Emulation

Dolphin - absolutely banger of a gamecube/wii emulator. It has absolutely everything imaginable.

Dolphin has so much customization if needed, it even allows typing mathematical equations to alter analog stick sensitivity curve. My mind was absolutely blown when I found that out. Added some tiny tweaks to it to "round out" the curve a bit, as I felt like the small movements didn't really register as neatly as I would have hoped, and with small mathy-math-math input it was great. For the life of me I can't remember what the equation was, probably squareroot or squaring the analog input so it curved a bit. (EDIT: I did the equation for trigger, not analog stick, but option for the stick is still there)

Mesen is also quite dope for NES, at least the version I'm still using. I've understood the current version bundles nes and snes into same application? Either way, probably still pretty much top tier.

IMO, best features:

• integer scaling to big image, bilinear scaling back down to fit to screen. Less blur and pixels stay (visually) same size without distortion
• online play

ScummVM, not really an emulator per se, rathar an interpreter (afaik). Essentially it lets you play old (and some new) adventure games on modern systems. It does all adlib/midi/mt32 (with roms you need to source yourself) and graphics tricks. Unified settings and all my adventures in one places? Easily scummvm over actual retro-pc/mac/amiga/whatever.

PPSSPP: I initially installed it because my PSP Go was failing and corrupting my save files.

Dumping all the PSP files onto a pc and loading one save with PPSSPP, fixed all the saves. Then I put them back on the PSP to continue my Gran Turismo career while commuting on the train.

It was mind-boggling to me that the emulator could fix the original console. Of course, it also does all kinds of upscaling, double framerate, etc.

After this happened twice though, I replaced the PSP with a Steam Deck. Sadly, the large stick on the Deck has caused me some trouble with controlling the higher end cars. PSP has no analog triggers, so all the finesse is in the flick of the ministick. I should load up GT4 (PS2) on the Deck soon. And MGS 1 through 3. Am very happy playing GRID (2008) and Death Stranding for now though.

PS1 once you remove the texture distortion

As for consoles improved by emulation, PS Vita, although I'd argue it benefits from modding in general, with how much it can then run.

As for the OG being preferred, the 3DS and possibly the PS1. Both to me have a charm to their graphics that work better on the screens they were originally meant to run on.

I mean the first consoles I looked to emulate were consoles I used to play so PS1/2, PSP etc

I was never much of a Nintendo guy but Dolphin has been a gold standard of emulators for me. A lot of features I was begging to get on PCSX2 for years were already on Dolphin, mainly per-game configuration.

Classic 8 bit NES. Save state and upscaling are all great features everyone appreciates, but what I really hated was Nintendo's hard, square controller! Using a modern, soft rounded controller to replay my classic NES favs is just so much better. And yeah, save game state is a literal game changer, lol.

Dolphin makes me want to play GameCube games I didn't even knew existed, just because it makes everything more beautiful, smoother and as fast as the real thing.

Kega Fusion to this day feels as close as the original Mega Drive experience as I ever felt, plus I can easily change region and video output mode and play my games in the specific hardware setup they were imagined for (this is of course coming from a Mega Drive hardware specs nerd)

With Dolphin (Gamecube) you can play Prime Hack, a Metroid Prime mod with mouse and keyboard support, then you can also add HD upscaled textures and widescreen support. i loved playing Metroid Prime that way. With CEMU (Wii U) you can improve LOD and other texture settings which is nice, also play at mucb higher frame rates.