3 ms·

> there has been a basic Spacewar! emulator in Java since 1997, but it only recreated the game on an abstract level, missing the intricacies of the display Did

> there has been a basic Spacewar! emulator in Java since 1997, but it only recreated the game on an abstract level, missing the intricacies of the display Did this version actually emulate PDP-1 machine code, or was it a purely mechanical clone? Because if it's the latter, then that isn't an emulator. Either way though, Spacewar is definitely one of those examples where the hardware directly impacts the experience. This is also why I am saddened by the fact that the only truly good CRT emulation I've personally witnessed is from Super Win The Game!, and since I believe that game is closed source, it unfortunately cannot be repurposed for other games or emulators. Unless you happen to know of a particularly good reshade implementation or something. For a game like Super Metroid, the "CRT experience" essentially boils down to "a greater sense of atmosphere and an enhanced sense of depth in some of the sprites". Does this arguably improve the experience? Yes. But the core experience of Super Metroid is not lost if you can't experience it this way - I would argue Spacewar does lose a core part of its experience without that iconic display, and I absolutely believe we should make an effort to preserve that experience.

masswerk 7y ago
Regarding the Spacewar! emulation: The original one was by Barry & Brian Silverman and Vadim Gerasimov (in fact, every PDP-1 emulation, including simH, is based on this code). The Java emulation was a bit clunky on average machines (this being 1997), but later they ported it to JS and the HTML5 canvas [1]. It does instruction level emulation of the original code, but doesn't emulate the specific display, thus having to clamp two frames into one and halving the frame rate. My version [2] built on this (with kind permission), adding further instructions and some enhanced fidelity in order to support a broader range of software. Also, there's now a more accurate screen emulation – well, as good as you could do in 2012 in a web browser on average hardware. Which is also of some importance for running classic "display hacks", which would otherwise just display a cloud of dots without much of a sense or meaning. Generally, I like the media aspect and the material aspect of media, so I tend to put a bit of importance to this. Another aspect is the kind of artistic stroke in these media surfaces. E.g., Spacewar! owes much to the point plotting x/y display, combining both drawing and painted effects, e.g., for the explosions (these were known as painted displays for a reason). Maybe the most interesting video games in this respects are the early Atari coinops, which expose their internal construction in their compositions of counter-based video windows like Gothic architecture. (Something, which is missed as soon as there were bitmapoed graphics.) We should try to preserve this kind of context. Not to the least, binary encoding is nothing without context – there's no clue to what this might be without external knowledge. (Is it a binary image, a music stream, a program, a data set? What is the compression algorithm used? What are the dependencies, on what kind of machine did it run? What was its purpose? Why was it worthwhile? How did it compare to other solutions? What were contemporary preferences?) There's actually an entire encyclopedia to go with every file. Preserving this will be a huge aspect of conservation, as digital artifacts pile up. [1] https://spacewar.oversigma.com/html5/ https://spacewar.oversigma.com/html5/ [2] https://www.masswerk.at/spacewar https://www.masswerk.at/spacewar [3] https://www.masswerk.at/minskytron https://www.masswerk.at/minskytron Edit, regarding > "For a game like Super Metroid, the "CRT experience" essentially boils down to "a greater sense of atmosphere and an enhanced sense of depth in some of the sprites". Does this arguably improve the experience? Yes. But the core experience of Super Metroid is not lost if you can't experience it this way" If there's some to "the media is the message", well, this was originally based on a study on the effects of projected media and the value attributed to it regardless of the content. So, yes, the specific mode of projection and the mode of bodily sync might be well the better part of the experience. However, the Great North American Video Game Crash (appropriately spelled and pronounced GNAVGC) may be still an argument to the extent that the contents still matters, at least a bit. :-)
- grawprog 7y ago
  >> "For a game like Super Metroid, the "CRT experience" essentially boils down to "a greater sense of atmosphere and an enhanced sense of depth in some of the sprites". Does this arguably improve the experience? Yes. But the core experience of Super Metroid is not lost if you can't experience it this way" In all honesty I really have trouble buying the idea that a CRT is necessary to enjoy super metroid(or these old games in general). That's my favourite game, I grew up playing it on a snes, when we put the snes away after we got an n64, I kept playing it on emulators, the last time I played it I used an 8bitdo sn30 over Bluetooth on retroarch on my android phone, the game is the same. The atmosphere is the same, playing it felt the same, there was nothing 'missing' by not playing it on my snes on the old crappy TV in the hallway while my family walks back and forth in front of me. Eight year old me would have been amazed and exctatic if he could have carried around and played the entire catalogue of 8,16 and 64 bit console games on a small computer that fits in my pocket using a wireless controller. I've always thought of consoles as simply a means to play games. I love that there's hardware accurate emulators or even inaccurate emulators, that I have the ability to play these games on nearly any popular device that exists with graphical enhancements or using one of the many hacks or fan patches available. Being freed from the original hardware these games were developed for has allowed them to live on and be enjoyed in ways nobody back then even considered and for me that's far more awesome and exciting than trying desperately to recapture the exact look and feel of all these games.
  - wtallis 7y ago
    CRT emulation of some kind is sometimes necessary to accurately render effects that were intended by the original artists. For example, this waterfall transparency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4QOHe4bOZc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4QOHe4bOZc Then there's the fact that a lot of early console artwork was designed to be output on a composite video cable instead of as separate RGB channels, so the crosstalk may need to be emulated to get the right color blending: http://www.chrismcovell.com/gotRGB/rgb_compare.html http://www.chrismcovell.com/gotRGB/rgb_compare.html (The reduced effective spatial resolution is often more of a detriment, so plenty of games do look much better in pure crisp RGB from an emulator.)
  - 7y ago

