Technosis Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 Does anyone here remember Dave Spicer's Sparcade ? This emulator began in the mid-nineties and pre-dated MAME. It was the first emulator that I had run on the PC. When I first loaded up an authentic version of Galaxian my jaw dropped. I expected something unplayable and glitchy and was really surprised. Other games like Pengo, Pisces, etc., followed. What ever became of this emulator? Was it eclipsed by other more popular emulators? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 (edited) Yeah of course I know Sparcade. It's actually still one of my favorite emulators from back in the day. That being said, what you said is basically correct. It got eclipsed by other emulators such as Mame. Oh and the Sparcade page is still up by the way: http://www.sparcade.freeserve.co.uk/ Edited October 13, 2006 by NE146 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted October 13, 2006 Share Posted October 13, 2006 (edited) Yep... I remember it well. I was on the internet at midnight when the last version released... 22/12/99(am) Good times... Edited October 13, 2006 by Shannon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inky Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 Nyone remember Retrocade? THat was a promising emu, but it wasn't very long lived, IIRC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted October 15, 2006 Share Posted October 15, 2006 Yeah I remember retrocade. It was gonna be what MAME was NOT. Speed and top notch sound tweaked to the max. The guy working on it, just went and dissapeared. Never did hear what happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LocalH Posted October 19, 2006 Share Posted October 19, 2006 Sparcade hell, I remember DASARCAD before it became Sparcade. I even remember when Dave fixed a bug in Pacman and broke Ms. Pacman =P 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted October 19, 2006 Share Posted October 19, 2006 Well you got me beat on that one. I managed to get hold of an earlier version of sparcade, but never hear of dasarcad. Although that ms pacman bug sounds familar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted October 29, 2006 Share Posted October 29, 2006 hellyah!! I got all the original DASARCAD zip files and the extra readme files too. Let us go back even further now shall we? anyone remember DigitalEclipse and their 6 games for the pc? And what about Microsoft Arcade? Very cool stuff..! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+DamonicFury Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Yeah, these were the good old days... I vaguely remember Dave's original emulator... it played Galaxian, Amidar, and something else I've long since forgotten... anyone recall this? Those files are long gone for me, though. In these days, when the newest version of MAME has become so bloated that it can't even run Pacman well on a Pentium III, those old emulators did a great job running the classics on a 486! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technosis Posted November 3, 2006 Author Share Posted November 3, 2006 Yeah, these were the good old days... I vaguely remember Dave's original emulator... it played Galaxian, Amidar, and something else I've long since forgotten... anyone recall this? Those files are long gone for me, though. In these days, when the newest version of MAME has become so bloated that it can't even run Pacman well on a Pentium III, those old emulators did a great job running the classics on a 486! It played a bunch of classic games...including the obscure Pisces and Thief. Yeah, I used to play it on a 486DX2-66. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XZX Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 It is still around. Sparcade 2.33b BETA Go to the following website. http://www.sparcade.freeserve.co.uk/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted December 3, 2006 Share Posted December 3, 2006 Heh, I was just thinking about this while playing Defender on XBLA ... I had the original Macintosh emulation of that game. It put Digital Eclipse on the map way back in 1993, a full 2 years before Sparcade happened. I didn't have a computer that could do much with Sparcade at the time, but I wanted to get into emulation in a big way. I thought to myself, "how many times am I going to buy these old arcade games from my childhood?" The answer: quite a few ... I feel fully justified in emulating everything I like, since I've paid for it so many times over... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 It is still around. Sparcade 2.33b BETA Go to the following website. http://www.sparcade.freeserve.co.uk/ You mean like the 2nd post says? