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What is your favorite SNES emulator?

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What is your favorite SNES emulator?

24.7% (111 votes)
9.8% (44 votes)
65.5% (294 votes)
Originally posted by millieman76
ZSNES, its more accurate and compatible with a majority of hacks that snes9x can emulate..

But it depended on what computer..

...ZSNES is not accurate. I guess you're trying to say that it's better at playing older hacks without bugs, but that's because the games are inaccurate, not that Snes9x is.

I'm not saying ZSNES is bad, but it's anything but accurate.
Did any of the last ten posts simply stating their choice even read the first post?
It specifically states that nobody cares.
Your layout has been removed.
Definitely ZSNES!!!!!!!!!!!! Best for ALLL
coolstuffwebsite.weebly.com
I've used ZSNES since 2009. I'm happy I chose the right emulator.
The purpose of this thread is not to determine the "best" or the "right" emulator, and the poll results are not meant to be interpreted in such a way. No emulator is right, wrong or overall better than the others.

That said, ZSNES is a bit like the IE6 of SNES emulation. A lot of people use it and are happy with it, but it is lacking in terms of accuracy. If there was any point to this thread other than simply painting a picture of people's emulator usage, it would be to determine the viability of eventually phasing out guaranteed ZSNES support for all our tools. Again, not because it is an objectively bad emulator, but its flaws could prevent developers from doing certain things that require a higher level of accuracy.

However, considering that as much as two thirds of the user base prefers ZSNES over other emulators, it is very clear that that would be a bad idea. As such, we shall continue to do our best to make sure that the resources available here are compatible with every major emulator.

Of course, if people end up with a hack that doesn't work in some emulators for one reason or the other, that is fine. However, we will try to guarantee that nobody would end up in such a situation as a result of using our resources.
It's a fact already that ZSNES is the emulator that's used the most by this community.

Honestly, I use Snes9X the most because ZSNES doesn't read samples from certain games (i.e. Earthworm Jim 2) and, sometimes crashes with some other games when a normal circumstance is not met (i.e. Earthbound, you can't sell stuff, otherwise it crashes [well, this happened to me when I didn't have the Sound Stone]).
Nothing worth looking at here.
Originally posted by Kieran Menor
That said, ZSNES is a bit like the IE6 of SNES emulation. A lot of people use it and are happy with it, but it is lacking in terms of accuracy. If there was any point to this thread other than simply painting a picture of people's emulator usage, it would be to determine the viability of eventually phasing out guaranteed ZSNES support for all our tools. Again, not because it is an objectively bad emulator, but its flaws could prevent developers from doing certain things that require a higher level of accuracy.

I would disagree with that metaphor. IE6 is ubiquitous generally speaking, but it is insecure, a RAM hog, and flagrantly avoids meeting any internet standards. It was a detriment to the web-based internet in general. I'm not sure I'd say that with ZSNES. It's probably the best GUI, works with almost every single game fairly accurately. The sole concern with ZSNES is it's inaccurate emulation, but is that really, pragmatically, a problem? It's less strict (think DMA uploads/IRO NMI stuff) about the complicated inner workings of the SNES, but that's not necessarily a problem. I'm having trouble thinking of things it flatly disallows programmers from doing (although I'm sure they exist).
To call it "IE6" is a bit harsh, is what I'm saying. ZSNES's flaws are not big enough to significantly set back SMW hacking.
ZSNES is already doing that, though, just look at AMM5.

And yes it's a problem that it's less strict because that's not emulating the SNES, that's acting like a """better""" SNES, which is not what I'm trying to download.
byuu made an article about games where the differences have an impact on gameplay and one was even given in this (or the other) thread (some DKC level being ludicrously hard because ZSNES doesn't do things right), so even saying "it works with almost every single game fairly accurately" is untrue.

I won't even mention the GUI because that's subjective.


It's like you're listing every single thing that makes IE6 horrible for what it's supposed to do (in a metaphor kind of way, mind you (ZSNES doesn't even cope with any kind of security)) and say that calling it IE6 is harsh.
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Originally posted by Maxx
It ... works with almost every single game fairly accurately.

Except Yoshi's Island, Super Mario RPG, Donkey Kong Country 2, Donkey Kong Country 3, Zelda 3, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3, Earthworm Jim 2, Der Langrisser, Tetris Attack...

Originally posted by Maxx
I'm having trouble thinking of things it flatly disallows programmers from doing (although I'm sure they exist).

