| Don't count on a C'64 emulator. There was a big discussion on USENET
awhile back, and the consensus was that the C'64 would be almost
impossible to emulate, even with an Amiga or Atari ST. This is
because the C'64 uses a lot of custom ICs.
There is a fair amount of educational software for the Amiga already,
usually with built-in speech. You should drop into the Memory Location
in Wellesley, MA for a hands-on demo of anything you'd want the
kids to use.
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| This was discussed on USEnet a while back - the conclusion was
that you ARE better off buying 2 machines. In the first place,
even tho the 68K is running at 8 (well, 7.14 for you purists)
MHz, memory fetches actually turn out to be slower than on
a 2MHz 6502, so try as the emulator might, there's no way in
Hades it's going to match the speed of the C64 (gawd doesn't
that sentence sound HORRIBLE??). Also, the 64 has some custom
chips for graphics and probably I/O - there's no way these
could be emulated in real time, even with all of Amy's chipset.
Then, as you mention, you'd need to get hardware for reading
cartridges, a tape player, a disk drive (the one that "reads
data faster than you can type it in!" ;^), a Marantz stereo
amplifier with Linn Diamond speakers (hey, you want the sound
effects to be realistic, don't you?) and a Mercedes 450SL
just for the hell of it. Not only will this wind up costing
some $$$, it will also take up more desk space than a simple
C64. Also, the 64 can probably be bought these days for less
than a song, and if your Amy ever goes down you can always
use it standalone.
I have a friend with both Amy and C64, what he does is stuff
the 64 in a desk drawer (plugged in and all) so when he needs
to use it he just open his desk drawer and switches the
monitor to composite in. To be perfectly honest this sounds
like a better arrangement to me than having to boot up an
emulator on the Amiga which would not only take a long time
to load, but would also probably be non-multitasking.
Anyway just my $0.02 (well, maybe a bit more).
-Ed
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| Assuming there are a fair number of C-64 applications which you'll
want/need to run, I'd agree that it makes more sense to get a real C-64
than to hope for a decent emulation on the Amiga. A used C-64 runs
about $100; a used C-1541 disk is about the same. You *don't* need the
cassette drive unless you live in Europe (they're big there, for some
reason). You probably won't need to buy a monitor (either hook the
C-64 to the composite inputs on the Amiga monitor and flick the switch,
or hook it up to your TV set).
A BIG plus is that you won't have sticky fingers all over your Amiga
keyboard! If the kids abuse the C-64 (including unplugging cartridges
while it's powered up) you have very little at risk.
Speaking of cartridges, SOME C-64 software comes that way, but the bulk
of it is on diskettes. Many of the latter are heavily copy-protected,
so the only real guarantee that they'll work is with a REAL C-64 and
C-1541, not an emulator.
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