Real Amiga vs Emulated Amiga

[Duke]

95% of all common games have been covered by WHDLoad, and there are cheats available for many of them via tooltypes.

[Marcuz]

this is true but many interesting whdload installs are old and not updated, like Wrath of the Demon and so kinda unusable. for interesting i mean games that it's hard to make work by adf or with their installation program, if present. this is a minor flaw tough.

[Matthias]

I like playing around with WinUAE, but, for me, nothing can beat a real Amiga with his purring Discdrive *g*
For me, using a real Amiga, simply is a part of the hobby. Playing around with the hardware and stuff...you can't do this with an emulator, can you...
Using an emulator only would be like saying to a biker: "Why are you driving this old Harley, when you can have a new car with[list random extras and features here]?"

So I have WinUAE for everyday use but from time to time I switch on my old Amiga 500 and "drive along Route 66" (for those who not only own a 500er but a newer model: a truck is fine too) ;-)

[HOL2001]

Nice talking.. ;-)

[amigauser]

WINUAE is great in that it gives you all of the many forms of Amiga. Being tied to one Amiga..mine was the Amiga 500+..was great to a point but there were always games it would never play.

With WINUAE, each configuration is customised to the game and everything plays. If you get the CAPS project plug-in you can play them in IPF and ADF format whereas the real amiga would only accept stuff via floppies.

It also means that I don't have to find space for an Amiga now or keep a separate set of disks to play on it.

Having a real Amiga may be like having a Harley but it's not much fun if under certain circumstances it doesn't work.With WinUAE you have a whole set of Harleys all geared specifically to your needs.

[Matthias]

Having a real Amiga may be like having a Harley but it's not much fun if under certain circumstances it doesn't work.

That depends on what you want to do with your real Amiga. I only want to play the games I used to play 15-10 years ago...and they all worked on a simple A500 with kick 1.3 and 1 meg RAM.
Also I'm a collector and collecting ADF- and ROM-images...no way ^^ No art collector would be content with Picasso-posterprints.

With WinUAE you have a whole set of Harleys all geared specifically to your needs.

No you don't ;-)
You have a whole bunch of japanese Suzukis *g*
WinUAE simply ISN'T a real Amiga so it never can be exactly the same thing. It will always be a "copy" and this is a fact. It is a great programme and I use it very often, no doubt about that, but it is imho not comparable to the "original".
But if you need this feeling of the original or if your main interest is the software running flawlessly is a matter of taste and you can't argue about that. I personally need "the real thing", at least once in a while, for me that's it, what the hobby is about; others don't need this... it's a hobby after all and you don't have to understand a hobby (I don't understand what people get from playing golf, for example). What's important is, that people enjoy their hobbys. Wheather they need an original Amiga to enjoy this or not has to be decided by everyone individually.

[EmuChicken]

a) Most, but no ski or die, as of yet

b) Unsure... cant say

[commie1974]

Even if you can beat the real thing, talking about speed, it will NEVER feel like the real thing! Personally, I love looking at the C= and Amiga logo, while typing on my keyboard...
Emulators are a good and cheap way to get in touch with the OS of a computer that you don't have, but IMHO, in case you like what you see in the emulator, the best thing to do is get the real machine, and this is not only for the Amiga, I'm talking even for the ZX81 and the VIC20 class of machines!
Back in the speed questions, if someone likes to use e.g. Photogenics for professional purposes, it works much better with WinUAE, but for games etc. the real things is FAR more attractive!

[Freakyweakywoo]

How much does it cost to put together an A1200, upgrade the ram, buy a HD so you can WHDload all your old faves? Emulation costs pratically nothing. The powers of econmics dictated how I relived my Amiga days. One day I'm sure I will buy an amiga, or revive the one I already have because I think I'd get more enjoyment out of the real machine, but I think Emualtion is very useful and a very very good thing.

Are there many Anti-Emu people on EAB? I'd read the whole post but its gotten very big. Woudl anyone mind if I set up a poll on it (if I cant find one to revive)?

[spiff]

There's a lot of talk about the real thing, which on some level is a good argument.
The thing is apart from the basic a500 the “real thing” these days is a a1200 desktopmod Mac wannabe.. or the a3000/4000 that looks and feels like any old PC/MAC.
Get an a500 and look at it, run some old cracks.. nostalgia. Get a 1200 add a lot of hardware to run all the “latest” stuff and the only nostalgia left is the software and *UAE runs that better.

[Matthias]

How much does it cost to put together an A1200, upgrade the ram, buy a HD so you can WHDload all your old faves?

I only own several 500s. They are a lot cheaper than an A1200 and they run all the games I want. An HD would be nice to own, though...

Emulation costs pratically nothing.

No, only the PC the emulator is running on *g*
Which is, in most cases, a lot more expensive than an old Amiga.
But that's just the way it is: EVERY hobby costs money in some way.

And I always say: "Other people smoke." I don't buy cigarettes, I save the money and buy old computerparts ;-)

I think I'd get more enjoyment out of the real machine, but I think Emualtion is very useful and a very very good thing.

