How many of you are emulation converts?

[scotty]

 

You just reminded me I've been meaning to look into those LED monitors you can rotate 90 degrees back and forth on the fly for potrait or landscape since that's a thing now.

 

Times have changed for the better as that's one thing we always wanted to do (but ended up never doing) back in the old CRT days.

 

<edit> yeah something like this!

 

They are awesome!! I have had a Samsung for a couple years. Got a floor model on clearance from Best Buy a few weeks ago. LOVE IT!!!!!

 

[Keatah]

This is something I've been wrestling with for a long time now and I don't even own anywhere near as much as that. I still haven't found the sweet spot.

 

It can take years, decades even.

 

I started "turning around" when it became impossible to get to the other side of a 20x20 bedroom. I had to "fly" a facetime phone on a long ass stick to see the other side of the mound. Either that, or spend half hour moving stuff around, and then fussing because it never got put back as efficiently as when it was first packed. I even got a drone later on to spy on it all. Sometimes it was more efficient to get the ladder and enter the other side through the window.

 

---

 

I also chose to do emulation exclusively to fulfill the childhood dream of having ONE machine play ALL my videogames. There's something ineffably cool about a machine that can adopt many different flavors and personalities and become any classic console.

Edited February 21, 2018 by Keatah

[ClassicGMR]

I love playing the pinball simulators like The Pinball Arcade, Future Pinball and PinMame.

 

This is something I am saving up for. I love pinball games. I am obsessed with Funhouse, Cyclone, Phantom of the Opera... when I get enough money I will purchase a Virtual Pinball cabinet from Rec Room Masters and it will go right next to the Arcade cabinet.

Edited February 21, 2018 by ClassicGMR

[Keatah]

<snip for brevity>

 

As far as emulation. I started in the late 80s. Emulating a PC and a MAC on an Atari ST. Been emulating ever since. Used Mame when Nicola Salmoria called it the multi-Pac emulator. Watched emulation grow from it's infancy in the PC world.

 

Many people argue about the real controller as the reason they do not like emulation.

 

<snip for brevity>

 

Rom collection takes up several multi TB hard drives.

 

Am I addicted? Yes

Am I a hoarder? No Yes

 

<snip for brevity>

 

I also began in the late 80's and early 90's, with things like DASarcade, and when MAME supported like 5 games, and Mike Cuddy's Gyruss sound emulator. The Windows 3.1 Activision Action Packs.. Is great to have watched the scene develop from day 1. I think the idea of emulation started to take off in 1995-1996.

 

I tend to believe people not liking emulation has more to do with the PC-ness of it all, the setup and file management, the initial tweaking. At least today. Back in the formative days it was all about hacking projects and getting the PC to run emu stuff. Most emulators started out as school projects!

 

One can hoard digitally.

[+x=usr(1536)]

I also began in the late 80's and early 90's, with things like DASarcade, and when MAME supported like 5 games, and Mike Cuddy's Gyruss sound emulator. The Windows 3.1 Activision Action Packs.. Is great to have watched the scene develop from day 1. I think the idea of emulation started to take off in 1995-1996.

 

The one other arcade emulator that sticks in my mind from that timeframe was the standalone Xevious emulator that the author (think he may have been Austrian) was trying to get people to pay money for. Didn't really work out for him, and especially not once MAME supported Xevious.

 

There were also the standalone Stern / Konami game emulators from the same guys who eventually merged them into RAGE. Retrocade was kinda interesting, but fizzled out after a while.

 

Definitely agreed that 1995-1996 was where it really started taking off. By '97 or '98 it was pretty much commonplace.

