How do you explain emulation to your Mom?

[EightBySix]

When discussing your cabs with muggles, and if the concept of emulation comes up - how do you explain it in a simple way?

I usually like to find an analogy for these kind of things (i.e. an operating system is like a car dashboard, familiar controls that all hide the complexity of an engine) but I can never think of one for emulation.

Best I can come up with is the film Truman Show. The emulator relates to the made up world and the original game is Truman. It can run without knowing that it is in a made up environment. It's a bit of a stretch though.

How do you explain emulation?

[codefenix]

I find myself always comparing it to ripping music from CDs.  You have an original media which contains the music, and you extract (rip) the music from the CD so it can be played within a media player on other platforms, such as an MP3 player, iPhone, or Android device, and you preserve the original master CD in the process.

Emulation is very similar:  You have an original media (arcade board or NES cartridge) which contains the game, and you extract (dump) the game data from it so it can be played in an emulator on whatever platform you desire, preserving the original game hardware.  The only difference is that you can't get an account that lets you digitally download games for 99 cents each and play them anywhere you want.  That's where emulation gets shady.

But for all intents and purposes:

• CD = Arcade board
• Ripping = Dumping
• Media Player = Emulator

[wp34]

When discussing your cabs with muggles

 

[Malenko]

a computer program that replaces hardware.  My muggles must be smart

[Nephasth]

"It plays thousands of games." No use confusing muggles.

[Vigo]

Analogies can backfire. Even if someone thinks they get it after an analogy, they often really don't.

I just over simplify things. Something like: The old video games are downloaded to a computer, and then you use an "old video game reader program" to play the games.

[Mario]

When discussing your cabs with muggles

How about:

Just like polyjuice potions allow one person to mimic another, confusing other people to interact with them just as if they are the person being mimiced, an emulator allows one computer to mimic another computer and confuses that other computer's software into running on it.

However, muggles probably wouldn't know about polyjuice potions, so this may not work.

Mario

[gabe]

I don't.

She is satisfied in knowing that there are a couple arcade cabinets in my basement. Beyond that she doesn't care, so I don't bore her with the details.

[Le Chuck]

I once made this mistake of opening up my cab and showing visiting relatives the guts, the wiring, the coin mech... then I exited out of my frontend and took my parents into the actual emulators.  About 10 minutes into a speal about different rom versions I noticed I was alone in the room.  Oddly enough my father couldn't wait for me to pop the playfield on my Paragon Pinball though.  I'm in the camp of "don't do that" now.   

[SavannahLion]

I don't bother explaining it to them. I just tell them it plays X and Y and that usually satisfies the muggles. If they press for more details (rare) I just tell them a computer inside pretends to be X or Y.

I tend not to socialize with like-minded geeks in RL because most of them in my age bracket do that damn Comic Book Guy routine and I end up kicking them out anyways.

[dextercf]

I don't.

She is satisfied in knowing that there are a couple arcade cabinets in my basement. Beyond that she doesn't care, so I don't bore her with the details.

+1 Also she has no business in my basement. So whatever's in there (my arcadestuff amongst) she will never know about..

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

The analogy I've used in the past is that there is a program on the computer that acts like a translator. The games were written in one langauge, and the program can translate it into 'computer'.

[jennifer]

           It"s soooo very sweet that you even try.....Oh I just wanta cry.

[Hoopz]

"Remember all those video games that you said I was wasting my money on 30 years ago?  Guess what I'm wasting my money on again?"

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

Please don't take this the wrong way, folks: Seriously, I'm not usually one to piss in another person's cornflakes...

... but can we please, for the love of all that is holy MAME, not refer to people (who perhaps don't share the depth of enjoyment in our hobby) as "muggles?" 

Can we nip that in the bud, so to speak?  It just hurts my brain every time I read it.

[eds1275]

I explain it with the back of my hand.

   Seriously though, can't you just say you downloaded a bunch of games and then use a player to play them? I've never had anyone really interested enough in the other details to care - people just want to play games.

[Donkey_Kong]

I say mom, "it's on like DoNkeY KonG!!" and I try and be sure not to leave out the... ™

[OverRide]

Most people could care less. There have been a few friends who think they are just playing a version of pacman made for a computer running in an arcade cabinet. At that time I feel it necessary to explain emulation.
I just explain it in layers.
Hardware <- software <- software emulating pacman hardware <- original pacman software...


 

[Vigo]

If anyone asks you about emulation, just show them this video. Whether or not it answers their questions, I can guarantee they will never try to ask you again. 

[vanrose72]

Please don't take this the wrong way, folks: Seriously, I'm not usually one to piss in another person's cornflakes...

... but can we please, for the love of all that is holy MAME, not refer to people (who perhaps don't share the depth of enjoyment in our hobby) as "muggles?" 

Can we nip that in the bud, so to speak?  It just hurts my brain every time I read it.

Love those condescending Harry Potter references ...

[Blanka]

Keep it in the kitchen:
Emulation is like a microwave. It gets food hot, but you don't need pans for it.

[Thenasty]

ask MOM what game she remembered playing and load it up in your cab for her to play, then the next game, then the fav game etc...

[boardjunkie]

My MAME cab sits off to the side of the doorway in my shop. Customers are always asking about it and I have to explain the concept to them. But I just simplify it like this: The actual "game" is contained in a number of memory chips on the original board. The rest of the stuff on that board is needed for reading the came code, processing it (along with I/O) and displaying it on a monitor. The MAME program replaces all the rest of the stuff on the board except for the game code which is read from the real game's ROM chips and stored in various files. So the game code is tricked into "thinking" its running on its correct original hardware and you get the same result as the full hardware version.

