Emulation

Welcome to

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User Friendly 2.0 with host Bill Sikkens,

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technology architect.

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And this is User Friendly 2.0

I am your host Bill Sikkens.

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Joining me Gretchen. Bill

welcome to the show.

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Hello there Lou.

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You know,

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I think we should learn to do that

intro and Farsi because

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we've used the same one for so long

and it might be kind of fun to mix up

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a little bit.

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Farsi would be good

because it sounds cool.

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Okay.

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Why not Mandalorian.

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Well, there might be,

copyright issues with that.

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So you. Otherwise we could do Klingon.

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All right.

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Well, anyway, enough of that.

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Let's get moving here.

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All right.

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Got a good show coming up for you

this week.

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The Artemis two rocket has launched

successfully and is on its mission.

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We're going to be talking about that

a little bit during the news.

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We're also going to be discussing

Maul's shadow Lord in some detail.

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In our second segment.

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We're going to be answering your questions

on emulators and related technologies.

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So with no further ado,

let's jump into the news.

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All right.

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Another car company charges a subscription

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for a previously free feature.

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I'm sure you're thrilled with this.

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Oh. Yeah.

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Oh, I'm just I'm just chomping

at the bit for that.

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I mean, I think I wouldn't buy a car

just because of something like that.

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And, we're starting to see it

in all kinds of different places.

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But this is a little bit more interesting

because this was, published by Autoblog.

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And, it's not completely what it is.

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It's true.

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But I wanted to go into details on this

a little bit more.

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So we've been talking in the past

about some of the subscriptions cars

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are trying to do,

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like the infamous BMW heated seats

that the equipment's already in your car,

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but if you want to use it,

you have to pay them.

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I would still said hotwire

that before I would do that.

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We've seen it in some other vehicles,

like Remote Start being a subscription

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and that type of a thing.

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Well, the latest, car company to jump

on the bandwagon with this is Honda.

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And what they are doing at least

what was reported initially by Autoblog.

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There is a caveat that I'll get to

at the end of

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this is removing the garage door

opener buttons.

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And now you have to pay a subscription

to use an app on the inboard

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screen to be able to open

and close your garage door.

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So that on the sense of it

has caused a lot of discussion

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on places like Reddit, and others

where they discuss such things.

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So, you know, we do research our stories

out here every once in a while,

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a bad thing.

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But it's important

to look up all of the information.

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And what is going on here

is that, but not completely.

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So you can still get old fashioned.

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I guess it's old fashioned

garage door buttons.

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And the thing of it is, is that

from what I've been able to find out,

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is Honda is no longer

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including that or even making it

as a feature from the factory.

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If you want that,

you have to have it as a dealer out on,

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which will cost you an additional $730.

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Okay. We'll see.

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I mean, this is completely irrelevant

because I have a 36 year old Honda,

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and I do have a garage door opener,

and it works fine.

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It has nothing to do with the car.

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Well, that's the case.

And you can have your remotes.

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The advantage from a security standpoint

is if you park your car in the driveway,

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which a lot of people do,

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and you have the garage door opener,

like the remote control

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one that comes with the garage door,

if someone breaks into your car,

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they can break into your house

by opening the door.

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But I put the car in the garage

where it belongs.

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Yeah, but most people don't do that

because most people's

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garages are used for storage

or in my case, arcades.

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So you have to park the

car out on the driveway. And,

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in a lot of

cases, people just don't think about it.

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You're in a hurry and that type of thing,

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if the car's off, it shuts

those systems down so they can't be used.

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You know, someone went to the extent

of somehow hot wiring the car,

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of course, but it is definitely

an extra layer of security.

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But the question that I have to ask on

this is a vehicle.

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The passport is the one, question here

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that came up on

this is $65,000, give or take, SUV

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and they need an extra $730

or a garage door button.

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Or you can do the app

and the subscription on that,

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as far as I could tell, is $140

if you want that enabled.

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I don't know if that's annually or why,

but it's certainly

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in any of those events

there's too much money, in my opinion.

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So, you know, it's one of these situations

where I think they're trying

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to figure out what people will tolerate,

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and the car companies

would like to have reoccurring revenue

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and some subscriptions, like,

you're serious, XM.

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That makes sense

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because you're subscribing to content

that's always different.

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Yeah.

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But, you know, having to subscribe

to a navigator or some of these other

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things that

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were just included or not included.

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But if you bought the future,

it was there for the life of the car.

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And now all of a sudden

we have these type of,

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planes

creeping in from all over the place.

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So it'll be interesting

to see what happens a while.

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This one I think that I've seen is,

I believe it's Mercedes Benz,

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where if you buy your Mercedes Benz,

which are not cheap cars

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or high end luxury cars,

you can buy an add

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on subscription

that gives you more power on your engine.

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So what that really means

is that they're, governing the engine

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and then they take that off

if you buy this subscription.

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Okay.

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So so from a story tellers

point of view, at what point in the story

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you're driving along,

oh, you've ran out of your subscription,

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I guess your brakes aren't going to work.

Ha ha ha.

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I better pay that bill, you know.

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Yeah.

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You know, there's there's some

that almost sounds cyberpunk somehow.

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But anyway, he does.

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And the bottom line of it

is, is, you know, AI safety features

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and that type of a thing,

but certainly a lot of the add ons,

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cruise control, like the what do they call

it, a adaptive cruise control.

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That one is starting to be a subscription

in a lot of vehicles.

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And, you know, all these over-the-air

updates and that type of a thing.

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So, Gretchen, I don't think they're going

to shut the brakes off, at least not yet.