[mattsoft]

I like the aesthetics and "touch and feel" of original hardware, but the modern conveniences that emulation brings (e.g., wifi, bluetooth, HDMI), so I've started with a non-working Commodore 64 and have replaced the guts with an RPi3 running VICE and interfaced the keyboard and DB9 ports with it. So it pretty much looks and feels like a C64, but I can use a bluetooth controller, output to HDMI, and do my BBSing using tcpser which is hosted on the RPi3. Floppies and carts would not work or be hard to do. I'm not destroying the hardware either -- all modifications are reversible. I'm doing an Amiga 500 next and then maybe an Atari 7800 or 130XE.

Edited February 25, 2018 by mattsoft

[Flojomojo]

That sounds great. It all runs off a little microUSB power supply too, right?

[mattsoft]

That sounds great. It all runs off a little microUSB power supply too, right?

 

 

Yeah, powering a RPi is super easy. 5v/2A seems to be enough to power the RPi and a few USB devices attached. Tynemouth Software in the UK makes several "vintage" computer keyboards/DB9 to USB interfaces that work with the RPi too.

[Gamemoose]

How much of a pain was it to get the C64 keyboard interfaced with the RPi?

[mattsoft]

How much of a pain was it to get the C64 keyboard interfaced with the RPi?

 

 

I used the Keyrah v2 from Individual Computers so it was plug and play. Tynemouth Software also offers an interface that is supposedly plug and play. The Keyrah is around $50 shipped from the UK. Assuming you have a C64 case and keyboard, it's about $100 for all the pieces. Seems like a lot until you add up what you would need to mod your real C64 to do the same.

[digdugnate]

This was probably the closest thread I could find to comment about VICE on-

 

stupid real-life stuff has pretty much killed my 'toy' budget but I remembered that I could use VICE to emulate C64. On my lunch break at work I downloaded VICE and futzed around a little with some disk images and played a few games from my youth.

 

What a cool emulator!

[Cynicaster]

I enjoy playing on real hardware but the sheer convenience and versatility of emulation is tough to ignore. For example, for a long time I've been considering buying NES and Genesis flash carts so I can play everything on real hardware, but I always stop myself. I don't mind spending the money for something that I'll use at least semi-often, but I'm just not sure I'll use those carts much after the initial novelty wears off. Reason being, I can play all the same games on my big TV through my HTPC and in that format I can take advantage of save states.

 

The problem is that there are so many games to play and so little time to play them that there's no way I'm going to buckle down on a single game and subject myself to the frustration of playing it over and over again until I beat it like I did in the old days when I only had access to a handful of games and all the spare time in the world to devote to them. But it is fun to pick an old game and play all the way through it from start to finish, and that's where save states come in really handy. For example, I played through some of the old Mario and Mega Man games so I could see every single screen. Being more of an arcade game guy, I don't care enough about the achievement of "finishing" games to invest the time required to do it legitimately, so emulators and save states are a very attractive option to me for casual retro gaming exploration.

[ClassicGMR]

Almost all carts these days have the Save State function:

 

Everdrive N8 - NES multicart

EVERDDRIVE-N8 FEATURES:

• Famicom, NES, and Twin Famicom systems are supported.* Many NES/FC clones supported as well.
• Cart supports NES and FDS ROM images.
• Automatic disk side swap for FDS.
• Expansion audio.**
• Save State function
• Game Genie cheat code support.
• Automatically backs-up saves to SD card. There is no need to push reset before shutting down the system.***
• Mapper support can be extended via software updates. As easy as loading new mappers files on SD card.
• FAT / FAT16 / FAT32 file system formats are supported.
• Supports SD (SD & SDHC) cards up to 32GB.
• Quick loading of game files (approx. 4-8 seconds).

