Testing CrocoDS web emulator
CrocoDS?
I recently stumbled upon this website, which looked to be an online Amstrad CPC emulator, and couldn't resist testing it!
Timing was perfect, as I was looking to perform yet another CPC game test, but since I now migrated my personal laptop to FreeBSD, the emulators I am using don't work:
- Retro Virtual Machine site only works on Linux/Mac OS and Windows,
- XCPC (from Olivier Poncet) is available, but the FreeBSD port is no longer maintained.
So a web emulator was in fact a very good news!
Look and Feel
This is how CrocoDS looks like:
Basically, you have straight access to Amstrad's Basic.
At the bottom left, you can either load a disk, display a keyboard, or have a look at an embedded database of games:
The few games I tried would not load, so I used my own disks.
When you load a disk, CrocoDS lists the files and allows you to run them
directly, i.e. you don't need to type "run <game>":
which then launches the game:
I tested briefly BraveStarr, and it is completely playable.
The only thing not working for me was the sound, but I don't know whether that's
because of my FreeBSD setup, or because CrocoDS lacks it.
I also tested La Chose de Grotenburg (I wrote about it here and L'Aigle d'Or, and both worked fine (except again for the sound):
Wrap Up
CrocoDS is an interesting solution for my next tests, until I figure out a way to run a native emulator - useful for instance when I am travelling and don't have always access to the Internet.
Another web based emulator to test!
When checking Retro Virtual Machine's website, I noticed that they released a WASM based Web emulator, which I will for sure test in the near future!
Tags: Emulation, Amstrad, Retrogaming