The PSVita’s biggest strength is probably in emulation. This is because it has a decent screen (especially the OLED one on Fat models) and awesome front-facing buttons which provide much better input than emulators on Android. It’s quite a common question for people to ask what’s up with the emulation scene so this article should answer most concerns.
THIS WILL BE COVERING THE MOST POPULAR CONSOLES!
3rd Generation
- NES emulation: J2ME phones can emulate NES! RetroArch cores have gotten you covered. FCEUmm is the best core
- Master System: The Genesis GX Plus core in RetroArch should have you covered. SMSplusVITA is an older homebrew that you can find on the Henkaku website which should do the same job
- Atari 7800: The ProSystem core should have you covered. Atari 2600 games should function with the Stella core in RetroArch
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Super Mario Bros 3 on the NES
4th Generation
- PC Engine/TG16: The MednaFen core should have you covered
- Sega Gensis/Megadrive: The Picodrive and Gensis GX Plus cores should have you covered
- SNES: Various SNES cores exist. The 2005 core has worked the best for me but your mileage may vary!
- Neo-Geo: The Final Burner Alpha should work. PFBA should also let you play some NeoGeo stuff (GekiHEN contest)
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The PSVita is fully capable of Blast Processing!
5th Generation
Here is where stuff starts getting a tad shaky!
- PSX: ARK gives you PSX without sound. The PCSX Re-armed core is heavily game dependent. Adrenaline might have PSX support soon enough (was originally slated for February but it shall come later along, don’t bug TheFlow!)
- Nintendo 64: Libretro might have started working on it as per a previous Twitter post. Don’t hold your breath, you may use DaedalusX64 in ePSP if you want to try playing some N64 titiles.
- Sega Saturn: You can probably just forget it
Conclusion
Without any doubt, you won’t be emulating any 6th (and 7th…) generation home consoles on your Vita and the only emulator that *might* be feasible is Reicast as it runs on some lower end Android hardware. Stay tuned for another article covering portables and/or computers! Cored refer to RetroArch cores.
Main RetroArch dev thread: https://gbatemp.net/threads/retroarch-libretro-thread-ps-vita-edition-nightlies-included.437034/
The post Current state of emulation on the PSVita – March 2017 appeared first on Wololo.net.