Amiga emulators: is it worth it?

[DiskDoctor]

Hello,

Did any of you made ANY of the available Amiga (OCS) emulators working?  I mean thorougly.
I ask because I didn't manage to, using WinUAE, E-UAE, MaxUAE, and others (both Windows and Mac OS).

Also, some time ago I encountered some post on some other forum stating that "no one has ever managed to re-create the original chipset as a Virtual Machine because it was SO PERFECT it is hardly possible if ever."

My problem is EVERY time I managed to set up the proper configurations, e.g. games (it's all about games) were playable but the music was getting stalled every time on rapid pseudo processor's usage.

Classic Amiga music is crucial to me, something one might not accept unfidel.

Or maybe it is my fault because of not optimizing configuration set-up properly?

Please let me know.
It is (PC emulation) my only source of Amiga breeze for the time being...

One more thing, I just learned that running classic amiga files on sam440 requires some emulator, too.  What's my guarantee it is gonna work, for a change?

[DiskDoctor]

the Minimig is the only solution

Yes that's probably the best solution for those wanting to play on a "brand new Amiga 500" environment.

But my case is I'd like both play and use OS4 as my prime desktop environment.

I'm considering SAM with OS4/4.1 and want to use it for playing ancient games (I never managed to get myself interested in any PC game since, maybe there's one exception), also I want to use the web browser, some multimedia features but also some office (word processor MS Word-compatible?) and so.

Actually when considering 1000$ purchase (my local reseller's price), I want something more than just games (Minimig is much cheaper, though)... I want it all!  Or maybe just all that's available, with fewest compromises possible.

I still wonder why OS4 developers didn't simply wrap the classic 1.3 Kickstart as a built-in Virtual Machine.  Apple did it since switching to OS X and the solution is perfect!  Instead, when I want to use Sam I'm forced to go, again, into some software emulation I never trusted.

[DiskDoctor]

Well, listening to this testimonies makes me feel convinced, at least about WinUAE.  For most people sound is not the issue (if there is an issue) so I can blame myself having, again, bad luck.

Actually I did try ALL the provided config files (i.e. from back2roots site), tried each on several games, also I manipulated with some options but... still got my ear aching.

So OK if we consider WinUAE as finest solution on Windows, can anybody claim that made some emulator work as fine on OS X for a change? I tried E-UAE, same story.

And I am really not a lamer computer user..

BTW talking about some emulation, I assume AmiKit and AmigaForever environments claim to perform better?  Or am I just talking nonsense?

[DiskDoctor]

Quote:

    The problem with emulating a computer is that there will always be latency. Usually this is most visible in sound.

I don't think so. Even if there was any latency I doubt any human can notice it.

Maybe I wasn't precise.

The problem with the sound is actually that it rraaapdly loops for a while, then gets back to its pace and time frame.  I called it latency, I should have said echoing rather than that.

Sorry for this confusion.

[DiskDoctor]

AmiKit wrote:
Actually both AmiKit and Amiga Forever uses WinUAE as its own emulation engine.

Sorry for me being so dull; actually it is because I'm trying to catch up with the news, started recently.

But also as I skimmed the AmiKit and AmigaForever www pages, my first impression was not "emulator with some feature pack"; I concluded it must be something else, yet similar...

[DiskDoctor]

KThunder wrote:
if you have any problems setting winuae up on your own from a download, get amigaforever. it is an awesome package that takes 99% of the

swift240 wrote:
I love using Amikit, as far as Amiga emulation goes it has to be the best I have used so far, blazingly fast compared to my Expanded 1200, no more waiting for this or that to open its fast, very fast.

This is why I want to have them both (for a case?), just wanted to be sure.

I wrote:
I assume AmiKit and AmigaForever environments claim to perform better?

So maybe that wasn't silly question to the hilt...

What is performance?  Well once you have all things installed and properly set, AmiKit says the engine's the same - it should work exactly the same.

But when you're not sure about the setup (despite of trying hard), the take-it-out-of-the-box-and-play solutions might be considered working "better".

This is performance, too.  Or maybe configuration is the issue here, too?  As much complicated?

[DiskDoctor]

AmiKit wrote:
@DiskDoctor

Maybe the performance of the user? With AmiKit you can eg. unpack archives with simple drag&drop. This saves much time compared to the bare system which doesn't even have any unpacker program installed...

Well as far as I know a solution's performance one might think of as the level of usability, as compared to the level designed/deserved or some other solutions' level.

So performance is measured by a performance of the user actually.  To the user.

This is all about making things easier; the main reason many people do not use Linuxes is that one needs significant effort (or knowledge or time) to get most stuff work on it, since Win and Mac versions seem causing no problems on installation and are always ready to use.

Users are not necessarily also computer geeks.
Or sometimes they simply do not want to be.

So, still, I claim some alternative distribution working fine without any extra set-up effort (RTFM? No thanks, I'll just step into another store) performs better, from any application's proper perspective - the user perspective.

[DiskDoctor]

 
 @ shoggoth
&@ amigaksi

Guys guys.

Theoretically, given enough speed, say some 10^[original processor speed] x each unit (CPU, graphic etc) one might emulate everything.  Hardware or software, it's a manner of coding efficiency, nothing else (except core I/O).

Old Amigas were excellences, though nothing divine.  Sure it is theoretically possible to re-create this.  But I do not think it is doable on the current PC stuff especially with all WinLinMac stars as middleware...  Nowadays, like software (OS), like hardware.

I was always a critic of this all PC/Mac (maybe less Mac) TB/PHz World of Waste and Pathos.  Just compare the figures with efficiency.  20 years ago I would have said... ill...  That's why I will NEVER leave Amiga.  

This post's purpose was to put the point "UAE works everywhere" in question as I can sense it.  The issue is rather... what if not? why? what then?

I'm thinking that good idea would be mixing Linux with UAE so that it makes a standalone bootable Amiga-like environment, DEDICATED to the PC hardware.  Is it so hard to shed all unnecessary (95%) linux tasks and reinforce the rest with core Amiga emulation functions??  There are so many Linuxes, why not Aminux for a change?

What do you think?

[DiskDoctor]

ferrellsl wrote:
What you're talking about has already been done.  It's called Amithlon.  Works very well on older hardware.

But isn't it like discontinued now?  If I can get it, working, I'm ready do pay much.

[DiskDoctor]

ferrellsl wrote:
It was once a commercial product but is no longer being developed.  You can find torrents for it on the net.  It has a fairly active user group on Yahoo and several people still work on updating the linux kernel and hardware drivers.

So provided that I get sufficient PC hardware (buy tomorrow), can I use it?  Can you drop me a link?

***

BTW I should have mentioned previously MiniMig and NatAmi (soon?) are, too, classic emulators.  If I wanted NEW A500, I'd probably get one since hardware emulation is always best I can trust (BTW I am seriously interested in benchmarking both Amis, once NatA released...)

[DiskDoctor]

Oh, man...

By saying "get" it, I meant buy it...
*EDIT PIII doesn't make it work now.


Nice project, though.
Fortunately nowadays PC hardware (e.g. graphics) is less diverse, so maybe some time...