 

Mega EverDrive X7 - Sega Genesis

Features:

• Supports 99% of games from SEGA library
• 128mbit (16mbyte) PSRAM.
• 120mbit (15mbyte) max ROM size.
• 256Kbyte Battery RAM
• YM2413 core by Necronomfive
• EEPROM and SRAM saves support
• Firmware update through SD card
• FAT32 file system supported.
• SD cards up to 32GB (MicroSD slot).
• Instant loading (1-2 sec).
• Built in audio playback. WAV, GYM, TFC
• USB port for homebrew development and for future features.
• In-game menu that allows access back to menu system without leaving the sofa.
• Snapshot Saves.
• Regular game battery back-up saves.
• Genesis, Mega-drive, Sega Master System, and 32X games supported.
• Hardware MEGAKEY.
• CD BIOS loading.
• CD RAM cart feature.
• Cheats feature. Game Genie and Play-Action Replay format supported.

 

These carts are fabulous. While I'm no Genesis fan I do have the NES, SNES and N64 carts so I can play on the hardware. They have all been worth the money to me.

Edited May 25, 2018 by ClassicGMR

[+wongojack]

I enjoy playing on real hardware but the sheer convenience and versatility of emulation is tough to ignore. For example, for a long time I've been considering buying NES and Genesis flash carts so I can play everything on real hardware, but I always stop myself. I don't mind spending the money for something that I'll use at least semi-often, but I'm just not sure I'll use those carts much after the initial novelty wears off. Reason being, I can play all the same games on my big TV through my HTPC and in that format I can take advantage of save states.

 

The problem is that there are so many games to play and so little time to play them that there's no way I'm going to buckle down on a single game and subject myself to the frustration of playing it over and over again until I beat it like I did in the old days when I only had access to a handful of games and all the spare time in the world to devote to them. But it is fun to pick an old game and play all the way through it from start to finish, and that's where save states come in really handy. For example, I played through some of the old Mario and Mega Man games so I could see every single screen. Being more of an arcade game guy, I don't care enough about the achievement of "finishing" games to invest the time required to do it legitimately, so emulators and save states are a very attractive option to me for casual retro gaming exploration.

 

As ClassicGMR says, the flash carts have save states. I have the PowerPak and Everdrive N7 and they both offer save states.

[Artlover]

​Meh. Emulation.

 

​I've been dabbling with emulation since the early 90's. Generally speaking, emulation has gotten better across the board. It still doesn't quite replace the real thing. I always prefer to use the real thing. But as time goes on, and I move around, and stuff in my life changes, I find that less and less of my systems are hooked up and playable. Sooooooo, it's becoming more useful to me as time goes by. Dare I say it, I've even reluctantly come to accept that backwards compatibility may have it's place too.

[Keatah]

Backwards compatibility? As afforded by emulation? Or do you mean something else?

[Artlover]

Backwards compatibility? As afforded by emulation? Or do you mean something else?

 

Backwards compatibility as in backwards compatibility. IE: Xbox 360 on Xbox One or PSX on PS2, etc... Something I have long lambasted, as I have never gotten rid of any old console.

 

But again, I'm finding reality sometimes interferes with my ability to access them. So I guess {dry heave} BC has it's place.

[Cynicaster]

Almost all carts these days have the Save State function:

 

 

 

These carts are fabulous. While I'm no Genesis fan I do have the NES, SNES and N64 carts so I can play on the hardware. They have all been worth the money to me.

 

Wow, I guess I should have done some research rather than making assumptions.

 

Question: when you do save states with these carts, do they store files separately for individual games simultaneously? Like, can you jump back and forth between different games while maintaining the save states of each? Or do you just have a single or small group of "slots" available?

 

This changes things significantly for me on the flash cart front. Thanks for clarifying.

[ClassicGMR]

I don't have one in front of me at the moment but I have multiple saves on my NES cart for sure. I am playing Zelda, Final Fantasy and a few other games and they have saves. Someone will correct me if I get this wrong (or I'll check later and update) but I believe the save file is written with the game name so it's not a slot thing.

 

EDIT: I do have the NES right here actually... forgot I brought it up last night.

 

Here's my saves from my Everdrive N8:

Edited June 5, 2018 by ClassicGMR

[BackInTimeSime]

I used both, I own most consoles and thats great, but setting them up through a upscaler can be a pain as is getting them out, connecting them up... but I love them all the same...

