Emulation, better on Devices or Desktops?

Shimus

Shimus

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Jan 21, 2015
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For emulation, I have nearly every program under the sun. However, I lack devices to put them on so I carry them around very unconveniently - on a desktop PC. I've been aiming to see if smartphones couldn't handle it in some capacity because let's face it - old systems are even less than some new smartphones. So I've been leaning towards finding out some peoples' opinions - which do you use?

If you do use a smartphone or similar portable device, please drop its name and a reason why you chose it so I can weigh options. Over time I've just found Laptops/Desktops handle the job quite well.
 
My Android tablet runs PPSSPP pretty damn well, way better than my old laptop could ever do, as much juice as I struggle to get out of it. Maybe it's from the code optimisation, maybe it's from the hardware, I can't really, but these days the emulation on androids is amazingly advanced.
 
Phones now a days are more than powerful to run NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, PSX, N64 emulators (I play PSX games on my Xperia MIni and it's a 5 year old phone). The biggest problem, at least for me, is the lack of input feedback when playing with a touchscreen. It just feels weird and controls are nowhere near precise as when using a gamepad. Of course you could always hook up a wireless pad to your phone but I've never tried it.
 
Emulation will of course always be better on the desktop PC. Emulation is very cpu-intensive and most smartphones remain behind the curve when it comes to emulating the latest platforms. CPU processing power is the prime consideration here since you the smartphone doesn't confer any kind of coding benefit through a superior OS or anything like that. You can run android and iOS as effectively on the desktop as you can on the smartphone (coding wise).
 
Emulators will always run better on a PC. The reason is because you can't compete with the processing power on a PC then one on a gaming/mobile device. But it it still runs good either way. I have a GBA emulator on my android and I play games just fine
 
I run PPSSPP on my Galaxy S5. It runs really good and I like that I can take it with me where I want, but most of my emulators run so much better on my desktop. I had an emulator for NES games on my phone at one point, but it was just way too glitchy and I deleted it over time.
 
Emulation devices are honestly all hit or miss and with the price tag that comes attached to them, I can't really justify recommending them over desktop pc...
 
Perhaps I was misunderstood. I meant do you prefer to play them on mobile devices or desktops with more juice? I prefer my new Laptop I just got, it's pretty baller. But, I'd like to say some top end smart devices could run it equally as well, because the specs just need the minimums to run.

The game of course with more resources will look better, that's why I assumed PCs/Desktops would be better overall to handle the processing, but after seeing my friends modded PSP playing my same emulator, on my same level makes me question if some devices aren't better suited for it.
 
Emulators will always be way better on PC or home devices, as there's simply more beef to work with than on a mobile phone. Sure, it's a real treat getting to play your favorite games on the go, but you shouldn't be able to get that many generations emulated at the moment, so it's behind the PC progress by far.
 
I prefer it on my PC. It can take anything and then some. I mean I abuse the living daylights out of it and it can handle just about anything I throw at it just fine. My phone on the other hand? Nah, I wouldn't use it to game or emulate. To me it's just for utilitarian purposes- check texts, make calls, listen to music and browse the internet. Just because said phone can do it doesn't mean I would run an emulator on it.
 
I run mine on my laptop, and that works just fine for me. I don't really have a desire to put an emulator on my phone because if I really want to take it somewhere, I can just take my laptop... And besides, if I want to play games on my phone, I have plenty of options. Putting an emulator on my phone is just too much hassle.
 
I feel that it is better on devices because I don't really want to play games on my laptop when it was made for GBA or PSP. The games are better for how portable they are and can be played when you're on the road rather than on your home in the laptop.
 
Emulators are best when your device has enough resources to run the game smoothly. There are emulators that are very light in terms of storage and data requirements, but most of the problems are with the games itself. Some games system requirements are too high that your device resources are easily depleted leaving you with a lagging game. The best way to run a emulator is to have a decent hardware capability to tun all possible games.
 
I used to play a lot of emulator games on my old PSP so I would say handheld is a great option because you can bring it around with you. Also, these days if you wanted to play on a bigger screen you could just use a tablet or phone and hook it up to the TV so even that makes it more practical than a desktop in my opinion. Maybe there are weightier games that could only be played on a powerful desktop so I guess in those cases the desktop option wins, but for most low bit games I think a portable device would suffice.
 
PC is way better at emulating games than a tablet or anything of the sort. You can run almost any console with the exception of new ones on your pc. People have even emulated Wii games, which as you know is played with a remote. I mean some consoles such as PSP can emulate PS1 games or even GBA, and that can come in handy, however the best option is always your PC.
 
You can't compare the efficiency of runing an emulator on a PC to running it on a mobile device. I used to have the Gameboy Advance emulator on my old android phone and it was running well until my phone started hanging so I had to delete it.
 
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Having emulator on a PC is always going to be effective and efficient than having it on mobile. They can't be compared in any way. I don't even waste time with mobile phones emulators.
 
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