For the purposes of debate, I think the counterargument would be that a software approach is inherently more portable and so more maintainable and more suited to a wide audience. Furthermore, there's no automatic advantage to doing things in hardware, given that these systems are fully deterministic and well understood, other than that it can be easier to get right, but that's primarily because the emulation mindset doesn't normally consider absolute accuracy to be a paramount concern. That's why you very often see people write emulators where interrupt timing is rounded to the nearest whole instruction, palette changes are accurate only to the nearest whole scan line, etc. Authors often prefer to make a subjective judgment about what's 'accurate enough' so that they can prioritise ease of development and/or performance.
Summary then: emulation carries no inherent accuracy penalty. Alternatively, as a person who prefers functionality, surely you can see the benefit in emulation, which is all functionality and no form? The hardware becomes a completely orthogonal issue. On 13 April 2012 11:32, Aleš Keprt <a...@keprt.cz> wrote: > I don't share your thoughts. There already exist a lot of Spectrum clones > based on real ULAs and real Z80 and imo these are much better alternatives > than what you described. You can already buy anything you can imagine. So > many alternatives already exist and were created by huge fan base in the > past, that I can hardly imagine that somebody can really come today driven > by just marketing or business visions and create something significantly > better or more compatible or more useful. > > For example: I personally prefer functionality, not the look of that crappy > original keyboard. So I would prefer a PC keyboard, CF memory card instead > of tapes or disks, and real ULA (i.e. 100% accurate ULA clone), standard 128 > KB RAM, and real Z80 CPU. > For other people who prefer or require the original ZX Spectrum case, they > can buy a new "internals" - this was already possible to buy 10 or more > years ago. (I personally has a working original ZX Spectrum+ and working > original Sam Coupe. :-)) > > I think you are too focused on emulators - why would anybody put a today's > computer with an emulator inside an old ZXS box? It's just funny, not > worthy. I prefer either emulator on a proper PC computer, or original 8bit > Zilog Z80 in an original box. :-)) > > Aley > > -----Původní zpráva----- From: war...@wdlee.co.uk > Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 12:18 PM > > To: sam-users@nvg.ntnu.no > Subject: ZX Spectrum 'relaunch' > > Off on a bit of a non-SAM tangent (but probably somewhat related for > most of us) I came across this the other day: > > http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8304237/ZX-Spectrum-relaunch-gaming-goes-back-to-the-future.html > > Lots of you have probably already heard this, but I don't remember it > being mentioned, so thought I would! ;-) > > Supposedly a company were going to relaunch the zx spectrum this year > (by the looks of it, as a 48k speccy keyboard that links up to an > iPhone or similar to run an emulator), to coincide with the 30th > anniversary, but it doesn't look like it's going to materialise any > time soon. I know something similar is/was being planned for the C64? > > However, it got me thinking... Obviously in this day and age, many of > use want to enjoy the retro gaming experience, but we haven't exactly > got the space to keep things set up. I intend to have my SAM set up > permanently at some point, but I very much doubt I'd ever get the > space to dedicate to other systems, so clearly something that > pleasantly replicates the original experience quickly and easily with > modern advantages would be a pleasing alternative. > > So I figured, what would make an easy to use 'spectrum' emulator for > playing all the old games? You'd want HDMI output for ease with modern > televisions, SD card storage, and have it all fit into one of our old > rubber keyed friends. How do you do this on a budget at that size? The > first thing that popped into my head, is the Raspberry Pi (if it ever > gets to selling!!). Small enough to probably fit in a speccy case, > with HDMI out and card reader. Surely this could make for a fairly > cheap and effective 48k Spectrum emulation experience? > > I think the Speccy is particularly suited, because let's face it, for > most of us it was about the games more than anything. I don't think > anything similar would work for the SAM, because what makes that such > a unique experience (for me, anyway) is the original and additional > hardware in addition to the software. But for a speccy I could see it > being great fun, to play the games with ease on a keyboard that > replicates the old experience but with updated advantages. (I think a > SAM equivalent would have to be more along the lines of Colin's > 'SAM-in-a-can' projects, but rather than old SAM parts, something that > accurately replicates the original hardware with modern additions) > > Not being much of a tech person I'm not sure about the feasibility, > but it seems like a wasted opportunity in todays market where > retro-gaming has had somewhat of a resurgence? > > Warren > > > ----------------------------------------- > Mgr. Aleš Keprt, Ph.D. > private: a...@keprt.cz, www.keprt.cz > office: Moravian College / Moravská vysoká škola Olomouc, ales.ke...@mvso.cz
