Talk:Main Page

Hardware emulation (e.g. FPGA) section

Many new interesting devices have been released recently, for instance MiST, RetroUSB AVS or Nt mini. I guess a new section would be really useful. Related links:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/242970-fpga-based-videogame-system/

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/262816-its-fun-to-play-on-the-f-p-g-a/

http://my-cool-projects.blogspot.com/2016/03/emulation-vs-fpga.html

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~sedwards/papers/edwards2009retrocomputing.pdf

https://youtube.com/watch?v=CVq_jzj_u8U

https://youtube.com/watch?v=uMwBxL5ZlGw

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lGSidnlOhd4

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sft7i6aNrYw

iOS and other platforms

There's no section for emulators that run on iOS, Blackberry, etc. I could fill that section in like the Android one, but just wondering if it's worthwhile or not.

do eet--Swarhog (talk) 15:15, 8 August 2014 (EDT)

Should we rename "mobile" on each of the system's pages to "android" since that seams to be what it is referring to and could confuse people with ios, windows phone, etc. 10 Feb 2015

You mean the table names on the main system's pages, like here? Because the Operating System(s) row lists what platform the emulator runs on. --SonofUgly (talk) 22:06, 10 February 2015 (EST)

That is correct also most mobile emulators are only developed for one os --Ember2528 (talk) 22:59, 10 February 2015 (EST)

I think listing the OS in the table is pretty clear, and the emulators listed aren't all just for Android (the majority are, but that's because most people here use Android and don't use iOS/WP8) so you'd have to remove information. I don't see how that would be beneficial. --SonofUgly (talk) 00:03, 11 February 2015 (EST)

Fair enough then, It will be left alone --Ember2528 (talk) 00:08, 11 February 2015 (EST)

Style

Could the admin change it to a nice simple darker style? It looks quite nice. It's the style of the old Wikia. - The Red Sniper.

Here's a darker style that I use: Userstyles. It's left default as a lot of people complained about the white on grey. --SonofUgly (talk) 17:54, 27 March 2014 (EDT)

Main Page Layout

Post what you want/don't want instead of changing it back and forth.

• Murrigan's change
• 3 Columns
• Other

Personally don't think it should have any fixed widths.
If you want to test something, make a new page like Main Page Test 1 or take a screenshot of the preview. --SonofUgly (talk) 17:15, 26 July 2014 (EDT)

All right then. I claim Main Page Test 1 as mine. Jackos (talk) 17:25, 26 July 2014 (EDT)

It's done. I guess. --Jackos (talk) 19:03, 26 July 2014 (EDT)

Might also want to add this one, which is basically the last one you listed with the unified headers I made for the first one (uncentered). Which admittedly doesn't look too bad, but I'll leave it up to others to decide. Murrigan (talk) 17:26, 26 July 2014 (EDT)

I like the unified header one as well, but maybe do something with that picture along the lines of http://i.imgur.com/sj0R8gw.png This was the first one that changed and it just doesn't look good on my monitor http://i.imgur.com/fFhlMcu.png Special

See, that's why fixed width is probably a good thing (admittedly I dun goof'd originally when I took that away on the original edit, of course); having it stretch to ANY width will make things look sparse. Murrigan (talk) 17:41, 26 July 2014 (EDT

A suggestion for Jackos / my 2 cents http://i.imgur.com/MU5VyUe.png Center the 'Welcome Intro' and move the threads to it's own little box, and anyway to remove all those individual 'Edit' links? -- Special

I removed the edit links. The problem I see is that more than two boxes won't work very well with lowres monitors. I know with mine it won't work. --Jackos (talk) 20:21, 26 July 2014 (EDT)

That's true about low resolutions, looks pretty much perfect now either way. -- Special

Seems like most are happy with Main Page Test 1 and we'll go with it. Does anyone have any objections to that? --SonofUgly (talk) 15:35, 27 July 2014 (EDT)

Seems fine to me. If we're going with this, is there any point keeping Template:News? It looks like it's not even being used on that page. If we do end up keeping it we could remove the title in it I guess. Murrigan (talk) 15:43, 27 July 2014 (EDT)

Keep the template. It'll be easier to edit if you guys wanna change something related to it, instead of searching through all the code already on the page. Even a template for the "Information" block would be good. --Jackos (talk) 15:48, 27 July 2014 (EDT)

Wouldn't it be better to replace that Russian news feed with something else like an EmuCR one? The Russian one is hardly up to date with current releases like PPSSPP 0.9.9 for example, may emuCR would be to spammy with all the dev builds? -- Special

EmuCR posts mostly for dev builds, so it'd be pretty cluttered. To be honest it's the best one I've seen at least (and this is a discussion that happened on the old Wikia). Murrigan (talk) 17:26, 27 July 2014 (EDT)

Assumption of "Computers" category?

There's a list under a "Computers" category. Perhaps this is known, but all video game consoles are computers. A 1978 calculator is a computer. The TVs that your parents watched when they were kids were computers(most likely). I think this is kind of differentiating people's ideas of what "computer" means, and is not a good way to describe "non-gaming purpose" computers.

