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General Category => Emulators => Topic started by: ElderlyGoose on 16:14, 19 January 18

Poll
Question: What is your Go to CPC emulator?
Option 1: ACE votes: 2
Option 2: Arnold votes: 4
Option 3: Caprice 32 votes: 5
Option 4: CoreAmstrad votes: 1
Option 5: CLK votes: 2
Option 6: CpC votes: 0
Option 7: CrocoDS votes: 1
Option 8: JavaCPC votes: 4
Option 9: Joyce votes: 0
Option 10: Mame votes: 6
Option 11: Sugarbox votes: 3
Option 12: WinAPE votes: 26
Option 13: WIP Retro Virtual Machine votes: 2
Option 14: ZEsarUX votes: 0
Option 15: CPCE votes: 6
Option 16: WinCPC votes: 1
Title: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: ElderlyGoose on 16:14, 19 January 18
So I checked the forum and couldn't find any poll for this and I was curious given how many options there are what people tended to gravitate to.
If I missed yours please reply!
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: reidrac on 16:18, 19 January 18
Quote from: ElderlyGoose on 16:14, 19 January 18
So I checked the forum and couldn't find any poll for this and I was curious given how many options there are what people tended to gravitate to.
If I missed yours please reply!

You're missing CPCE.

Is not the most accurate. but is fast and works great in Linux with WINE, so for development is my current emulator of choice.

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/CPCE
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: VincentGR on 16:23, 19 January 18
Can't really decide.
I use emulators as tools only, gaming on a real thing.
As for which version WinApe and JavaCPC are completing each other for my needs.
For online gaming I use CPCE (I think).
All the above for windows and Linux (Wine)
For my Pi though depends on the compatibility so I use almost all versions and beta releases.

Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Shaun M. Neary on 16:44, 19 January 18
I've stopped emulating since I started breaking out the real thing.

Used to use WinApe and Arnold on the PC
Mac has two options. Bannister's bastardised version of Arnold which is unstable as hell, and Kev's WIP version of Arnold that is in progress.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Phantomz on 18:42, 19 January 18
I use the real deal to game on mainly.  8)

However I also use WinAPE on the PC, the WinAPE Debugger comes in handy.  ;D
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: mahlemiut on 21:44, 19 January 18
I use MAME mostly for convenience, since I work on it, and has a great debugger, although I will switch to Arnold or WinAPE via Wine if need be.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: ElderlyGoose on 02:11, 20 January 18
Quote from: reidrac on 16:18, 19 January 18
You're missing CPCE.

Is not the most accurate. but is fast and works great in Linux with WINE, so for development is my current emulator of choice.

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/CPCE (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/CPCE)


Added to the list! Thanks!
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: 00WReX on 02:51, 20 January 18
Like others, I don't use emulators too much.
But when I do, I have used 'WinCPC' for years.

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/WinCPC

Cheers,
Shane
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: mr_lou on 07:25, 20 January 18
I mostly use the real machine.

But I have tried out various emulators too. When I need to check out something real quick, I usually use Markus Hoffmann's CPCInAJar (missing on the list), which can be described as a tiny version of JavaCPC. I like that it's extremely small and fast starting up.

If I was more of an emulator guy my choice would be Kevin Thacker's Arnold emulator, because I'm using Linux and I know he's been working on it somewhat recently. Must admit I haven't had a closer look recently though.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Gryzor on 17:22, 20 January 18
Quote from: 00WReX on 02:51, 20 January 18
Like others, I don't use emulators too much.
But when I do, I have used 'WinCPC' for years.

http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/WinCPC (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/WinCPC)

Cheers,
Shane


Too bad WinCPC hasn't  been updated in as many years...
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: VincentGR on 18:00, 20 January 18
WinCPC is my fast choice.
DSKs are assigned and it runs fast.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Carnivius on 19:00, 20 January 18
I mainly use Caprice Forever and like how Sugarbox is developing.  Mainly cos unlike many other emulators, these let me control games with the d-pad of my Dual Shock 4 controller rather than the unsuitable analog sticks.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: DanyPPC on 20:19, 20 January 18
There is another good Amstrad CPC emulator: WinCPC (http://www.wincpc.ch/?topic=projects-wincpc)
which I often use instead of CPCE.



Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Ace on 20:56, 20 January 18
Well I prefer WinApe, for the Plus range implementation, hence more complete... It lacks some advanced display options though, eg better full screen support, stretching, borders - no borders etc...
Ah! and a Pause key beside F7.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: ThomH on 22:12, 23 February 18
Quote from: Shaun M. Neary on 16:44, 19 January 18
Mac has two options. Bannister's bastardised version of Arnold which is unstable as hell, and Kev's WIP version of Arnold that is in progress.

There is at least one third option (https://github.com/tomharte/clk). Binaries here (https://github.com/TomHarte/CLK/releases).
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: robcfg on 23:04, 23 February 18
Clock signal is very good, but it puzzles me that you cannot just run the machines without running a disk...
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: ThomH on 23:56, 23 February 18
You could insert a tape instead but stupid answers aside, it's because my model of an ideal emulator is the invisible thing that lets your computer run classic software. So the disk image is the interesting thing, and the more time you spend being conscious of the emulator, the worse.


