Friday, April 30th 2004 - Last updated @ 04:11 EST
QEMU 0.5.4 - QEMU is a fast processor emulator. Using dynamic translation it achieves a reasonable speed while being easy to port to new host CPUs. Changes: qemu-fast fixes, a BIOS area protection fix, a keyboard/mouse fix, IDE fixes (Linux did not recognized slave drivers), and a VM86 EIP masking fix. The program can now boot a PowerPC Linux kernel. A user mode network stack was implemented, an imul imm8 fix and 0x82 opcode support were added, and precise self modifying code was included.
- chris
Sunday, April 25th 2004 - Last updated @ 01:55 EST
Cyclone 68K 0.066 - Dave posted about the latest version of his ARM ASM 68000 emulator core, and he's making steady progress. According to the author "Castle of Illusion now playable! Strider's fine too, and Spiderman seems fine as well, probably lots of others (let me know)." The Motorola 68000 CPU was used by many popular retro consoles/arcades/computers including Sega Genesis, NeoGeo, Amiga etc. Hopefully we'll see Cyclone 68K in emulators for various ARM based devices as people start using it for their emulation projects, from GP32, to Palms (Zodiac!) to mobile phones. Go Dave! :) You can learn more about Cyclone 68K at Finalburn.com.
- prophet
EmuZWin 2.4 Release 1.1 - This Spectrum 48/128 emulator was recently updated: homepage. You can check out Hawq's post to read what's new and/or discuss this emulator.
- prophet
High Quality Atari 2600 Pack - High Quality Team have released a new set of manual scans, this time for several hundred Atari 2600 game manuals and comics!
- prophet
Saturday, April 24th 2004 - Last updated @ 01:51 EST
UltraCade Reborn - I've recently been in contact with David Foley at UltraCade, the pioneering company responsible for those legal multiple arcade game cabinets you may have seen in arcades. As some may know, UltraCade has gone through several changes, and various ups and downs over the years, but I'm glad to report they're very much alive, and are expanding their legally licensed emulated arcade game concept further into both commercial arcade and consumer markets.
Not only will there be new UltraCade arcade machines & games (like a new Mr.Do! game called Mr. Do! Power Balls), but arcade quality cabinets and control panels for home users too. In fact they'll be showing off their new wares at upcoming tradeshows like AMOA and IAAPA. And they've got a brand new site redesign this week as well. So don't be surprised to see new UltraCades at arcades near you, or maybe even in your home someday. Personally I'm impressed!
- prophet
Friday, April 23rd 2004 - Last updated @ 19:43 EST
MAME 0.81u7 - Haze has released a new development update.
- chris
Unofficial Hiscore.DAT - Leezer has released an update to his hiscore.dat file. Sorry, news is a couple weeks old.
- chris
AdvanceMAME 0.81.1/AdvanceMESS v0.81.0.0 - AdvanceMAME and AdvanceMESS are unofficial MAME and MESS versions with an advanced video support for helping the use with TVs, Arcade Monitors, Fixed Frequencies Monitors and also for PC Monitors. Changes:
In Linux the hardware ports are always accessed directly if the program is run as root. Otherwise is used the /dev/port interface.
Removed the green bars when using the video overlay.
Added support for recent Radeon boards 9600/9700/9800 at the DOS version.
Fixed the MNG recording.
The `input_dipswitch[difficulty]' option now always override the `misc_difficulty' option.
Added a new `device_alsa_device' option to select the ALSA output device.
Removed the initial audio tick with the ALSA and OSS drivers.
AdvanceSCAN v1.8 - AdvanceScan is a command line rom manager for MAME, MESS, AdvanceMAME, AdvanceMESS and Raine. Changes:
Added a filter capability able to filter in/out preliminary, parent and clone roms. For example you can now keep separated preliminary and working roms.
