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From: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: C-64 emulator for Amiga?
Message-ID: <283@uwslh.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 12-Nov-87 17:49:24 EST
Article-I.D.: uwslh.283
Posted: Thu Nov 12 17:49:24 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 14-Nov-87 20:17:32 EST
References: <366@mv03.ecf.toronto.edu> <4136@ccicpg.UUCP>
Reply-To: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka)
Distribution: na
Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison, State Hygiene Lab
Lines: 55

In article <4136@ccicpg.UUCP> harald@ccicpg.UUCP ( Harald Milne) writes:
>In article <366@mv03.ecf.toronto.edu>, chowg@ecf.UUCP writes:
>> [chowg@ecf.UUCP asks a general question about GO-64, i.e. what it is like]
>
>	Price: $129.00 retail
               ^---------------Price indicated by Mr. Milne for GO-64
				(from a magazine add).

Whoa!  Isn't a c64 about that cheap these days?  Seems pretty wierd to buy a
program which emulates a machine which is about the same price.  Now *if* the
emulator runs the software better or faster, I can see paying the money for
it, but otherwise, why not just get the machine.

>I was in a Commodore store today, and saw the product box laying there,
>so I guess it isn't vaperware. 

My friend has being fooling around with a copy recently, and it didn't look
like vaporware... ;-)

>> In particular, would the Amiga be faster/slower/the same when
>> running C-64 programs? Thanks for any information.
>
>	The article said BASIC programs run 90% to 100% of native speed.

Hmmmmmm...my friend (same as above) and I did a very informal test
about a week and a half ago.  He had written a quick "for i=1 to
20000" loop and tested it with GO-64.  Since he thought it ran fairly
slow (and because his 64 recently fried some chips) he called me up,
read me the program verbatim over the phone, I typed it into my c64,
and timed the loop.  Well, low and behold, after we compared figures
(sorry, it was too long ago to remember the times), we found that the
GO-64 program running on his machine (which has a 68010 in it, if that
matters) barely ran at 50% of the speed of my c64.  I know, I know,
not a very scientific test, but still our figures were not quite the
90% to 100% that appears above. Hmmmmm....

Furthermore, he has run programs on GO-64 written in compiled BASIC by
himself and another friend, and found really strange results.  He
mentioned some wierd effects with colors not being updated that
frequently.  Now, I don't want this to reflect badly on GO-64 (it is
afterall, an emulator, and these facts do seem a little sketchy ;-),
but I would definitely run this program through all its paces before
spending $129 on it to replace your c64.

Personally, because it is an emulator, I don't think it will ever run
as well as a c64 (there was some discussion of this in articles long
past on in this newsgroup).  So, why not just buy a c64?  But those
are just mine and my cockatiels' opinions...

						-Chris

-- 
Chris Lishka                    /lishka@uwslh.uucp
Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene <-lishka%uwslh.uucp@rsch.wisc.edu
"What, me, serious? Get real!"  \{seismo, harvard,topaz,...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishka