I am ready to pay for an emulator.

Cmtz · Post by **Cmtz** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 2:57 pm

What if we make a poll asking the emulation community which
emulator they would like to see.

PC Engine (full Speed)
Sega CD
NeoGeo CD
Genesis (full or very close to full speed)
SNES (faster than DreamSNES)
x86/DOS (full speed)
GBA (this would kick so much ass)
Palm OS (full speed)
3DO
Philips CD-i (full speed)
wonderswan (full speed)
neo geo pocket (full speed)
amiga
Playstation (more than likely it will not be close to full speed)

What do you guys think?

az_bont · Post by **az_bont** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 3:05 pm

The problem I'd have with paying for emulators is that it'd be almost impossible to make them any better than the equivalent on Xbox, and it would most likely be worse.

bleem!cast, however, has yet to be topped, and I don't think the Xbox will ever be able to emulate games to a stadnard as high. If Rand were ever able to sell it again - which I know will never happen, but I'm speaking hypothetically - I'd gladly fork out $50 or more for that FFIX release he had planned, because there would be no other way to get that much more out of the game on a console.

Cmtz · Post by **Cmtz** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 3:08 pm

az_bont wrote:The problem I'd have with paying for emulators is that it'd be almost impossible to make them any better than the equivalent on Xbox, and it would most likely be worse.

bleem!cast, however, has yet to be topped, and I don't think the Xbox will ever be able to emulate games to a stadnard as high. If Rand were ever able to sell it again - which I know will never happen, but I'm speaking hypothetically - I'd gladly fork out $50 or more for that FFIX release he had planned, because there would be no other way to get that much more out of the game on a console.

Yea, I know what your saying, but money makes things happen. We can give it a try and if it doesn't work we don't have to do it again. If your not to sure about this put at least 3 or 5 dollars in the donation basket.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 3:15 pm

If I were you I'd give people some time though. Something like this isn't going to get done quickly. And really, taking into consideration how much time it'll take to do something like this, if the prize is $100, then the author will still be getting paid less than $1/hr to work on it.

But, if you want to go ahead with it, I'd talk to Metafox.

FlashPV · Post by **FlashPV** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 3:16 pm

Here's what I'd like to see I'm sure the Dreamcast can emulate all theses systems fullspeed with sound
-Amstrad CPC
-Sega Genesis
-Nec PC Engine
-Nintendo Snes
-Capcom CPS1
-Sega System 16 & 18

DuffMan · Post by **DuffMan** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 3:35 pm

I think it would grow to be more then 100$, we already have 50$ that people said they would donate.

Cmtz · Post by **Cmtz** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 3:37 pm

How does 4 months sound?

Ender · Post by **Ender** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 3:51 pm

Well, I'm definately not entering, so you can feel free to ignore this post but...

Lets say you have 4 months to program an emulator from scratch. For anything at all complicated, that's at least the equivalent of a 20 hr/week job (probably more like 40). Now, in order to make this at all worthwhile for those entering, I personally think that at least $10/hr is in order, which over 4 months at 20hrs/week is $3200. At 40 hrs/week, it's $6400.

Taking into consideration that that's still crappy payment, and most contract programmers make $50-$300 and hour, I don't see you being able to make a worthwhile offer to anyone who wouldn't already do it for free.

Even Metafox's contest prize of $100 is more or less a kick in the face, but when you couple that with a commercial pressing, it makes it worth it. But you can't commercially press and release an emulator without ending up in all sorts of legal battles, so really, what's the point?

Sorry to be all negative, I just can't see it being worthwhile for anyone with the skills necessary to do it.

Cmtz · Post by **Cmtz** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:00 pm

Well, let me hear from the coders and then I'll make my choise. Coders?

Ender · Post by **Ender** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:05 pm

Cmtz wrote:Well, let me hear from the coders and then I'll make my choise. Coders?

I am a coder

Ian Micheal · Post by **Ian Micheal** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:06 pm

People Do it for free the money is not the many thing it's to gain intrest, for what people what. Emulation and retro. what ever prize. Same thing could be said for the game contest, i think it works out even less per hour.

Game contest, emulation contest ,both you will never get paid for the work you do. You can press an emulator and it is legal. Dont know who's been telling you stuff. As long as the emulator is not using the bios or has roms included it is as "legal" as a unlic "hombrew game" runing on a dreamcast. With-out sega's permission.

Sounds like a good idea and you would have to promote it well throu out all programing places like the gp32 scene the port of opnesnes9x would be good to see if he wants to try it. Most times emu authors do it for free so it would be $100 for nothing because they were going to spend there time on it any way. But maybe they will do a dreamcast version they would not of money allways gets people off there butt.

