The BEST Emulators of 2023

Go to drinkag1.com/modernvintagegamer to get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 and 5 AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. Thanks to AG1 for sponsoring today's video!
Video game emulation in 2023 has gone from strength to strength and in today's episode we discuss the Best Emulators that I've been using in 2023 and showing off their features. These all run on PC but many of them also run on Linux, MacOS and some on Android. You may or may not agree with this list, but please let me know what you've been using in 2023. Have a wonderful day!
► Support the Channel - / modernvintagegamer
Support The Emulation Teams
► RPCS3 HomePage - rpcs3.net/
► RPCS3 Patreon - / nekotekina
► PCSX2 HomePage - pcsx2.net/
► PCSX2 Donation Link - github.com/sponsors/PCSX2
► XEmu HomePage - xemu.app/
► XEmu Patreon - / mborgerson
► DuckStation HomePage - www.duckstation.org/
► DuckStation Patreon/Donation Link - ?????
► Yuzu HomePage - yuzu-emu.org/
► Yuzu Patreon - / yuzuteam
► Vita3k HomePage - vita3k.org/
► Vita3k Donation Link - ko-fi.com/vita3k
► TimeStamps
00:00 - 00:56 Intro
00:57 - 02:08 Sponsor
02:09 - 06:53 RPCS3
06:54 - 10:05 PCSX2
10:06 - 13:34 XEmu
13:35 - 18:13 Yuzu
18:14 - 22:54 Vita3k
22:55 - 25:56 DuckStation
25:57 - 28:36 Honorable Mentions and PS4 Emulation Update
28:37 - 28:52 Outtro
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► Threads : threads.net/ModernVintageGamer
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#BestEmulators #2023

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Go to drinkag1.com/modernvintagegamer to get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 and 5 AG1 travel packs with your first purchase. Thanks to AG1 for sponsoring today's video!

[@flintfrommother3gaming]

I don't know you but I don't think it's moral selling supplement products even if it's just a sponsorship considering how many of them are scams.

[@MrFoxYodotter]

I would like to tall about the emulators made for the PSP. Like genesis emulator, GBA and stuff. i play my psp daily and mostly emulators on it,

[@cmbaz1140]

Hello MVG I LOVE EMULATORS... For the last 17 years they have been my main gaming experience ... so many titles so many systems... no dlcs no moneygrabs... just eternal fun... But at this point many of them literally require a computer science degree to get stuff running...at least for me... I dont even bother with shaders or upscaling since most of the time stuff just barely runs on my laptop from the get go anyways... This is the very aspect of emulation i would improve if i could... Some emulators do have descriptions for the different options in the settingd but even those require a certain amount of knowledge at this point... You may think after 17 years i would be an expert but the truth is the emulators that run without issue and dont require maintanance are the ones i use most i dont want to waste times in the settings i could be playing... ...i will usually try a few emulators with different options and settings read a few comments watch a few videos and if i still cant get it running it will disappear in some folder until next year... if i really want to play a title badly i will try it with new updates or even a new emulator again with videos and comments... For emulators i want to load a game set a few control settings or controllers and get to play... i really wonder if an emulation specific AI could be used as some kind of a "setup assistent" for emulators to let anyone have the best possible experience on their specific devices... I dont know if you ever bothered to look at this but it would mean alot to me an people like me who only do emulation gaming these days...

[@tony3760758956]

Good to see a proper update about performance o the major emulators. Reminded me that Simply Austin's comeback never materialized.

[@mrtnptrs]

@@flintfrommother3gaming Agree, has been proven that many don't need supplements and are only peeing them out or damaging their bodies. Hopefully MVG could look up more info up about this to form a more properly informed opinion, because many people frown on this. Idk, maybe he already did this and came to this conclusion, but taking money from these kind of sponsors, just makes him sound less reliable, just like many KZbinrs that take money from gray market game selling sites, coin marketplaces, VPNs etc.

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Rip Yuzu

[@gamerdudeplayz2292]

well that sucks

[@Frostbite1090]

I don't have any android phone atm but it seems suyu will continue where yuzu left off, including android builds from what i read.

[@JimTheKid]

Ryujinx

[@RaspyCh]

You should make a video about Ryujinx. If you want tho

[@GolfinhoVoador]

@@Frostbite1090 rip suyu lol

[@chemergency]

The GUI update for PCSX2 has got to be the single greatest update for any emulator in history, since it corrects the biggest flaw with the emulator being that you weren't able to set per-game configs previously which made switching back-and-forth between different games and updating the emulator a huge, tedious hassle. If you happen to come across this comment then thank you Stenzek!!!!

[@wile123456]

Yea half the updates for the emulator is removibg/streamlining the decades of jank it accumulated lol

[@Grishanof]

Ever since it was rewritten, it still does not support guitar hero controller mode, unlike the old version

[@Jamesssssssssssssss]

It also has great achievement support.

[@chemergency]

@@Grishanof At-least the old version's still there for that specific purpose.

[@Grishanof]

@@chemergency true. Still, the new version is much faster on same hardware, GH1 is barely playable in some scenes.

[@silentdebugger]

Setting up an 8-player Halo match between two computers on Xemu using virtual networking with minimal effort and having the game Just Work Perfectly was one of the best moments in emulation I've had in a long time.

[@mattyb187]

that sounds like it could be a great how to: youtube video that you should make!

[@ryanimateon]

the whole concept of an emulator is still so amazing. being able to run console specific code on a totally different machine, sometimes just about flawlessly and with significant improvements

[@user-ds8rj2vc4v]

For me it's the preservation of games as a medium. There are so many games that get stuck every generation and left behind. These games would be lost to history were it not for emulation. And emulation will be the key factor that helps to fight against games as services, subscription models and removal of ownership in the coming years. Want to play your old classic games? Only if you pay for a subscription that Nintendo lets you pay monthly. OR just emulate it and run it yourself (often better).

