This week in emulation (29 May – 5 June): Progress in Switch/PSVita emulation with more games booting, Lakka ported to the Switch, MAME 0.198, Cemu 1.12.1 and Nova 0.3 released, and more!
As emulation is very popular nowadays, almost every week has something to show off and this one is no exception! This week, we saw more games booting in Yuzu, RyujiNX and Vita 3K, updates to MAME, Cemu and Nova and the release of Lakka for the Nintendo Switch among others!
More games booting on Switch and PSVita emulators
I think that the most spectacular thing in the console emulation scene is progress on emulating recent consoles; and this week brought some interesting developments regarding that.
Simpler PSVita games such as Siralim are now booting and getting in-game on Vita3K. (Image from May’s Progress Report)
First off, a few days ago the May progress report of Vita 3K, a WIP PSVita emulator, was published. From that report, it seems that the following commercial games have started to boot and get in-game:
- Alone With You
- Siralim
- 10 Second Ninja
- SwapQuest
- Downwell
It is quite mindblowing how in just a few months, the Vita3K team was able to go from nothing to having quite a few commerical games and many homebrew titles already booting and working to various degrees. Perhaps, in the future, Vita3K could end up your Android and you’d be able to play PSVita on the go, as they were intended to be played in the first place!
Super Mario Odyssey is now booting on RyujiNX!
Over on the Nintendo Switch emulation side, we have Yuzu/RyujiNX seeing some great progress with the following titles starting to boot:
- Super Mario Odyssey (don’t expect to be playing it just yet but it’s a start!) – RyujiNX
- Sonic Mania (playable) – both RyujiNX and Yuzu
Like the PSVita emulation scene, the Switch scene is already showing promising results so perhaps, we might be emulating Switch games pretty well in a few years!
Lakka ported to the Nintendo Switch
Staying on the topic of the Nintendo Switch, the console has now received a port of another Linux distribution called Lakka. Lakka is Retroarch’s official Linux distro and its goal is to provide a lightweight environment on which RetroArch could run in its full capacity. As Lakka is intended to be used with RetroArch, it obviously supports a whole slew of cores which let you emulate a variety of systems such as the PSP, Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast among others.
With Lakka on the Switch, you can enjoy the full RetroArch experience but beware of the pesky battery bug!
Installation is pretty similar to that of other Linux distributions which means that you need to put your Switch in RCM and have a computer handy to kickstart the OS itself off your Switch’s microSD. Unfortunately, like all other Linux distros running on the Switch, this one also has the battery calibration issue in which your Switch will shut off before reaching 0% usually at around 15-40% charge.
Due to the bug mentioned above, it’s only recommended to try Lakka if you’re comfortable with opening up your Switch to disconnect and reconnect the battery to fix its calibration! Links can to Lakka for the Switch can be found below.
Emulator updates: MAME, Nova and Cemu all updated
Like most other weeks, this week also has its usual emulator updates which include:
- MAME updated to 0.198.
- This update bring support for the Tom Tom Magic, Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu EX ’98, and Keirin Ou arcade games and various computer systems including the BBC Master 512, TI-99/2 and Dragon MSX-64. Apart from these, this release also brings about many graphical fixes to already emulated systems and support for more Tiger handhelds.
- Nova 0.3 has been released. This brings a whole bunch of core updates so some of your games may run better.
Apparently, the Sega Saturn emulation scene is getting some love and Nova, a closed-source emulator, is doing some progress!
- Cemu 1.12.1 has been released to the public since its 7-day Patreon exclusivity has passed.
- This brings along many core updates, a move to Visual Studio 2017, many bug fixes in sound emulation and input handling. Support for the Skylanders Traptanium Portal controller has also been added.
- Other stuff such as Flashpoint 3.0, a HUGE Flash game pack, and PPSSPP 1.6.3 (and 1.6.2).
Conclusion
This week was yet again pretty fruitful in terms of emulation so to learn more about the above software, simply follow the links below.
Vita3K May 2018 progress report: https://velocityra.github.io/vita3k-may-2018/
Yuzu emulator progress: https://twitter.com/yuzuemu/status/1001664718887469056
Video showing RyujiNX booting Super Mario Odyssey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eTtB-Rwung
Lakka for the Nintendo Switch: https://lakka-switch.github.io/documentation/
MAME 0.198 release post: http://mamedev.org/?p=457
Nova 0.3 Patreon release post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/nova-v0-3-19172257
Cemu 1.12.1 download link: http://cemu.info/index.html#download
Other emulation news (this general link is provided so that the link section isn’t too long): https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/
Thanks for the news Aurora! It is interesting to see how the scenario with emulators today seems to happen much faster because of the support that developers end up receiving by patreon. Another interesting detail that I had no idea is that it is already possible to make backups of Switch games, after all for Mario Odissey to be exploitable he should already be importable to the PC
already booting odyssey? cool. think don’t need to buy that damn 360$ indie game machine.
There’s a long way to go until that Vita emulator is worth using.
Well how could the Yuzu run a commercial title? Is there already a game dumper (no matter released or not) for Switch?
Is it possible to play pirate game right now or it isn’t ready yet?