Posted: 9/14/2010 11:54 PM
Post subject: Shouldn't game emulators be called simulators instead?
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gbagcn
Joined: 5/30/2005
Posts: 98
From what I know about emulators outside of gaming, a emulation is a perfect simulation of something. Since game emulators are not perfect simulators of the hardware they are supposedly emulating shouldn't they be called simulators instead?
Posted: 9/14/2010 11:55 PM
(Edited: 9/15/2010 12:05 AM)
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Flygon
Joined: 11/4/2007
Posts: 1772
Location: Australia, Victoria
I'm pretty sure it's simulators that do something perfectly, not emulators. Basically, I think you managed to get it the wrong way round... Edit: Or I am completely incorrect.
Posted: 9/15/2010 12:01 AM
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DarkKobold
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Joined: 11/15/2004
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Location: Killjoy
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Simulation would denote replacing something real with something fake. However, when you play a game with a ROM, you are actually playing the game, there is nothing fake. This is my guess why the words are what they are. But go to the source Computing Dictionary simulation definition simulation, system Attempting to predict aspects of the behaviour of some system by creating an approximate (mathematical) model of it. This can be done by physical modelling, by writing a special-purpose computer program or using a more general simulation package, probably still aimed at a particular kind of simulation (e.g. structural engineering, fluid flow). Typical examples are aircraft flight simlators or electronic circuit simulators. A great many simulation languages exist, e.g. Simula. ___________________________________________________________________ Computing Dictionary emulation definition architecture When one system performs in exactly the same way as another, though perhaps not at the same speed. A typical example would be emulation of one computer by (a program running on) another. You might use an emulation as a replacement for a system whereas you would use a simulation if you just wanted to analyse it and make predictions about it.
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Posted: 9/15/2010 2:26 AM
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Kitsune
Joined: 4/29/2005
Posts: 1212
I always thought of Emulators as just a way of playing games for free. :3 I never bothered to get into the technical side of them. Technical stuff tends to make my brain fart. And yes, that does smell. >.>
Posted: 9/15/2010 2:37 AM
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Patashu
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Joined: 10/2/2005
Posts: 4017
While no emulation is perfect, the intention is that it should be, meaning emulation is more accurate.
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Posted: 9/19/2010 8:09 AM
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Warp
Banned User, Former player
Joined: 3/10/2004
Posts: 7698
Location: Finland
In the context of running a program executable in a platform it was not made for, one could make the distinction between a simulator and and emulator as follows: An emulator is a perfect replica of the original hardware, and the program being run has no way of knowing if it's being run on the original or on an emulator, even if it tried to (at least in an optimal situation). The environment is emulated perfectly. A simulator, on the other hand, allows the program to be run on a different platform, but the program can, if it wants, detect that it's being run on the simulator rather than the target hardware. The simulator might not even emulate the target hardware perfectly, and this completely on purpose (for example the "CPU" could be significantly faster and there could be significantly more RAM available). For example the iPhone simulator in the iPhone SDK is called a simulator (and not an emulator), and the official reason is exactly that.
Posted: 9/19/2010 8:11 AM
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Pointless_Boy
Banned User
Joined: 6/18/2010
Posts: 183
It's just like the difference between a simulacrum and an emulacrum.
Posted: 9/19/2010 11:20 PM
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creaothceann
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Joined: 4/7/2005
Posts: 1874
Location: Germany
Simulators generate their output without doing the same steps as the original system. Emulators re-create the system's components, the input is forwarded to them, their operation is simulated, and their output becomes the output of the system. For example the Asteroids arcade game had analog circuits and a vector display. It can be simulated with sprites, recorded sound samples and modern game code, but emulation requires a virtual vector display and virtual circuits, and the interaction of those re-creates the game.