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I agree with the MAME part but when it comes to other systems such as SNES Genesis and most other 8bit and 16bit systems the xbox versions feel superior to the PC versions.
The "Feel" bit, I can agree on (in a way). Especially if you are sat infront of a small-ish PC monitor, and without a quality controller. And, of course, an old PC.
But the emulators themselves, are way short of most PC ones. And in most cases, are often way short of updates, as well.
Look at some of them, side by side.
ZX Spectrum - A complete lack of Xbox ports makes for a bit of an unfair advantage to the PC, but thats not to take away from such superb PC emulators as "Klive", and "EmuZWin"
PCEngine - The PC version of Magic Engine (even though it costs), is just superior to the Xbox version of Hugo. And because of a lack of open source quality PCEngine emulators,
like Magic Engine (in terms of quality) it will always be that way.
N64 - Even though there are now ports of 1964, Project64, they
still can't compete with the PC versions. Especially since the PC is now getting regular updates of Rice's superb plugin, and the fact that Jabo's will never become open source. Then there's the fact the one can run N64 games at resolutions like 1280x960 with 6x AA, and 16x AF, and NOTHING touches the look of, say... Zelda OOT, at this res. It looks and runs beautifully.
Dosbox - WHY !!?? DOS games, were never intended to be run on a console connected to a TV. I know I would personally rather sit here, infront of a computer playing old DOS games, than infront of a TV simply because it feels soo wrong on a TV.
Amiga - The Xbox port of an older UAE, isn't bad, but somehow just doesn't look or feel right. Amigas, if taken seriously, were always better on monitors. And
IF ran at a 50hz res, at 720x576 for example, with VSync on, always looks soo much better on a PC monitor. The crisper graphics and much more readable text, smoother displays, and far superior sound, make for a better experience. Then there's also the ability to run a fully configured Workbench 3.9, at high-res.
Playstation - ePSXe, really sets the standard for PSX emulation. Again, like N64, you can bump up the res, use all sorts of new clever filters, and Pete's new OpenGL 2 with shader 2.0 support has endless possiblities. The Xbox port of pcsx, is quite simply, awful. I really didn't like using this emulator. It was slow, and lacks any sort of Xbox plugin support.
Then there's stuff that you'll likely
never see like Acorn Archimedes, Apple Mac OSX (I did read of a port, but that would be painfully slow), Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, MESS (it would be literally a mess), Namco System 22.
Then the rather dodgy ground stuff like Gamecube emulation, and PS2. Something the Xbox will
Never see in it's lifetime. GC, is slow with Dolphin. Yet I'm able to play a rather slow game of Paper Mario, on such an early beta is impressive.
I've probably came off sounding like a c*nt, at the moment, but thats far from my intentions. The PC, does come under fire from quite a lot of areas, and I simply give it a side that it well deserves. Afterall, there wouldn't be an Xbox scene if it wasn't for the great open-source PC emulators out there. And way too much thanks go to the "Porters", and NOT the "Coders", who've probably spent
years coding their stuff for free.
And just to edit, I really think the Xbox emulation scene is fantastic. I really do.
If it wasn't for modding, and emulation, Media Center, etc.. then the Xbox would be in 3rd place in the console war. The whiners, the whingers, and the same tired old "Where's my GC,PS2,Saturn etc.." questions
Do ruin this great place, at times.
And the constant, "I want, I want, I want", that you get from newbies and greedy poeple, still make this place a bit of a sore point, for some. This put me well off Xbox emulation, and something I've not gone back to since summer last year.
The mods do well enough to clear up the mess, although a stickied topic that says whats NOT available, would be nice. It probably won't stop them, but they will have an answer
before they post another stupid question.
This post has been edited by ChrisW7: Mar 8 2005, 07:30 PM
