Naomi Board vs VC Arcade

[Kobayashi]

Would Wii have capacity to emulate rightly games of the famous Sega´s Naomi Boards (the same for Sega Dreamcast) ?

What do you think ?

[Angelic Lapras King]

Originally Posted by Kobayashi

Would Wii have capacity to emulate rightly games of the famous Sega´s Naomi Boards (the same for Sega Dreamcast) ?

What do you think ?

Doubt it if its for VC.

[SegaFan]

I doubt it unfortunately, Naomi is last-gen (essentially a Dreamcast) and emulation of a last-gen platform would be impossible on Wii. Remember even the PS3 struggles with PS2 emulation on versions that support it (and the Gamecube on Wii is an exception becuase it's built into the hardware).

[Jogurt the Yogurt]

Simple answer: Could it? Potentially. Will it? No. We're more likely to see last-gen stuff popping back up the retro channels on the next wave of consoles.

[SegaFan]

Could it? Potentially.

Really? For all the Wii is, it's still little more than a Gamecube in technical capability. It would be like trying to emulate a console with a console from the same generation.

[King Elemento]

It probably could quite easily, if the size limit weren't so tiny.

[Bang]

no way, it just wouldn't be technically possible. try running chancast at full speed on a decent pc... see, cant be done!

[Refa]

Originally Posted by SegaFan

Really? For all the Wii is, it's still little more than a Gamecube in technical capability. It would be like trying to emulate a console with a console from the same generation.

So? That doesn't make it impossible.

[Bang]

Originally Posted by Refa

So? That doesn't make it impossible.

i think a better knowledge of how emulation works might help you to better understand why it would be unlikely.

SEGA NAOMI SPECS:

• CPU: Hitachi SH-4 CPU with graphic functions and 128-bit SIMD @ 200 MHz (360 MIPS and 1.4 GFLOPS)
• Graphic Engine: PowerVR 2 (PVR2DC)
• Sound Engine: ARM7 Yamaha AICA 45 MHz (with internal 32-bit RISC CPU, 64 channel ADPCM)
• Main Memory: 32 MByte
• Graphic Memory: 16 MByte
• Sound Memory: 8 MByte
• Media: ROM Board (maximum size of 172MBytes) / GD-ROM
• Simultaneous Number of Colors: Approx. 16,770,000 (24bits)
• Polygons: 5 Million polys/sec
• Rendering Speed: 500 M pixel/sec
• Additional Features: Bump Mapping, Fog, Alpha Blending, Mip-Mapping, Trilinear filtering, Anti-Aliasing, Environment mapping, and Specular Effects.[18]

WII SPECS:
Processors:

• CPU: PowerPC-based "Broadway" processor, made with a 90 nm SOI CMOS process, reportedly† clocked at 729 MHz[105]
• GPU: ATI "Hollywood" GPU made with a 90 nm CMOS process,[106] reportedly† clocked at 243 MHz[105]

Memory:

• 88 MB main memory (24 MB "internal" 1T-SRAM integrated into graphics package, 64 MB "external" GDDR3 SDRAM)[107]
• 3 MB embedded GPU texture memory and framebuffer.

Storage:

• 512 MB built-in NAND flash memory
• Expanded storage via SD and SDHC card memory (up to 32 GB)
• Nintendo GameCube Memory Card (required for GameCube game saves)
• Slot-loading disc drive compatible with 8 cm Nintendo GameCube Game Disc and 12 cm Wii Optical Disc
• Mask ROM by Macronix[111]

Video:

• Custom 'AV Multi Out' port supporting composite video[112], component video[113], S-Video[114] (NTSC only), RGB SCART[115] (PAL only) and VGA using a third-party transcoder[116]
• 480p (PAL/NTSC), 480i (NTSC) or 576i (PAL/SECAM), standard 4:3 and 16:9 anamorphic widescreen[117]

now the wii would have to run the entire process purely through software and not a custom chipset. depending on the complexity of the chipset depends on the emulation success (saturn emulation, or lack thereof proves this). Also, as you can notice, the wii is markedly more powerful than the naomi 1 board, however i dont believe the wii would be powerful enough to handle the emulation process.

as i said, if you own a windows PC, why not try and emulate the DC (similar specs to naomi), and see how successful you are.

[Refa]

Originally Posted by Bang

depends on the emulation success (saturn emulation, or lack thereof proves this)..

You're joking, right? You do know that the Saturn is notoriously difficult to emulate? Naomi hardware would be much easier to emulate.

[Bang]

Originally Posted by Refa

You're joking, right? You do know that the Saturn is notoriously difficult to emulate? Naomi hardware would be much easier to emulate.

all i was saying was depending on the complexity of the chipset depends on the emulation success. i wasn't implying the naomi chipset was as complex as the saturn one. explain to me with your technical knowledge on why you think the naomi chipset would be easy to emulate. and perhaps re-read what i posted.

[Refa]

Originally Posted by Bang

all i was saying was depending on the complexity of the chipset depends on the emulation success. i wasn't implying the naomi chipset was as complex as the saturn one. explain to me with your technical knowledge on why you think the naomi chipset would be easy to emulate. and perhaps re-read what i posted.

I didn't say it'd be easy, because I don't know about that. I said it would be easier than Saturn emulation, and your example about Saturn emulation seemed misplaced to me.

[Bang]

Originally Posted by Refa

I didn't say it'd be easy, because I don't know about that. I said it would be easier than Saturn emulation, and your example about Saturn emulation seemed misplaced to me.

ahh, no harm done! it's easy to misread/mistype things on the internet. happens to me all the time!