Current state of emulation on the PSVita – March 2017
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
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)
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/
FIRST
Know what? Im HANDSOME!!!
say what nub
Show your stupid face next time so we can see if your handsome or not
“don’t cha wish your…”
nevermind.
Not according to your avatar you’re not. 😛
I’m pretty happy with the state of affairs. It’s a crying shame we don’t have a great GBA emulator in retroarch, though.
But for ps1, because of the fast forward option, it’s the best way to enjoy super robot wars @ Gaiden.
Also, Tear Ring Saga (made by fire emblem team for ps1) runs perfectly on it.
i did some gba testing and it was my feeling that in adrenaline the gba psp emus work just fine….
So anything different than the OG PSP aside from possibly some different working N64 games?
Not really as of yet but we may see some more emulators if/when someone masters libGXM or some type of 3D hardware acceleration
We still have high hopes for the ds emu 😛
Thanks for the post.
Just a small correction: I believe the name is Final Burn Alpha, not Burner.
So no Dolphin Emu for PSVita? As it’s running on android phones, it should be able run on PSVita too, no?
will we get an nds emu for vita
“Sega Saturn: You can probably just forget it.”
In fact Yabause core is on RetroArch ! But this emulator has always been on a really early alpha version :/ Didn’t tried it.
Reicast !? That will be really cool !
There’s a PoC version but it’s useless and there’s no talk about it. The Saturn isn’t the most talked about console so I highly doubt we’ll ever see a functioning emulator sadly :/
It might not be so hopeless as you think, Aurora. The Saturn was finally cracked last year: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/07/after-20-years-a-new-hack-gets-around-the-sega-saturns-copy-protection/
This means more accurate and compatible emulators. Whether we’ll get them or not remains to be seen, but it’s possible.
Thanks for summarizing the current state of things!
meh, vita staying in my drawer with its 2 year old firmware where it has always been
Good for you, buddy!
take it out pop in gravity rush n smile say thanks when ur done…
that is utter trash in my opinion, booooring, 40 mins and it was deleted lol
Any good GBA emulation yet? I presume not since SNES is still pretty bouncy.
Works very well in PSP mode!
Vita is dead, leagcy system sony drop 1st party on it and no more aaa game on it just indie and nice games
Certainly not dead to us, troll.
U must be living on some kinda hill hermit.
I think he means he bought it ages ago to play proper AAA game games and not homebrew and indie games therefore says its dead……some people just have no interest in systems except for big game names…..but then why would he be here..shrugs lol
Im looking forward to the nintendo 64, and DS emulation.
So not possible to emulate PS2 and GameCube games? I mean at least with lower graphic and lower fps.
Not even close to enough power for that by a long shot. Even N64 is going to be rough for a long time.
I thought it can be a bit possible by making the games to have the graphic quality lowered and fps lower than how is on PS2,GC since lot of PS2 games got ported like MGS2,3.
MGS 2 and 3 are not emulated on the system. They’re played natively, as are all the other ports. Today’s PCs still struggle with PS2 emulation because it’s just such a hard console to emulate. The Vita will never emulate PS2 games. If/when Sony finally decides to take a stab at the handheld market again in the future, that handheld might be able to emulate the PS2.
CPS3 emulator would be kick#$%! I just want Street Fighter III Third Strike and to play it at 60 fps! Haha, jk would like more than just SFIII.
Also a Dreamcast emulator would be sick awesome.. then we would have Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Capcom vs. SNK 2.. (hopefully running smoothly) Hardcore 2-D fighting gamers would go nuts.
Make it happen!! q:-)
aside from the ps vita games on adrenline the ark/psp exploit can do everything and more including n64 emulation and psx with sound i noticed not all psx games work on retro arch so in my opinion its not much of a difference
There’s a way to emulate MAME?
I’m waiting for the next TheFlow’s exploit about PSX in Adrenaline or a PS Loader like under 35x…. Honnestly very good job TheFlow is really impressive, thank you all guys for your job, I’m a developer too but not in your domain. Anyways thanks a lot, you are genious!
excelent, and waht about to use bouth jostick on psx emulator?
games as a megaman legend 2 or, medal of hono use bouth sticks
cheers.
Well, it has been month sinced they hacked the 3D acceleration on the vita and it’s still not implemented in retroarch. It could been cool to have it implemented so i could play Albert Odyssey on Saturn instead of requiring to find a wireless saturn modded controller. Yes i does own a Early Model 1 saturn (different hardware than normal model 1) but the short cord of the model 1 controller require you to sit near your system or simply hook it to a rca to vga converter and use it on a PC screen while doing something else on a PC.
people got spoiled with the psp and they assumed it would be the same with the vita.
reality is that it is one of the lamest system for homebrew enthusiasts..
so just move on.
Stupid punkekok
Yeah grow up you punkekok and buy ps5 already