Reply 20 of 36, by CraigG
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Just to add my 2 cents.
Firstly, even with simple emulators of old fixed platforms, you BOTH require exactly the same ROM, the same emulator version, and the same settings.
Otherwise, you end up with lag, and even worse, synchronisation problems.
Take the Amiga emulator WinUAE, for example. I used to attempt to play Sensible Soccer, over the net with a 512k ADSL line, both of us had exactly the same everything. Yet, every few minutes we would both lose sync, and the lag just got worse and worse. The only way to fix this was to start again.
Now, here we have DOS based games, originally written for multiple systems (NOT fixed systems), multiple configs, settings, video modes, joysticks, mice, etc... And there isn't a real true TOSEC style way of verifying all your DOS games to make sure you both have the same version. There is a TOSEC dat for really old DOS floppy games.
So, how do you both have the same version of a game thats different in almost every country ? And there are MANY different versions of DOS games out there.
What if you have a state of the art Athlon 64 system, and your opponent has a PIII 800 or above, and has to use frame-skip to play the game at reasonable rates ? Surely, sync problems will arise ?
How will Dosbox's config, tailored to your personal preference, work with Kaillera ? Will we all have to use the same settings ?
What if I don't want to use software overlay, but like using moe's HQ modes ? Or I want to use MT32 sound emulation, but your mate is using Soundblaster ?
With SNES Kaillera, I just rar up the whole SNES + Intended Games I want to play, and send it to my mates. We both then have exactly the same of everything.
How would you do that with, say for example, CDRom based games ?
And what if he has the floppy version, and you have the CD version ?
I know I sound negative, but I've been there and experienced it for myself. And, to be very honest, it's not all it's cracked up to be.
Ever wonder just why today's emulators lack Kaillera support ?
If you look at the list that do support it, it's made up of very old versions of these emulators. Many, have had major fixes between these old and new version. And some (WinUAE for example) have progressed a long way between the Kaillera version, and the much newer builds that are nearing version 1.0, now.
The last WinUAE I have, with Kaillera support in, is WinUAE 0.8.14. Now thats old.
And as for MAME, well the Current Client Version is a version from 2003, while the current Server Version is even older at 2002 😳
Far from those 5000 games you mentioned earlier. And most importantly, missing MANY of MAME's newer code like the System 16 fixes, and Aron's new Sound code.
Sorry, I really sound negative. But I believe this is a task too far, and too complex for Dosbox.
Athlon 64 3000+ stock
MSI NForce 4 K8N Neo Platinum
2Gb RAM
nVidia Geforce 6800GT stock clocks
SBLive! Platinum + Audigy ZS2 Drivers
WinXP Pro SP2