Pi Zero and Performance... Can anyone clear it up?

PhoenixJedi

I keep hearing mixed things about what the Raspberry Pi Zero W can Emulate..
I hear that NES, Gameboy, GBC, GBA, and Atari work well with it. I keep hearing mixed things about SNES.. and Nothing about other systems.
So, serious question, before I grab a pi Zero, How does SNES really work (as of current version 4.2), How does MAME work? How does Sega 32x work? How does Genesis Work and how does FBA work on the Zero / Zero W?

dankcushions

@phoenixjedi mame/fba - pi zero has a weak cpu so has to use older versions of mame/fba. these support less titles with less accuracy. see https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/wiki/Arcade#step-one-choose-an-arcade-emulator

obsidianspider

@phoenixjedi It's not great. Unless you need the space, go with a Pi 3 instead of a Zero.

PhoenixJedi

What about SNES, gba and gbc?

PhoenixJedi

Hey guys, I could really use a clarifcation on the SNES, GBA and GBC performance of the Zero W... Is it really abyssmal or is it playable?

obsidianspider

@phoenixjedi what are you trying to build?

FlyingTomahawk

From my experience, NES and MegaDrive/Genesis work good. For the NES you might have to choose the lr-quicknes emulator though.
I couldn't get the SNES to run smooth, no matter what settings, even overclock didn't do the trick.
Can't say much about the Game Boy stuff since I don't use them.

I ended up donating all my Pi Zero stuff to a forum member.
Using a RPi 3 only now which has no problems to run them.

PhoenixJedi

Dang, the point of this was to get NES, SNES, GB, GBC, GBA, Genesis and maybe FBA/MAME to work. Are you guys sure theres no way to make SNES stable on the Zero?

twd

I run mame snes Neogeo Megadrive master system and amstrad with no issues with a pi zero , I don't play Nes games because when they came out I had an amiga, so cannot tell you how they run. But pizero is capable

champrt78

@twd what emulator do you use for mame, I'm using mame2000 and mostly no problems. For fba I use pifba, seems to run the best, once in a while need to switch it , some ROMs just don't play on pifba.

MSP430

SNES is fine but I prefer 720p over 1080p for better performance.

KN4THX

My pi zero runs snes perfectly fine with a standard PI 1/zero build

MSP430

@thedatacereal said in Pi Zero and Performance... Can anyone clear it up?:

My pi zero runs snes perfectly fine with a standard PI 1/zero build

This probably depends on the game and the personal "perfectly fine". Zelda 3 on SNES had < 45 fps in the starting area outside the house on 1080p. With 720p it has nearly 60 fps.