Emulators are amazing though having too much choice is a major problem, sometimes I think I spend more time just messing about than actually playing anything...

[Cynicaster]

I don't have one in front of me at the moment but I have multiple saves on my NES cart for sure. I am playing Zelda, Final Fantasy and a few other games and they have saves. Someone will correct me if I get this wrong (or I'll check later and update) but I believe the save file is written with the game name so it's not a slot thing.

 

EDIT: I do have the NES right here actually... forgot I brought it up last night.

 

Here's my saves from my Everdrive N8:

 

Thanks.

 

One other question -- how do you initiate the save state function? I mean, in emulation on a PC, the emulator software is always running in the background while the game plays so there are key commands, etc. that trigger a save. How does that work on the NES for example?

[ClassicGMR]

Thanks.

 

One other question -- how do you initiate the save state function? I mean, in emulation on a PC, the emulator software is always running in the background while the game plays so there are key commands, etc. that trigger a save. How does that work on the NES for example?

 

From Stone Age Gamer:

 

 

v8

 

Save states supports. Some games may not work propertly with Save State function, they may hang when trying save or load state

Default joypad configuration: Down+start - save state, up+start - load state. Hot key configuration can be changed in options. Save state function may not work with clones!

 

Haven't hit a game yet that didn't save but I haven't tried a ton of them either.

Edited June 8, 2018 by ClassicGMR

[+wongojack]

I can confirm what Classic Gamer shared. There are separate save states for every game. If you have the latest firmware for the Power Pak (for NES), you can bring up a menu by pressing (I think) SELECT and START. There is also a quick save combo where you press SELECT + A to save and SELECT + B to load. Something like that, I'd have to check again to be 100%, but it worked great for me. I can't remember if you can change save slots specifically or if there is just one slot for each game, but I know it saves different states per game similar to the screenshot posted above.

 

I haven't used the Mega Everdrive X7 much so the details aren't as fresh, but I'm sure it is right there in the downloadable notes from Stone Age Gamer.

 

 

EDIT - on the Mega Everdrive X7 you push start and down to get to the in game menu. From there you have the option to Save/Load but not switch slots. I didn't 100% verify, but I think you get one slot per game.

[+x=usr(1536)]

Something to consider:

 

On a long enough timeline, we're all going to be dead and the manufacturing processes that created the hardware we love will no longer exist. If we really want to preserve <insert architectures here> for future generations, we have no option other than emulation.

 

Yeah, there will always be a small percentage of hardware that survives in collectors' hands. But the only way to accessibly document it for anyone who is interested (and beyond the point of bit rot) is through emulation.

 

No, that will never replicate the true experience of having your hands on the hardware. But if you give a flying f*** about future generations knowing why this was important to us and relevant to them, the big picture of emulation should start making more sense.

[Keatah]

I think that more people like emulation (or are fascinated by it) then let on.

 

Additionally emulation can be migrated over time to new systems, Hyper-V and virtualizations and all that are also going to become important tools in the arsenal of preservation.

 

And further pushing the boundaries of what is possible and what shows up as new features and capabilities - emulators add value to old games. We all know about savesates and different resolutions and highly customizable controllers. And more. But how about this! Negative Lag - as I like to call it.

 

This is where the emulated game has faster-than-original-hardware response. It basically works by running the game ahead and then rolling it back and matching the controller response with where it should happen in the original game console, or sooner, or later, if you want to tweak it. Your call. It's a new feature and it should silence all those critics once and for all on how emulation is so laggy. It's all possible new because of new software techniques and entry-level processors running at 4GHz or more.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/04/better-than-reality-new-emulation-tech-lags-less-than-original-consoles/

 

Like the article says. There's going to be people even bitching about that! Because X amount of lag was/is intended.

 

Too many people confuse "intended" with "limit of tech at that time". Ohh well.. Exciting times ahead!