Emulation & Switch News: RetroArch 1.8.8 released with new SDK on PS2 leading to massive performance improvements and initial Slovakian language translation & Moonlight ported to the Switch!

While the PlayStation 2’s heyday is long over, limited homebrew development is still going in some circles and with RetroArch 1.8.8, the console can emulate Super Mario Bros at a staggering 429fps thanks to a new SDK! In this article, we’ll also be looking at what more RA 1.8.8 has to offer and at Moonlight-NX’s release.

RetroArch 1.8.8 released with new SDK on the PlayStation 2, initial Slovakian translation and more!

If you even have the slightest interest in emulation, then it’s likely that you’ve heard of RetroArch which is an all-in-one emulation solution letting you play games from consoles as old as the Atari 2600 to more modern consoles such as the Nintendo Wii & 3DS. Other than supporting a plethora of consoles, RetroArch also supports game engine cores such as PrBoom, PowderToy and The Powder Toy thus allowing for a pretty wide range of activities within one application not to mention the wide range of platforms (including many hacked consoles like the Vita and Switch) that it can run on.

Thanks to fjtrujy’s efforts, RetroArch cores on the PS2 are now compiled with a much newer version of GCC which could lead to more emulators being usable! (Image showing Super Mario Bros in QuickNES @ 429FPS – Source)

Now, RetoArch 1.8.8 has been released just 11 days after version 1.8.7 and it comes with the following:

• The PlayStation 2 port, with @fjtrujy being the one mostly behind it, is now compiled with the latest version of the PS2SDK which allows RetroArch to be built with a modern version of the GCC compiler which resulted in significant performance boosts
  • As per screenshots posted on Twitter by @fjtrujy, the emulator is now running Super Mario Bros for the NES at 429FPS rather than the 255FPS it ran at before using the QuickNES core
  • Other than the massive performance boost in QuickNES, the console has received a port of the ‘Theodore’ emulator which emulates the Thomson computers once popular in France
  • Various cores, such as Picodrive, 2048, FCEUmm and mGBA are now built with the new toolchain containing a more modern version of GCC meaning that these cores may also see performance improvements!
• A rudimentary Slovak translation has been added and numerous language translations have seen considerable progress thanks to the use of Crowdin
  • Crowdin allows translation to other languages without any need of programming
• It is now possible to sort playlists after name truncation when using the Ozone (Switch-esque) menu driver
• On the Wii U, it is now possible to hotplug gamepads and if it ever becomes possible via CFW to use more than one gamepad simultaneously, the second gamepad shall also work in RetroArch
•  Some improvements to input remapping and shader preset directories

You may read more about RetroArch 1.8.8 by checking out its release post and download it from here by choosing the appropriate platform.

Moonlight-NX released for the Nintendo Switch

If you have a computer with an Nvidia graphics card then you might’ve heard of GameStream as it’s a protocol that allows one to stream games over a LAN to Nvidia Shield devices with pretty good results provided you have a good local internet connection and a supported GPU.

With Moonlight-NX, you can stream games from your PC to your Switch if you have a supported Nvidia graphics card (most modern cards are supported) but other solutions such as SkyNX exist which don’t require an Nvidia GPU (Image Moonlight-NX’s GBATemp Thread)

With Moonlight, however, the ability to use the GameStream protocol is brought over to a variety of other platforms thanks to an open-source implementation of the aforementioned. These other platforms include PCs, iOS, Android, the PlayStation Vita and now the Nintendo Switch thanks to Moonlight-NX

As its name suggests, Moonlight-NX is a port of Moonlight to the Nintendo Switch by developer ‘rock88‘ and it allows one to stream games over their LAN @ 720p/1080p at either 30 or 60FPS. Other than this, the port also supports touch controls and the Switch’s rumble function while also coming with an assortment of button combinations for mouse button clicks, viewing statistics and other functions.

You may read more about Moonlight-NX by visiting its GBATemp thread, download it from its GitHub Release Page & view various user experiences on this Reddit Thread. It’s important to note that docked mode is currently not supported and some audio issues were fixed with an update released yesterday (version 1.0.7)!

Conclusion

Other than Moonlight-NX, the Switch also received SysDVR 4.0 (lets you stream your Switch’s screen via USB or network) with support for low latency networking streaming support, better USB streaming and reduction in memory footprint. DeepSea has also been presented by Team Neptune which aims to pick up where Kosmos left off.