[@darinherrick9224]

It’s not an amazing concept. It’s how a computer works. ALL CPU operations are nothing more emulation/simulation that are translated in huge numbers that are added rapidly. ALL CPU calculations are simply adding numbers really really fast.

[@ryanimateon]

@@darinherrick9224 oh yea? Prove it, I don’t believe you. Prove that it’s not amazing. And prove that computers are adding numbers really fast

[@90sNath]

​@@user-ds8rj2vc4vtechnically paying for the subscription and playing it there is also emulation. I think you mean unofficial emulation over offical emulation.

[@Wes_Trippy4life]

​@@ryanimateon😂😂😂

[@Boosted0ne]

PCSX2 1.7 night builds have been a Godsend for PS2 emulation. The new builds runs so much better and always getting updated.

[@opfax163]

And vulkan ❤

[@ChaoticKrisis]

And the UI is so much nicer, with no mess of plugins that are all over the place

[@ChaoticKrisis]

Although I will say I do miss the shader plugin, wish that the qt build was could run the old shaders

[@AntiGrieferGames]

I wich they are still update on windows 7, but since this emulator is open source, it will be still a big plus on this emulator. Same goes on Duckstation. The new UI on PCSX2 used the Duckstation gui, made by stenzek, which is for my eyes great and better than the old UI.

[@Boosted0ne]

@@ChaoticKrisis I still switch between PCSX2 1.6 for a small handful of games. I can't get Tomb Raider Anniversary or Legends to run right on the 1.7 Night build. Upscale and run it thru 1.6 and it plays fine.

[@Simte]

RPCS3 is an amazing feat of engineering, but so are all the other emus on the list. Let's hope emulation continues to evolve the way it has, game preservation will be even more important in the near future.

[@HUYI1]

you need a quantum computer for it to run in an acceptable manner, wouldn't bother with it LOL

[@bluetooth2677]

@@HUYI1 No you don't. I have mid level gaming laptop with an AMD R7 3800H that plays most games I tested at 1080p/1440p with 30 fps or 60 fps depending on the game.

[@PR0T0_]

@@HUYI1 No you don't. You just need a decent CPU. I've messed around with swapping my 3090 out for my 1080, and have found very little difference in performance.

[@12MRJERSEY]

​@@bluetooth2677Yea, try running something like MGS 4. I have a 3070ti which should be more than enough but...

[@XVa-uj8m]

@@HUYI1 There are vids. of ETA Prime running Skate at 60 FPS on a 5700G. Yeah no.

[@NCR_trooper-69]

*Nintendo was Here*

[@twentysixhundred7813]

Stenzek really pushed PSX and PS2 emulation to another level. Formally worked on Duckstation and now joined the team on PCSX2 which really woke up PS2 emulation.

[@user-vb6ej2rw4x]

Any future progress on Android?

[@pineapplesauce7499]

@@user-vb6ej2rw4x Play!/purei ps2 emulator probably has potential. It's multiplatform with a android port. Updates are slow though

[@RikoHariyanto-it8iv]

​@@user-vb6ej2rw4x aethersx2 emulator PS2 on android

[@adilator]

What I like about emulator videos is finding out what games are stuck on a particular console. That also makes me curious to try it on the original console.

[@Canalbiruta]

being able to play stuff like bust a groove, eternal darkness and jet set radio future is basically why i love emulation so much.

[@leozar69]

Here's an important one for the Nintendo DS. It's the 1 true sequel to Chibi-Robo for Game Cube. It was only released in Japan, but now there's an english translation version. I can't recommend it enough. ♥ Title: "Okaeri! Chibi-Robo! - Happy Rich Oosouji!" For me, I use DeSmuME for pc, and Drastic for my tablet. 😌👌🏻 Here's another one: "Magician's Quest - Mysterious Times" (Also a DS title) It's literally Animal Crossing, but you're a wizard who goes to a wizard school. Bonus, you can even get married! Last one: "Okamiden" The sequel to Okami. Let me know if you want more recommendations 😁✌🏻

[@empoleonmaster6709]

@@leozar69 Question, what's the best emulator for the DS with upscaling? I want to show my friend KH 358/2 days, as the cutscene movies aren't shit compared to playing through the story, but dear lord, in modern times it NEEDS upscaling filters....and XP and item hacks post game because dear lord THE GRIND for levels and extra Thundaga spells post game.

[@leozar69]

@@empoleonmaster6709 I don't personally know for sure, so i asked ai. Here's what it said: "When it comes to emulators for the ds with upscaling, there are a fw options you can consider. One of the popular choices ia DeSmuME. It allows you to upscale the graphics, providing a better visual experience. Another option is MelonDS, which has a feature called "HQ2x/3x" that enhances the graphivcs as well. Both emulators have their own strengths, so you can try them out and see which one suits your needs best." I tried melonds before, but I always ditch it for DeeSmuME. But it might work for you.

[@ldope3904]

I just want to be able to play Infamous 1 and 2 in high resolution and smooth framerates...

[@shanecyprian4156]

RIP Yuzu and Citra

[@sosa0]

RPCS3 is ridiculously impressive considering the PS3 has such a weird and confusing architecture. Ryujinx is also my personal pick for Switch emulation on Windows, it's just more accurate.

[@Dead_Hitori]

you're kapping thinking ryujinx is better

[@retrogamer847]

Lmao when I played Bayonetta 1 on ryujinx in some places it run with 1 fps but yuzu got stable 60 fps,also yuzu don't crash as ryujinx!!!

[@halcyonacoustic7366]

Yuzu has been so much better this year for me. The development flurry after ToTK and Mario Wonder came out were amazing.

[@christophervanzetta]

@@retrogamer847I have yet to have ryujinx crash in me and I use it a lot

[@VanisherXP]

The choice of Yuzu vs Ryujinx usually comes around to what video card you have. Supposedly, Yuzu plays better with AMD drivers while Ryujinx does with Nvidia.

