sagex
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 07, 2020 2:37 am

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Last edited by sagex on Wed May 13, 2020 10:03 pm, edited 3 times in total.
mhoes
Posts: 186
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2016 12:26 pm

Re: How can i make my own EMULATOR?

I'm sorry, but this how your post sounds :
Greetings and thanks for allowing me to respond in this forum.
My nickname is FooBar. I am a person who is interested in knowing how to perform brain surgery.
My story is complicated because I am not a doctor or surgeon or something similar, but I am interested in learning.
I have a university degree but it is not related to surgery.
would very much like to learn how to perform brain surgery.
That is why I decided to write directly in this forum to see if someone could guide me the things that I have to learn and the time it could take me to do these things.
I am a complete novice and I am not a surgeon. In reality I am more like an artist.
I appreciate what you can share with me, at least to know if it is so complicated better to stay out of it. Thank you.

Some of the things you would need to do (just some pointers, not an exhaustive list by any means):

Learn programming skills, regardless of the language. I have been informed that 'python' might be easy for a starting programmer.
Learn the C++ language, which MAME is written in.
Take on some 'simple' personal projects, in order to gain some experience.
Find a bug report in your favorite small sized project, read the codebase so you understand what it does, and propose a patch that aims to fix that bug.
Learn how to read and understand the code base of another emulator, like MAME or QEMU to get you started on what is involved.
Learn all the detailed specifics of the hardware platform you would like to emulate.
sagex
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 07, 2020 2:37 am

Re: How can i make my own EMULATOR?

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Last edited by sagex on Wed May 13, 2020 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
mhoes
Posts: 186
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2016 12:26 pm

Re: How can i make my own EMULATOR?

At an extreme high level, the 'concept of emulation' might make it seem simplistic. You study the hardware you whish to emulate, and figure out what it does and how it does that. In a best case scenario you might have manuals that describe the hardware, but more likely you have to reverse-engineer it, by poking the hardware in specific places and see how it reacts. Once you have that figured out, you write the software that matches the behavior of the hardware as closely as possible. If you have designed PCB's, then that might make the 'reverse engineering part' easier for you than for people that don't have that background.

There's no need to use Linux if all you're used to is MS-Windows; doing what you want is hard enough without having to learn an entire new operating system at the same time.

You're right you can't just go to an university and pick up an 'how do I write an emulator' study. Among the things you should study are the things I listed in my previous post. This is why I used the brain surgeon analogy: it seems you whish to know how to create an emulator, without first learning how to program (or reverse engineer hardware). In other words: you want to become a brain surgeon without first studying medicine.
sagex
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 07, 2020 2:37 am

Re: How can i make my own EMULATOR?

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Last edited by sagex on Wed May 13, 2020 10:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
mhoes
Posts: 186
Joined: Wed Oct 26, 2016 12:26 pm

Re: How can i make my own EMULATOR?

I'm truly sorry, but I cannot, and will not, and have not, and are in no way able to, give you any advice whatsoever on what study you should follow. This is a decision that only you can make, for and by yourself. If this all along was - unbeknownst to me - your real and underlying question - then please ignore any and all comments I have made thus far.

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