The plan is all malleable though, so maybe I'll retreat a little. It's on the roster for the Linuxy command-line SDL version, so the necessary level of internal reflection will shortly appear.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: robcfg on 00:10, 24 February 18
Don't get me wrong, you're doing an amazing job, but sometimes I like to just type something on the basic interpreter.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Bryce on 10:25, 26 February 18
I've only ever tried Arnold and WinApe and stuck with Winape (due to moving my laptop from Linux back to Windows).

My real favourite is the Z80 based "emulator" known as a real CPC. :)

Bryce.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Shining on 11:31, 26 February 18
Using WinAPE for development.
In all other cases: I use the real deal.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: ThomH on 19:54, 26 February 18
Quote from: robcfg on 00:10, 24 February 18
Don't get me wrong, you're doing an amazing job, but sometimes I like to just type something on the basic interpreter.
I'm not doing all that well; I'm currently two platforms removed from the CPC in my attempt to get a decent body of material that tests my WAIT implementation, but hopefully I'll be able to fold back soon. As it is my CPC does most things correctly, having the proper infrastructure in place in principle to be half-cycle-accurate, but something goes awry with some of the high-calibre pieces of software. So in that regard I'm doing very much worse than most other modern emulators.

I hope this hasn't been too much of a digression; probably we've added to the discussion by touching upon to what extent user interface affects acceptability of an emulator, and whether accuracy is the be all and end all?

I should probably add a File -> New... dialogue to mine. One day.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: skylas on 22:07, 05 March 18
I prefer Winape for little programme making, playing, and for screenshots making, but i use Java for recording video and for converting DSK to CDT files (directly)
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: XeNoMoRPH on 08:50, 06 March 18
JavaCPC Desktop for me  ;D
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Skunkfish on 10:59, 07 March 18
JavaCPC desktop is really cool, but the convenience of WinAPE for day to day use puts it top for me.

I'll be trying out most of the current emulators (and a few of the legacy ones) for a future article in Colour Personal Computing, hopefully giving Kev Thacker's Acid tests a whirl on each of them and testing a variety of software that is known to push the hardware (suggestions for such software is welcome).

I'm planning to give a series of awards for winners in various categories: best compatibility, best speed, best interface, best for dev etc. and then have a winner per platform and an overall winner.

It will take some time, so I'm not making any promises at this stage as to which issue it will end up in!
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: VincentGR on 12:41, 07 March 18
Forgot to mention about WinCPC.
This is the first I run for just tests, DSK images are assigned there.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: DanyPPC on 13:49, 07 March 18
Quote from: VincentGR on 12:41, 07 March 18
Forgot to mention about WinCPC.
This is the first I run for just tests, DSK images are assigned there.
Already mentioned (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/emulators/favourite-cpc-emulator/msg154677/#msg154677)  ;)
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: ||C|-|E|| on 13:58, 15 March 18
I always stick with Winape  :) Our adventure was completely developed using it and SciTE as text editor  :)
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Gryzor on 17:08, 21 April 18
Used to love SciTE (in its WinSCiTE interation) until Notepad++ won me over... Partly because it runs great in ConEMU (https://sourceforge.net/projects/conemu/). /offtopic
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: MiguelSky on 09:45, 23 April 18
I don't use WinCPC anymore as it steals my personalized icons. I use several emulators depending on the purpose:


* CPCE: it starts really fast. I have dsk files associated to it. It is perfect for fast testings and it also loads tapes really fast. I usually play games on it too, the update snapshot key rules!
* JavaCPC: amazing to create and handle cdts. It's good in image editing, in some cases better than ConvImgCPC. The writting text feature is great too. It has dozens of useful tools!
* WinAPE: brilliant for assembler programming, memory editing and disk editing. I find it a bit uncomfortable to load files and sometimes has weird crashes.
* Old good Arnold 2002. It's integrated in CPCLoader as internal emulator and I always use it to create the screen captures for CPCGamesCD. In the future it will be replaced by New Arnold and it'll be the main emu of the program instead Caprice 4.x.x.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: AMSDOS on 10:27, 23 April 18

I tend to use Winape, though I'm on Alpha 18 because of being on an older computer, which works fine, though I've decommissioned that system from the Internet because the Anti-Virus software was the virus. I play a few games on it, mostly I do coding BASIC & Assembly in the Assembler Window, though I cheat occasionally and use Text Editor when coding Hisoft Pascal programs, which Paste nicely into the Programs editor.


I've also been using the Online CPCBox which I can run on my Mac (the sound doesn't work though), so I can do simple BASIC stuff like the program in the Image attached, to adapt for other Languages, but it could also be useful for showing off code to other people who don't normally use CPC, but want to play a game. Or I could be on here one minute and on an emulator the next. :D
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: CraigsBar on 13:49, 25 April 18
ACE for MorphOS is still my emu platform of choice.