This, I feel, further dumbs down the general populations' knowledge of technology by calling 'X' a computer, but then telling them their smartphone or such is a "phone, not a 'PC/computer!'"

Perhaps I should give some better replacements:

"Non-gaming computer emulators",

"Emulators for non-consoles",

"Old system emulators", or

"Emulators for non-game consoles".

What about "Personal Computers"? Most people think of desktop, multi-purpose computers when they hear this. --Swarhog (talk) 17:20, 28 July 2014 (EDT)

Seems pedantic. Sure consoles, calculators, phones, etc. are computers, but you place a phone, SNES, and personal computer/home computer/desktop PC/whatever next to each other and then ask someone to turn on the 'Computer', they're not gonna touch the phone or the SNES.
"Non-gaming computer emulators" - plenty of people gamed on their DOS computers. "Emulators for non-consoles" - even 'console' is fairly ambiguous when talking about something like the MSX or Commodore. "Old system emulators" - a SNES is an old system. "Emulators for non-game consoles" - see one and two.
They're computers.--SonofUgly (talk) 17:54, 28 July 2014 (EDT)

Ok ... how about "Other Emulators" then? A Nintendo Handheld can be just as much as a "personal computer" as an Amiga/Commodore 64 once was.

Or how about Computers/PCs, as that's what everyone calls them by? No one calls a GameBoy a personal computer. --SonofUgly (talk) 16:50, 30 July 2014 (EDT)

^ This. As the Wikipedia says "(...) The term "video game console" is used to distinguish a machine designed for consumers to use for playing video games on a separate television in contrast to arcade machines, handheld game consoles, or home computers."; Or my dictionary "games console: A small electronic device for playing computerized video games." --Jackos (talk) 17:44, 30 July 2014 (EDT)

I'm a bit disappointed to see that nobody is getting where I'm coming from. I am aware of what most people call them, but the terminology is what I propose that we go against and come up with a new way of describing these computers without making anything contrasting/different to them as "less of a computer" in the eyes of society. When someone says their smartphone is not a computer, that's someone ignorant to what a computer is (or what defines as a computer). When we further that agenda here we are just fueling that same mindset that's wrong. This is why I said let's come up with a way of categorizing these systems in a way that doesn't reflect negatively on the view of what constitutes a computer in the other categories. Just because "everyone says 'X' things are 'Y'" doesn't mean we should stray along with common beliefs. Just consider this: Is Playstation 3 a computer? Yep. It has a microprocessor, RAM, a GPU. Does your "PC" have a microprocessor, RAM, and a GPU? Yep. Based on the latter, we can confirm that Playstation 3 is no less a computer than your desktop build ... or Gameboy Color ... or Atari even (same fundamentals, just with very limited resources). Do you consider your PS3, Vita, etc. to be "personal"? If you do, it's technically a "personal computer". This is why I'm arguing semantics here where it counts. The "PC" has no real meaning/definition ... find me one that defines what exactly makes something a "PC" and what makes it not one. People often consider "anything sitting on their desk that runs Windows" to be a PC, even though plenty of us know that OS X is compiled for the exact same architecture, has drivers for the same GPUs, and has a platform almost identical to that Windows/Linux/etc. runs on. It's just a thought, of course.

I also found this: http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/what-term-personal-computer "General operation by a single user." That tells us that the way most people think of it is not historically correct. You can research what IBM considered "PC" to mean, and how that has evolved and misled millions of people now who think "PC" constitutes form factor or don't even know what the hell it means ... just that they know it means whatever the "smarter" person tells them it means. This is why I feel that terminology matters more than bullet-biting and just using the "common" (and also wrongly believed) terminology for it.

"Ma'am, I'm afraid your son has autism." --Swarhog

This is a small niche wiki for a niche hobby, we're not changing any societal definitions, or following an agenda one way or the other. "Computer" is used to clearly categorize emulators that everyone else refers to as computer emulators so they can quickly find what they're looking for, and know what the other systems under the category are for. --SonofUgly (talk) 15:38, 2 August 2014 (EDT)

^^This, also dat autism. :/ -- Special

All right, call me autistic. I guess tossing insults is what we've come down to here, so the intelligent discussion ends now.

TODO

There's still plenty to do if you're looking for something to edit.

• A lot of stuff needs updated (particularly RetroArch stuff, like using and building).
• There's probably a lot of spelling and grammar issues all over.
• The List of shaders and filters needs to be finished. Also, it's probably a good idea to retake all the images with a more standardizable image so it's easier for others to add to it.
• Some interesting page stubs that could be expanded: Decapping, Cheats and Patches, History of emulation, User Settings and Configs, Synchronization.
• Expanding on Emulators on Android, Mac, iOS, WP8, etc. Would be helpful.

And just in general, adding more info to pages that need it.

