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WinUAE Emulator for Windows in CD32/CDTV mode
WinUAE - the Unusable Amiga Emulator - isn't as unusable as it was in the past. The latest Windows versions have made huge strides. The latest release - WinUAE 1.4.6 - features a nice drop down menu that makes it possible to quickly select the appropriate machines.
If you want WinUAE to always start in Quickstart mode, make sure to select that option right down above the Start/cancel and help buttons.
As you can see, a whole range of Amigas can be quickly selected and the WinUAE comes with basic compatible modes of each of these machines. It is possible to delve into the standard configurations - tweak and save them if needed. You do need a whole range of Kickstart roms for this function to work as WinUAE can scan for them and use them when one of the machine presets from the Quickstart menu is selected. In order for this to work best it is handy to have your Kickstart files named according to TOSEC.
Both a CD32 and a CDTV option are present and if you are lucky enough to have access to the appropriate rom files that WinUAE can recognize and utilize you're set. I made sure I had mine in place and tried both settings.
Just selecting the cd32 and cdtv presets and start the emulator produced these effects:
Preliminary conclusions:
- So both systems are accessed in emulated form without any big problems, something that I haven't been able to do with Akiko-unregistered or Lemonade - CD32 that is, ADF games run great.
- It seems that WinUAE has in fact caught up with some of the alternatives out there I wrote about earlier - Lemonade & Akiko (I am in fact still waiting for the registration code so I cannot review that emulator properly).
- An Amiga CD32 cd-rom or CDTV cd-rom that sits in the cd/dvd-drive will actually be booted without having to configure a cd-rom drive or anything. More on that later.
- Mark Vergeer's blog
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Comments
Not too bad
That unit is available for $80 + an unreasonably steep $50 shipping fee. Too rich for my blood. Unfortunately, it's the only one I was able to find on eBay. It's cool that it's new in the box, though.
Even with the shipping, that's a fair deal. You won't do much better. I've seen several units pop up lately, but they come and go in spurts. You should definitely be able to get away with ~$100 shipped if you're patient enough.
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
I want one from a trusted source preferably with mouse
I want one from a trusted source preferably with mouse!
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl
eBay CD32
CD32 New In Box
That unit is available for $80 + an unreasonably steep $50 shipping fee. Too rich for my blood. Unfortunately, it's the only one I was able to find on eBay. It's cool that it's new in the box, though.
No luck with winuae
Well, looks like I may be SOL with the CD32 emulation. Finally managed to get the TOSEC roms required for CD32, but trying to run Captive (Liberation 2) just isn't happening. I can get to the CD32 disk insertion screen, and it seems to recognize my CD. At least, I get a splashscreen for the game. However, it seems to lock up at that point--no sound or anything. I might note too that the game seems to be running at an unplayable speed (far too slow).
WinUAE Emulator for Windows in CD32/CDTV mode - part 3
I've tried the same games and got similar performances with WinUAE, not worth making new videos for.
XP Pro - 3.4Ghz HT P4 CPU 2Gb Ram, 6600GT Nvidia AGP
Vista Ultimate - 2.2Ghz DuoCore 2Gb Ram, 8400GTS Nvidia PCI
Conclusion:
CD32 Emulation with help of quickstart WinUAE settings needs to maturequite a bit more in order for it to work in such a way that you can basically throw any cd32 game at it and it will just run the game without problems. Vista plays a smaller role in the equation than I thought, so it is down to the emulator's authors to come up with even better timing. Being cycle exact/or close to it with good interrupt handling seems to be of vital importance to solid cd32 emulation on PC. I is just not there yet in WinUAE form. But you might be lucky when you try a particular game you want to play!
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl
AVG has pretty low system requirements
when it comes to free antiviral solutions.
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl
Stats
Then again, I have just about all the special features turned off, so maybe it'll run smoothly.
A note on vista--I noticed that performance dropped about 50% after I installed a virus program. Before that it was running very smooth.
You should run the that Windows rating thing that's built into Windows. On my Tablet PC, mine dropped to 3.6 from 3.7, but then I tweaked a few things and got it back up to 3.7. You should see what you get with the Antivirus both on and off. Worst case you just disable it when you're trying to play games or just switch to a different program, like one of the free options maybe.
Wii: 1345 2773 2048 1586 | PS3: ArmchairArcade
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
Great videos as usual, Mark.
Great videos as usual, Mark. Looks like these games are a real mess on Vista emulation. That sucks, because my Vista machine is the one equipped with all the emulation software. :(
Then again, I have just about all the special features turned off, so maybe it'll run smoothly.
A note on vista--I noticed that performance dropped about 50% after I installed a virus program. Before that it was running very smooth.
WinUAE Emulator for Windows in CD32/CDTV mode - part 2
Here's some small videos from my experiences on WinUAE with basic settings:
Legend (CD32)
Legend actually runs quite well, it is in fact a tad smoother than the video shows you.
Microcosm (CD32)
This doesn't run well, in places it is way to fast - in other places it is a little slow. Very inconsistent speed.
Labyrinth of Time (CD32)
die Erben der Erde (CD32)
The intro seems to function all right.
D-Generation
Preliminatry conclusions on booting cd32 games on standard cd-32 settings:
Although both the CDTV and the CD32 bios and machine settings are easily accessed from within the WinUAE emulator and running the games is as easy as inserting the cd-rom and press start - the speed at which the emulator executes the games is far from smooth for quite a number of games rendering it not an enjoyable experience that is far removed from the real thing. CD-audio is played just fine, but data streaming or data accessing can slow down the emulator.
The games that do seem to function best are the games that are basically converted disk-games that run from cd-rom instead - they function pretty much as expected but you're better of using the adf of the game through WinUAE or WinUAE with Lemon instead.
CD32 emulation without tweaking on my Duo Core Vista Machine whilst using WinUAE without any additional tweaks is not 100% ready yet. But to me it looks like a speed-timing issue. Most games with flaws have parts that are executed too fast, so there's actually quite a bit of overhead. I am confident that in the near future emulation will be more smooth.
I will compare the experience with my Windows XP professional machine though, perhaps removing Vista out of the equation helps and of course I need to do some tweaking to see if that helps. From what I understand about the Akiko Emulator - that is running cd32-games by patching them real-time and executing them in 1200-mode - is that it is supposed to offer a more solid cd-32 game experience because all the tweaks have been done for you. I am still waiting for the registered version though. It will be nice to be able to compare the both on the same games. More to come....
Editor / Pixelator - Armchair Arcade, Inc.
www.markvergeer.nl