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But we will see, as they say,

anything is possible.

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I think I need to keep my car. Yeah,

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yeah.

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Until to join space X

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AI and Tesla Terra fab project in Texas.

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So Terra Fab is,

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short for Tesla's next generation

automated factory system.

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I've been developed

and deployed by a Gigafactory Texas,

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and it is something that has

a lot of incredible engineering behind it.

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You know,

looking at what they're doing here is,

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going to be interesting

if they pull it off.

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And with Tesla, sometimes that happens,

sometimes that doesn't.

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So Intel has a stake in this like going

to be manufacturing within that.

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And the idea of this is fully automated,

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almost on the assembly line.

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I've heard some rumors about casting car

bodies.

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We'll look into that a little bit further

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because I don't know

what could go wrong there.

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But the point of it is, is, it's something

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that from a strictly

a standpoint of looking at technology,

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this could be kind of cool, depending on

how they do it and how they pull it off.

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And I'm going to be interested

to see if it works or if it's another,

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you know, thing,

like they've had some times with, oh,

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you know, certain vehicles with parts

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falling off

while you're driving down the road.

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Hopefully not. Hopefully not.

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All right.

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Maul shadow Lord sets a Star Wars

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Rotten Tomatoes record.

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Yeah, and I think I would have to agree

with that.

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Forbes is reporting on this. And,

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100% credit score,

you know, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

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That is a record.

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And I don't know, Gretchen,

we're going to be discussing this

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in a lot more detail after the news.

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But just a quick

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one of what's your opinion on it, like it

or hate it, it's totally awesome.

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Yeah, I'd have to agree. I have to agree.

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And I actually saw it

when it dropped to this time.

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I'm not behind on this one.

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But anyway,

all right, we'll circle back to that

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and talk a little bit

more about the specifics of it.

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And they are cool.

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NASA's Artemis

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two crew experiences

total solar eclipse from space.

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Yeah, so kind of a cool thing.

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Scientific American reporting on this one.

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And what you know, we've seen

solar eclipses of some of us from Earth.

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And usually it's kind of cool to see,

but it's very quick when it happens.

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So they got the total experience

57 minutes

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of complete eclipse

darkness, wall out in space.

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And they said it was really cool

to be able to see and,

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you know, I don't know, maybe someday

I'll get to see something like that.

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I still think, if you know,

we could right out on a great spaceship,

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I'd be a little more comfortable

with it. But,

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you know, it.

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It's kind of cool.

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I kind of wonder, did they.

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Did they remember to turn

and look in the other direction?

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Because if you're in that total darkness,

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wouldn't it be,

And I could be completely wrong.

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Wouldn't

it be easier to see the rest of space?

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You know, like the Milky Way galaxy

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and all the stars that we don't

see as well, like we used to,

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I would imagine, you know,

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I mean, after me, I'm thinking, wow,

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a lot of it is light pollution,

and a lot of it

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is that there's no atmosphere

to diffuse the light to see the stars.

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Yeah, that's a good point.

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That's a very good point.

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So the reason we see the stars

the way we do is like Bill just said,

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is the atmosphere.

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So without atmosphere

it would be very different.

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So I honestly don't know.

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If I get to go and find out,

I will let you know and do an update. Oh.

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All right.

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Oh, this one's mine.

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Artemis two's toilet costs 23 million.

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The second most expensive loo in history.

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I hope it wasn't made by Howard Wallow.

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It's from Big Bang Theory.

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From Big Bang Theory?

Well, you never know. You know, I,

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but on the topic of if you got to go,

you got to go.

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And these things are important.

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Yeah, it's, definitely design.

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And all of the different things

that go along with something like this.

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You have to take care of all the needs.

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And in this case,

it, is a second model of a line.

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The first one cost 11.5

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million and was installed on

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So, 23 million on this now, I thought the,

Wheeler, how do you say that?

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A smart car, that's the brand holder.

Thank you.

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We're expensive at $78,000,

but I guess they have nothing on this,

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so I.

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By the way, the most expensive toilet

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for Endeavor's waste collection system.

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Adjusted for inflation,

it was just under $70 million.

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So, yeah, that's

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that's a lot of money.

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But yeah, you know, you got to take care

of those biological needs.

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Yeah, we do.

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You know.

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Tahoe city, Earth Day cleanup.

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So as I think some of our longer

listeners will probably know,

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as we all have a love of Lake Tahoe

and that area.

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So just wanted to put this one out here.

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This comes from the Tahoe

Environmental Research Center

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on Wednesday, April 22nd from 2 to 5 p.m..

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If you are in the area, you can go

and help them clean up the lake.

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And this is actually an important thing

because there are a few,

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times during the year,

like the 4th of July,

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where it gets a really bad out there

and you're talking about

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one of the clearest

lakes in the world and,

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you know, getting polluted and all that

kind of stuff just isn't a good thing.

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So it definitely needs maintenance.

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And it's kind of cool

to see this, being a thing.

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So again, if you're up in, Tahoe City,

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Lake Tahoe, April 22nd, 2 to 5,

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I want to give him a hand if you can.

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All right. So, mall.

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Gretchen, and before we get into this,

we might have some spoilers here.

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So if you haven't seen it for our show,

go watch it and then come back and resume.

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I guess if you're listening

live on the radio, you can't do that.

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But anyway,

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Gretchen, could you give us a little bit

of background on this whole thing?

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And we talked about it briefly

in the past, but what is the series?

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And, okay.

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Well, well, Darth

Maul used to be the apprentice to,

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Darth Sidious. Yes.

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And we saw him in the prequel movies,

and we saw him die.

