Re: MAME For IIGS?

[nathan@visi.com (Nathan Mates)]

In article <6a2vqv$5sl@daffy.sb.west.net>,
Joe Seeley <joeschmoe@nospam.org> wrote:
>I thought a lot of the arcade games (Gauntlet and the Mr. Do series
>comes to mind) actually used the 6502.  Since the 65816 already has
>this emulator built in I thought that would be a help.  Also, I
>didn't realize the limitations of the accelators.

   Problem: yeah, you can run 6502 code on the 65816 fine. But, it's
not just the processor you're emulating-- you gotta emulate the whole
hardware setup. The original code might expect that a write to $4567
will put a pixel on the screen at X,Y, while on the GS, that's not the
case. [Or the reverse of others' code wanting to use the same memory
locations as several I/O vectors...] You can't trap memory accesses on
the GS and have fun stuff happen automagically like there was real
hardware there.

   If you've got the original 65xx code, you might as well rip it out,
and use that as a base to new UI (graphics, sound, input) code which
you write. And then, the whole point of some emulator environment is
gone-- you have a standalone app.

  Once again, MANY of the classics were ported/mimic'd to the Apple II
a long time ago doing the same thing-- moving the core, adding a UI to
make a standalone app. Why bother wasting time reduplicating efforts?

>>to 4 or 16 colors without limitations. You can play with multiple
>>palettes for up to 256 colors in the 320 mode, but many games used

>This did occur to me after posting the original.  However, I think
>most of the games MAME emulates could be handled by the above
>mentioned 320, 256 color mode, no?

   Quick question: do you know what really has to happen for a 256
color mode screen to work on the GS? You're still limited to 16 colors
per horizontal line. [And that's not gonna change until the GS's
motherboard is swapped out] Different rows on the screen can have
different palettes, but that's still 16 colors/line. The best use of
them in games is to have full rows at the top/bottom for scores/status
with different palettes than the onscreen action. 

>Graphics speed is what would blow though.  Thexder was a good
>example of what could be done although it was all native.

   Thexder was pretty darn jerky in a LOT of places. It's a fine first
generation game, but with a lot of the animation techniques known now,
framerate could be better-- but it'd require a rewrite of the whole
graphics side, and would probably eat triple the memory.

>>    Compared to other orphaned platforms out there, development in the
>>Apple II world has come to a stand-still. I still hold a great interest

>Amen to that!  Sheesh!  The lowly (in comparision to IIGS) C64 has TCP/IP 
>already and even the CoCo has a Doom-like game (called Gloom) in progress. 

   Well, you've got a load of folks trying to put a choke-hold on
developers and yelling out "THE APPLE II IS DEAD!" [mostly in order
that they can pirate more]. When people just blindly accept those
idiots into the 'community' (under the guise of "friendship"), of
course developers aren't gonna want to stay. [Reminds me of Monty
Python: "I'm not dead yet!"]

   Also, from talking to other programmers, we seem to have a surplus
of game-capable programmers. It's *art* that's needed for a lot of
things, and some programmers don't want their lame excuses for art
released. Some (lurking) folks would be more than happy if a bunch of
good artists spoke up.

>Even if one could get TCP/IP and a decent browser going (as well as
>figure out a way to break the 14.4 barrier) it would extend the
>longevity of the IIGS for many years.

   Clue time: >14.4's not a problem on GSs. And if you really think
that a bunch of classic games being emulated are gonna draw people
back to a system, your logic is strangely perverse. Real apps and
usefulness (TCP/IP is working, apps are in development, kiddo) are a
far more sustainable thing.

Nathan Mates



--
<*> Nathan Mates http://www.visi.com/~nathan/      <*>
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# think-- what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? -R.A. Heinlein