this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2025
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Emulation

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Discussion and News forum for all things video game emulation related, or tangentially. Platform agnostic. Mobile is welcome too. We'll keep it loose, but more focused on emulation. Piracy discussion is allowed, that's one reason we're on this domain.

A General Discussion will be stickied for the community to chat in about whatever. Staying on topic isn't important in any GD stickies.

Rules

#1: Obey our domain rules first and foremost.

#2: Mundane Tech Support/Game Sourcing Questions need to be kept to the stickied posts, unless it's something novel/interesting others might want to see.

#3: Unless it's at least tangentially relevant to emulation, no politics. Don't get your toque in a knot.

#4: Be nice, and consider reporting an offending hoser of #4 instead of responding to mean people to begin with.

Inspired by negative impressions of /r/ROMS:

#5a: Strive to be polite & patient with noobs asking questions.

#5b: Doesn't mean be a doormat.

Helpful Links

Good shaders for stuff like retroarch: https://github.com/RetroCrisis/Retro-Crisis-GDV-NTSC

https://docs.libretro.com/shader/crt_royale/

Boxart

https://r-roms.github.io/ Get all your games here, retro and up. r/ROMs reddit community's game link aggregator.

Myrient for data hoarders. Here you can get full sets of PS3/360 era games: https://myrient.erista.me/files/ A Download Manager is recommended. JDownloader2, for example, download the clean installer here: https://board.jdownloader.org/showthread.php?t=54725

Another aggregator: https://shakil-shahadat.github.io/awesome-piracy/#roms

https://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/Main_Page The wiki dedicated to all things emulation.

https://www.readonlymemo.com/emulation-101/

Fiddly Switch Shit

Prod Keys for Switch

Switch Firmware

Currently probably maaaybe the good yuzu fork: https://git.citron-emu.org/Citron/Citron

Ryubing probably the main Ryujinx fork: https://git.ryujinx.app/ryubing/ryujinx

Mirror of the last release of the original project: https://git.axenov.dev/mirrors/ryujinx

Switch games: https://nsw2u.com/

Speaking of which...

For more fiddly emulators, their wiki sites provide tweaks/fixes/hacks, and explain any bugs that are still known issues.

https://wiki.pcsx2.net/Category:Games

https://wiki.rpcs3.net/index.php?title=Category%3AGames

https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Nintendo_GameCube

https://wiki.dolphin-emu.org/index.php?title=Wii

Hax

Account Required Pre-Patched ROM/ISO hacks and fan translations here: https://retrogametalk.com/repository/

DIY ROM/ISO patches: https://romhackplaza.org/

Browser based ROM patchers: https://www.marcrobledo.com/RomPatcher.js/

https://www.hack64.net/tools/patcher.php

https://www.ff6hacking.com/patcher/

Good Programs

The good (standalone) N64 emulator: https://github.com/Rosalie241/RMG

Quick and Dirty shaders in a window you can overlay on other windowed emulators: https://github.com/mausimus/ShaderGlass

DM me if you'd like to mod. Please be over the age of 25, provide your country of origin (Canadian/friendly countries), and give a reasonable description of what your intentions are. l'o'l funni c'o'l'o'urs.

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Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works
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General Discussion 2025 (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works to c/emulation@sh.itjust.works
5 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Shoot the shit, no theme thread.

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[–] insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafe 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Compressed PS2 roms: anyone else have an issue with many games not working (boots, stalls when it actually has to load more than a menu or background), likely due to .CSO format? (the few .ISOs I have still work, including one where the .CSO doesn't)

I can't seem to reverse them back into .ISOs w/o an error (though I've only tried the one thing that may have caused this in the first place) so I'm not sure if this is a corruption or software thing, is my best option here to re-rip (and use .CHD instead)? Linux, emu is v2.3.272

[–] Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The fact you can't decompress the games suggests to me whatever program you used didn't operate correctly whether it's faulty programming or user error.

You're already suspecting this, and I agree. These aren't lossy compression methods, so the file should decompress to original state, matching hashes, yada yada.

I can't remember if my ps1 and 2 sets are CHD or CSO. I'll report back if I kept the specific tools I used. Usually do. I know the games work, been playing the compressed games for years now.

I will say, speaking from experience, some of these solo dev github tools we use don't handle network drives correctly. Just in case you're using a NAS.

[–] insomniac_lemon@lemmy.cafe 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

You’re already suspecting this, and I agree

I've looked through different (now closed) issue threads emulator-side and it might be an issue with some other (system) library change. Though yeah, tool I used seems to be old too (ciso, perhaps I should've found a newer tool but it is niche). I also can't verify .CSO roms via the gui, as it crashes PCSX2 too.

For some info, Ratchet and Clank is one that blackscreens (when starting/loading game or even when letting it sit at the menu too long) a different one that seems to work fine is Ratchet Deadlocked (though I didn't go past the tutorial). Assuming Deadlocked is fine, it also doesn't decompress so (given that it coredumps too) it may just be broken in that tool even for a valid file.

I also remember seeing this issue with The Sims 2 making me stop making new .CSO files, though I could've sworn my others (like RAC1) were still working at that time. Though maybe loading from save-states each time made me not see the initial loading issue.

EDIT: Also sorry I just noticed the other pinned thread, I probably should've originally commented there

[–] Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Alright so! I looked through my folders (I don't delete anything) and my memories came back to me. I had the exact same issue with ciso on Windows. Gave up, and used CHD instead. Both sets are in CHD, originally sourced as ISO from myrient (see sidebar of this community). The compression folder had both tools in it. I couldn't remember if I was conflating the memory of black screen on boot with RPCS3 before I figured out how to decrypt bluray ISO properly or not.

So sorry can't help much, I can say CHD works at least.

edit: oh and, it's okay the forum isn't busy enough for me to care yet.

[–] Sixtyforce@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 month ago

I hope people like my lovingly slapped together banners!