C64 emulator for palm ?

**gav#WN** · 04/02/2001, 01:00 PM

Hi,

It just struck me today that the C64 and the average palm device, have roughly the same spec. As in, a c64 emulator for the palm should be workable ?

Has anyone come across one at all ?

I'm specificaly interested in getting games like laser squad.

Any ideas ?

Gav

**patwoods** · 04/02/2001, 01:12 PM

I would dig that as well.. I am waiting for an Atari 2600 emulator, or perhaps a scaled down version of MAME for the old-old-old games... I only really want pac-man, donkey kong and centipede, you know, the ROMS that are like, 12k or so.

**lennonhead** · 04/02/2001, 02:45 PM

That's a great idea! Then I could finally play Pirates! on my Visor! Post back if you find anything out.

**ericg** · 04/02/2001, 05:15 PM

I found a mention of one on this web site..

http://www.realitysucks.nl/this_is_n...ezen.asp?ID=57

But the problem is the site is in Dutch and I have yet been able to find the emulator mentioned.. It was supposed to be released Jan 1, 2001

**olivier101** · 04/03/2001, 05:02 AM

How about an Atari ST emulator?

According to the Motorola specs, the Palm processor is 100% compatible with the 68000 that was found in the original ST's. The ST also had the TOS (proprietary OS) burned in ROM, and a RAM of 512 kb that could easily fit in a Palm device.
I'm not an emulator specialist, but I think it's quite feasible. Since the processors are of the same family, it wouldn't be real emulation, just like the Mac emulator that existed on the ST.
I think the original ST had an 8 MHz clock. I find it hard to believe that in my Platinum, I have the same processor running at 33 MHz, with 16 times as much RAM!!! Anyway, that gives plenty of power for an emulator.

What do you think?

**ericg** · 04/03/2001, 11:03 AM

Originally posted by olivier101
How about an Atari ST emulator?

According to the Motorola specs, the Palm processor is 100% compatible with the 68000 that was found in the original ST's. The ST also had the TOS (proprietary OS) burned in ROM, and a RAM of 512 kb that could easily fit in a Palm device.
I'm not an emulator specialist, but I think it's quite feasible. Since the processors are of the same family, it wouldn't be real emulation, just like the Mac emulator that existed on the ST.
I think the original ST had an 8 MHz clock. I find it hard to believe that in my Platinum, I have the same processor running at 33 MHz, with 16 times as much RAM!!! Anyway, that gives plenty of power for an emulator.

What do you think?

How about an Amiga emulator for that matter, it was also based on the 68000.. Although a Prism is a far cry from an Amiga..

**olivier101** · 04/03/2001, 05:04 PM

Sure, although the Amiga had high-level chips for audio and video, which should be harder to emulate than the more simple electronics of the Atari...
How about a classic Mac emulator, while we're at it

**ericg** · 04/03/2001, 09:22 PM

Obviously a few things would have to be skipped or faked in any emulation (i.e. high quality sound, etc..)

Mac emulation - A classic Mac (b&w) or Mac II (256 color) emulation (without sound) might be a closer and more realistic goal.

**ToolkiT** · 04/03/2001, 10:37 PM

Originally posted by EricG
I found a mention of one on this web site..

http://www.realitysucks.nl/this_is_n...ezen.asp?ID=57

But the problem is the site is in Dutch and I have yet been able to find the emulator mentioned.. It was supposed to be released Jan 1, 2001

Perhaps I can help with the translation....

here it goes:
"Finally, it's allmost there. In Jan. 2001 Palm user can relive their nostalgia! A real C64 emulator will be available then.
not only the different graphiical modes will be emulated, but also the SID-chip (sound chip). Of course a Palm is not build for this purpose, but even games run OK.
Even when it is hard to see the C64 screens on a monochrome palm screen is is way better than the monochrome Gameboy.....

At the moment games using the C64 border do not work yet, but they are working on a solution. probably the information that would be displayed in the border will be displayed in an 'overlay' on the palm screen.

At first the emulator will be freeware, but because the developers have spend a lot of time and effort on the project there will be a shareware version later too. The shareware version will cost $5.

We can hardly wait!"

