Talk:List of emulators

/Archive 1: May 2003 - April 2006

Split article?

 * Should the article be split into several different articles like say one for CPU emulators, another for computer emulators, and another for gaming systems? it seems quite messy in its current state Songjin 08:17, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

I agree. The categories you propose are good. We would put in this page references to the other lists. Anybody disagrees? --Gortu 09:49, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

NCR 390 Simulator
I have written an emulator (which I call a simulator) for the NCR390 computer, a computer in use during the 1960s. It used punched paper tape, punched cards, and magnetic ledgers. It can be found at: http://www.thecorememory.com/html/simulators.html which is an NCR website run by Aleksandrs Guba. Can this program and website be listed in Wiki?

Thank you.

Dave Morton

No, it's for emulators not simulators.

..................

As I said, it **IS** an emulator (see above), in the sense that it imitates the function of that computer, accepts programs written for it, and achieves the same results as the original computer. I called it a simulator based on IBM's use of the term in the 1960s where the "1401 emulator" (for an earlier mainframe) was an optional firmware component added to a System/360's microcode, enabling the user to run in 1401 mode, while the "1401 simulator" was a program written in 360/Assembler Language that simulated the operation of a 1401 computer, running in System/360 mode, as an ordinary application program. Both produced essentially the same (accurate) results, but one was firmware-driven while the other was software-driven. My NCR390 "emulator" is software driven, and I called it a simulator based on IBM's usage 4 decades ago. Dave Morton MarsDEM 19:21, 7 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Oddly enough, this terminology is also used for the 8051 family (Technically MSC-51) of microchips. They must have been IBM programmers as well.  ;)  Do all other microcontrollers and follow this trend?  In the 6502 world, software and hardware emulation are considered to be pretty much identical - mathematically, emulation and simulation do the exact same thing.  Something some guy named Turing said applies.  Of course that is probably because most 6502 programmers are thinking in software terms, I think.  This provides a source of confusion for laymen to the 8051 like me who initially try to find "emulators" for debugging code only to find out that they need to look up "simulators", instead.  JWhiteheadcc (talk) 21:30, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Recategorization
I just cleaned up the page. I am wondering... does it make sense to have a "Emulators on Portable Systems" section? It would make more sense to just have a list of emulators according to the system being emulated. A list of of emulators according to the system it runs on should go elsewhere.

I also propose using templates, so for example the list of Apple II emulators is not repeated on the "List of Apple II emulators" page.

Let me know.

--Gortu 12:45, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

i think the last complete revision dated of May 2006 is more suitable and complete than the current one. the current one is omitting so many emulators than i cant even describe how much unpleased i am...--LPCA 06:16, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

ah sorry ive just noticed some links i didnt before... still, i dont think all of the emulators are placed on the spinoff pages. and its quite not much visible, the spin off pages should be bolde out i think. that is why i didnt noticed them before and though game systems had been shorted out to portable ones only. so sugestion for bolded spinoff links and perhaps merging portable with non-portable game systems?

ie Nintendo systems & Sega systems & Sega portable systems; Nintendo portable systems; Sony systems and Sony portable systems, etc

or

splitting the page into 2 big sections, the non-portable and the portable

or

making a spin off page for the portable systems just like there is one for non-portable. link back on both spinoffs and place links on the main emulators page. bolded please :) --LPCA 06:25, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

3DO Interactive Multiplayer
emulators are avalable for this system so why are they not listed

FreeDO http://www.freedo.org/


 * added. Darkstar 09:22, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Neo-geo Emulators
I think it might be a good idea to include some neo-geo emulators:

gngeo http://m.peponas.free.fr/gngeo/ Neo-RageX http://home5.swipnet.se/%7Ew-50884/emulator/rage.htm

Starscream?
The Starscream (Star) m68k emulation library by Neill Corlett should be considered for inclusion. This is used in ZSNES, GENS and other emulators. There isnt even a wiki-article for it. (Starscream is a free 68000 and 68010 CPU emulation library). See http://www.neillcorlett.com/star/ --Thejaka 08:44, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

Starsceam is neither free, nor open. Rather the source is just available. It's currently here: https://bitbucket.org/csoren/starscream  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 223.17.25.249 (talk) 16:11, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Project Tempest
The Atari Emulator name is Project Tempest, where it's listed as Proyect Tempest. Also, there is a Wikipedia article for this emulator, the link should work once the respelling is made.
 * Don't be shy, just edit it if you spot a mistake. See also Be bold in updating pages. Fixed it. Michael Drüing 03:14, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Model-b
Downloadable from http://modelb.bbcmicro.com/

My favourite BBC emulator. I like it so much because you can easily pre-program the BBC keys assigned to your PC, for each game before hand, by naming the .ini files after different game names.

As an example, when I boot the emulator from a multi emulator front end, the fire key has been preset as the PC's “Left Ctrl” key, for whatever the game being played and whatever the key assigned to fire was originally set on the BBC Micro computer.