[@MrBigTrey]

I started emulating back in 97 with ZSnes 0.4.3. It was amazing that I could play snes games on my 233Mhz Pentium 2 pc. Of course, the frame rate wasn't that great and the sound if you could even get it to work was stuttery. It's crazy to see how far emulation has come.

[@nunyabusiness896]

I started back around 97, too. As a Mac user the library of games was super limited, but all of a sudden I could play the back catalog of NES, SNES, and Genesis and not long after even play Playstation 1 with Connectix Virtual Game Station (with real games only, though, it didn't support ISOs nor do I think I could've downloaded them with dial up).

[@MrBigTrey]

@@nunyabusiness896 That was what was so great about emulating back then. You could download the whole game in a couple of hours on a 26.4Kbps dial-up connection. It's crazy cause now if I'm not downloading faster than 5MBs I get irritated.

[@razorbackroar]

Damn znes been around that long

[@BrianGon89]

it had DOS releases lol@@razorbackroar

[@PatrickLofstrom]

I never could beat Chrono Trigger in time when I was renting it (the next person would overwrite my saves), but I did manage to beat it via ZSNES on a keyboard 😂

[@HoneyMike]

Game awards: 🥱 Emulator Awards: 🤯

[@T200026]

would love to see you doing an interview with the RPCS3 team..

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Good idea . I may do this next year

[@T200026]

@@ModernVintageGamer will look forward to that one..

[@gaspump]

Shoutouts to Emudeck for making setting all this stuff up super easy on the Steam Deck. I just got mine a couple weeks ago and there's a quick setup wizard and an easy tool to import your rom library and make it all available (and very customizable) via Game Mode. Definitely worth checking out.

[@splatmaster2007]

Yeah thank god for Emudeck. The biggest problem with the Steam Deck is that a lot of simple stuff like installing anything outside of Steam kind of requires basic Linux knowledge and a lot of people like myself didn't use anything other than Windows until they got a Deck.

[@thomashunt2240]

Being able to install and run just 1 frontend and have all those emulators just ready to go... Magical.

[@medleysa]

When I first delved into emulation in the early 2000s, my young high school mind would’ve never imagined the landscape we have now - excellent handhelds that can play GameCube in your pocket, the Steam Deck, playing PS2 games at 4K and beyond. Absolutely mind blowing.

[@ZeroWaveZ]

vita3k's progress is really something to behold, i remember watching a couple videos about it back when it only ran persona 4 golden and a couple of other minor titles, and then i kinda forgot about it, only to look back and find it now runs a little over 2000 titles. i've been using it myself to play gravity rush these past few days, it runs really well, with the exception of some slowdown on some bossfights where alot of stuff gets destroyed or thrown around at once, but it's still completely playable. it does have a pretty major weak point right now though (at least on PC) which is the controller options, as far as i know there's no way to set up macros for the touch screen or tilt controls, which makes some actions like sliding on gravity rush just not possible on PC, though that in no way takes away from how impressive the emulator is, i'm excited to see how it'll develop further.

[@dragonandavatarfan8865]

Is it not possible to set up the mouse as the touch screen and tilt controls option?!

[@ZeroWaveZ]

@@dragonandavatarfan8865 oh no, the mouse works for the touch screen, it's just that you can't do touch more than one place in the screen at once with it, which some games require you to do. as for the tilt controls, i haven't been able to find anything about binding or enabling them in the settings, it's possible that they're currently just not implemented or somewhere obscure like the debugging options.

[@y0mgi3d]

​@@ZeroWaveZ For tilt controls, wouldn't it be possible to use wiimotes or a smartphone?

[@ZeroWaveZ]

@@y0mgi3d not sure about wiimotes, but i can see tilt controls working on the mobile build, and to be fair you'd probably want to emulate the vita on something with a touch screen anyways, i just do it on PC because my phone can't handle vita3k. while not having tilt controls in a game like gravity rush isn't a deal breaker, it definitely could impact compatibility in some other titles. since the emulator is still experimental this is probably something that will get looked into in the future though.

[@Ketorulz]

I feel like once again the steam deck may be the only viable option for those enhanced inputs using the two touchpads. Of course that won’t feel 100% 1:1 with vita back touch estate, but it’s the best we got

[@firisrozley5768]

My hopes for emulation in 2024: - More improvements for Xemu, RPCS3, Xenia, Vita3K, Yuzu, Ryujinx & PS4-based emulators - Emulator support for ARM-powered Windows PC - Stratos (formerly Skyline) to be optimized for Mali GPU drivers since Yuzu for Android is optimized for Adreno GPU drivers - Higher compatability when emulating PC games prior to Windows 7 era on Android - Improvements for playability for PS2-based Play emulator on Android etc

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Good picks

[@madhunter6420]

RPCS3 Needs Multiplayer network support for GTA Online

[@sedme0]

Dolphin is one of the few emulators for 6th/7th generation consoles that's so good that it's my go-to for GameCube and Wii, even before official hardware. It still stands as one of the pillars of what's capable with great emulator design. There's still a couple small things it's missing, like the ability to do wireless DS communication, but even DS emulators aren't quite there yet. Also, the USB keyboard emulation doesn't work on anything but Windows, so that bit probably needs a rewrite to be more like how it handles the GameCube keyboard controller, but other than that, I can't think of any flaws that it has. Maybe the ability to change certain settings while the emulator is running. I know there's technical reasons why it can't actually just change which CPU emulation core it's using on the fly, but considering you can savestate, stop the emulator, change the setting, then load the state, there isn't really a good excuse why that can't be automated behind the scenes. Also, there's no way to lower the audio volume on Linux without using an external tool. I guess my point is that I have tons of minor gripes with Dolphin, but they're things that don't impact the fact that I still prefer it over real hardware.

