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Is there actually any emulator that respects the user's time?

.Pennywise

.Pennywise

Banned
So, last one I checked was RetroArch which was like the promised All-In-One easy to use ultimate emulator.

Only to find out that wasn't the case, like at all. At the end it was worse than to just install a separated emulator for the desired console and not being running around a thousand sub-menues.

I don't know why these people work so hard to bring the best emulators, doing a better job than some of the biggest companies in the industry. Yet they always lack the very most basic UX. It's like they don't respect the person's time.

Is there actually any option out there, emulator or third party program, that, not even asking 'out of the box plug n' play', is just not a mess for the final user?


EDIT

.Pennywise said:
This is not a thread specifically for RetroArch. That was just anecdotic. Nor to call out any emulator developers (which mind you, I already told they do better work than the biggest gaming companies in regards to old games support).

It's about emulators UI/UX and the almost to non-existant basic use of it.
Click to expand...
 
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ParaSeoul

ParaSeoul

Member
"Respects the user's time"
Jimmy Fallon Wow GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
 
Soodanim

Soodanim

Gold Member

LaunchBox Frontend for Emulation, DOSBox, and Arcade Cabinets, Portable Games Launcher and Database

LaunchBox is a portable, box-art-based games database and launcher for DOSBox, emulators, arcade cabinets, and PC Games. Download it free!
www.launchbox-app.com www.launchbox-app.com

RetroArch is definitely not user friendly, but there are programs out there that make efforts to be as user friendly as possible.

The truth is that most of the emulators themselves are made by incredible talented programmers, but they're shit at visual design. Some emulators don't even have UIs.
 
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nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
Is this a serious question or it's just a rant about RatroArch?

Listen, i don't know anything about your experience as a user, your IQ, your patience, etc. Maybe RetroArch wasn't made for you.

Personally, i can't use anything else. Now that i got used to it and know how exactly it works, i want to get rid of every other standalone emulator, though some are still better to use as such like Dolphin and PCSX2.

People who complain about it's complexity and quirks, i understand. But it's not a waste of time like you claim it is.
 
S

SNG32

Member
Thats the thing with emulation is that you have to make it user friendly. I have launchbox and use it to launch with retroarch and it’s an amazing experience. However configuring it can be a bitch though sometimes.
 
Neff

Neff

Member
As someone who is currently wrestling with Retroarch for the first time, I can vouch that emulators from back in the day were certainly more user-friendly, but you still had to know what you were doing.

There really is no such thing as an idiot-proof emulator with robust, inviting, straightforward console-style presentation. Emulation has always been the domain of nerds who relish having and tweaking as many options as possible. However if you know your way around a PC you're off to a good start.

my advice for making life easier- forget any all-in-one solutions, just find the best emulators for the platforms you want and start there.
 
Antwix

Antwix

Member
Don't really understand the problem. If I recall, you can definitely use retroarch "out of the box" once you download the cores. Just like other emulators, you'll need to take 2 minutes and set up controls and whatnot. Maybe another few minutes if you want to set up playlists. But that's about it if you're not picky. Some options are buried a few menus deep but most of the options and core options are quite accessible.

Regardless, just get standalone emulators if you don't want to mess around with retroarch. Want gamecube/wii? Get dolphin. SNES? Just get snes9x. GBA? mGBA. etc etc
 
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Trimesh

Trimesh

Banned
.Pennywise said:
So, last one I checked was RetroArch which was like the promised All-In-One easy to use ultimate emulator.

Only to find out that wasn't the case, like at all. At the end it was worse than to just install a separated emulator for the desired console and not being running around a thousand sub-menues.

I don't know why these people work so hard to bring the best emulators, doing a better job than some of the biggest companies in the industry. Yet they always lack the very most basic UX. It's like they don't respect the person's time.

Is there actually any option out there, emulator or third party program, that, not even asking 'out of the box plug n' play', is just not a mess for the final user?
Click to expand...

Retroarch is incredibly user-hostile. Its' also amazing in terms of what it can do once you get your head around it.

You are running into the fundamental problem with programmers - they like to make things powerful and flexible, and if this causes accessibility to go out of the window they are OK with that. The net result is that when confronted with all these options the average naïve user just develops this "deer in the headlights" stare and has no idea what to do. Once you start to get a feel for how it works, then it all starts to make sense.
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
If you look at all the things RetroArch can do, how else would it be? There are tons of features and options and even more combinations of such features. It's made in a way that everything you can think of, you can do it.