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telengard Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Does anyone here remember Dave Spicer's Sparcade ? This emulator began in the mid-nineties and pre-dated MAME. It was the first emulator that I had run on the PC. When I first loaded up an authentic version of Galaxian my jaw dropped. I expected something unplayable and glitchy and was really surprised. Other games like Pengo, Pisces, etc., followed. What ever became of this emulator? Was it eclipsed by other more popular emulators? Oh yeah, I remember this. Back in the mid 90s or so. Ran great on my 486 IIRC. I had the initial version that played Galaxian, Pac-Man, and one other game. It's what inspired me to want to build a cabinet. No idea what happened to it though. I think the modular approach to MAME is what made developers favor it. Man was that really 10 years ago... geez time flies. /me goes back to Atmospheric Heights ~telengard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telengard Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 hellyah!! I got all the original DASARCAD zip files and the extra readme files too. Let us go back even further now shall we? anyone remember DigitalEclipse and their 6 games for the pc? And what about Microsoft Arcade? Very cool stuff..! Are you talking about the Williams collection? Still have it, and it was very well done yep. I didn't really like the Microsoft Arcade. These were re-implementations of games and I guess I'm just too picky. I had the same issue w/ the Jakks 2600 joystick. The sounds are just wrong. Too picky for my own good. ~telengard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 hellyah!! I got all the original DASARCAD zip files and the extra readme files too. Let us go back even further now shall we? anyone remember DigitalEclipse and their 6 games for the pc? And what about Microsoft Arcade? Very cool stuff..! Are you talking about the Williams collection? Still have it, and it was very well done yep. I didn't really like the Microsoft Arcade. These were re-implementations of games and I guess I'm just too picky. I had the same issue w/ the Jakks 2600 joystick. The sounds are just wrong. Too picky for my own good. That's because the Williams collection contained emulated games (the real ROMs with all graphics, sound, and code intact), and Microsoft Arcade was just ported (simulated, re-created, etc.). Just like with the Jakks 2600 joystick. You're not too picky, it bothers me too. The Digital Eclipse emulations started out as a Macintosh hacker project, done quickly for a contest. They packaged Defender, Robotron, and Joust individually in little cardboard arcade machine packages for ~$20 each. The Williams collection for DOS came a bit later, and it was terrific to have all three games PLUS Bubbles, Joust, and Sinistar all perfect on one disc! I still have my copy ... as well as the Playstation version ... and the subsequent Midway re-releases using similar technology. I should just buy stock in the company, shouldn't I? I so much of what they do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Yep.. funnily enough I had/have (although I'm not sure where they are) the Macintosh discs. My brother came home from college back in like 1994 or something with a Mac in hand.. one of the few macs in our family, and once we had it at home I went out and bought those. Awesome emulators and definitely one of the first if not the first ones available commercially. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieAtari Posted December 4, 2006 Share Posted December 4, 2006 Sparcade was great at the time, I had it and many other less well-known emulators plus full ROM collections to go with them on a PC that went with my ex-wife - which annoyed me more than her leaving! Are there any advantages with Sparcade over MAME nowadays? Anyone remember Shark? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 MAME has far surpassed sparcade. But if you have an older machine then sparcade is the way to go. Yeah digital eclipse these days seems to have their hands in alot of emulation related (classic) projects. Activision hits (psp), sega genesis collection (psp), and there is another one that slips my mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flojomojo Posted December 5, 2006 Share Posted December 5, 2006 (edited) Digital Eclipse did a ton of them. Here are some other recent projects: Atari Anthology (XBOX, PS2) Atari Anniversary Advance (GBA) Tron 2 Killer App (GBA, with the old arcade games) Namco Museum 20th Anniversary (all platforms incl GBA) Capcom Collections (PS2 and PSP) Midway Arcade Treasures 1, 2, 3 (Cube, XBOX, PS2) Midway arcade hits (PSP) They're also doing most of the arcade classics on XBOX Live Arcade on the 360. I just visited their website for the first time in a while. They have pictures of the old Mac boxes on there now, along with this great blurb (check http://www.digitaleclipse.com/products/Gam...uct.asp?ID=125) This is where it all began. Defender was part of Digital Eclipse's 1994 debuting trio in the world of computer games. It was also the first time arcade emulation had been introduced to the masses. A commercial and Internet phenomenon now, Digital Eclipse pioneered the arcade emulation genre with its Digital Arcade Emulation Technology, bringing the original arcade experience to the Mac in pixel-perfect detail. Emulation allows the very same video game program used in arcade machines to run on your personal computer or game console. Ahead of the curve, the Digital Arcade engine ran on a modest (though then state-of-the-art) 20MHz 68030 Macintosh. That's before PowerPC, folks. Edited December 5, 2006 by Flojomojo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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