[@mysticaxolotl8215]

Well said

[@user-br7rx2sz1k]

They still haven't fixed the bond games and the controller is missing buttons which makes certain games harder to play as compared to pcsx2. "From Russia with love" being a good example

[@SeanJ2A]

I actually sold my GameCube to focus on Dolphin. Couldn’t beat the upscaling ability.

[@mitchjames9350]

DS and 3DS emulators are gonna be hit and miss due to the nature of the dual screens and the touch screens on the bottom.

[@fromaguez]

@@mitchjames9350 i think for these consoles it's better to put an homebrew on the original hardware

[@MusicFromAnotherTime]

The biggest hurdle in emulation for me was always the convenience factor. Getting a steam deck this year and going through all of the setup with that which was a breeze completely changed the game for me. I had done plenty of emulation in the past on PC as well, but steam Deck support from the community is insane.

[@alexanderkarren6455]

Do you use emu deck or any of those emulation launcher script things?

[@MusicFromAnotherTime]

@@alexanderkarren6455 emu deck with a little extra configuring but not much honestly.

[@bane2201]

Same here, the Deck is a game-changer (heh). When I used EmuDeck, I felt like saying "...that's it? That's the setup for all my emulators? I thought that setting them up would take all night!"

[@nunyabusiness896]

While I agree some emulators could be "fiddly", the convenience is overwhelming because your whole library can just be in a single folder vs. combing through shelves looking for a game and having to wait for it to load, etc. vs. jumping to a save state.

[@user-ds8rj2vc4v]

@@MusicFromAnotherTime Yeah, Emudeck was a huge convenience factor for me too. I hope that Emudeck for Windows will be just as significant of a leap too.

[@dude-zr8gi]

One thing to note about the PCSX2 emulator is that its the first emulator for the developers of said emulator to add RetroAchievements support into a build. Gets more eyes on the emulator while also having more people actually wanting to play through an entire game on said emulator.

[@voteDC]

I do find it kind of sad that people won't play through a game unless it has achievements.

[@dude-zr8gi]

@@voteDC Achievements have encouraged me to play more games than I used to in previous generations. Also gets me to play games I never would have and get more enjoyment out of them. Always 100%d games before achievements, just gives me another reason to play more games than just playing the same 5 games over and over again.

[@KeiraLunar]

i like retroachivement support cause it challenges me to go beyond just 100% completion

[@sidepanel4763]

me after just finding out there's RA support, I'm just blasting thru ps2 games rn

[@voteDC]

@@dude-zr8gi See I don't get why achievements matter. If the game is good then you'd be playing it anyway. It seems more to me that achievements get people to play games they don't enjoy because the value of getting an achievement is the most important thing for them. If seeing that achievement pop up is what gives people happiness, then who am I to want to stop them. I do still find it sad that people won't give older games a chance unless there are achievements.

[@jong2359]

PCSX2 has to be one of the most improved emulators of this decade. We went from needing 8th gen intel @ stock resolution, to only needing 6th gen intel. 8th Gen intel can pump out 3x resolution without even breaking a sweat. You can pick up 8th Gen intel systems for less than $100... it is crazy how good their team has pushed the platform.

[@GreatKeny]

What are you talking about. My 3rd gen Intel runs PCSX2 perfectly fine.

[@jong2359]

@@GreatKeny with graphics card at 1x resolution, sure.

[@GreatKeny]

@@jong2359 What are you talking about? My CPU is an i5 3570. But graphics card I have a 6700XT. I can easily run God of War 2 at 6x resolution (4k) at 60 fps without any issue.

[@jong2359]

​@@GreatKeny alright, so you have a graphics card that is worth 3x the amount of the computer it is in, sue me. I still said WITH GRAPHICS CARD, which my example excluded.

[@tulikube]

My favorites are definitely PCSX2 & PPSSPP, I have revisited many nostalgic games using these. And compatibility is great on both of them, at least so far , every game I have tried has worked on them.

[@nathangraves1069]

love those 2 emulators, playing on my steam deck a psp game like resistance : retribution or onimusha on pcsx2 is awesome !!

[@Daniel_Richards]

Or, as I like to call it, PSPSPS 😅

[@nathangraves1069]

@@Daniel_Richards when you start the emulator your cat will come and lay on your lap

[@tulikube]

@@nathangraves1069 The funniest thing with some old games is that the PS2 version on an emulator is easier to get running than the native PC version. One such game for me was "Total Overdose". If some old PC games aren't that popular, and someone hasn't made patches for them, then they don't really want to run on my Windows 11 PC.

[@MrSujano]

Great video as always! Love the callout for Vita3k's compatibility growing!

[@matthewsmith3817]

The video had a little too much fluff.

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Thank you legend

[@AJ_UK_LIVE]

I love emulation. It has led to me needing so many hard drives! Too many full catalogues. I will never play everything but I collect it all anyways. It's an interesting addiction haha

[@MarkColemanRules]

A fellow pokerom collector 😀

[@AJ_UK_LIVE]

@@MarkColemanRules haha yes indeed. One must simply catch 'em all.

[@justaadhdgamerwesley6244]

Chad data hoarder

[@veneratedmortal4369]

You mean linux iso files. And games you own. ;)

[@AJ_UK_LIVE]

@@veneratedmortal4369 So very many Linux ISOs.

[@fleurdewin7958]

22:55 Thank you for telling me about DuckStation . I only remembered that I used Bleem! and Connectix VGS as PS1 emulator in my childhood days 😂. Decades have past

[@jamsaltifyouwill]

honestly my favourite part of emulation this year has to be me discovering what retro achievements was and getting it linked up with the playstation emulators. i beat spyro 1 and started going through medievil and it sure does add a new reason to play through a game to the end.

