Emulation vs the Real Thing
 

Ok,

I'm sitting here looking at the amount of space absorbed by my beloved A4000 setup, and seriously pissed because....


1. I can't take it with me when I travel - and I travel a lot.
2. I can't haul it into the loungeroom to play CIV AGA there.
3. The power supply whines like a bitch compared to my work laptop.
4. Having built and used the damn thing up from scratch - what's next? It's not like I can find more and better hardware to sink into it, or obtain great new games and apps.....


So - my question to my esteemed and learned brethren - just how good is this emulation shit?

Does winUAE really pack the gear? Can I ....

1) Play Frontier with a microswitched joystick?
2) Play CIV AGA, Exodus: The last war and Dune II?
3) Run Final Writer?
4) Run Spot to relive my FidoNet days?
5) Run Directory Opus?

Just how much of a bitch is it to setup, and how solid is the emulation?

The final question: Do I split up and sell my beloved gear, and rever to the eternal life of emulation?

Thoughts, opinions - welcome.....

oh god, this again.

IMHO... emulation is great. Convinient for gaming in different environs (as you want to do), practical for performing mudane OS based tasks, and coupling it with PC-based storage and backing up... (great if you dont have a really high spec miggy with CD/DVD burner etc)

however..... performance wise... it isnt quite the same, but that's not to say its rubbish.
Frontier is great, becasue you can slap JIT on and play it super-smooth... but compare most games on winuae, to how they run on my a1200 030... and it's just not quite the same. Good enough, but not quite "right".... this coupled with the fact that audio apps like octamed are a bit rubbish on winuae (the midi lag is terrible for example) mean i would never get rid of my original hardware... in spite of the fact i tend to use emualtion a lot these days.... probably largely becasue of the PS2 pads i have on my PC.

it's easy to set up for emualtion... i would suggest you just try it and decide for yourself

It's not gonna cost you to try emulation, i would definitely recommend it :). I have had to put my amiga away due to space but i still enjoy playing games thanks to winuae.

I think, sound emulation is still bad in WinUae and not comparable to the Original Amiga.
The best feeling comes by using the real machine.

For me, emulation is much better than the real thing, and costs nothing, only a decent PC which most people have anyway..... The benefits of using is endless... some:

* Winuae takes up NO space.. as it's just a program on your PC....
*Download games and play them directly with the adfs
*Super fast emulation... games like quake 2 ruins fluidly while you would need a super amiga (costs alot) to be able to play it as as good as in winuae.
*Save/load states!!!
*Recording
*It has built it..... like mentioned before, recording, and also sound/music ripper, screenshot grabber etc etc etc....
*As much harddrive space you could ever need (if you have enough space on your PC HD that is)
*FASTER DISK LOADING!!!!
*If you use a laptop like me, it's a portable Amiga 500/600/1200/2000/3000 etc/PC/any other emulator there is for PC considering it's a PC laptop)
*Select any screen resolution.... stretch the screen... or apply filters....

more and more and more and more and more.... WinUAE RULES!!!!..... TONI IS GOD!1!!


My 15.2 cents.




Bad?... it sounds perfect... even better is some cases as you can mix with the sound for better stuff.

No real Amiga for me anymore due to space, cost etc...

I've been using WinUAE since 0.8.22R9 came out (2003 I think) and it's absolutely awesome IMHO :great

Ironclaw has listed quite alot of the benefits already :agree

The emulation has certainly come a long way and differences are hardly that noticable to me anymore. But using the real thing has a certain flare that you can't deny.

Can't really put my finger on it but i also agree that the sound just doesn't sound like an Amiga. I still think Winfellow does a better job at it, it actually sounds and feels like an Amiga.

There is already a thread about this question. ;)

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=28647

And a whole of three posts! What bountiful of information! What lighthouse of Alexandria! What miraculous instantaneous explosion of knowledge! The muses of retrogaming surely inhabit the place!

Emulation vs. the Real Think seems like pragmatism vs. nostalgia. I LOVE my old Amiga 1000, but since I travel alot (5 days a week away from home currently) it's so great to have an emulated Amiga on board along with literally thousands of games and apps.
Of course emulation sometimes lacks the feeling of authenticity, but after all I'd never want to do without it. I hope my old A1000 will forgive me! Sorry ;-)

You sucks, Ultron. everbody knows it. :lol

yeah merge the threads please you mods that be

http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=7791
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=12602
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=3360
even:
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=3272
http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=11761

one or all...

oh! and please, DO NOT learn to use the search function guys :) :spin

which means it crashes a lot more than a real amiga.

ADFs are slow, full of annoying cractros, and often require a specific winuae setup to run. this is why i will use WHDLoad even on winuae rather than adfs.


as i said above, perfect for frontier, quake, et al. but have you compared games like Pinball Illusions, or even New Zealand Story?

the very nature of being a PC and all the refresh-rate malarky causes the scrolling to be worse.


dont work with HD emualtion

those are all good points.

i dont mean to pick apart your comments, but there are valid reasons for and against emulation... and no one has the right to say really that either is "better" - its down to the requirements/standards of the user at the end of it all.

and that's just my x.y cents.


i can only assume you have never tried to use winuae for professional sound work. it does NOT cut it,as much as id like it to - and it's true it doesnt sound quite the same ;)

For the love of god. I've had W2000 and XP boxes running months on end, with continuous use, multiple apps, and serving DC hubs, FTPs, www, you name it. The Amiga doesn't even have Memory Protection.

Every PC can run at 100mhz these days. Problem solved. Honestly. It's not even one.

My PC monitor won't do 100Hz

NTSC 60 Hz games scrolls totally smooth in every emulator with a 60 Hz refreshrate. But PAL 50 Hz games have a blur effect in emulation, because you use a 100 Hz refreshrate. It is not comparable to a real 50 Hz TV.

Ok ok i leave the "rant" out of the quote and just asking your A4000-specs. Go ahead, list all the gear your A4000 has eaten :). Don't forget to hype the "highlights" too ;).

Personal opinions follows:

WinUAE is GREAT for CPU demanding programs like 3D-rendering and DTP. I mean.... it feels like having a 68040 running at 1GHz or there abouts.

For games however..... I don't think it "feels" right..... screen is too "crisp" and so is the sound. Though this may be a problem of the gfx-card and screen, and of course the soundcard, not with WinUAE itself ;)

So... what is the best option? For me, it's entirely up to the task at hand. for some things, I'll be happy to use the emulated Amiga. For others, I swear to my Real Amiga. It's what you prefer yourself... there's no conclusive answer, IMO.

My best advice would be "Try to run the same programme/game on both, and see what you prefer yourself"

My advice would be:

1. Get an A1200 030 32mb and whdload and a shit load of games. PLAY.
2. Use WinUAE when someone else is using the A1200.
3. Stop playing Quake in WinUAE.
4. Don't spill Coke on your A1200.