- Offset-per-tile doesn't work properly (at least, Mode 2 doesn't; see 1-7 in YI)
- Pseudo-hires doesn't work
- HDMA sample streaming doesn't work
- There is limited SA-1 support (you can't jump to I-RAM or use bank swapping to enable >4MB ROMs, and character conversion DMA is very limited if not unsupported altogether)
- You can't change hardware registers mid-scanline (although I guess only bsnes-accuracy emulates that anyway)
- The SuperFX chip doesn't seem to be fully supported (see the falling doors in 1-4 of YI)
- And probably some other stuff I'm not even aware of.

Originally posted by Maxx
To call it "IE6" is a bit harsh, is what I'm saying. ZSNES's flaws are not big enough to significantly set back SMW hacking.

Addmusic 5. Just...Addmusic 5. It would also count if anyone's hack actually got removed for, say, using pseudo-hires or a 6 MB SA-1 ROM.

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I'm working on a hack! Check it out here. Progress: 64/95 levels.
Well I voted ZSNES. Snes9x and bsnes don't even work in my pc.While ZSNES works pretty good in every pc!
I voted for Bsnes, I have always used Zsnes but it's never been really up to par with my standards.
Like some of the windowing effects not working in Yoshi's Island, and don't get me started on 1-7 or 1-4...
That's why, for the longest time I wouldn't play YI hacks, now that I finally have a computer that can run Bsnes I can actually enjoy them a-lot better.

Edit: Also, weren't there platforms in YI that looked weird when you walked on them while using Zsnes?
Originally posted by imamelia

- Offset-per-tile doesn't work properly (at least, Mode 2 doesn't; see 1-7 in YI)
- Pseudo-hires doesn't work
- HDMA sample streaming doesn't work
- There is limited SA-1 support (you can't jump to I-RAM or use bank swapping to enable >4MB ROMs, and character conversion DMA is very limited if not unsupported altogether)
- You can't change hardware registers mid-scanline (although I guess only bsnes-accuracy emulates that anyway)
- The SuperFX chip doesn't seem to be fully supported (see the falling doors in 1-4 of YI)
- And probably some other stuff I'm not even aware of.

- HDMA can fire strangely (why you can't have hdma sample streaming)
- IRQ often fires in the wrong spot
- The DSP-1 is completely unusable if your ROM doesn't have a particular name (the DSP gets forced to act as if the cart is 1MB, regardless of size, meaning the registers get put in the wrong spot)

The other advanced hackers probably have their own stories.
Sorta makes me think of this. Shame we can't track ZSNES usage the same way.

Going with the IE6 analogy, I think it's time to keep in mind what happened to people who refused to upgrade. At first, people kept backwards-compatibility. Conditional comments and CSS hacks were used to attempt to salvage the IE6 population. IE7 maintained a quirks mode to help render pages designed for IE6 properly.

Then, web developers just sort of... gave up. People realized that if users refused to upgrade their browsers, it was no longer the developers' problem to provide support for complex JavaScript, CSS3, and HTML5 interaction. There are three primary strategies modern developers use to handle users with outdated browsers:
  1. Degrade Gracefully – Basically, this is a policy to let web pages still work in older browsers, though they may lose some more complex animations, styles, and interactions when viewed in them.
  2. Alternative Content – Through a system of conditional comments, CSS hacks, and other methods, developers serve slightly different CSS, HTML, or JavaScript content to older browsers. This makes maintenance more difficult, but it allows outdated clients to still receive a usable experience while letting new users reap the full benefits of new technologies.
  3. Abandon and Move On – This is the simplest and least graceful method. Simply put, these developers will either block access to or display warnings on their websites to upgrade users' browsers, or they might just silently crash and burn. The lowest maintenance method, this leaves the responsibility of upgrading to the user.

Let's face it, we can think of similarities for ZSNES. Obviously, some things can degrade gracefully in ZSNES, like less accurate music, fewer effects, and simple inaccurate emulation. However, due to the error-prone nature of such a limitation, it's hard to write complex code that will both take advantage of accuracy and still allow emulation on ZSNES.
While providing two different ROMs is always a possibility, this could easily become a real pain for hack developers, since the current state of SMW hacking is really only designed for a one-ROM per hack basis.
The question is, do we go with the final option? Can we move on, or is the ZSNES user base large enough to maintain.

The bottom line is that, well, ZSNES is not a problem when it's just a users' choice. If someone doesn't need perfect emulation, that person can make that decision. But when the users' choice of an outdated emulator starts inhibiting modern technology development, we have a problem. Should we design anything to run on just ZSNES or just bsnes just because we want to spite the emulators? No, but at some point, maintaining compatibility is no longer an easy task.

