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Insanely great vector game emulator: AAE


Kombalar

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Check this out... a must for all vector game fans...!!

 

http://pages.suddenlink.net/aae/

 

Can't go back playing the MAME versions after this...absolutely cool...Gravitar, Tempest, Asteroids Deluxe and Space Duel, etc. have never looked better...!!

 

I have managed to get AAE look really close to the real vector monitor... you have to play with the video settings a bit. I can't stress enough how amazing emulator this is... you won't even look at MAME after this... if you play vector games. Look at the brightness... you'll never see this kind of quality with any other emulator.

 

Here are the settings I use:

 

2wptb88.png

 

And these are the results:

 

2eaouar.png

 

2zxqwdy.png

 

2v2e8m8.png

 

20qc611.png

 

Look at Star Wars dammit... almost exactly like the real thing.....!! Maybe just reduce the beam width a bit.

 

dd0vp4.png

 

I wonder how could we get in touch with the author... there's still a few little bugs to beat... and the last update is from years ago.

 

Biggest annoyance is the lack of mouse support in Star Wars. I'd LOVE to play it on AAE.

Edited by Kombalar
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...you won't even look at MAME after this....

 

Sure you will: http://www.mameworld...o=&fpart=1&vc=1

 

It depends on what version of MAME and how as well as with what you compile. Eventually, the effects will be added via HLSL (Read the rest of the thread) and will do wonders for MESS regarding Vectrex emulation as well.

 

This specifically...http://www.mameworld...o=&fpart=1&vc=1

...may help answer and questions, if you have them.

Edited by Trebor
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Just a quick capture of possible output from the MAME version posted in the link(s) above. These are not in a high resolution, and look much better "live" than what is shown here:

 

 

post-18-0-64561200-1335108152_thumb.pngpost-18-0-94356500-1335108158_thumb.png

post-18-0-82833800-1335108225_thumb.pngpost-18-0-79479200-1335108275_thumb.png

post-18-0-43176600-1335108285_thumb.pngpost-18-0-29743300-1335108290_thumb.png

post-18-0-22440900-1335108298_thumb.pngpost-18-0-22573900-1335108303_thumb.png

post-18-0-34590000-1335108312_thumb.pngpost-18-0-55700600-1335108316_thumb.png

post-18-0-61175900-1335108325_thumb.pngpost-18-0-92454900-1335108329_thumb.png

post-18-0-03281200-1335108339_thumb.pngpost-18-0-43827800-1335108343_thumb.png

post-18-0-70402700-1335108351_thumb.pngpost-18-0-50481300-1335108356_thumb.png

post-18-0-02249100-1335108364_thumb.pngpost-18-0-99200100-1335108369_thumb.png

 

 

Above are just the "default" settings. You can turn up or down glow effect/intensity and vector beam size to whatever you personally feel is "right". Adjustable settings inclusive of but not exclusive to:

 

brightness

contrast

gamma

antialias

beam

flicker

afterimage

line fade

glow passes

glow strength

resolution

aspect ratio

vsync/triplebuffer

artwork (backdrops/bezel/overlays/crop adj/etc.)

 

And a slew of other settings..AND perfect mouse support. ;)

Edited by Trebor
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I just downloaded AAE, and it ran without issue on my Win7 64 machine. And I have to say I am impressed with the emulator.

 

 

Just a quick capture of possible output from the MAME version posted in the link(s) above. These are not in a high resolution, and look much better "live" than what is shown here:Above are just the "default" settings. You can turn up or down glow effect/intensity and vector beam size to whatever you personally feel is "right". Adjustable settings inclusive of but not exclusive to:

 

brightness

contrast

gamma

antialias

beam

flicker

afterimage

line fade

glow passes

glow strength

resolution

aspect ratio

vsync/triplebuffer

artwork (backdrops/bezel/overlays/crop adj/etc.)

 

And a slew of other settings..AND perfect mouse support. ;)

 

We're all familiar with Mame and of course it has great results. However the one game I like to use as a barometer for vector games is simply: Asteroids..

 

Since NO emulator can truly accurately emulate the original Asteroids arcade display. And while that's true of Mame and AAE obviously, AAE has gone to great lengths to at least try with it's special "glow" effects around the shots, etc.. :lol: It goes beyond the realm of simply giving the pure arcade code of course, but that's fine. I like what it's doing. :) While with Mame you can tweak the gamma, brightness, etc. all you want and it always falls short in Asteroids.

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Check this out... a must for all vector game fans...!! http://pages.suddenlink.net/aae/ Can't go back playing the MAME versions after this...absolutely cool...Gravitar, Tempest, Asteroids Deluxe and Space Duel, etc. have never looked better...!!

Thanks for the heads up! I'll definitely be checking this out.

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I forgot I had it installed on my laptop.

 

No go for me: AAE run by itself gives me a black screen and from the cmd line running "AAE Asteroid" loads the game but the rocks are moving in ultra slow motion and there's no response from the app.

 

Did you put in the 2 updates? Probably did.. but just checking.

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We're all familiar with Mame and of course it has great results. However the one game I like to use as a barometer for vector games is simply: Asteroids..

