+slx Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 And HOW IN THE WORLD do you think we got Altirra (and other SUPERB work here) up to where they are today? By just back-patting each other and kissing our foreheads? It would be a DISSERVICE for the Xformer crew not to provide them with a clear perspective of things, as much as it would be to our own community, to which we would also (and indirectly) negate the opportunity to enjoy a stronger, better Xformer… This notion of "because its free you accept it and don't criticize it" is essentially meaningless and harmful. Sorry to be a rude awakening here, but it is much better to face the truth, as it is, and build upon it a better future, for everybody (devs. and users alike). Progress only comes out of truthful and real criticism. Well, reading through the posts again they really don't sound as critical as I felt them to be when I wrote my first post. So my post might have been inappropriate and I do apologize to anyone who might have been offended by it or felt that his post was criticized. I do not disapprove of critique at all. I do, however believe, that everyone who shares some work with the community is entitled to receive a "thank you", regardless of how small or simple his/her contribution might be. The community is not entitled to an upgrade but I believe that a "this is good already, thanks for sharing with the community. You can make it even better by adding this and changing that" approach will more likely result in more impetus for the average developer to improve upon his work than just saying "we need this". Approval and appreciation for work done is a powerful motivation for future work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 (edited) Seems odd when something is three years in development and no one in the community, and yes AA is not the only but one of the main, seems to have mentioned it? I'd presume there may well have a been a testing and steering group and may have had to remain tight lipped, but sometimes asking people what they want can help Edited October 12, 2018 by Wrathchild Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 I'll try and be the god cop here.. Its a positive that its been updated and its quite a nice looking interface (if not a little confusing), its a first release in the current state and I hope it gets upgraded taking in to account the little hints that Avery has added, there's definite potential and it does a reasonable job at what its built for BUT and there has to be bad cop too, it needs to be more accurate, an emulator is only as good as its accuracy, no matter if you are emulating the flight characteristics of a rocket or an computer / console, if the end result is flawed then it needs work.. I'll look forward to more versions but Altirra will stay as my first choice and probably only choice bar a bit of fun...You have to go where the goings good! Haha... I really love god cop.... excellent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 Regarding attractive launcher... thats exactly what Cloanto offers with their Amiga and C64 emulators... But a dev never would use that... So the target is for the ppl who not want to friggle around with an emu and with firmware and other settings thanks to Atari versitalie hardware... You know... novice user might not even remember load*,8,1 or pressing OPTION while booting Etc... But in the end of the day its an emulator in the core and failing the accid Tests is a no go... sorry. Its like releasing a new mobile phone OS... you have to keep up with the pack and not say yeah 99,5% is correct. And honestly Avery pointed finger in the wound... I mean he mentioned classics... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaeron Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 And honestly Avery pointed finger in the wound... I mean he mentioned classics... Just want to clarify that this was very much not my intention, I just wanted to report some issues. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 Just want to clarify that this was very much not my intention, I just wanted to report some issues. Ok then I take the accid test and put my fingers in the wounds. You are right my statement could be misinterpreted. Sorry if I did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 I still thought of it as hints as to where emulation could be bettered so it was a more enabled item...As in, get the classics right and then work on the new stuff... Never seen Avery been the knife in the back sort of guy...But there's a dark side to us all Lol...its all not serious... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+remowilliams Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 But in the end of the day its an emulator in the core and failing the accid Tests is a no go... sorry. It'd be more excusable it Xformer didn't have literally decades of poor emulation and broken promises behind it, the worst being for the customers who paid for it... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 Seems odd when something is three years in development and no one in the community, and yes AA is not the only but one of the main, seems to have mentioned it? I'd presume there may well have a been a testing and steering group and may have had to remain tight lipped, but sometimes asking people what they want can help If anyone was beta'ing it then its probably worth saying now its out, I admire the dedication and loyalty but its a tried and tested formula that you let it loose in the wild to the public and let them dive in, any issues and needed stuff will be found so quickly its worth the time to the developer.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 It'd be more excusable it Xformer didn't have literally decades of poor emulation and broken promises behind it, the worst being for the customers who paid for it... This must be the reason for the difference in styles (posting styles, i.e., perceived attitudes, etc.) Been around a long time, but was never a paying customer of Xformer, so missed all the drama from back then. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 (edited) I guess Avery, atari800, Atari++ set the bar... but like the simplicity of Xformer and time warp. so we should not be that negative but I guess Altirra got us in a mood that not cycle exact emulation is bad (which it is imho) Edited October 12, 2018 by Heaven/TQA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 (edited) Look at it this way, my wife is able to use Xformer from download to play without my help. Altira was like this, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp, get up here! what am I doing? (...) Indeed!!! Did not look at it this way! Happy wives... happy lives! 