Wednesday, April 21st 2004 - Last updated @ 18:44 EST
FinalDave Emulation Update - Dave of FinalBurn fame, has recently developed/released/announced several emulation projects:
PicoDrive: Megadrive for Pocket PC (and GP32) soon GenaDrive: Megadrive for XBOX DegaBox: SMS for XBOX
Plus rlyeh's brilliant fGen32 (GP32 Megadrive emulator) is going to use Dave's ARM assembler Cyclone 68000 CPU core for the next version. It's reportedly 4 times faster than the C 68000 core! And best of all IMO, Cyclone 68000 can be used on any ARM based device, including my Tapwave Zodiac. :)
- prophet
Tuesday, April 20th 2004 - Last updated @ 23:02 EST
Read The Freakin' Manual! - The High Quality Team have done an amazing job gathering and scanning hundreds of console game manuals. Read this thread for more info.
- prophet
Thursday, April 15th 2004 - Last updated @ 15:59 EST
USF - USF is a new sound format for the Nintendo (Ultra) 64. This rips music from an N64 rom, similar to NSF and VGM formats. This is playable on 64th Note, a plugin for the Windows music player, WinAmp.
MAME 0.81u5 - David Haywood uploaded the latest source differences for the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. This version has the following games playable:
Brave Blade [smf, David Haywood]
Ray Storm [smf, Olivier Galibert]
Pirate Treasure [Stefan Jokisch]
And the following clones playable:
MAME WIP - The Work-in-Progress page for the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator for multiple platforms has been updated again, with pictures and news of Aaron Giles' update to the Atari Seattle driver, among other things.
- MetaFox
Dega 1.12 - Dega, Dave's Sega Master System emulator for Windows, has been updated with a setting in dega.ini called StartInFullscreen. If set to one, Dega will start in fullscreen (may be useful for game launchers).
- MetaFox
Monday, April 12th 2004 - Last updated @ 15:27 EST
Haze/Giles WIP - Aaron has put up a new pretty picture. And David has one too.
- chris
Saturday, April 10th 2004 - Last updated @ 04:17 EST
Wine 20040408 - Wine Is Not an Emulator. It is an alternative implementation of the Windows 3.x and Win32 APIs. Changes: DOS devices and drives are now configured through symlinks. There are many shell32 improvements. A new task manager was merged from ReactOS. A first version of the wineprefixcreate tool was included for initial setup. There are lots of bugfixes.
- chris
Qtmame 2.2.0 - Qtmame is a frontend to xmame. It shows snapshots, cabinets, marquees, titles, flyers, mameinfo, and history. It supports Catver.ini. Changes: This release features a new qmake compile, now supports snapshots, cabinets, etc. in a zip file, features a fix verify ROMs option, and includes a new list of games for xmame 0.80.
- chris
Unix Amiga Delitracker Emulator 0.90-pre1 - UADE plays old Amiga music formats by UAE Amiga emulation. It supports at least 150 different formats. Changes: ALSA support was added. The code was refactored. Lots of bugs were fixed. The configure semantics have been changed to conform more closely to common practices. The CoreDesign player was added. The BennDaglish and CustomMade players were updated. There is now a man page.
- chris
KMameleon 1.0pl2 - KMameleon is a slick and easy to use KDE XMame frontend. Changes: This release has a fix for gamma / aspect ratio option saving in the effects section.
- chris
ppfe2 - ppfe2 is a front-end for the xmame emulator written in perl. It make use of gtk2-perl, the perl bindings for the Gtk+ 2 graphical toolkit.
- chris
DOS MESS - smf has updated the official DOS port of MESS to version 0.81.
- chris
Friday, April 9th 2004 - Last updated @ 18:07 EST
My ArcadePC Ultra now on eBay - If anyone is interested in purchasing my HanaHo ArcadePC Ultra cabinet, then please check this eBay listing. The cabinet being sold is same one seen in my review.
Update: Please note the new listing, I had to revise the title to work better for searches, so I ended the old one. My apologies to those who bid already.
- prophet
Thursday, April 8th 2004 - Last updated @ 20:52 EST
MAME 0.81u4 - Haze has released a new development version of MAME.
- chris
MESS 0.81 - A new MESS has been released. This version adds about 40 new drivers! The changelog can be viewed here.