I'm also in the process of marking what pages should be removed based on whether they're actually useful or not, and marking which pages are stubs (as in, need adding to). I'll be removing the ones marked for deletion within a week, so feedback would be grateful if anyone happens to think they need to stay. Murrigan (talk) 13:36, 25 October 2014 (EDT)

Someone who knows anything about SG-1000 emulation should make a page about it. There is currently a broken redirect at SG-1000 that redirects to a non-existent page. Monroe88 (talk) 23:00, 25 August 2015 (EDT)

I don't know much about SG-1000 but I created SG-1000 emulators. It would be great if someone can expand it. 66.249.82.138 01:15, 22 October 2015 (EDT)

Hello. This wiki has lots of Special:UncategorizedPages and Special:UncategorizedCategories. I'm recently working to fix some of these but there are many pages remaining. Could someone please add categories to more pages? 66.249.82.252 11:59, 6 October 2015 (EDT)

Finally reduced the Special:UncategorizedCategories to just Category:Browse (The root category which cannot be categorized) and Special:UncategorizedPages to Captcha test (which is just a test/sandbox page) 66.249.82.133 00:21, 22 October 2015 (EDT)

Is the FAQ section getting crowded?

For example the 'CRT monitors' 'CRT TVs' pages can just go into the 'Display FAQ' page because this seems pretty redundant, and the 'PSP Eboots' page seems pretty pointless as is too, I would just put a section about converting PS1 games to Eboots in the 'Ripping Games' page since we have that already, the rest of the 'PSP Eboots' page are just download links so put those in 'ROM/ISO Sites' page. Just some ideas for cleaning up the FAQs section. --Special

Sounds good to me. A few of them (the CRT links in particular) are actually already detailed and otherwise linked in the Displays page, so those should be a fairly easy job. Murrigan (talk) 12:49, 1 December 2014 (EST)

Making a clean break with a new community:

I think 4chan's /vg/ is a bad place. We should start anew. 8Chan allows you to make your own boards. I've made an Emulation board on there for us:

http://8ch.net/emulation/res/1.html

--8KhanBaron (talk) 20:16, 27 April 2015 (EDT)

Nah. This is still the emugen wiki.

This thing will blow over eventually. Until then, learn to filter. --SonofUgly (talk) 20:20, 27 April 2015 (EDT)

It's not just the Rachel thing. EmuGen used to be one of the only Generals on /vg/ that was actually what it was supposed to do. Slow and on topic. Then came the drama, the flamewars, the trolls, just all sorts of bullshit. It's not ending. That's why I just want to make a clean break. Emulation is big enough for its own board. 8khan is a niche site now, but let's see if we can make it grow.

Part of the problems are the "General" format itself. It works like an IRC chat room. Tends to be clique-y, with the same people over and over again. Identities get known. People sit and troll and wait for

A true board is better. Each thread for an actual topic or question. I'm sick of 4chan and 4chan culture. I want to make imageboards how they are supposed to be. "Anonymous" names were used to avoid forum drama. But it's just being usd as an invitation to trolling and bullshit.--8KhanBaron (talk) 20:42, 27 April 2015 (EDT)

When an emugen was created on the first 8chan bubble it was the exact same thing, people bitching and starting drama over 4chan's emugen. If 8chan got popular and the emulation board took off, it'd be the same shit. It's just how a lot of people are in the emulation community.

And 8chan just isn't big enough, you might get a few people interested and posting for a day or two, but just like the emugen thread before, and the emugen board before, interest will quickly die off.

This is a wiki from and for 4chan; if you don't like 4chan, sorry, but I don't see it changing any time soon. --SonofUgly (talk) 21:01, 27 April 2015 (EDT)

The hot pockets have become very selective in their handling of off-topic posts. Trigger them too much and they might decide that /emugen/ is just too problematic for 2015 4chan. Just a thought. --Swarhog (talk) 21:45, 27 April 2015 (EDT)

Case-insensitive search

I think case-insensitive search should get implemented here. Considering that emulator names are often a bit of a mess of letters in different cases and sometimes spelling there isn't even standardized clearly, this is a necessary change. Maybe bug ITEM-3 about this if your permissions aren't high enough, this shouldn't hurt the Game Tech Wiki either.--NOptimus (talk)

reducing the size of games while keeping them instantly playable in their respective emulators

There's a good guide for this on leddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/3g933n/guide_reduce_the_size_of_your_ps2_gc_wii_x360_ds/

I think it needs to be copied to a new article here.

i think we let that fucking bullshit stay over there --YOU'RE MOM (talk) 19:04, 13 August 2015 (EDT)

Not that I'm saying it's not bullshit, but...why is it 'fucking bullshit'? It seems pretty okay to me, so is there some drawback to these approaches that makes it inappropriate for the wiki? (Which is my one go-to resource for emulation tips, by the way! I'd like to thank all the contributors.) --45.40.64.141 02:08, 14 August 2015 (EDT)

The guide neglects to mention very important things, but I don't see why an improved article wouldn't be appropriate here. Most importantly, the guide does not inform readers that some of the conversions are irreversible. Once a clean X360 .iso or DS rom gets trimmed following the instructions in the guide, it is irreversible. The data that is removed is garbage/padding data, and the game still works the same in emulators after conversion, but nonetheless it makes it an imperfect copy of the game. I have personally encountered downloads where important data such as music or video has been ripped out of the game to save space, so I understand that some are uncomfortable with removing any data at all, even if it is garbage/padding data; it is not archive-quality. The compression the guide mentions for gamecube, wii, and PS2 is perfectly reversible though. Don't know about the other systems. --Awry (talk) 01:46, 17 August 2015 (EDT)

