PS2 or GameCube: Which retro console emulates better?

PS2 or GameCube: Which retro console emulates better? If you're nostalgic for the sixth generation of consoles, which one is easier to emulate on a modern PC? It might be shocking to realize that the GameCube and PS2 are now considered vintage consoles, but these systems have been with us for a quarter of a century. In the time since their release, it's become easier to emulate their libraries on modern PCs. But which of the two machines provides better emulation? For GameCube fans, the current emulator to beat is Dolphin. And for gamers who grew up on Sony's massively successful console, PCSX2 is seen as the most accurate emulation program. The question of which one is superior is a little subjective, but we'll touch on that shortly. We also must discuss why GameCube titles are generally easier to emulate and whether using emulators is actually legal. Which console emulates better: PS2 or GameCube? To make this a little easier to break down, let's pit the best GameCube emulator against the PS2's finest. When it comes to providing the most accurate retro experiences, GameCube's Dolphin emulator is generally held in slightly higher regard than PCSX2. To be clear, both emulators have evolved to the point where they run a large amount of both consoles' libraries well on modern PCs and the best gaming laptops. According to OC3D as of 2023, Dolphin can emulate 97 percent of GameCube games, while PCSX2 can play 99 percent of PS2 titles. Both Dolphin and PCSX2 are free, open-source emulators that allow you to play GameCube and PS2 games respectively on Windows, macOS and Linux devices (Dolphin also runs on Android). The main differences between the two when running old games on modern hardware is that it's slightly easier to emulate titles on Dolphin than PCSX2, as Dolphin doesn't need quite as powerful a GPU as the PS2 emulator. Thankfully, neither program requires a top-tier video card like the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090. If you want to experience your favorite early 2000s titles on Dolphin at 4K/60 FPS, a graphics card like the RTX 2060 or AMD's Radeon RX 5600 XT will do you just fine. With PCSX2's somewhat more demanding hardware requirements, you'll give yourself more headroom with an something like an RTX 3060. Emulation requires more powerful hardware than the original systems due to the involved overhead, not to mention their graphical upscaling. While both emulators are pretty easy to set up, PS2 emulation is trickier owing to the awkward composition of the PlayStation 2's CPU. Sony's bespoke Emotion Engine was co-developed with Toshiba and built around parallel processing. Though this gave developers at the time a lot of flexibility, it also made the PS2 infamously tricky to program for. The fiddly nature of the Sony machine's CPU has made PS2 emulation a little more difficult than emulating games through Dolphin, as the GameCube uses a more straightforward IBM "Gekko" processor. So while it's close in overall emulation quality, the GameCube's Dolphin program just edges out PCSX2 due to its less demanding nature. Why is the GameCube so easy to emulate? There are a few major reasons why GameCube games are relatively easy to emulate (especially compared to PS2 titles). First, architecturally speaking, the GameCube is a less complicated piece of hardware than the PlayStation 2. One of the reasons Dolphin has become the go-to emulator for Nintendo's sixth-generation console is due to its developer-friendly Gekko CPU making game emulation reasonably straightforward. While the PS2's aforementioned Emotion Engine processor proved a nightmare for devs, the GameCube's simple makeup of that IBM PowerPC CPU and its ATI "Flipper" GPU has consistently made emulating games on modern hardware that use Direct3D or Vulkan a relative breeze. Another major factor contributing to the smoothness of GameCube emulation is that Dolphin has been around since 2003, and thus programmers have had a long time to improve it. It can sometimes take emulators years to materialize after a console hits the market (remember, the GameCube arrived in late 2001), but Dolphin didn't have this delay. PCSX2 is also a mature emulator, having released in 2002, but lacks some of Dolphin's smoothness due to the complexity differences we discussed. While it's not the only GameCube emulator around, Dolphin has rapidly improved over the years. It even supports Wii games since the two systems are so similar internally. The biggest boon for retro fans was when Dolphin became an open-source project back in 2008. Going open-source meant programmers from all over the world could develop fixes and enhancements for the software. With so many individuals helping Dolphin to evolve, enhancements like much higher internal resolutions, expanded controller support, the introduction of anisotropic filtering and a patch that lets emulated GameCube games run in 16:9 widescreen rather than 4:3 were quickly added. Though the software is easy to download, it is a pity that Dolphin didn't come to Steam despite its developers' best efforts. Are emulators technically illegal? Despite what Nintendo's lawyers would like you to believe, console emulators aren't illegal. Dig a little deeper though, and it's a smidge more complicated than that. While using emulators isn't against the law, the methods you use to get software to run on them definitely can be. If you own, say, a copy of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and you dump the game files onto your PC via a homebrewed GameCube, you're not breaking any laws. Of course, the easier option for many folks who haven't kept their old discs is to download retro game files from sites online. In the vast majority of countries, this is most definitely illegal. Even if you do own the original game but can't be bothered to dump the disc's contents onto your PC or laptop, you're still guilty of copyright infringement. To recap: using a console emulator is legally safe, but running downloaded game ROMs on one is illegal.