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And then, lo and behold,

he resurfaces in the Clone Wars series.

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In the cartoon.

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And then he also resurfaces

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again in the rebels series.

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And we have Sam Witt.

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We are doing the voice and he is amazing.

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He has given such great depth,

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to the character.

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There are those moments when you could

just feel that Maul is like,

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so it's like he's gone crazy

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and he's experienced such horrible things.

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And Sam went, where is very capable

of giving you that feeling

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that this man has been through so much.

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And so Darth Sidious kind of screwed.

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Maul over.

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You just got when he found out

he was still alive, he didn't care.

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You know, he had a new apprentice.

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And so,

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the guy's out for revenge,

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and he's building his own empire.

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Now, one of the things, Bill, didn't

you think that the artwork

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was absolutely fascinating?

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It had a very,

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almost, gritty look to it.

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Yeah, yeah, it's,

I actually said that it reminded me

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a little bit

of some of the cyberpunk stuff

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with the purple

and just the way that it was done.

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And, this was one of the things

that was a controversy

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among fans when the announcement

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for the series came out,

was that the artwork was different.

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And yes, it is,

but in a good way, in my opinion.

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They did a really beautiful job,

and it's nice to have something

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that just doesn't copy the party line

every time.

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Yeah. You know, if they do it

and it doesn't work, that's one thing.

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But in this case it really did.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And they, did their very nice job.

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It adds to the, the, the reality

or the feeling because we're talking

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underworld,

we're talking mob bosses and gangs

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and drug wars and,

now the characters are still done

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pretty much the same,

but it's the background and it has this.

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This is not a, you know,

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cutesy little kids, you know, TV show.

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And I feel like there are some Star Wars

fans that have really done

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themselves a disservice by assuming

that cartoons are kid nonsense.

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These are beautifully done stories,

well-acted, with beautiful artwork.

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Well, I, I couldn't agree more.

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Yeah, but it's, it's, you know, it's

definitely a thing like that.

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And it that is a good point.

This is probably not one for the kids.

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At least preview it before you would let

your kids watch it depending on their age.

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Because it is it is violent in places

and stuff like that.

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But definitely the characters are

what you would expect more or less.

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Most make up is a little different,

I think.

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No it's not.

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Is it okay?

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I mean, yeah,

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and it's and his clothing makes sense

with the last time we saw him, so.

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All right.

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It isn't.

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Somebody wrote an article

where they tried to make it sound like

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his clothing was completely different.

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No, it follows the it follows the timeline

correctly, which makes good sense.

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I don't necessarily know it

well enough to know that, but,

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you know, if you were somebody

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who only watched the prequels,

then you'd be like, what's going on?

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You know?

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Yeah, well,

you need to watch the rest of the stuff.

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It was like these, these Sith Lord,

you can never get rid of them.

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I mean, you know, he's turning back up.

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Yeah, but he's he's worth something.

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He's more than a Sith lord.

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Maul is has really evolved.

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He's like Ventress.

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He's realized that the Sith have just

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screwed him over.

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And, there's more going on.

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He has a broader perspective than just a

Sith dogma.

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So. Right.

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You can tell your Darth Sidious, you know.

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Yeah, well, there you are.

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But he is definitely not a good guy.

I wouldn't go from there.

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So they dropped the first two episodes

this week, which was kind of cool.

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You got two for one kind of.

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And the first one sets it up really well.

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The second one just blows your idea.

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And I'm looking forward to,

So know I got to tell you something.

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I've actually turned

my Disney+ subscription back on

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for a little while

so I can see the series when it comes out.

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It was it was worth

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doing for that because it's just,

something that's cool there.

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And maybe I'll actually finish Skeleton

Crew two.

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Yeah.

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You know, after you went home,

I watched it again.

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Yeah,

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I, I, you know, I think it's worth it.

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And, definitely, definitely something.

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So let us know

what you think about it too,

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because this is something I know

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there's going to be different opinions

from everybody, and that's totally fine.

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And curious to see love it, hate it,

you know, that type of a thing.

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And, we'll go from there.

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So speaking of universes and things,

let's talk Cyber Hawk a little bit.

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So kind of an update to your,

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first full book is out now.

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The official press

release is going out this week.

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So by the time this airs, it'll be out.

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And, I understand you've already had the,

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celebrity thing happen

that the first box of books was stolen.

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Yeah, yeah.

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I don't know what's wrong with people.

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You keep trying to tell me

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it's because I'm famous and I'm like,

no, no, it's just happened.

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I know, yeah, it just happened.

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That it was

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that set of books out of a whole bunch,

and it wasn't in any other box, but.

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So somebody had to pick it.

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But hey, you know, it just happened. Oh.

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So now where are you?

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I know you're working on the next book.

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Unveil villain unveiled billions.

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How is that coming?

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It's coming along real well.

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I've got the rough draft, done.

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And then what I do is

I let it sit for a month,

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and then I reread through it again.

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It's almost like it's wine

that needs to be cured or something.

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And, so then I

will go through it again and,

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Yeah, it needs to be edited. So.

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Yeah.

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Well, I can attest to the fact

that you take a lot of time in editing.

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You know, to the point

that we've actually read

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sections out loud

sometimes and different things like that.

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And it does seem to make a better book.

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And, you know, this has been an

interesting process because the first run

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was the book was fine,

but the formatting was a mess.

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You know, stuff like that,

that, is kind of, back

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in the olden days, I assume the publisher

would take care of that.

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And they sort of are now, but

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it still certainly required us

to go through and and fix it.

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And now that it's fixed, it's fine.

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But, you know, it's interesting.