It absolutely is!

[Critter]

Real Amiga = Wearing Christopher Lloyd's Shades
Emulated Amiga = Wearing Prescription Glasses

[Freakyweakywoo]

So very shallow

[Critter]

how would you have put it?

[Freakyweakywoo]

Real Amiga = A nice cold Beer in a Pint glass
Emulated Amiga = A nice cold Beer but in a can

Same end product but you just get the feeling you're missing out on something if you dont have a galss to put it in.



Alcoholic?

[Critter]

but your forgetting the warp factor of the amiga .. hence the lloyd shadez

[Freakyweakywoo]

I live in the UK Critter, sunglasses are all but redundant for most of the year, shall we let someone get this back on topic now?

[ziovax]

I dunno if it's better emulated than real.........

I think it depends by use....
.... a real CD32 or Amiga HD/CD, however, can run many whdload games like an emulated one

By the way, one for sure: the CDXL's execution in an emulated Amiga is very crappy.

[Figi]

I agree with spiff and ziovax.

As "using an Amiga" is a pretty wide term, let's narrow it down a bit. Using the miggy for what?

Vintage gaming?

I think that's what most of us do. To play all those classic games, you can get a CD32 or a 1200 from ebay, I got mine for around 30 Euro each. Most of my A500 were gifts from friends who heard that I got a notch on the old machines and had an "why wasting space in my attic if I can give it to him"-attitude. So the financial issues aren't that big. Hook the miggy to a TV set or the 1084 that sat next to it in the same attic, and you have a cool gaming machine, "plug in, turn on and play", no hassle with setting an emulator up, getting blocky graphics because the PC monitor is actually to good and doesn't "wash out" the pixels like a TV set does. Plus, an 68020 doesn't waste energy to produce heat like an Athlon does. ;-)

On the downside, you have to get old games on old media. Even though pretty much every game is available on the internet, looking for them with an A500 might get a little... uhm... does IBrowse actually work on an A500? ;-) Getting the disc images on a PC is easier, transferring them to the real thing and copy them to disc requires to setup a connection, getting some old discs, blabla...

It's a lot easier with the CD32. Burn the CD-200 or any of frostworks compilations on a disc, ready to play!

So, unless you like games that require a mouse/keyboard setup to control them, my advice is: get a CD32, hook it up with the TV set, burn a compilation, and have fun. WinUAE can't beat that. If you still have all the floppies from your "Amiga" era, an 500 or 1200 will do just as good. If you have lots of patience and an A1200 with HDD, transfer the files from the PC (using either some sort of networking (cable) or a CDROM on the 1200), install the games on the HDD, have fun. If you haven't any of those, or if your girlfriend gets upset by the sight of a computer attached to the living room tv set, go for WinUAE.


What about working?

Well, in my opinion this is very limited, especially if your work relies on the exchange of data. If everyone else is using Word documents, using Final Writer may have a cool vintage feeling to it, but will come with a lot of hassle. If you are, say, a web designer, testing your html in IBrowse may be geeky, but if the thing looks ugly in IE6, your customers won't say "it's okay, since you are a true Amigan!".

But ok, let's say there is a lot of actual work you want to do an the miggy. Usually, you will need a pretty up-to-date Amiga system to do that, I'm talking PowerPC + GFX-card here. Now that's getting quite expensive. Most of the time it will, in fact, be more expensive than to just buy some PC stuff and set up a decent Linux on it (which, too, gives you a secure, stable system to work with, and you don't need to become a Windows user ). Get Amithlon, and you even will be able to boot that hardware with AmigaOS.

I'd say, when it comes to working with a decent system and you don't already have the A4000+PPC+GFX-Card under or on your table, emulate. WinUAE gives you the opportunity to run a flicker-free 1280x1024 workbench for the mere cost of nothing, if you already have a PC (and you have one if you don't have a decent miggy to browse the EAB).


What's left? Ah, right, modern, decent games, aka "The Speed issue raised in the first post of this thread".

As has already been stated, both Quake and Doom are ports from the PC, so why would I play the Amiga versions if I got a PC? If you played the games "back then", you most likely did so on a PC anyway, so even the "nostalgica"-bonus gets to that machine. Speed is, in fact, not an issue with those games, sinceyou just don't need an Amiga (real or emulated) to play them.

Vintage games, well, they always run the same speed, regardless if they are played on an A500, a 4000/060 or a PIV-3Ghz. Or at least, they should. Imagine the ghosts in Pac Man running faster than the eye can see. Or Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge driving around with something that resembles sonic speed in real life. Unplayable, dude. ;-)

But there are some native Amiga games that require a lot of CPU power. That's the only thing worth benchmarking when it comes to games. But, honestly, we are talking about how many programs here? Seven? Frankly I don't care if they run with 120 fps on an real A4000/PPC, but 135 fps on an emulating Athlon XP/3000+. There are two speeds: "too slow" and "fast enough". Aren't they?

[forumbase]

Originally Posted by Firthy2002

Nothing beats the real thing.

I totally agree with you Firthy2002.