It's generally recommended to have more than one emulator as some games work better in certain emulators, and some don't work at all.
bsnes and snes9x are really popular, and I actually don't know of any other really.
There's a lot of emulators out there, but snes9x is a popular choice. (ZSNES is a pretty bad emulator, not to mention outdated, and only recommended as a joke.)
I actually do recommend ZSNES unironically. I'm just not a friend of input lag. Of course ZSNES has some, too, but it has the least amount of all the SNES emulators currently out there when running in exclusive fullscreen mode. I just can't take BSNES seriously as an emulator for anything non-development related as long as its input lag is so bad that it basically makes SMW hacks unplayable.
Of course if compatbility is a concern (which for at least a low number of SMW hacks is definitely the case), then Snes9x is a good compromise and BSNES will basically play anything. If you can afford it, though, I recommend going with an sd2snes flash card. It's a somewhat pricey investment, but only a single one. After that you can play hacks on a real SNES with the minimum amount of input lag possible. Unfrotunately not all hacks hosted here are actually hardware-compatible, and a majority of them will probably stay that way because hardware-compatibility just isn't something that could reasonably be enforced as a rule. Additionally, SA-1 support has become a thing with SMW hacks, and the sd2snes currently doesn't support this (though supposedly it's actually getting there, so maybe there'll be a point in the future where we can actually play SA-1 ROMs on our sd2snes cards).
TL;DR: Yeah, Snes9x is probably the best for you, but if you hate input lag like me, don't let people scare you away from ZSNES, because while it has compatibility flaws and vulnerabilities that could very theoretically be exploited, we currenlt just don't have anything better in terms of input lag.
I actually do recommend ZSNES unironically. I'm just not a friend of input lag. Of course ZSNES has some, too, but it has the least amount of all the SNES emulators currently out there when running in exclusive fullscreen mode. I just can't take BSNES seriously as an emulator for anything non-development related as long as its input lag is so bad that it basically makes SMW hacks unplayable.
Of course if compatbility is a concern (which for at least a low number of SMW hacks is definitely the case), then Snes9x is a good compromise and BSNES will basically play anything. If you can afford it, though, I recommend going with an sd2snes flash card. It's a somewhat pricey investment, but only a single one. After that you can play hacks on a real SNES with the minimum amount of input lag possible. Unfrotunately not all hacks hosted here are actually hardware-compatible, and a majority of them will probably stay that way because hardware-compatibility just isn't something that could reasonably be enforced as a rule. Additionally, SA-1 support has become a thing with SMW hacks, and the sd2snes currently doesn't support this (though supposedly it's actually getting there, so maybe there'll be a point in the future where we can actually play SA-1 ROMs on our sd2snes cards).
TL;DR: Yeah, Snes9x is probably the best for you, but if you hate input lag like me, don't let people scare you away from ZSNES, because while it has compatibility flaws and vulnerabilities that could very theoretically be exploited, we currenlt just don't have anything better in terms of input lag.
Input lag shouldn't be much of a problem unless someone is playing really difficult hacks.
ZSNES' poor audio emulation gives me horrible OCD, that's why I use either Snes9x or ZMZ.
Well, that's debateable. I'd agree that it's probably possible to get used to it, but I'd say you feel the impact of at least BSNES lag in any SMW hack of at least a medium difficulty. "Unplayable" may be exaggerated from me, but the amount of frustration I've had thanks to fast one-block jumps not working out because of late input is definitely high. It's the main reason I made an input buffering patch for SMW. I personally wouldn't play any real time game in BSNES unless it was for some development or documentation purposes, but that's just me. Everyone experiences these things differently, and I assume people who use SNES emulators a lot and play few other games in comparison probably don't even realise the input lag too much.
Snes9x is good although when I play old hacks music glitches and that's not fun. Zsnes doesn't have that problem.
That's why you should get two emulators. One accurate, and then get Zsnes as a back up. For me, I normally use Snes9X, and then Zsnes for old, outdated hacks. Zsnes is outdated, inaccurate, and buggy, but it used to be standard. So, when people started running ROM hacks on normal hardware, they realized that some of the tools they were using, especially music insertion tools, would result in a broken mess. As a result, people switched to newer emulators, which wouldn't support these old things, and had to change the tools and stuff they use.
Moral of the story? Test your hacks in an accurate emulator, like BSnes or Snes9x. Play the hacks of others in an accurate emulator, and only use Zsnes if it doesn't work.
As a sidenote, BSnes lags a ton for me, so I use Snes9x instead. I don't know if it's just my computer, or if it's a problem a lot of people have.
MarioFanGamer SMW ASM Moderator Invincible Mario
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As a sidenote, BSnes lags a ton for me, so I use Snes9x instead. I don't know if it's just my computer, or if it's a problem a lot of people have.
BSNES is pretty accurate but accuracy requires lots of power (byuu once mentioned that good SNES emulation requires a 3GHz CPU). BSNES's code also is very readable but a readable code doesn't mean a fast code which is reason no. 2 why BSNES requires a strong computer.
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DoubleDenial Shelless Green Koopa
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BSNES is pretty accurate but accuracy requires lots of power (byuu once mentioned that good SNES emulation requires a 3GHz CPU). BSNES's code also is very readable but a readable code doesn't mean a fast code which is reason no. 2 why BSNES requires a strong computer.
I guess that makes it both then. Whatever, Snes9X gets the job done for me.
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