Hi all,
The concept of an emulator is ofcourse very nice: you can build an entire
computer completely in software.
But why does this has to stop with imitating an existing computer? Why not
extend the emulator to create a successor of the computer you are emulating?
We will never see an official MSX3 and all other attempts to build a new MSX
have not resulted in anything concrete (e.g. Z380 and many, many other
projects that will never become reality).
So why not extend e.g. fMSX or RuMSX (or whatever it is called these days)
with Glide (3Dfx) support, so MSX games can become really 3D?
I think that VGA cards (DirectDraw), 3Dfx cards (DirectX/Glide), sound/music
(DirectSound/Music), all storage media (HDD/CDROM/etc.), (analog/ISDN) modem
(Winsock), videocapture cards, printers, scanners and networking should be
supported in some way.
Especially emulators that are written in Win32 should be relatively easy to
extend since they only have to implement a more or less hardware independant
API.
If this major upgrade of the MSX standard compromises the compatibility with
previous models, than so be it. If you want an 'old' MSX, then use an 'old'
emulator or the original hardware.
I suppose many people will start whining now that he or she doesn't have
this or that piece of hardware. But come on, there are many (pc) computer
parts that are so common now that they can and should be supported.
Other people will start whining over the fact that emulators stink and that
they want to use the old hardware. Come on, the MSX is great because the
software is great, not because it is packed in such a nice box (that is, if
you have a Philips machine ;-) ).
Finally, I want to make clear that I do NOT intend to write any of this
stuff. I'm just starting a public DISCUSSION...
It's time to move on...or not?
Best regards,
Arjan Steenbergen
PS: do not respond private, only to this list..!
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