eli5: Why do we need emulators to play old games? why can’t we just make the games work without the emulator?
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I have an interesting anecdote about this. If not ok please delete.
I was working for msft when the moved the home operating systems to the nt code base. I was one of the only people who knew how to set up dos games, so that was my specialty.
The interesting part is there is an extra layer on an nt operating system (Neptune/windows xp) and as such, dos game audio had a stutter. I found it fascinating because everything else worked completely fine. Just… the stutter. And it couldn’t be fixed without fixing the extra layer. Which has been the same since it’s inception.
It was long ago now so I can’t remember if they fixed it or not, but I think it is a small example as to why emulators are sometimes needed. In fact, for me, I keep an old os available for dual boot if I really want to go back in time hehe!
Virtual machines were originally designed for stuff like this, but emulators are much easier for the end user.
Thanks for coming to my Randy talk.
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