Date   : Sun, 14 Oct 2001 17:16:38 +0100
From   : "Richard Gellman" <r.gellman@...>
Subject: Re: 2 player gaming

>1. run two separate emulations, synchronized over the net - the input
>devices could even be split up between the players, so that player 2 has no
>way of messing things up for player 1, and vice versa.
>2. run the emulation on the side of one of the players', designated as a
>server - the other will just get screen and sound output sent over the
'net,
>while sending input device data back.  This will probably give an unfair
>advantage to the person one the server side.
>
>It sounds daunting, but I thought it was good enough to let loose on you,
>especially those of you who actively work on emulators (Electron emulators,
>too, of course - hint, hint Thomas! :-)    A system like this (implementing
>strategy 1 above) has been implemented for MAME.

Someone emailed me about this a while ago, (I confess, i didn't reply and
I've since lost the email) and it does sound like a reasonable idea, but the
implementation is difficult.

Adding internet capability increases overhead for the poor emulator (BeebEm
already struggling with all the new features), and the synchronisation is an
issue. Also, would there have to be compatibility between emulators? e.g.
ElectrEm and BeebEm connecting to each other?

Its a nice idea, and I certainly haven't dismissed it, but it my timescale
of things its a long way off. I have also considered some form of Econet
emulation using UDP packets over the internet, but this too is a long way
off.

Point of info, my main focus after the upcoming 1.4 release, will be on
Plug-In hardware... so maybe something can be implemented that way. :)

-- Richard Gellman

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