Friday, August 31st 2001 - Last updated @ 20:35 EST
Raine WIP page has been updated with some spiffy stuff. Check it out:
- Stretch Max : resize the game bitmap to the max, all of it onscreen, and keeping the aspect ratio.
- Stretch FS : Resize to fullscreen, ignoring the aspect ratio.
These functions rely on allegro for the acceleration. The direct X drivers in windows, and the DGA driver in linux do it at a good speed...
- Got rid of the old keys for pause. Now you can scroll the screen while playing ! (not very convinient, but quite fun to do !)
Added a key to go 1 frame forward while in pause. This is the result of a mail by Steph. It allows to make nice animations like this one, or to have a very precise look at what a game displays, frame by frame !
- Fixed Saboten Bombers.
- Added "Kingdom Grand Prix", the US version of Shippu Mahou Daisakusen, thanks to a new rom made by Neil Corlett. See the rom, and some pictures at his site.
I know I haven't been posting a lot lately, but I've got a good enough reason. ;) I might or might not post about it, we'll see. =P Until next time. :) Oh yeah, and thanks to Emuholic for the news.
- dhalamar
RetroGaming Radio!!! - Shane Monroe has just posted the first NEW RetroGaming Radio in 18 months! He's 'broadcasting' in Quicktime, so just tune in, sit back and enjoy the show!
- atila
Meridian v1.04 - Meridian, Jason Cline's great game music player was updated to version 1.04. A new installer, implementation of a scrollbar for the playlist and an updated NSF driver (v1.02) are the news for this release. Download Meridian and then check out the various music archives at Zophar's Domain !
- Opi
Sega Games On iPAQ - Pretty soon you'll be able to play Sonic (and other games) on your iPAQ.
- atila
Thursday, August 30th 2001 - Last updated @ 19:47 EST
MESS WIP - Another massive update at the MESS WIP page! There is just way too much to list here, however there are some nice sreenshots there for your viewing pleasure. Some of the major enhancements include: A new Einstein and SordM5 driver (thanks to Kev Thacker), and a new TI-81 driver (thanks to Krzysztof), Tim Lindner also got some more games working for the CoCo emulation, tons of user interface improvements thanks to Ben Bruscella, Raphael Nabet made some more improvements to the only existing working Lisa emulation, and Nathan Woods ported MESS to WindowsCE! Plus lots of bug fixes and other additions. Click the link above to get all the details.
- chris
BoycottAdvance v0.22b - The previously "beta tester only" release of BoycottAdvance v0.22 is now available for everyone. A new private beta will be send to registered users next week. If you want it too then send Gollum a postcard :)
- Opi
NP II v0.29r - A quick note : The PC-9801 series emulator Neko Project II for Windows has updated to v0.29r, this is a minor bugfix version which fixed some CPU instruction issues. Please get the binary at the link above :)
- Aries
.TZX Vault Update - The .tzx vault has been updated with almost 200 new tape images including more master tapes from Zeppelin, previously unpublished games, covertapes and rare games.
- chris
MESS WIP - A massive MESS WIP update has been posted with reports for the first week of August. There is a nice picture of the Lisa being emulated in MESS for your viewing pleasure. Lots of other work done as well, check the page for all the info.
- chris
Wednesday, August 29th 2001 - Last updated @ 17:19 EST
Naz "Game Over" - Famed dumper and CPS2 Faq creator, Naz, has closed up shop. We all owe this man a debt of gratitude - thanks Naz for all your contributions to this hobby. You will not be forgotten.
- prophet
MegaBase 4.5 Beta - Alessio AleTsg emailed me about a new version of MegaBase, a "front-end (that) supports 10 consoles and is compatible with GOODTOOLS for renaming roms; now is ready the Database & screenshot of Atari Lynx Console."
- prophet
X-Box Power & Otaku - DMB of X-Box Power has setup a forum thread called Ask Otaku, where fans can talk directly with Otaku No Zoku about his X-Box port of MAME! Apparently he's agreed to keep an eye there and answer any questions, so get postin'. There's also quite a bit of news there regarding other upcoming emulator projects for the X-Box; pretty amazing for a machine we can't even buy yet! ;P
- prophet
DreamGBA 2.2 - Though the official DreamGBA homepage is not yet updated, this GameBoy Advance has been updated to v.2.2! Hopefully it will be there soon. You can find it here for now. I don't yet know what's new. (Thanks K.K. and Hawq)
- prophet
FinalBurn Alpha 0.136 - LoopMaster released a new version of FinalBurn Alpha, an unofficial build of FinalBurn! NOTE: You MUST delete all cfg/*.ini files before using this version, aside from the finalburn.ini. Here's the scoop:
1) Disabled the T (talk) key during netply until i can figure out a way of fixing the problem
2) A small fix so the the option bReadInputEveryFrame is now always ON during netplay.
Changing the value in the .ini file now only effects local play.
3) Merged in some changes from big fool.
4) Added an options dialog, still needs a bit of work but works in its current state
5) Added the layer toggle code by gangta and removed the old Alt+L layer toggle stuff
keys alt+6 -0 are used
6) Added version 2 of HyperYagami's Cheat engine. A lack of space on the cheat menu has ment that you cannot disable cheats, but that doesn't really matter. Also made a small change for netplay cus the input dialog was getting screwed
7) Removed the Dat type code from the .ini file. Use the buttons under options instead.
8) Cheat options input screen added :)
9) Fixed 4 player under Battle Circuit
10) Added lots more cheats to the fbcheat.dat file
11) Fixed so the 4/3 player fixes only applies to the netplay games
12) Minor tweak to the Options Input screen
- prophet
MAME Targets Update - Mr.Goodwraith updated MAME Targets with the latest "shopping list" news, as well as the "Most Wanted List." If you'd like to contribute games to MAME, this is a good place to start.
- prophet
Nebula 1.8 - ElSemi released a new version of Nebula! And guess what? It plays NeoGeo games now too! =) Capcom vs. SNK indeed. (Thanks JTS of EmuHelp)
- prophet
Gauntlet MAME Saves - Antos posted an interesting message detailing a method for saving one's place in Gauntlet and Gauntlet 2! Apparently he's reached level *500* this way. That's a lotta dead ghosts... dead ghosts?! Nevermind. ;) This method might also work in other MAME games, though you'll have to experiment.
- prophet
Rare Atari 2600 ROMs - AtariAge has released 2 rare Atari 2600 prototype ROMs - Thwocker and Video Life! Ah, the good 'ol days... :) *NOTE* - If you hear of any great retrogaming news like this, PLEASE email us! I only discovered this news thanks to a messageboard post by Fazeo (thanks!), but it almost was missed!
- prophet
Pac-Hacks - Tired of the same old Pac-Man games but still hooked on the proverbial power pill? Then you might like BlueJustice's Pac-Hacks, featuring over 65 variations on Pac-Man, Ms.Pac-Man, Jr.Pac-Man, Pac-Land etc. He also proudly told me that he's updated all 3 intermissions in Jr. Pac-man. :) Waka waka waka...
- prophet
New ArcadePC Models?! - Hmm... After just looking at RingoWillyCat's page, I discovered some awesome looking HanaHoArcadePC's offered here from D&G Digital! Finally they've added a trakball - now if only I could afford one of those... The official ArcadePC homepage is still being remodeled, but perhaps this is a nice preview of a new line of products?
- prophet
More Computersworth HotRods - Gay Worth notified me that Computersworth.com has obtained another batch of HanahoHotRod SE's! They're taking preorders now for $119.99 each, and they should begin shipping in about 10 days. Visit RingoWillyCat's unofficial HotRod Support page to learn more about the HotRod. You can also read Atila's review as well.
- prophet
Visual Pinmame updates - Been a while since I posted any Visual Pinmame news.. There have been manu updates and releases in the last couple weeks.. Unfortunately, I cannot test any of the released-today tables, but I have some good reports on them: Releases include:
I haven't seen any of these yet, but I have been told that Corvette is really nice, however No Fear is a tad buggy.. to quote Rep: "Get your bug spray and ENJOY IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!1" So, head over to AJ's site and check them out!
- metallik
Tuesday, August 28th 2001 - Last updated @ 20:30 EST
Konqi gets Freenet IOSlave - hmmm konqueror, is looking to be a good alternative to Mozilla according to this article at KDE.News. In other browser news, Microsoft's latest attempt to control the internet has been released in the form of IE 6.0.
- chris
Sarien 0.6.2 - Sarien is a portable Sierra AGI resource interpreter engine that allows you to play Sierra On-Line AGI version 2 and version 3 games (such as Space Quest 1 and 2, and Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards) natively in Linux, Solaris, Windows, and other platforms. Changes: Implementations of the AGI commands clear.rect, get.room.v and add.to.pic have been fixed. Cel and loop setting tests have been changed to prevent crashes and display errors. The sound routines now use native-endian 16-bit words. GCC 3.0 compilation issues have been addressed. License: GPL.
- chris
HuC 3.10 - HuC is a PC Engine C compiler. It can create ROMs (hucard) or CD images and is bundled with an assembler and all kinds of libraries. You can ouput text, scrolls, make sound, control CD, handle sprites and tiles, and more. Changes: This version provides an important new feature known as "overlays". This allows you to break the current limitation on program size when making CD games by stacking programs. It is now possible to read raw data from a CD. Some fixes have been made to the video RAM access functions and the far pointer functions.
- chris
Mameinfo.dat v3.41 - M.A.S.H., the man who apparently never sleeps released a fresh new DIFF update for his well known Mameinfo.dat file. Read his posting if you need some advice how to apply this DIFF file to your old Mameinfo.dat !
- Opi
More Of Mamu_'s MAMEICONS - MAME's greatest and most funniest artist Mamu_ uploaded the missing icons for the latest MAME release - here's a little preview for your enjoyment. Thanks to MAMEWorld for this link :)
- Opi
MAME Flyer Pack 12 - John IV from the mame32 qa/test and art dept. has uploaded a new flyer pack for MAME. Pack 12 includes 49 new images and 17 replaced ones.
- Opi
CustomGB v0.011 - CustomGB has updated to v0.011, it updates very frequently in these days, but author has mentioned the update will be slow down, it may spend a month, or even a year to release next version. Anyway, you can expect something good at future release :) Changes in v0.011 are:
Support HuC1/HuC3 games (but infrared-feature is not implement)
Fixed some bugs that will cause CustomGB fails in infinity loops.
VirtuaNES v0.24 - open-source NES emulator VirtuaNES by Norix's just has a bugfix release v0.24. This "TV-Specialized" NES emulator has following changes in this version:
Support State/Movie files drag-n-drop feature.
Now you can change file name when you are recording/appending/playing the movie files.
Change VRC7 sounds from NEZplug/fmopl to emu2413 core.
Fixed some problems of disk-system handling (disk-system movie file will not compatible with previous version).
Fixed freeze bugs in Flingstone(J).
Please forward to link above to get this nice emulator :)
- Aries
Monday, August 27th 2001 - Last updated @ 17:20 EST
MESS WIP - The MESS WIP page has had a small update finishing up WIP reports for the rest of July. (yes July)...August WIP reports coming soon...
- chris
MAME FE 1.0 - Here's a brand new MAME frontend for Win32 by Fabin Succo - MAME FE! You can see screenshots on the MAME FE homepage, and they look very impressive to my eyes. :) Here are the main features:
- Support for split and merge ROMs (zipped roms only)
- Ability to build a Favorites ROMs List
- Support for Multiple Roms Directories
- Work with MAME Win32 version from 0.53
- Support for zipped and unzipped icons
- Support zipped and unzipped preview images (snaps, marquees, flyers, cabinets)
- Ability to view more game-images at a time
- Support .PNG graphic format
- Complete information for all games (drivers complete info are not included)
- Samples support
- Viewing support for "history.dat" and "mameinfo.dat" files
- "Catver.ini" support
- Find roms by description or by zipped Roms Name.
- Download the selected roms on the list by connection to mame.dk
- Full setting of the MAME options
- Easy access with Pop-up menus
- Ability to refresh the ROMs database without having to rebuild it
- Automatic detecting of new MAME version
- Automatic detecting of new ROMs Installed
- Support for long folder names
- prophet
Advance MAME 0.53 - So much for getting off the 'puter... :) Just got an email about Andrea Mazzoleni's Advance MAME being updated! Advance MAME is "an unofficial MAME DOS version with an advanced video support for helping the use with TVs, Arcade Monitors, and also for PC Monitors." Here's the lowdown:
- The site is now hosted on SourceForge.
- Kept the support for 8 bit modes. You can still use 8 bit modes for games with less than 256 colors without problems. You can also use 8 bit modes for all the other games but you lose in color precision.
- The modeline format is changed. Now it's XFree compatible.
- Added a new set of video drivers called `svgaline' from the Linux SVGALIB library.
- Added support for 32 bit depth.
- The safeexit option now uses the safequit.dat file to check if the exit is safe or not. If the game is in demo mode and no coin is inserted the "Continue/Exit" menu is not shown. [Filipe de V. Estima (Bugfinder), Ian Patterson]
A more detailed development history can be found here.
- prophet
TourMAME 0.54.3 - Yep, I'm back! :) And just in time to enjoy Tourniquet's very nice unofficial fixed MAME builds (P2/3 & K6) based on the latest official sources! So what's different? How about fixed Bubble Bobble, Konami games, CPS2, plus (thank you!!!) working triple buffers! Finally, right Kai? :) Thanks to SMAME, Haze, AJG, Aaron & everyone else who helped with the various fixed sources. Now 'scuse me while I go unpack my bags...
