Emulators
- Thread starter H2OSX
- Start date
On that note, I have tried to find working emulators for classic systems (SNES, Genesis, etc.), and have had trouble in doing so. I know that there is SNES9X Custom for MAC OS X, but have yet to find a working copy.
So my question is, does anyone know of a good source for working emulators?
So my question is, does anyone know of a good source for working emulators?
Damrod
Registered
Or try www.emulation.net
Emulation.net is sadly no more. I don't know the specifics, but I think that the hosting service had a crash in which the website was lost, and because John Stiles is so busy at Blizzard he decided not to bring the site back. It's a shame since it was pretty much the grandfather of all mac emu news sites out there.
Whoops I spoke a little too soon it seems. Upon further reading of the thread at Mac Emuscence(http://forums.emuscene.com/viewtopic.php?t=351773&sid=9950b49b10407477605fb2e7775fb246) it seems that Em that lead designer of emulation.net is bringing the site back up. Apparenlty the DNS change hasn't gone through the global DNS lookup servers so you won't be able to get it by typing in just emulation.net into your web browser atm. However there are instructions in that thread to get to the site if you want to see it. It involves a little more than just typing the IP address into your web browser too. Personally I think I'll just wait until the DNS change carries over 
. Sorry for that scare everyone. I didn't read the entire thread the first time I looked at it, and just assumed the site was gone forever since Stiles had no more time for it.
. Sorry for that scare everyone. I didn't read the entire thread the first time I looked at it, and just assumed the site was gone forever since Stiles had no more time for it.
Ifrit
Registered
Emulation of next gen video game consoles is still impossible or at its early state (which means that the developer are happy to squeeze some debug numbers out of a subroutine of the game to reverse engineer certain functions).
For a full emulation of all system functions you'll need a system which is at least 5 - 10 times more powerfull, not taking into account that the current games systems are more complex than lets say an SNES, or Sega Genesis.
Of course you could argue: "Well but it is possible to emulate a gba advance or SNES system on a PDA or Gamepark 32 handhed device". Well, the last official SNES release was at the middle of 1997 one or two years before emulators became really useable (Around 1997 the Pentium 200MHz was released and even that machine is to slow to handle SNES games which utilize the FX or FX2 chip).
Nearly 6 years have passed until most projects reached this status. Even til today it isn't possible to play all psx games on a X86 system or an PPC system.
And concering emulation of certain systems the mac platform unfortunally is still disadvantaged. The only psx emulator which I consider as useable is epsxe for x86 system (Linux & Windows systems). There is flarestorm which I was unable to get to work, this is as next gen as you get on a mac.
Ah yeah there is Connectix virtual game station, very good (comercial) psx emulator but it will only work on OS9 (not classic). Unfortunally it is discontinued, Sony played the "write down the biggest number you can imagine" card and bought the technology. VGS is still a very good psx emulator although you'll run into problems if you try to emulate certain Square games. Most of them used special frame buffer technic or did odd things to gain more performace on the playstation, like moving texture data into unused sound memory.
To sum up, even as owner of classic games I don't consider emulation as a bad thing. The mac isn't exactly blessed when it comes to gaming (compared to other platforms), and emulation makes a lot of neat things possible like enhancing the dated graphics with filters (2xsai, opengl smoothing, bilinear filtering, higher resolutions). Its fine not to have to carry my classig gaming systems around, just my sleek ibook and the tv out adaptor + USB gamepad, if I feel the urge to play a round of Sonic 2, or Comix Zone at my friend's house. If you want to play current gen games you'll better consider buying the real hardware + games, it will take "ages" until the emulation is perfect enough (or even finished) to have a good gaming experience on your mac.
edit:
Concerning PC games, virtual PC isn't an alternative, no support for 3D acceleration, doesn't work on G5 systems, even to slow for most "every day applications".
For a full emulation of all system functions you'll need a system which is at least 5 - 10 times more powerfull, not taking into account that the current games systems are more complex than lets say an SNES, or Sega Genesis.
Of course you could argue: "Well but it is possible to emulate a gba advance or SNES system on a PDA or Gamepark 32 handhed device". Well, the last official SNES release was at the middle of 1997 one or two years before emulators became really useable (Around 1997 the Pentium 200MHz was released and even that machine is to slow to handle SNES games which utilize the FX or FX2 chip).
Nearly 6 years have passed until most projects reached this status. Even til today it isn't possible to play all psx games on a X86 system or an PPC system.
And concering emulation of certain systems the mac platform unfortunally is still disadvantaged. The only psx emulator which I consider as useable is epsxe for x86 system (Linux & Windows systems). There is flarestorm which I was unable to get to work, this is as next gen as you get on a mac.
Ah yeah there is Connectix virtual game station, very good (comercial) psx emulator but it will only work on OS9 (not classic). Unfortunally it is discontinued, Sony played the "write down the biggest number you can imagine" card and bought the technology. VGS is still a very good psx emulator although you'll run into problems if you try to emulate certain Square games. Most of them used special frame buffer technic or did odd things to gain more performace on the playstation, like moving texture data into unused sound memory.
To sum up, even as owner of classic games I don't consider emulation as a bad thing. The mac isn't exactly blessed when it comes to gaming (compared to other platforms), and emulation makes a lot of neat things possible like enhancing the dated graphics with filters (2xsai, opengl smoothing, bilinear filtering, higher resolutions). Its fine not to have to carry my classig gaming systems around, just my sleek ibook and the tv out adaptor + USB gamepad, if I feel the urge to play a round of Sonic 2, or Comix Zone at my friend's house. If you want to play current gen games you'll better consider buying the real hardware + games, it will take "ages" until the emulation is perfect enough (or even finished) to have a good gaming experience on your mac.
edit:
Concerning PC games, virtual PC isn't an alternative, no support for 3D acceleration, doesn't work on G5 systems, even to slow for most "every day applications".
enathan1085
Registered
woohoo!
Evil Ryu
Guest
I personally cant get enough of MacMAME. MAME being a multiple arcade machine emulator. Theres thousands of games out there for it. Worth a try (if you can get hold of roms)
As for the most recent console emulated, it would be the N64, which hasnt been mentioned yet. Playing Mario 64 on a keyboard is weird though!
As for the most recent console emulated, it would be the N64, which hasnt been mentioned yet. Playing Mario 64 on a keyboard is weird though!