[@bartekpekala77]

RIP Yuzu

[@MMOchAForPrez]

RCPS3 has come SO FAR since I first used it a decade ago! I'm blown away

[@noderunner_]

Speaking about making a game feel remastered, I think HD texture packs are a great option. Both projects that remake the textures by hand and those that use AI upscaling. Some games work better than others with AI upscaling and quality can vary by texture, but generally it adds detail into the game while remaining pretty faithful to the original artstyle. Of course doing it by hand by a skilled team will always be better but we're talking about thousands upon thousands of games that need HD texture packs and the man hours just don't make sense to do all of them by hand. One main problem with HD textures is the fact that textures are usually dumped by the emulator as the game is being played, which means you need to complete the whole game, being meticulous to go everywhere, do everything, and load every texture to be dumped as best you can. Then at that point it's pretty trivial to run the images through an AI upscaler, but you already played the whole game and you're unlikely to want to play it again in its entirety just to enjoy the textures. I think what we need is AI upscaling built-in to the emulator, so as soon as the texture is loaded it can be automatically upscaled and replaced. Then people don't have to go through the whole process above or distribute copyrighted content online when sharing their packs.

[@warmerspy]

Something I would love to see and this world most likely have to become a video series of sorts. But a video going over the Emulators available for each system starting from the 80s to the modern day. With pros and cons for each emulators if there are multiple for one system that are widely used etc.

[@SockeYoutube]

There are many more games running on Ryujinx at release than on Yuzu. With Yuzu there are often graphics errors with new games. Yuzu's focus is on commercialization while Ryujinx's focus is on compatibility. It also happens more often that emulation solutions are simply transferred from Ryujinx to Yuzu and then sold behind the playwall. The solution for the graphics errors in red dead redemption was simply taken from Ryujinx.

[@fumeiusr]

Both are great, some games run better on yuzu some on Ryujinx. Have both installed and use them interchangeably!

[@elimalinsky7069]

​@@fumeiusrDo you know if it's possible to use the same save on both? I always have trouble transferring saves.

[@fumeiusr]

@@elimalinsky7069 Right click on the title and open the save directory, then just copy all the contents to the other emulator

[@elimalinsky7069]

@@fumeiusr Thanks.

[@fillerbunnyninjashark271]

It also takes way more system resources to use ryujinx where yuzu runs the same games docked at 60 no issues

[@_remblanc]

Ryujinx is my personal pick in relation to Switch emulation, because I think a person from early 2010s would go mad if I told them it is possible to emulate Red Dead Redemption not just on any PC, but on a MacBook. The Mac ARM64 port is an absolute delight, and short of being in direct possession of a Switch (or owning Steam Deck), I can enjoy game on a go via the rather thin productivity tier package that is the modern MacBook Air.

[@cheat13]

Amazing video MVG :) This month I finally played Tokyo Jungle in RPCS3, and it's incredible!Being a ferocious Pomeranian dog is something to try once.

[@user-yq3yn1sy3y]

Yuzu currently being wrongly sued for 2.4M due to Nintendo being mad they make shitty consoles and people wanting to play it on a real device like a pc lol

[@TheGameLecturer]

At some point I compared Yuzu and Ryujinx on several games and Ryujinx turned out to be the best (I was using Yuzu before) but it was like a year ago so I wonder how things are between those two right now. I simply have no beef against Ryujinx so that's why I stuck with it through TotK.

[@NielsGx]

Ryujinx is way more accurate and stable, so unless you run on a 2010 intel iGPU, use Ryujinx.

[@Cr3zant]

@@elimalinsky7069 Not much for reading comprehension are you? They were specifically saying that a 2010 iGPU wouldn't run ryujinx.

[@AhPook]

Things haven't changed much. Ryujinx is far and away the most accurate of the two, and scales better with better hardware. Yuzu is really hacky, which is why it tends to have higher performance further down the hardware stack. A lot of issues present in Yuzu are often absent in Ryujinx due to the accuracy difference. I'd say if you have at least a modern, mid-tier PC Ryujinx is the better of the two. But, if you have something closer to entry level, Yuzu is definitely a better option. You have your blow trading between the two. And, Ryujinx just performs better with AMD GPUs; as a whole it seems. So that's another thing to consider.

[@joeblow5214]

That and mods and cheats are far easier to use.

[@TsubasaAmsel]

​@@AhPookguess i'll use Ryujinx after getting my graphics card

[@chrisnotbad]

I have recently played Resident Evil Outbreak online Co-op multiplayer using PCSX2, and it was so awesome that I could hop online using that emulator and still find quite a few players in several different lobbies. I was surprised how many PS2 games are still online overall.

[@Ryan-xn3mt]

It’s like you read my mind, recently I started messing around with emulation on my Steam Deck mainly been playing PS2. I had an itch to play through God of War, and seeing GOW running on my SD upscaled, just made me smile a ridiculously happy. I used to try and collect retro games and systems. But it really doesn’t make sense, I’ve been come a fan of emulation. SO thank you for making this video. Oh I should try 3D Dot Hero on RPCS3. Great little love letter to LOZ fans, never got to finish it on my PS3.

[@AccessDEANied]

thanks for showing the 'diff' of each emulator. kinda reminds me of the early emulation days seeing things like sound emulation getting better, or transparency effects being implemented properly as each emulator got updated lol.

[@ugzz]

I LOVE this format. Feel free to upload more stuff like this at this length any time :). I used to watch Simply Austin for emu updates and now I need to fill that void!

[@LonelySpaceDetective]

While I suppose it's not exactly impressive in the same way the emulators mentioned in the video are, BigPEmu the Atari Jaguar emulator is moving at an incredible pace considering how the console's emulation development languished for decades. Not only did it launch with 100% retail game compatibility, it rapidly added support for the Jaguar CD (IIRC completely unemulated until BigPEmu did it) and the Jaguar VR headset (an unreleased peripheral that _definitely_ wasn't emulated before BigPEmu), and the scripting module system seems to be utterly insane for enhancement and modding opportunities; the demo scripts provided with the emulator allow running Cybermorph in HD and with anti-aliasing, and playing Alien vs. Predator as I shit you not _a 32-player multiplayer game online._ I'd really love to see the developer look into doing some of the other consoles he mentioned as being interested in, especially the Sega Saturn.