- chris
TUMIKI Fighters - Here's a truly original twist on the horizontal shooting genre, and it's free, so try it: TUMIKI Fighters by Kenta Cho! Basically it's a horizontal shooter where you gather the shattered hulls of enemy craft to your own ship, and in the process grow stronger _but_ also physically larger, so as you become more powerful you also become more open to attack. The presentation makes it look very much like a bizarre combination of "Tetris" and "Parodius" (or something along those lines...). Good stuff. Perhaps there's some life left in the SHMUP genre afterall... (Thanks InsertCredit)
- prophet
Tuesday, April 6th 2004 - Last updated @ 09:02 EST
MAME/MAME32 Plus! 0.81 - The superb unofficial version of MAME called MAME Plus! has been updated to the latest sources! (Thanks worldrave)
- prophet
A8E Atari 800 Emulator - A8E is a freeware Atari 800 XL emulator written in C by Sascha Springer and has been developed completely from scratch. It uses the SDL library for the user interface and the audio and graphics output.
- chris
Retrogaming Radio - Another packed show featuring an editorial commentary on why the discussion forums were closed; a new RetroGaming Radio Insider look at the Fairchild Channel F video game console, an 8-Bit Flashback on Mr. Do for the C64, part 2 of our interview with Damon Klauseen, we reveal plans on the Year 5 DVDROM set, our Bits & Bytes, and SO MUCH MORE!
- chris
Thursday, April 1st 2004 - Last updated @ 21:26 EST
DOSBox - I will stake my reputation on the DOSBox screenshots. This is NO April fools joke. I was able to install and run windows for workgroups 3.11 with the latest cvs version, but I could not get past the splash screen. I will attempt to find my windows 3.1 disks and try again with 3.1. Update: I got windows 3.1 to load up and run, here is a screenshot!
- chris
EmuZWin 2.4 release 0.5 - EmuZWin, a ZX-Spectrum 128 and 48 emulator for Win32, has been updated. Here's what's new:
Kempston Mouse, AMX Mouse and AY Mouse support added.
GigaScreen effect support added.
A small wizard added to start new 256 Colors project when a switch to 256 Colors mode selected for usual game.
Maximizing now controlled in Proportional Resize mode to maximize staying proportional. Proportional Resize made default mode for a first launch of the emulator.
Now Assembler understands binary numbers (e.g. 00010110B). Also, a directive FILE added to include external binary file. And, to allow defining where to search included files, a button Search Directories added to a toolbar.
While loading 48K snapshots, video bank was never reset, so just after working in 128K mode it was possible that 48K snapshots stopped working (nothing was seen on screen). Fixed.
A utility Bmp2RawBk256 added (in the additional archive), which allows to convert bitmaps to 256 Colors background file .bNN.
- MetaFox
EMU7800 0.55 - EMU7800, an Atari 7800 emulator implemented using Microsoft's .NET platform, has been updated. Here's what's new:
Added NOP instruction register dumping (homebrew developer support), activate on the console using cpunop on. Setting will persist between invocations.
Added a button on the Settings Tab that brings up an openfile dialog to load previously saved machine states
Double-clicking on the game select tab will immediately start the selected ROM
Converted ROM database to a .CSV file: Editable via MS Excel or text editor
Fixed PAL 7800BIOS startup
Added command-line ROM invocation to support various emulator front-ends
Reverted TIASound to v0.41 version: fixes a sound omission bug
No changes to emulation were made for this release
- MetaFox
MAME32 0.81 - MAME32, the build of MAME for Windows with a sleek GUI, has been updated to reflect the latest build of MAME.
- MetaFox
ZSNES 1.40 Official - ipher released a new official release of ZSNES. This includes all of the changes from ipher's WIP releases and SDD-1 support.