masswerk 7y ago

Regarding the Spacewar! emulation: The original one was by Barry & Brian Silverman and Vadim Gerasimov (in fact, every PDP-1 emulation, including simH, is based on this code). The Java emulation was a bit clunky on average machines (this being 1997), but later they ported it to JS and the HTML5 canvas [1]. It does instruction level emulation of the original code, but doesn't emulate the specific display, thus having to clamp two frames into one and halving the frame rate. My version [2] built on this (with kind permission), adding further instructions and some enhanced fidelity in order to support a broader range of software. Also, there's now a more accurate screen emulation – well, as good as you could do in 2012 in a web browser on average hardware. Which is also of some importance for running classic "display hacks", which would otherwise just display a cloud of dots without much of a sense or meaning. Generally, I like the media aspect and the material aspect of media, so I tend to put a bit of importance to this. Another aspect is the kind of artistic stroke in these media surfaces. E.g., Spacewar! owes much to the point plotting x/y display, combining both drawing and painted effects, e.g., for the explosions (these were known as painted displays for a reason). Maybe the most interesting video games in this respects are the early Atari coinops, which expose their internal construction in their compositions of counter-based video windows like Gothic architecture. (Something, which is missed as soon as there were bitmapoed graphics.) We should try to preserve this kind of context. Not to the least, binary encoding is nothing without context – there's no clue to what this might be without external knowledge. (Is it a binary image, a music stream, a program, a data set? What is the compression algorithm used? What are the dependencies, on what kind of machine did it run? What was its purpose? Why was it worthwhile? How did it compare to other solutions? What were contemporary preferences?) There's actually an entire encyclopedia to go with every file. Preserving this will be a huge aspect of conservation, as digital artifacts pile up. [1] https://spacewar.oversigma.com/html5/ https://spacewar.oversigma.com/html5/ [2] https://www.masswerk.at/spacewar https://www.masswerk.at/spacewar [3] https://www.masswerk.at/minskytron https://www.masswerk.at/minskytron Edit, regarding > "For a game like Super Metroid, the "CRT experience" essentially boils down to "a greater sense of atmosphere and an enhanced sense of depth in some of the sprites". Does this arguably improve the experience? Yes. But the core experience of Super Metroid is not lost if you can't experience it this way" If there's some to "the media is the message", well, this was originally based on a study on the effects of projected media and the value attributed to it regardless of the content. So, yes, the specific mode of projection and the mode of bodily sync might be well the better part of the experience. However, the Great North American Video Game Crash (appropriately spelled and pronounced GNAVGC) may be still an argument to the extent that the contents still matters, at least a bit. :-)

grawprog 7y ago
>> "For a game like Super Metroid, the "CRT experience" essentially boils down to "a greater sense of atmosphere and an enhanced sense of depth in some of the sprites". Does this arguably improve the experience? Yes. But the core experience of Super Metroid is not lost if you can't experience it this way" In all honesty I really have trouble buying the idea that a CRT is necessary to enjoy super metroid(or these old games in general). That's my favourite game, I grew up playing it on a snes, when we put the snes away after we got an n64, I kept playing it on emulators, the last time I played it I used an 8bitdo sn30 over Bluetooth on retroarch on my android phone, the game is the same. The atmosphere is the same, playing it felt the same, there was nothing 'missing' by not playing it on my snes on the old crappy TV in the hallway while my family walks back and forth in front of me. Eight year old me would have been amazed and exctatic if he could have carried around and played the entire catalogue of 8,16 and 64 bit console games on a small computer that fits in my pocket using a wireless controller. I've always thought of consoles as simply a means to play games. I love that there's hardware accurate emulators or even inaccurate emulators, that I have the ability to play these games on nearly any popular device that exists with graphical enhancements or using one of the many hacks or fan patches available. Being freed from the original hardware these games were developed for has allowed them to live on and be enjoyed in ways nobody back then even considered and for me that's far more awesome and exciting than trying desperately to recapture the exact look and feel of all these games.
- wtallis 7y ago
  CRT emulation of some kind is sometimes necessary to accurately render effects that were intended by the original artists. For example, this waterfall transparency: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4QOHe4bOZc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4QOHe4bOZc Then there's the fact that a lot of early console artwork was designed to be output on a composite video cable instead of as separate RGB channels, so the crosstalk may need to be emulated to get the right color blending: http://www.chrismcovell.com/gotRGB/rgb_compare.html http://www.chrismcovell.com/gotRGB/rgb_compare.html (The reduced effective spatial resolution is often more of a detriment, so plenty of games do look much better in pure crisp RGB from an emulator.)
- 7y ago