List of compatible games

[Omega]

Hi there.

I just discovered this forum and wondered if anybody has ever made a comprehensive list of games compatible to ZSNES. I tried searching the forum for "compatibility list", "compatible games" etc. but wasn't able to find one. A Google search doesn't return much either.

I just played a few games on ZSNES and provide my experience here. I have played 14 games with ZSNES and 2 of them were "problematic". The others work with ZSNES 142 or 151. I have marked the problematic ones with an "x".

If someone has made or found a similar (more comprehensive) list I would appreciate if you could point me in the right direction.

Here's my small list:

( ) Castlevania: Dracula X
( ) Donkey Kong Country
( ) Donkey Kong Country 2
( ) Donkey Kong Country 3
(x) Earthworm Jim 2 [Some sound effects are not playing with 142 and 151]
( ) Final Fantasy II (USA - Easytype)
( ) R-Type 3
( ) Super Castlevania IV
( ) Super Ghouls'n Ghosts
(x) Super Mario RPG [ZSNES151 crashes, ZSNES 142 has occasionally display errors]
( ) Super Metroid
( ) Super Probotector: Alien Rebels
( ) Super R-Type
( ) Super Turrican
( ) Super Turrican 2

[grinvader]

EWJ2 screws up because zsnes' irq timing is bad.
SMRPG screws up because it's SA-1.

There is no compatibility list because it's useless. Every issue is already known, and every fix is already known.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Also, the vast majority of games work "close enough"
There's only a slight handful of exceptions.

If you want everything to work right, get SNES9x* or Higan. You know, an emulator that's seen a release in the last five years.


*Yes, I know SNES9x's front page doesn't look like they've updated in even longer. For SOME reason, new versions are only posted to the forums.

[Omega]

Every issue is already known, and every fix is already known.

Maybe I have not researched the forum or the documentation well enough but where can I look up these issues and fixes for myself? Has anyone documented them anywhere yet?

This would help me decide which game to choose next.

[odditude]

don't let the rare incompatibility with zsnes deter you from a game. like Gil said, just use snes9x or higan in that case.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Yeah, I really think this compatibility list thing is putting the cart before the horse. If your Super Nintendo emulator doesn't run all the games, you don't look for a list so you can avoid games that don't work, you look for an emulator that plays ALL the games so you don't NEED a list.

[Omega]

I understand what you mean.

The reason why I especially look for a ZSNES compatibility list is because on my computer and graphics card combination SNES9X has a noticeably choppy framerate while ZSNES runs absolutely smooth and fluid with (almost always) perfectly sync'ed 60 fps.

I will try Higans, BSNES or SnEM at some time. Thanks for the recommendation.

[Gil_Hamilton]

How old is this computer? Is it an antique, or is it a SNEs9x-specific issue?

If it's an antique, you may fall in the rare group of people that actually ought to be using ZSNES.

Higan and bsnes are the same thing. Higan is just the new name.
And if byuu's design opinions bother you, but you want to be sure you have the most accurate SNES emulation available, then RetroArch with the bsnes plugin gets you all the accuracy with none of the byuu-flavored interface.

[Omega]

I think my computer could be considered kind of old but not antique. It has an 1.4GHz Mobile Celeron CPU and 512MB RAM and some kind of INTEL onboard graphic chip.

ZSNES and KEGA FUSION run absolutely perfect on it. SNES9X and GENS do work but there is some slight choppiness that bothers me.

I believe, the choppiness-problem comes from the fact, that some emulators don't receive a VSync-Signal from certain graphics cards/drivers which is very important for real smooth scrolling. I think Double/Triple Buffering alone doesn't do it.

However, this is the reason why I'm searching for games which are (more- or less) compatible to certain emulators instead for emulators that are compatible to certain games.

BTW: I have noticed on the ZSNES main page (http://www.zsnes.com) is a "Compatibilty" tab where I would start looking. But the only game listed there is "Super Mario World". Seems that this list is not quite up to date.

[nintendo_nerd]

I think my computer could be considered kind of old but not antique. It has an 1.4GHz Mobile Celeron CPU and 512MB RAM and some kind of INTEL onboard graphic chip.

ZSNES and KEGA FUSION run absolutely perfect on it. SNES9X and GENS do work but there is some slight choppiness that bothers me.

I believe, the choppiness-problem comes from the fact, that some emulators don't receive a VSync-Signal from certain graphics cards/drivers which is very important for real smooth scrolling. I think Double/Triple Buffering alone doesn't do it.

However, this is the reason why I'm searching for games which are (more- or less) compatible to certain emulators instead for emulators that are compatible to certain games.

BTW: I have noticed on the ZSNES main page (http://www.zsnes.com) is a "Compatibilty" tab where I would start looking. But the only game listed there is "Super Mario World". Seems that this list is not quite up to date.

Kega Fusion's actually far more accurate than Gens (esp. in the Yahama YM2612 department). Have you tried RetroArch? That has Snes9x built into it (a core anyway), but it may fare better as far as reducing tearing/choppiness is concerned.

[Omega]

@nintendo_nerd: No, I haven't tried RetroArch. But when I find the next game that doesn't work with ZSNES I'll maybe give it a try. Thanks for the recommendation.

@all: Has anyone played and beaten all the games in the "Kirby Super Star" compilation (aka "Kirby's Fun Pak") with ZSNES? According to the ZSNES 1.51 manual it uses the SA-1 special chip which is 90% supported.

[adventure_of_link]

@all: Has anyone played and beaten all the games in the "Kirby Super Star" compilation (aka "Kirby's Fun Pak") with ZSNES? According to the ZSNES 1.51 manual it uses the SA-1 special chip which is 90% supported.

