The Guide to Taking Screenshots for Hardcore Gaming 101

WinUAE: Taking proper screenshots in this emulator is super complicated: In the configuration under Display, Line Mode should be set to Double, the Window enlarged to a reasonable size to include all of the image (about 720x568 should be enough). The centering options tend to do nothing, so there's always a large black border around the image. Screenshots are taken by going back to the GUI with F12 during play, selecting Output in the left menu and pressing "Save screenshot" under Ripper. "Take screenshot before filtering" has to be checked. The emulator uses a "/screenshots" folder to store the images.

FSUAE: Definitely the more user-friendly option. Pressing the Prt Sc key during play dumps three files on the Windows Desktop, with the prefixes fs-uae-crop, fs-uae-full and fs-uae-real, followed by a timestamp. fs-uae-crop is the screenshots that's usually good for HG101, but it's best to keep fs-uae-full stored just in case. The last one, fs-uae-real, can be safely discared. Usually the resulting screenshots may be resized to half the width/height (nearest neighbor, no resampling as always) but when in doubt just submit as is.

AppleWin: The lowermost icon to the righ opens the configuration window. Video Mode should be set to "Color (Standard)". Make sure "50% Scan lines" is disabled. Pressing Prt Sc dumps a screenshot in the folder from which the disk image was loaded. Usually the resulting screenshots may be resized to half the width/height (as always nearest neighbor, no resampling) but when in doubt just submit as is.

Stella: F12 dumps a screenshot on the Windows desktop. cropping the borders can be a bit trippy, but it is usually safe to reduce the size by 50% following the usual rules.

Atari800Win: Screenshots are saved by pressing F10 or selecting "View" -> "Save screenshot" -> "Normal" from the menu. This prompts a save file dialog where the file name and directory can be choosen freely. Screenshots ignore stretching. Some games use artifacting for special color effects, which can be set in "View" -> "Artifacting". It's not well documented which option gives the "correct" results, so some experimenting is necessary. If the game does not use special effects, please switch off artifacting.

nulldc: Set "Resolution:Native" in "Options" -> "PowerVR", do not use full screen mode and don't ever resize the window. Screenshots are taken by pressing F8 and saved in the nulldc directory using incrementing numbers with no distinction between games. Files are named as BMPs but actually PNGs. The images are stored as they appear in the emulator, including the GUI, which has to be cropped away without cutting off any pixel lines of the game screen. Many games may have more or less severe graphical errors, mostly in relation to polygon sorting. Experimenting with the PowerVR settings may fix some of them. Otherwise try to avoid screenshots in which noticeable graphical errors occur. Where this is not possible, please use another method (probably a capture card).

General: Many old articles only have the Game Boy screenshots in resized form. We don't do that anymore, so please always provide the screenshots in their original 160x144 pixels resolution.

Colors: The proper coloring for screenshots of the old monochrome Game Boy games is a contentious issue. The general guideline is: Use Super Game Boy mode (including the border) for games that provide a special Super Game Boy palette, and Game Boy Color mode for games with Game Boy Color support. For older titles that don't support either chose a monochrome palette of either green, yellow or grey hues. Look here and here for hints. When in doubt, stick to the emulator's defaults.

VisualBoyAdvance: Screenshots are taken with the F12 key and appear in the current rom's folder. Please be aware that the original emulator resets its counter each time it is started and overwrites screenshots from older sessions, so always make backups after shutting it off. The variant VisualBoyAdvance-M continues the counter, making things quite a bit easier to handle. Both variants ignore filters when taking screenshots. Color settings can be found in Options > Gameboy > Colors..., but don't use any of its alternative presets - they're all terrible.

Dolphin: Press F9 to take a screenshot. By default screenshots are dumped in the user documents folder, then "Dolphin Emulator" -> "ScreenShots". The screenshots are sorted per game in cryptically named folders.

Gens+: Screenshots are taken by pressing Shift and Backspace together, but careful: Backspace alone activates turbo mode, so it's easy to trigger that accidentally if Shift is not pressed first. Alternatively, screenshots can be taken by selecting "Graphics" -> "Screen Shot" from the menu. Filters are ignored for screenshots.

Fusion: Screenshots are taken by pressing Shift and F12 together or by selecting "File" -> "Take Screenshot" from the drop-down menu. Before taking any screenshots, it is absolutely necessary to go to "Options" -> "Set Config", select the tab "Extras" there and check "Raw" for output stage, or else the screenshots are saved in resized form, which is not acceptable.

DOSBox: The default key combination to capture screenshots is CRTL and F5, but pressing CRTL and F1 leads to a menu where all emulator hotkeys can be configured. Depending on the version and build of DOSBox used, it may be necessary to first create a subfolder called "capture" in the DOSBox directory. (Usually it is created automatically when capturing the first screenshot.

Fusion: Screenshots are taken by pressing Shift and F12 together or by selecting "File" -> "Take Screenshot" from the drop-down menu. Before taking any screenshots, it is absolutely necessary to go to "Options" -> "Set Config", select the tab "Extras" there and check "Raw" for output stage, or else the screenshots are saved in resized form, which is not acceptable.

