Fails - will not
run for technical reasons ie. might need a VIDC20 chip for a redefinable
palette, used only in Acorns later than about 1994/5. Or the emulator may
not be StrongArm compatible, if it was released before 1996.In order that you know which emulators will run on your machine, and at what sort of performance level, each emulator has a speed rating on its page (or at least will do when I have all the results). This consists of a list of Acorn processors, and an indication of how they perform. Here's a description of how to understand it incase you're not sure.
Processors:
ARM 2 - used in most Archimedes computers, A3000s, A310, A420
etc. Generally not used anymore!
ARM 250 - used in A3010 and A3020, and I think A4000? again,
nearly obsolete.
ARM 3 - standard processor needed for RISC OS 3, comes
in A5000, A540, and any upgraded RISC OS 2 machine.
ARM 610 - used in early RISC PCs
ARM 710 - used in later RISC PCs
ARM 7500 - used in standard A7000
ARM 7500FE - used in A7000+ and one of the NCs I believe, it has
floating point processing done in hardware.
StrongARM - the fastest chip, used in the latest RISC PCs and
the Phoebe 2100.
Speed Rating:
Fails - will not
run for technical reasons ie. might need a VIDC20 chip for a redefinable
palette, used only in Acorns later than about 1994/5. Or the emulator may
not be StrongArm compatible, if it was released before 1996.
Too Slow -
although it runs, it is too slow to be usable
Slow - slower
than desirable, and could be irriating, though it can be used
Perfect - This
is what you are hoping for, and is when the speed of the emulator is about
the same as the original.
Fast - a bit
faster than the original machine, but still usable, though a little irritating
when screens flash by.
Too fast - emulator
is unusable, as it is too fast to be controlled/viewed.
If the emulator is too slow, then there is normally very little you
can do, except upgrade computer, or try and get a non-desktop version if
it was running in the desktop. It might be worth trying typing
*RMFASTER FPEmulator
at the command line, but I doubt it will have much effect. If your computer
is too fast, to run the emulator, then you need to slow it down, you could
try one of the numerous Slow down modules in the PD, or use the Hacker/DesktopHacker
from doggysoft which
has a slowdown feature, or try GameOn from the ARM
club.
If you see that you have a computer that an emulator has not been tested on, or from your experience one of my ratings is wrong, then please fit it into one of the above speed rating categories, and email me.