You want each game to have a completely different shader? A different overlay? Different controls? Different frontend or core options altogether? You want a certain core or system to have it's own options that apply to all games that it runs but still a few particular games need to be different in one thing or another? You want each core/system/game to be in it's own sandbox, messing with it's settings without affecting other systems or games but you still need different defaults for each system/core anyway?


And you also want all these things to be completely portable and once you are happy with your setup, you will never have to fix them again, even if you transfer everything to a new system with a different OS?


RetroArch is the only project that i know of, that can do these things. And not only that, it allows you full control of everything with a gamepad, which makes it perfect for couch/arcade gaming. Let alone all the features it adds to all cores. How many of the standalones you are using have shader support? How many have latency reducing options? How many can perfectly sync with your monitor? How many can use VRR effectively if you have such monitor? How many allow you to control it's UI via the gamepad/Joystick in an arcade cabinet scenario? How many allow rewind?

Basically, you have a random amount of emulators, each ones having it's own options or lack of while RetroArch applies all it's features for all all of them as if you are using one emulator that emulates a ton of systems.

If you have, say, 40 different standalones, each one with it's own behavior and options, there is no way in hell you can achieve this. Not even with a frontend like Hyperspin/Launchbox. I still use these frontends for their fancy menus but i launch RetroArch through them instead of standalone emulators.

Such a project needs to be big/complex/flexible. How else can you manage all these different things with the press of a button? It doesn't work that way.
 
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brian0057

brian0057

Banned
Dolphin is cool but not it's no PCSX2. The latter is so insanely easy to use. It's way easier than any OG PSOne emulator I've ever used.
 
Arcadialane

Arcadialane

Member
I use PCSX-Reloaded as my PS1 emulator. Didn't have to do anything after downloading it, just played my roms immediately.

Same with pcsx2 for my ps2 emulator, other than searching for a bios for it, no other tinkering was needed.
 
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MachRc

MachRc

Member
Maybe some sort of "pre-made" frontend for MAME would be good. You can find pre-setup ones online with gigs and gigs of content with arcade border , box art, all setup with executable install for PC.

There are some neogeoX emulators that run out of the box with roms and great UI, there is just so many different types of emulators and alot get obscured on the net.
The Snes9x emulator is great as the rewind feature gets used alot, best thing to happen to16 bit emulated games...

Retroarch isnt any easier on the series X. Doesnt respect your time at all.
946cb33c9250ed4c8d9359d6db30acc0.jpg
 
.Pennywise

.Pennywise

Banned
This is not a thread specifically for RetroArch. That was just anecdotic. Nor to call out any emulator developers (which mind you, I already told they do better work than the biggest gaming companies in regards to old games support).

It's about emulators UI/UX and the almost to non-existant basic use of it.
 
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A.Romero

A.Romero

Member
Personally getting RetroArch from Steam and then getting the cores what's super easy. It took me less than an hour before I could start playing using an Xbox gamepad and all that.
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
MachRc said:
Maybe some sort of "pre-made" frontend for MAME would be good. You can find pre-setup ones online with gigs and gigs of content with arcade border , box art, all setup with executable install for PC.

There are some neogeoX emulators that run out of the box with roms and great UI, there is just so many different types of emulators and alot get obscured on the net.
The Snes9x emulator is great as the rewind feature gets used alot, best thing to happen to16 bit emulated games...

Retroarch isnt any easier on the series X. Doesnt respect your time at all.
Click to expand...
No, please no.

Most of the pre-made setups are horrible. You always have to deal with the author's own tastes and most of the time some of the stuff isn't going to work either because it's very hard to make things portable when you have to deal with many standalones.

Even when based on RetroArch, pre-made setups can be messy. Missing games/assets, duplicates of games, wrong file names, tons of MAME game clones, odd versions of games of random languages and regions, non-good or bad dump roms, corrupted zips, weird menu music choices, annoying decorative stuff such as the author's branding, etc.

I wouldn't recommend anyone using them unless they are casual gamers who don't care about anything other than play some games, regardless of quality/settings, etc.

Everyone else should learn how to build their own setups. RetroArch or Standalones.
 
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Knightime_X

Knightime_X

Member
Just use individual emulators.
All of them "respect" your time.

I do agree retroarch is kind of a mess but to be fair it's trying to be a all in one so it's par for the course.
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
YCoCg said:
Once you're set up and point certain emulators to a directory/package folder, then they'll just show up/get added to the default menu, where all you have to do is then click on it.

clipboard01fnkxc.png
Click to expand...