I can understand the concerns for archival purposes, yeah. And I've encountered a few bad rips with missing video in my time, which is always annoying. Still, it seems like noting those things in the article would be enough, with those kinds of caveats and pitfalls being listed. --104.243.86.197 06:45, 17 August 2015 (EDT)

Category namespace issue

Category pages don't list all the articles they contain. For instance, FAQs category page lists 3 articles out of 48 the original wiki's category contained in April. --GeneralFailer (talk) 12:19, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

I've been working on fixing this but there are a lot of categories and articles that need looking at. Seems to be an issue from the backup import from when we moved from Gametech, you can fix it most of the time by doing a small edit (or even just hitting the edit button on a page and hitting save with no changes) -- Random Encounter (talk) 19:28, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Three-wiki problem

Now that Gametech is back up, what is going to happen to Miraheze? Is one wiki or the other going to be taken down? If not, you're going to end up with three separate wikis that all show up on Google. I realize there's nothing you can do about the old Wikia one but leaving both Gametech and Miraheze up is going to be a shit show. Also, did anyone get in touch with the Gametech admin and find out why the site went down with no notice at all? The Gametech admin's comments -- Random Encounter (talk) 23:37, 16 September 2016 (EDT)

NEC Handhelds

TurboExpress has no business being on the main page. It's as much of a new "system" as the Sega Nomad or the Game Boy Player is.

Spam surge from Indian cold-callers

I know I've messaged SonOfUgly about this, but I think this wiki should be more or less restricted for the time being, like, new accounts and/or IPs should undergo probation or are restricted from performing certain actions. That or a more robust CAPTCHA and an IP address blacklist as most of them spammers come from either India or some other proxy range. Banning the latter outright might be too much, but Wikipedia has done so due to so much proxy abuse anyway. Blakegripling ph (talk) 22:21, 8 September 2017 (EDT)

I'm thinking of something more tactful in theory. Think about how useful a phone number is to a hub relating to emulation and emulators; nobody's gonna be calling emu-devs for assistance... the open-source software often includes an anti-warranty bit saying creators are not obligated to help people if they have problems with the software. So why do we need phone numbers here anyways? Why not set up a bot or an extension that tracks this kind of activity, either revert if it's done on an existing page, or delete if it's the only revision, and then just block the IP or user indefinitely? Even if they create tons of sockpuppets or switch IP addresses, its of no advantage to them simply because the act of doing it would get them blocked. If there isn't something like that that currently exists elsewhere, then we may actually have a problem. Also, the captcha in place can easily be macro'd around since it only asks two questions. We really do need something more robust. FosterHaven (talk) 00:47, 9 September 2017 (EDT)

There is that, though the kicker here is they're obfuscating phone numbers using non-standard symbols similar to regular numbers. If I am not mistaken, Wikipedia has an edit filter in place that blocks the use of such symbols on articles unless the user is well-established. Math-based and basic Q&As aren't going to cut it either for fairly obvious reasons either. Blakegripling ph (talk) 03:59, 9 September 2017 (EDT)

I also notice some of the pages were simply created by IP addresses. What's stopping us from locking that for registered users only? Taking into account the pages that are already here, if we need any more, it should probably be limited to another role like autoconfirmed. I doubt the sockpuppet accounts use emails at all. FosterHaven (talk) 04:36, 9 September 2017 (EDT)

P.S.: There's a title blacklist over at the ZDoom wiki which you might want to check out. But if you ask me, preventing them from even stepping in to begin with is better. Blakegripling ph (talk) 04:16, 9 September 2017 (EDT)

That's interesting. Speaking of other wikis, I'm surprised they're only at this one and not the miraheze backup. Could this be something to do with search results? FosterHaven (talk) 04:36, 9 September 2017 (EDT)

Not sure, though dozens of other wikis are affected by this sudden surge of faux customer support lines. On a related note I've pranked one of them once and had quite a laugh at them cussing back at a Joe Pesci soundboard I used. :P Blakegripling ph (talk) 04:47, 9 September 2017 (EDT)

Question regarding unemulated systems

Now that the Switch has an emulator (here if you're unaware), do we keep the little dash next to it stating there's nothing usable yet or? I don't wanna go ahead and remove it since it's not a very usable emulator yet. F0rZ3r0 (talk) 08:21, 14 January 2018 (EST)

Leave it until it starts running games.--SonofUgly (talk) 17:24, 14 January 2018 (EST)

Roger dodger. F0rZ3r0 (talk) 18:46, 14 January 2018 (EST)

News Section - Adding another site.

It has been over 3 months since http://emu-russia.net/en/ has released any information on the news section of their website. While I get the feeling the page owner will make a return at some point, perhaps it might be a good idea to add other sources to our news section so as to keep the main page up to date.