[@FengLengshun]

One thing that I'd like to highlight is how quite a lot of these now has a good Flatpak port, which makes it very easy to use on Linux and Steam Deck. The ecosystem there overall has improved a lot too, with even Lutris gaining more integration with Flatpak and now able to launch games with existing Flatpak runners. It's a great time to be a gamer on Linux

[@chrispytel245]

Well, this video is gonna need an update. RIP Yuzu.

[@salehmg7650]

Amazing video as always sir . The best thing I love about most of these emulators is the run ahead/preemptive frames feature that is sadly lacking in PCSX2 .

[@KidgamerApril202005]

Sad to see Ryujinx not making an appearance on here, the entire team worked incredibly hard this year on macOS support and texture replacement alongside having majority of games work day 1 without needed updates.

[@realsunwave]

True, experienced this first hand with Wonder

[@WH1T3_No1SE]

He did literally mention it at 17:00

[@michaelpalmer2143]

They just need to improve the startup sequence and some controller issues. I find myself having to reselect my controller(s) almost every time I load a game because the emulator detects a change to the controller types and/or order and sets each input to 'None'

[@xoniq-vr]

@@WH1T3_No1SEyup, side by side with Yuzu. Also he mentioned Yuzu ran any game this year from day one, which is not actually true. Mario Wonder had an issue on Yuzu en also Zelda TOTK. Both worked perfectly on Ryujinx on day one.

[@higihups]

macos? they should not waste ressources on that, linux is the way to go and maybe windows support.

[@HondoJarrus]

Fantastic video! I'm on PC and the 2 I use most are *Ryujinx* and *Cemu* . The game compatibility of Ryujinx has made it a go-to for me - also that it's easy to setup portably and update.👍 What Cemu does on Xenoblade X with a decent system cannot be overstated. Absolutely showstopping!😍👏

[@engima2913]

With the year coming to an end, I wanted to thank you. Your videos are awesome and I always get excited when I see your videos pop up in my feed.

[@1Dropboys]

Been on youtube recently? We love the long form vids! Great work

[@ThePetje06]

This was a great episode👍🏻 I use emulation on devices like Miyoo Mini or Anbernic RG353m. The emulation app I use the most is Adrenaline on my PS Vita and Vita TV. For me this is a very good way to play PS1 and PSP games at home or on the go😁

[@dafff08]

im quite glad rpcs3 exists. being able to replay my games from my youth was pretty great. i missed little big planed quite a bit since it must have been like 10 years since i played it.

[@gurleensworld128]

Great video brother. Keep up the good work. Love emulation. Length of video is not an issue, time flew watching this video. Great just great.

[@Pruflas-Watts]

RPCS3 has been my emulator of the year. Ive been able to play elder scrolls Oblivion on the steam deck OLED at 60fps, giving me the best "vanilla" Oblivion experience since the PS3 has better textures, normal maps and distant LODs than both vanilla PC and 360 and also loads faster than the Xbox 360 version. On RPCS3, it feels good, looks good and runs like a dream on steam deck

[@clebbington]

not to mention controller support!

[@TylerMBuller12]

Hmmm interesting, I never thought of doing that but it might be a great way to experience oblivion for the first time. I started a playthrough with the pc version on steam deck and while it's fairly playable the lack of controller support kind of hurts the experience.

[@John-PaulHunt-wy7lf]

RPSC3 running Killzone 3 can still kill your computer’s cpu. I usually run games at 1080p or 4k at 60hz/120hz.

[@Pruflas-Watts]

@@John-PaulHunt-wy7lf Killzone 2 and 3 definitely made my Ryzen 5700X cry.

[@5persondude]

Looking forward to Xenia improving. I’ve played through the original Fable (Anniversary, to be specific) several times on PC and have been itching to try Fable 2 and 3 on PC And before someone mentions it, I know Fable 3 has a PC version, but not only is it delisted from Steam but supposedly has tons of issues running on modern Windows

[@Trailerpark-Guy]

I played 3 recently on pc native and had no problems Iirc those bugs arent there anymore since the game got rereleased on windows store And about fable 2 its playable with Xenia but the experience isnt great even with a 4090 and 13900ks and all the necessary xenia canary patches

[@daddykarlmarx6183]

You said you cant play mgs4 on steam deck with playable performance, however with specific settings, patches, and overclocking it actually is possible to get a close to native experience, which to be clear isnt really acceptable by modern standards i get that, but to say its unplayable on steam deck isnt necessarily true

[@SirRobinson510]

I love all your content MVG! Thank you as always, you are one of my favorites on this whole platform. Great work mate 😎

[@HeWhoRemenso]

Awesome video! I have been missing this kind of content and I would love if you could cover even more emulators but with a bigger focus on the Deck.

[@LJ45Chimera]

Suprised that BigPEmu didn't make the list. Awesome Jaguar emulator.

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Oh I’m aware of it . I haven’t had the chance to look at it yet

[@juicystuff786]

One thing I love about ps1 emulation is core overclocking feature, a lot of games had choppy framerates so a little boost there works like magic. Combined with 60fps patches and geometry correction the games look and run so much better than ever before.

[@Armandik]

I'll be looking forward to this every december if you decide to make it a series! Amazing video as always

[@Jelly2003]

Thanks for this video, I’ve been wanting to play through some of my old PS3 games recently and have been keen to do it via emulation, so this is a really nice starting point.

