15 replies to this topic

[Kombalar]

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:



And these are the results:









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



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, Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:18 PM.

[Trebor]

Kombalar, on Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:17 PM, said:

...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, Thu Apr 19, 2012 10:56 AM.

[Trebor]

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.

Edited by Trebor, Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:35 AM.

[rmaerz]

I could never get AAE to work

If they make a version that works I'll download it

[NE146]

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.

Trebor, on Sun Apr 22, 2012 9:32 AM, said:

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.. 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.

[rmaerz]

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.

[Stephen]

Kombalar, on Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:17 PM, said:

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.

[NE146]

rmaerz, on Sun Apr 22, 2012 3:31 PM, said:

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.

[Trebor]

NE146, on Sun Apr 22, 2012 2:50 PM, said:

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.. 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...

[NE146]

Regardless.. you're still going to have

Trebor, on Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:40 PM, said:

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.



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.

[Trebor]

NE146, on Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:08 PM, said:

Regardless.. you're still going to have

Trebor, on Sun Apr 22, 2012 7:40 PM, said:

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.



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.

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, Sun Apr 22, 2012 8:25 PM.

[rmaerz]

NE146, on Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:58 PM, said:

rmaerz, on Sun Apr 22, 2012 3:31 PM, said:

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.

[rxd]

Does aae run on a 800x600 monitor?

It just crashes on my Mame machine that has a low resolution monitor...

[Kombalar]

Check it out. I made a small YouTube video of the emulator. It can't make it justice as the resolution is rather low on the vid, but at least you'll see the features. Shots on Asteroids & Asteroids Deluxe look pretty authentic.

[Stephen]

Good skills on Asteroids +

[Kombalar]

Stephen, on Sun Jul 15, 2012 9:58 PM, said:

Good skills on Asteroids +

Thanks man.

Deluxe is a tough game. I scored 90K in the arcade version... now I can't surpass 70K anymore. I'm getting old.

That's not a great score though... never played it that much. I prefer Space Duel.