MEKA: Screenshots are taken by pressing Prt Sc or by selecting "Video" -> "Screen Capture" -> "Screen Capture" from the drop-down menu. Make sure to uncheck "Include GUI" in the same menu before taking any screenshots..

FCE Ultra & FCEUX: Screenshots are taken by pressing F12, after which they can be found in the "snaps" subdirectory. The saved images always appear in native resolution disregarding of hardwarea filtering. The video options allow to set the drawing area for NTSC and PAL games. NTSC games are usually made with the assumption that the uppermost and lowermost 8 pixels each were outside of the screen boundaries, so those are often - but not always - filled with a single color, while European-developed games might have been intended for the full resolution. The NTSC area may be changed to the values of the PAL area for games that draw actualy content beyond the borders, but no other modifications are acceptable.

Nestopia: Screenshots are taken by pressing Alt+E and dumped in the emulator's "screenshots" subdirectory. In the video options, "Filter" absolutely has to be set to "Standard". Like FCE Ultra, Nestopia allows to set the boundaries for NTSC and PAL games separately, and the same rules apply here. Also please don't modify the color sliders.

VirtuaNES: The hotkey combination here is Ctrl+P, the folder called "snapshots". Like FCE Ultra, the screenshot function ignores filtering. The screenshots also always contain all 240 lines, even if the emulator is set to omit them in display.

Plugins: The latest version of Angrylion's plugin is recommended, especially because it displays 2D elements properly. Since this plugin runs very slowly, other plugins or capture card screenshots may be acceptable.

Ootake: Please make sure to turn off stretching for the screenshots. The options can be found by pressing escape, and then selecting "Capture", "Setting of Screenshot" and then "Size Non-Stretched (x1)". There is also an option to assign the screenshot function to whatever key, default is Prt Sc.

Plugins: For emulators that work with plugins, always use the P.E.Op.S. Soft Driver as graphics plugin. This dumps a complete copy of the graphics buffer in the screenshot directory, from which the screenshot has to be cut out manually. Please make sure to not accidentally cut away pixel lines. Some games may have double horizontal resolution. In these cases, do not resize the original screenshots, but only the thumbnails for display on the article page.

ePSXe: Pressing F8 dumps a screenshot in the "snap" subdirectory.

Xebra: Xebra does not have a built-in screenshot function, so screenshots can only be taken through external means like the system's clipboard function or screenshot tools. (Standard rules for sizes and cropping apply.)

General: Interlacing is a big issue when taking PlayStation 2 screenshots. Some games support 480p mode, consult this list for most of the better known titles that do so. The method to activate 480p differs from game to game; only few have a visible setting in the options menu. Often the Triangle and Cross buttons have to be kept pressed simultaneously upon startup, but sometimes there are also different combinations. When in doubt, refer to the game's manual. For games without progressive scan it may yield better results to take screenshots on original hardware with a capturing card. Some games allow a brief window of freezed frame before menus pop up upon pressing start or select, which can be an ideal moment for a interlace-free screenshot, unless the image is dimmed in the process. Otherwise, try to take screenshots when the camera is as static as possible.

PCSX2: Pressing F8 dumps a screenshot in the "snap" subdirectory.

SSF: Upon pressing F8, SSF drops screenshots in the snapshot subfolder. For most games the screenshots can be resized to half their size (once again, no resampling, nearest neighbor), but some games also use high resolution modes. When a game uses interlacing (which manifests in form of pixel lines that don't seem to match up in animation) you need to go to "Option" -> "Option" -> "Program 4" and check "Deinterlace (Very Slow)". It's just as slow as the label says, but indispensable to make these games look right. The emulator just dumps all screenshots together with incrementing numbers, so when dealing with several games the user has to keep the screenshots in order manually.

Snes9X: Screenshots are saved by pressing F12 or selecting "File" -> "Save Other" -> "Save Screenshot" from the menu. Filters and emulator messages are generally ignored.

ZSNES: Screenshots are saved by pressing F1 and selecting "Save snapshot". It's also possible to define a direct hotkey under "Misc" -> "Misc keys". The screenshot function usually ignores filters, but mind that emulator messages (after saving states, turning on/off sound channels or background layers, etc.) show up in the screenshots so make sure to get clean shots without any messages.

Dolphin: Press F9 to take a screenshot. By default screenshots are dumped in the user documents folder, then "Dolphin Emulator" -> "ScreenShots". The screenshots are sorted per game in cryptically named folders. It may be necessary to switch the emulator to 4:3 mode by choosing "Options" -> "Configure..." from the drop-down menu, then go to the "Wii" tab and selecting "4:3" under "Aspect Ration". However, what is the optimal setting may differ from game to game.

Direct Screen Grabs: There is currently no working Xbox emulator, so the only method to get pixel perfect screenshots is to install a softmod on the system and boot a debug bios with the Phoenix Boot Loader. After properly setting up an FTP connection to a PC, screenshots can be taken with XIG2. Due to a bug with the program, the output format needs to be set to BMP, and you might get an error message after every screenshot, but it should work nonetheless. Note that there is always a bit of lag between pressing the screenshot button and getting a response. It is not possible to take screenshots of any of the Sega Smilebit games, and some other titles may not work, too. Due to the amount of commitment this method requires, we also accept capture card screenshots for original Xbox games.