Go to https://retroachievements.org/ for emulator. Check out games total players or https://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/ for inspiration and dont hesitate to play long time classics for selected consoles, handhelds.

A gaming sub free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it’s price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don’t meet the system requirements, or just haven’t had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
No memes please.
DRM reimplemented with extra steps, when even commercial emulated releases are DRM-free near 100% of the time. Did we get so far, only to lose it again? And if achievements are for bragging rights, the user could just take a screenshot and post to social medias.
Alas, I wonder if there are lists of emulatable games with in-game achievements too. And though those may be rarer before the PS2 if not going for romhacks, such mods for achievements may a potential niche to explore too.
Nah, its not for bragging or like that. I personally find the achievements cool, its just nice. I think this has something to do with collecting and finding and doing extra challenges you didn’t care much before. But not at that cost. The games itself stay DRM free to be honest, its just the achievement would not be validated at runtime. I think its more of a thing they don’t know how to do it right and have no time for (and no personal interest from devs), not with the intention to DRM the games for any customer.
While I rant, I also come down to earth (like now) and have an understanding and defend them (lol multiple personalities…). Realizing ingame achievements would be even more complicated and you would play a game that is not the same anymore. And the experience and integration into the system UI wouldn’t be the same too. So I do not think that Romhacks is the correct answer. They either find a way to do it like Steam does, or they give us a way to download achievement sets and use it offline without any account in our favorite emulators (off course the emulators would need to be adapted to the “new” system too). It’s just unfortunate, because I really really liked achievements. That’s why it’s bitter.
As for any games with ingame achievements, I would love to have such a list. Good idea, need to start collect it now. :-)
About being for bragging rights, sorry, didn’t mean you. Rather, to me it seems to be the common mentality, even if not usually worded like that. And for DRM, I consider as being as such because the player doesn’t control the content, even if it’s just a part of the whole package or a mod.
About integration of in-game achievements, solutions I see are usually lists or the sort in menu entries (e.g. Dust: An Elysian’s Tail where achievements are an entry in the start menu), or the addition of an extra area that doesn’t break the style of the game (e.g. FFVI T-Edition where the trophy room is added to the tutorial building). Also some in-game achievement screens can look rather nice, like (imo) FFXII’s.
As for a curated list, taking inspiration from a thread for GOG’s titles with in-game achievements, maybe either of us could make a similar one for emulated games here on the fediverse?
I just started such a curated list for ingame achievements for any game that can be emulated in RetroArch. Problem is, its currently empty. :D Who knows maybe I write a blog post someday if the list becomes long enough.
Retroarch on Linux, Windows 10+ and Xbox One afaik runs Final Fantasy XII for the PS2. And afaik, all PS2 versions have these achievements. And if you’d be willing to add mods, there’s also the aforementioned FFVI T-Edition.
Trying to remember any games or mods.
(Also poking about Wordpress having an ActivityPub plugin if you’d wish to include)
Looking at my notes, maybe these could also be included:
iirc it had achievements but also checking next.Main Menu > Extras > Clichés; I’d count since some can be rather challenging to unlock, and they’re just a list proving you did their conditions.Thanks for the list. For the moment I’m only interested into official licensed games for this topic. In the coming days I will probably dive into researching more to come up with something. I was thinking of Racing games, maybe sports or fighting games would be likely to have them. Or some classic collections with added bonus material and achievements. But ultimately, I don’t remember ANY game from the old days doing that. Your list is definitely a good starting point.
As for collections, I have two for the PS2, Atari Anthology and Sonic Mega Collection Plus. The Atari one I’d have to double check since I don’t remember, but the Sonic one has at least unlockable (often non-Sonic-related) games by hidden conditions, so maybe that’d count? Though the condition is pretty simple, open a certain game or games an X number of times.
Also just checked Dissidia 012 and Crisis Core. Dissidia 012 has an achievement system, Crisis Core doesn’t seem to have one.
For Dissidia 012, open the customizations menu with triangle with the character you want to check character-specific achievements, go to the right and open the first entry, Accomplishments.