MAMEWorld Forums - EmuChat - Re: MAME for game consoles

> There are MAME ports for video game consoles.

> Are they any good?

Depends largely on the console. Anything below Wii-generation won't run MAME well and/or will run MAME from 15 years ago like the handhelds and Raspberry Puke.

> Can they play the same games as the real MAME?

Yes, within the limitations of the console hardware. The Wii's about the min-spec for acceptable; there's a pretty good MAME port available through the Homebrew Channel that can run games up to 16-bit at full speed with relatively easy setup. This is pretty much the only console port I can say generally nice things about.

DRC cores are not available on consoles so many newer games (e.g. Killer Instinct) will play even slower than the slow console CPU implies.

The old original-Xbox port is right out; that thing has less CPU power than a Raspberry Pi and uses about 1000 times the electricity.

> What about the way the screen is updated? On some graphics cards, when you don't
> enable vsync or triple buffering, there appear stripes when the screen scrolls. Would
> an emulator that runs on a console do the same?

Correct, but consoles tend by their nature to force vsync on.

> Or another problem that we discussed a long time ago:
> When you enable vsync or triple buffering, then you have an input lag.

Triple buffering adds lag by definition, because you are always 2 frames behind real-time.

> Would a console version of MAME, which doesn't work on DirectX I suppose, have the
> same issue?

Probably. If you're psychologically inclined to find lag under every bed, you'll probably find it in console ports.

> And what about the screen resolution?

Consoles that MAME has been ported to all have 640x480 at bare minimum, which covers a large majority of the MAME library.

> So, in how far is the output of such an emulator still authentic?

If you're playing the Wii port on a CRT TV, it's significantly more authentic than a PC on a computer display. On an HDTV, you'd need HLSL/GLSL to get the authentic look, just like with a computer monitor.