Emulator in an emulator in an emulator?

[Blue Protoman]

Is it possible to run emulators in emulators on the Pandora? For example, the Game Boy Advance has various emulators, including one for MSX. The MSX has a Game Boy emulator, I think. IS it possible to run a Game Boy Game in the aforemented emulator in MSXAdvance, which is being run in GBA, which in turn, is being run on GPSP? (For added fun, throw Ginge in there as well.) Probably wouldn't be playable, but it'd be fun to watch.

 

[craigix]

Yes. You can go very deep too.


Consider:


Pandora->Wiz->Amiga->Spectrum->ZX81.


You might even be able to add in mac or ST there.


Or maybe go Pandora->Wiz->GP2x (is that possible with ginge?).

 

[Blue Protoman]

ED, your next Vid Per Day is calling.

 

[WizardStan]

Or maybe go Pandora->Wiz->GP2x (is that possible with ginge?).

That would require running Ginge within Ginge which (as I recall) Notaz has said absolutely won't work.


Ginge isn't really an emulator, as I understand it, anyway: it's more of a wrapper, kinda more like WINE, but simpler.

 

[- Theo -]

But can the Pandora emulate the Pandora? That's the real question!

 

[Austin25]

Like inception, only things get slower with each level.

 

[sverm]

How can we know for sure if we've reached the top level of emulation? :lol:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZbS4YgvMxE

 

[EvilDragon]

Also, Ginge is not really an emulator. It only emulates and simulates some WIZ / gp2x-Specific calls that are non-standard Linux and natively runs the rest using normal Linux.


That's why the only games that don't run properly are the ones that use some WIZ / gp2x Hardware tricks.

 

[- Theo -]

How can we know for sure if we've reached the top level of emulation? :lol:

You can't. Science recently theorised that the Universe as you know could be in fact a hologram, kind of an emulation of the "real" universe.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle

 

[Neelix]

You can't. Science recently theorised that the Universe as you know could be in fact a hologram, kind of an emulation of the "real" universe.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle

*snickers* I can just see it now... with seconds to go before the Mayan apocalypse, a voice rings out throughout the universe... "Computer, End Program!"

 

[craigix]

Also, Ginge is not really an emulator. It only emulates and simulates some WIZ / gp2x-Specific calls that are non-standard Linux and natively runs the rest using normal Linux.


That's why the only games that don't run properly are the ones that use some WIZ / gp2x Hardware tricks.

I think this depends on what you consider 'emulation' to mean.


If you consider that it has to fully emulate everything on the emulated system then there are going to be some serious gray areas on many 'emulators'.


I personally consider any program which allows you to run one systems programs on another to be an emulator.


If you don't then you can also drop the Spectrum->ZX81 from my chart too as the emulator there catches the system calls but uses the Z80 chip as normal.

 

[EvilDragon]

If you consider that it has to fully emulate everything on the emulated system then there are going to be some serious gray areas on many 'emulators'.


I personally consider any program which allows you to run one systems programs on another to be an emulator.

You're basically right, but Ginge is something inbetween.


Basically, if you have two different PCs both running Windows and you have a game that REQUIRES a 3dfx graphics card, if you just simulate that card but the rest runs native, is this emulation?


The gp2x and WIZ both run an ARM cpu with Linux, so they're not totally different.


Ginge really is hard to put into a box

 

[PokeParadox]

You're basically right, but Ginge is something inbetween.


Basically, if you have two different PCs both running Windows and you have a game that REQUIRES a 3dfx graphics card, if you just simulate that card but the rest runs native, is this emulation?


The gp2x and WIZ both run an ARM cpu with Linux, so they're not totally different.


Ginge really is hard to put into a box

I think that's classed as wrapping.

 

[Caine]

Like WINE, I would say it's basically a binary compatibility layer and not an emulator at all. As such, it relies upon compatible (or at least mostly compatible) hardware. Although I don't really know Ginge, so correct me If I am wrong.


Emulators typically simulate a hardware platform in software. HLE is a bit of a middle-road where you accelerate matters by re-implementing common libraries.

 

[Gren]

Wow! An interesting topic started by the Protoman bleu :lol:


Anyways this is very spooky and timely, 'cos just 2 nights ago, for the first time, I had emulation within emulation running and spent a good hour playing speccy games through my Amiga Forever 2011 build of AmigaSYS 3.9.


Was very impressed. Although it should run OK on a 8GB i7-950 with Radeon 5870 I guess