Apple Emulation

[Gumdoc]

Hi all,

Is there a preferred emulator for the //e/IIGS and tutorial? The only tutorial I could find was from 5 years ago and they were using MESS, it seems like many folks now use AppleWin?

Thanks for any help.

[Headrush69]

MESS was merged with MAME a while back and since then it has continued to get many updates to the apple2 subsystem. It's support for various peripherals is quite extensive. I use it exclusively for my Apple2e and Apple2gs emulation. 

AppleWin is also an option. Try both and see which you prefer. Some people don't like MAME and find it difficult. I don't and it works great in LB for me.

A good write up is here.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Headrush69

[SiriusVI]

5 hours ago, Headrush69 said:

MESS was merged with MAME a while back and since then it has continued to get many updates to the apple2 subsystem. It's support for various peripherals is quite extensive. I use it exclusively for my Apple2e and Apple2gs emulation. 

AppleWin is also an option. Try both and see which you prefer. Some people don't like MAME and find it difficult. I don't and it works great in LB for me.

A good write up is here.

Last I tried (over a year ago), Apple IIGS had controller deadzone issues with the curser automatically moving in games like Gauntlet for example. Have those issues been fixed yet?

[sundogak]

For Apple IIGS found MAME works for most things so it is my primary in LB.  I have KEGS and GSPort setup outside LB but don't really use them.  The link above goes to a IIGS writeup, which there are some updates to but for most part will get you going if doing MAME.  

For Apple IIE there are several write ups in the forums. I primarily use MAME if autoboot type game making it more amenable to LB frontend type setup.  If multi-disk and/or using hard drive images tend to stay with Applewin outside LB in that I find easier to navigate, switch disks, etc.  The one thing that makes Applewin easy is being able to drag a disk image onto the emulator and it loads image and launches (again outside LB).  So ultimately, use both and depends on what doing.  If have a full MAME software list set can use the disk images inside the MAME zips (unzipped) in Applewin excluding the WOZ format which is not supported (so have to use MAME in that case).  Both the MAME and Applewin emulators seem to have active development for the Apple emulation which is a plus.  Like Headrush69 mentioned, it is a bit of preference on what want to do.  MAME does have the better shaders than Applewin which are pretty basic. 

Here is setup for Applewin in LB (assuming disk 1 will have system to boot):

-fs-height=1080 -noreg -no-printscreen-dlg -r 32 -d1

For both systems (like most computer emulation) you are ultimately dealing same aspects of the original systems so will run into games that don't auto boot (so need a system disk), non-consistent keyboard/joystick setups, and on multi-disk games having to swap disks at some point.  Having some experience with the original systems helps in those cases.  If start off with a few games and get them running, that is easiest.  

 

 

Edited October 19, 2021 by sundogak

[Headrush69]

6 hours ago, SiriusVI said:

Last I tried (over a year ago), Apple IIGS had controller deadzone issues with the curser automatically moving in games like Gauntlet for example. Have those issues been fixed yet?

Yes I remember our discussion. There were some joystick fixes since then in MAME but some issues remain in some games. (like gauntlet)

Checking that post, seems the issue as reported by Torquemurder, isn't a bug in MAME per sa but MAME needs to implement analog trim adjustments to work around programming issues in some games. Not sure that's the kind of thing MAME would add, as the core emulation works as it should. He did mention that in GSPort/KEGS he added a patch to manually adjust trim values. No idea how AppleWin handles the issue or if it does.

Edit: I read online someone using a LUA script to read and set values for a game control in MAME, I wonder if something like this could be done to "adjust" analog values in the apple2 driver to act like a trim adjustment. I haven't looked into LUA scripting in MAME myself, but maybe a possibility?

Edited October 19, 2021 by Headrush69

[Headrush69]

On 10/19/2021 at 12:03 PM, SiriusVI said:

Last I tried (over a year ago), Apple IIGS had controller deadzone issues with the curser automatically moving in games like Gauntlet for example. Have those issues been fixed yet?

Just an FYI, looks like MAME specifically has some improvements in 0.243 to deal with the Apple IIgs joystick issues.

I'm sticking with 0.242 for a while due to some possible regressions with new developments made in 0,243 for other systems, so I haven't checked whether the Apple IIgs improvements help yet.

Edit: I broke down and tried 0.243 in a separate install and some joystick issues are fixed but I'm still seeing issues in some still, especially Gauntlet. Using the Joystick Calibrator referenced in the MameTester page for the bug, it seems analog values outside the expected byte size (0-255) occur, especially on diagonals. It could be the app itself but seems input still isn't perfect for analog joysticks.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Headrush69