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This whole process has been

a real learning experience.

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So we've had a lot of authors on the show

I know that have

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gone through this themselves,

but it's one thing to hear about it

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and it's one thing to actually be involved

in all of the different things

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that happen to graphic design.

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And your novels

don't have a lot of internal pictures,

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but you've got the covers

and different things like that.

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So there's that process.

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And, we actually have

a graphic designer of a human.

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Why not an AI that, has done

these covers for us and will continue

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to and, you know, go through it.

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And that's another thing

that's kind of interesting, too,

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because I know

when you submitted for publication,

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there's a checkbox, did

I write any part of this book?

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You know, no.

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And no on yours.

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No, I no one's

gotta wonder how many people need to check

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yes on that for maybe the whole book.

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You know, it's.

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Yeah, that's that's bad.

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Unless the AI is really, really

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creative and imaginative.

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Yeah.

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It's, you know, but at the end of the day,

I think,

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if that was the case,

the AI should get credit for writing it,

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not the human that programed the

AI to write it.

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It's, Yeah.

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Yeah, if we're going to

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if we're going to look at it

from that standpoint,

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then we need to do that

all the way around. And,

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you know, it's that kind of a thing.

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But yeah, interesting.

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And, you know, discussed

AI and that kind of thing.

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But when it comes to certain

things like art

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and both writing and, painting,

you know, all these things are an art,

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it does seem that

AI does not have it on the humans yet,

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but a lot of humans are being,

well, maybe a little bit lazy or whatever.

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You know,

maybe it's a deadline or something.

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So they're going through these things now,

I've said in the past,

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I use AI or a tool for, you know, maybe

checking things and getting started,

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but I still do my own work and, I'm

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yet to be able to go to ChatGPT and say,

hey, I need an app that does that.

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Write it for me.

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When that happens, I will retire. But,

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You know, but it is it is a good tool.

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And that's exactly

how you have to look at it.

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But you

you don't just let it do everything.

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Even if you have a human assisting you,

graphic designer or editor on a book

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or a, you know, programmer

that I would work with, I think you would

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still review all of that and just

and you would review what AI puts out to.

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And most of the time it is pretty good.

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But there are times in there

that it does need that.

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And certainly

if you're going to take credit

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for writing something

and you're using a tool to do that,

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you know, if you're using a word processor

that's also using a tool to do that,

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but you certainly if it's writing

part of it or you should disclose.

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And I know there's not really any rules

on the ethics of this yet.

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My understanding is

they are putting together an AI ethics

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class on the high school level.

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Oh, good. So that'll be,

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kind of interesting.

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We're doing that Stem presentation

next week at the school here.

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And when I met with him, that's

one of the things they were talking about.

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Now, the high school here is light years

ahead

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of some that I've seen, certainly

when I was going to school.

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But they do have these programs

that are just really kind of amazing

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and they're saying, well,

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you know, if we call it an ethics class,

no one would take it.

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So they're integrating it

into some other things,

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where you get it

as part of the curriculum.

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But I think it's important

to look at all of this because,

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you know,

we're seeing this across the board.

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I've talked about the legal stuff

that they're seeing, briefings

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put in with fake cases and fake quotes

and all that kind of stuff.

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And the courts are not happy about this,

by the way, and other things.

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There's a manual to, an item that I bought

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that is clearly written by AI

and the problem is it's incorrect.

475

No, it doesn't tell

you really how to do it.

476

And when you think about it,

how would the.

477

I know, unless it can operate the device

somehow?

478

Yeah.

479

If it has arms and legs and eyes and knows

how to use a hammer or a screwdriver.

480

Yeah. Hi. How's it going to know?

481

You know, at least look at theory

of operation and stuff.

482

And it's like, you know,

but it's definitely a situation where,

483

like anything else, it's a tool

484

and it is something that is good

but shouldn't be abused.

485

All right. We're going to take a break.

486

And our next segment

we're going to be talking the emulator.

487

So this is user friendly 2.0.

488

You see here he's from the future.

489

He's got a really big computer

490

and he uses it uses it every day.

491

And he uses it in every way

I see you sure.

492

You know I'm not sure

because he's uses in here.

493

Welcome back.

494

This is user friendly 2.0.

495

Check out our website.

496

User friendly dot show is the one stop

497

for everything past, present and future.

498

I don't know about future, but

499

retro.

500

Are you guys up to doing some fortune

telling on the website?

501

Sure. Okay.

502

Why not?

You know, might be an interesting.

503

I don't know if you'd like it.

504

Now. But speaking of future,

505

it's got some great guests and stuff

coming up later this year too.

506

And one thing that you've been asking for

that we are now

507

finally starting to think about

is doing a discord.

508

So, get out there and talk once in a while

and that kind of a thing.

509

And, we will let you know how that goes.

510

But as far as predicting the future,

who can predict the future?

511

Well, if you can, if you would be kind

enough to go to user Friendly Doc

512

show, click on Ask Question and send us

the lottery numbers for next week, please.

513

Thank you. You

514

all right?

515

Now taking a step back to the past,

516

a lot of listener questions have come in

about these topics and varying degrees,

517

and I figured it'd be kind of fun

to just go into this

518

because it is a, thing

that especially people that are into retro

519

stuff have seen, but you've probably used

one of these in that type of a thing,

520

but starting from the video game

perspective,

521

because that's where they most likely are.

522

If you've ever played a game

like Mario or Sonic on your PC

523

and thought,

is this really the same experience

524

is what it would have been

on the original hardware?

525

Are we simulating it?

526

Are we recreating it and what's going on?