- MetaFox
Dolwin 0.9 - Dolwin, the open source Nintendo Gamecube emulator, has been updated. Here's what's new:
welcome, hotquik!
final revision of source code layout
source code is now compatible with CodeWarriors workspace, best choice for fast and optimized code
improved user interface, file selector/browser added
Dolwin now following Dolphin-emu politics and supports only GCM extension for disk images. no lamer "ISOs", or else!
full low-level support for joypads (serial code) and rumble
added emulation of audio DMA (CrowTRobo sound demo works)
first cut for dvd emulation (Sappharad DVD Browser works)
memory cards are somewhat emulated (untested, or not working due lack of DSP code)
fixed apploader HLE bug (GCM files now loading properly)
maps and patch files (ppf) now storing in "Data" dir
maps are auto-loading with executable/GCM files
added some maps for demos and GCMs
added some library HLE (boring)
recompiler disabled (untested)
some work on debugger (symbolic information, function browser)
Dolwin now more stable on load/reload/close operations
updated plugin specs (added pad rumble, removed dvd, new sound)
improved gfx engine (lighting, textures, still not full)
save-state support (experimental)
fixed another long outstanding GCM bug, caused by unexpected interrupts during apploader HLE. now GCM reloading is safe.
*ton* of other internal core bug fixes
shorter : Dolwin now moved to advanced level. Busta Move 3000 and Animal Crossing are showing Nintendo logos.
- MetaFox
This adds support for Gallop Racer and Beastorizer, both of which have bad sound emulation.
- MetaFox
April Fools Rundown - Here is a list of some of the emulation-related pages who are running April Fools jokes. Some of these may turn out to be real (it's been known to happen :)), but they seem to outragous to be true:
DOSBox WIP: with screenshots running Windows 3.0 and 3.1 to be added to the CVS
MAME 0.81 "Back to basics" supporting a whopping 59 romsets.
ScummVM, FreeSCI, Sarien, Frotz, and Exult have been combined into one project known as CABAL (Coalesced 'Adventures beyond Architecture' League), a universal adventure game interpreter. CABAL3D is on the way with Grim Fandango and Broken Sword 3 (Revolution offered the source-code), and possibly, Ultima IX (negotiations are ongoing). Support is also said to be coming in the future for the SNES games Final Fantasy IV through VI.
FCEUltra 0.98.3 - FCEUltra has been updated to 0.98.3. Here's what's new:
Removed the wxWindows GUI code. GTK+ 2 code will take its place, once it is ready.
Added reset and power commands to the movie format. More commands(such as insert disk, eject disk, flip dip switch, etc.) will be added simultaneously as work on network play continues.
Modified SexyAL OSS code to not adjust the number of fragments to a power of 2. It works fine on my card, allowing finer-grained buffer size control, but I'm not sure it will work with all chips.
Fixed parsing of the "-specialfs" command-line argument.
Added the hq3x scaler.
Updated to the latest Scale2x code. I also added the Scale3x scaler.
Changed the keyboard assignments for toggling full screen to "Alt" + "Enter".
FCEUI_SaveState() and FCEUI_LoadState() changed. Porters should read driver.h.
Miscellaneous changes to accommodate new network play plan. It's not close to being finished.
Altered RTI emulation. In Paris Dakar Rally's NMI handler, it does "CLI ; RTI". Previously, FCE Ultra would generate an interrupt right after RTI occured, due to the presumed latency that RTI had with the I flag. I changed it so there is no latency, so no interrupt will occur in this case(interrupts kill this game). The interrupt source is the "frame IRQ", which it never disables, if anyone cares. This change does break the "Stars SE" demo, though. Hmm.
"FCEUGameInfo" is now a pointer, rather than just a statically-allocated structure. This may cause some null-dereferencing-related crashes, but it should help keep code a little cleaner(maybe?).
Played around with the FDS FM code some more. It's still not right. Bah.
Hacked in support for entering Datach/Barcode World barcodes without a GUI, using the F8 key and the numeric keys.
Added code to save/load movies. Movie support will only record/play back the states of the four emulated gamepads.
Modified the sound code to use timestamp/timestampbase differently. In addition, timestampbase is now saved in save states("timestamp" doesn't need to be saved, since it's reset to 0 at the end of each emulated frame).
