[blorgishtimtam]

I'd been reading NGEMU for years, then after the big interface change I stopped coming to give it some time to recover and compile a new archive of posts.

But it's been nearly a year now and it looks increasingly unlikely that the site will ever actually present new next-gen emulation information in an accessible and logical fashion; these blurbs on the side are mostly non-next gen, and since there doesn't appear to be any way to access them in a chronological list once they've been pushed down, how does it help me know what's going on?

For example, the last post about PCSX2 developments that I can access through NGEMu was posted in December '08!

So - are there any alternative sites that fill the gap that this website's degeneration has left? Specifically for next-gen systems, so I don't have to wade through a bunch of C64 / Spectrum ZX / MAME stuff.

Thanks!

 

[Princess Garnet]

The site changed (for the worse, in my opinion) to stand up to a (generic) requirement of the new owner/company. As you've already found out, the site won't be going forward with it's current status as "next generation emulation".

For PCSX2, you can always check PCSX2.net (they even pretty much abandoned the PCSX2 section here and started up their own forums during the times of the changes).

For all things up and coming, you're probably best checking the sites dedicated to them.

I don't have any recommendations for sites to go to for this, largely because there are none quite as major as this one (used to be). There are many other general emulation sites out there for sure, but I'm not sure of them. Someone else will drop the names to a few, I'm sure.

Otherwise, there is no more "real" all purpose next generation emulation site. NGemu has a large traffic and userbase, but it's original and unique offering are diminishing, and so long as this site just becomes something to adhere to the generic requirements it has been changed to, has no future of what it once was. News submissions don't come in from everyone like they used to, the main site itself is, for all intents of purposes, all but dead, and many projects and their teams have left. Other general purpose emulation sites would be wise to seriously take advantage of this increasing opening. Otherwise, there'll be no one gathering for emulation. You'll have to go to the various places to get that sort of stuff.

 

[Xtreme2damax]

There's various smaller sites, but Ngemu is currently the largest and most active..

Emutalk has been quite dead in the water for a while, seems the owner (Martin) sort of abandoned the site and is nowhere to be seen or at least not active. There is new posts every day, just nowhere as active as this community.

1emulation isn't too bad, but not as active as this forum.

Nearly every emulation forum besides Ngemu seems to be suffering a major inactivity crisis. It is mostly due to the fact that there is not any news of next generation emulation unless you count the Wii which is basically just remastered Gamecube hardware.

Needs some news for PS3 or Xbox360 emulation to get things active, but that is not likely to be heard of for a good while yet..

 

[Princess Garnet]

That's a good point too. The emulation scene itself isn't the same as it was, say, five years ago, like when the Playstation and Nintendo 64 emulation was going strong, developing, and progressing, and Playstation 2, Dreamcast, XBox, Gamecube, and handheld consoles were potential for the next new things.

 

[Cid Highwind]

It was to be expected and I kinda saw it coming a few years ago. With all the problems related to PS2 and Gamecube emulation already, it would be naive to think we'd see any emulation of the 360 and PS3 any time soon. As the Dreamcast has shown, emulation has moved from emulation of new systems on PC, to emulating old systems on consoles.

Sega and Nintendo have seen this as well, and have been releasing retro gaming packs for some time now. Microsoft and Sony have jumped in this trend by using their Live and PSN infrastructures nicely by offering old games with new painting. In the homebrew scene you see that there's a lively community in PSP homebrew and emulation, it's probably no different for the DS. Even the PS2 has several classical emulators, and don't get me started about the iPhone of course If you look how sites like DCEmu.co.uk have grown in the past 3 years I think it's clear the balance has shifted.

So what happens to sites like this? Well, you can do two things: Either you stick with your core competences and stay where your community is at, which is what happened here. Unfortunately we lost some big projects, like PCSX2. I don't dare to make an absolute statement about the reasons, as those are politics from a period where I wasn't part of staff.
Otherwise you can spread out and become a site like DCEmu. Truth be told, I've been a member there, but as soon as it went multiplatform the entire spirit of DCemulation left. It used to be a close community, but when the place got flooded with warez kids looking for free games, rather than being passionate about the concepts of emulation, I kinda gave up.

 

[SCHUMI_4EVER]

You may just want to check out Emulation News Submissions Section whilst it's not quite the same as checking out a propper mainpage it's still better than the current mainpage.

 

[Leiw]

I agree with Cid, and I think emulation of ps3 and xbox360 and generations onwards is not going to happen anyway. Wii is possible, but that's because it's an upgraded Gamecube.