NES/SNES Mini Emulation VS Retropie

herb_fargus

@retrofreak89 said in NES/SNES Mini Emulation VS Retropie:

I mean the Mini's come from Nintendo them self
and i bet the emulation is spot on how does it compare to retropie emulation?

You say this to suggest that Nintendo actually cares about accuracy. They don't. They care only enough to get it playable, slap it on cheap Chinese hardware and make sure to underproduce the hardware to create a false demand.

I would be surprised if any of their emulators either through their Chinese hardware or virtual console measure up to any from the dev community.

Also retropie doesn't code any emulators. We include emulators primarily from Libretro/RetroArch which are all forks/ports of standalone emulators all of which if you run bench tests I would imagine are more accurate than anything Nintendo comes up with. This also doesn't include all the extra features that can be added through RetroArch

Try both, make a video with results.

meleu

@retrofreak89 this page with the systems supported in RetroPie can give you the answer:
https://retropie.org.uk/about/systems/

If you are smart enough to read the instructions to install/configure RetroPie, it's the best choice. Undoubtedly

RetroFreak89

@herb_fargus
good... Lol i kinda had a feeling retroarch would be ahead...
Good to hear this tho..

I just checked the specs for the fun of it to compare to raspi 3..
Im actually suprised that the nes mini uses a arm cortex a7 doesnt the pi use the same??
Or was it A8 that pi uses???
I thought that was funny to see..
The pi still better tho more ram better support etc..

But if u had to pick go with Raspberry Pi all the way!!

space cadet

Definitely go with the raspberry pi! Too many options available to work with man

ByteThis

Actually...I have an nes mini. The emulators that are used for modding it, are all libretro ..there is Retroarch, with all the features of Retroarch on the pi. You can also choose nestopia or fceumm to run nes games rather than the original emulator that Nintendo included in the mini itself, plus run unsupported mapper roms. Things have gone forward with the nes mini which offer almost all the console selections that the pi has...plus emulation is about the same. But the only drawback is the space on the nes mini. Total space available is 381.6 mbs. But minus the hmods(emulator mods), games and custom mods for making different features available to make your mini the way you like it chews up available space available for roms. It really is ingenious they way it was modded. I switched to a pi 3 for space available for roms.Now they have a great case that turns your pi to resemble an nes mini..peeps are eating it up and buying like crazy, plus installing an nes mini theme. The craze is still out there for peeps that resorted to buying a pi and installing Retropie on it instead of getting the chance to purchase an nes mini. Peeps that missed out on getting an nes mini are now almost fulfilling there frustrations...lol..

ByteThis

Plus owning an nes mini paved the way for understanding roms..romsets..emulators and if not but at least MAME..haha.When in doubt, Mame doesn't work out..FBA is your friend..lol..

muehltime

I figured the official NES mini would have zero lag or input delay, but that is not true. There are videos that show NES mini Punchout has input delay. And there is noticeable input delay on Wii U virtual machine NES SuperMario Bros. 2 ...

ByteThis

@muehltime Didn't test out all the games on the mini myself. Rumor and proof has it that Nintendo downloaded roms off the internet for the console, and didn't use originally programmed games from their own database in the company, so that is entirely possible.

PiBoy

@retrofreak89 said in NES/SNES Mini Emulation VS Retropie:

Hey guys....

Im wondering about this ever since the nes mini came out..
Most people say get a Raspberry pi 3 it plays more games and is the same price etc..
And better hardware
But is it really a better choice??
I mean the Mini's come from Nintendo them self
and i bet the emulation is spot on how does it compare to retropie emulation?
Who wins?
or are they both just as accurate or are you better off with one or the other??

Im very curious to see if retropie really 'IS' better for emulating roms

It is a better choice overall, but it requires you set it up. It is not cheaper, not exactly. To match the NES mini you still need your own controller, an SD card, a case, and an On/Off switch. That's what I did and my build was about ~140, and I built my case from scratch. Also my controller was on the pricey side, a genuine PS3 controller. It's worth the extra expense since RetroPie can do so much more than a pre-built emulator like the NES mini

As far as emulation accuracy...it's not perfect. 16 bit and GBA emulation is flawless for me, so far, with some exceptions. Starfox seems to run too fast, and Stunt Race FX has sound issues. Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 ran slow at times but that went away when I upgraded from 4.1 to 4.2. Overall it's very good, comparable to emulators on PC.

@bytethis said in NES/SNES Mini Emulation VS Retropie:

@muehltime Didn't test out all the games on the mini myself. Rumor and proof has it that Nintendo downloaded roms off the internet for the console, and didn't use originally programmed games from their own database in the company, so that is entirely possible.

You mean this article?

Did Nintendo download a Mario ROM and sell it back to us?

Not proof Nintendo pirated a ROM, just that the the header information matched one that was pirated. Nintendo may have used the exact same software to dump the original cartridge's information. Still, it seems weird to me that they would use already existing software to do it, instead of something they made themselves. I guess it is cheaper and easier for them to use software that is readily available.

Still... I would like to see other Virtual Console titles compared with ROMS found online.

ByteThis

@piboy I've never seen that article before.There is a guy from one of the main forums for the Nes Mini Classic & Hakchi that dumped the full firmware from the nes mini, and he did some research on the roms that were on the mini, and found discrepancies between the roms and pirated roms online.I can't recall how many pirated roms he found that are on the mini.