Questions tagged [emulation]
For questions about processes and software for emulating retro computer and console hardware (e.g. MAME, QEMU).
106
questions
-2
votes
6answers
126 views
What are the advantages/disadvantages of using retro hardware vs. FPGA emulation vs. software emulation? [closed]
As someone who recently become interested in retro home computers of 80's and early 90's I'm wandering what are the differences between using a real hardware, FPGA based hardware emulators like MiSTer ...
1
vote
0answers
52 views
Do the Tandy CoCo and the Dragon 32 & 64 use all the same disk image file formats?
Tandy's TRS-80 Color Computer "CoCo" and the Dragon 32 & 64 were very similar but not clones and not the same. Floppy disk versions used totally different DOSes and disk layouts.
Both ...
4
votes
1answer
86 views
Are there any CHIP-8 games that break if `SAVE` / `RESTORE` *doesn't* change the pointer register?
The CHIP-8 instructions SAVE Vx (Fx55) and RESTORE Vx (Fx65) are originally specified to increment the pointer register I as each register is saved/loaded, so by the end of the instruction, the value ...
2
votes
1answer
69 views
Which Apple II emulators were the first ones each to use the .do and .po “dsk” floppy disk image file formats?
Apple II emulation must have started around 25 years ago but I can't seem to find a history of emulation of the platform.
There are several disk image file formats but for now I'm interested in the ...
7
votes
1answer
92 views
Understanding the DMK disk image file format used by TRS-80 emulators
DMK is a low-level disk image file format used by TRS-80 Model I & Model III, Tandy Color Computer, Dragon 32 & 64, and MSX emulators. It's capable of representing copy-protected disks and all ...
16
votes
2answers
2k views
Is there a Commodore 64 emulator that can profile running code?
I am developing some software for the Commodore 64, and I am concerned about its runspeed.
Is there an emulator that can report, after running my code, where exactly it spent most of its time? I'm ...
5
votes
1answer
92 views
How to get GOTEK to work with CDTV?
I'm trying to connect Gotek drive to my CDTV using external caddy (amitek).
The drive has 3 digit LED display, after boot i can see F-F. When I insert Flash drive it detects images on it, I can ...
3
votes
2answers
616 views
How does the RST operation of GameBoy (SHARP LR35902) work?
The GameBoy CPU Manual talks about restart operations on page 116. Each of these operations push the current address onto the stack, and then jumps to a specific address (0x00, 0x08, 0x10, etc, ...
2
votes
1answer
121 views
What is the file that VICE refers to as dos1541?
VICE needs a file called dos1541 if you want hardware emulation of the 1541 disk drive. What does that file contain, exactly? The 1541 seems to have two ROMs: a DOS and a KERNAL. But if I take the ...
4
votes
4answers
353 views
Would having the console's CPU help in emulation hypothetically?
If I had a hypothetical computer just like nowaday's computers, but it had an NMOS 6502, would it provide me with a better emulation experience than if I were to emulate the 6502 inside software? Also,...
2
votes
1answer
96 views
Are there open source Java libraries for reading DSK and EDSK disk image files as used by Amstrad and Spectrum +3 emulators?
I've been working on some modules for the Ghidra reverse engineering tool.
Ghidra is written in Java, which I'd always avoided when I was more actively programming so this is an opportunity to learn ...
8
votes
1answer
454 views
Was there ever a functional EGA emulator for the Hercules graphics card?
I used to use a CGA emulator (don't remember which one it was), that could show some gfx even in EGA/VGA-only games (when I selected EGA mode). I remember my frustration seeing some garbled graphics ...
3
votes
1answer
167 views
How to emulate Pocket PC (PPC) 2003?
The OS is at least 17-18 years ago. Yet there is a lot of scattered information and dead ends, and no clarity on how to emulate Pocket PC 2003, the early precedent to Windows Mobile.
How to emulate ...
0
votes
1answer
75 views
Do any of the open source Sinclair ZX Spectrum emulators support both TR-DOS and 3DOS?
The number of Spectrum emulators has been growing for decades now so there's quite a lot for different platforms and written in different languages.
I'm interesting in learning about two of the disk ...
2
votes
2answers
125 views
How do I navigate the boot menu in later model Spectrum emulators?
35 years ago I had an original 48K Sinclair ZX Spectrum. I never had any of the Plus or 128K models and practically never even touched one as I moved onto the Amiga quite early.
