End the "How to pick the best emu" threads once and for all?

[atomikbohm]

In the last week I've personally read 4 or 5 threads on which are the best emulators.  They were all dated from 3 years ago.  Which isn't that useful cause my TARDIS went BOOM at the end of last season.  The problem is that everyone is convinced that their emulator is the best. 

My question is, is there a easy way to compare emulators, Short of going though 2 year old compatibility lists that may or may not have been accurate when they were written, or playing every game in my PS collection all the way though on multiple emus so I can compare the game play and compatibility ect ... you get my point.

Don't get me wrong there are plenty of sites that have recommendations, that may or may not have been updated in a while and/or the methods used to determine "best" are unclear.

http://www.emulator-zone.com/
http://nonmess.retrogames.com/
http://nonmame.retrogames.com/

I've read that there a couple of console emulators that claim they are "accurate to the clock cycle"!!! Great!!! that's what the type of stuff I'm looking for, but then other emus claim better compatibility ?!?!?!? I'm so confused     

Is there a way for a person who doesn't eat, breath and poop code to figure this out for themselves? That way we can preserve the e-environment rather than pollute it with quickly out dated comparison threads 

[abispac]

Easy,
mala: best friendly use , allmost easy to set up.
atomic: good for old computers but they stoled the hyperspin artwork to make a generic copy of hyperspin
hyperspin: best on looks , but requires a good pc, p4 or better with a good video card and ram, and needs some patience to set up.
game-ex: nice front end, have not see'it in while so i cant say much other thats its best as an media player with front end capabilitys.
good luck choosing one, and sorry for my bad english... 

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

Easy,
mala: best friendly use , allmost easy to set up.
atomic: good for old computers but they stoled the hyperspin artwork to make a generic copy of hyperspin
hyperspin: best on looks , but requires a good pc, p4 or better with a good video card and ram, and needs some patience to set up.
game-ex: nice front end, have not see'it in while so i cant say much other thats its best as an media player with front end capabilitys.
good luck choosing one, and sorry for my bad english...  

Those are not emulators.


Best is always going to be a pretty subjective thing.

There are so many systems that are emulated now by so many programs that you're never going to have a single best. What's most important is to simply ask "does it play what I want to play?" So make yourself a list of what you're interested in and start there. For systems like NES, SNES, Genesis/Megadrive I don't think 'compatibility' is going to be much of an issue anymore. We've pretty much got those nailed with the exception of a handful of odd games.

[BadMouth]

Unless development on all emulators for a particular system has ceased, it will stay a moving target.
I wish there was a thread to announce when new versions have been released, but I'm not taking the time to maintain it.

I was pleasantly surprised that the new version of NullDC supports analogue controls, but I never would have known had I not downloaded and installed it.

The best way to find out is probably still the "what emu do you use?" threads and maybe add "how long ago did you install it?"
If you get a consensus, run with it.  If there is a newer/better thing out there, someone will probably bring it up.

[TOK]

How about we do it by just berating anyone that wants to play Atari 2600, ColecoVision or NES games on an arcade cabinet. 

[atomikbohm]

I wish there was a thread to announce when new versions have been released, but I'm not taking the time to maintain it.

A thread no, but there are sites that keep it's visitors abreast of what's new (i.e. new releases and SVN updates). The one I frequent is www.emucr.com (please don't ban me Saint  )

I wish there was an app that could run the equivalent of a system check to see how well the emulator compares to the original console / hardware.  That coupled with compatibility should give a pretty good meter to measure the various emulators against.  Easy right 

Anyone want to quick code this for me?