Jul 7th, 2018, 12:50 AM
Is it just me or has it come to an absolute stalemate?
Like, some consoles are emulated perfectly and are a delight to play across multiple platforms (Genesis, SNES, GBA...) while others either leave much to be desired, even after an "usable" version has come to light (N64, Saturn) or plain have never been ventured into much in order to receive a proper emulator (Virtual Boy, Jaguar). And, of course, there's the third group: those that have never taken off properly and are a mess to use, outside of some really popular games (DS).
Me personally? I'm happy to grab whatever I can get when it comes to playing all those different systems I currently do not own (and chances are that's not going to change much, as some of those go for a lot of money on online auctions) but I can't help but wondering what is exactly causing such massive shifts of tone on the so-called scene.
Some people are saying that the famous N64 emulator, Project64, has changed devs and the new team seems far more interested in sneaking malware into the code than it is in making it a better version of it. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I don't wanna find out.
There were also large reddit topics talking about a ton of drama involving the devs -or at least the lead developer- of DesMuME, causing them to leave the half-made emulator behind and focus on another project (which seems to be yet another DS emulator).
And, of course, there's more than a bit of the classic bickering involving things like "who gave you permission to use this?" or "why did you code that in such a way" that's really not making much more than weakening the badly-required sense of community necessary to drive these projects to a good end.
If I may be blunt, I don't think we have moved an inch forward in a long time... and I just don't see that changing any time soon. Because, sure, we can have an emulator up and running for pretty much any platform in no time, but those are for the consoles we have known how to emulate for a long time; anything not on that specific group is going to be really painful to use (if it even gets to an usable state).
What do you think, though?
Like, some consoles are emulated perfectly and are a delight to play across multiple platforms (Genesis, SNES, GBA...) while others either leave much to be desired, even after an "usable" version has come to light (N64, Saturn) or plain have never been ventured into much in order to receive a proper emulator (Virtual Boy, Jaguar). And, of course, there's the third group: those that have never taken off properly and are a mess to use, outside of some really popular games (DS).
Me personally? I'm happy to grab whatever I can get when it comes to playing all those different systems I currently do not own (and chances are that's not going to change much, as some of those go for a lot of money on online auctions) but I can't help but wondering what is exactly causing such massive shifts of tone on the so-called scene.
Some people are saying that the famous N64 emulator, Project64, has changed devs and the new team seems far more interested in sneaking malware into the code than it is in making it a better version of it. I'm not sure if this is true or not, but I don't wanna find out.
There were also large reddit topics talking about a ton of drama involving the devs -or at least the lead developer- of DesMuME, causing them to leave the half-made emulator behind and focus on another project (which seems to be yet another DS emulator).
And, of course, there's more than a bit of the classic bickering involving things like "who gave you permission to use this?" or "why did you code that in such a way" that's really not making much more than weakening the badly-required sense of community necessary to drive these projects to a good end.
If I may be blunt, I don't think we have moved an inch forward in a long time... and I just don't see that changing any time soon. Because, sure, we can have an emulator up and running for pretty much any platform in no time, but those are for the consoles we have known how to emulate for a long time; anything not on that specific group is going to be really painful to use (if it even gets to an usable state).
What do you think, though?