Why Simics Won't Run Super Mario

Emulating old computer gaming systems is a popular consumer-market application of simulation technology similar to Wind River Simics. There are a large number of emulators out there, emulating everything from old arcade games to the home computers of the 1980's to gaming consoles.  These emulators might seem quite similar to Simics on the surface, but in practice, the simulation technology employed is quite different.  You will never see Simics simulate an old Super NES running Super Mario Bros.

It all comes down to the level of timing accuracy required.

To accurately run games written to run well on the very limited hardware of the 1980s, you need a fairly detailed simulation of the hardware circuits and their timing.

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