 

Since NO emulator can truly accurately emulate the original Asteroids arcade display. And while that's true of Mame and AAE obviously, AAE has gone to great lengths to at least try with it's special "glow" effects around the shots, etc.. :lol: It goes beyond the realm of simply giving the pure arcade code of course, but that's fine. I like what it's doing. :) While with Mame you can tweak the gamma, brightness, etc. all you want and it always falls short in Asteroids.

 

I do not believe "all" is familar with the MAME version I posted in the links mentioned earlier. It is not a typical/ordinary build of MAME. This includes a special ""glow" effects around the shots, etc.". Same as AAE.

 

Here's some better screen captures of Asteroids (Click the images to see a larger picture...Clearly, you can see the "glow" around the shots. The glow intensity can be increased or decreased from what is shown here. These are just default settings. Yes, "you can tweak gamma, brightness, etc.". However, the aforementioned version includes such settings as:

 

afterimage

line fade

glow passes

glow strength

 

Specific just for vector games...

 

post-18-0-90271800-1335145129_thumb.pngpost-18-0-18950900-1335145137_thumb.png

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Regardless.. you're still going to have

I do not believe "all" is familar with the MAME version I posted in the links mentioned earlier. It is not a typical/ordinary build of MAME. This includes a special ""glow" effects around the shots, etc.". Same as AAE.

 

Allright point taken. I hadn't fully realized you were linking to a custom build of Mame. :) That being said, ok cool. Which one has the better glow effect?

 

The one thing I disliked in Mame Asteroids were the shots were just tiny pale pellets rather than physically glowing bullets of doom. But that version of Mame definitely looks 10x better than the original emulated version. But check out these shots from AAE.

 

post-31-0-64288500-1335146713_thumb.jpgpost-31-0-60883300-1335146720_thumb.jpg

 

You gotta admit that's pretty nice. Again no emulator will be able to replicate that effect from the real hardware (where the shots literally GLOW out of the monitor, beyond the brightness of anything else on the screen, and leave phosphour traces). But you gotta admit the attempted simulation is pretty nice. :)

 

And don't take me the wrong way.. I'm no emulator zealot. I use all emu's freely with zero bias. And will definitely check out that build you posted as well. :)

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Regardless.. you're still going to have

I do not believe "all" is familar with the MAME version I posted in the links mentioned earlier. It is not a typical/ordinary build of MAME. This includes a special ""glow" effects around the shots, etc.". Same as AAE.

 

Allright point taken. I hadn't fully realized you were linking to a custom build of Mame. :) That being said, ok cool. Which one has the better glow effect?

 

The one thing I disliked in Mame Asteroids were the shots were just tiny pale pellets rather than physically glowing bullets of doom. But that version of Mame definitely looks 10x better than the original emulated version. But check out these shots from AAE.

 

post-31-0-64288500-1335146713_thumb.jpgpost-31-0-60883300-1335146720_thumb.jpg

 

You gotta admit that's pretty nice. Again no emulator will be able to replicate that effect from the real hardware (where the shots literally GLOW out of the monitor, beyond the brightness of anything else on the screen, and leave phosphour traces). But you gotta admit the attempted simulation is pretty nice. :)

 

And don't take me the wrong way.. I'm no emulator zealot. I use all emu's freely with zero bias. And will definitely check out that build you posted as well. :)

 

Cool. Those screens look pretty nice, but IMHO I think AAE is a little too exaggerated with their effects (Agreeing with comments noted here: http://www.mameworld...o=&fpart=1&vc=1 - Just perhaps not as harshly..lol)

 

Besides MAME, I use dsemul, CPS3 Emu, Crystal, Daphne, Final Burn Alpha, Makaron T12, SuperModel (Sega Model 3) and a bunch of others.

 

One of the features I like about MAME is how well you can customize inputs with numerous different controls all for the same function. But hey, to each their own. I just didn't want this version of MAME to slip under the radar. :-D

 

P.S. Down the road all the vector effects discussed here and then some will be added via HLSL to "main" MAME...It just going to take some time. ;)

Edited by Trebor
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I forgot I had it installed on my laptop.

 

No go for me: AAE run by itself gives me a black screen and from the cmd line running "AAE Asteroid" loads the game but the rocks are moving in ultra slow motion and there's no response from the app.

 

Did you put in the 2 updates? Probably did.. but just checking.

 

Yes, I did that and for shits and grins I just got done downloading/installing all software and it made no difference.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
  • 10 months later...

since this was dug back up ... there is more to vector emulation than just a bloom effect on everything. vector displays are drawn in a connect the dots fashion which gives you the other 2/3rd of the effect, one is line wobble as the trace goes from point a to b to c and then there is the dot that it produces when it goes from c back to a

 

that's why your missiles and the corner of the ship get bloomy with the slow delay phosphor and the intermediate points - phosphor traces don't

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  • 4 years later...

This is very old thread... sorry for "bumping" it but this is probably the correct place for this:

 

This guy has very nice MAME HLSL settings provided with this video. I use older MAME 0.149 and couldn't get these going. But if someone wants to give them a shot... here you go.

 

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