- prophet
Gamer Dies Playing Half Life - Ananova is reporting that "a Thai man has died from heart failure during an all-night computer game. The 22-year-old was found dead at his computer terminal in an internet cafe in Chiang Mai." You can read the full story at the link above.
- atila
mol 0.9.60 - Mac-on-Linux (MOL) is an Open Source emulator which will run MacOS on top of LinuxPPC. The main difference between this project and other similar open source efforts is that Mac-on-Linux runs natively on the PowerPC processor. Changes: This release supports the latest versions of MacOS (including MacOS 9.2.1). The new auto-loading of the MacOS ROM files makes it a lot easier to set up. Other improvements concern speed, stability, and user-friendliness. Note that the old mol RPM has been split into two packages, mol and mol-kmods. License: GPL. Thanks to fm][ for the news.
- chris
Sunday, August 26th 2001 - Last updated @ 22:14 EST
xmame/xmess - Lawrence Gold has released xmame-0.54.1 and xmess-0.37b15.1. Here is what's new:
Release 0.54.1:
Everything from MAME 0.54.
Fixed a compile error in the xgl target caused by a change in the core. (Sven Goethel)
Applied a patch that fixes CPS2 games. (Aaron Giles)
Release 0.37b15.2
Everything from MESS 0.37b15. Yay!
Changed the short version of -list-display-plugins from -ldp to -ldisp. -ldp was already being used for -list-dsp-plugins. (Shyouzou Sugitani)
Fixed prep-new-mess to account for some of the new text file names/locations.
z26 v1.47 - John Saeger's great open source (GNU) Atari 2600 emulator for DOS z26 was updated to version 1.47. What's New in this version? "Added support for Thwoker and a new version of Video Life". Download it, unzip it, play some HERO or River Raid matches and be amazed :)
Thanks to Navarone's Emulation 9 for the news.
- Opi
Guru Update - Guru'ssite has been updated with news of another PCB dumped (thanks to Felicien). Also thanks to pcb-a-holic for the news.
- chris
Exerion Colors Soon To Be At 100% - whacker from the Greek Gameland site has started the attempt to finally fix the colors in Exerion once and for all. So we all should be able to play this nice oldstyle arcade shooter from Jaleco with correctly fixed colors in one of the next MAME releases. Look here to see the results of his efforts.
Thanks to my Greek friends George Anastasiadis and Badge (hi mate, nomore updates ?)
- Opi
VisualBoy v1.4.11 - VisualBoy my favourite Game Boy Color emulator was updated to v1.4.11. These are Forgotten's latest changes, corrections and improvements:
Fixed problem loading save games (no sound or crash)
Great speed improvements
GBA mode
Fix for Final Fantasy Legend
Fix for Cardcaptor Sakura
Fix for The Smurfs
Fix for Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly
Fix for Bomberman Quest
Menu always on in Window mode
The fixed save state bug is the best news for me :) Thanks to JTS for the email !
- Opi
RAINE WIP - A small update happened at the RAINE WIP page. Kingdom Grand Prix was newly added and Saboten Bombers has been fixed. There is an extra story behind the Kingdom Grandprix (in Japan called "Shippu Mahou Daisakusen") ROM release - visit Neil Corlett's site to find out which one :)
- Opi
More New MAME Builds - M.A.S.H. released a new version of his own MAME compile called FixMAME & FixDEBUG, please refer to FixVersions.txt for further details.
Tourniquet's own TourMAME version is the next updated v0.54 release. It inludes Aaron's CPS-2 fix and NJ's enhanced NeoGeo driver. "It does mean that the ASM core works in the debugger for CPS-2 games now!" Available are PPro and K6 builds.
Thanks to MAMEWorld for both news reports :)
- Opi
MAME v0.54 K6 Optimized - Those few MAME fans who still rely on their AMD K6 processor might visit Shonk's site and download his K6 optimized MAME build of release 0.54 !
- Opi
UNZ v0.1 L10a - Navarone of Emulation 9 just let us know that a new FM-TOWNS emulator UNZ has released! In this primitive version it implements the following features:
Intel 80386 CPU (will run TOWNSOS though it's not perfect)
Video hardware (for sprites, hardware scroll)
Sound (YM2612 & PCM)
Mouse support
Joystick (Towns-PAD)
Keyboard (in JIS)
Floppy disk (only support 1.2MB image)
CD-ROM drive (can't switch CD though)
To run this emu, first you need to use "ROM begger" utility to dump some ROM images from real FM-TOWNS, then put into UNZ's folder, switch desktop's color depth to 16bit (automatically changes in Win2k) and enjoy. Having a fast system would be best (P3-800 recommanded in document :P )
- Aries
Saturday, August 25th 2001 - Last updated @ 16:22 EST
MAME Info dot DAT - M.A.S.H. has released MAMEINFO.DAT v3.40 for MAME 0.54.
- chris
[mame.dk] - All MAME 0.54 ROMs are now available at [mame.dk]. You can check out the changes here and/or download the emulator here. Please keep in mind that [mame.dk] relies on your donations.
- chris
Regenerate - Just spent almost a month in hospital again. Everything should be OK this time, but will busy with new part-time job, college courses, and RG of course :) I think it's time to clear those M:TG cards away :P
- Aries
CustomGB v0.010 - GB emulator CustomGB has just updated to v0.010, this time it support Pocket-Printer and some issues have been fixed. As its name "Custom", CustomGB really has some interesting features, though it still under early development. Please give it a try, and drop a line to author :)
- Aries
VirtuaNES v0.23 - Norix's open-source NES emulator VirtuaNES was updated to v0.23! This emulator has many TV related features like customize scanlines, TV aspect ratio, TV frame display..etc. Changes in this version are:
Added many feature when in the NSF-player mode.
Now separates FDS-sound routine from main program to external plug-in DLL. You will need it(FDSplugin.dll) to enable sound emulation.
Fixed bugs of NSF player.
Fixed PPU sprite DMA processes.
Fixed hang problem in Softball Tengoku.
Some little fixes and tuning.
You can download it from link above, both Japanese and English version are avaliable. By the way, the Chinese (Traditional) language plug-in by me is also avaliable on VirtuaNES site :)
- Aries
Zyclone :P - He has updated his site with some goodies for MAME 0.54!!!
- atila
Friday, August 24th 2001 - Last updated @ 18:07 EST
FlareStorm v0.00a1 For PowerMac - A first English version of FlareStorm has been made available for the interested Mac audience. FlareStorm is a new free Japanese Sony Playstation (aka PSOne) emulator for Apple PowerMacintosh computers. Thanks RGWD :)
- Opi
BGB v0.62 - BGB, a promising Dutch Game Boy Color emulator for Windows was updated to v0.62.
"Added support for joystick/gamepad. Added support for rumble carts. Cleaned up the LCD/STAT/interrupts code; a few rom problems solved, runs pinball deluxe/fantasies. Fixed sound volume rounding, better sound. Fixed the in 0.61 introduced sound problem with Cannon Fodder."
- Opi
MAME v0.54 - Surprise, surprise - here's a brandnew MAME release for you ! THESE are the changes in this release. MAME binaries should be available in a few minutes :) 3102 games are now supported, 5 new games were added :
REP REQ! - This just in from Rep: Shellz plz!
- atila
Q-Bert Remake - A nice little remake of Q-BERT has been posted at the DIV ARENA. This is a free download :)
- atila
KStella 0.5 - KStella is a KDE frontend to the Atari 2600 emulator, Stella. It currently supports the display of snapshots, labels, manuals, the configuration of individual game settings and of course, the ability to play games with just a click of the mouse. All these features are fully customizable to allow maximum flexibility. Changes: There is a new maintainer, and the project is now under active development. It has been ported to (and now requires) KDE2/QT2. Many more HTML manuals and cartridge scans have been added. The source has been cleaned up a bit. This version is more "KDE aware" than the previous versions. License: GPL.
- chris
Thursday, August 23rd 2001 - Last updated @ 17:21 EST
MAME Targets Updated - Randy Hoffman's excellent MAME developer resource site MAME Targets was updated once more. If you wanna know what might be part of future MAME updates have a look !
"... the main changes this time are that I've added a page for IPM/Irem and brought the Dumping Project's shopping list up to date, adding descriptions of wanted games where possible".
- Opi
RCATT = Game Tips At Its Best ! - Roger's Classic Arcade Tips & Tricks was taken over by jared because the founder Roger decided to retire. RCATT with freshly verified HTML & CSS, completly revamped and tips for Hyper Sports, Popeye, Zaxxon and 476 other arcade games awaits you !
- Opi
Retrogaming Times #48 - Issue 48 of Tom Zjaba's online retro-mag Retrogaming Times is now online (needs some time to load).
- Opi
It's Raining Again - RAINE WIP - The RAINE WIP page has been updated with a bunch of interesting news ! For example - "Demos support in raine (like what you have in doom or descent). The player can take control of the game at any time in the demo..." or "The emulator keys can now use modifiers : Shift, Control, Alt, Windows left, Windows right, and menu. You can map these from the GUI." and more. Get them all here - thanks Dave :)
- Opi
2001 California Extreme Show - Bobby Tribble has sent me the following info about the upcoming Arcade Show At San Jose.
"California Extreme is coming up, it's a good chance to play a lot of the classic arcades, including many rare and prototype games such as Beavis and Butt-Head, "Bradley Simulator" and Marble Madness II. There will also be lots of the pinball games you've grown to love in Visual Pinball. There'll even be "Laser MAME" which plays vector games using real lasers on a giant wall! This is a good time to start making your plans if you don't live in the San Jose area.
It'll be September 15th and 16th at the San Jose Convention Center."
Will I ever have a chance to see and play Marble Madness II here in Germany or even better on my PC ?
- Opi
MO6 alpha 0.1 - The first Thomson MO6 emulator for DOS MO6 is now available. The emu/site language is French (which wasn't my best subject at school) - so it's up to you to search for additional details :) Thanks Cloy.
- Opi
ASp v0.81 - Woopeee, emulation on the fantastic Amiga machines is still alive ! This is another World of Spectrum news report :) ASp, A Sinclair ZX Spectrum emulator by Ian Greenway was released as version 0.81. Improved TZX support, tape browser and tape loading noise are the news for this update.
- Opi
gamebaseZX v0.3 - The Sinclair Spectrum database / frontend gamebaseZX was updated to version 0.3, please check the release notes at the download section for further details. Info found at World of Spectrum !
- Opi
HAPPY BIRTHDAY - MAMEWorld - The best and most comprehensive MAME support & fan site MAMEWorld turned 2 years today ! Best wishes for the future and many thanks for your past work guys :) Keep the fire burning - KillerRoc :)
- Opi
GoodGEN 0.9996 - Cowering has released GoodGEN 0.9996 and here's what's new:
--- oops, left out some translations.. thanks RZS
--- 'needed redumps' list updated
--- updated GoodCodes.txt for those that keep track of the obscurities :-)
There are a total of 3,301 entries in this release :)
- atila
Wednesday, August 22nd 2001 - Last updated @ 14:31 EST
MacMAME 0.53a Released! - Brad has posted another update, here's what's new:
- Re-enabled PPC 68k cores. This fixes miscellaneous funk with a number of games, e.g. Gauntet. [Brad Oliver]
- Fixed some issues with incorrect text in the ROM audits. [Brad Oliver]
- MacMAME now exits with a warning message on systems less than 8.6, rather than crashing. [Brad Oliver]
Also, Kent Miller has updated his OpenGL plugin for MacMAME. It now works under MacOS X as well as MacOS 9!
Aries - Aries is back in the hospital for the time being. He hasn't recovered completely yet from last time, but he hopes to be back at work (and also updating RG) next week.
- atila
Tuesday, August 21st 2001 - Last updated @ 18:31 EST
Guide For Cowering ROM Tools Updated - tim informed us about his freshly updated good util guide which should help you to understand all the mysteries of setup and use of Cowering's ROM renamer tools.
OK - thats it - now back to my new "A Few Good Man" aka "Eine Frage Der Ehre" DVD :)
- Opi
bf's Engine - Navarone from Emulation 9 mentioned the release (probably the first and last release at the same time) of bf's Engine. This is Erik Chong's failed (???) attempt of creating a reliable PC Engine emulator for the Cassiopeia EM500 Pocket PC. Please visit the homepage to find out more :)
- Opi
GeoMAME v0.53 - Not much happened today so I surfed around to find some interesting stuff at the other emu-news sites. EmuHQ reported a freshly updated GeoMAME version (in sync with MAME v0.53). GeoMAME is Andrew Blum's NeoGeo only MAME version of MacMAME. New in this release :
" This version, like 14d, uses NJs Neo Geo driver for increase speed in some games. This version also fixes some bugs in the combo code".
- Opi
ClrMamePro v2.17c - Weee, Roman is still at it - here's another release of ClrMamePro. "Fixed the weird name-check problems (fullmerged sets + double roms/complemented crc32). Yeah..shouldn't code when preparing some holiday travels.... ". Also available are an updated GoodJag datfile and 51 ClrMamePro TOSEC datfiles.
- Opi
Aaaaaaah :) - So, like, if you take your date to this place, they'll get the hint ;) Thanks to Moebius for the pic.
- atila
GoodGEN 0.9995 - Cowering has released GoodGEN 0.9995, with the following changes:
--- more redumps and completely NEW games.. keep those redumps coming!
