99er Forums

This is sort of an open ended topic.

What are your thought s of an emulator vs. a real system?

Hi.

I prefer using the real system, as PC keyboards don't look like TI 99/4a keyboards.

But I like using emulators because they are more easily managed; plus I don't have enough hardware add-ons on my real system (yet) but some of the emulators can emulate some of the add-ons (like disks) that I'd love to find out how easy (or not) they are to use (in theory).

Playing cartridge games on a real system doesn't take much longer than on an emulated system; finding a binary copy of the cartridges I own might take a while, though, as I've only recently got into emulations of the TI 99/4a (I don't own many, and the ones I own are probably very popular; I just haven't gone looking yet).

I tend to prefer to design my own games, though I'll happily collect whatever commercial games I can afford; most of the better ones I'll play, but I have so many games and so many computers/consoles I'm very choosy of what I play, and on what.

I do like the TI 99/4a; it is a nice, tidy, powerful, and quite quirky, though a little slow, system, with an amazing range of useful and/or interesting peripherals. Now I know more, I particularly like the TI EXTENDED BASIC cartridge, though I have much to learn about out it; what I've read inspires me to some interesting game concepts.

Whilst I have owned at least one for about four years now (I bought my first from a friend; a second, from eBay, as I needed the tape connection, and wanted joysticks, abut a year or so later) I've not really done much with them except for the last year or so (i.e. since about 2010).

It is nice to be able to copy/paste a screen shot from an emulated session to show someone else by e-mail; otherwise, I've got to stick a video player between the computer and the TV in advance; plus VHS is bulkier in the mail...

Regards.
Pete

I guess that we all have a different prospective on this topic.

As far as I’m concerned the TI99 is more of a retro thing and not a platform that I’m developing games for. I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with developing games for the TI99 either.

My parents bought the TI99 for us in 81-82 so it brings back good memories. I’m playing games on the same console that I used back then and for me It’s nice to have the actual console for the above reasons.

Hi.

It helps to understand that I've enjoyed programming home computers since FEB of 1980; I started out with a TRS80 Model 1 Level II (with 16k) that my step-father bought. As a family, we were interested in computers, so about half of us learned to program it. I spent many years making games and programs for this; I only really stopped when it was inconvenient to access. We soon added 5.25" disk drives to this, an Epson FX-80 printer (with the graphics extension), upgraded the system to the maximum 48k, and so-on. I even wrote my first Z80 machine code game on this; a very crude, but playable, car driving game. Mind you, with a very simple change of graphics, and you'd have thought you were steering a skier down a marked lane... it was not sophisticated!

I enjoyed my opportunities to play games in the arcade; it was nice to see some of them reproduced on home computers, even stuff as humble as the black-and-white TRS80 which usually offered interesting commercial variations such as Galaxy for the familiar Galaxians, or the Asteroids game we had (which has no sound; but my step-father tweaked a copy of the program to make his speech synthesis unit make game noises; interesting project, that was).

We ended up with a lot of software for the TRS80; an amazing collection of operating systems, programming languages, and commercial games, though I probably only played a few of the games because I preferred to program it, than play games. My brother played a lot of games on all the systems we had, though; he was younger than me, and a bit too young to get into progamming at the time. But he caught up, of course...

Later, about 1983, my father (not step-father) bought me and my brother a Dragon 32; we had a very small selection of games for it (my brother played those) whereas I spent most of my time making games for this.

In my last two years of secondary school (I'd be between 14 and 16 at the time, due to my birthday being in July) I had access to an RML 380Z (with 5.25" disks), some RML 480Zs (tape based) and ZX81s (I ignored these, mostly). I spent a lot of my lunch times make games on these, too, until I left that school to go to college for a year.

About 1984, my step-father bought an Amstrad 464; this became the main family computer. After a while, I ended up getting a lot of time on this, so most of my programming ended up on this. We gradually collected a lot of software for it. I was still writing lots of games for this until the mid 90s; it tapered off, after that, though I've written some for it since.

