Benefit's of a Real Amiga vs Emulation

[rattus]

I use a real A1200 because a) it's there, might as well use it! and b) my G4 is too slow to run E-UAE fullspeed. I still keep it around to test stuff out though

[Chuckles]

Originally Posted by Chaeo

Well, I've just built this AthlonXP 2ghz and a few days ago I realised I finally had the power to play around with emulators ...

Finally ... had ... the ... power?

I've been running WinUAE on a PIII/700 for ages now, and with very few exceptions, every game I throw at it runs at full speed without "dumbing down" the configuration, and with plenty of CPU left over. If you have better than a PIII/700 and you can't get that sort of performance, there are probably a host of minor issues in both the PC's configuration, and in the WinUAE configs that are robbing your performance. If you've got a monster machine then great, but don't be so sure you can't get an older machine to run WinUAE quite nicely with a bit of effort.

As for the real thing vs. emulation, I enjoy both, and if you have the space I'd always recommend getting the real thing. The machines have a certain feel to them that you just can't emulate. In my basement, besides the PIII/700, I have an Apple IIe, an Apple IIGS, a Mac Color Classic, an Amiga 1000 and an Amiga 2000HD, along with an XBox. All are set up and running, and I have an Apple II+, an Atari 800XL, an Atari 130XE, a couple of old 486's and a Super Nintendo tucked away in a storage area in the house. Wish I could hook 'em all up, but there's only so much you can fit into one area.

[Photon]

The difference is in the sound, the pixels and compatibility. I'm oldskool so I like to play nice old games like Paradroid 90, Datastorm, Gravity Force, Master Blaster, Rick Dangerous etc etc. As a matter of fact I hooked up my trusty old A500 and played a couple of those game this very day. If I want to play something heavy like F1GP I whip out my '040 Amiga.

The advantages with the real thing:

1) The sound. The WinUAE emulation is fine but it just doesn't sound like the real thing. I fiddle around with trackers a bit and I notice the difference. I also had trouble playing .mods that I downloaded, all but Protracker 3.00b+ hung. So...

2) The pixels. There just is no way to emulate the saturation of my 1084. If I emulate with raster lines the colors just die. If I don't, I'm left with much too sharp boxy pixels. Also, 50Hz on my Dell 19" Trinitron flickers a lot more than my 1084 @ 50 Hz, probably due to the 1084's phosphor layer which retains the picture for longer. (high-end) PC monitors just aren't nice to look at when using too low Hz. Also, copper shades that were perfectly smooth on the real Amiga suddenly look bad.

3) Compatibility is MUCH better for these nice old games and utilities from the early 90's. I'm having a very hard time running certain utilities in WinUAE, even though I configure it like the real machine. When I run it on the real thing with the exact same setup as in WinUAE, the same software that hung every time runs perfectly every time. This might of course get better with time.

There is of course a big advantage with emulating too - no disk swapping, no copying files or disks (much easier to drag and drop and organize on the PC), and you can download huge amounts of stuff to try out. It's also a lot nicer to code assembler in the emulator, you can start two emulation windows and code in one, start the program in the other, if one hangs, you still have your source. You can size the window as you like and enjoy a 100Hz+ picture, etc etc.

Why not do like me, enjoy the best of both worlds?

[Hillsy_]

Hmmmm...interesting...

@Unknown_K....Ahhh the Atari2600...Do you remember the game Adventure? or Vanguard? or maybe Yar's Revenge? So many memories. I might check out the Atari2600 emulator too, see if my controller works with it. Circus Atari....with the Paddles....What fun!! Definitely difficult to emulate...

@Chuckles..Yep agreed, I emulate the Amiga on my Athlon700Mhz PC with full speed and full graphics. Even Genetic Species runs very well. At one point I was tempted to buy another Amiga, but I don't think I will. The emulator is good enough for me. I played Turrican on the Emulator, and it felt the same, looked the same, sounded the same as when I played it all those egon's ago on my REAL Amiga. I only get the ocassional crash on WinUAE, but I do respect the people who do have a REAL Amiga. I have kept my American SNES and I understand the importance of preserving memories. People keep things for their own reasons, sometimes for programming, sometimes for games, sometimes fond memories, sometimes for collecting. Me, I was more into the games so the Emulator is sufficient enough for me. One thing I do think about is, When I go on Ebay I know what I am getting when I purchase a SNES game...Would I know what I am getting if I purchase an Amiga game? What about the floppy disks, do they still read fine? No read/write errors over time? I remember a long time ago alot of my friends who had Amiga's had problems with Powerpacks overheating due to the Hard disk. I am not critising the Amiga, just making some observations.