--- 'needed redumps' list will return next version after major cleanup
--- You need to RTFM for more news
CPS2Shock WIP - Razoola has posted the following bit of WIP news, regarding the NeoGeo:
The MVS hardware arrived today and I wasted no time in getting my trojan running on it (very easy). The data transfer protocol (sending non encrypted dumps to PC) is almost finished to, there were some problems at first but they're history now :) Just waiting on kof99 & garou now.
Monday, August 20th 2001 - Last updated @ 19:05 EST
Emu64 v1.2a Beta - Thorsten Kattanek just informed me about a new release of Emu64 - his C-64 emu for Win9x/2000. These are his changes :
- Bugfix im CPU (SBC, DCP)
- SID over DirektSound (is a not perfect!)
... - all 3 Oszillatoren
... - all 4 Wave's
- Envelope Generator
- SID Monitor (little toy :-) )
- emu64 runnig under win2000
The sites language is German but I think clicking on Eintreten and then on download should'nt be such a big deal :)
- Opi
ClrMamePro v2.17b - Roman Scherzer is still busy advancing his ROM manager ClrMamePro to new shores :)
"Just another little 'can you add these little request' release...the set extension will now be stored and inherited parentmessages in splitmode will be hidden now".
- Opi
The Video Game Museum Celebrates 2nd Birthday ! - Congratulations to my friends Mek and Rey and their great site The Video Game Museum for being a richful source of Video Games related stuff for 2 complete years. Now they offer screenshots from more than 9,000 games ! Don't miss the new Game Boy Advance Endings update including Rayman, Tweety, Jurassic Park, Mario Kart ....
Another nice news is Mek's partnership with one of the most famous gaming sites. He now provides screenshots for www.gamefaqs.com !
- Opi
Meridian v1.03 - This is rather old news but wasn't mentioned here :) Meridian, my favourite games music player was updated to version 1.03. Additionally available are updated NFS (NES) and GBS (Game Boy) sound drivers.
- Opi
Mameinfo.dat v3.32 - M.A.S.H. has uploaded a new Mameinfo.dat to his site. The DIFF-Update is only 32k.
Back to the Roots Moved, Updated And Healthy ! - My favourite Amiga site Back to the Roots has been moved to a new server. Their URL is still the same but they're now hosted by a group of enthusiastic Norwegian Amiga fans. This means thats all the download restrictions have gone und you can access their huge library of legal Amiga game downloads once again 24 hours a day.
Bobic and Hippie2000 have faced a real develish attack from the back - the infamous IDSA tried to shutdown their baby Back to the Roots without any warning and even more worse without any given reason. All online content at BttR is legal, with permission of the copyright holders. Attempting to shutdown such a site instead of the "zillions" WAREZ sites is beyond my belief. I think these guys should learn how to do their job in the right way !
Finally the good news - Bobic and Hippie2000 received new permissions to upload some new commercial games. Online are Brain Artifice and Cube-X by Soft Enterprises, the German RPG Antares by Nightmare Productions from Switzerland. Other freshly available titles are the complete Premier Manager series, Colossus Bridge X, Alien Syndrome and and and ... This all plus 60 new demos, game soundtracks courtesy of Andrew Barnabas, new scene pics and save disks complete this great update !
- Opi
Opi is still ALIVE ! - Heh, I'm back ... almost. Sorry guys but I had to sort out and solve a couple of unexpected serious real life problems which kept me away from my online account. All I did the last 5 days was checking my emails three times :) But you'll surely admit that Mr. Prophet did an incredible job here at Retrogames in the past days :)
My apology to all the people who sent me emails and got now answer :)
- Opi
MAME WIP - Another MAME work-in-progress update was posted! And this time there's pictures. :) And Chris is right, I got more Sircam emails than I care to count... :o/
- prophet
IMPORTANT VIRUS ALERT! - Once again I am posting a message about the W32SIRCAM VIRUS. These virus' keep coming in, so please stop clicking on e-mail attachments, and install a virus scanner if you run an operating system that requires them. Just when I thought they were dying out, my mail box gets bombarded with them, so there may be a newer version spreading out there. Atila and/or Lev, please adjust my email on retrogames.com to "tkmame @ this domain". Thank you.
- chris
Nebula WIP & EmuGenerations News - CPS2 fans will no doubt enjoy the latest Nebula work-in-progress! Lotsa good stuff coming soon, including a mysterious mention of a "new emulated system." Hmm... :) Also, Miyamoto's EmuGenerations (where Nebula is hosted) is itself now hosted at EmuUnlim, marking yet another great addition to ZTnet. He has the Nebula message boards back up, a bigger staff and pans to add new sections. However, only the Spanish version is ready, with the English version to come later. Good luck Miyamoto!
- prophet
GBA Renamer v2.4b2 - A new version of the GBA Renamer (Gameboy Advance ROM file renaming tool) utility is ready! Several bug fixes are listed, but it's still a beta. (Thanks Hawq)
- prophet
Generator 0.32 - A new version of James Ponder's Generator was recently released! You'll also find some screenshots on the homepage demonstrating the new "de-interlacing with vertical filtered weaving" technique. Say THAT quickly 10 times in a row, I dare ya! New stuff in this Sega Genesis emulator includes:
[CONSOLE] License/save screens accidentally reset YM2612 state
[Z80] RAZE incorporated with simulated pending interrupts (fixes a lot of sound problems in quite a number of games)
[VDP] Fixed bugs in the windowing code (Strider II, Ghostbusters)
[EVENT] Fixed *major* bugs in the event code, stops all the Illegal Instruction errors in the games (oops), any game that used DMA basically would have gone wrong!
[CORE] Re-organised source to use automake/autoheader [CORE] Generator now auto-detects processor and adds other optimisations for building source
(Thanks RJ)
- prophet
Hoonis' XMAME 0.53 - The news is really rolling in today! :) Hoonis just updated his Unofficial Linux CPS2Mame page with full 0.53 binaries (Svgalib & x11) linked with ASM 68k cores! The CPS 1/2-only binaries based on MAME 0.37 Beta 16 (with CPS2Shock patches) are still there as well.
- prophet
MESS32 0.37 Beta 15 - A new version of MESS32 (Multi Emulator Super System) is ready for download! Here's the scoop:
- Added a new MESS32-specific file manager. [Nate Woods]
- Fixed a bug in "other directory software" selected through a file dialog. [Nate Woods]
- Added the ability for the software view to lookup information from the .crc files and display them in different columns, as well as the ability to move columns in the software view similar to the system view. [Nate Woods]
- The main view will now display screenshots pertaining to software items; not just systems. These screenshots must be placed in subdirectories with names matching the system off of the snapshots directory, and be named the same as the software item. [Nate Woods]
- Worked around optimization bugs in the tms9900 so the TI99 system finally works properly. [Nate Woods]
(Thanks RetroLover)
- prophet
Stella.pro - Voch updated his unofficial STELLA.PRO profile file, which allows Stella and StellaX to identify Atari 2600 ROM file names along with other information used by the emulator (PAL/NTSC, controller settings, manufacturer information, etc.). To use it, just unzip it into your Stella directory! (Thanks Voch for the email)
- prophet
Calice 4.4 - Go get it now at the Calice homepage! Listed as an "Emuunlim.com 9,000,000 Celebration Release," (congrats to EmuUnlim!:) here's the new stuff:
Drivers for almost all games existing on NeoGeo
NeoGeo Memory cards management functions
Increased NeoGeo emulation speed
Lots of bug fixes in the neogeo emulation core
(Thanks Zadock)
- prophet
XBox already emulates N64?! - The XBox Power crew have posted some pretty intriguing news about a Nintendo 64 emulator, called X64, already being developed for the upcoming new XBox console! I can't personally verify this emu, but there's a complete report and screenshot, so judge for yourself. (Thanks DMB)
- prophet
Player Up 3.08 - Player Up, a very nice looking MAME frontend for Windows, has been updated! Get it now at ArcadeUniverse.com. LOTS of new stuff this release, for example:
- Ability to start an Emulator in Maximize Mode
- Ability to Select a Font to Use in Arcade/Dialog Text Mode (Arcade Mode)
- Border Select in Arcade Mode to different Color (Arcade Mode, Selected Button)
- Switch for Ingame/Title Screenshots (F10)
- Latency Time on Drag/Drop on Options (Bug in In-Game Drag & Drop)
- Use of a keystroke to switch to other game in Arcade Mode (Use CTRL + Movement Keys)
There are *many* other fixes and features - check the full list at the Player Up homepage!
- prophet
Nice MAME Icons - Marconelly (of MAMEboy & Nano News fame) submitted these nice MAME icons for use in Windows 9x, 2000 and XP! Would make nice icons for MAME32 methinks. :) Here's a screen capture.
- prophet
Please Note - I'll be away on personal business the rest of this week, straight through Sunday. I hope to continue updating today, but starting tomorrow I'll be absent, so don't think I'm dead or ignoring emails. ;)
- prophet
MAME Targets update - Randy "Mr.GoodWraith" Hoffman wrote in to let everyone know MAME Targets is back, and now part of ZTnet! The new URL is targets.mame.net! Welcome aboard Randy. :) The "aim for this site is to eventually present the most comprehensive listing on the 'Net of arcade games that have yet to be added to" MAME. The game/manufacturer info has been updated, and a couple of new manufacturer pages added. As I reported yesterday, his site now also contains the MAME Dumping Project, for those interested in contributing PCB's to MAME. Go visit!
- prophet
Congo 4 - Described as a "viewer and converter for C64 graphics (and a
drawing tool for them too)," this utility now reads more than 50 formats including D64! If you're into ripping/editing Commodore 64 graphics, this might be handy. You can read the original announcement by the author, Matthius Matting, and get the various files here. (Thanks Erik)
- prophet
TOSEC Updated - Grendel informs me that TOSEC has released a bunch of new databases in various ROM/image manager formats! Everything from Apple II to Tandy, and lots more before, between and after.
- prophet
Simple MAME Front End 0.3 - Simple MAME FrontEnd includes support for game auditing, an interface for various MAME options, reading of history.dat, support for UNC paths, support for many image formats. Changes: Some confirmation menus, and screen resolution restoration code. License: Free for non-commercial use.
- chris
Sunday, August 19th 2001 - Last updated @ 21:17 EST
More Guru News - Does The Guru ever stop updating?! Guess not, but you'll be glad, because he's posted some nice WIP screenshots of Golly Ghost and Cyber Sled being emulated courtesy of Phil Stroffolino! (Thanks Smitdogg, who else?;)
- prophet
Jagulator WIP - Realityman posted some great new WIP shots of Jagulator running Flashback! Keep going RM! And don't stop till you get Tempest 2000 going perfectly with sound! :P Please. (Thanks G.U.)
- prophet
ClrMAME Pro 2.17a - OK, one more news post from me. ;) Roman Scherzer just released the latest version of his excellent ROM manager & rebuilder, ClrMAME Pro! Here's the new stuff:
added: open parent set at url
added: copy2clipboard -> setname, parentname
misc: unneededmasks aren't extensions anymore. You can now define anystring with wildcards. (e.g. "readme*" or "*.txt"). So please check your unneeded masks old ones don't work anymore.
misc: faster scanner
misc: new method to get data from an exe
misc: some menu renames
misc: wrong named files in the parent set aren't listed as missing in the clone.
misc: fixed url entry for CAESAR
- prophet
Hi Atila, glad someone else on this site is alive... ;) Going offline now.
- prophet
EmuHQ.com - EmuHQ has boarded the ZTnet train :) Welcome aboard!
- atila
oNyX Marquees - Thanks to Eldio and image contributors, you can now download oNyX's latest NeoGeo MVS marquee packs! There are 5, each 10Mb - get them from Eldio's EMAM!
- prophet
Retrogaming Radio to Return - Just got an email from Bryan "KidHype" Smith about Shane Monroe's Retrogaming Radio! Apparently they're set to make a big comeback in September, plus the archive of past shows is available again now. Most interesting is that they've lined up some great gaming industry interviews for upcoming editions, as well as some news reports from the Classic Gaming Expo!
- prophet
ACE 1.4 - Another CPS Emulator release by Friol! Aside from the shockingly comical new look of the ACE homepage (be sure to scroll down to the Marvel Vs. Capcom XORs hehehe...;), here's what's new:
Added quick save/load states.
Finally get rid of the eeprom bug - no kludges anymore for cps2 games.
Eliminated a bug that stopped sound in msh and sfa2.
Corrected a sprite bank bug.
Nicer gui font.
Implemented "parent" romsets.
Improved gui romselector.
Implemented gui messages. Gui is not hybrid anymore.
Switched to DirectDraw 3, and surprise of surprises: DDraw3 is faster than DDraw7.
Added a bunch of options to the ini file.
Added Vampire: The Night Warriors.
Added Capcom Sports Club Asia (clone).
Added 19xx Hispanic (clone).
Added Armored Warriors.
- prophet
EasyEmu Update - 21 today! 21 tutorials to be exact. :) MRV2K posted 5 new tutorials (Visual Pinmame/Pinball, Visualboy Advance, Gens, RocknesX & Dega) and updated 3 tutorials (Calice, Callus & MAME). You'll find them at EasyEmu!
- prophet
TechTV & Classic Gaming - Check out this TechTV article to learn about the latest episode of Extended Play! They're featuring the Classic Gaming Expo, where many great old classic arcade games were on display. Lotsa other cool classic gaming stuff there as well. (Thanks Outlaw)
- prophet
BASIC for Macs? - Personal request: Can anyone point me to a (preferably freeware) version of BASIC for Macs? Is there one, hopefully with a decent set of graphics commands? Thanks.