It's been forever since I've played through this game, but I'd expect some SA-1 quirkiness.

like Gil said, just use snes9x or higan in that case.

+1.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Yeah, with your system I WOULD use ZSNES.

MOST games are entirely in the "good enough" category. I think they fixed the thing where SuperFX games run at double-speed. You've hit the big incompatibilities already.

Just don't count on ZSNES to produce exactly the results a real console will. Sometimes this is arguably good from a pure gameplay standpoint(you'll see a lot less slowdown than you would on a real SNES), other times it's just blatantly wrong(the spinning Triforce pieces in Zelda 3's boot screen come to mind).

[Omega]

Yes with ZSNES there are sometimes little quirks compared to the original system. For example in "Donkey Kong Country 3" the background messes up in a certain boss fight. Or in "Super Turrican" the 1UP voice sounds weird, in "Super Turrican II" are also some small sound issues.

But these little quirks don't bother me much. I can easily overlook them, and from what I've seen the core gameplay still feels absolutely intact. I think I simply should avoid the games that use SA-1 or SuperFX. Thankfully there's a list of them in the manual that comes with ZSNES. And even with these out of the way, there are still tons of games that interest me.

BTW: People, please stop recommending me other emulators. This is the ZSNES forum after all. Right?

[Gil_Hamilton]

BTW: People, please stop recommending me other emulators. This is the ZSNES forum after all. Right?

There's no great rivalry. Even the ZSNES devs will admit it's... sub-optimal... in it's current state.

[grinvader]

-_-

[Yuber]

Given how outdated your system is, avoid BSNES/higan at all costs. My CPU is over 2.5 times faster than yours and higan slows down quite a bit in accurate mode, and if "accurate" mode gives you slowdown, you might as well just use 9x. I don't know anything about the specific chip bugs and such in ZSNES but if you can find a way to run 9x 1.53 at full speed, I'd switch. ZSNES has a HUGE speed advantage, but 9x is MUCH more accurate, especially sound-wise. 9x's sound advantage is especially obvious when playing Square games like FF4-6 & CT. I've compared FF6 and CT's sound in 9x to my actual SNES, and it's nearly identical.

Maybe use 9x for the games that bug out in ZSNES and use ZSNES for everything else because it's so fast. If you decide to use 9x, I'll try to help you with the settings so it'll run at full speed. I have no idea if that's possible, but certain settings like enabling hi-res mode & blend hi-res images(among other things) slow 9x down considerably.

[Omega]

I think most people here get me wrong. My problem is not finding an emulator that plays every single SNES game. I know that there are dozens of emulators all around and I have no problems finding and configuring them.

Let me put it this way: I'm not excitet about specific SNES games that I want to play so badly. It's the ZSNES emulator itself that impresses me.

I mean ZSNES is the fastest SNES emulator conceivable. It is largely programmed in Assembler and I am very impressed how it runs on low-spec CPUs. And even though it is compatible to a vast amount of games. That's what I think is great and stands out!

I'm even thinking about getting more cheap low-spec computers from the Pentium II era and hook one up to my TV.

To make it even clearer: I want to focus on ZSNES, no matter what happens. And this is why I went to the ZSNES forum and asked for a list of compatible games. But that seems to be hopeless because everybody here is talking about other emulators instead.

[Gil_Hamilton]

Well, that was not made clear. And it's a serious case of cart before the horse, so I'm sure you can forgive us for assuming you actually just wanted to play SNES games and didn't know there's a better way.
We were all trying to help.

That said, I don't understand why you'd want to actively celebrate ZSNES as a platform.
It's like celebrating NESticle. It had it's time in the sun, but it's now wrinkly and dated and just holding people back. Except the NES community managed to convince people NESticle kinda sucked eventually.

[Omega]

...I'm sure you can forgive us for assuming you actually just wanted to play SNES games...

I do forgive you and I wish you nothing but happiness.

That said, I don't understand why you'd want to actively celebrate ZSNES as a platform.

I want it because it works on low-end computers which are not expensive anymore. So I can play SNES games on hardware that can be found for serious cheap, sometimes even for free (such as PentiumII/III 500Mhz, 64MB).

It's the same reason why some people use small Linux distros instead of Windows 7/8: You can grab any old ~1Ghz / 512MB computer, have a fast system with all important applications and be happy without paying much, if anything.

[paulguy]

You can probably find P4/low end C2D machines for like $50, probably even later ones if you look around. But I guess if you're going for that sub-$5 market, then I guess you're stuck with zsnes. :p

[Omega]

I don't think that I'm stuck with ZSNES. After all I haven't paid anything for it. I see it as a chance to experience some games that I otherwise never would and I am always pleasantly surprised how many apparently work well.

It does not annoy me that some titles don't work. If one doesn't work, chances are good another will. It would be nice though if I could find out in advance if a game works with ZSNES or not which brings me back to the Topic "List of compatible games".

[Gil_Hamilton]

There's no list because almost everything works. There may be one or two more games that don't work at all, but I think you've hit the big stumbling blocks.

Whether or not they'll work exactly the same as they would on a real system... that's another story. ZSNES is typically "close enough", but not really RIGHT.



Oh, also: Fuck Super R-Type. That's a TERRIBLE port of R-Type 2.
If you wanna get your irem on, then get R-Type III and never look back.

[grinvader]

Plug the force in reverse and never look back.

ftfy

[Gil_Hamilton]

Plug the force in reverse and never look back.

ftfy

With the 5-way splash laser, amirite?