527

So some points on this, differences

528

between two ways of doing this.

529

First one being an emulator.

530

So an emulator is software

that imitates another system's hardware

531

so you can run its games or programs

now built.

532

I think you've worked with these

a little bit.

533

I might be wrong on that. Okay.

534

What is your experience

been kind of overall

535

I've used DOS emulators.

536

I've used,

537

some for arcade cabinets.

538

Some for consoles that I've owned that,

539

you know, the games were a little bit,

damaged, right.

540

And would you say that agree with the idea

that some are better than others?

541

Oh, yeah.

542

Yeah, it's

seems like anything else on that thing.

543

So basically what you're doing is

you have a piece of software that

544

tells the, other software that you're

running within it, like the game

545

or whatever makes it think that it's

running on its original hardware.

546

And then in real time

translates the instructions between that

547

and the system CPU

that it's emulating on and back and forth.

548

And as computers get faster

and that type of a thing,

549

it does seem to work a lot

better than it did in the day.

550

But timing can still be off.

551

You know, I've seen glitches and things

where it won't run or kind of,

552

you know, stops and goes.

553

And the one big one, bill, I don't know

if you've experienced this, it seems like

554

the audio is more affected

sometimes than the actual gameplay.

555

Yeah.

556

And now and,

you're using software rendering, for, GPU.

557

So you don't have the hardware

acceleration, which can be a problem

558

on some things.

559

I think, again, it depends on what it is

you're doing, something that comes from

560

a Nintendo eight bit

or even a Super Nintendo.

561

You're probably okay.

562

But if you're trying to emulate

563

the Sega Saturn or a PlayStation three,

I think there's one out for that.

564

There might even be one out

for the for now.

565

I think they got that.

566

But you're talking about software

that uses a lot more resources,

567

because it's newer equipment.

568

And with that kind of a situation, you do

see blockchain and some things like that

569

where it's

not just like the original experience.

570

The other thing of it is,

is that the emulator,

571

what we were saying

earlier is as strong as the writer,

572

because it's a piece of software,

and if it's glitchy to begin with

573

or are not compatible in some way with

the system that you're trying to run it

574

on, you're going to have problems

that come from that standpoint, too.

575

So there's another way that you can do

this, and it's a thing called FPGA

576

research.

577

And what does that stand for?

578

I don't know, you you promised me

yesterday you would explain it.

579

Okay.

580

Well maybe we should do that.

581

Field Programable gate array.

582

Does that make it any better?

583

So again,

584

field programable gate array.

585

Well, field. Okay.

586

So you're out somewhere in a field

with a handheld device.

587

You know,

588

I mean, it could be, I guess, but.

589

Okay.

590

So this is actually something that,

591

for a geek like me, that's an engineer in

hardware is really cool.

592

And it is something that works

a lot better.

593

Basically, the 10,000ft view of this

594

is you have a silicon chip,

595

and it is made in such a way

that you can program it.

596

And if you do the programing properly,

it will accurately recreate

597

the hardware

that was in the original device.

598

Okay, so where this is being

599

used right now for the enthusiasts

that are out there,

600

the new Commodore 64

is the ultimate and Founders edition.

601

All that kind of stuff uses this.

602

So your instruction sets all of that

kind of thing, even though it is a modern

603

piece of hardware and all of that

604

will run

accurately with pretty much everything

605

that would have originally worked

with the Commodore 64.

606

And from that kind of a standpoint,

it makes it different now

607

of what

we're just talking about with emulators

608

plus is an example of that.

609

Another new system that's come out,

610

but it is an emulator and it's doing it

the software layer instead of hardware.

611

on the original

612

sometimes don't work and sometimes do

it does do a good job of most games,

613

but Atari actually publishes

614

a list of a few things that won't work

because the cartridge,

615

cannot be downloaded,

which is basically how that works.

616

So your timing is extremely accurate,

your input lag is minimal,

617

and it feels like we were just saying,

like the original hardware, it's

618

more expensive to do things like this,

but when you put it together,

619

it is something that works a lot better.

620

So, you know, from that standpoint

621

you're really looking at authenticity.

622

So let's talk good versus bad emulator.

623

So again

you're looking at a piece of software

624

that does something runs a game

or whatever the case may be.

625

And you want to do that on your Windows 11

or new Mac or whatever it is.

626

But it's something

that, goes back to the old days.

627

So, dolphin emulator is one

that's highly rated,

628

medicine machine,

which not one I've used is highly rated.

629

And then yes and yes.

630

I can guess what that might mean.

631

It is horrible at there too.

632

ZnS is so, and project 64 are ones

633

that have mixed reviews, which means that

they have problems with them.

634

So again,

you're looking at the situation here.

635

Where does the software

636

that you're using to recreate

the original hardware work properly?

637

And like we said before, if it doesn't

you're going to have problems

638

doing it at the hardware level.

That's cool.

639

Now, one of the other things

that's cool about that,

640

too, is you can redefine

that hardware using software.

641

So if you wanted to change with the logic

and that chip was after it is sent out

642

or, you know, in use, you can do an update

that would actually do that.

643

So, you know, kind of definitely cool.

644

And where this comes into being important,

645

besides the fact that the authenticity

is there and all of that is the fact

646

that we are getting to the stage

now where these older computers,

647

gaming consoles and whatnot are going 40,

50 years old now,

648

and they were not made

with the idea of being an antique.

649

They were made with, you know, you're

going to buy them probably for your kid.

650

They'll play with them a couple of years

and it'll be upgraded with something else.

651

So we're seeing things

where a lot of the proprietary

652

hardware that are in

these units are starting to break down.

