeah yeah I'm Canadian and it's in my citizen contract to push the Genesis NHL series at every opportunity, deal with it!

 

[Tron]

Fave game on the Megadrive/Genesis was Shinobi III.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Here’s one for you guys: What are your top 4 player games? (arcade + consoles)