**RoofusPennymore** · 04/04/2001, 12:14 AM

Originally posted by ToolkiT

Perhaps I can help with the translation....

here it goes:

"Finally, it's allmost there. In Jan. 2001 Palm user can relive their nostalgia! A real C64 emulator will be available then.

So was this written last year? Does it indicate who is developing it? Where can we go to get updates on it?

All we need is a 1581 disk drive to Pam serial port convertor.

**Maltair** · 04/04/2001, 12:23 AM

Pirate's

Auurggg, shiver me nipples mate'y
That was an awsome game

**ericg** · 04/04/2001, 12:59 AM

Thanks ToolkiT, on-line dutch->english mechanical translation leaves alot to be desired... I didn't even bother to post the URL cause its so bad..

I have searched in vain for months trying to find a lead on that emulator but no luck..

The closest thing I could approximate was a Java based C-64 emulator and obtaining the Java runtime for Palm. Although I have the files, I haven't even tried to run the java based emulator on the palm.. I can already guess it would require extensive tweaking without even looking at the source code.. maybe if I have time I'll try. the other thing is even if I get it to work, I fear it would be far to slow to be of any value. A native Palm application has the best chance of actually working. Work has me pretty busy, so I don't even see having time for this for months..

**ToolkiT** · 04/04/2001, 01:40 AM

Originally posted by RoofusPennymore

So was this written last year? Does it indicate who is developing it? Where can we go to get updates on it?

All we need is a 1581 disk drive to Pam serial port convertor.

sorry that is all it said.....
I'll do a search in google....

**Matthew Nichols** · 04/04/2001, 06:05 PM

What are the specs for these devices?

Emulation as a general rule requires at least 3x the power of what its emulating. Liberty requires even more than that to run most games at good speed.

**ericg** · 04/04/2001, 06:31 PM

Originally posted by Matthew Nichols
What are the specs for these devices?

Emulation as a general rule requires at least 3x the power of what its emulating. Liberty requires even more than that to run most games at good speed.

C64 - 1mhz 6502cpu (need to emulate cpu)

Amiga 500/1000/2000 - 7mhz 68000 (no cpu emulation on Palm really necessary as its the same cpu family, just need to "adjust" or patch the amiga rom code to reflect the "Palm's" hardware differences.)

ATARI 520/1040 ST - {see amiga notes above)
Mac SE/Plus/MAC II - (see amiga notes above)

Now the only thing that could get weird is disk drive emulation, which could be done via PDB files.

Obviously some things like audio chips would have to be stubbed or faked at the emulation level..

**b1lanceman** · 04/04/2001, 10:08 PM

doesnt sound too terribly hard, especially with the commodore. you ned processor emulation, but 1MHz compared to 16-33 MHz doesn't sound too complicated. And if you were willing to go without sound (which many of us probably would be willing to do) how hard could it be?

**RoofusPennymore** · 04/04/2001, 10:19 PM

Originally posted by EricG
Mac emulation - A classic Mac (b&w) or Mac II (256 color) emulation (without sound) might be a closer and more realistic goal.

Considering my Mac Classic II was B&W, 16MHZ 68030 & $ megs of RAM. I think it would be possible. But would there be enough room to for the MacOS, Emulator and other stuff on the Visor? You would need a large CF card or something.

**ericg** · 04/04/2001, 10:54 PM

Originally posted by RoofusPennymore

Considering my Mac Classic II was B&W, 16MHZ 68030 & $ megs of RAM. I think it would be possible. But would there be enough room to for the MacOS, Emulator and other stuff on the Visor? You would need a large CF card or something.

For the time being, it would all have to be "floppy" based emulation, no hard disks.

A "classic" Mac would be easier to emulate that a C64, as with a Mac it isn't really emulation so much as it would be to patch the Mac rom to account for the hardware differences in the Visor(since the cpu's are pretty much the same) and to add a faked floppy disk drive support, and deal with the difference is screen sizes (512x512 vs 160x160) .. I would expect that a mac "emulator" on a Visor Deluxe would run at a similar speed.. (maybe a bit slower as the Visor's cpu is closer to a 68000 than a 68030), We are talking a very basic Mac here, i.e. a circa 1984 Mac, no hard disk, 512k ram maybe 1mb ram.. .

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