8-) Talk about a very strong argument that may persuade Avery... so discretely auto-updated, easy-to-scroll, proportionally-sized thumbnails are introduced in a "splash" screen, generated after sweeping the main library / folders of Games / ROMs / Apps... This could all be activated or de-activated by clicking an option called "Active Preview" or something like it... Credit for the main idea to Xformer crew, as it is due! Edited October 12, 2018 by Faicuai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 What were the Atari-800 Best Game Pack releases all about then Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodLightning Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 Definitely recognize the love of this platform and hard work put in by the programmers. I have run it successfully on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 (64 bit version). Thanks for this release and looking forward to future releases. I don't think we can ever have too many emulators! Great effort towards the fun factor here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keatah Posted October 12, 2018 Share Posted October 12, 2018 You BetchaBottomDollar.. can never have enough emulators! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle22 Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Definitely recognize the love of this platform and hard work put in by the programmers. I have run it successfully on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 (64 bit version). Thanks for this release and looking forward to future releases. I don't think we can ever have too many emulators! Great effort towards the fun factor here. I wish they would compile this to run under Win XP. Altirra does. Why don't they? That is my main complaint at this point. I haven't been able to even try this thing. Before anyone asks why I run XP on my Probook i5 Quad, it's because I LIKE it, and I REFUSE to be SPIED upon by M$. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicklin Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 I wish they would compile this to run under Win XP. Altirra does. Why don't they? That is my main complaint at this point. I haven't been able to even try this thing. Before anyone asks why I run XP on my Probook i5 Quad, it's because I LIKE it, and I REFUSE to be SPIED upon by M$. They will spy on you whatever. They might even see you as more of a need to spy on wierdo for not having Win10. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flashjazzcat Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 They will spy on you whatever. They might even see you as more of a need to spy on wierdo for not having Win10. I think it's generally accepted that the deprecated operating systems are low-priority when it comes to telemetry data, etc. And it's a little easier to manually weed out and disable the 'phone home' stuff in XP, by all accounts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 What were the Atari-800 Best Game Pack releases all about then As one of the disbanded team I can just say it was a wonderfully written frontend based on Gamebase (www.bu22.com), the frontend was written by my good friend Starwindz and I just did the Atari / Altirra help along with testing and retesting the games..Its just a Best of series rather than a full all game gamebase....Now defunct but its still there to play with, lacks the newer games but I'm not really up to all that stuff these days, there's also a Gamebase (gamebase Atari) by Mark Hardnman which is a full on all game one, its great... I) think it's generally accepted that the deprecated operating systems are low-priority when it comes to telemetry data, etc. And it's a little easier to manually weed out and disable the 'phone home' stuff in XP, by all accounts. Mind you, most of the new Windows 7 updates are telemetry based ones now, just had one try to make the call home and was picked up on the way I run Zone Alarm free. Oddly there's some irony in Zone Alarm catching spying products if you look at who developed it and the people behind it Nothing earth shattering but a bit ironic... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
256 colors Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Altirra is designed with emulation quality in mind, sometimes over speed and polish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 ... sometimes over speed and polish. Harsh... have you enabled warp speed? Disable Altirra's re-use instance option and they can be run in parallel. Are people surprised code based on that running on '386-like processors can run multiple instances on today's processors and available RAM? Altirra has also evolved over the years with menu layout and h/w configuration changing but Avery also listens and takes on board suggestions from the community 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
256 colors Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Nothing harsh about the truth you can read the same statement in "Before you begin" @ http://www.virtualdub.org/altirra.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrathchild Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 certainly authors are their harshest critics Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heaven/TQA Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Harsh... have you enabled warp speed? Disable Altirra's re-use instance option and they can be run in parallel. Are people surprised code based on that running on '386-like processors can run multiple instances on today's processors and available RAM? Altirra has also evolved over the years with menu layout and h/w configuration changing but Avery also listens and takes on board suggestions from the community multinst.png Thanks Mark for the Elite spoiler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faicuai Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 (edited) I wish they would compile this to run under Win XP. Altirra does. Why don't they? That is my main complaint at this point. I haven't been able to even try this thing. Before anyone asks why I run XP on my Probook i5 Quad, it's because I LIKE it, and I REFUSE to be SPIED upon by M$. As a Win7-Pro die-hard, as well as current WinXP-Pro and Win10-Pro user, I would strongly suggest (at this particular point in time) you to consider moving UP to Win10-Pro. There are important, under-the-hood changes in Win10-Pro, not just at the User Interface level, or even vastly improved RDP (which is key for my line of work). I currently run Win10 on a HP-Z840 with Broadwell-EP E5-2696v4... stability and reliability are keys in my work. The good thing about Win10 is that it lets you know, quickly, when you are doing well in the privacy-protection front: Microsoft gets upset and usually stops sending you new screen backgrounds on Windows spotlight, and reverse to the default landscape picture. 8-))) Most of the privacy control mechanisms can be tinkered by knowing their settings location and group policies, BUT you can always resort to straightforward and efficient tools like SpyBot to make sure you get protected strongly enough to upset MS: https://www.safer-networking.org/products/spybot-anti-beacon/ Win10 is clearly a better, more robust OS with a significantly improved user-experience, all round. Don't miss it! Edited October 13, 2018 by Faicuai Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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