Emulator or Real Computer?

[mike_cc]

After about five minutes of play I often stop noticing the difference between the emulated game and the one I remember on Amiga hardware. Though mainly only when playing pick-up-go stuff though, like Deluxe Galaga or my old fav, Cybernetix. Had so little time to play anything bigger than a handheld recently.

Agree that it's not the same. I love messing around in PersonalPaint7 but find it a rigmarole to get the aspect ratio correct via pc emulation. On the original mig + CRT telly it's automatically right. This issue and the ones mentioned by the others is what's pushing the man-cave project.

 

[CrazyC]

I like the real hardware but its not really due to the experience of playing original games etc (although thats good) vs emulation.
I guess it more like choosing to have a classic car that requires more maintenance etc, you invest something of yourself in the kit, and I still find it awesome that the original hardware is still going 20 odd years later..

 

[Harrison]

The tinkering aspect is the one that has always made me enjoy real hardware. However it can be just as frustrating (and expensive) as it can be enjoyable.

Playing actual games, emulation has some big advantages. With access to much better game controllers and other devices a game can be 100% more playable than they ever were back on they original hardware. A good example is something like an arcade style game on the Amiga. Fighting controls with an old Amiga joystick was always just that, a fight to make the joystick do exactly what you wanted. Emulate the Amiga with an Xbox 360 controller, or something like an X-Arcade controller and the game instantly becomes a lot more playable and enjoyable as a result. Even games with very fiddly precision jumping can suddenly be playable.

 

[CrazyC]

The tinkering aspect is the one that has always made me enjoy real hardware. However it can be just as frustrating (and expensive) as it can be enjoyable.

Surely the more the frustration along the way, the more satisfaction at the end?



(Should I nominate myself for the quotes contest or will someone else do it?) icard

 

[freehand]

Play a smooth scroll er shoot em up and I think it would be a dead give away compared to the real thing using a 1084 e.t.c. that its a dirty fake

Play real.

Programming or configuring emulation.

Saying that vector base games like frontier is kinda cool on fast pc.

 

[Collz69]

This all depends on what you are looking for,

If you want an authentic Amiga experience then real hardware wins hands down, an original Amiga connected to a CRT monitor or even a CRT TV with RGB is about as good as it gets.
But,
If you want convenience & speed then emulation is unbeatable, I use Amiga Forever on my PC, not because I can't use the normal winuae, it's just that Amiga Forever is just too nice & simple.
If you want to just play games then emulation is great, especially for games that used many disks like monkey island.
Some people like to tinker about with real hardware & they don't mind all the problems that can arise, it's horses for courses!