Any contest the people that enter are just pawns. Look at world idol popstars etc.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:14 pm

Ian Micheal wrote:People Do it for free the money is not the many thing it's to gain intrest, for what people what. Emulation and retro. what ever prize. Same thing could be said for the game contest, i think it works out even less per hour.

Like I said, the game contest offers a commercial pressing, and that's defiantely worth the time and effort in itself.

Game contest, emulation contest ,both you will never get paid for the work you do. You can press an emulator and it is legal. Dont know who's been telling you stuff. As long as the emulator is not using the bios or has roms included it is as "legal" as a unlic "hombrew game" runing on a dreamcast. With-out sega's permission.

Yea, technically it's legal. And look at what happened to Bleem!

I'm just saying that if you expect people who normally wouldn't work on an emulator to do this because you're offering a small prize, don't hold your breath. The people that will enter are the people doing this for free anyway, so why don't you just donate your money to someone making an emulator already?

Ian Micheal · Post by **Ian Micheal** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:22 pm

Thats fine the people making the emulator's are doing it for the gp32 and the xbox little bit of money might get them to do a dreamcast version. Bleem there were other problems and was not just about emulation. Plus the fact Rand one the court case first up he would of won it next time but sony made a deal.

Commercial pressing cost about $100 or less for it , you can have it done for very cheap if you wanted . Hope your not entering just for that you would be better off seting up a web site and geting it pressed your self ender and selling it mail order. You would make more money and it would be much better FOF case example contests dont prove any thing . Our australia idol come 6 in world idol yet . Was said to be the best talent best singer best every thing. He lost to a hobbit with a big teeth gap.

Game contest's Prize money would never cover the hours you worked on it. Pressing would not ether in money value. If you want i can get your game pressed any one can look in the yellow pages.

Ender · Post by **Ender** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:32 pm

Sure, I could get CDs pressed, but MEtafox's contest offers publishing as well. Last I heard, Lik-Sang was going to be sending the discs and mags out with orders. I know what you're getting at, but the advertising alone that a contest brings can't really be counted in money.

I mean, hell, if I wanted to, I could just burn a bunch of copies on my computer and sell them. It's just not the same

The Kron · Post by **The Kron** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:38 pm

Taking it OT..

Ian Micheal wrote:Our australia idol come 6 in world idol yet . Was said to be the best talent best singer best every thing.

Was said to be the best singer/everything by who?

Ian Micheal wrote: He lost to a hobbit with a big teeth gap.

Thats incredibly superficial of you, The Norwegian guy was clearly the best singer by a huge margin.

Ian Micheal · Post by **Ian Micheal** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 4:49 pm

By twits in australia Ive never liked him kurt clealy was the better talent i was glad to see him win. It was a example of gameplay Vs grafix . We had people going crazy here this morning saying it's fixed lol.

Taking it back to topic. Was not superfical it was what people were saying on the news.

Kurt was great I was hoping Guy would lose we all wanted shannon to win down here .

Guy is the most ugly troll from australia he won here I dont know why. Kurt won on talent not looks.

Example would be game winning on gameplay not grafix.

DemoniusX · Post by **DemoniusX** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 5:29 pm

I would donate for a tg-16 emu that ran scd games as well as full speed and full sound. a super nes because the reason for the emu on snes I like is the ability to play jap games we never got like the awesome ganbare goemon series

Sweater Fish · Post by **Sweater Fish** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 5:35 pm

I am ready to pay for an emulator.

Ah good, that was what I was waiting for. I have full speed PC Engine, SNES, Genesis, Neo Geo CD, Playstation and N64 (using a proprietary dynamic ROM linking technique that's far to complicated to explain) emulators sitting here on my harddrive and I've just been waiting for a good reason to release them like some punk kid offering me money. Please remit the funds to my Paypal account (opaopa@rattlebrain.com) and I'll straightaway release the emulators to the public.

...word is bondage...

cube323 · Post by **cube323** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 5:59 pm

I actually think a pay emu or some sort of contest is a great idea. I'd be willing to donate a few $.

As for whomever said coders make $50-$300 an hour, they must be working for someone good, lol. I know "kids" writting code in Los Ageles who are making a lousy $8 an hour.

Anyway, there should be a poll as to what emu people want to see the most.

tom61a · Post by **tom61a** » Thu Jan 01, 2004 6:00 pm

A for cash contest plus the newer easier to get into programming DC dev environment could really spur emulation development by new coders.

If 'x86/DOS' ends up on the list, I may have to get in. When I'm doing something for myself (doing something for recognition here is fool hearty), I don't really have any pressure to go, but with a cash prize, that changes things a bit.

I take it that source ports are allowed, and not just from-scratch emulators?

x86/DOS (full speed)

Full speed what though? 8086 is doable fairly easily, 80286 is harder, 80386 would require a dynarec core. More than that would push the limits servely, and I don't think a 4 month timeframe would be enough.