Zophar's domain is an extensive emulation archival website that posts news daily. The layout of their news section seems to be similar in fashion to emu-russia.net and has been consistently updated for the past 10 years.

My question being, is it possible to join both headlines together on Emugen's main news section so that news from both sites can be shown side-by-side? Is this even a good idea?

BlueMoonRedSun (talk) 09:51, 18 April 2018 (EDT)

Page Blanking?

Are you allowed to break pages? --The man formerly known as LilShootDawg (talk) 14:55, 30 April 2018 (EDT)

Windows emulators (virtual machine!)

Please write about the virtual machine because this si basically a windows emulator Green Cappy (talk) 06:49, 23 August 2018 (EDT)

Which one? --The man formerly known as LilShootDawg (talk) 07:46, 23 August 2018 (EDT)

We do have this section on Windows 9x/ME emulators about hypervisors (which is what I assume you mean by "virtual machine"), and there's a dedicated page for QEMU... but I don't think it'd hurt to make a FAQ page. I'd leave that up to others though. -FosterHaven (talk) 09:35, 23 August 2018 (EDT)

I went ahead and made the page since Intel CPUs, among other problems, dropped all mention of virtualization when merging the DOS and Windows 9x pages. -FosterHaven (talk) 11:40, 15 December 2019 (CET)

Nice! Should I put this in the Not Really Emulators section on the main page? - Jpx (talk) 12:03, 15 December 2019 (CET)

I'm not sure. -FosterHaven (talk) 13:09, 15 December 2019 (CET)

Proton?

I can't see where Proton would go on the main page. --LilShootDawg (talk) 07:52, 19 September 2018 (EDT)

Compatibility layers/Game engine recreations section perhaps? Maybe also including source ports? I was thinking about making new content on these subjects. --Jpx (talk) 08:22, 19 September 2018 (EDT)

I don't see why source ports would be here because they're not really emulators. What do you mean by "Game engine recreations"? --LilShootDawg (talk) 09:02, 19 September 2018 (EDT)

Game engine recreations like ScummVM / ResidualVM (multi game engines in that case), and single game engines recreations such as: URDE (Metroid Prime), Open Tomb, CannonBall, etc. As for source ports they are used in the same way emulators and game engine recreations are used for: to play games on new systems they were not designed for. For me the biggest difference between a game engine recreation and a source port is that one is reverse engineered and the other one uses the original source code, such as: GZDoom --Jpx (talk) 07:19, 20 September 2018 (EDT)

Also where should Canoe and flog go? --LilShootDawg (talk) 09:58, 19 September 2018 (EDT)

New rule?

Can a new rule be that you can't be opinionated? Cause I was looking at the MAME compat page and this was under Model 2, "Development on this core has also been sabotaged by the fact that the only known working Model 2 emulator is closed source." (Now removed by me.) I also found the DS page saying that the DSM (desume) devs won't fix bugs in Pokemon games. (Now removed by me also.) --LilShootDawg (talk) 11:54, 3 October 2018 (EDT)

This is a site for INFORMATION, not your rants. --LilShootDawg (talk) 11:55, 3 October 2018 (EDT)

Source port

Is source port okay to be added in not really emulator section?

Assistance: Similar to Game Engine Recreations, already listed on main page.

Sure, even ScummVM is a source port for some games. One problem might be that there are like 50 source ports for some games like Doom. Might want to keep it to top three. --Jpx (talk) 14:11, 19 October 2018 (EDT)

Or just make a list. --LilShootDawg (talk) 08:28, 22 October 2018 (EDT)

I think we should...

...do away with putting accuracy before recommended. Some emulators are really accurate but hard to use. --LilShootDawg (talk) 13:54, 31 October 2018 (EDT)

PS1 ISO File Download Combine?

I hope someone can explain this to me.

I downloaded Crash Bandicoot from ROM Hustler and the files look like as in this picture.

What do I need to do to get them combined correctly? The site mentions something like that but I have no idea what to do.

I am using RetroArch and the Beetle PSX Core which is great but it does not recognize these files.

I have others that are fine though and work.

Please help! -FrankMirr1, 06:10 December 24, 2018.

Try the following command: path\to\retroarch.exe -L path\to\mednafen_psx_libretro.dll "path\to\Crash Bandicoot [U] [SCUS-94900].ccd". -[User:16-Cyo]. 10:36 December 24, 2018.

