EMULATOR REVIEW - Caprice32 v1.10
Rob takes a look at a new version of Amstrad CPC emulator Caprice32.That means even more playing of great games for hours on end. Four years later, heres the review if the thing.... |
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Emulator - Caprice32 v1.10
I liked my old CPC6128. In an era where computers had umpteen leads for the TV, cassette player and numerous expansion units, it was a breath of fresh air to get a proper home computer which was an all in one solution. You didn't even need a TV due to it's included monitor (although mine was unfortunately green screen!) which meant that I got beaten up less frequently by my sister for hogging the TV. Caprice32 allows me to experience the joy I had with my Amstrad (which I later swapped for a SAM coupe! Sounded like a good deal at the time!) in colour in my current TV free computer, the PC. And it doesn't do a bad job of it at all. One of the nice things about the eight-bit computer emulators is that they legally come with the original ROMS courtesy of Amstrad who, due to a recent newsgroup posting by their rep, are proud of the fact that people emulate their computers so long after the real ones faded away from general fame and fortune. So, a simple click of the icon and an old friend returns (only this time in lovely blue!! hooray!). Of course, I could rant about the CPC all day but this is about the emulator. It supports the usual snapshot and disk image formats so software loading isn't a problem. Unlike other CPC emulators though, it doesn't automatically load the disk or tape file you select but merely inserts it. Novices to CPCs will have to read the DOCS which are pretty good. It won't take long to get to grips with.
The GUI is a very nice, uncluttered, single screen affair which allows the CPC type, screen mode and doubling, sound output, joystick options and speed settings. It's much nicer than the other CPC options screens that I've used. There were a few bugs in the screen mode selection department but nothing too painful. A nice option often missed in eight-bit emulators is the VSYNC option which makes the under-used hardware sprite and scrolling of the CPC silky-smooth! Brownie points galore there. Real CPC joysticks can be used on the parallel port with a number of homemade interfaces supported although gamepad/joystick support was also flawless. Sound samples played well which is always a good sign of a well emulated sound chip. I didn't check CPM as I didn't have it but I'd be surprised if that failed either. There is no mouse emulation yet but the author is said to be working on it.
Only a very small number of graphical demos which hit the CPC CRTC graphics hardware fail to display as intended. The CRTC was an incredibly versatile beast with a myriad of options unused by so many games programmers. A damn site less fail due to this than on others emulators though. Games are displayed and run as intended and the whole package feels very slick and stable. It didn't crash on me once even when task switching in Windows which made a change for a DOS based emu! External ROMS (up to 251!) are supported such as the excellent Multiface device which should keep emulator collectors going for a bit! Overall, I really liked this emulator and have used it frequently. Other CPC emulators had that certain novelty value but didn't feel as close to reality. The only gripe I really had was that the Green screen emulation was incorrect. But then again I hated that when I had it, so why would I want to go back! Coagulus / Rob 9/10 - Will be improved/updated certainly. But not by much to be perfection! |
