I'm a college student writing a paper on Nintendo emulation for one of my computer science classes. Some of the points I'm covering include emulator efficiency and development issues. It would be a great help if I could get some feedback from anyone about the issues below. Note: I'm not a hardcore programmer and I've just skimmed the surface of the emulation scene so far. Thanks for any personal experience you can provide!

* What got you into NES emulation in the first place?
* What high level languages do you find are best for making an optimized NES emulator?
* What are the three hardest parts you've come across in making your emulation work? Is it because of the lack of resources that it doesn't work?
* What are some tips and tricks that can be done to enhance the efficiency of a NES emulator?
* Is it possible to create an emulator that runs more efficiently than the original NES itself?

Thanks again for any feedback to any of my questions!

I haven't written an actual emulator, but I'm making an NSF player and I've followed the scene since around the beginning. (1997 or so)

1. I found a newsgroup called alt.binaries.emulators.nintendo and was fascinated to see my favorite NES games as binary postings. Not too long after, NESticle came out and I was running them (slowly) on my 386 IBM PS/1.

2. I only know assembly language. I think general programming effeciency would likely have more influence than the language used. (Unless HLLs are really that bad, heheh)

3. Only 2 years ago, lack of accurate, verified information would've been a serious problem. The hardest part from my point of view would seem to be supporting the multitude of various memory mappers. Then there's the rather 'interesting' way the PPU draws the screen. Very timing-dependant. Because of that, there's probably at least one game for even the best emulators that don't display properly.

4. I wouldn't know. I imagine someone designing an NES emu has to strike a balance between effeciency and accuracy.

5. I'm not sure I understand this question. An NES running at full capacity (probably a misleading term to use) would have no wasted resources. If you mean emulated on a machine clocked by equivalent crystals, I'd say no. When software can operate more effeciently than hardware, well, it'd probably be on one of those legendary quantum computers. :)

Thanks for your input Memblers! Hope my questions weren't too vague! ;)

* Is it possible to create an emulator that runs more efficiently than the original NES itself?

A "perfect" NES-emulator would do anything the real NES can do, but it could also avoid some errors that can occur in a real NES. I mean, graphic glitches that occurs when there are too many sprites moving around on the screen at the same time and such (thinking of nintendo world cup, the football/soccer game)

I would rather say that "perfect" emulation would be "exactly" like the NES itself, including all bugs and glitches, but also perfect timing. Thats probably what you want when you program for it. That would also make all games to look correctly.
/ Jsr