Well you have a point. I'll try and make it more obvious for the next version.
The GAME file tells more than just the simple visual things, it has checksums, information about other data (covers, cheats, etc) and is compressed. Rather than have to worry about 3-5 major compression libraries I only have to worry about one. It also helps with hierarchies of games, I don't want to see 30 versions of the same game that have only a few minor differences for instance, better to group them under one heading and then be able to select the version. Also without some form of database some games simply cannot play, they need to tell the emulator certain things like what is in the cartridge. Some people prefer some custom database to do it, I prefer changing ROMs because it means going forward people can write or release their own games without having to update everyones database.
Having a unified ROM system is something which just makes sense, especially with the features coming down the pipeline. There is no alternative for what RetroCopy needs besides what I have done myself. If there was I would have used it. If others can end up using what I've done then great.
Well ideally you wouldn't be switching all to often. There are some other ideas in the works, that make you rotate around the current TV a bit like google earth, just by holding ALT or something. Which might make it a bit easier to find your perfect angle.
What are your system specs like? Since I don't have any old graphics cards anymore it makes it harder to test on the <2006 circa cards that a lot of people still have.
The only crashes I get are sometimes loading bad NES roms, I haven't handled all the "bad cases" yet on INES loading, apart from that I haven't had a single crash. So I believe it is to do with the more lower range systems. There is still a lot of work to be done to get things tuned up a bit for lower end systems, I have been a bit uncaring about allocating 60+MB of RAM for a rewind buffer on SEGA-E for instance.
RetroCopy is really aimed at the future and not at the "single core, 2d accelerated 1GHz PC" market. There are plenty of other emulators which do that stuff fine! So I do want to fix crashes, yes, because I believe even those on poor PCs should be able to get a taste of the future even if it is a bit slow. But I'm not going to go out of my way to make single core CPUs very playable, it's out of my hands to some extent because you can't really have a threaded application on Windows/Linux that also uses 3D stuff without weird "lag" issues coming up (it's a thread priority issue).
Yeah I agree, we both have a passion about GUIs
. The thing is most people who do emulators don't really want to "waste time" doing a custom interface, I'm not sure why. Back in the day every DOS emulator worth its salt had one, Meka, Nesticle, Callus, ZSnes, Genecyst. These are some of the most remembered emulators. Most games and entertainment applications come with their own distinct interface, emulators are supposed to be entertainment not business apps which sit on the taskbar looking like everything else! I believe it's important to have both good emulation and a good interface, hopefully that is what RetroCopy can be seen as, cycle accurate and with a custom interface that is somewhat different.
