Welcome back, QMC2!

Update March 2024 - in (far too late) Memory of Rene Reucher

Only these days, far too late, I learnt that Rene Reucher, the creator of the QMC2 frontend, passed away in spring 2023. Back in 2022, when I wrote the first version of this post, Rene has restarted his work on this quite unique MAME frontend, and it was a pleasure for me to help him out on some minor things in relation to Macs, albeit nothing crucial. From two phone calls, I remember him as a very reasonable and pleasant person. This is my very late "Sorry, and all the best, Rene."

At the same time, as fellow developers have now resumed work, it is nice to see that Rene's work will be continued. So I am happy to present new QMC2 v244 builds - and I am quite confident that Rene would accept that I link these two messages together:

AppleSilicon: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15lX5UOpHGFxHPkLojg0vGYSZ8rX-0b5W/view?usp=drive_link

MacIntel: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tI12260ce9ijJKJ7R5F0nvvJuK_1CyB9/view?usp=drive_link

This time, also the MacIntel build should have proper code signatures and should even run on Apple Silicon - though there is really no need to do this.

So far it's the best version I've ever tested. History.xml is now supported, so you can update to the latest history.xml file to have great machine information. The Silicon Mac version is blazingly fast, and further bugfixing is never a bad thing. On top, the latest libraries are bundled, including the latest QT5 version. That's why I found it worth to provide new builds.

As always, please care for the instructions in the ReadMe and do report any problems back, many thanks.

I started MAME with the help of QMC2, and it is still a classic frontend experience

Original post in the following (no longer relevant and rather outdated, as it builds nicely now with Homebrew):

RetroArch Tutorial Part III - Usage 101 / Best Practices

After two tutorials on a proper RetroArch setup (Part I and Part II), this might be the most difficult Part III on best practices in RetroArch. Frankly, it's an attempt and I will see where this heads to.

Hello RetroArch!
I do hope it's fine to use your great logo here :-).

RetroArch Menu Styles

While I like the pragmatic new menu layout of ozone, you can also check the different layouts which RetroArch offers. Look for: Settings/User Interface/Menu (change requires a save and restart)

RetroArch 1.17 release & RetroArch Setup Tutorial - Part II

This February 2024, RetroArch reached another milestone with the release of the stable version 1.17. The significance of this frontend for the emulation community cannot be overestimated - it's the foundation/inspiration for many other projects and of course the home of an ever growing list of cores that run under this frontend. But it's also a steady inspiration for new concepts and ideas - with some of these ideas remaining in an experimental mode, while others becoming very successful and influential.

This is a follow-up to this post about configuring RetroArch from scratch - Part I.

So let's start Part II of the RetroArch tutorial with a focus on Arcade games - but most of this applies to other cores as well. As you may expect, this post is work in progress and will grow over time. If you are interested in some special RetroArch topics, just leave a comment below.

Even with 1.17 being out, let me suggest to use nightly builds.

1. Use nightly MacOS builds: 

The nightly MacOS builds of RetroArch have now been stable for several years. I can recommend using them instead of the stable builds. For example, new version 1.2.7 of MoltenVK (the Vulkan layer for MacOS) just landed two days after the stable 1.17 - apparently, this plugin is essential for RetroArch in MacOS, so you would not want to miss this update. But I do not mean that you should update RetroArch every day, but if you do, download a nightly build to benefit from the latest updates.

If things turn out strange for you, you can easily downgrade by installing the stable version over the nightly build. As shown in Part I, updating the app is simple, and you will not loose any of your settings.

Featured Post: Retrogaming Emulation on Apple Silicon

This featured post is in steady update. 

Last update 23 March 2024 - added TyrQuake in the Quake for PC section for the sake of completeness.

Update 2 March 2024 - added GBA section and applied links to the Table of Content as well as a lot of shoe polish to the entry. 

Table of Content

(links in this TOC only work in the actual blog post, but not on the homepage)

• About this Blog
• Arcade Games
• Sony Playstation (PSX)
• Sony Playstation 2 (PS2)
• Nintendo Game Cube and Wii
• Nintendo 64
• Sony Playstation Portable (PSP)
• Nintendo Gameboy Advance (GBA)
• Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
• Quake for PC 🤘
• Philips Videopac/Odyssey2

About this Blog

Statistics tell me that my info about MAME on Apple Silicon is having highest popularity and became a kind of landing page for the entire blog. Here I give a broader overview. As emulators still improve, this blog post will be revisited from time to time. Sorted in accordance with my own experience (in particular only own dumps of my console games). 