[amendonz]

My mum's a programmer from back in the day, she could probably explain it to me better than I could to her.

[SavannahLion]

ask MOM what game she remembered playing and load it up in your cab for her to play, then the next game, then the fav game etc...

I don't think MAME is ever going to run Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

[shateredsoul1979]

Yeah... my arcade got more attention when setup to run NES games because mame was having issues at a party.  They don't care if it's not the arcade version or if it was even on an arcade.

try explaining frontends.. and then emulators.. hah!

[Mario]

I thought of a good analogy that I'd use to explain emulation to my mom:

Emulation is the equivalent of installing something on your CD player so that it can play your old LPs.

Mario

[codefenix]

I just simplify it like this: The actual "game" is contained in a number of memory chips on the original board. The rest of the stuff on that board is needed for reading the came code, processing it (along with I/O) and displaying it on a monitor. The MAME program replaces all the rest of the stuff on the board except for the game code which is read from the real game's ROM chips and stored in various files. So the game code is tricked into "thinking" its running on its correct original hardware and you get the same result as the full hardware version.

How is that simplifying? 

[thebyter]

"Remember all those video games that you said I was wasting my money on 30 years ago?  Guess what I'm wasting my money on again?"

Um, plusplus.   

Actually, since I'm a fledgling guitar player (my wasted youth is apparently happening in my forties), I've explained like this: Even though I'm not Chuck Berry, I can play something that almost sounds like Jonny B. Goode.  I can also (sort of) play Back In Black, House of the Rising Sun, and My Sharona -- songs from lots of different artists.  And even though it's not exactly the same as the original, it's close enough that it's still fun.  Just like running emulated arcade games.   

I have a harder time explaining to people why I want to build an actual cabinet.  "Can't you just play that on your laptop?"  I try to explain how it just doesn't "feel" right, but I get an "ohhh..kay" and a confused stare.  Any ideas for fixing that?

[boardjunkie]

I just simplify it like this: The actual "game" is contained in a number of memory chips on the original board. The rest of the stuff on that board is needed for reading the came code, processing it (along with I/O) and displaying it on a monitor. The MAME program replaces all the rest of the stuff on the board except for the game code which is read from the real game's ROM chips and stored in various files. So the game code is tricked into "thinking" its running on its correct original hardware and you get the same result as the full hardware version.

How is that simplifying? 

Well...maybe not "simplifying", but explaining how it works.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

I have a harder time explaining to people why I want to build an actual cabinet.  "Can't you just play that on your laptop?"  I try to explain how it just doesn't "feel" right, but I get an "ohhh..kay" and a confused stare.  Any ideas for fixing that?

That's one I really wouldn't bother with.  When it's done, they will either understand -- or they won't.  Don't build a cab for anyone but yourself (unless commissioned to do so, of course!  )  

I've made the mistake of thinking people would "just get it," once they saw it and played it... and believe me, many just don't.  It doesn't matter how old they are, or how much experience they may have had in an actual arcade.  Some folks will simply not share the enthusiasm, and you set yourself up for disappointment if you expect them to.

Do it because you love it.  My 2 cents.

[ids]

As for building - I had a lot of  confused stares and "why..?" type questions as well.  Nobody had heard the term "mame cabinet" and no amount of explanation could get past, at best, a "why...?"  It was disappointing and discouraging.  Those same people, upon seeing the finished product, suddenly understand (most, anyway), and many think it is really cool.  One friend has started his own build as well.

I think I've had better luck explaining emulation:  it just simulates the old hardware, and runs the original (code|game) - it even expects a quarter!

[Howard_Casto]

When you try to explain a hardware emulation layer is when you lose the stupid masses.  So just don't explain that part:

"You know the card you put in your camera that holds all your pictures?

Well there is a storage chip inside it that holds them.  Old arcade games were stored on chips too.  These chips were on the circuit boards in the real machines. 

MAME is a special program that lets you run the programs stored on those chips on your computer, so it is the EXACT game you played in the arcade."


No need to explain the front end, or OS or any of that either... if they think that it's part of mame, that's fine. 

In general I avoid explaining it unless they say something ignorant like "So you got pacman for the computer?" or "Where can I buy joust for windows?"

[Gray_Area]

Most people know computers run applications. So I say there's MAME, and I tell them what that stands for, and then I say it's an application that plays those games, the original, ARCADE versions.

As for building a cab or contol panels, I say it's because I hate using a keyboard, and gamepads blow; or that in some cases, the game is unplayable, or just sucks to play, without the original controls (like Star Wars).

People don't need to know how it works. Just that it does, and you like it that way.

[dandare]

Try explaining 'hackintosh' 

[bradx]

its a PC in an old arcade cabinet with a custom circuit board that makes it think the arcade controls are a keyboard.

[bradx]

if theres a followup question:

its a normal PC running XP with stuff i downloaded for free off the internet.  i designed and wired the control panel myself using real arcade controls.

[Malenko]

I write MAME on my fist and deathpunch them.

[HaRuMaN]

I write MAME on my fist and deathpunch them.

OoOo, how xouchey of you!

[mgb]

The same way she explained the "Birds and the Bees" to me, I don't. I just hope she'll learn it from her friends and doesn't get in any trouble.