[@TheCarloalberto95]

I will never stop thanking the developers of emulators! You guys are preserving art and i love you 😍

[@Darkened911]

Honestly been using many emulators this year but for some reason the most fun I had was with the frontend Retroarch. Mainly for the CRT shaders. Just seems to have renewed that nostalgia magic for me.

[@nixneato]

Fantastic video, thanks for summing things up. Emulation is fantastic, and to me one of the best case one could make about buying a high-end PC (other than running latest gen games of course). I totally agree with what you said about game preservation. I would still add arcade emulators. Supermodel 3 for Sega Model 3 arcade games is a total beast, which runs stuff like Daytona USA 2 flawlessly (resolution upscale + 60fps) on a very mid-spec PC. MAME emulators also could be discussed, especially considering software like LaunchBox which try to make the experience a bit less daunting.

[@ejunkempire2459]

I've been having a lot of fun with xemu this year! I rebuilt my xbmc box from high school and college on a tiny elitedesk. Thanks for all your work sir!

[@wavefile1674]

I'm so glad that the Vita finally has a working emulator. People really need to discover the great games on that underrated and overhated handheld console.

[@mysticaxolotl8215]

Fax

[@DoominalCrossing]

Fantastic list & truly a showcase of some incredibly talented coders throughout the users. I would personally also add Citra to this list as the premiere 3DS emulator.

[@nullgator8073]

citra has surprisingly weak performance for a 3ds emulation and some forks even dramatically outperform it. Though i'm hopeful now that development on it has picked up pace again after a long pause. We'll hopefully see it in a much better place for next years best of list.

[@Mods-xu7me]

Hey MVG, thanks for the great video. I loved to see Onimusha 3 in one of your vids as I have a special relationship with it. Keep up the good work, I enjoy every single of your videos.

[@mwparker1969]

Great info! Thank you! Found the video very, very enlightening.

[@netogermano4483]

I really love the way new emulators are shaping of. Xemu is becoming really great. I just wish they implement the way to list all games on the emulator itself like pcsx2 did. Or even implement the menu of the og Xbox. But this is just a really minor thing.

[@dustymofo917]

you have to put the menu into the harddrive manually because they can't legally distribute it

[@sirjarko8762]

I think it was about 5 years ago I tried PCSX2 and stopped because of all the emulation issues and just lack of overall polish and for a while it looked like that was it. Then a couple of years ago things started to change rapidly and last year I gave the nightly builds ago. It was good but still had issues, my settings wouldn't save and the new UI was not long released and had some bugs. This year however I gave it a go again and my god has it come a long way, I went from playing PS2 games on my launch PS3 to transferring all my saves over and converting them back to the PS2 format so I could use PCSX2 and it has been my main way of playing PS2 since. Constant updates and a super polished experience. The UI is great, The compatibility and performance is amazing and all the options it gives you is just incredible. Even having separate settings per game. Super useful. The people working on it and that dev that came in deserve a lot of praise. As a fun fact the guy responsible for the UI in PCSX2 is also responsible for the same UI on duckstation.

[@mrwasi99]

Christmas came early!!! Love these videos. Thanks so much MVG for everything you produce. Hope you have a great new year with more great content!

[@ModernVintageGamer]

Thank you ! Got a few more videos to come before we close out 2023

[@mrwasi99]

@@ModernVintageGamer can't wait!

[@GeraltOfTheRivia]

My first time emulating games was from 2009. I emulated ps1 games on my galaxy tab playing ff9 and chrono cross. Two of my favourite jrpg ever and what made me felt in love with the genre.

[@EastyyBlogspot]

Been ryujinx and it is an amazing achievement , I did wonder how Sega Saturn emulation was coming along

[@MagikarpPower]

yabause on retroarch seems to do well for me

[@AntiGrieferGames]

mednafen standalone aswell. But coudnt get to work on lower end machines.

[@Qrinity]

emulation is the way forward for preservation of some of great games and combining it with the ease of the steam deck I'm having a blast with a huge library of modern and old games in the palm of my hands. Honestly can't wait for steam deck 2 to finally have a portable ps3 library in 2 years

[@mrhoogles]

thanks man, really appreciated this, I've been lost sense the loss of emunews.

[@scrustle]

Glad to hear Vita3K has had improvements lately. I always wanted to use that for Muramasa. I love that game on Wii, but I never got to play the Vita version with the enhancements and DLC. I tried it once and it didn't go so well. Might be worth checking it out again soon.

[@ag0ny]

I think you should be more specific about specs: beefy, mid, low-end pc is not a good reference in the present, it'll be horrible even in the really near future. Obviously even the emulators will change, but a more strictly frame of reference "in the moment" is beneficial to fix where we are.

[@SuperSunshine321]

DuckStation is so great! I used to have so many issues with other PSX emulators in the past, but DuckStation just works. The UI is nice, and I guess it's a common feature nowadays, but the auto-update feature in the software itself is such an improvement for the UX. I know Dolphin has had it for some time, but moving to DuckStation from previous emulators and being able to update it with such ease (similar to how the UX is for most paid applications) blew my mind. Together with Dolphin, it's my favorite emulator.

[@vtoumpakaris]

Thank tou for that "internal resolution" tip! Is there any your vids which do in-depth "settings" guide?

[@Concreteowl]

I've been running lots of Team Beef adaptions on the Quest. It's so incredible to play these things in 3d with mods.

[@roberto1519]

Do you plan on making a part 2 of this? There has been a lot of improvements for PPSSPP, Citra and certainly for classic consoles, such as 3DO (Opera), Saturn (Mednafen/Beettle), Dolphin, FBNEO, MAME, BSNES (widescreen) Genesis Plus GX (MD+ and even Wide), DOSBox Pure and more. For instance, on Opera (3DO), we can run the best and original version of Road Rash (1994) in a steady 30 FPS, it was the weakest port in performance, but it's now fixed with overclocking the CPU. Same goes for Genesis Plus GX Road Rash titles which received enhanced patches and benefit from overclocking the CPU and supports MD+, there's a lot to explore with these emulators.