But first - what is so peculiar about emulating old games?

In a nutshell, dedicated enthusiasts preserve gaming history for no money. As the old arcade machines increasingly wear off, emulators build virtual machines around its games. This alone is fascinating, but the community does much more: It also preserves the artwork, photos of the controllers and the PCBs, even the old manuals. And the only thing they expect from you is respect and gratitude 😊. Of course you can also contribute in other ways (like I do with this blog).

Work is mostly done under open source licenses, so that this work remains free. I am a bit hesitant to (always) buy into the commercial variants, as they basically perpetuate the income from old arcade games. But there are definitely nice commercial offers: I bought the Capcom Classics (1942, 1943, etc) for Nintendo Switch, and it‘s quite comparable to the open source variants (plus an acceptable way to play it on the Switch, however e.g. both 1942 and 1943 stutter on my Switch from time to time). Other commercial offerings, such as Metal Slug on the Switch, are a bit disappointing, as they provide you a bare bones emulation without upscaling and just scanlines - they should do better.

Why this focus on MacOS emulation?

Motivation has changed through time. When I started this blog in 2016, its main purpose was to fill a huge gap by explaining how to run MAME on Macs. Documentation was scarce or non-existent back then. 

Nowadays documentation got much better, and I see Silicon Macs as a quite unique emulation platform - and for me, emulation on the Mac mini shines like never before. You are getting decent performance paired with highest energy efficiency, thus no noise or heat at all. Compared to a quite noisy and hot Nintendo Switch, a Silicon Mac is a much quieter and cooler gaming device. Gaming PCs, while more powerful, are clumsy, can be noisy and always emit a lot of warm air. With most emulation, Apple Silicon performance will just be stellar or at least very fine.

That’s why I also started to cover other than arcade emulation, simply because you can get very convincing results on Silicon Macs. I would not want to trade thus package in for something different.

What about those RetroAchievements?

I consider them as a game changer for all retrogaming. While cheevos shines on other systems, they are increasingly fun on arcades as well (with just recently brilliant achievements for 1942 and Bubble Bobble). I also discovered new things via RetroAchievements that I had not been aware of. That‘s why I will always prefer emulators supporting RetroAchievements over others.

So many words to read here - why don‘t you do videos?

Call me old-fashioned, but reading is remembering. Sure, there is great YouTube content out there, but when it comes to learning things, I prefer the written word, as you engage more actively with it. And with the more complicated configuration instructions, videos get overly complicated to make (and to use as well). I also revisit my blog entries and update them, and that seems hardly feasible with videos.

With this in mind, let's have a look into the emulation scene with a focus on Silicon Macs.

Arcade Games

2 March 2024
This is the main focus of this Blog, and my own preferences shifted significantly through the years.

No.1 - FinalBurn Neo/RetroArch Core (excellent): My current golden standard in arcade emulation in MacOS/iOS. As soon as you have tamed RetroArch, you get best-in-class performance (also due to the 60Hz core option, which can be a live saver), HDR in Vulkan, shaders (see my koko-aio repository) and RetroAchievements. Highscore support steadily increases. Emulation of some very old games and newer games is missing. This RetroArch core is updated nearly on a daily basis. Discord (if you like it) has a lively user community.

No.2 - MAME (current)/RetroArch Core (very good): These days MAME (current) is in sync with official MAME. In RetroArch, you get HDR and the shaders, and my koko-aio repository works with identical presets now. However, RetroAchievements are missing/not officially supported. Compared to offical MAME, highscore support has problems and is hard to install. This is my choice for all games that FinalBurn Neo does not support.

No.3 - official MAME (very good): You may call it heresy, but I hardly use official MAME these days, as FinalBurn Neo outperforms it and is currently in sync with official MAME. Shaders are ok, but can no longer compete with a powerful RetroArch shader as koko-aio is. Download the official MacOS builds here - but as of MAME 262, no MacIntel builds are available (you need to compile them by yourself). Otherwise not much more to say here. But as most of the new emulation development seems to happen here, MAME official is the main reference for any technical issues. So is a game does weird things for you, always also check behavior in official MAME.

