PS1 & PS2 emulation

[re-emulated]

I have an Xbox One controller hooked up to my Hyperspin build on Win10, works great for the console stuff.   I never used a joystick on my ZX Spectrum, always Q,A,O,P and M.

J

[Matty]

I've got my DS4 hooked to my pc, not wireless though but using inputmapper to detect it as a 360 controller so works well with my steam library.

On the Ps2 side I did load up Gran Turismo 3 & bloody hell the graphics look shit on it, to think there was a point in time where that looked spectacular. Enjoying playing through Need for Speed: Underground mind, not as good at the drifting as i used to be but still a cakewalk to unlock all the extra cars mind.

I suspect fiddling with a few GFx options might help with Gt3 but it really shows it's age now.

[wearecity]

I have an Xbox One controller hooked up to my Hyperspin build on Win10, works great for the console stuff.   I never used a joystick on my ZX Spectrum, always Q,A,O,P and M.

J

Hyperspin if set up correctly, with videos etc, looks stunning, on the youtube videos I've seen. I think if I had a spare room with enough room, I'd look at getting an arcade cabinet, with it installed and gets the full experience.

The set this guy has on this site, http://www.retro-burner.co.uk/index.htm looks pretty good, although at just 1TB it's missing some systems and games no doubt, would be nice if it could be 2tb or even 4tb to get more on it.

Still it looks to be a good compromise, might be tempted to get it as a Birthday or Xmas pressie to myself. If anything, I'll end up with a dear 1tb drive at least lol.

[wearecity]

I've got my DS4 hooked to my pc, not wireless though but using inputmapper to detect it as a 360 controller so works well with my steam library.

On the Ps2 side I did load up Gran Turismo 3 & bloody hell the graphics look shit on it, to think there was a point in time where that looked spectacular. Enjoying playing through Need for Speed: Underground mind, not as good at the drifting as i used to be but still a cakewalk to unlock all the extra cars mind.

I suspect fiddling with a few GFx options might help with Gt3 but it really shows it's age now.

My home PC doesn't have bluetooth, so I will have a go at trying out the inputmapper. (EDIT........Just downloaded inputmapper and so simple, plug in controller, recognised, no configuring needed. I assume it was so easy because I already had the Xbox 360 controller set up in windows and in the emulator)

Then I also want to look into configuring the controller properly in the emulator. At the moment, I'm having to swap around controls, depending on whether it's a driving game or not, so I can use the triggers for brake and acceleration, rather than x and square. Surely by the mid 2000's triggers were being used for the power and brake control of vehicles in games.

As for getting games to look better, in some cases such as Burnout 3 Takedown, I just take off native resolution and change it to scaling 2x or 3x.

One of the great things about the emulator I find, is that it seems to have a real active community and plenty of info around the net, to get games working and looking at their best.

I spend just as much time, tinkering with settings etc, as playing lol.

[Matty]

I've got my DS4 hooked to my pc, not wireless though but using inputmapper to detect it as a 360 controller so works well with my steam library.

On the Ps2 side I did load up Gran Turismo 3 & bloody hell the graphics look shit on it, to think there was a point in time where that looked spectacular. Enjoying playing through Need for Speed: Underground mind, not as good at the drifting as i used to be but still a cakewalk to unlock all the extra cars mind.

I suspect fiddling with a few GFx options might help with Gt3 but it really shows it's age now.

My home PC doesn't have bluetooth, so I will have a go at trying out the inputmapper. (EDIT........Just downloaded inputmapper and so simple, plug in controller, recognised, no configuring needed. I assume it was so easy because I already had the Xbox 360 controller set up in windows and in the emulator)

Then I also want to look into configuring the controller properly in the emulator. At the moment, I'm having to swap around controls, depending on whether it's a driving game or not, so I can use the triggers for brake and acceleration, rather than x and square. Surely by the mid 2000's triggers were being used for the power and brake control of vehicles in games.

As for getting games to look better, in some cases such as Burnout 3 Takedown, I just take off native resolution and change it to scaling 2x or 3x.

One of the great things about the emulator I find, is that it seems to have a real active community and plenty of info around the net, to get games working and looking at their best.

I spend just as much time, tinkering with settings etc, as playing lol.

Did have a fiddle with the resolution/disabling native/scaling etc & some games it will work wonders, Final Fantasy 12 looks amazing for it, as does Kingdom hearts 2 Final mix, GT3 however doesn't really seem to benefit, a shame as i would like a good blast on it again & can't be arsed to drag my old CRT out of hiding to play it on.

Yeah, having the 360 controller suite installed does speed the install up. As for the controls itself I'm sure at this time most games were using the analogue sticks for accelerating/breaking as the PS2 controllers R2/L2 aren't really triggers like the ps3/360 controllers. They are analogue mind so respond to varying amounts of pressure but weren't very comfortable to use for long periods so i imagine that's why.

