Emulation vs the Real Thing

[Graham Humphrey]

Sorry to interrupt, but shouldn't this thread really be merged with the other one Damien mentioned?

[spiff]

An Amiga that's been upgraded with a ppc is nothing but a slow Mac anyway.

Either the original, unmodified hardware, nostalgia for all the senses, the touch of spongy keys, the smell of old DD disks and the special sound of my own df0 drive, or emulation.

But 99% of the time, for convenience, emulation. I'd rather emulate one good game then have 10 good game boxes in the loft. I was a bit more hardcore about emulation before, with VGA/LCD, HDs and all that stuff, until I realized that it wasn't the way I should use my amiga. I got a waaaaay better PC for that stuff.

even on winuae I like play games using adf files....you can watch the intros and you can use save states and games works better than using whdload

Yea, same thing here. It's not that ADFs in any technical way are better then WHD or SPS, just that there's a place for all of them. I did own a couple of original games, those I've SPS:ed.

[StevenJGore]

My favourite 'Amiga' setup is WinUAE with a wireless XBox 360 controller mapped as a CD32 controller. I no longer own any Amiga hardware, but I own a ton of original CD32 games. Seems to work fine for non-CD32 games too.

Steve.

[Hungry Horace]

Originally Posted by laser

button mapping for CD32 pads ? I use real cd32 isos to play it on winuae
I don't use bad cd32' hardisk 'patched 'games that requires special button mapping

Im so refined...

bye

huh? why is it "bad" to patch extra mappings for non-cd32 original games? this is what i am talking about.

refined is using a plush real hardware setup... i think many will agree

[Dizzy]

Well amiga-games should be played on real amigas

Just a look at my 1200 makes me madly in love again. It's like the first kiss, but just everytime you turn on the machine... While a pc look like shit (so do a xbox )

[cronos]

I have grown to prefer the emulator over the real thing. I rarely use my real Amiga, so it is convenient for me to use the emulator that also takes up less desk space.

My Amiga gave me a lot of HD headaches, whereas the emulator works flawlessly. HD speed also seems a lot faster; at least read speed.

I can also use my LCD monitor, printer, cable internet, joypad, wireless mouse, large HDs, etc. without restrictions and/or the need of purchasing additional hardware, etc.

When I use the emulator, I still feel like I am using a real Amiga. I know the emulator is not perfect, but it is good enough for me.

[Marcuz]

MERGE!

[Hungry Horace]

dont get me wrong - i love emulation, both winuae and pspuae. They are brilliant for convinience - speed/functionality.

i just happen to think if you have to make things as black&white as "which is better: hardware vs software", you cant beat the real thing, if purely for accuracy. (pinball smoothness is the big thing for me!) I'm the same with hardware vs software synthesisers too. They just cant do it as well as the real thing

[Charlie]

Horses for courses.

You want the 'real' Amiga experience:- get something that looks like an Amiga.
Nostalgia / space & money an issue:- WinUAE is wonderful!
( No it doen't feel like a real Amiga but that's got a lot to do with the underlaying OS. )
High-end Amiga use:- Get Amithlon! ( if you can )
It feels like a real Amiga with RTG + AHI ( ok a DraCo ). It's far faster than any any mega-bucks build you could do with 'proper hardware' and gives you access to lots of modern stuff ( like USB ) without all the fuss. AmigaOS really shines with a bit of grunt behind it. ( ghz 68040 )

Zealotry is alive and well!

P.S.
Well bugger me!

[Photon]

Emulators are very convenient - you can change machine config just like that, you can record video, etc. But for action games like platformers etc, there's always a small audio and video lag due to buffering. Things can be be improved with low-latency sound cards and extreme CRT refresh rate - but it's still there. And watching a demo in full framerate synced glory, even on a 50Hz Amiga monitor is the only right way to watch a demo in my opinion.

WHDload verions of the games can be emulated with vastly improved speed (think 'FA-18 Interceptor et al), but the same game can ofc be run on a fast Amiga if you have one.

I like games where precision is rewarding, and so my favorite games always end up being played on my real Amiga. Playing those on emu makes them frutrating and less enjoyable.

[farmarfred]

play all my games on my 500+ the disk swapping and noises from diskdrives is part of the fun

and how would i explain my growing collection of games if i didnt play them on the amiga

have tried winuae but it always ended with me closing it after a minute or two and starting some new pc game instead

[Hungry Horace]

Originally Posted by marco pedrana

MERGE!

Newcastle Brown Zone Ahead.




back on topic, the latency problem - even with a professional soundcard - makes Octamed alone pretty harsh to use on winuae, and impossible to syncronise if you use any MIDI output. If you are going to do any music production on Amiga software, i have to say actual hardware is sadly the only real option.

[Madcrow]

It depends... For MY purposes WinUAE is better than the real thing. I live in NTSC-land, while most good games and demos were PAL. WinUAE doesn't care.

[r.cade]

I've been digging the MPDOS cable setup I got off eBay recently (there's another one up now). I don't have to make floppy disks to play it on the real thing anymore, or have a hard disk and all that hassle. Just a cable and an old A500 that the floppy drive was broken anyway.

Now, you don't get the floppy noises, which may be part of "the experience" for some people (you actually get this in WinUAE also, which I like). However, it seems to be faster than a disk drive as well. No grinding or seek times.

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

Sorry to interrupt, but shouldn't this thread really be merged with the other one Damien mentioned?

Originally Posted by marco pedrana

MERGE!

I should have done this instead of making the 3rd post but was too busy at the time...

Done now

[Madcrow]

Emulation for sure: I live in NTSC land, so emulation is the only way I can play most of the better games and watch the better demos. Emulation is also a MUCH cheaper way to get the equivalent of a "maxed out" configuration (AGA+RTG+060+AHI Sound) than getting the real hardware. $40 gets you the equivalent of over $1000 of hardware. Me likee.

[Fred the Fop]

Try playing a hacked or translated NES rom on the "Real Thing".
Or saving state on a really great but hard game - you know, the type you need to start at the beginning of the game or level - on the "Real Thing".
You hardware faggots.

[Paul_s]

Bit of both for me. Emulation is good when I'm at work (did I just say that ).

The hardware I tend to use all the time though when I'm at home - use emulation for testing and experimenting with

Nothing beats owning the real thing though and taking it to bed.

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by Paul_s

Nothing beats owning the real thing though and taking it to bed.

Speak for yourself

[Hungry Horace]

Originally Posted by Fred the Duck

Try playing a hacked or translated NES rom on the "Real Thing".

since we are talking about amiga hardware.... i guess you could do that on an Amiga NES emulator.

Or saving state on a really great but hard game - you know, the type you need to start at the beginning of the game or level - on the "Real Thing".

try not being so rubbish at games, and you wont be needing to cheat!

You hardware faggots.

you software mincers!