You have a CloneCD rip. The CloneCD format was most likely chosen because the game was printed with multiple CD tracks, not just a filesystem. However a lookup on Redump shows only one track, so that doesn't seem to be the case. If the img file is just a binary copy of the disc the same way a bin file is when paired with a cue sheet, then one thing you could try is renaming the .img file to .iso and then loading it through RetroArch. If that doesn't work, you will need to convert it to a bin/cue pair using a program like ccd2cue. -FosterHaven (talk) 15:36, 24 December 2018 (EST)

Release dates for systems lists

LilShootDawg, why did you remove the release dates for all listed systems in the first section on the main page? They're hidden so viewers can't see them normally and it helps the editors to accurately sort each type of systems' list by release dates/years. That was how it's been done for many years. What is your purpose? Something big like that should be discussed first with many other members. ObiKKa (talk) 13:26, 11 January 2019 (EST)

With the new articles, it doesn't work. You can't do that with Apple ][ Line, apple III line, 86/286/386/486/P/P2, and all computer models. --LilShootDawg (talk) 14:09, 11 January 2019 (EST)

Excessive page-naming vandalism from User:IMFROMDALLASYALL

It's been a while since I visited this Wiki but I'm suddenly finding so many articles renamed inappropriately by User:IMFROMDALLASYALL (I think they finally stopped unless if it was already taken care of). They even attacked my user profile. I fixed as many articles as I could but because of an automated bot deleting pages, I can't find a way to recover those old pages that had old information. Why is this Wiki suddenly being attacked? EDIT: Thank goodness they are blocked from editing. EDIT (January 28, 2019, 15:39 EST): Nevermind, they are at it again under a different username and IP. --NejiHyuga900 (talk) 17:09, 27 January 2019 (EST)

Can we please add a detailed "Super Game Boy" emulation page to help clear some confusion.

The confusing part I don't understand and never seems explained in detail on the emulator faqs - I have "sgb enhanced roms" and they work as they should. But any original gb game played in a real sgb will get the added special color palette when played on a Super Game Boy, so when these emulators say they can play "super game boy games" it is only the "sgb enhanced roms" they can play, and they never add the special color palette to normal gb roms. (Only maybe higan can do this correctly?) I think this should be explained in better detail on Game Boy emulator faqs, or the emulation wikia.

Please and thanks for any information.

Cause the SGB is a GB. Just with some games using the enhanced power of the SNES. And not all Gameboy games are made for the SGB. Only SGB enhanced games like Xbox One X enhanced games. --LilShootDawg (talk) 18:29, 1 February 2019 (EST)

Need to add a new topic: ROM Codes

This is something that I have to do while organizing my archives, but I need to have a page exclusively for ROM Codes. Specifically the codes at the end of a game's name where it can tell me what version I'm looking at, at a glance. I have to go to 3 different sites to get a semi-complete list and I still get odd Codes like "RPG 0" that I don't exactly know what it means. From a random forum I can't find now, it means a hardware revision of an NES cartridge. I still can't find a good definition to it since search results are buried under various ROM sites. They're all derived from the GOODxxxx project, but I can't find the site at the moment. If someone can create a page specifically for ROM codes, this would be a godsend in organization abilities and to parse good ROMs from bad.

We have a page on GoodTools. -FosterHaven (talk) 19:25, 16 August 2019 (EDT)

Thank you. I didn't see it on the Front Page and some of the codes didn't come up in a search. ~~

List of -game console here- pages.

What is the point of these? They don't have anything to do with emulation except them being playing because of emulation. I suggest these be removed --LilShootDawg (talk) 13:22, 28 August 2019 (EDT)

I agree, while it is interesting to know which games are exclusive to that console, it list way too many games that it's not even worth deciphering and there's no good place to link it anywhere else. The information can be useful for some users, just not useful for this wiki specfically - Skylark (talk) 16:48, 28 August 2019 (EDT)

Hello,

I'm currently on the process of redoing every list with more accurate data, as I'm now scraping it from MobyGames with an automated script, and them making them in tables properly. Feel free to discuss what you think, and I might come in terms to agree to get thoses lists removed. But my goal is also to provide a list of exclusive games or console exclusives, that are otherwise harder to be played as they require the original hardware, so emulation can be a good tool in those situations, as well because games that never got a PC port can receive better treatment such as resolution increase and better framerates, through emulation. Midas (talk) 23:54, 28 August 2019 (EDT)

Aren't there already a list of console exclusive games on Wikipedia? --LilShootDawg (talk) 13:32, 30 August 2019 (EDT)

The one from Wikipedia isn't as "objective" and only presents full exclusives, not "Console-only" third-party games, as in, games that are multi-platform and present on consoles, but not on PC. This is important as many games don't have PC ports and the only way to play them outside of the consoles is emulation. Also, I added an extra column for compatibility description on emulators to get the initiative closer to being on-topic to Emulation.

-- Midas (talk) 12:37, 31 August 2019 (EDT)

What I see a good idea for this is a compatibility list, like in MAME compatibility list or Nemulator. -- 16-Cyo 29 August 2019

Feel free to add that to the table. I'm making another one for Xbox 360 right now, I will edit/add it later. Midas (talk) 14:01, 29 August 2019 (EDT)

Sharp X1

There is now a page on the Sharp X1; could someone link to it at the front page? rariteh (talk) 16:48, 14 November 2019 (EST)

Sure. Oh I didn't know it still was in view source mode. --LilShootDawg (talk) 17:01, 14 November 2019 (EST)

Reporting emulator updates

How do I sumbit emulator update notices to the newsroll on the main page? Sorry if the question is stupid, but I can’t figure how to do it rariteh (talk) 03:26, 18 December 2019 (CET)

You edit the Template:News page. Read the comments, only 10 emulators under ==News==, so you have to move the 11th down to the previous month. / Jpx (talk) 06:53, 18 December 2019 (CET)

Oh. I’m afraid I don’t have the permission to do that. There’s a View source button where Edit should be. Thanks anyways! − rariteh (talk) 20:14, 18 December 2019 (CET)

I believe you have to wait a few days from creating an account and also make some edits (10+) before being added to the autoconfirmed usergroup / Jpx (talk) 10:18, 21 December 2019 (CET)

Main page request

Long term contributor here.