When I was at college, they had lots of BBC Model B's, so I spent a lot of time making games on those, though I did spend a little time playing games on them, too, on occasion.

Once I'd bought a PlayStation, I started collecting all the retro consoles and computers I could get hold of; prior to that, you had to get lucky at charity shops. eBay really helped; so did GameStation, and a few independent game suppliers like the Chips franchise.

As emulators gradually become useful, I collected some; but my goal was to use them for development, and many of the early emulators weren't good development environments as they were designed to play games, not make them on simulated original equipment. I played games on these, but they never really felt right; the sound was usually a bit off, the colours were often funny, and the games were usually buggy until the emulators gradually developed into more robust and better emulations.

I got a bit distracted by DOOM and DOOM2 (on PC) for a while (still do, on occasion, though not always on a PC now) especially with the tools to develop your own maps. I still make maps (WAD files) now, though probably only one or two a month now.

I play on consoles, and sometimes classic computers, when I want to relax and am too tired to concentrate on programming (my day job, as it happens, so probably not an ideal choice for a hobby, even if it seems natural).

I've not had a TI 99/4a for long; probably about four years.

I have only a few games for my TI 99/4a but I intend to get the largest collection I can as and when I can of the best condition stuff I can afford (as with all of my consoles and computers). But it all costs money, and I recently lost my job, so the growth of my collection is somewhat slowed until I receive a good wage again.

My recent stuff on the TI 99/4a is not an example of me becoming computer specific; it just represents access and opportunity. For example, I created my first game on a VIC-20 during (about) 2007 in the native BASIC, within a couple of years after buying my first one.

My first game for TI BASIC was created during 2010; you'll find it available on the 99er web site shortly, assuming it's approved; I only recently declared it "finished". I am creating versions for other computers; none of those parallel projects are complete yet, though my Amstrad 464 versions (I've made two styles of this) are getting there.

But, I have so many projects in my life that I move to whatever interests or inspires me at the time; though, I do hope to create more games for this excellent classic computer (the TI 99/4a) as it is interesting (especially now I've discovered TI EXTENDED BASIC). I never really let a project go cold for long, though some are not very warm any more!

I admit I lost a few hours this last week playing on one of my NEO GEO AES with some friends, and spent a couple of hours "testing" a few PS2 titles I bought cheaply recently on Friday night. I often meet up with friends to play multiplayer games. Many of my friends enjoy classic computers and consoles, but we still drift to (mostly) games from between the mid 90s and about 2005 (the previous generation of consoles; not the modern XBOX 360 or PS3, being the current generation of consoles).

I think I'll probably trend to (mostly) creating new games for classic computers rather than much playing of commercial games on them, though I'll never quite stop doing that. I was playing Thrust on the Amstrad 464 for about an hour or so in my living room recently, then "testing" (for hours) Manic Minor on a ZX Spectrum + for example.

I reckon emulation on mobile devices is where I might experiment next; I already own a GP32 which has a lot of emulators on (though I've just had the smart card crash and lost everything, so I've got to set it up again). This allows convenient play of the classic games, and doesn't tie you down to which computer it ran on as you'll usually have plenty of alternate game versions across the supported computers. Many people use the PC for emulating the complicated stuff but play emulated games on PDAs and such now.

I reckon I've rambled on long enough now, and I should have slept about 8 hours ago; I hope this post inspires people to comment, though, as there is so much any of us could say and stay in topic (although I may have had to put too much introduction in that was not exactly in topic, but leading to it).

Regards.
Pete

The summer of 1989 (I think) was when I did a lot of XB programming on an unexpanded TI, saving to cassette, and we lived in a place with no air
conditioning. I remember that sorta ozone-y smell of a hot console as I sat there drinking iced tea and sweating over my crappy little programs... that's a
sense memory that crops up any time I'm around electrical stuff. You can't replicate something like that (though now that I'm a grown-up with central air,
I'm not 100% sure I'd want to...)