653

One infamous

one is the chip in the Commodore 64.

654

It's a sound chip.

655

That's just one of many.

656

The pokey and the Atari and that type of

a thing where you can't buy them anymore.

657

And if you do, it's a problem

because you're either going to pay out

658

the nose

or the places that they sell these,

659

like eBay and AliExpress and stuff,

you're going to get a fake.

660

I mean, anything's possible.

661

You might get a real one,

but you're going to get a fake.

662

Yeah.

663

To the point that people that try

to get them that way will order 100 up.

664

I'm hoping that one's real.

665

Oh, gee.

666

You know, and, but it is a problem

667

because as the hardware kind of times out,

what do you do?

668

And I'm one that I love the authenticity

of original hardware,

669

which is why I like this stuff.

670

Otherwise I just run the emulator

on my windows desktop.

671

But I'm seeing that kind of a thing, too.

672

And you kind of have to be able

to repair electronics in some cases

673

just to keep these things up and running,

even if you've taken good care of them,

674

recalled solder joints

over the years, things break apart.

675

The chips themselves,

you know, start to have problems.

676

I've seen them where the actual package

is broken in some way.

677

Oh, you know, that kind of a thing.

678

And it creates a problem.

679

And especially if you're using equipment

that produces heat

680

because heat is the enemy of electronics.

681

So now you have a situation

where that on top of everything else

682

is going to cause capacitors

to dry out and on and on, and on.

683

So utilizing a way that hardware

684

can actually really emulate

these things is a good bit.

685

Now, like I say, the Commodore 64

ultimate is a good example of this.

686

I have a little story of my own,

have a Atari 130 XY,

687

and I'm writing some software

retro game software on it.

688

I'm not allowed to give the title of the

next one just yet, but it is in progress.

689

And the computer

long story got left out in the rain.

690

And, nowhere

have I seen an A service manual

691

that if it's dirty,

you leave it out in the rain.

692

That I might have missed

that somewhere, but,

693

I don't believe

that is a good thing to do.

694

So the thing is completely corroded,

and I'm having a hard time

695

getting another unit that works completely

or everything's there and.

696

Okay, well, question.

Why don't you write it on an emulator?

697

Just talked about.

698

Well, to do software that would be up to

today's standards on a computer

699

that has 60 4k of Ram

and 28 K runs at less than one megahertz.

700

You have to be

701

very, very careful with your code.

702

So if I sit down

and write an application for Windows 11,

703

I've got all kinds of resources.

704

You don't worry about it

as much in that type of a thing.

705

But and I think that's

part of the challenge

706

for me is when you're working on an older

computer like that,

707

what are you going to do with your 60 4k?

708

And you better figure it out,

because that kind of memory goes away

709

very quickly,

considering you don't even have that.

710

The computer's operating system

and all that stuff

711

when it boots up, even though it's from

ROM, takes up some memory,

712

you can't always address

everything you know.

713

And in a lot of these cases,

sound is done by the CPU.

714

So you have to worry about that

prime example.

715

For those that might remember

when the game Ghostbusters came out,

716

Commodore 64 and other platforms,

it loads up a loading screen

717

and then it goes Ghostbusters.

718

It actually says the word

without a, voice synthesizer.

719

That's a big deal for that time.

720

But if you watch it, everything else

stops moving while it's doing that,

721

because it's taking all of the computer

resources to be able to generate that.

722

So there's something on the screen

723

because it's in video memory, but

it can't literally not do anything else.

724

So there's a certain amount of fun

or masochism,

725

depending on how you look at it in working

with these kind of environments.

726

But you want to be able to put together

software games,

727

and in my case,

that people would actually want to play.

728

So I do it at an assembly level

using a machine language monitor.

729

And those things do not work

on an emulator very well.

730

When you're sending

731

direct instructions to the CPU

and that type of a thing, I guess

732

if the emulator was absolutely perfect,

but it would have to be in the instruction

733

set to the 65 processor

and the timing and everything else.

734

And I have experienced things where

when I've tried to work on stuff that way,

735

it won't run on the original hardware

because it's out of sync.

736

You know, or

there's some other kind of a problem.

737

So, you know, takeaways from this.

738

Well, don't leave your computer

out in the rain or don't do that.

739

And I have a bad thing.

740

And, the other side of it

is, is to see where there's enough

741

interest in these things that they're

starting to be remanufactured.

742

And when they're done, like,

743

it looks like the new Commodores

in some other systems are being done,

744

you're in a situation where it actually

can work like the original.

745

And it's a good thing

because that's something that's needed.

746

So another listener question

747

that came in on this topic is,

okay, so emulator we're running software.

748

What if I'm running windows 98

749

in a virtual machine on my Windows

11 desktop.

750

Is that emulation?

751

Technically,

752

I asked

this question of a few experts, and,

753

I think I talked

to four different people on this,

754

and I got four different answers.

755

Oh, wow.

756

And, one of them is officially,

you're running in a virtual machine,

757

and therefore it's virtualization,

not emulation is the next question.

758

I mean, well, what's the difference

between those two things?

759

I mean, I know the virtual machine is a

self-contained sandbox, kind of it's doing

760

whatever it is that it's doing,

but isn't that running on other software?

761

And the best answer I could get on

762

this is if the code runs natively.

763

So in other words, it's an x86 and Windows

11 in the virtual

764

environment is running your windows

98 or whatever operating system,

765

but it's able to actually run on the

architecture, then that is not emulation,

766

but you're using the virtualization

to be able to make that function,

767

and it kind of gets a little bit confusing

from that type of a thing.