- prophet
Mimic WIP - TheBeaver posted some Mimic work-in-progress about his new 6809 CPU emulation core! The 6809 powered many great arcade games, including Ghosts 'n Goblins & City Connection.
- prophet
MAME Dumping Project - The Guru posted a report about a new page called the MAME Dumping Project! Maintained by Randy Hoffman of MAME Targets, you'll find all sorts of information regarding what arcade game boards are needed/wanted to be emulated, where to buy them, how much they cost and more! Check out The Guru's news page for more info, and to learn how to ship boards for dumping. NOTE - If you are interested in donating CPS2 games, check out the CPS2Shock Donations page. (Thanks Smitdogg)
- prophet
Unix Amiga Delitracker Emulator 0.30 - UADE plays old Amiga tunes with UAE emulation. It uses original Amiga Delitracker Deliplayer binaries to support at least 90 different sound formats. UADE doesn't depend on proprietary components, since all the needed Amiga Kickstart ROM functions are cloned as GPL. Changes: This release has a new deliplayer (Dawe Lowe player). Some old players like Soundfactory, MarkII, and PTK-Prowiz have been updated. Global installation is now possible (compared to the old user-specific installation) using ./configure. License: GPL.
- chris
Saturday, August 18th 2001 - Last updated @ 15:00 EST
Daily Dose of MAME WIP - The doctor has ordered that you get a daily dose of MAME WIP.
- chris
Neo-0 Is Back - The Neo-0 NeoGeo dumping and enthusiast group has their homepage back up once again! (BTW, that Crystal Of Kings game doesn't look like MVS to me - for one thing the screenshots are 320x240 and 24 bit color - the MVS is 320/304x224 and 12 bit color. *UPDATE* - Thanks to pcb-a-holic, I can confirm that it's NOT a NeoGeo MVS game.)
- prophet
xmame 0.53.1 - xmame 0.53.1 is out! Thanks for all the usual contributions. You can download either a patch against 0.37b16.1 from here or the full sources from here. Changes since 0.37b16.1 include:
Everything from MAME 0.53 except for what was missing before.
GLmame now supports LinuxPPC. (Sven Goethel)
Fixed a problem that could cause an xmame.xgl build to fail when esound is enabled.
Fixed a bug in src/unix/unix.mak that caused builds using the asm 68k core to fail.
QNX Neutrino/Photon updates:
Added extended keyboard support
support for a wider range of sound cards
swapfile support.
(Travis Coady; credit also goes to someone whose name I lost. Sorry!)
Fixed a bug in contrib/porting/prep-new-mess that caused fix-comments to erroneously run on src/unix when processing .h files; made other cleanups in this script and prep-new-mame. (Christopher Stone).
DreamGBA 2.1 - Another DreamGBA (Gameboy Advance emu) build was released! New stuff includes a new Real GBA display mode & some speed-ups. (Thanks Hawq)
- prophet
Rad Rally WIP - The Guru posted some nice preview screenshots of the recently dumped Rad Rally being emulated, courtesy of R.Belmont! (Thanks Smitdogg)
- prophet
Project64 update - Jabo informed me that "Project64 1.3 beta has been released to the people who supported our project by donating to us." He also says a full public release will follow in the next few weeks. :) Check the Project64 homepage for more info about this excellent Nintendo 64 emulator.
- prophet
Jagulator v1.5.1 Released! - Woohoo!!! RealityMan kindly notified me that Jagulator v1.5.1 has been released to the public! Jagulator is the world's first ever working Atari Jaguar emulator. Note that no commercial games are supported in this release - be sure to read the compatability list before you try to load some games, like I did. ;)
- prophet
BeOS Stuff - Well, turns out that BeMAME v0.53 was released along with BeUAE 0.8.17R1, and a BeMAME frontend. All of which can be found over at BeEmulated.
And on a side note, Be got bought out by Palm. Read all about it right here.
- dhalamar
HuC 3.04 - HuC is a PC Engine C compiler. It can create ROMs (hucard) or CD images and is bundled with an assembler and all kinds of libraries. You can ouput text, scrolls, make sound, control CD, handle sprites and tiles, and more. Changes: Lots of bugfixes concerning the impossibility of creating ISO image with the previous version, new functions (pixel plotting and facilities to access RAM and VideoRAM), and randomness improvements. License: Source comes with no warranty.
- chris
Friday, August 17th 2001 - Last updated @ 19:28 EST
Guru PCB Update - The Guru posted some nice news about obtaining an Outfoxies PCB, which is a very rare Namco game! There's also quite a bit of other PCB news, definitely take a look. (Thanks Smitdogg)
- prophet
Internet Explorer warning - Offtopic, but important enough to warrant a "heads-up" post here: Microsoft's Service Pack 2 for Internet Explorer 5.5 will remove "plugin" functionality from IE. Plugins are also disabled in IE6 betas. Reasons for this vary from licensing issues with a company claiming a patent on embedded browser applications, to Microsoft's feud with Sun and Java. Regardless of the reason, installing Service Pack 2 will break IE's plugins, including the popular Quicktime movie plugin. The only way currently to restore this functionality is to completely reinstall IE from the original CD. This removal of features is deliberate - an attempt to drive developers away from Java (which MS doesn't own or control) to ActiveX (which they do). FWIW, ActiveX is responsible for the vast majority of those annoying email viruses the last couple of years.. :)
May the Force be with you - A bit late on this one.. Geoffrey has released a Visual Pinmame version of Data East's Star Wars! The table is fully playable and looks great.. unfortunately, the BSMT2000 sound system is not yet emulated, so the in-game sound isn't working yet. Music packs are available, however, to provide some nice Star Wars ambient sound during gameplay. Get the table and music from AJ's site!
- metallik
AGD - GBA Emu - Hawq emailed me about a new (to me) Gameboy Advance emu project called AGD! Now at version 0.14b, AGD is Windows based and requires Direct-X. The author, John Marco Panettiere, describes it as "a Gameboy Advance emulator and debugger with many facilities for efficient GBA development."
- prophet
MAMu_ Icons 0.53 - MAMu_ has released icons for the new MAME release. The update pack can be downloaded here. The main page won't be updated in a while since MAMu_ is off on holidays.
- chris
PureDJ.com - Since I've been enjoying their mixes for a few weeks now, I thought I'd return the favor and plug www.puredj.com :) If you're into dance/trance/house or techno, you should check out their streams (available 24/7) which are available in 24, 56, 96 and 128kbps. They also mix live every night and shoutcast it around the world. They also happen to be from Eindhoven, which is the town where I work :)
- atila
Beta Goodies - Arcade Heaven was updated with some MAME needed-sooners! And look Opi, Sky Base is there - you said you used to play it 20 years ago. :) I never saw it here in the USA.
- prophet
Newsgroup Guide - Kevin Butler wrote in to remind folk about his Simple Guide to Newsgroups. If you don't yet know how to access A.B.E.M. and other great emulation newsgroups, you are missing out on a superb resource. Start learning!
- prophet
Emulation Screenshots & MP3's - Looking for a great collection of in-game and title screenshots for your favorite frontend? Maybe you'd also like some game MP3's for use with AdvanceMenu? Then take a look at Crashtest's hosted site here at Retrogames - I've personally found his collections very useful, maybe you will too. Now up-to-date with the latest MAME 0.53 too. :)
- prophet
DreamGBA 2.0 - Yep, a new version of DreamGBA was released! Here's what's new:
Fixed an alpha-blending bug in the new gfx engine
Fixed a bug that makes no sound on some soundcard(AC-97,8738...)
Fixed a bug that will erase existed save file
FlashROM/SRAM/EEPROM save/load supported
(Thanks Hawq)
- prophet
Brazilian V7800 Frontend - André Luiz Fernandes dos Santos released a new frontend for Dan Boris' Atari 7800 emulator, V7800! Though it's the first release, it does support both English and Portuguese.
- prophet
Jagulator WIP - Wow! This news really makes me smile, since I still have my Jag. :) Realityman recently posted some great Jagulator news, including screenshots of various demos and most importantly - a screenshot of the commercial game Flashback! Hopefully soon we'll see games like Tempest 2000, Iron Soldier and Cybermorph emulated, so people will understand why fools like me actually bought the Jag. :o) (Again, thanks Karik)
- prophet
Cinemaware Games Released - Amiga fans will no doubt recall Cinemaware for creating some of the most impressive games for the platform. Well, you can now legally download Defender of the Crown and Wings images for free! More classic Amiga game releases are likely as well! (Thanks Karik)
- prophet
U.M.U. 1.1 - A new MAME frontend has been released by MRV2K at EasyEmu! It's called U.M.U. - note that several bugs were killed since the first test release a few days ago. Here are the main features:
U.M.U. can support All Mame, CPSMame and SFMame for Windows.
U.M.U. includes all important command line options up to v0.53.
U.M.U. can support up to 5000 Mame Games.
U.M.U. supports Catver.ini and Cheat.dat information.
U.M.U. is fully self configuring.
U.M.U. is less than 100K in size.
Once U.M.U. has configured itself it loads in milliseconds.
U.M.U. runs from an icon and the command prompt.
U.M.U. supports mouse and keyboard input.
U.M.U. is a FULL Win32 program and works in Windows 9x,NT and 2K.
U.M.U. is Completely Free!
- prophet
Final Burn Alpha news - This now-famous unofficial Final Burn derivative now has a new home with our good friends at EmuUnlim.com! Update your bookmarks to their new URL:cp-systems2turbo.emuunlim.com. Also, they released Final Burn Alpha 1.35 a few days ago, and it was a BIG release with many updates and useful changes, so go download that while you're there. :) (Thanks Fox and Loopmaster)
- prophet
PC/Emu to JAMMA interface - Andy Warne, famous for his I-Pac encoder, is about to release a new product called the J-PAC! Apparently it will allow one to easily hook up a PC to a JAMMA arcade machine, including the monitor! Sounds like an exciting new product, and makes me wish I had a nice big basement... ;) (Thanks Robert)
- prophet
I'm now sorting through my emails for news... I missed a few days due to my personal schedule (i.e. "real life") but will try to catch up.
- prophet
MAME32 0.53 Test - The MAME32 team has released a new test build based on the latest MAME sources! (Thanks Drybonz)
- prophet
Linux Stuff - Torvalds is visiting Finland, so he released Linux 2.4.9, changes can be read here. There is also a new KDE 2.2 release and it has a lot of nice new features, or bugs, no features, no wait..nevermind...Well, koffice and kdevelop are looking very nice. Heard some good stuff about kmeeting which is also in the works. :)
- chris
uCON64 1.9.5 - uCON64 is a tool to modify video game ROMs and to transfer ROMs to the different backup units/emulators that exist. It is based on the old uCON but with completely new source. It aims to support all cartridge consoles and handhelds like the N64, JAG, SNES, NG, GENESIS, GB, LYNX, PCE, SMS, GG, NES, and their backup units. It is not an emulator. Changes: Full Game Boy Advance and Lynx (Atari) support (with all features you would expect). uCON64 is now Cartridge only; support for CD-based consoles will continue in another project. License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
- chris
Thursday, August 16th 2001 - Last updated @ 17:35 EST
MESS 0.37b15 - Ben Bruscella and The MESSDEVs have put together a new release!
New System Drivers Supported (in no particular order):
------------------------------------------------------
NEC PC8801SR [Shouhei Nishi]
Emerson Arcadia 2001 (preliminary) [PeT]
More Nascom1/2 official releases [JoJo]
Sharp PC1403/1403H (preliminary) [PeT]
Texas Instruments TI-81 (preliminary) [Krzysztof Strzecha]
Texas Instruments TI-86 (preliminary) [Krzysztof Strzecha]
CoCo 3 PAL [Cowering and Nate Woods]
Intellivision & Intellivision Kbd Component (preliminary) [Frank Palazzolo]
Sord M5 (preliminary) [Kev Thacker]
Einstein TC-01 (preliminary) [Kev Thacker]
plus lots more changes! Download it now to check it out for Windows.
- chris
Calice 0.4.2 Released! - That lovely CPS1/2 & SYS16/18 emu was updated yesterday, the list of new/updated thingies is rather huge, so you'll have to visit the Calice site to check them all out and to download the new binary. Thanks to Zadock for the news.
- atila
Hell Has Frozen Over? - 2 new BETA versions of bleem! for PC have been released to the masses:
"BETA A" has some graphic improvements to increase compatibility and a different loading method which lets bleem work with some games that it couldn't handle before.
"BETA B" has the same loading method as the current retail version 1.5b, so it mostly benefits from some graphics fixes for games like Tony Hawk and Tomb Raider.
Thanks to MetaFox and flipcode for the news.
