These days retro games are quite popular and as a result, the emulators we use to play them keep on getting better. This week saw a couple of interesting developments related to RetroArch, emulation on the PlayStation 2/4 and even the Nintendo DS!
Recent RetroArch developments
RetroArch is also being ported to the PlayStation 2 so that you can play retro games on your old console!
Recently, RetroArch development has been on fire and it’s come up with numerous interesting things this week. One of these is ‘fjtrujy’ working on a PS2 port of RetroArch so that you could emulate your favourite retro games on a console that’s considered somewhat retro! Work on this port was announced on the 17th of October and it’s still quite primitive but the following has been achieved:
- The RetroArch GUI (RGUI – not the more advanced UIs) renders and works well.
- Input, via the PS2’s controller, is working.
- A PicoDrive core (Mega Drive/Genesis emulator) has been compiled but it’s not working yet but hopefully that will soon change!
Other than the PS2 port, RetroArch has also seen some important updates this week. These include the patching up of input issues on the PSVita/PSTV running older hacked firmwares, the macOS port getting the desktop UI out of the box and an announcement that N64/PS1 games on the Switch will run at full-speed as its RetroArch port will support overclocking! Furthermore, arcade versions of Crazy Taxi, Zombie Revenge and Power Stone now work via the Reicast RetroArch core!
NES Emulation updates: Hacked PS4 consoles on FW 5.05 get a NES emulator and NesDS was updated
If you’re a fan of NES games, then you’re in luck as this week both the PS4 and DS got updates in the NES emulation department!
On the PS4 side, developer “m0rph3us1987” ported his LaiNES port (for FW 4.55) to FW 5.05 and made it run at full speed (when using PAL, not NTSC, roms). This development came after developer “flatz” manged to get C# code and OpenGL to work in homebrew made for the PS4. As a result, this could mean that the PS4 homebrew scene may gain some traction since the above may make some emulators and open-source game ports possible! To get this emulator, check out this link and put your ROMs on a FAT32/exFAT pendrive in a folder called “roms”.
The DS also got some love related to NES emulation in the way of NesDS getting an update. This update seems to be pretty minor and only adds touchscreen support “in NTR mode in devkitARM r49”. To get it, simply follow this link.
Other releases/updates
Apart from RetroArch developments and updates to NES emulators, this week also saw:
- Yuzu emulator seeing great progress with Super Mario Odyssey inching towards being playable
- Major graphical and performance issues are still present so don’t expect to be emulating the Switch 100% properly until a couple of years at the very least!
- melonDS on the Nintendo Switch got an update which added experimental save state support
- The PalmOS emulator “Mu” received sound support which works somewhat well although there are some popping issues and inaccuracies.
- ScummVM for the Switch got updated to version 2.12-2 which brought about a couple of fixes
Conclusion
To get the stuff mentioned in the articles, simply follow the in-line links. If you encounter any issues, report them to their respective developer preferably on the Issues Tab of the project’s GitHub page!
The post This week (Oct 16-23) in emulation: RetroArch fixes input issues on PSVita/PSTV, PS2 port of RetroArch is in development, Switch Overclocking for better emulator performance, PS4 FW 5.05 gets a NES emulator, NesDS updated, and more! appeared first on Wololo.net.