You can do this with a frontend like Launchbox.

You don't have to use RetroArch as the menu, most tend use it as a multi-emulator with tons of features.

Being a fancy main menu was never RetroArch's main focus.
 
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ReBurn

ReBurn

Gold Member
Retroarch with a good front end Is the way to go. Environments like RetroPie and 351Elec on top of retroarch take away so much of the emulator mess. But I really only emulate 8-bit and 16-bit stuff. They still do a good job with the limited 32-bit era stuff if the hardware is good.
 
supernova8

supernova8

Banned
Shtef said:
Open emu is pretty easy to setup, but its only available for mac

OpenEmu

Console and Arcade video game emulator for macOS.
openemu.org openemu.org
Click to expand...
maybe I'm just an emulation noob but I couldn't work out how to do the bios stuff for some of the machines on openEmu. Other than that yeah it has one of the best (looking, at least) UIs.
 
supernova8

supernova8

Banned
Knightime_X said:
Just use individual emulators.
All of them "respect" your time.

I do agree retroarch is kind of a mess but to be fair it's trying to be a all in one so it's par for the course.
Click to expand...

I particularly like Cemu. It has minimal system (e.g. graphical) settings in the main menu bit and the game-specific addons bit is also easy to understand (depends on whether the developers of said add-ons provide a good written explanation but at least for BOTW it's been easy, probably helps that loads of Youtubers have cemu BOTW how-to guides).
 
Shifty1897

Shifty1897

Member
Sometimes at work when support escalates tickets to me with ridiculous angry customer requests and I get depressed and frustrated, I open GAF and read posts like OP's, and I feel a little better knowing that no matter where you go in software development, even if you make a free product, someone with no idea how things work is going to tell you that you're bad and should feel bad.

I eagerly await the extinction of humanity.
 
lukilladog

lukilladog

Member
I agree that retroarch is too convoluted, limited, and sometimes temperamental for what it achieves. It seems far easier to get the official emulator builds and launch the games using a front end. I´ve been using emulationstation with emulators for years, not a hitch.(There are a front ends to suit all tastes actually).
 
nkarafo

nkarafo

Member
German Hops said:
FKinu_TXwAwDVep.png
Click to expand...

The drama is about that certain developer, not the whole project itself. He isn't even the original dev of RetroArch.

Also, as much as i respect MAME developers, some are way too salty about RA.

The "worse experience" giving "bad impression" is about RA supporting older versions of MAME. Along with the current version there's also MAME 2010, Mame 2003, etc, that are used on potato systems like the Pi.

MAME devs don't like these things existing. But they forget that RA isn't the only or the first project that has them. It just happens to be the more successful one. As for those who can't run the latest version of MAME because of performance issues... fuck them i guess? Not sure what MAME devs thinks of them.

I mean, i don't use a Pi or a crappy tablet/phone and i only use the latest version of MAME. But if someone wants to use an older one, what's the issue?
 
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Z

zcaa0g

Banned
Moral of the story:

In most cases, coders can't design UIs or package software worth a shit. That's been the case for 30 odd years and that's never going to change, because that's not their focus, nor do they care and depending on the scenario, shouldn't have to care.
 
alabtrosMyster

alabtrosMyster

Banned
I use retroarch for home consoles (NES / SNES / SMS / Genesis (CD) / TG-16 (CD) / PSP / PSX / Saturn)

However, Arcade (Neo Geo, MAME.), PS2/3, Wii, GameCude, etc. everything else is better handled by a separate emulator.

Obviously, this is all a question of taste, I like to let Retroarch build my libraries for each system and in the end this is just a menu to get to the games.
 
.Pennywise

.Pennywise

Banned
Shifty1897 said:
Sometimes at work when support escalates tickets to me with ridiculous angry customer requests and I get depressed and frustrated, I open GAF and read posts like OP's, and I feel a little better knowing that no matter where you go in software development, even if you make a free product, someone with no idea how things work is going to tell you that you're bad and should feel bad.

I eagerly await the extinction of humanity.
Click to expand...
Who said someone should feel bad? Nice comprehension buddy
 
Tams

Tams

Member
I mean, you're not paying for them...

so if you're that upset by it, why not code a good UI yourself? Whether you then sell or share the fruits of your labour (that let's face it, you aren't going to do and therefore have), would be up to you.
 
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