As I can't edit the main page anymore, can someone who does add DSi as a separate page? I previously did the same for e-Reader because including that information in the main GBA page would bloat it too much. Dipswitch (talk) 22:38, 23 December 2019 (CET)

Thanks, went ahead at changed it. And I've relaxed the protection so autoconfirmed users can edit the main page again.

Rename PC and Mobile in tables?

Should we rename PC and Mobile in the emulator tables to something like x86 and ARM? Since ARM builds might also be for Raspberry Pi, other SBCs, Linux ARM phones, tablets, ARM laptops, etc. / Jpx (talk) 12:11, 25 December 2019 (CET)

I think PC / x86 and Mobile / ARM would be good for now until something like what FosterHaven suggested happens. Just x86/ARM will confuse some people. -SonofUgly (talk) 06:06, 27 December 2019 (CET)

Platform listing needs an overhaul in general. What I'd like to do is list platforms via icons instead of text, since it's more compact and arguably just as identifiable. That way we can work the logos of each icon into emulator articles with download links. For example, the Windows logo for Windows, Tux's head for Linux, the Apple logo for macOS. The column would be the same but we could probably put Android and iOS in the same rows since it won't take up as much space. Some projects already use a similar approach; RetroArch's download page uses logos for each platform along with their names, and the Official Minecraft wiki uses this in their infoboxes for each version of the game. I'd also like to keep the icons as a uniform color (like black), but that might cause problems with custom dark themes that work via CSS. -FosterHaven (talk) 21:08, 25 December 2019 (CET)

Only thing about this is I think the icons should be pretty small so it doesn't increase the table's size too much, x20px wouldn't change the table at all but that's probably too small, maybe x32px would be good instead. Also it should be up to the theme makers to account for changing icons to fit their themes (and small things like that are can be added as base64 strings right into the css). Although I'm not sure a single colored icon that small will be identifiable enough (there's more than 20 platforms listed, plus just distinguishing different Windows version's logos, or Xbox/360/One logos), more colors would definitely help in that regard. -SonofUgly (talk) 06:06, 27 December 2019 (CET)

I guess that concern's overblown. The only thing stopping this from happening though is having to upload all the logos, and the effort required to rework every console article accordingly. Almost every Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS icon we'd need is already in one place. And when I say "we can work the logos of each icon into emulator articles with download links" I can think of at least three different approaches;

1. A conventional list.

Downloads

• Official Release (Stable, Nightly)
• Unofficial Builds (Compiled by John Smith)
• Unofficial Builds

2. A horizontal table where the icons sit on top.

Downloads

Official Release Stable, Nightly		Unofficial Builds Compiled by John Smith	Unofficial Builds

3. A list-like table.

Downloads

	Official Release Stable, Nightly
	Unofficial Builds Compiled by John Smith
	Unofficial Builds

I don't want to choose a design before anyone else though, so I'll wait for feedback. -FosterHaven (talk) 12:04, 27 December 2019 (CET)

Either 2 or 3 look good to me. And here's an attempt at some icons img zip -SonofUgly (talk) 18:37, 27 December 2019 (CET)

We can use almost all the color ones except for maybe macOS, iOS, and short Linux. The text in the macOS icon might be too small to read at 32px and lower; maybe the typeface or the finder would be good alternatives. The black iOS logo has aliasing issues; I converted this SVG to a PNG and it seems to work much better at 64px. Should I just start uploading what I think works? -FosterHaven (talk) 20:31, 27 December 2019 (CET)

Yeah go for it. And using the apple for mac should be fine too, Steam and RetroArch do that. -SonofUgly (talk) 21:23, 27 December 2019 (CET)

I think the 2nd option looks best. The Android icon is a bit hard on the eyes, maybe a black one would be better? https://image.flaticon.com/icons/svg/61/61120.svg - Jpx (talk) 07:20, 28 December 2019 (CET)

I'll see if I can implement the horizontal tables later, but I reuploaded the Android icon. -FosterHaven (talk) 20:43, 28 December 2019 (CET)

Emulators

Name	Platform(s)	Latest Version	Active	Recommended
Mesen		2.0.0 (preview)	✓	✓
Nestopia		1.52.1	✓	✓
puNES		0.111	✓	✓
Nintendulator		0.985 Beta	✓	✗

So like this? -FosterHaven (talk) 22:24, 27 December 2019 (CET)

That works for me. If you want to, a template would make it easier to edit, something like {{Icons|Small(or big for downloads)|Windows|Linux|Mac}}. -SonofUgly (talk) 23:16, 27 December 2019 (CET)

Done. -FosterHaven (talk) 20:43, 28 December 2019 (CET)

Looks great. How should we deal with recommended, keep it all in one list, or separate (for PC, mobile, etc) like today? I was thinking if it was possible to make a list that only shows recommended by user choice. Standard is Windows and you have to click a link for Linux, Android, Raspberry Pi, etc.

