= What is an Emulator? = In computer science, an emulator is a piece of software that allows a modern computer to mimic the functionality of another, possibly earlier, computer system. Emulators allow operating systems and programs from the original computer to run without the original hardware and as such are an important tool in historical preservation. The RetroWeb Vintage Computer Museum makes use of several emulators to allow you to experience computers and software from the 70s and 80s. == Can I run an emulator stand-alone? == Absolutely! Most of these emulators are available as stand-alone applications for your PC. Although running a stand-alone emulator requires more up-front work, it may provide better performance and better versatility than the online emulators provided to you in this museum. == Emulators used in this online museum == The following emulators are used in the RetroWeb Vintage Computer Museum: * PCE (PCE Emulator) * MAME * Scripted Amiga Emulator * SALTO (Simulated Alto) === PCE (PC Emulator) === [[PCE (PC Emulator)]] is a emulator for four different computer systems written in ANSI C by Hampa Hug. Computers emulated: * [[Apple Macintosh]] (128K, 512K, 512ke, Plus, SE & Classic) * [[IBM PC]] (Models 5150 and 5160) * Various [[Atari ST]] and Mega ST Models * [[Regnecentralen RC759 Piccoline]] The Macintosh emulator from PCE was cross-compiled into Javascript by [[James Friend]] using the [[Emscripten]] toolkit; this work was the direct inspiration for the RetroWeb Vintage Computer Museum. As part of this project, I cross-compiled the remaining emulators and made modifications to the Macintosh emulator to support LocalTalk networking (based on similar work for [[Mini vMac]] by Mike Fort). The source code for the modified version of PCE is available on the [[retroweb-pcejs-jsdf]] GitHub repository. === MAME === The [[MAME]] project is a collection of emulators originally written by Nicola Salmoria and now maintained by several contributors. [[MAME]] is written in C++, but was cross-compiled into JavaScript by the JSMESS team. The following emulators are used in this museum: * [[Apple //]] * [[Commodore 64]] * [[Tandy TRS-80 Model I]] === Scriped Amiga Emulator === The Amiga emulator used here is a slightly modified version of Rupert Hausberger's [[SAE (Scriped Amiga Emulator)]]. SAE is written natively in JavaScript and is heavily based on [[WinUAE]]. I have made minor modifications to SAE to enable pointerlock and to connect to the serial interface. The modified source code for SAE is provided in the [[retroweb-vintage-computer-museum]] GitHub repository. === SALTO (Simulated Alto) === [[SALTO (Simulated Alto)]] is a emulator for the [[Xerox Alto]] written by Juergen Buchmueller and partially based on info found in Eric Smith's Alto simulator, Altogether. SALTO was cross-compiled into Javascript using the [[Emscripten]] toolkit by myself. The source code for the modified version of SALTO is available on the [[retroweb-salto-simulator-js]] GitHub repository. == Emulators not used in this online museum == There are several emulators available on the Internet. The following emulators have not been used in the RetroWeb Virtual Computer Museum, but are available for download and offline use: ; [[ContrAlto]] : A new ALTO emulator by the [[Living Computer Museum]], which appears to be more capable than the SALTO emulator. ; [[Mini vMac]] : A very capable Macintosh emulator. Emscripten SALTO (Simulated ALTO) MAME SAE (Scriped Amiga Emulator) WinUAE PCE (PC Emulator) James Friend ContrAlto Living Computer Museum Mini vMac retroweb-pcejs-jsdf retroweb-salto-simulator-js retroweb-vintage-computer-museum Apple Macintosh Atari ST IBM PC Regnecentralen RC759 Piccoline Apple // Commodore 64 Tandy TRS-80 Model I Commodore Amiga 500