Fast (even on a lowly mac mini g4) accurate (even relentless scrolls flawlessly) and a nice gui.

Oh and it does mean I *still* don't need Windows for a viable amstrad plus emulator.

Sent from my ONEPLUS 3t using Tapatalk

Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: GUNHED on 19:57, 25 April 18
Well, my best working choice is JavaCPC and then Caprice and WinCPC. Main reasons are accuracy, safety of the DSK, and DSK handling (which is by far the very best on Caprice).
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: ThomH on 16:26, 13 June 18
Quote from: Skunkfish on 10:59, 07 March 18
I'll be trying out most of the current emulators (and a few of the legacy ones) for a future article in Colour Personal Computing, hopefully giving Kev Thacker's Acid tests a whirl on each of them and testing a variety of software that is known to push the hardware (suggestions for such software is welcome).
Speaking as someone whose work will be ranked possibly as high as mediocre:

       
  • Warhawk for a hardware vertical scroll;
  • Ghosts 'n' Goblins for a hardware horizontal scroll;
  • Prehistorik 2 and Super Cauldron for an all-of-the-above;
  • Robocop on a 128kb machine for sampled speech; and
  • the Batman demo, particularly the 3d bits, for high resolution multiple-segment graphics output.
The Acid tests are really useful only for their stated purpose: you either get 100% conformance or you don't. So they'll identify the cream of the crop but don't expect a ranking of the rest.
Spot response while I'm commenting anyway:
Quote from: ThomH on 19:54, 26 February 18I should probably add a File -> New... dialogue to mine. One day.
This was added a month or two ago. So that's something. I'm otherwise immediately invested in joystick support. It's a hassle for a Mac emulator because there's no direct API for that. Instead you get to deal with the USB HID yourself. Good work, Apple!
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Widukind on 13:24, 15 June 18
So many emulators.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: ThomH on 18:35, 15 June 18
Quote from: Widukind on 13:24, 15 June 18
What would be a even better CPC emulator for Linux, please? (Maybe one which is a bit similar to the nice Hatari (https://hatari.tuxfamily.org/) emulator).
I suspect you're asking just a shade too early. The Retro Virtual Machine 2.0 videos I've seen appear to show a great fidelity of emulation, but it's currently in private development. 1.x is Mac only and doesn't emulate the CPC.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: steve on 21:03, 16 June 18
Can someone show the results of this poll please, I do not see a view results button, I do not use an emulator so cannot vote, if I wanted to know which emulator I should use, the results would be helpful.
Thank you.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Skunkfish on 10:50, 17 June 18
Current results should be attached as an image in this post...
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: mr_lou on 11:40, 17 June 18
Are there any "tiny" CPC emulators around, with source code?
I've started walking around with my Ericsson MC218 pocket computer again, mainly for writing stuff while sitting in the bus. But it would be nice to be able to make some CPC BASIC stuff too.

The Psion 5MX / Ericsson MC218 actually has a Java Virtual Machine, so it does run Java. Therefor I'm looking at CPCInAJar at the moment, but not having much luck making it run.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Widukind on 19:37, 17 June 18
Quote from: mr_lou on 11:40, 17 June 18Therefor I'm looking at CPCInAJar at the moment, but not having much luck making it run.
I don't know which Java version CpcInAJar needs. It's a light version of the Desktop Java-CPC it seems, both from the same author (Dev-Markus).
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Widukind on 19:40, 17 June 18
I also tried Kevin's Arnold emulator and it looks very good.
Unfortunately on my desktop Linux machine (Ubuntu 18 LTS) the CPC games and demos usually run twice as fast.
Anybody else noticed this and knows a workaround?
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: mr_lou on 19:50, 17 June 18
Quote from: Widukind on 19:40, 17 June 18
I also tried Kevin's Arnold emulator and it looks very good.
Unfortunately on my desktop Linux machine (Ubuntu 18 LTS) the CPC games and demos usually run twice as fast.
Anybody else noticed this and knows a workaround?
I also noticed an issue, with sound playback being too fast.

I'm gonna tag @arnoldemu (http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/index.php?action=profile;u=122) here to notify him. My version is from August 19th 2017.
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: freemac on 17:10, 17 August 18
I voted CoreAmstrad because I created it, but in fact it's not an emulator  :P

I love WinAPE (because simple of use, and somes asm are just done for it, nice breakpoint also), JavaCPC (because I can debug it and look after some behaviours of CPC itself), I use arnoldemu testbenches (but not arnoldemu itself, cause got windows ^^'), Caprice32 sometime (for source code exploration, for getting another point of view)
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: GUNHED on 16:12, 19 August 18
Actually WinCPC is still missing in the poll. Should be added.  :)
Title: Re: Favourite CPC emulator?
Post by: Gryzor on 13:06, 20 August 18
I added it myself and also upped vote limit to 3, just because :D
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