- atila
MacMAME 0.53 - Brad released this yesterday, pretty shortly after he released .37b16, but I had other things to attend to, so the update is pretty late. Anyway, here's what new:
- In sync with the DOS 0.53 build. [Brad Oliver]
- Fixed an issue which would cause insane menu bar flickering on MacOS 8.6 when running a game fullscreen. [Brad Oliver]
Wednesday, August 15th 2001 - Last updated @ 11:36 EST
BoyCott Advance/SDL 0.21b Release 1 has been released. It's up to date with the recent Win32 release, and here's what you have been waiting for, the what's new list:
- Insync with the BoyCott Advance 0.21b emulation engine;
- Redid keyboard and implented joystick/joypad support (again);
- New 16-bit graphics-core which is quite faster then the old one;
- Scaling support (from 2 till 4 times the original GBA size);
- Scanline support (needs work);
- Restructure some code for more speed;
- Framecounter implementation;
- GBA bios support (means more comtability);
- EEPROM Saving;
The BeOS, DirectX and FreeBSD ports should be coming later on today. Thanks to GBAEmu for the news. :)
- dhalamar
MacMAME 0.37b16 - Well, the Mac version of MAME has finally been updated, here's the skinny:
- In sync with the DOS beta 16 build. [Brad Oliver]
- Added support for Pause needs in InputSprocket. [Ian Patterson]
- Some fixes to the assembly 68k core. [Ian Patterson]
- Scrolling lists in the front-end now moves the selection hilight as well. [Brad Oliver]
- Many fixes to the Carbon target. It should now be about as fast as the old classic target, at least under MacOS 8.x-9.x. [Brad Oliver]
There's also a pretty cool OpenGL plugin on the MacMAME site, it adds some neat RGB and monitor effects to the rendering at virtually no additional speed hit. Brad also writes that he's very busy at the moment, so that's the reason it took so long. Furthermore, 0.37b16 is the last version to support 8-bit color, so some of the older games will run slower in upcoming MAME releases. Thanks to Brad and James A. for the mail.
- atila
Tuesday, August 14th 2001 - Last updated @ 19:35 EST
More CPS2Shock NeoGeo WIP - Razoola posted some interesting screenshots of his custom software that will be used to help XOR encrypted NeoGeo games! Check the WIP section at CPS2Shock to see them.
- prophet
MAME WIP - Looks like the summer break in MAME development has ended ! Gridle posted a new MAME WIP update. Lots of sound enhancements and a new game called Sky Base. I remember playing it in our local arcade more than 20 years ago ! Yeah, I am OLD :)
- Opi
Pat is back! - Pat Lawlor Design and Stern Pinball are about to release Monopoly, the first Pat Lawlor designed game in almost 4 years! The first machine went out on test location in Chicago this week. Louis Koziarz has a picture of the machine here, and additional pictures can be found here (note: change "03" in the URL to 01 thru 15 for more pictures). Thanks to Terry Nelson and Dave Nelson for the pics! Pat and his team were the designers of some of moden pinball's greatest games, including The Addams Family, Twilight Zone, Funhouse and Earthshaker. Now I just to scrape together $3600 for a nice, new machine.. :)
Note to those who might think this is offtopic: you don't get much more retro than pinball.
- metallik
DreamGBA & CustomGB releases - It's really late right now, so I'm stuffing these last 2 items together. ;) DreamGBA 1.9b, was released, fixing a CPU emulation bug & adding FlashROM save/loads! For old-skool Gameboy fans, CustomGB 007 was released, though I don't know what's new since the page is in Chinese. (Thanks RGWD from EmuHelp)
- prophet
ALE & CPS Zone News - Malc jennings wrote in about the latest ALE & CPC Zone news! At ALE, the "Amiga Legal Emulation" site, you'll now find a WinUAE Configurations section to avoid crashes, as well as an updated ADF Search & new reviews. At the CPC Zone, you'll find a new Amstrad games section, as well as several new game reviews.
- prophet
CPS1/2 MAME for Linux - Hoonis updated his Linux CPS1/2 MAME binaries (x11, svgalib, SDL)! All the latest CPS2Shock games are included. They are unofficial MAME versions based upon the latest 0.53 sources.
- prophet
News from eDen - Big update at eDen - everything from a site redesign to several utility releases and source code releases! Here's a brief rundown of some of the goods: Zip2ADF makes an ADF out of a .zip file, automatically determining what size to make; DiskRead reads any Fat12 disk (IBM PC, Atari ST, MSX, CBM, thousands of other stuff probably too); plus various improvements to AdfOpus, ZCut, GNU-News Leech Tool & WS-FTP. (Thanks Webulator)
- prophet
Dreamcast Only $79! - Sega lowered the price of the Dreamcast console to just $79! Any real gamer can tell you the DC has some of the best original games and arcade ports you'll ever see, so at that price you can't lose. (Thanks Richard Ragon)
- prophet
Guru Dumping Update - The Guru has dumped "Rad Rally" (Sega, 1991, System 32) & "Cyber Sled" (Namco, 1993, System 21), both donated by PCB-A-Holic! Perhaps someday these games can now be emulated. ( Thanks Smitdogg AKA PCB-dogg :)
- prophet
X-Men Vs. Street Fighter Shockwave - While still in the beta stages, you can now try an online Shockwave version of X-Men Vs. Street Fighter! Pretty cool, but still very early. Don't expect the real thing, though I kinda like the transluscent fireballs. (Thanks GenX)
- prophet
Elite - The New Kind 1.0 - Elite - The New Kind is an implementation of the 3D space trading game, 'Elite', based on the original BBC Micro disk game. In addition to the original features, it also incorporates some characteristics of later Elite games such as solid graphics, Rock Hermits, the Cougar, enhanced tactics, and more. Changes: The game now includes all the features of BBC Disk Elite as well as many features from the later Elites. License: Freeware.
- chris
Monday, August 13th 2001 - Last updated @ 14:19 EST
Lots Of New Acorn BBC Micro / Electron Related Stuff ! - There was a HUGE update at The Stairway To Hell - the best place for Acorn's BBC Micro and Electron games and stuff !
- Added around 200 new Cover Scans
- Many additions to the Electron UEF Tape archive
- Many additions to the BBC UEF Tape archive
- New Electron ADFS disk images
- Opi
BGB v0.61 - The Game Boy emulator BGB was updated to version 0.61. Major changes are : ZIP support and a new 16bit GFX engine for old GB games (faster if window is big/maximized). News taken from Emulation 9.
- Opi
Emu Loader v2.6 beta 7 / EL Lite v1.3 - Here's (freshly delivered from Brasil) a new Emu Loader release - Ciro Alfredo Consentino famous MAME frontend. Please visit the EL homepage and read the news and changes carefully to avoid unwanted troubles :)
- Opi
NeoMAME v0.53 - katharsis over at Geoshock compiled a new version of his very own "NeoGeo only" version of MAME called NeoMAME. This time he made a Windows binary - but he'll accept requests for a DOS version.
- uses NJ's NeoGeo Mame driver with scanline support
- uses the latest MingW packages to compile
- uses a modified Nasm version with better assembling results
- support for Diggerman
- Opi
Meka v0.58c - Good news for all Sega Master System / Game Gear / Colecovision fans. Zoop has just released another "free for all" Meka version today. Please click here to find out whatsnew in Meka v0.58c.
- Opi
Pocket Lynx 1.0 Beta 1 - Domenico Dato just told me about Pocket Lynx, his port of Handy for Pocket PC's! At this time there's only an iPaq build available. I still have my real Atari Lynx and around 40 games. :)
- prophet
Fire Barrel - Thanks Nicola! Check out screenshots here.
- chris
Sunday, August 12th 2001 - Last updated @ 21:36 EST
Jambo! Update - Jambo!, the Amiga game database, has been updated with "121 new games for use with Amiga emulators have been added to the search index along with a clean out of older and dead links. This brings the total amount of games (adf disk images) to 14264 over 22 sites." (Thanks James Thomas)
- prophet
Dream GBA 1.9 - The latest release of this Gameboy Advance emulator is now ready! Get it from the the Dream GBA homepage. Here's what's new:
- Over-Perfect GBC Sound Channel 1-3.( Relative to sth perfect...)
- Fixs on a Castlevania save bug
- Optimized a few instructions,greatly speed-up!
(Thanks Hawq)
- prophet
CPS2Shock to Conquer NeoGeo Next! - Razoola has decided to spend some time applying his XOR'ing technique to the encrypted NeoGeo games like KoF99 & Garou! The current dumps are buggy prototypes, so that would mean finally having correct emulation for the final arcade versions. Perhaps the other encrypted games as well eventually! Check the WIP page at CPS2Shock for the story. Please use our NeoGeo board if you'd like to discuss this development. (Thanks Mad Maximus & Syous)
- prophet
Dega v1.05 - Dave uploaded a new version of his new emu-baby Dega - below are his latest changes !
Added triple-buffering... in a window! Overlays are now triple-buffered (if you have enough video memory).
Added a switch between sound off, 12khz and 44.1khz.
Added fullscreen mode. Press Alt-Enter to activate it.
Dave - update your online dega.txt file :) BTW - Enhance PSG is a cool feature imho !
- Opi
New GBA & GBC Renamer Updates - Tiberian Dark posted Catweasel's latest updates for the GBA/GBC ROM Renamer tools. Most recent versions are : GBA-Renamer v2.4b1 // GBC-Renamer v1.1b1
Please visit the ROM Renamer homepage for the whatsnew info :)
- Opi
Mameinfo.dat v3.30 For MAMEv0.53 - M.A.S.H. uploaded his latest Mameinfo.dat update - the DIFF filesize is only 30 kb.
* Update the Mameinfo.dat to MAME 0.53
* Bugs ( 9th Aug).
* Added latest WIP news
* Added new Calice v0.4.0 games infos
- Opi
MAME.dk updated - MAME.dk has posted a list of new & changed ROMs for MAME 0.53! I'm not sure if all the new stuff is online yet, but it's just a matter of time.
- prophet
Dragon Quest VI Translation News - The SNES translation scene is alive and kicking! NoPrgress posted a 90% Japanese->English translation patch for Dragon Quest VI, something many SNES RPG fans will enjoy. (Thanks Kagaden)
- prophet
Killer Instinct 2 WIP - Yep, go see some lovely new KI2 screenshots at the Kiame homepage! RCP has apparently been working hard on his awesome Kiame project, and it's reported that it currently goes full speed on 500Mhz even without optimizations. (Thanks Morphayus)
- prophet
NJ's NeoGeo Driver Updated - NJ updated his super fast NeoGeo driver source to be added into MAME 0.53! He also released UOMAME32j 0.53 010812 - his own special version of MAME32 with various extras. Honestly I never tried it, but it's probably great considering what he managed with NeoGeo. :) Perhaps I should give it a whirl...
- prophet
HotRod in Europe - :) Xavier emailed me about ADF Informatique, the homepage for the new official distributor of HanaHo HotRod joysticks in Europe! Take a look if you're still playing with a keyboard or little pastic gamepad - you'll be glad you did. :)
- prophet
Online Flash Funtime - Here are 2 really cool things to do while you're online: Castlevania 2: Priest Battle, a retro NES remake, and Ninjai: The Little Ninja, an AMAZINGLY entertaining episodic Flash movie that you must watch! (Thanks Zektor & XeNZ)
- prophet
MAME Goodies - New MAME releases means lotsa people looking for new stuff... So far I noticed that GuruChoc is currently uploading to his site, and you might want to try ABEM if you have decent newsgroup access. That's about it right now - I really miss good ol' Dutch and his frantic ROM gathering reports! :P C'mon Dutch, where are ya!
- prophet
HotRod Support Page - RingoWillyCat kindly emailed me about his new HotRod Support page, all about the awesome HanaHo HotRod joystick! You'll find a bunch of pre-made config files for various emulators, saving you some trouble making them yourself, and more.
- prophet
Poor Opi, all alone - ;) Sorry, I've been busy the past few days. On with some news now...
- prophet
Linux 2.4.8 - Changes:This release frees swap cache on swapin when swap is full, merges the emu10k sound driver (yes, you actually get sound out of this one), and adds several fixes, including one for a swapin/swapoff race condition. License: GPL.
- chris
Saturday, August 11th 2001 - Last updated @ 19:33 EST
MAME v0.53 OUT ! No Joke :) - 0.36 + 17 = 53 ! Look here for the new goodies in MAME v0.53 !
"We have abandoned the "beta" numbering scheme, which was becoming pointless. The current version is 0.53 because 0.36 (the last "non-beta" release) + .16 (the number of "beta" releases since then) = 0.52."
- Opi
Game Boy/Game Boy Advance News - Woah what a slow news day :(
Thankfully I got a few emails :) Exile`90 from PocketHeaven sent in the following news :
The BoycottAdvance homepage was once again updated with new WIP screenshots (Matrix trailer on GBA) as well as BoycottAdvance 0.21b in French and Dutch language.
Niels Wagenaar announced a new NeoPocott/SDL release for tomorrow. Visit his site for some WIP info about this Simple DirectMedia Layer port of NeoPocott (emulates SNK's handheld NeoGeo Pocket).
The Japanese Game Boy emulator WinGBC was updated to version 0.05. This site is in Japanese which I fail to read or understand - so this is all I can tell you :)
- Opi
Bliss WIP - Kyle Davis posted a bunch of Bliss WIP info at his new homepage here at Retrogames. Here are a few of the news : the next release will be the first version under GNU Public License. DirectX code was replaced by SDL code for easy porting ... almost completely rewritten emulation core. Please visit Kyle's Bliss homepage to read his fully update.
Just in case ... Bliss is THE best available Mattel Intellivision emulator for JAVA and Windows based systems.
Thanks to Sea7 for the email :)
- Opi
MAME WIP! - Gridle has posted a WIP update with exactly ZERO pics :)
- atila
Meridian Advance - Gamemusic XXL - A totally revamped Meridian homepage and even more important a totally rewritten (from scratch due to a fatal hd crash) Meridian Advance game music player are now online. Jason Cline finished the upload just a few minutes ago (I check his site every day) :) Three hurras for everyone who loves Game Boy, Genesis, NES and SNES music. Jason added two cool new DSPs - Surround Sound and Echo. Please give him his deserved feedback !
