Hi everyone. After building an HTPC for my living room, in my quest to put together the ultimate emulator setup I found all the frontends I tried to be deficient/frustrating in some way. So I put together a plan to build my own:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/triclover/gamesdale-the-next-gen-emulator-frontend
The text below is my pitch; let me know what you think of it. And hey, if you like it, spread the word.
For some time, actually playing emulators on your living room TV as the game developers intended required some sort of compromise: you either cobble together a complex DIY setup that works most of the time, get some all-in-one package that works well but only with the oldest systems, or pay for all your old games all over again to get the butchered re-release on a modern console.
Those days are over, says TriClover. Their new project "Gamesdale" is an emulator frontend promising a professional level of ease-of-use while still letting the user set up the individual emulators -- a necessity given that Gamesdale is targeted at the latest high-end emulators for systems like Wii and PS2, where frequent updates are still a great benefit to playability and compatibility of individual games. Letting you keep control over the emulators is also great for people tweaking their emulated games to look even better than the "hd remasters" of their games -- and still want to be able to show it off to their friends without having to give them a tutorial on how to use the system.
The Kickstarter is also very specific about its intended use on a "Home Theater PC" (HTPC) in the living room, explaining how it can be used entirely with a controller, but having the mouse and keyboard is needed to get into the setup, making it safe to let your little sibling play without the possiblity of them getting into the configuration and changing anything.
Unreal Engine 4 allows Gamesdale to be driven by either simple 2D menus like most frontends, or exist in a full 3D scene with adjustable camera and clips of each game playing on a realistic TV as you scroll through your ROM collection.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/triclover/gamesdale-the-next-gen-emulator-frontend
The text below is my pitch; let me know what you think of it. And hey, if you like it, spread the word.
For some time, actually playing emulators on your living room TV as the game developers intended required some sort of compromise: you either cobble together a complex DIY setup that works most of the time, get some all-in-one package that works well but only with the oldest systems, or pay for all your old games all over again to get the butchered re-release on a modern console.
Those days are over, says TriClover. Their new project "Gamesdale" is an emulator frontend promising a professional level of ease-of-use while still letting the user set up the individual emulators -- a necessity given that Gamesdale is targeted at the latest high-end emulators for systems like Wii and PS2, where frequent updates are still a great benefit to playability and compatibility of individual games. Letting you keep control over the emulators is also great for people tweaking their emulated games to look even better than the "hd remasters" of their games -- and still want to be able to show it off to their friends without having to give them a tutorial on how to use the system.
The Kickstarter is also very specific about its intended use on a "Home Theater PC" (HTPC) in the living room, explaining how it can be used entirely with a controller, but having the mouse and keyboard is needed to get into the setup, making it safe to let your little sibling play without the possiblity of them getting into the configuration and changing anything.
Unreal Engine 4 allows Gamesdale to be driven by either simple 2D menus like most frontends, or exist in a full 3D scene with adjustable camera and clips of each game playing on a realistic TV as you scroll through your ROM collection.