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Explain to me emulation performance on the Pi Zero.
Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 8:50 am
by nwycoff37
What I've gotten from all over the web is a lot of mixed input. The systems I really care about the most are SNES, Sega Genesis, GB and GBA. ETA prime showed like it runs almosts all of these titles with very little problems. My pi zero comes in this week so i guess ill have to test them myself i guess im just getting a little eager haha. almost all of my parts have already come in the mail. Can't wait to start building!
I understand N64 and PS1 is not an option for the zero.
Re: Explain to me emulation performance on the Pi Zero.
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 2:14 am
by tinkerBOY
I've played a lot of those games you mentioned on my GBZ build and everything works fine.
Re: Explain to me emulation performance on the Pi Zero.
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 11:55 am
by sygyzy
What sort of mixed input are you receiving? The Pi Zero runs anything from SNES downward. It cannot run N64, Dreamcast, etc reliably. ETA Prime is trustworthy. Is there some reason you would doubt him?
Re: Explain to me emulation performance on the Pi Zero.
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 12:13 pm
by ICMF
Yes, those systems will generally perform fine on the PiZero, with two small caveats:
SNES games that used the SuperFX chip, won't work - so StarFox and Super Mario World 2 would be out.
GBA games will work fine, *BUT*, you need to install the BIOS file for that system when you're setting up your Pi. It's just a matter of copying one file to a specific folder, but you need this to be able to run GBA games (do a search in the forum for a how-to - it's been discussed several times).
Re: Explain to me emulation performance on the Pi Zero.
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 4:02 pm
by dacasl
Sound emulation is another possible concern with some SNES games. By default, games run with the snes2002 emulator on the Zero. In some cases the quality is rather poor though (FF6 in particular). It is possible to switch emulators, but the other ones I tried did not seem to run very well on the Zero. If anyone has tips in this area, please share them!
Re: Explain to me emulation performance on the Pi Zero.
Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2018 5:42 pm
by sygyzy
ICMF wrote: ↑Mon Apr 30, 2018 12:13 pm
Yes, those systems will generally perform fine on the PiZero, with two small caveats:
SNES games that used the SuperFX chip, won't work - so StarFox and Super Mario World 2 would be out.
GBA games will work fine, *BUT*, you need to install the BIOS file for that system when you're setting up your Pi. It's just a matter of copying one file to a specific folder, but you need this to be able to run GBA games (do a search in the forum for a how-to - it's been discussed several times).
I think it's really helpful of you to point out the caveats but for most people, it's useful to give them broad answers to get them moving along. 2 games that use the SuperFX chip out of 700+ SNES games released is an acceptable margin. Lots of emulators require roms. Or some random games might need this patch or that patch.
But in general, SNES and below. Done.