No.4 - OpenEmu (very good): With a surprise release 2.4.1 in December 2023 after two years of silence, OpenEmu is back. If you hate all this configuration effort, this emulator is definitely worth a try. While it is Intel binaries only, it runs sufficiently well on my M2 Mac mini. The MAME 250 core is in the Experimental Build of OpenEmu. Installation is like any other MacOS app, joypad configuration is very good, and shaders are loaded from within the game with the mouse. If you are fine with the MAME 250 core (probably yes for classic arcade games), you might be better of with OpenEmu compared to official MAME for an acceptable gameplay. OpenEmu also provides tons of other console emulators. But it cannot match RetroArch performance (and doesn't want to, because it wants to provide you with an out-of-the-box solution with no tweaking possibilities).

Bottom line: With so much choice, you cannot complain. All four alternatives are rock stable and provide ready binaries.

Arcade Emulation on Macs - Status Report December 2023

Update 13 January 2024: Further great news for all Aracade fans.

1942 has RetroAchievements! One of my all-time arcade favorites finally received nice Achievements. Needless to tell that I won't master this set at any point in time, but for all you hardcore gamers, this is definitely something to head for.

OpenEmu 2.41! After some two years, the emulator with a MacOS feeling, OpenEmu, has been finally updated again. If you download the "Experimental" version, you also receive a MAME 250 core. One word of caution: It is still Intel only. However, some initial testing on my M2 Mac mini showed nice performance. In MacOS Sonoma, OpenEmu also activates the Gaming Mode in fullscreen. I certainly will always prefer RetroArch/FinalBurn Neo, but if you want to engage into all this configuration hassles, OpenEmu is worth a try.

Update 22 December 2023: Have a good festive season with a lot of good arcade gaming! These great news will help you so spend some quality gaming time. I also tweaked the main text a bit. Cheers!

Bubble Bobble has RetroAchievements! The wait is over, and these Achievements are pure joy. RetroArch and FinalBurn Neo (don‘t forget to turn the koko-aio shaders on, and my repository of course contains dedicated artwork). It’s a great experience and raises this brilliant game to a new level.

AttractMode Plus updated to 3.0.7, the signed app for Silicon Macs is online: https://github.com/oomek/attractplus/releases/tag/3.0.7

Arcadeflow layout for AttractMode Plus updated to 16.7, grab it here: https://github.com/zpaolo11x/Arcadeflow/releases/tag/16.7

Happy holidays! And again: All here strictly non-commercial, i.e. no ads, and any comments trying to benefit will be removed.

———————

Inspired some interesting reads out there (Dolphin Emu progress reports, PCSX2 progress reports, and last but not least https://www.readonlymemo.com/) I do this status report in December 2023 on Mac Arcade emulation (including iOS emulation).  Don't get me wrong: Those emu progress reports are much more into technical stuff than this blog - still the format inspires. And it's also a very good moment to do this, as there is a lot of good things to report. And before you ask: No tvOS experience here, sorry ;-).

In short: Arcade emulation on Macs/iOS was never better than now. Let's discuss why.

(1) MacOS Sonoma: Upgrading to the latest MacOS from Ventura was hassle-free. The new OS just works, and so do all emulators so fae (and Homebrew, most importantly). For sure, you will ask about this Game Mode that landed in MacOS for the first time. Happy to report that RetroArch properly launches in Game Mode when in fullscreen (MacOS tells you this with a notification each launch). 

Apologies for Shots in German ;-).

However, MAME official does not seem to launch in Game Mode (at least no notification pops up). Don't ask me about any performance differences, which are anyways hard to measure in RetroArch. But according to the official documentation (link above), it should definitely be no disadvantage for the gaming experience. 

In short: Sonoma is good to head for.

(2) FinalBurn Neo (RetroArch Core for MacOS/iOS): This core continues to impress and remains a clear number one in Mac Arcade emulation. The RetroArch documentation provides a nice summary of the main differences between MAME and FinalBurn Neo: https://docs.libretro.com/library/fbneo/ - in short, FinalBurn Neo takes compromises on accuracy in favor of playability by accepting 'quality of life hacks' that MAME doesn't. Since my latest post on this core (actually a full setup guide on RetroArch for Arcade games), the developers took huge efforts to stay in sync with MAME official (as of this post, this is version 261). Highscore support further increased for my favorite games. And most importantly, it is the only reliable RetroArch arcade core for RetroAchievements. Remember: For playing in HC Mode (the real thing without save states and rewind), you need to disable the rom hack core option when running FBNeo and restart.

In short: FinalBurn Neo remains the best Arcade emulator on MacOS/iOS systems.