Hey all. I am currently working on a project to build my own Arcade Machine and was wondering what peoples opinions are of the best Emulators out there. I plan on having the Arcade Machine handle as many different system as I can get running on it, and I will be designing a custom frontend for loading various emulators, so I want to make sure all the ones I am running are the best ones available.

I have been messing around with various emulators for different systems, but it takes awhile to thoroughly test each one and as soon as I think I have found the perfect one, the sound is off in a game or it has various other graphic anomalies.

What emulators do you guys use for different systems? I have been so tied up lately in the design and planning of the Arcade Machine that I have not been able to square away the emulator side of the system yet. I appreciate any feedback or suggestions you may have for this project.

CPS1: See below, or Callus (No joke)
CPS2: FBA Shuffle or MAME
CPS3: CPS3Emulator or MAME
Neo-Geo: FBA Shuffle, Kawaks or MAME
Model2: M2Emulator (ther isn't much of a choice unless your base system is a beast and can handle MAME doing 3D like eating popcorn)
All PSX-based games: ZiNc
All the rest: MAME (or Raine)

Substitute FBA Shuffle with FBA if you feel like it.
Substitute MAME with Raine if you feel like it (although Raine emulates fewer games). Also take note that newer MAME builds have higher system requirements.

Thanks for the recommendations.

I am much more familiar with standard console emulators than Arcade Emulators, so I’m glad to get some good advice on which ones would work best for a home arcade machine.

I have added the ones you mentioned to my notes. My system specs are not incredibly high on this first system. Mainly because I am working on a budget but also because I am trying to build a smaller profile system.

Motherboard - INTEL BLKD945GCLF MITX ATOM CPU
Memory - Crucial Technology 1GB DDR2 PC2-6400 240
Video Card - EVGA e-Geforce 6200 PCI Graphics Card
Hard Drive - Western Digital 5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200 RPM 16MB
Power Supply - AGI 350W P4 Power Supply W/2 SATA Connection
Operating System - Windows XP Home OEM SP3
Montor - ACER V173B 17″ LCD Monitor

I figured this was a pretty decent setup for my first DIY Arcade System. After researching it more and checking out some of the other projects people have done, I already have ideas for other systems I would like to build in the future and I will probably create a more heavy duty hardware setup down the road.

Well, if you want consoles:

Genesis/MegaCD/GG/32x: Kega Fusion, no contest. IMO anyway.
SNES: ZSNES, Snes9x, or bsnes (ZSNES has quite a few issues but plays most games just fine. - Star Ocean being one exception, and all SA-1 games the rest; don't bother using bsnes for special chip game, use Snes9x instead).
NES: Nestopia, no contest. IMO again, but some people prefer FCE Ultra
Saturn: SSF (but requires a really fast system to run smooth)
Dreamcast: nullDC or Demul (you get arcade NAOMi in the same package - requirements depend on the game, but a fairly fast system is needed).
GBA: VBA-M, no contenst.
Gameboy: kiGB
NDS: No$Gba or iDeaS. Latest No$gba preferred (2.6a)
Wonderswan: Oswan
Neo-Geo Pocket: NeoPop (old as hell, but the only one good enough)
GP32: GeePee32

I'd like to know how those emulators hold up on the atom platform. I've seriously considered it for a project like this, since you can get the parts together on the cheap and it uses so little power compared to a full blown computer, especially my old one...which is kind of a space heater.