What emulators can the pi zero run well?

suprjami

Some SNES needs an overclock. Most 2D arcade I've tried doesn't work well.

I was really disappointed with the Zero.

If you want to make a NES/SMS/mame4all handheld then it's good. Don't expect it to perform even close to a Pi 3.

diegzumillo

Really? That's a surprise! Thanks for the info.

meleu

I don't have a pi Zero, but as far as I know the specs are very similar to the pi 1 B . On my pi one I use the High overclock preset definition (900 MHz). The pi zero CPU seems to be even faster (1GHz), so maybe there is no need to overclock it.

On my raspi1 I'm used to play with NES (lr-fceumm), Sega Master System and Mega Drive (lr-picodrive for both), SNES (lr-armsnes), fighting arcade games in pifba (Marvel vs Capcom performance is satisfactory), real old arcade games (Elevator Action, Pacman, New Rally X, etc) with mame4all.

edmaul69

@diegzumillo i didnt test games like starfox, but i was playing snes (super mario world) and genesis just fine with the pi zero.

diegzumillo

I would guess starfox, if any, would be the problematic game. Maybe that's the game suprjami's thinking of.

I won't start this right away, but when I do I'll make sure to report back with my own account of what runs well. Thanks again for the info.

lostless

I tried Ps1, and games run ok (ok meaning slight frame dips and crackling audio).

diegzumillo

O_O Boy, am I curious now. Problems with snes, runs some ps1... this thing is a mystery.

meleu

@diegzumillo I'm surprised too! :)

qix77

I'm going to try it this weekend on my Pi Zero (just got it). I'm confused as to why SNES wouldn't work properly. Maybe it's just a configuration issue or selecting the right emu. When I try this and if I run into the same issue, I'll see if I can find a solution. Either way, I'll report back here by or before Sunday.

CrazySpence

here's a list of emulators I recently used with good results after testing on my Pi model B which is overclocked to 1GHZ so should work the same for 0

lr-quicknes, mame4all, lr-picodrive (genesis), lr-gambatte(gameboy), lr-beetle-pce-fast(tg16)

qix77

I'm practicing for the tournament and doing this on the side. I'm going to try ZSNES. This really shouldn't be a problem. The system isn't that much different from the Pi # series. I'll pop back in later today because my girlfriend is being a... ... ... you get the idea. ;)

twd

Not sure why people here are saying they are having issues... But that's un true.... All 16bit games run 100% snes Megadrive sms Neogeo pocket nes etc etc gngeo runs all Neogeo games 99% the frame drops only happen when the orignal cart has the same issues example metal slug. Most arcade games run flawless hyper street fighter 2 100% marvel vs capcom 100% alien vs pred etc 100% cps1/2 100%....... N64 is shit anyways so I didn't test that also there isn't a good n64 emulator in pc world.

Only game I had lag on I couldn't fix was street fighter 3rd strike but it runs say 80-90% not playable for me .

So all in all the pizero is very capable little board just keep you expectations to 16-bit era and if it can run anything else take it as a bonus.

Using 4.02 retropie on a pie zero 1.3 with cam connection. Hope that helps

suprjami

@twd said in What emulators can the pi zero run well?:

Not sure why people here are saying they are having issues... But that's un true.... All 16bit games run 100%

Last time I tried on Pi Zero without overclock, F-Zero in RetroArch produced sound stuttering and slow speed. Maybe things have improved since RetroPie 4, and PiSNES probably runs it better.

I found overclocking the core (hence GPU and 3D accelerator) up to 500 solved that problem.

What emulator are you using to run Neo-Geo and CPS2 at full speed? Have you overclocked any components?

edmaul69

@suprjami i used lr-fba-next for neo geo. runs good with no overclocking. I didnt add cps games or mame due to having a full 16gb card from home consoles.

drake999

It should be able to handle pretty much all 8 and 16 bit consoles without much issue. The only exception might be some SNES titles using the SuperFX 1 and 2 chips. It probably won't handle 32x or PSX very well without some serious tweaking, and almost certainly not N64 in any enjoyable fashion. That's just based on my experiences about 2 years ago or so with the Pi1 Model B+ overclock to 1 GHz, which I believe is the stock clock for the Pi Zero. Things might be different now so I recommend testing while managing expectations. If all your after is up to 4th generation stuff though, you should be fine with the Pi Zero.

SIrRandall

@twd How did you get Marvel VS Capcom to work? Mine loads the game and just sits at a black screen. I am using FBA.

twd

@SIrRandall runs in pifba actually ever rom worked from fba list.... If you search YouTube for simply Austin he gives out a fightcade pack ... I know that one works grab that

twd

@suprjami you cannot over o'clock a pi zero it comes clocked .. I just downloaded the standard retro pi from here pi0/1 option on home page I didn't do anything special accept feed it roms .

Sorry and I used just pifba for most Neogeo roms / cps2 but if the Meg count is high ala metal slug 3 pifba won't boot it but gngeo will and runs 60fps if you believe the counter on gngeo.

suprjami

@twd said in What emulators can the pi zero run well?:

@suprjami you cannot over o'clock a pi zero it comes clocked

Yes you can. sudo vim /boot/config.txt and http://elinux.org/RPiconfig#Overclocking

Bumping the core, GPU, and RAM up to 500 fixes any slowdown I encountered with SNES games.

I wouldn't bother overclocking the CPU, you tend to only get another hundred MHz or so out of these ARM chips, it doesn't seem worth the risk.

You can verify your overclock with vcgencmd measure_clock while doing something that causes the component speed to ramp up, like playing games in an emulator. http://www.elinux.org/RPI_vcgencmd_usage

twd

@suprjami I am sure that I read on the pi forums it has no affect ... It may show a diffrent setting but actually standard ... But as I read it there I took it as fact. Only game I had slowdown on is star fox but I have that anyway on cart. But yeah I am no expert