Retro Gaming - Emulation or Real Hardware - Which is Best?

emulator or real thing emulator or real thing which is best let's find out [Music] [Music] hi and welcome to bytes and bits we all know that retro computing is a fantastic way to experience the history of computing and gaming from the past 50 or so years you can trace the development of computer technology which is probably the most influential form of technology ever created and relive its application to the entertainment industry as gaming grew to become the biggest earning area in this market but owning a collection of vintage machines can get very expensive so is it worth this expense or can emulating these computers give you just as much fun so my quick answer to this is that if if you truly want to experience retro computing you really can't beat the real thing having the actual machine in front of you with the authentic look feel smell and sounds is something special and not something you can recreate with emulation but and there is a big but you're dealing with very old pieces of equipment keeping these machines in running order is a hobby in itself parts break components fail peripherals become out of date and incompatible and if you're into electronics this challenge in itself is actually one of the best bits of retro computing but for most of us who just want to play the games it just becomes a hassle that gets in the way of our enjoyment so which route is the best way to go and as usual this is going to depend on your personal preferences but we can look at a few areas that you should really consider so one of the biggest differences is in the cost original retro computers are in short supply simply because they're no longer being made and the global stock is slowly dying from old age you can still get hold of most systems but the costs are generally increasing especially if you want to get one in good working condition on top of this basic system cost you'll also need some extra hardware to be able to use these computers so not all will plug into a modern monitor or tv so you'll either need an original display or some sort of adapter storage devices like floppy disk drives and cassette recorders and original software tapes and disks can be difficult to get a reliable setup even the actual blank media can be hard to locate especially if it's for one of the proprietary systems such as the sinclair ql's micro drives now there are usually sd card based solutions but again these add to the overall cost this cost of course is for a single computer system if you're building up a collection you'll have to pay for each separately now some of the peripherals like displays and tip decks will will be common to most but mostly you'll have to buy parts for each machine compare this to emulation and you've probably already got all the bits you need sitting right in front of you any fairly modern computer will let you emulate almost every retro computer console or arcade machine that ever existed emulators are almost always free and getting hold of the software is as simple as a download now i have made a few videos on how to get everything all up and running and set up on your computer or your raspberry pi so please do check out the rest of my channel for those tutorials and i'll put some links to those in the descriptions down below and of course while you're there please make sure to click on the subscribe button so you don't miss any of my upcoming videos the only real expense in emulation is to maybe get hold of some game controllers if you're into arcade games you can't beat a proper arcade joystick and buttons and if you like the old consoles you can get original style game pads to get that authentic gaming feel but all of these will will cost much less than buying a real system so if we think about general maintenance then as i already mentioned by definition retro computer systems are old some are now getting on for 50 years old and time really is the enemy of any product and you'll find that parts will start to fail now keyboards switches disk drives these all contain moving mechanical parts and these will eventually wear out and fail power supplies use electrolytic capacitors which wear out and those two need to be replaced now all of these sorts of failures can usually be fixed fairly easily but there are some components especially bespoke parts such as ula chips that you can't simply buy replacements for for these you're going to need an actual donor computer to scavenge more parts from now having said all that fault finding and fixing these computers is actually very good fun and as i mentioned earlier um it's almost like a hobby in itself many of the circuits use discrete integrated circuits and components which do actually allow you to trace the signals and actually identify which of the items have been broken now you will of course need some good test equipment to do this but it can be done and indeed taking apart a broken 40 year old computer and making it work again does give you a great sense of satisfaction on the other hand though emulation doesn't suffer from hardware failures or at least as long as your main computer is working your emulator and software they'll just continue to work as long as that's up and running any controllers that break are very easy and cheap to replace we can also start looking at storage space and by this i mean physical storage space rather than hard disk space so all computers do take up space especially if you're going to have them set up and ready to run and each retro system has to be stored when it's not in use and then unpacked and set up with a display and storage device when you want to play your games now once you've got a couple of systems this can start to eat up storage space and desk space so again emulators win out in this area so your pc or laptop is usually always ready to go and if you're using something like a raspberry pi as a gaming console it can very easily fit behind your tv the software for these machines or these emulators sorry lives on your hard drive or on your sd card so your retro computing system basically takes up no space at all so far real machines haven't really come across as a great idea but there is one place where emulators do fall down and that is an authenticity emulators are great but they're not the real thing you can play the games and use the software and you can have all the fun that goes with that but you can't get that authentic experience there's something magical about having the actual machine in front of you using computers in the 1980s and 90s was very different from using computers today when you turned on your bbc micro or commodore 64 you got a blank screen with a flashing cursor and you had to know what to do to get from there to playing a game loading disks and cassette tapes into the relevant drives cueing up the content and getting the computer to load the software it took effort and time and it's not something you can easily simulate now although it sounds like a lot of hassle and i'm thinking back yes it was at the time it's all part of that retro experience watching flashing lines as your spectrum loaded from cassette tape waiting for five minutes and actually listening to the digital data is all part of the appeal of course when it comes to using a computer and we all deal with the keyboard so keyboards on retro computers they also felt very different nowadays keyboards are fairly generic so yes you've got mechanical switches and membranes and so on but any keyboard could be any computer now each retro machine had its very own unique feel when you used it this ranges from the zx80s um sort of feeble excuse for a keyboard through the rubber matte zx spectrum and onto some really great mechanical keyboards from commodore and the bbc machines and you could really tell what computer you were using by this feel alone so from this authentic hardware experience point of view the real machines do win hands down on the software side though emulators are almost an exact replica of what the old machines could manage in terms of look speed and fail now if you're being very very picky you'd see some differences but to be honest they're generally very hard to spot and in no way do they get they spoil your enjoyment of these machines having said that again although the image and sound are almost authentic the actual gaming experience you'll get from an emulator it still has that modern feel to it so in conclusion then are emulators better well as always this is a yes and no answer and it's going to depend on you for me emulators are the way to go i simply want to enjoy the games and easily browse through all of the old computer and consoles and arcade machines without any sort of hassle i don't want my office crammed full of old hardware and i want to be able to use a spare half-hour to indulge in a few levels of manic miner without having to spend an hour setting up my retro system when i do want to experience the real thing i can go to a computer museum now if you haven't been to one i do highly recommend you go you'll get the chance to get your hands on with pretty much every computer system you can think of most museums have computers and consoles set up and ready for you to play if you can't see what you want talk to the staff if there's something you don't see they'll usually be able to sort something out for you and we'll be very happy to do so now i live in the center of uk in england and we usually go to the center of computing history in cambridge and the people there from every time we've been there they can't be more helpful and informative and i know that here in the uk there are a number of really great computer museums and i suspect the same is true for other countries so do check out their events and family games nights and you'll always find something to do now if you don't have a computer museum nearby look out for retro computer clubs or exhibitions and these are another great way to get up and personal with the original hardware so whatever way you decide to go emulation or the real thing do have fun and keep on gaming now if you've enjoyed this video now please make sure to click the like button and subscribe to my channel i'm continually making retro gaming coding and making videos so you'll be able to view them as soon as i make them so thank you for watching and i hope to see you again soon and bye for now for more games programming electronics projects and retro gaming please make sure you like this video subscribe to my youtube channel and visit my website you

Channel: Bytes N Bits

Views: 454

Keywords: emulation, retro gaming

Id: 3KvEKA0fw-o

Length: 12min 43sec (763 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 16 2021