768

But if you're using different hardware,

like, say,

769

you're running on an ARM processor

or a mac or something,

770

that absolutely is emulation

because you have a translation

771

layer in there

that is making it, you know, work.

772

And having

that is kind of the definition of this.

773

But again,

there's a lot of opinions on this,

774

and I'm not sure

there's really completely a right answer.

775

That was the best that I could get.

776

But, you know, there you are.

777

So why would you want to do that?

778

Why would you want to run

an old operating system like that?

779

I mean, I guess you see that everywhere

that you really like, you can't replace.

780

And, Gretchen, you have a exact scenario

that would work well for this.

781

I do, and that's your LaserJet or printer?

782

Oh, yeah.

783

You know, getting drivers and

784

older hardware, that might be the thing

when they've been discontinued.

785

A lot of times,

even if you get the driver,

786

it will not function

with the new operating system.

787

So now you have a piece of hardware

that is derelict.

788

And if you put together virtualization

and get the old operating system

789

working for that line, then you can get it

up and running again usually. You.

790

So is that with that, piece of equipment

that you got me was for?

791

It's, emulation or virtualization?

792

Which piece of equipment is that?

793

You're going to be a little more specific.

794

I don't know. It's this box. It's gray.

795

You gave it to me.

796

I paid for it.

797

And it's to make the,

798

the, laser jet for actually function.

799

Okay, so what's your talk in that?

800

There's a lot of gray

boxes in the computer world,

801

like that that you got me.

802

That had to do with the laser jet four.

803

So what that is, actually,

is it's actually original hardware.

804

It's as old as your printer.

805

Oh. Bought that off eBay.

And it's a thing called a Jet Direct.

806

And a lot of our audience

will know what that is.

807

And basically what it does is it plugs

into the printer over the parallel port,

808

which does not exist on modern computers

anymore.

809

Yeah, but it plugs into your network

over Ethernet.

810

And even though it's ten base T and that

makes it fairly slow, it's that printer.

811

It's fine.

812

Then all you have to do

is finagle the drivers to work,

813

and you can then talk to the printer

without having to do other things.

814

There are USB, e to parallel and

serial adapters and that type of a thing.

815

The serial ones work pretty well. I have

never had good luck with the parallel.

816

And I think that's because USB

is serial off

817

by the nature of what it is,

so you're not converting as much.

818

So in your case, what you're talking about

is not an emulator or even a translator.

819

It is a piece of,

well, it's a piece of hardware

820

that's translating

from a network signal to the signal.

821

The printer can understand.

822

But it's different than what we're talking

about in the sense that it's not,

823

any of these things.

824

It's its own thing.

825

But it was built for that purpose.

826

And it just so happens

that the way that it talks to a network is

827

still compatible with what we use today,

and therefore we can use it in that way.

828

But again, you're looking at where

you're having to do something special

829

because, you know,

and when you think about it,

830

you know, parallel and serial ports

and all that kind of stuff.

831

In the day

832

you went down,

you bought a card for 30 bucks,

833

and those ice cards are even going for

a premium now when you if you need one.

834

So if you want really authentic hardware,

that's going to be difficult

835

to come by too.

836

So Gretchen, your first computer

was an Atari St, right?

837

Yeah, yeah. No. What was yours?

838

Commodore Vic 20.

839

Oh, you had a Vic 20? Okay, cool.

I didn't know that.

840

I have more respect for you now.

841

No, I.

842

Anyway,

843

when I was in high school, I had a Vic 20,

which was also my first machine.

844

And then I got into the Atari

eight bit stuff, but.

845

Yeah. So, did you ever.

846

They'll have a game called Radar Rat Race.

847

No, I didn't okay.

848

That might be why you're still saying,

849

Oh, boy, that was a.

850

So Vic 20 is,

851

a cool machine. It was a low cost machine

852

when it came out,

and it did a lot for what it was.

853

But I want to say the memory on that,

that came off,

854

it was like eight K or 4k or something.

855

It wasn't a what which the Commodore 64,

which was the next step up from that

856

at 60 4k of memory.

857

And we're talking K, not megabytes

by the way, or gigabytes obviously.

858

So I think it's really kind of cool.

859

Vic 20 I've done a little programing on

in the color palette

860

and all of the stuff that you work with,

it doesn't do sprites, natively.

861

So if you have stuff like that,

it all has to be done in software.

862

And sound is a similar situation.

863

You certainly don't have sound fonts

or anything, and it just goes

864

to show

where you're dealing with something

865

that is a piece of hardware

that a lot of people go, oh no, it's not.

866

And if you do things right, it can still

work and be, you know, very useful

867

and that type of a thing.

868

Now, of course,

some of the other limitations

869

that you'll run into, like it has to plug

into a CRT television without an adapter.

870

And a few

871

things like that are also, as time

goes by, the actual

872

infrastructure that ran this stuff

is starting to disappear as well.

873

And you, you know, see a difference

from that type of a thing.

874

And I'm, I don't want to go back to, you

know, only having that type of technology.

875

I like my flat screen monitors.

876

And I certainly do like the new 65 inch

old LED TV that I just got.

877

These are things.

878

And if I look at it, compared to a 19 inch

Sony CRT, well, there is a little bit

879

of difference in the resolution

and Fahrenheit 451 with the screen size.

880

So it's yeah.

881

But when you think about it,

where that's going, can you plug

882

in one of these retro, you know, game

console or computer or something?

883

Well, yeah, you can, but it doesn't output

a high definition signal.

884

So it's going to be a little bit fuzzy

because it's not designed for that.

885

And you'll need an adapter.