Sorry if this is a bit inflammatory, but I felt the need to post it. I'm done now.
Originally posted by Imamelia

Except Yoshi's Island, Super Mario RPG, Donkey Kong Country 2, Donkey Kong Country 3, Zelda 3, Kirby Super Star, Kirby's Dream Land 3, Earthworm Jim 2, Der Langrisser, Tetris Attack...

Mind elaborating on what happens with each one? I know YI(no Mode2), Der Langrisser(crashes hourly), Tetris Attack(Map flickering) and EWJ2(no sound) and I assume the Kirby games(PseudoHires), but what of the other games? (And I think it breaks the powerup SFX in SMW as well)
Let's milk Sunny Milk. Then she'll have enough money to fund Sunny Milk Real Estate.
Everypony's digging with a shovel
I honestly voted ZSNES for reasons that I usually wouldn't consider anywhere else. Due to this being my first SNES emulator, especially after watching ProtonJon use its rewind functions, I've grown to like it predominantly over snes9x and BSNES.
My main two reasons for using ZSNES is:
-Attractive GUI
-Rewind

I don't really care about special chips not working on the emulator, since I mainly don't play SNES games on the computer, I play them on the 100% accurate original Super Nintendo. I only really use ZSNES to check a game before I buy it and I'll be aware if it has enhancement chips onboard that might not function.
Yoshi's Island also bugs up in 1-4, in the room with the falling doors. They show a glitched frame for a moment. Super Mario RPG just plain crashes under certain circumstances, presumably due to poor SA-1 emulation, but I'm not sure. It crashes during Toad's tutorial (can be avoided if you save a state and keep loading it until it doesn't crash), when Mario uses some of his more powerful fireball attacks (just don't use those attacks), sometimes on the Star Pieces screen (again, savespam it)...and always on the Star Pieces screen if you have more than 4 stars (how do you deal with this? switch emulators, get the cartridge, or be satisfied with only playing half the game). In Zelda 3, the triforce during the intro spins too fast, causing it to finish spinning before the three triangles actually come together. In Donkey Kong Country 2, the barrels with the circular arrows that can be rotated manually are supposed to turn once every time you press Left or Right, but in ZSNES, once they start rotating, they rotate continuously, even when you're not pressing the button. In Donkey Kong Country 3, the fifth boss battle shows glitched graphics because it uses Mode 2.

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I'm working on a hack! Check it out here. Progress: 64/95 levels.
bsnes is my favorite emulator that I've used. I use it for everything except romhacks that use custom music since those always bug out for me in bsnes and snes9x. For those I have no choice but to use zsnes. My biggest issue with zsnes is the GUI, I can't stand it.
mine is ZSNES because It is easy to use.

My favourite emulator is ZSNES. It is the only SNES emulator I have ever used, it works well for what I want to do and rewinds are a useful feature when savestates are used at a wrong moment. The accuracy of ZSNES does not bother me too much.
Originally posted by imamelia
Super Mario RPG just plain crashes under certain circumstances, presumably due to poor SA-1 emulation, but I'm not sure. It crashes during Toad's tutorial (can be avoided if you save a state and keep loading it until it doesn't crash), when Mario uses some of his more powerful fireball attacks (just don't use those attacks), sometimes on the Star Pieces screen (again, savespam it)...and always on the Star Pieces screen if you have more than 4 stars (how do you deal with this? switch emulators, get the cartridge, or be satisfied with only playing half the game).

Were there games other than SMRPG to use SA-1 and is it the same as the SA-1 in the Resource Releases section? Definetly more sprite info than ZSNES can handle on those screens.

Originally posted by imamelia
In Zelda 3, the triforce during the intro spins too fast, causing it to finish spinning before the three triangles actually come together.

Same problem as Starfox, if I'm not mistaken, since Hyrule Magic says they're polygons or something.

Originally posted by imamelia
In Donkey Kong Country 2, the barrels with the circular arrows that can be rotated manually are supposed to turn once every time you press Left or Right, but in ZSNES, once they start rotating, they rotate continuously, even when you're not pressing the button.

I honestly don't see how that even works, unless it's somehow scrampbling that RAM address

Originally posted by imamelia
In Donkey Kong Country 3, the fifth boss battle shows glitched graphics because it uses Mode 2.

Bleak(the snowman), right? So Bleak is on Layer 1 0r something? Have to get a ROM and test it out in SNES9X...
Let's milk Sunny Milk. Then she'll have enough money to fund Sunny Milk Real Estate.
Everypony's digging with a shovel
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