Paradroid 90...Didn't have a save feature on the REAL Amiga, but their are Save-States for the Emulator. Has this been rectified for the REAL Amiga?

Take it easy,

PS: Yeah, Datastorm & Paradroid 90 are great game!!

[Peanutuk]

For playing games I always use my A1200. As rattus says it is there so why not use it ? Hard drives are as cheap as chips and now that WINXP allows you to simply place the Amiga HD in your PC and copy everything across using WinUAE transferng large amounts of data is pretty straight forward. However if you wanted to use you Amiga for heavy stuff like surfing the web etc then the costs to beef up a standard A1200 for example are prohibitive, and you are risking the odd short-circuit or duff power supply that could destroy that precious Blizzard!

When I think of the time and money I've spent over the years on bits and bobs for expanding my A1200 to not really get anywhere other than playing games on it, it does seem a gigantic waste of time but hey it's fun! And what the hell did I buy that A2000 for? And that A500? And that.....etc. etc.

It's shame so much snobbery seems to be associated with owning 'The Real Thing' but unless you have the time, space and money to buy a real Amiga, emulation is a great and in many ways better alternative. I've never really used emulation for anything else but testing harddrive set-ups etc.

[manicx]

A real Amiga smells like a real Amiga. This is the fundamental difference to me..

[Tim Janssen]

I miss the clunky whirring tunes of my Amiga diskdrive when it tries to load a game.

[LAJ]

I like the sounds of the Amiga floppy disk too. I've played some games so much that I've memorised parts of their load up sequence (Errrrrrr, Aaaaaa, ORRRR for Lemmings)

UAE now has some floppy sound emulation, but it isn't quite there yet. It's only for the A500 as well, but on that note do the disk drives of the A500 and A1200 make different noises?

I prefer using my real A1200 as there's no fan noise, and I don't have controller pads for the PC anyway. I still use emulation from time to time though. However, it's part of my tradition to pour myself some coke, get a bag of quavers, and huddle 'round my old Miggy

[Nexjen]

I like both. I like the amiga better though because it sounds and looks better on my nice tv.

[Miggy2TheMax]

for gaming nothing beats the real deal, sound, look and feel. Whilst I havent tried to configureUAE to see if I could make it look and feel better, it just didn't feel the same so I didn't bother. I do fire it up occasionally to fool around with the workbench, and batch conversion of various files, the gaming I leave up to the master. Its fun reading this thread!

[spiff]

I prefer my emulated amiga right now.
1) Blazingly fast hardware and obscene amount of ram and HD.
2) Sound, the emulated amiga has cleaner sound, no more hissing due to crap hardware or muted filters.
3) Picture, running on a 25” nano arcade monitor is a lot cooler then my old 14”.

4)Controls… well, ok not right now but once I’ve hooked up my new set it should be awesome

[Toni Wilen]

3) Compatibility is MUCH better for these nice old games and utilities from the early 90's. I'm having a very hard time running certain utilities in WinUAE, even though I configure it like the real machine. When I run it on the real thing with the exact same setup as in WinUAE, the same software that hung every time runs perfectly every time. This might of course get better with time.

Hard to fix anything without names of programs.. (and I haven't heard about non-working utilities for a long time so I really suspect the reason is something else than emulation accuracy..)

[StarEye]

If you had a cat, and it died. Would cloning replace him?

[Peanutuk]

Originally Posted by StarEye

If you had a cat, and it died. Would cloning replace him?

Not really the same as my cat is a living (albeit now dead) entity that would have been unique and an Amiga is a computer.

[StarEye]

Yeah, I know. But the principal still stands. To some, the Amiga is much more personal than a PC. Just like you grow an affection for old toys. Therefore, it's not possible to emulate it, because it feels like it has a soul that you've grown attached to.