- Opi
Unofficial highscore.dat v7.7 - I feel lonely ... lo o o o only - that was a summer hit a few years ago :)
Hrrrmm - leezer released a new unofficial highscore to the public. Version 7.7 adds save support for around 20 new games in MAME.
- Opi
Friday, August 10th 2001 - Last updated @ 19:27 EST
VisualBoy WIP - Forgotten has posted a small WIP update regarding his latest achievements in improving his famous GBC emu VisualBoy.
For all the VisualBoy lovers, I am working on it again and fixing some problems. Currently, I have fixed:
- speed greatly improved
- saving to C:\ (or similar is now fixed)
Expect other fixes as well as I am investigating some of the reported problems."Thanks to our friend PeterD for this nice little news update :)
- Opi
NNNesterJ v0.21 - NNNesterJ, a product of many different sources and in fact the best NES/Famicom emu currently available was updated once more. New in version 0.21 :
Fixed game genie folder select.
Fixed "Sleep not Use" function.
Added game genie code edit dialog.
Added menuicon disable option.
Added sprite,background clipping disable option.
add checking new version using the internet from "ABOUT DIALOG".
New N64 Virtual Pad - SJR the author of Virtual Pad plugin for N64 emulators just informed me about his latest update. He finally found the bug which caused Zelda 1 to display a black screen. Those few who are still interested in N64 emulation might check it out here :)
- Opi
AdvanceMENU v1.13 - Andrea Mazzoleni informed us about his latest AdvanceMENU update. This is a nice DOS front-end for MAME, MESS, RAINE and probably any other DOS emu. Changes in version 1.13 :
Changed the default font.
Added the `lock' option to prevent any modification at the user interface.
Added the `coin' sort key.
Solved the empty list problem with the -default option
Snapshots should be availabe here - but neither this nor the homepage link does work for me right now.
- Opi
Gens v1.0 - Gens, for many the best currenly available Sega Genesis emulator for Windows was updated to version 1.0. Stéphane Dallongeville claimed "Well, the 1.00 version doesn't have any special mean like "a perfect version" or "the last version" (and why not the beggining of something), so don't expect majors changes with Gens v0.99a". Although the changes list is long enough to make the Gens users happy again. Please visit the Gens homepage for further details.
Aaah :) Hey Stéphane, big thanks for changing the screenshot size :)
News submitted by RGWD.
- Opi
Classic Gaming Expo 2001 - Trebor made an interesting posting on our General Emulation message board called This is 'Retro'Games, isn't it?. He posted a lot of info about the old Atari consoles and the upcoming (starts tomorrow) Classic Gaming Expo 2001 in Las Vegas.
Here are a few of his topics :
- Atari 7800 encryption documentation released
- NEW Atari 2600 prototype ROM found ***Thwocker***
- Combat II new Atari 2600 release this weekend at CGE.
Feel free to notify me about such shows taking place near your local area - wherever you live. Oh my god ... I can see them coming - 1st Classic Gaming Expo on North Pole ;-)
- Opi
ZSNES Back From "Nirvana" :) - I just thought it would be a good idea to let you all know - the ZSNES homepage is back in business :)
BTW - the crew listening still features zsKnight as a member and I can't find his farewell posting. Hopefully it means he's still on board (fingers crossed) ! WWEmu and DeJap as well as the message boards are still MIA !
- Opi
Thursday, August 9th 2001 - Last updated @ 20:47 EST
CPSMAME v8.7.01 - William Pérez and Andrew Blum's Power Macintosh MAME port CPSMAME was updated two days ago. If you won't wait for the new MacMAME v0.37 b16 release - this is your chance to play the lastest CPS-2 Shock releases on your Mac :) News found at Mame World !
- Opi
Extreme Arcade Video Game Images - Here's a new site for all serious arcade gaming fans - Extreme Arcade Video Game Images. Marshall Brooks has all and everything about Arcade Cabinets and Control Panels ! Thanks KiLLerCloWn :)
- Opi
MAME32 News - John IV just updated the mame32 qa-test and art dept. site with some news and hints about the new MAME32 test release. Check it out by clicking here - thanks Mrhide :)
- Opi
Calice32 v0.4.0 - The series of updated cps emulator releases is still going on - next one is Calice32 ! Version 0.4.0 needs only half the memory it previously needed, supports the latest CPS-2 Shock releases, has better and faster Sega System 16 & 18 support plus some additional fixes'n stuff. Calice now supports more than 175 games !
- Opi
BoycottAdvance WIP - Gollum once again posted some interesting BoycottAdvance development news. He talks about BoycottAdvance/SDL, almost perfect sound, bilinear filtering and many more improvements. He also stated that he will continue releasing private betas. Expect a public v0.22b release sometimes next week.
- Opi
a.c.e. v1.3 - A new version of a.c.e. (another cps emulator) has been uploaded. Version 1.3 "adds more speed, more games and the gui is 98% not more hybrid. Win2k bug has been fixed.
Thanks to Navarone's Emulation 9 for the news.
- Opi
RealSpectrum Beta #11 - Ramsoft has released beta 11 (or v0.90.38) of RealSpectrum - a highly advanced Sinclair ZX Spectrum emulator for Windows. Available are Pentium, P II and AMD optimized versions - look here for a huge list of changes and new stuff. Apparently it is the best and most accurate Spectrum emulator currently available - but I can't validate it because the emu fatally crashes my German Win98 system :(
Thanks to Russell Hoy and Turkalin for their emails !
- Opi
Handheld Simu's Updated - _MADrigal_ sent word about two updated handheld simulators - both got an english manual, Fmod sound library 3.33a and some additional new stuff.
- Penguin Land (Bandai tabletop) Simulator S3/1.03
- Towering Rescue (Gakken, LCD Card game) Simulator S3/1.02
His next releases will be "Egg" and "Mickey Mouse" (both by Nintendo).
- Opi
ClrMamePro v2.17 - Bogy aka Roman Scherzer released a new version of ClrMamePro, his famous ROM manager tool.
"I've added the requested support for some special URLS (like mame.dk, caesar and so on...guess people saw that in RC :o)) and some other small things have been done. Guess it will be much more improved in the future....Time for a holiday now."
- Opi
News ? - Looks like we're late on news today. That will change quickly :) I just came back from a trip to our local cinema - they played Evolution which I found quite funny and entertaining :) I have news about RealSpectrum, Handheld Simulators, ClrMamePro, ace and more - stay tuned (or bust) :)
- Opi
Yesterdayland! - This must be one of the coolest sites on the internet: Yesterdayland.com! Check out their arcade section, it's luvverly :) The fashion section of the 80s also brought back a lot of memories =) Thanks to ElvisP for the link.
- atila
Ouch ;-) - According to this Dutch article, Microsoft forgot (?) to patch a few Hotmail servers and they became infected with Code Red :)
- atila
Beta 17 Roms - Zyclone has put up a few new/changed roms for MAME 0.37 beta 17. And no, beta 17 is not available yet and probably will not be for another week or so.
- atila
Wednesday, August 8th 2001 - Last updated @ 20:37 EST
PocketGB 1.38 Beta 1 - Great news for Casio EM-500 owners like myself! Aaron Oneal bought one and has ironed out many of the past problems for it. He says "I plan on making bug fixes and optimizations for the next couple of months before adding new features again." Sounds like an excellent plan to me. :) Get the new 1.38 build at the PocketGB homepage, and remember to uninstall any versions 1.35 or less BEFORE installing this new one. PocketGB is a commercial multi-console emulator for Pocket PC's. (Thanks Gadgetman)
- prophet
AdvanceMAME + Fixed Sources + AMD K6 Optimized - Some AMD K6 users wanted it, so here it is! See my previous posts for further details. 100% Unofficial.
- prophet
NeoCD/SDL v0.1.8 - Fosters just announced his next NeoCD/SDL release. The problem with Samurai Spirits RPG has been fixed. A Linux port might be released soon but there are a few issues that need to be solved before it will become a reality :)
Thanks once again to Wickie (hi Jan) for the notification !
- Opi
Mini Classic Tetris v1.6 - The Mini Classic Tetris emulation seems to be near perfection now - version 1.6 has some new graphics optimization, tweaks for low level PCs and a now fixed font problem. News submitted by Kojote.
- Opi
BGB v0.60 - The Game Boy emulator for Windows BGB was once again updated today. The current release v0.60 features the following changes : "Added GameShark support. Fixed many bugs. Great sound improvements (also fixed a bug which messed up the sound in GBC mode). Sprite priority as on real gb." Thanks to Dave from Vintage Gaming for the news.
- Opi
RockNES/MacOS has been updated to v1.952, adding support for Mapper 44 and Game Genie codes. Get it here.
- richard
VisualBoyAdvance v0.21 - Forgotten uploaded a new VisualBoyAdvance version. Below are the changes in release 0.21 :
fix to 24-bit mode dark screen problem
sound on left speaker problem fixed
some ARM opcodes have been corrected (DarkFader's demos now work)
Another AdvanceMAME build - Oops... I left out some of the new CPS2 clones last time, so I compiled this new build of Andrea Mazzoleni's AdvanceMAME with various fixed/changed sources. This build should also fix any ROM load warnings, plus ecofe is now named ecofghtr. For other details please see my post from yesterday. Remember, it's 100% unofficial so don't bother anyone about it but me!
- prophet
SFMAME - NeoGouki of NeoGouki's MUGEN Creations compiled a new build of his SFMAME (a MAMEw compile), now including all the new CPS2 games plus the classic original Street Fighter! As with all the builds released this past 24 hours, it's an unofficial version of MAME.
- prophet
StretchMAME Test 22 - SMAME released a new test build of StretchMAME32ka! It includes the latest CPS2 games, but SMAME also reports a NeoGeo crash bug that occurs sometimes after ROM loads. (Thanks Xtian)
- prophet
XSIDPLAY 1.6.1 - XSIDPLAY is a graphical front-end for libsidplay. SIDPLAY emulates the Sound Interface Device chip (MOS 6581, commonly called SID) and the Micro Processor Unit (MOS 6510) of the Commodore 64 on your computer. It allows you to listen to more than 14000 famous C64 game and demonstration songs. Changes: This version improves the Qt configuration process to work better with the multitude of Linux distributions, and fixes a few bugs related to playlists and most-recently-used directory history. It also updates STIL View to v2.15. License: GPL.
- chris
HuC 3.03 - HuC is a PC Engine C compiler. It can create ROMs (hucard) or CD images and is bundled with an assembler and all kinds of libraries. You can ouput text, scrolls, make sound, control CD, handle sprites and tiles, and more. Changes: This version features an enhanced BRAM function and new stuff to deal with strings. License: Source provided with no warranty.
- chris
Tuesday, August 7th 2001 - Last updated @ 21:21 EST
New CPS2 Region Cheats & More - Check out Pugsy's Cheats' messageboard for a post by Tourniquet, and you'll find some fine MAME cheat codes for the new releases! Just copy and paste them into your cheat.dat file and there you go.
- prophet
Tourniquet's CPS2MAME Source Package - I just noticed that Tourniquet's page was updated with an updated CPS2MAME source package! It includes the new CPS2Shock releases as you might've guessed.
- prophet
Advance MAME with New CPS2Shock Releases - Here's my addition to Raz's B'day party: a new 0.37 beta 16 P2/3 optimized build of Andrea Mazzoleni's Advance MAME that plays SFA3, BatCirj & EfoFe! The package includes all the usual stuff, plus various fixed sources I added, including the NJ NeoGeo driver, Aaron's latest Ensoniq code, the various Cave, Namco CV1 & System16 fixes I found at SMAME's page, and the latest CPS2Shock stuff. This is an unofficial build of an unofficial version of MAME, so don't bug anyone about it! It works, I tested it briefly, so enjoy. :)
- prophet
Kawaks v1.20 / Nebula v1.7 - Arcade Fans Alert Alert - Condition RED Warning ! Warm-up and prepare your download button. New Kawaks and Nebula versions were released today. Both have support for Raz new releases (of course) - both emu's switched to Mike Coates'A68K core which "caused" a nice speed boost. Kawaks now features netplay via Kaillera support ! Please visit the respective homepages for more details !
Thanks to CPS-2 Shock for the news - Happy Birthday Razoola !
- Opi
FinalBurn Alpha v0.134 - loopmaster just informed us about his latest FinalBurn Alpha release. He wrote : "FinalBurn Alpha is now updated by "Team FB Alpha" (LoopMaster, KEV, Mike_Haggar & TrebleWinner) Not to mention the huge amount of other people the have contributed to the project :)". The whatsnew list shows support for Razoola's latest XOR table releases and 17 additional topics :) What are you waiting for - go downloading :)
- Opi
Generator v0.31 - James Ponder's open source Sega Genesis/Mega Drive emulator Generator was updated to version 0.31 today. James fixed a DMA 68k problem that caused Ecco to crash and added save states and screenshot support to his emulator plus some additional stuff :) Available are : a SVGALib binary for Linux 2.2 / 2.4 systems, a DOS version for Windows systems and the emulator source as well. Other ports are availabe (Mac, Amiga, Windows) but they're based on older Generator sources.
Thanks to Navarone's Emulation 9 for the news.
- Opi
FCE Ultra v0.62r2 Windows & Linux - New Windows and Linux binaries of FCE Ultra, an advanced NES/Famicom emulator by Xodnizel has been released. News in this release include support for the extra Famicom Disk System sound channel and iNES mapper #242.