886

But there are still some things

that won't work with that.

887

Like the light zappers

that requires a CRT to work.

888

CRT is pretty much analog, and flat screen

889

monitors are digital, which means that

they're not getting a real picture.

890

They're getting a data stream,

and they construct a picture from it.

891

And there's always going to be

even on the best ones out there,

892

a little bit of a delay

to be able to do that.

893

And when you have that little bit of a

delay, it's just enough

894

so that, like guns

and all those type of things won't work.

895

I believe, like pens and stuff

have some more problems.

896

So you want to work with that?

897

Well, you do have to get a actual CRT.

898

And the funny thing about it is,

is that if you have a good television

899

from the era, that works, and certainly

one that has like RGB or composite

900

input and all that kind of stuff,

they are commanding a premium now.

901

The gamers love them.

902

They're very hard to come by.

903

And the other thing, unfortunately,

that we're seeing the end of is,

904

all older vacuum tubes are going to air

905

and CRT is use a vacuum tube.

906

So, you know, there's

less of that around to.

907

And there it's also consumables.

908

So they get used up in other ways

for they'll start to get, you know,

909

foggy and not work

well anymore and get dark.

910

So as time goes on, having a way

to at least

911

accurately recreate

some of the old hardware is good.

912

So let's talk something else.

913

It's, you know, okay,

this is all great for,

914

you know, the portion of the world

that likes that stuff,

915

but you know, your business owner.

916

Well, I bet you you're with an emulator

quite often, and you do if you use

917

an ATM machine, most likely because

most ATM machines run on windows XP.

918

Still, they have a different name for it.

919

And it's kind of interesting

920

because you actually can still

go to Microsoft's website.

921

And I think it's the point POS

or point of sale version of windows.

922

Yeah, that could mean something else.

923

But in this case, that's

what it's supposed to mean.

924

And it's windows XP.

925

You download it, you install it,

and you have an XP machine

926

with modern stuff on it,

which is kind of cool, you know?

927

So but the thing of it is, is

why is that the case?

928

Well, it's time tested.

929

It's long as it's supported,

it's more secure.

930

And also there's

931

a lot of equipment out there

that still uses that era of technology.

932

If you run something like a bank

or another business and you're

933

looking for your capital investments,

you might not want

934

to replace every computer in the world

that you have.

935

It's working

just fine. It's embedded in this stuff.

936

I mean, it's easier to do one

at the desk, but, you know, go from there.

937

So, you know, it's

just an interesting situation.

938

And how much of this still relies on older

hardware not to scare off anybody?

939

But there are still Boeing planes

that boot off floppy disks.

940

Yeah, in use.

941

And, you know, and that's the other thing

too, is the heart of things

942

like floppy disk and cassette tapes

and all that stuff's not made anymore.

943

Even if it is, it's extremely niche.

944

So, you know, it's just kind of,

kind of interesting

945

to see where you're going

with all of that kind of stuff.

946

Yeah, it's when you planes floppy dies

or gets damaged.

947

Well, it's a problem.

948

And a lot of times they're buying up stuff

online and different things.

949

I'll give you another quick story.

950

We've got a little time left here and is

there was an organization

951

that some of our audience may have heard

of called Blockbuster Video,

952

and they used to rent out videos

and with streaming and stuff,

953

they've got a way of actually, it's more,

954

I think, stupid decisions on their end

than anything.

955

But there's one blockbuster

that still exists.

956

It's in bend, Oregon, and there's stuff

online about it's kind of cool,

957

but they still have to use

the computer system,

958

which is, of course,

no longer being updated from the day.

959

So if they have a component that goes out

like a, you know, scuzzy board,

960

which is a specialty type of interface

for your storage and that kind of a thing,

961

they were saying they were going online

and having to try to source it

962

and that kind of stuff.

And they weren't easy to come by.

963

And, you know,

so you have those kind of limitations.

964

So what happens when the floppy disks fail

and floppy disks do fail?

965

Oh boy. I really don't miss them.

966

You have to hope that you have more

and have a way,

967

you know, and have a backup,

of course, and do the disks.

968

Or you have to look at upgrading

whatever the device is.

969

And even just looking at changing

something on an airplane

970

can be in the seven figures

before you're out.

971

The door.

972

Yeah.

973

You know, so, and it's not a safety issue.

974

It works just fine and all of that.

975

But it's a situation where, yeah,

you know, it's becoming

976

harder and harder to get these things and,

you know, that kind of stuff.

977

I do not think

we're going to see a resurgence of VHS.

978

I from the idea of a cassette tape,

it's out there.

979

They're niche, but I don't think

we're going to see that either.

980

The one that I do kind of like is vinyl.

981

It's fun to be able to buy records again

and, you know,

982

and that you don't need an emulator for

you need a turntable or a record player

983

or a phonograph, depending on, you know,

what part of society you're in.

984

And if you don't have that,

you can emulate it, you can stream it.

985

But that's not emulating a record.

986

That's just, you know.

987

Doing that.

988

So it's kind of fun to, you know,

be able to do that kind of a thing.

989

And I also have a CD player and a tape

990

deck on my stereo

and all that kind of stuff.

991

My amps,

you know, new and modern and, Atmos

992

and all those type of things,

but it'll run all of it.

993

So, you know, from that

kind of a standpoint, it's kind of cool.

994

So anyway,

it's kind of a summary of emulators

995

and the different things and the fact

that hardware and software are different.

996

And check it out like anything else,

you can go online and see how it is rated.

997

And if it's something that you can use

that will work until next week.

998

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keeping you safe on the cutting edge, User

999

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