It's also possible to compare it to the software you run on it. Some of the really old games still grabs the interest of young gamers, even today. Why is that? Is it because of a certain charm perhaps? Is it because games today are worse? I don't think that's it. The reason I keep my amiga is because I just hate emulation. I can't get the right feel from the emulators, so I'd rather use the original hardware. I know that Street Fighter 2 is much better on the SNES, but since I don't have an affection for the SNES and I only have a SNES emulator, I stick to the Amiga version 'cause it gives me the correct feel. Strange, but that's how it is.

[hal]

i recently repaired the disk drive of an amstrad cpc6128 which was taking up valuable space and i was planning to throw away, now i had run an emulator of this machine before... it felt nothing like it... how can an emulator be so boring even having access to any piece of software available on the web
while the real thing that only differed in the way that i had ten 3" disks to work with be so fun ?

but then... that's another story... be it an amiga, an amstrad, a nes or a c64... using the actual thing feels better... maybe it's a pschycological thing (however that's spelled)

as for my miggy
i like the output of my miggy better on my less crispy clear old composite monitor not because it's better... because it reminds me of those days...
(but on another note i have to make do with a scandoubler and the 14" monitor i use for my pc due to lack of space )

[hal]

Originally Posted by StarEye

It's also possible to compare it to the software you run on it. Some of the really old games still grabs the interest of young gamers, even today. Why is that? Is it because of a certain charm perhaps? Is it because games today are worse? I don't think that's it..

one charm might be that games were different from what's done now...
and then it's the feel of playing a game made before you were born maybe...

[woody57]

So I guess I cannot argue about how good an emu engine might be as I,ve never used an amiga one sucessfully on other peoples PC's .

All I will say is if you enjoy taking your time with things the outcome is normally worth it for instance

a] mircrowave fast sausages vs grilled sausages taste wise NO CONTEST microwave tastes sweaty it might with added colouring look the same but NOT an equal contest

b] genuine LEVI 501 original denims vs import copy from ??????? your groin lets you know five minutes after you put them on and try to fasten your shoes the crotch in the copy pair allways splits right up your a**e at the worst possible moment or the zip breaks leavng you having to walk with your hands in front all day

c] Vauxhall/opel Tigra vs Ferrai Dino need I say more ?


Some things that cost more are built to last , others that take longer to achieve are worth the wait because it suits our senses better

Emu Amiga is like a McDonalds Big MAC it has all the ingredients of a tasty meal but seldom is the balance right for each customer , it was Amiga's customisation that gave it an edge in many areas .

But if you need a fast food fix then EMU will do , who knows eventually you might want the real thing again once you realise that emu is just hamburger Not Grilled steak lol


How do you like yours done ?

[Unknown_K]

Originally Posted by woodshed57

So I guess I cannot argue about how good an emu engine might be as I,ve never used an amiga one sucessfully on other peoples PC's .

All I will say is if you enjoy taking your time with things the outcome is normally worth it for instance

a] mircrowave fast sausages vs grilled sausages taste wise NO CONTEST microwave tastes sweaty it might with added colouring look the same but NOT an equal contest

b] genuine LEVI 501 original denims vs import copy from ??????? your groin lets you know five minutes after you put them on and try to fasten your shoes the crotch in the copy pair allways splits right up your a**e at the worst possible moment or the zip breaks leavng you having to walk with your hands in front all day

c] Vauxhall/opel Tigra vs Ferrai Dino need I say more ?


Some things that cost more are built to last , others that take longer to achieve are worth the wait because it suits our senses better

Emu Amiga is like a McDonalds Big MAC it has all the ingredients of a tasty meal but seldom is the balance right for each customer , it was Amiga's customisation that gave it an edge in many areas .

But if you need a fast food fix then EMU will do , who knows eventually you might want the real thing again once you realise that emu is just hamburger Not Grilled steak lol


How do you like yours done ?

Alot of people love hambergers and wouldnt know a steak is better if they never tried it. Thats the key, you have to try emulation and the real thing for a period of time to make up your mind. Each has its good and bad points and some people do a combination of both anyway.

[Ash]

I grew up on C64's and Amigas, later on PC
At the moment my two Amiga 500's and two Amiga CD32's are boxed up
I emulate games on my xbox, along with other emulators and stuff
I work and don't have the space to set them all up, I have one TV
Emulators for me