If you had a good/great PC, which Emulators are in your 'must have' list?

[Rick]

Since the colder weather is setting in, and the production on my cab is slowing (sadly), I'm looking to fill my down time with getting my PC, TV and CP configured, so that I can set it up in the corner for the kids to play with.  (For when I start on the other parts of the cab, of course.)  My question is this.  Which emulators do you presently use, or would you use if you have a good/great PC?

I am pretty comfortable in my collection of MAME games, but I really don't know which other Emulators are a must?  I've been reading that going with a Dreamcast would allow you to replicate the arcade experience on a lot of 'higher quality' games, but would a Dreamcast Emulator give similar benefit?  If I'm using a TV, and am stuck using 640x480 resolution (or close), will a PS/2 Emulator allow me to play good games on it?

Another concern I have are knowing what other emulators lend themselves to using a joystick and buttons, or if I add a Commodore 64 emulator (my Wife LOVES Jumpman Jr.) do I then need to add "Load" and "Save" buttons to my Admin Panel?

I always planned on having MAME on my cab, but these other emulators confuse me.  Probably because I don't even know what games I'll enjoy on them.  (I've never been 'the console guy' - I've been playing FPS using keyboard and mouse for the last 15+ years.)

L'il help?

[Jack Burton]

There are many console ports of arcade games that are either not very well emulated or not at all.  But by emulating the port you can still enjoy the game, and luckily the last couple generations of consoles had excellent ports of arcade games.

There are also a number of games that were released for consoles that have a very arcade-like feel, but never got an arcade release.  There are TONS of shmups that fall into this category. 

640x480 is fine for almost every "new" arcade game ever made.  It was only in the last three or four years that games moved into HD resolutions, and almost all of those are not emulated yet. 

[BadMouth]

I have at least two dozen emulators on my MAME pc and don't use most of them.
I was in the mindset of having it play absolutely everything possible  
There is some novelty to playing a gameboy game on a 32" screen, but it wears off after about 2 minutes.

I'd recommend:  Nebula's Sega Model 2 Emulator - plays 3D games not playable in MAME
                      Makaron - plays Naomi games that won't be playable in MAME for many years to come
                      Future Pinball - Much easier to install and better looking than Visual Pinball, but not nearly as many re-created tables.
                      Vivanonno - Plays the Ridge Racer series.  Probably not a fit for your cab, but I play it more than anything else on my driving cab.
                      Demul - plays Naomi, Atomiswave & Naomi 2.  Just started messing around with this one.  For fighting games, I've had better results
                                 with Makaron so far, but Makaron doesn't emulate the Atomiswave hardware or support light guns.

Occasionally, I'll load a Sega Genesis (Kega Fusion) or Atari 2600 game for the sake of nostalgia, but I rarely play it for more than 5 minutes.

In the Mala forum, in one of the stickies, is a writeup by UncleT about installing a bunch of emulators to work with Mala.
It includes a big list of emulators and tells you everything you need to know to get them up and running.  
Lot's of good info there, even though you aren't planning to use Mala.

[Rick]

All of that is awesome information!  Thank you!  In particular...

Future Pinball - Much easier to install and better looking than Visual Pinball, but not nearly as many re-created tables.

...I never looked at Future Pinball before, as I was amazed at all of the Virtual Pinball tables built up, and am confident that this is my next build.  That being said, WOW!  The graphics on that program are amazing, and I'm downloading it as we speak to give it a go!  I love pinball, and am excited to be able to play it on my cab, once it's complete.  (Until then, I'll likely be playing it on my laptop at home!)

 

[nickynooch]

Another concern I have are knowing what other emulators lend themselves to using a joystick and buttons, or if I add a Commodore 64 emulator (my Wife LOVES Jumpman Jr.) do I then need to add "Load" and "Save" buttons to my Admin Panel?

L'il help?

Commodore 64 had some awesome games.

[shateredsoul]

yeah same here.. I'm in the process of adding every system imaginable.. but won't play most of them. I even have some wii, gamecube, and ps2 games working.  In the end, the multi emulator setup thing will probably be the most useful for a home theater pc. The funny thing is that right now i have a few systems setup (mame, genesis, snes, turbo grafx and more) and everyone always goes to the nintendo games. Seriously.. always.  I'm like, but I have so many great systems! Nope... nintendo.