The command line (not inlcuding Model.exe command) I use in a multi emulator front end:-

-inifile .ini -mount0  -autoboot

Shortgamename being the game name, minus the discription of the game file, ie. gorf instead of gorf.ssd. Gamedir being Game directory ie. C:\Desktop\BBCMICRO\

The default name of the ini file is beeb.ini. So, if you want to play Gorf, with preset keys for fire, start and left/right movement, you would have to create an ini file called gorf.ini. The ini file can be viewed using notepad and it can be copied to be renamed (to start the emulator from its own front end, there has to be a beeb.ini file present).

Model-b is close to being one hundred percent compatible with all games released on the BBC model B. It is also win 95, 98, ME, 2000 and XP compatible.

zx32
Downloadable from http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/9932/

There are four updates to this emulator, which should be downloaded one at a time from earliest to latest over the last full release of ZX32 in 1997. The updates allow certain games such as "Arkanoid" to be played, with the addition of the option, “Emulates slowdown on memory accesses”. The updates also allow different screen settings to be made, such as the removal of the scanlines.

ZX32 is Windows 95, 98, 2000 and XP compatible. This emulator is compatible with virtually every ZX-Spectrum game/program ever released, for all models of the computer.

As an aside, why is "MESS" listed as a specific emulator for the ZX-Spectrum! I think it emulates a few more systems than that, does it not?

Koleko
A Colecovision emulator that comes with all the old commercial Colecovision game roms, included. Perhaps, that makes it illegal.

The emulator is compatible with Windows at least up to xp professional.

Easy to boot up from any multi-emulator front-end, allows different resolution settings and full screen stretch modes, to be set by simple command lines or while the emulator is running, using Function keys.

Downloadable from http://www.planetemu.net/ and other places.

N64 emulators
why are the N64 emulators not listed?24.109.218.172 20:45, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
 * See List of video game consoles emulators: Nintendo -- DarkJedi613 18:35, 11 October 2007 (UTC)

Illegal Linking
Having links to video game console emulators is illegal, and as stated here [] internet content providers (like WP) can be held liable for commiting this crime. Console emulators/roms are illegal, and I suggest that the links to the emulator sites be removed. -- Awinnerisyou (talk)
 * Cooperations have a nasty habit about lying about copyright. Emulators themselves are typically legal (unless they use copyrighted code), although using them to play rips of commercial games that you DLed obviously isn't. -Aknorals (talk) 10:47, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

Separate article for comprehensive list of CPU emulators?
I was interested in what kinds of emulators/simulators/debuggers exist for these, to start with:

8031/51/32/52 (MSC-51)

6502

6809

8080

Z80

8088/8086/186/286/IA32 (80386+)

AMD 64 (x86-64/x64)

Itanium (EPIC/IA-64)

ARM 7

PowerPC (both 32-bit such as PowerMacs and 64-bit such as 970/Xbox/PS3)

AS/400 (Predecessor to PowerPC)

System/360

Oh heck, just about everything in here:

Comparison_of_CPU_architectures

JWhiteheadcc (talk) 21:55, 9 April 2011 (UTC)

Where is the line?
Where is the line between emulators and other types of software?

Specifically, is it correct to call Cygwin an emulator?

Cygwin provides an API, a subsystem called POSIX, plus bunch of pre-compiled applications. It is somewhat similar to Wine for Linux. Wine is an implementation of Windows API and subsystems for Linux. Likewise, Cygwin is an implementation of Posix API (which is used not only by Unix-like OSes — see BeOS or SkyOS), but for Windows. If we consider Cygwin is an emulator, then Wine is an obvious emulator, because Wine allows to run applications for Windows without any recompilation (no sources needed, only the same executable you would normally run on Windows), i. e. in binary form, while Cygwin does not. It does not allow to run any Unix or Linux application, even most basic. To make run POSIX-based program through Cygwin it is required to compile it from sources (like we do on any other Unix-like OS, but we not saying "Linux emulates Unix"), and even more, there is no guarantee it will compile and work normally whithout any changes — most of pre-compiled packages of Cygwin were heavily patched.

Also note, there are much more POSIX environments for Windows (and other OSes too) like Microsoft`s own. Are they emulators too? If we get so far, we should consider Windows API (and any other API) is emulator too (emulator of Windows for Windows, yeah). We could say, Windows NT (which is pretty different OS family from Windows 9x) emulates older Windows through WinAPI. And we should not forget about modern Windows on Windows, not speaking of NTVDM. Or Win32s — what is this? Emulator of Windows 95 for Windows 3.x?..

So, where is the line between emulators and other types of software?

--Mimocrocodylus mimocrocodylus (21:15, 4 September 2016 (UTC)) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 37.52.82.219 (talk)

should WSL be added?
WSL emulates Linux more or less. is it considered an emulator or literally just Linux on Windows? It could be worth to at least mention it