- Opi
Raz' B-Day - Thanks for the presents Raz! Thanks also to walk, Hoonis, pcb-a-holic, KevenDO, and xacrow for the donations!
- chris
Pika-pika Piikaa Chuu ?!? - Arrrrrgh !!! Looks like evil Pickachu is haunting RETROGAMES ! LOL ! Thanks Jan :)
- Opi
Monday, August 6th 2001 - Last updated @ 22:55 EST
MVS art collection - ONyX compiled this list of his collection of NeoGeo MVS art. Comprising every known piece of scanned art he could find on the net, he says the entire collection is 178Mb zipped! Read this post for the full story.
- prophet
More Boong Ga Boong Ga! - The never-ending tale (tail?) of this game continues with this English language flyer. Had this game made it to English-speaking shores, it was to be called Spank'Em! Seems the theme is slightly different (less raunchy) than the Japanese one, but still pretty strange. As the cabinet's side art says, "have a fun!!" (Thanks XeNZ. Flyer image was found here.)
- prophet
Bliss Update - Some WIP info about the upcoming Bliss release has been posted, including a screenshot of the nifty new title screen graphic! Bliss is a Mattel Intellivision emulator for Win32 by Kyle Davis and Jesse Litton.
- prophet
Arcade Culture Shock - Many Japanese arcade games never make it to western countries, and in some cases, perhaps it's for the best. Behold Boong Ga Boong Ga, a game so bizarre, so decadent, so freaking crazy... that I dare not describe it here. The CA board regulars should love it! ;) *For adults only* UPDATE - Rastan, in his admitted shame, sent me this promotional flyer for the game. Just plain WEIRD. (Thanks computolio)
- prophet
Disk2FDI v0.7 - Read Amiga Disks On Your PC - A new version of Disk2FDI has been released. "Disk2FDI is the utility to read Amiga, Atari ST and PC formatted disks on your PC computer, without any specific hardware extension, except a second disk drive unit. It will save them as FDI files which will be supported in future releases of the Tand-Em and FAST emulators. ADF fileformat is also supported for Amiga-formatted disks".
Thanks to _aR_ for the notification !
- Opi
Wonder Project J v1.0 - Wonder Project J - a cute Enix action adventure for SNES was fully translated by WakdHacks. The available patch is the biggest translation release so far to my knowledge - 911 kb !
Thanks Benandanti :)
- Opi
Preserve The Classics - Cybergoth's great Epyx Shrine was updated with lots of info about Impossible Mission, Break Dance and Summer Games. Check it out by clicking here ! Thanks to Ant from Lemon for the info :)
- Opi
Nuclear power value! - Two new pinmame releases today.. First, Andre has ported Williams' Phoenix to VPinmame. This is one of the earlier solid-state machines (System 4, 1978), and as such it plays more like an electromechanical game. Sound emulation has been replaced with chimes in this version. Next up is The Simpsons, ported by Mungo J (with a bit of help from Andre). This table is fully operational with sound, and plays well. Don't have a cow, just get the goods at AJ's site!
- metallik
Defending XP - Several emails came flying in defending XP. One recommended the following SlashDot link, where you can read various rebuttals/discussions about the article I linked earlier. Who says we're not fair here? :)
- prophet
Happy B'day Raz! - How old is Razoola now anyway? Hmm... Perhaps that's the key to truly decrypting CPS2 - QUICK, somebody whip up a conspiracy theory right away!!! ;)
- prophet
Ahem ahem... - I can bash M$ with the best of 'em! :) Though I do think Windows 2000 is a nice OS. Never used Linux though... That should rattle Chris a bit. :P
- prophet
On a completely unrelated subject, I'd like to take a moment and give EVERYONE involved with the EPSXE playstation emulator a HUGE (and belated) kudos.. I'm still amazed every time I fire up SotN or Raiden and see them running *absolutely perfectly* on a PC. Bleem? Bah... EPSXE owns it hands down.
- metallik
RetroFakes needs logo - Seems everybody needs a new logo lately. :) If you'd like some artistic fame, check out RetroFakes and let them know.
- prophet
MAMEInfo.dat 3.26 - M.A.S.H released the latest MAME Info! Includes the latest bugs, WIP, Final Burn & JAE info, plus more recommended games etc.
- prophet
Guru Dumping Update - Check out The Guru's site for some great news! He's dumped a slew of new games, including 2 rare Namco System 2 boards & Konami's Mystic Warriors. There are some preliminary emulated screenshots to look at as well. :) (Thanks Guru & Brian Troha)
- prophet
Fear XP - I'm BEGGING people to give Microsoft the cold shoulder with Windows XP. Not only is there the apalling practice of treating the user like a criminal when they dare upgrade their system, there's also some SERIOUS security issues! "XP is the first home version of Windows to allow complete access to TCP/IP sockets, which can be exploited by viruses to do all sorts of damage. Windows XP uses essentially the same TCP/IP software as Windows 2000, except that XP lacks 2000's higher-level security features. In order to be backward compatible with applications written for Windows 95, 98, and ME, Windows XP allows any application full access to raw sockets." Read the Cringely article yourself for more info. And here's another good article on TechTv.com on the subject. (Thanks Richard Ragon from HanaHo)
- prophet
TI85 Emulator 0.0.9 - ti85emu is a free TI85 calculator emulator for Unix/Linux. It's based on the MSX Z80 emulation library. It uses the FLTK or GTK library. It's designed to be easily extended and ported to other GUIs. Changes: This version introduces a GTK GUI. The package now uses autoconf/automake, and the sources have been cleaned up. License: GPL.
- chris
z81 2.0 - z81 is a Sinclair ZX81/ZX80 emulator with versions for X and the Linux console. Also bundled is zx81get, a ZX81 tape reader. Changes: Display emulation was improved. Optional sound support (including sound addons) and ZX Printer support were added. License: GPL.
- chris
Kung-Fu Flash! - Here's a rather wicked flash version of Kung-Fu Master (please ignore the porn banner near the top), the 'game' changes halfway thru the animation. Very cool stuff, thanks to Tutman for the link.
- atila
Sunday, August 5th 2001 - Last updated @ 20:46 EST
X-Box Power flash logo needed - DMB wrote in to say he needs a really cool new logo/banner for X-Box Power. He's especially after a nice flash animation, and you'll get proper credits of course. Email DMB if you're interested!
- prophet
Dega v1.04 - Dave just uploaded a new Dega release with the follwing changes. Hmm - there's still no screenshot function included ;) Come on Dayvee :) Thanks to Drybonz for the info.
- Opi
HVSC Update #27 - The High Voltage SID Collection homepage was updated some days ago with a new upgrade for this awesome collection. HVSC is the no.1 source for all your C-64 music needs in the original SID chip music format. HVSC 4.2 now consists of 16,320 files ! Please check these mirrors for your download wishes - thanks to DrStu for the reminder :)
- Opi
Advance MAME with Fixed Sources - Several people asked for it, so I compiled this 0.37 beta 16 P2/3 optimized build of Advance MAME with permission from Andrea Mazzoleni. The package includes all the usual stuff, plus various fixed sources I added, including the NJ NeoGeo driver, Aaron's latest Ensoniq code, the various Cave, Namco CV1 & System16 fixes I found at SMAME's page, and the latest CPS2Shock stuff. This is an unofficial build of an unofficial version of MAME, so don't bug anyone about it! It works, I tested it briefly, so enjoy. :)
- prophet
Off-topic: Code Red warning - Just a note for anyone who is running Microsoft IIS and hasn't applied the Code Red worm patch yet: A new version of the worm released this weekend will install a cmd.exe (renamed to root.exe) in your /inetpub/scripts directory. This allows anyone to issue commands (including delete, format.. you get the picture) on your system. The self-propogation code of the worm (HTTP GET req's for default.ida?XXX..) will advertise your infection (and root-ability) to every system it attempts to infect. Needless to say, this is a much worse scenario than a simple pingflood of whitehouse.gov.
Saturn Emulator??? - I received an anonymous email from someone claiming they've emulated the Saturn on PC. Attached was this short mpeg... Maybe it's fake, maybe it's real. I really don't know. But I thought it'd be fun to share it with you fine folk anyway. :)
- prophet
Model 3 Schematics Needed - I received an email from someone seriously interested in emulating Sega's Model 3 arcade hardware. Schematics for Virtua Fighter 3 or Virtua Fighter 3 Team Battle, as well as anything about possible protection mechanisms implemented in any Model 3 games are needed most. The author does NOT need any info about Power PC or 68K. Due to his wishes for anonymity, if you would like to help, email me. Please do not send attachments without letting me know in advance, or they might get deleted.
- prophet
FinalBurn Alpha v0.133 - Loopmaster has released Final Burn Alpha v0.133, an unofficial version of Final Burn! Note that this release is a fixed version of 1.32, which was accidentally released as a debug build and thus very slow.
- prophet
X-Box Power Update - Checking our new hosted site, X-Box Power, I see things are really jumpin'! There's a contest to win a FREE X-Box, and a whole bunch of new message boards for X-Box discussions of all types. The focus is X-Box emulation, but the staff also seems geared toward many other aspects of the upcoming super system as well.
- prophet
EmuShack Logo Needed - Cyberbob over at EmuShack is planning a site redesign, and needs someone to come up with a nice logo for them. He asks if Chemical is out there and interested? Are you out there Chem? :) Or anyone else with good graphic skills. Hop over there and let him know.
- prophet
NeoCD/SDL v0.1.7 - Fosters recently announced a new NeoCD/SDL release. NeoCD/SDL is a port of Martinez Fabrice'sNeoCD emulator using the SDL libraries. And here are the changes for v0.1.7.
Thanks to Wickie for the update info :)
- Opi
GLECK v0.0.5 / ZZ Spectrum - Ignacio Burgueño's Sinclair Spectrum emulator for Windows GLECK was updated to v0.0.5. This release includes :
BetaDisk support for Russian clones (Pentagon, Scorpion).
Select block in TZX is now handled.
Keyboard layout has changed:
New option to modify the Spectrum's palette.
Improved emulation speed.
Less crashes (some left, though).
Sadly it features no joystick and screenshot support ! Ignacio is still at it so I won't give up my expectations and hope for a Windows based Spectrum emulator with support for the arrows keys as input device (much more useful than emulating the originally used Speccy keys) and a screenshot function :)
The second new Spectrum emulator release for today (although they were released a day or two before) is Troels Noergaard'sZZ Spectrum. This is the first JAVA based emu with support for the Sectrum 128 model. Visit the site and play some rounds of Manic miner or Jet Set Willy - both top sellers on Speccy, CPC and C-64 in the mid-eighties :)
BGB v0.52 - BGB - one of the more advanced Windows Game Boy emulators was updated to version 0.52. "Added a setting which automaticly switches between the faster 8 bits gfx and the 16 bits gfx when needed. Changed window behavior again, it should be correct by now (alfred's adventure). minor fixes". Thanks Emulation 9 !
- Opi
Various Site Moves And Reopenings ! - Multi-webmaster Malc Jennings wrote in to tell us the latest news about the various projects he's involved in !
His own site CPC Zone has sucessfully been moved, updated and now reopened with new Amstrad related content. The same is true for Gremlin Graphics World - the official 100% legal distribution source for old Gremlin titles ! The site has been given a 100% new look, a new owner and a whole lot more content including the famous Lotus Esprit series for the Amiga. Mr Digs!Amiga Cover Disks was moved to Emulators Unlimited and is now again open for the public. Finally Malc's own Amiga Legal Emulation site was moved to Emulators Unlimited too. Apparantly ALE has gone through a rough ride the past few months but Malc is sure to have settled down nicely at his new home with a few changes of course !
"The Games section has been removed due to the massive amount of space needed (they may be coming back though) but we have replaced the games archive with a brand new review and configuration section! here you will find reviews for many classic Amiga games and a suitable configuration for WinUAE and WinFellow to get the game working at it's best, with over 50 reviews already I think you'll find it's well worth reading".
- Opi
AMI Sector One Update - Bernd Gmeineder webmaster of AMI Sector One sent us the following news :
"With "Paradox Software" and "Hartwerk" there are nother two companies which allowed us free distribution of their Amiga software on our website AMI Sector One. Some of the programs of these firms you can now legally download are "ST-Protector", "War Zone" and the translation program "Translate It". Also there is Ed Scio's futuristic flight simulation "Armour-Geddon". Many interesting Public Domain games and new Emerald Mine clones complete this small summer update".
- Opi
Calice32 v0.3.8 - Calice32, David Raingeard's multi arcade system emulator for Windows was updated a few minutes ago. Besides the usual amount of fixes and new drivers David added a Video blitter plugins system and partial support for Sega's System 16 and 18 arcade systems. News found at Emulation 9 :)
- Opi
New Stuff At The .TZX Vault - Gilby's Sinclair Spectrum devoted site The .TZX Vault was updated with 60 new tape images "including about a dozen re-converted powerload titles and 4 Zeppelin master tape images". The master tape images are courtesy of Brian Jobling, MD of Eutechnyx. More master tapes and +3 diskette images will be appearing shortly.
- Opi
Kid Aye's MameWorld Sooners Page! - A bunch of MAME "Needed Sooners" ROMs is now available at MameWorld !
Guru-Choc'sArcade Rom Heaven is another famous source of MAME WIP ROMs :)
Happy Birthday Prophet - welcome in the club of 35 ! Long live the retro grannies club :)
- Opi
Play Carnival Online - Norbert Kehrer informed us about the latest game he added to JAE - his Java Arcade emulator.