I'm now playing with ...
7
votes
2answers
565 views
Why does the .z80 emulator-snapshot format have separate fields for the 8-bit refresh register and bit 7 of R?
I've been looking at the .z80 file format for Sinclair ZX Spectrum games.
Most docs discussing the format include pretty much this wording:
Offset Length Description
-----------------------...
6
votes
2answers
334 views
Are there standalone emulators of Applesoft Basic?
My only retrocomputing desire is to program in Applesoft Basic and relive the Apple II days from the 1980's. Playing games is of no particular interest to me. I just want to use a keyboard, not a ...
1
vote
2answers
202 views
How to get rid of keyboard latency in atari800 emulator?
I use the atari800 emulator v. 4.2.0 on windows 10 and linux in latest version.
(https://atari800.github.io)
I notice an annoying keyboard latency of up to 100-200ms (keypress-to-click and ...
14
votes
2answers
762 views
Does the Z80 allow interrupts after processing and ignoring a 0xdd prefix?
I read here that if the Z80 encounters e.g. multiple 0xdd prefixes in sequence, for each 0xxdd except the last it acts almost like a NOP, but does not allow interrupts to occur immediately after "...
8
votes
1answer
2k views
NES chips usage
I am curently studying NES architecture to create a NES emulator. While looking up the NES motherboard schematics (https://console5.com/wiki/Nintendo_NES-001), some of the chips usage are not clear to ...
12
votes
2answers
643 views
Where to upload the odd and rare emulators and related to them ROMs & software?
Over time, I collected some rare and interesting emulators and their roms and software for, for example, region specific computer machines, rare 1-2 gen consoles and what not. Many of these emulators ...
7
votes
2answers
427 views
Get exact position of raster beam on C64/C128
By reading register $D012/$D011 or when pausing the execution of an emulation in VICE starting the monitor and entering io d000, it is possible to get information about the current rasterline. For ...
2
votes
2answers
233 views
Is there such thing as para-emulation? [closed]
Is there such thing as a para-emulation? Like para-virtualization but for emulation? If so, where could I find a website that describes it?
17
votes
4answers
2k views
80286 real mode emulator for 8086
While trying to use a "modern" sound card (an Aztech Sound Galaxy Pro 16 II) in an XT compatible 8086 computer, I encountered the problem that the drivers and tools (like the mixer initialization tool ...
25
votes
2answers
7k views
How does the Gameboy Link Cable work?
I've been looking into implementing Gameboy Link Cable compatibility into Bizhawk (which does not support it yet) using Lua. The problem is that I can't find any mention of how it works online.
I ...
13
votes
1answer
863 views
Does the Commodore CDTV-CR contain a 65C02 for some reason?
Browsing around the FS-UAE source code I discovered a 65(S)C02 emulation core, which appears to not be referenced anywhere outside of some CDTV-CR related source file.
Apparently, a CDTV is ...
7
votes
2answers
625 views
Build a hardware clone or emulator of Apple II?
These days we are constantly seeing low-cost boards that have huge power (raspberry pi, various arduino-like microcontrollers.)
I am hoping I could make, or get, a clone or emulation of an Apple II ...
2
votes
2answers
341 views
emulator library that allows to partially emulate old games [closed]
EDIT: previously I added a lot of examples to this questions. I removed the examples, because the question was voted to be "too broad", so I put more emphasis on the question again.
Question:
Is ...
5
votes
3answers
496 views
Can someone explain this algorithm used to compute the auxiliary carry flag?
I'm debugging my 8080 emulator and I've gone the route of comparing it to the output of another tested emulator to see where I went wrong. When calculating the auxiliary carry flag, I used this ...
8
votes
4answers
1k views
C64 cartridge emulation with ATmega
As a personal project I had the idea to create a custom cartridge for my Commodore 64 and use an ATmega 1284p microcontroller to emulate eproms and/or custom chips.
Basically my idea is similar to ...
60
votes
10answers
8k views
What makes accurate emulation of old systems a difficult task?
Thanks to a lot of passionate and skilled people, we can emulate pretty much any retro platform today.
For most people they perform well enough, but in fact, a substantial amount of these emulators ...
35
votes
1answer
2k views
Did Windows NT 4 emulate x86 on non-Intel platforms?
I've been trying to find more information about non-Intel versions of Windows NT regarding x86 emulation but found very little about it. There is one sentence about it in the Wikipedia page but the ...
