Booting the Final GameCube Game


I guess not. But it was interesting to read. GameCube emulation rocketed far beyond PS2 in much less time. Don't get me wrong, PS2 is still highly advanced, but in terms of playable games, it looks like Dolphin takes the cake while PCSX2 lags behind. Heck, might need a new CPU to be sure to always run GT4 in software at full speed.
 
I guess the PS2 was just too strange a machine to emulate easily, while the gamecube used a pretty standard CPU ISA and a basic off-the-shelf GPU. The PS2 has a relatively common CPU ISA except for all the vector instructions added by Sony then a relative ton of exotic components.

It probably also helped that the Gamecube was cracked early on, leading hackers to get Linux running on it relatively quickly. There was PS2 Linux, officially from Sony, but that didn't really help you get to stuff without drivers. I guess also the Gamecube's CPU was more powerful than the PS2s one, so if all you have is that it's a more attractive environment to hack around in.

Then the fact the same architecture, more or less was recycled for the Wii and its successor, so the community was able to move on wholesale.
 
You're right. But I think it's more due to the way the PS2's GPU works, it's all JiT like the Atari 2600 given the few video memory. No caching means more syncing, I guess.
And while the games were a major "sharing point" (as it's not sold) for PCSX2, the Nintendo games, especially with the Wii, made Dolphin pretty attractive too.

Still need big ol' Ecksbawks though. Only remaining 6th gen to go.
 
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