Good point, and sometimes the versions between desktop and mobile are different too. Not quite sure how your suggestion would work, like this (but have the one selected highlighted/the others faded):

Recommended

a toggle in the recommended box (or a new column on top with all systems) that changes the column's content? Or just clicking the icons in operating systems to change just that row? I think that'd be pretty complicated to make/maintain, and not immediately obvious to users. Either having separate sections like we have now, or using rowspan like this would be best IMO:

Name	Operating System(s)	Version	Plugins	Open-Source	Libretro Core	RIR	Accuracy	Active	Recommended
XEBRA		22/11/06	✗	✗	✗	✗	High	✓	✓
		05/01/2018							✗

-SonofUgly (talk) 19:14, 28 December 2019 (CET)

"I think that'd be pretty complicated to make/maintain, and not immediately obvious to users." Basically this. We also have nothing in place to facilitate filtering via the icons. That would probably require either a custom MediaWiki extension or custom JavaScript, and I know nothing about implementing either of those.

"Either having separate sections like we have now, or using rowspan like this would be best IMO:" I tested it with a sortable table and it automatically splits the cells when any sorting is applied so, if rowspan is ideal, I have no problem implementing it; we'd probably need to put an indicator in the rows that are affected in case it gets confusing, for example:

|rowspan="2"|[[XEBRA]]
|{{Icon|Windows}}
...
|rowspan="2" {{✓}}
|{{✓}}
|- <!-- XEBRA -->
|{{Icon|Android}}
|[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dokutajigokusai.xebra 05/01/2018]

-FosterHaven (talk) 20:43, 28 December 2019 (CET)

Alright here's the full PS1 table PlayStation emulators/Test done both ways. Looking at it I actually like the old way with sections more, it looks more organized and easier to find what you're looking for. -SonofUgly (talk) 00:43, 29 December 2019 (CET)

Agreed, it seems the icons help the first one more than they do the second. Here's the download section on MAME done all three ways I suggested above. -FosterHaven (talk) 03:24, 29 December 2019 (CET)

I think 3 is the best, although using the big icons for single platform links. It doesn't look great there because MAME has so many downloads and there'll be a lot of dead space, but most emulators only have 1 or 2 links. -SonofUgly (talk) 04:19, 29 December 2019 (CET)

How about now? -FosterHaven (talk) 05:15, 8 January 2020 (CET)

Yeah, that looks best IMO. -SonofUgly (talk) 07:14, 8 January 2020 (CET)

Is it possible to make the icons link to a specific page instead of imagefile? I'm thinking either to downloading the emulator or to the Emulators for your os page. Jpx (talk) 07:33, 8 January 2020 (CET)

It's in MediaWiki's documentation here. The two options have their own pros and cons.

• Linking the images to a download page is more work and it means we'd have to add new parameters (something like dl1, dl2, etc.) that get passed to File so that it can add in the links. But it would be (arguably) more intuitive.
• Linking to an "Emulators for (platform)" page would be great if we had pages to link to, but it's easier to implement than download links. There is no unified Emulation on Linux page, or even an Emulation on Windows page, so the closest thing we have is the categories, i.e. Category:Linux emulation software. Not sure how well that would work though.

Again, I'm unsure where I stand on either. -FosterHaven (talk) 12:42, 8 January 2020 (CET)

The first option would mean more stuff to edit when the download link for an emulator changes, or a much more complex template. So I went with the second option for now. Although maybe making the icons linkless would be better, most of them already are as there's no pages for them, it at least would make it clear that it's not a download button. -SonofUgly (talk) 21:10, 8 January 2020 (CET)

I think I agree that linkless would be best for now. -Jpx (talk) 07:47, 9 January 2020 (CET)

Date format

The usage of calendar dates is different all over. Should we decide on using one format? Personally i prefere a chronological order, like YYYY-MM-DD or DD-MM-YYYY. -Jpx (talk) 07:47, 9 January 2020 (CET)

It looks like the only big discrepancy is between when the date is written out in a sentence (Month DD, YYYY) and when it's used as a data point/in a table (typically YYYY/MM/DD). Month DD, YYYY does read better mid-sentence IMO so I don't really mind that, but if you want to change it to YYYY, Month DD that's fine too, don't really care either way. Though I think anytime the date is not written out, like in a table or w/e it should always be YYYY/MM/DD, and not DD/MM/YYYY or MM/DD/YYYY as it can be unclear which is which. -SonofUgly (talk) 20:06, 13 January 2020 (UTC)

Clutter

It's possible that some sections on this talk page are never going to be discussed. Should we move them to another page or just clear them out entirely? -FosterHaven (talk) 06:14, 27 January 2020 (UTC)

I think we should move them to a history page -Jpx (talk) 06:29, 27 January 2020 (UTC)