-4
votes
4answers
483 views
Operating systems which have non-x86 instruction set architecture [closed]
What are the most famous operating systems for non-x86 computers? I mean, most famous OS which have different instruction set architecture.
Background (to better understand my task):
I ask this ...
1
vote
1answer
869 views
How to add Final Cartridge III to VICE C64/128 Emulator
How do I properly add Final Cartridge III to VICE Emulator?
In the file menu, VICE has an item Attach cartridge image... which splits up into CRT Image but also a list of several cartridges, among ...
14
votes
1answer
345 views
Could suitably-written Apple-I software force bytes into the display shift register, and do modern recreations emulate that?
The original Apple I didn't use RAM to hold the contents of the display, but instead used a group of six 1024-bit shift registers to hold the display contents and a seventh 1024-bit shift register to ...
6
votes
7answers
1k views
What systems had the lowest resolution ever that still allowed games to be made?
Just for fun, I wrote my own Chip8 interpreter/emulator and it works.
The point is that it works in the terminal, meaning that a pixel is rendered using curses and a # character.
For the Chip8 that'...
14
votes
3answers
658 views
Is there a line printer sound simulator?
To improve "authenticity" of a mainframe simulator and for an additional nostalgic effect, I'd like to add sounds of a line printer to it. They should be similar enough to the original sounds for ...
7
votes
1answer
4k views
Symbian emulator to run Ngage games
I don't really know if this is the correct place to ask this, if not let me know where I should. I would like to know if it would be possible to run Ngage games on an existing Symbian emulator.
There ...
3
votes
1answer
2k views
Emulating IRIX on a modern system [closed]
Has there been any attempt to emulate a system that could run the IRIX operating system?
50
votes
17answers
11k views
Simplest system to create an emulator for
Next year I'm going to teach a 2-semester microprocessors class to third-year undergraduate EE students. In order to sign up for the class, students need to have completed programming and digital ...
21
votes
6answers
5k views
How do arcade ROMs work
The way I understand it, ROMS are like virtual games, and emulators are like virtual game consoles, or handhelds. What I don't understand is how there are ROMs for arcade games, which don't have ...
38
votes
5answers
5k views
Is it possible to make a ROM converter?
Based on my understanding, an emulator is necessary because the machine with the emulator on it (say Windows), doesn't execute the same machine code as the target platform (6502, for example). So what ...
16
votes
5answers
3k views
Why are different emulators needed to run platforms that use 6502 assembly code?
To my knowledge, an emulator turns machine code for a console into something that your computer can understand. For example, assembly code from a Gamecube game is not the same as from a .exe file.
...
11
votes
4answers
4k views
Is there a cycle-exact 8086 emulator?
I'm trying to emulate programs from the 80s, but with an accurate clock-speed¹ (pretending its an 8086). Meaning that if a 8086 would take X ms/opcode, the emulator should take X ms (+- a bit of ...
6
votes
4answers
935 views
Retro emulation with perfect V-sync
I'm building an retro emulator to connect to a PAL (720x576i @ 50 Hz) CRT TV, and would like a perfect V-blank image, so the visuals are identical to original arcades and retro computers.
In other ...
5
votes
2answers
731 views
Open source, non-GPL SID emulator
I am looking for a SID emulator that is open source, but not GPL. In particular, I am looking for something with a license that allows me to link it to a closed-source program; and also one that ...
24
votes
2answers
2k views
Are there runnable Multics systems available?
I've always read that Multics was a failed precurser of Unix, and was interested in seeing how it looks (as in, what features did Unix remove that Multics had, and did more modern Unixen bring them ...
8
votes
3answers
652 views
How to do I/O with emulation code?
I have a partly-written emulation program for the 8086 CPU. And I'm not sure how to go about adding I/O capabilities to it. The emulator implements a subset of the 8086 instruction set described here.
...
2
votes
2answers
429 views
Is emulation ultimately the future of retro computing? [closed]
As you probably know, nothing really lasts forever in the human-made world of appliances, especially electronic ones.
Whether it stems from market evolution, technical advancements, newer paradigms, ...
3
votes
1answer
961 views
Is it possible to make VICE load .prg files faster?
When I load a C64 .prg with the Hoxs64 emulator, my .prg loads pretty much instantly.
But when I load the same .prg file with VICE (x64 app.prg) it takes quite a while (depends on memory map, but ...