[@loki.odinson]

Don't sleep on Flycast. It is now head and tails superior to Redream graphically, is free (as opposed to Redream asking for $5), and even runs Arcade Naomi games well. And it does a far better job running arcade games than Demul ever could.

[@crimson-foxtwitch2581]

Flycast also now has NAOMI 2 support and ***rollback netcode netplay.***

[@RetroReef]

Love this video. I wish there were more videos on emulators updates in general.

[@demanzke]

Highly appreciate the information on steam deck compatibility, thank you!

[@InterpolatedGaming]

I love these kinds of videos, even tho I prefer Ryujinx to Yuzu they're both excellent for Switch. I got these running on the Ally, they run great :3

[@nihren2406]

This year I've definitely been impressed with the improvements made to RPCS3, DuckStation, PCSX2, and Citra. When i first installed Citra about a year or two ago, i had a major issue with the Fire Emblem games where it was like watching a slide show and the audio was really bad. No adjustment of settings could fix it. I tried it again a few months ago and suddenly it was flawless. Kudos to the Citra team. I'm really looking forward to RPCSX, the PS4 emulator from the RPCS3 team or at least a creator of it. Shame its being initially built on Linux instead of Windows so it'll probably be an even longer wait for me. But there are a lot of PS4 games that likely won't be ported to PC by Sony like The Order: 1886, Until Dawn, The Last Guardian, Gravity Rush 2, or the Uncharted HD Collection which does look better than the emulated PS3 versions. Xbox One emulation would also be nice to see as I dont expect Halo 5 or a select few other games to be brought to PC. I will say though that i feel the eighth generation will be the last where emulation is truly necessary. With Sony and Microsoft comitting to PC ports of their first party portfolio and far less devs making pure console exclusives, the need to preserve the one or two exclusives is less pressing. Nintendo though will likely remain necessary as i dont see them branching to PC any time soon. But with more and more mandatory NVIDIA features Switch 2 emulation might become more difficult for those on AMD hardware or at least GPU's.

[@xproflipscarab]

The shift to QT on PCSX2 was phenomenal, it went from one of the clunkest messy emulators around to one of thee best experiences in emulation... and the fact that it brings us the ps2 library in the process... I seriously can't get over it's transformation, Paired with Duckstation you turn your PC into a dangerous nostaligia machine... The original xbox and ps3 emulators are coming along great, there is serious potential there. The emulation scene is one of my favourite places on the internet, truly amazing people...

[@nonprawfit]

Hell yeah dude. You should make more videos like this!

[@poopikins]

Emulation's future is looking bright 😎

[@boredstudent]

I don't have Yuzu but I do have Duckstation and PCSX2. those emulators are amazing and quite frankly, I'm glad I downloaded Duckstation over ePSXe. One thing about those emulators is that you need the bios otherwise they won't work. I think with Yuzu you need a Nintendo Switch product key. I may be wrong though because of later updates. One emulator I also like is Cemu. I also tried out Xemu but I would rather play those games on an original Xbox. But PCSX2 is hands down a great emulator and for sure Duckstation.

[@titantim]

I still love the days of Nesticle and other early emulators. You'd see jumps in emulation every month and keep your eyes glued to the news sites for the next big update. We got Nam 1795 emulated for the Neo Geo, then it felt like every week there would be a new game supported. Then we got Samurai shodown 2, and everyone would cheer!

[@electroelysium2281]

8:00 Sly Cooper... God I miss those games ! I remember loving these games SO MUCH when I was younger. Especially the 3rd that came with 3D glasses !

[@weses2]

It's such a great time to be a retro gamer and it'll only get better from here

[@yogibear2k220]

Thank yoy MVG. Emulation is my gaming life. I have over 21,000 pieces of software and over 30 computers and consoles in emulation form i have 2 dedicated 4tb drives for my emulation software and hardware apps and they are not even hald full. Thats whst I love about older gsmes. Thry tale up very little space in capacity.but can give hours of entertainment. My favourite consoles are the PS2 (in which I use PCSX2,) and Redream for the Dreamcast.

[@flame2hand301]

Was kind of surprises you didn't talk about Cemu, love playing breath of the wild with enhanced graphics and such. Great video, brought a bunch of attention to emulators I haven't even heard of.

[@AFourEyedGeek]

Great video. Yuzu / CEMU / Dolphin is it for me, so many.games don't look or run well on the Switch / Wii U / Wii / GameCube, but the upscaling and performance boost elevate so many good games on those systems.

[@chazcov08]

When you’re talking about emulators letting you play games in a way they were never intended to be run, you failed to mention that you can play Dolphin games (GC & Wii) in actual 3D. With the popularity of the Meta Quest 3, it’s definitely worth taking a look at. It is amazing to play some of those games in 3D on a virtual IMAX sized screen.

[@RetroSmoo]

Yeah I loved to do that in Bigscreen VR

[@chazcov08]

@@RetroSmoo Just now figuring out how to play 3DS games in 3D now. Looks promising.

[@shock9616]

I would put my vote in for Ryujinx over Yuzu for a very similar reason: they are also branching out to new platforms, just different ones from Yuzu. In particular for me, Ryujinx now fully supports macOS, and the REALLY neat thing is that it is taking full advantage of the ARM based chips in the latest Macs to be able to NATIVELY run switch code rather than having to translate the Switch's ARM syscalls to x86. It's insane how good the performance is and it really shows that the Ryujinx team has put a lot of effort into supporting macOS by taking advantage of the strengths of modern Macs

[@arkhalis3682]

I mean Yuzu did that on Android too.

[@shock9616]

Yep, I just am from an Apple family so I don’t have a PC or Android, so Ryujinx is usable for me and Yuzu is not.

[@theodorelux]

Great vid! any chance for a video on how emulators are made? always wanted to see that