[Q] Is the Vita better than PSP for retro emulation?

[xXToYeDXx]

Firstly I apologise if this question has been asked and answered. I tried the search function and unfortunately I'm using the browser on my smartphone since my PC is out of commission so I couldn't really find anything.

Secondly, whats up Wololo community. It has been awhile since I sold my Vita over a year ago.

However, with rejuvenate offering native Vita homebrew I would like to know how it compares to the PSP running Pro CFW for retro emulation. Nes, Snes, GB/C, GBA, N64, TurboGrafx 16 etc. I'm contemplating picking one up used from my local games shop (not GameStop/ebgames, I won't give them my business) and would like to know if its worth picking one up again. I'm only interested in retro emulation and having it portable so I can retro on the go.

Specifically I'm wondering about N64 and some Snes games like Killer Instinct, Mario RPG and FX chip games that don't run very well on PSP

Thanks in advanced.

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[zekepliskin]

Well this is a "yes it is, with a but" kind of answer.

• For ePSP mode emulation the Vita is slightly worse because it lacks the Media Engine (2nd CPU essentially), but with user mode native level Rejuvenate full power/screen resolution can be used and I would say the SNES emulation is better for most games if you use skogaby's CATSFC.
• Can't speak to N64 emulation, can't recall if there's a Rejuvenate one yet.
• For whatever reason the Genesis/GBA emulators are worse than the ePSP versions, my guess is because it's early days and they're not as optimised yet. No MAME4ALL port yet that I know of if you like your retro arcade game fix!

I like the Vita for PSP stuff better than the actual PSP when you implement the right hacks because of the superior control method (Me And My Katamari can be played with two analogue sticks, more like the non-handheld console versions), the fact that both the Phat and Slim models have a superior screen to the three different PSP versions I've owned. I still have my PSP-3000 but other than extra storage space (64GB versus 16GB) it doesn't have anything on the Vita now it runs TN-V11, TN-X and Rejuvenate.

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[luck]

Actually ePSP is better than the psp.
Every emulator(if working) runs in a more powerful hardware.
I can play mario kart on daedalus with audio at 25fps, while my psp go runs at 9-10fps.

Rejuvenate is still "new" and it s like ninjhax, it has a potential but i think it s a bit limited so we will probably never see fully working emulators

[reprep]

Actually ePSP is better than the psp.
Every emulator(if working) runs in a more powerful hardware.
I can play mario kart on daedalus with audio at 25fps, while my psp go runs at 9-10fps.

Rejuvenate is still "new" and it s like ninjhax, it has a potential but i think it s a bit limited so we will probably never see fully working emulators

Emulators using the media engine doesn't work on ePSP, that means low performance SNES emu. Though rejuvenate CATSFC is better than the PSP/ePSP snes emus anyways.

[luck]

Yea, i said "if it does work".
Anyway it runs a bit faster compared to a psp
Catsfc uses an old source, you can t compare it with the latest snes9x for psp

[reprep]

Yea, i said "if it does work".
Anyway it runs a bit faster compared to a psp
Catsfc uses an old source, you can t compare it with the latest snes9x for psp

i didn't notice any improvement or difference between PSP/ePSP, maybe that is just me though.

Yup, catsfc uses an older version of Snes9x, wish it was ported to PSP too.

[xXToYeDXx]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The natural second question would be, is it worth being portable or would it make more sense to go with a set top solution. Something like a Pitendo with a Raspberry Pi 2 inside? Or if it is worth being portable, would the vita + rejuvenate beat out a solution like the JXD S7800B? Or is this the wrong forum to ask about that?

[dmaskell92]

Rejuvenate is far from portable. Unless you have the Android app, that boots you into Rejuvenate. Then you still need 2 devices to play homebrew. I've never tried the Android method to elaborate more on difficulty. However I'm going to guess It's complicated, and difficult like everything else related to Rejuvenate.

I've migrated all my retro emulation to the Nvidia Shield Portable. It's a great alternative, and emulation is top notch!

The only con however, the device is huge.

[fugelmir]

I've been using rejuvenate a lot...

SNES in particular.

Skogaby released 2 versions that I'm familiar with.

1. CATSFC - This is the best emulator yet. It crashes when accessing the menu sometimes it runs the vast majority of games perfectly at full speed. FF6 has a 15 fps slowdown in caves but no slowdown in battles (wtf) SMRPG runs nearly perfectly with 10-15fps drops here and there.



It needs improvement, but it's the best portable snes I've ever used.

2. SNESNEXT - this is hailed as using a later version of snes9x for a base and as a result has more accurate emulation (?) It has a horrible frame rate though for games I've tried as well as audio hiccups and static that are not present in the aforementioned version. It should be noted though that in this version, the menu has never ever crashed!

Vita is the way to go. Especially if you have the best of both worlds: TNV and PSMDEV/Unity


The vita controls respond much better for fighting games, and the LED enlarged screen works wonders for games like Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together where there's a lot of small things to pay attention to and it feels cluttered and claustraphobic on the psp.



In particular, I really enjoyed the Vita for playing Dissidia.



So, on the psp, you controlled the player movement by using the analog nub and the camera by the D pad. Obviously this was terrible and frustrating, especially in confined quarters where you needed to see behind you and move at the same time. So you could only realistically control one at a time.

With the vita, you can remap the D Pad to the right analog stick and control the camera and movement simultaneously! Brilliant!

[Ayreos]

To me, the PSP is still superior.

Installing all existing "native" hacks is complex if you're a newbie (like myself) and generally a pain because of the way the hacks function (getting exploitable games, checking in for PSM, etc).

Not only the storage space is considerably more expensive on the VITA, but as far as i know the proprietary memory card cannot be used separately from the VITA, unlike the PSP one. This is the deal-breaker for me, since i've gotten used to having 64 gigs for my PSP.

Finally, as others have said, some of the emulation has to catch up to the PSP level.

I own a VITA, but i definitely wouldn't purchase one just for emulation yet.
The PSP is cheap(er), reliable, functional and at this point trouble-free.