Another arcade classic is emulated by JAE, the Java Arcade Emulator: "Carnival". Back in 1980 Sega made this really entertaining shooting game, which was quite successful. After clearing the gallery, you have to shoot at the poor polar bear :-)
SMAME does MAMEW - Looking for a MAMEW build with all the yummy fixed drivers in StretchMAME? Including that now-famous NJ NeoGeo driver? :) Well, then try SMAME's recently posted MAMEW test version! Just scroll down to where it says "Misc." and you'll find the download link. I don't use MAMEW myself, so I can't comment on this build, but there you have it.
- prophet
Visual Pinmame Triple Whammy - Three new tables for Visual Pinmame have been released.. First, MikePin74 and Steve Ellenoff have ported Data East's Batman! This is the older Batman table, using the 16x128 dot-matrix display. Unfortunately, there is no sound because DE's BSMT sound system hasn't been emulated yet. Next up is Data East's Guns and Roses, courtesy of Steve and Destruk, with help from Pebo, BubbleHead and AJ. This one looks great, but again no sound due to lack of information on the hardware. Check the rev history file for more information. Finally, we have Williams' Defender, ported by Apocalypse, WPCMame and Gaston. This isn't the classic videogame.. rather, a very rare pinball themed from it - only apprx 350 games were produced. Thanks to Pinmame, it's possible for many people to now enjoy this table. These are all available on AJ's site.
- metallik
Saturday, August 4th 2001 - Last updated @ 20:54 EST
FinalBurn Alpha v0.132 - Loopmaster has released Final Burn Alpha v0.132, an unofficial version of Final Burn! New stuff this release:
1) Hack Fixed the UN Squadron driver (KEV).
2) Add WIP for better Multiply protection.
3) Patched Knights of the round so you can play it.
4) Added King of Dragons driver By Mike_Haggar with a fix by KEV.
5) Added Support for 1941 and clones.
6) A fully working King Of the Dragons Driver.
7) A very very small tweak to the game selection dialog.
8) Re-added a few lines in drv.cpp to fix on-line mode and tweaked Rom search path.
9) Added Better support for the CPS1 board IDs to get all the games that need it working and changed drivers as needed.
10) Added Merged CPS2 Drivers (All games!)
11) Added Merged CPS1 Drivers for : UN Squadron, Varth, Strider, MSword and Final Fight!
12) Added Merged Sf2 and Sf2ce drivers with all clones with thanks to JeldrosJ3 for SF2RB2
13) Fixed the problem with Marvel Super Heroes (Japan) loading the USA version instead of the Japan version.
- prophet
NJ NeoGeo Update - NJ posted this new file containing only his superb new NeoGeo sources! Nice and easy to insert into 0.37 Beta 16 MAME sources. :) Compile away! (Thanks Kai)
- prophet
EmuStatus - Big Update - WTC of EmuStatus made a huge update! 180 new game entries, complete with screen shots, technical info and emulation status. :) Really good stuff and a pleasant browser destination. (Thanks Warlock)
- prophet
Aaron's MAME WIP - Head on over to AaronGiles.com and check his MAMEW Fixes page! Something sounds "vastly improve(d)," and the source code is there to try in your own builds! :)
- prophet
Mozilla v0.9.3 - Heya boys and girls. A new version of the open source web browser Mozilla has revealed itself. There are builds for Windows, Linux, Mac, OpenVMS, and OS/2. Here's what's new:
Continued stability improvements with 16 top crash bugs fixed since 0.9.2. These bugs were fixed thanks to data generated by users running talkback builds.
The Subscribe dialog now lets you search for all newsgroups containing a string when subscribing to newsgroups.
The Modern theme has several changes to icons and sidebar tabs.
Proxy Auto-Config has been implemented on the Macintosh.
There is a new preference for choosing between Windows and Linux scrollbar behaviour when the mouse strays off the scrollbar when you're in the process of scrolling. (Bug 90985)
Chatzilla is now localizable.
Universal UOMAME NeoGeo driver anyone? - Well, I'm no C coder... I couldn't integrate the UOMAME Source's NeoGeo driver properly into my own builds. :( Can anyone make a simplified version that can be easily swapped into existing MAME sources and compiled normally? Let's hope Official MAME uses NJ's NeoGeo driver work in the future, 'cuz 60fps raster effects kick butt!
- prophet
Doom for Dreamcast! - Hard to believe Doom is old now, I can still clearly recall how AMAZED I was by the original shareware release. If you head over to DCEmulation.com, you can now play Doom on your Dreamcast. DCGrendal has a "lovely Discjuggler image with the shareware wads already in." :) (Thanks Lushdog) Oh... I'm so behind on my Pocket PC reporting... :( Grr...
- prophet
Friday, August 3rd 2001 - Last updated @ 20:39 EST
Galaxy Fight at 60fps?! - Wow, I just played Galaxy Fight with raster effects on at 60fps in MAME! I thought this wasn't possible without a faster CPU (I have 1Ghz) but apparently NJ of UOMAME found a way to speed things up a LOT. Check out the below StretchMAME post to try it yourself (SMAME added NJ's fixed NeoGeo driver to his latest build)! I also noticed the fire level in Last Blade 2 doesn't slow down now either. :) Awesome.
- prophet
StretchMame32 v0.37 beta16a - Here's the new StretchMame32 release. smame seems to be one of those guys who can't resist to code the whole day :)
Added Marvel Super Heroes (Japan 951024)
Added Super Muscle Bomber (Japan 940808)
Added Super Muscle Bomber (Japan 940831)
Fixed Quartet crashing problem
Fixed Atari RBI Baseball crashing problem
Fixed Xexex BG scroll
Fixed Salamander 16bit color sprite problem
Integrated NJ's NEOGEO driver
Added 'Disable PerformanceCounter' option
Some ROM names changed
If you have problems with the last MAME32 test version (like me, all games run too fast) you might think about using smame's great MAME32 version.
- Opi
Virtual GameBoy Advance v1.1 - Marat Fayzullin's Game Boy Advance emulator for Linux and Windows VGBA was updated today. The Unix binaries are free, Windows user have to pay $35US to license Marats emu. I suggest that you test the other available GBA emu before you pay that much ! If you think about writing your own GBA game then VGBA is a good choice with its built-in debugger.
- Opi
Meka 0.58b - Zoop released yet another version of his superb Sega 8 bit (GG,SMS etc.) emulator, Meka! (Thanks Troutman)
- Fixed various minor bugs.
- Fixed two scrolling emulation bugs in video mode 5. They did not affect any game, but for the sake of accuracy, better fixing them!
- Added Dutch messages translations (by Mark van Tilburg) and Redneck messages translations (by Maxim, using Dialectizer). Fry mah hide!
- Added /LOAD command line parameter, to start directly with a savestate loaded (so you can make yourself batchfile loading a certain state.)
- Added several new entrys to the checksum and compatibility lists, and fixed some existing ones. Added an USA flag and set the flag to all SMS games only released in USA (Alf, King's Quest, Montezuma's Revenge).
- Added one new happy theme from the french movie "Am,lie Poulain".
Party On Moves - HanaHo ArcadePC users and others shoud note that Andrew Burt has a new domain, www.ABurt.com. You'll find his Party On frontend and his ArcadePC review located there now.
- prophet
MAME WIP - Berlin Wall background decryption progress and more! Nicola, get some sleep! ;) (Thanks Brian Troha & Gilby)
- prophet
I condemn thee to a living death! - Neurokinetik and Aurian have ported Williams' Dracula to Visual Pinmame! As of 1:00am EST, this hasn't yet been posted to AJ's site yet.. check the Table Release forum over at ShivaSite for details. The table can be acquired from Shivasite's public table section.
Plug time: Dracula is a VERY underrated WMS pinball... Many people are either turned off by the dark, gothic theme, or the high level of difficulty. These attributes actually are what make the game so great.. it IS one of the hardest modern tables, providing a good challenge (no freebie multiballs like later Sega models) and the excellent music, voices, art and dots (especially the replay effect and castle/coffin multiball effects) make it the most atmospheric pin I've ever played/own.
This table release has a few minor issues involving the Mist Multiball feature and ball lock - check the revhistory for details. Also, I noticed Pinmame itself seems to have issues with the sound: the Coffin Multiball music is about 10% too slow, the digital samples are too loud compared to the FM music, and some of the samples sound "wierd" .. the post-videomode werewolf howl in particular is quite butchered. This is outside of the table author's control, obviously. I strongly urge players interested in this game to seek out an actual machine and enjoy it in all it's glory.. and don't give up on it til you've stacked up a few multiballs and seen what it has to offer.
- metallik
DreamGBA v1.8 - Emu-Zone mentioned Kervin has released new version of his GBA emulator DreamGBA, new version v1.8 has following changes:
OBJ Window supported.
KEY Input Interrupt added.
BIOS Protect function added.
Fixed A instruction prefetch bug.
At this time, official page of DreamGBA didn't update yet :P
- Aries
FinalBurn Alpha v0.131 - Loopmaster has released Final Burn Alpha v0.131, just few hours after previous release. This unofficial version of Final Burn now compiled with Christophe's Alpha 5 Kaillera code, fixed the crash when using Strider Hiryu (USA), and added multiple ROM path support :)
- Aries
Thursday, August 2nd 2001 - Last updated @ 19:05 EST
NeoRAGEx _not_ dead - If you've visited our NeoGeo board then you already know the story. No point in "concealing" what's already public... If/when I have permission to release more details you'll read it here first. And _PLEASE_ do not hack NeoRAGEx or annoy RAGE team in any way - emus are done when they're done, never sooner. Thanks, I'm out for the evening...
- prophet
FinalBurn Alpha v0.130 - Fresh off the email inbox... Loopmaster is the new energizer bunny of emulation it seems... ;) This latest unofficial Final Burn build includes Christophe's Alpha 4 Kaillera code, plus drivers for many SF2 clones, Magic Sword, UN Squadron & Knights of the Round! The latest Kaillera DLL is included. Netplayers should all try to use this new build for best results. Get it here!
- prophet
Jambo! Moved - James Thomas' Jambo!, the "largest Amiga emulation search on the net, with over 10000 games in the search database," has moved to http://jambo.abime.net.
- prophet
Welcome Bliss! - Please welcome Kyle Davis' Mattel Intellivision Emulator, Bliss, to Retrogames! Another fine hosted site to be proud about. =) You can't get much more retro than the Intellivision - I used to want one but I already had an Atari and the parents just weren't buying it. :( Grumble...
- prophet
New site plugs... - Ok, one _last_ friendly plug for a new emu site - KeepItRetro.com! Good luck to Carpe Diem and crew. Please no more emails asking for plugs, there's too many sites out there! Also, Saturn fans should appreciate SegataWorld. (/friendly plug mode)
- prophet
MagicEngine v0.9.9 beta 1 Windows - David's and Cédric's Michel excellent PC Engine/TG-16 emu MagicEngine has been updated today. This new release adds better support for audio volume control / added three new options in the PCE.INI file to control audio volume : 'master_audio_volume',
'fx_audio_volume', 'cd_audio_volume' / fixed crashing bug when loading some CD save state file. / fixed 'Valis : The Legend of a Fantasm Soldier' bug. :) / fixed tiny little bugs here and there.
Please note : MagicEngine needs to be registered for a fee of $16 ! Thanks to Navarone for the news.
- Opi
GoodNES 1.00 - Cowering has released GoodNES 1.00, here's what's new:
--- Finally, 1.00! Tons of mapper updates and redumps (keep them coming)
--- New UNF format will be in next version..
--- Please let me know if you can fill in some of the missing Translation versions
Wednesday, August 1st 2001 - Last updated @ 20:22 EST
MSX Frontend - A freshly updated BOSS Front-end 2.0G for fMSX is now available.
BTW - Can anyone give me a status report for RuMSX which is my favourite MSX emulator ?
- Opi
New TOSEC Stuff - Grendel recently uploaded a bunch of updated (massively extended and splitted Amiga games datfiles) and new (Fairchild Channel F) TOSEC databases.
- Opi
MAME WIP - It's about time for a new MAME WIP update. Gridle posted the latest development news up to august the first. Aaron Giles made Pit Fighter and Rampart playable and it seems we'll see Thunderblade and Power Drift any time soon ! Thanks to Mr. Do for the hint :)
- Opi
Pinmame part 3 - Bally Mania - Gaston has released a half-dozen Bally pinball conversions for Visual Pinmame! The list includes:
Get them at AJ's Tables. Some of these were made form scratch, others are conversions of Visual-Pinball-only tables. Be sure to read the revision history files for original author credits. Also, AFM, ToM and Alien Poker received updates, as have the VB scripts (to version 2.0).
- metallik
Final Burn Alpha 1.29 - Loopmaster emailed me about yet another unofficial Final Burn build! :) Now there's no longer any need for patched PGear/Armwar XOR's, no more weird errors with Pgearr1, a re-ordered game list and some changes to help netplay. Note that the "'bDrvSaveAll' option should also be set to "0" if you are using the netplay feature." Get it here!
- prophet
Friendly plug - Just a friendly plug for the Retrogames fans at EmuShack, a new emulation site for your perusal! Good luck CyberBob & crew. :)
- prophet
SMS 4Ever - 2 new good Master System redumps were born!
- prophet
Final Burn Alpha 1.28 - Loopmaster released another unofficial Final Burn build! Get it here! This time you'll find some CPS1 games added, as well as the latest Kaillera code from Cristophe! (Thanks Loopmaster for the email)
- prophet