Edit: As an FYI in case you weren't aware inputmapper also has a custom profile feature & you can re-assign buttons to be different buttons, IE switch X to R2 or even switch it to mouse actions/keyboard presses. Really versatile piece of software & trumps the DS3 software.

[re-emulated]

I have a massive 2tb Hyperspin setup on an external hard drive.  It has full sets for PS1, Dreamcast, SNES, Mega Drive, Daphne, Amiga, Atari 2600, Mame, Vectrex, PC Engine etc.   I have took a load out of the menu and added ZX Spectrum and C64.   

The big problem with Hyperspin is that it's old and it doesn't seem to get updated any longer.  The front end doesn't support HD 1280x1080, the menu has trouble with the gamepad in the menus.  But to be fair Hyperspin is more for a dedicated arcade cab build with dedicated joystick and buttons panel.

J

[wearecity]

I have a massive 2tb Hyperspin setup on an external hard drive.  It has full sets for PS1, Dreamcast, SNES, Mega Drive, Daphne, Amiga, Atari 2600, Mame, Vectrex, PC Engine etc.   I have took a load out of the menu and added ZX Spectrum and C64.   

The big problem with Hyperspin is that it's old and it doesn't seem to get updated any longer.  The front end doesn't support HD 1280x1080, the menu has trouble with the gamepad in the menus.  But to be fair Hyperspin is more for a dedicated arcade cab build with dedicated joystick and buttons panel.

J

A shame it's no longer updated, although it still seems to have an active community, which is good. Might still give it a try at some point, but look at configuring it to the system I want.

[wearecity]

I've got my DS4 hooked to my pc, not wireless though but using inputmapper to detect it as a 360 controller so works well with my steam library.

On the Ps2 side I did load up Gran Turismo 3 & bloody hell the graphics look shit on it, to think there was a point in time where that looked spectacular. Enjoying playing through Need for Speed: Underground mind, not as good at the drifting as i used to be but still a cakewalk to unlock all the extra cars mind.

I suspect fiddling with a few GFx options might help with Gt3 but it really shows it's age now.

My home PC doesn't have bluetooth, so I will have a go at trying out the inputmapper. (EDIT........Just downloaded inputmapper and so simple, plug in controller, recognised, no configuring needed. I assume it was so easy because I already had the Xbox 360 controller set up in windows and in the emulator)

Then I also want to look into configuring the controller properly in the emulator. At the moment, I'm having to swap around controls, depending on whether it's a driving game or not, so I can use the triggers for brake and acceleration, rather than x and square. Surely by the mid 2000's triggers were being used for the power and brake control of vehicles in games.

As for getting games to look better, in some cases such as Burnout 3 Takedown, I just take off native resolution and change it to scaling 2x or 3x.

One of the great things about the emulator I find, is that it seems to have a real active community and plenty of info around the net, to get games working and looking at their best.

I spend just as much time, tinkering with settings etc, as playing lol.

Did have a fiddle with the resolution/disabling native/scaling etc & some games it will work wonders, Final Fantasy 12 looks amazing for it, as does Kingdom hearts 2 Final mix, GT3 however doesn't really seem to benefit, a shame as i would like a good blast on it again & can't be arsed to drag my old CRT out of hiding to play it on.

Yeah, having the 360 controller suite installed does speed the install up. As for the controls itself I'm sure at this time most games were using the analogue sticks for accelerating/breaking as the PS2 controllers R2/L2 aren't really triggers like the ps3/360 controllers. They are analogue mind so respond to varying amounts of pressure but weren't very comfortable to use for long periods so i imagine that's why.

Edit: As an FYI in case you weren't aware inputmapper also has a custom profile feature & you can re-assign buttons to be different buttons, IE switch X to R2 or even switch it to mouse actions/keyboard presses. Really versatile piece of software & trumps the DS3 software.

I think sometimes we forget how good games really looked. I see people still go on about CIV 4 being a better game than CIV 5. Well even if people think game play wise it may have been, graphically it looks completely rubbish compared to CIV V, in this case the graphics, make CIV V a much better experience.

Anyway, I've been amazed by some of the graphics achievable when scaling, my laptop and pc can generally manage the 6x maximum, but it does depend on whether the emulator can run the game at sufficient speed in the first place. Burnout 3 Takedown, looks pretty awful at native resolution, but when the scaling is used, it could almost pass for a PS3 game.

I'm currently looking at profiles, within the emulator for different control set up, it looks like you can get frontends, which will enable to the emulator to start with specific settings for each game.  As for driving, well I think you are right, sometimes the triggers are not as good as using the buttons for gas and brake. Got further on BTD3, since I started to use the buttons.