11 replies to this topic

[xurion]

Hi all - I'm new to emulation and my main system is an iMac. I'm running a virtual machine with Windows XP but the emulation seems jumpy; sometimes it goes really fast and sometimes normal speed. I'm putting this down to the fact it is on a virtual machine and wondering if there are any mac emulators available?

Any help would be awesome.

Thanks in advance.

Xur~

[duplu]

Hi all - I'm new to emulation and my main system is an iMac. I'm running a virtual machine with Windows XP but the emulation seems jumpy; sometimes it goes really fast and sometimes normal speed. I'm putting this down to the fact it is on a virtual machine and wondering if there are any mac emulators available?

Any help would be awesome.

Thanks in advance.

Xur~

What virtualisation software are you using? I use Windows XP through Parallels for Mac and the emulators are fine.

[xurion]

Thanks for the replay Duplu.

I'm using MFME from the emulator download page. Which one did you use? I'll try whichever one works for you and see what happens.

[jamesb99_1999]

he asked which software you used to create a virtual windows environment - not which fruit machine emulator.

[xurion]

Oh sorry misread. I'm using Sun Virtualbox.

[duplu]

Oh sorry misread. I'm using Sun Virtualbox.

I would guess it's a problem with the virtualisation software then. All of the Fruit Machine Emulators are quite graphics intensive so if you're running them in a virtual environment you need to ensure you have some kind of hardware emulation for the graphics card. In any case I would try BFMulator as that always seemed to be the least intensive versus the others.

[billnye5]

Why don't you just use bootcamp?

[duplu]

Why don't you just use bootcamp?

It's a bit of a pain in the arse to dual boot into another OS just to play some emulators when there's already a better way to do it.

[billnye5]

well ye but macs take about 20 seconds to reboot, its not an awful lot of time, simple to do and requires you to buy nothing else other than a windows install disc

[duplu]

well ye but macs take about 20 seconds to reboot, its not an awful lot of time, simple to do and requires you to buy nothing else other than a windows install disc

Each to his own. I'm constantly using applications on my iMac (ie, Unison) so I don't really want to re-boot, which takes longer than 20 seconds - Windows itself takes 3 times that long just to load.

[Daryl]

Hey Duplu, as you know I have mentioned that I am seriously considering buying a Mac operating system as my next computer, and I know you have mentioned Parallels a couple of times for emulating Windows operating system in Mac computers. You say that FME runs fine through this, but would the Microsoft Train Simulator and all its accessories that I have for it run fine in Parallels too? The MSTS is dated from 2002, and runs poorly on both Windows Vista and Windows 7, as it always seems to crash when playing an activity in these Windows (which I have for my main computer), so with my new PC, I have brought a legit Windows XP Professional and downgraded my computer, just so as I can play MSTS, FME (which plays far more superiorly in XP than Vista and 7) and my music too, because I think the sound of my music when I am playing it through Vista and 7 sounds rubbish compared to XP.

Anyway, would I have any trouble playing my games, that's FME and Microsoft Train Simulator and would I be able to play my music as it would sound on XP, if I used the Parallels in a Mac? If you say yes to this, then a Mac computer will definitely be brought as my next computer.

By the way, sorry for the long-winded post, I have had a tipple!

[duplu]

While there's no doubt that Parallels would have the power and graphical capabilities to run a game from 2002 it's not guaranteed. I used to run Rome Total War through Parallels until a Mac version was available and it was fine. As a fall back you can always use boot camp (as described above) and boot into a Windows XP installation, then your Mac is functioning as an expensive PC.

I have no idea if music would sound the same as in Windows XP as that must be down to the sound card and drivers. I guess it should sound exactly the same if you are running an XP installation through Parallels.

If you haven't already then I would consider a trip to an Apple store to play on an iMac as the switch to a Mac is a steep learning curve and I wouldn't want anyone to buy one if it didn't fully fit their needs.