Emulator Release: BrMSX 1.136
23:43: While Zophar's Domain was down, BrMSX 1.136 was released. Here's the changelist:
- Lots of missing MSX keys were added, including the brazilian "Ç" (mapped in the End key)
- Support to more undocumented features of VDP (bits 0 and 1 of VDP(4) and bits 6 and 5 of VDP(3) ). Now you can play "Thing Bounces Back" and run "LIKE" without graphic bugs. Thanks to Isaac Solorzano Santaolalla, Walter "Marujo", Daniel Caetano e Alex S
ato for the help.
- Support to MegaROM Mapper #4 ("Valis")
- Support to 8x8 sprites, used in "LIKE", "Hundra", "Alcazar" and a few others.
- New command on debugger "U dddd", to change the address of the disassembler.
- New command on debugger "E dddd xx", to edit a single byte of MSX memory (both commands were suggested by Adriano Cunha).
- Fixed a minor bug in the "clocks left" section of the debugger (bug reported by ISS, of course).
- Huge User's Manual available in both english and portuguese.
You can download BrMSX 1.136 from the MSX page.
Site News: Site updates
23:11: Well, here's the current status update on the new machine ZD is now on.
- All message boards now work, although messages had to be cleared since the links were broken. Enjoy!
- The news archives and message board archives work as well.
- Unfortunately, the poll, counters, and search engines are still non-working. This will be fixed in the next few days.
Thank you for your continued support towards ZD!
Emulator News: Nofrendo progress report part 2
21:47: Yes that's right! Matt has again posted a progress report on his page! Here's the new stuff he has implemented:
- Woohoo! DPCM channel added- Ninja Gaiden now rocks!
- Sound code partially rewritten. Accurate info provided by Y0SHi.
- Many more games work. Still hunting for a CPU bug or two, though.
- Mid-HBlank PPU address writes implemented, which fixes split screens, status bars, etc. (Airwolf, Zelda 1, Crystalis...)
You can also check this text out on the Nofrendo homepage
Site News: Save Archives updated
21:27: The CS0, STA, SPC, and ZST archives have been given minor updates. Keep them coming in.
Utility News: UNIROM 0.45
20:36: Zophar's Domain was up for a short while a few days ago and then I managed to update the UNIROM homepage. Unfortunately I couldn't get an update to the front page at the time. Anyways, here's a new version of UNIROM! And just t
o make you all happy I'll post some advice here. UNIROM has a .INI file. Edit it and fill in the old paths with paths of your own. For example .\ will do perfectly... If you're running it from Win95. If you're running it from pure DOS or Win3.X then speci
fy a full path. So if it gives you an error message you've probably just got an error in the .INI file.
Here's the news:
- Format of .DTE and .NAM files changed. Tell me to and I'll make a conversion utility that converts the old .DTE and .NAM file to the new format.
- CRDTENAM.EXE updated to support the new format of the .DTE and .NAM files!
- Changed all the decimal values in the .DTE and .NAM files to HEX values! They should now be much more easier to edit.
- Changed the look of the exiting screen. Tell me how you like it now.
- Changed Bjorn Mosaic a bit.
- Made the LazerPlasmaShitNitzt effect look cooler when using the bnu loading routine.
- Made the .ini default to bnu loading since it is fast enough now.
- Cleaned up the code so that practically anyone should be able to understand it. This is for the sole reason if I get a co-coder.
- Added script dumping! I bet this can be kinda useful. Read the section called ".DTE, .NAM, .UBF and .USD file, what are they?" for a further explanation on how to create your own script dumps.
You can get it from the Translation Utilities page or the UNIROM Homepage
Please, email me (Bjorn) with comments pr suggestions what I should implement.
Frontend News: SNES9x Frontend beta 4
20:19: A new version of the SNES9x frontend SNES9x Frontend has been released! This new version adds support for the cheat codes options!
You can get it from the SNES Frontends page.
Emulator Release: z26 1.06
15:49: z26, one of the top Atari 2600 emulators, has been updated once again. According to the readme, the following changes have been made:
- More improvements to CPU emulation.
- More games now play:
--- amidar.bin
--- starempr.bin (Empire Strikes Back)
I shouldn't have to tell you that you can download z26 at the Atari 2600 emulators page.
Emulator Release: Hu6280 1.61
15:05: Several updates have been made to Hu6280 during our downtime, the most exciting of which are the long awaited sound support and the fact that Street Fighter II is now playable as a result of added ROM banking codes.
If you've held off from trying out Hu6280 so far, I urge you to download it from the Turbo-Grafx emulators page.
Site News: Site downtime
12:57: Well, the site was down for 5 days, but we're back up after moving to the new machine...sort of. There's still CGI problems throughout the site (the message boards, the poll, etc), but we are working on fixing them. We will als
o work on bringing you all the updates that we've missed over the past few days. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you will still visit ZD!
6/25/98
Utility News: NeoFix
16:22: From the makers of Rage & NeoRage comes this handy little utility which fixes the following games so that they will run with a smaller RAM requirement:
- Art of Fighting 2
- AeroFighters 2
- King of Fighters 94
- Galaxy Fight
You can download NeoFix from the newly created Neo*Geo Utilities section.
Emulator Release: Replay+ 1.00
03:31: Although it was released yesterday, I was lazy and didn't add it. So here is that multi arcade emulator that used to parallel MAME and was eventually surpassed by it. Here's what's new in Replay+ 1.00:
- The framework has been completely rewritten in C++.
- The following CPU cores have been added: Marat's 'C' 6502 (all platforms), Neil's ASM 6502 (Linux), Marcel's 'C' Z80 (all platforms), Neil's ASM Z80 (Linux), Kevin's 'C' 6809 (all platforms), Patrick's ASM 6809 (Linux), Bernd's
'C' 68000 (all platforms), Neill's ASM 68000 (Linux).
- Cocktail mode support.
- Game Save/Load.
- Screen rotation.
- Dip Switch saving.
- Global/Local key configuration & saving.
- Global/Local joystick configuration & saving.
- 16/24 Bit Unix/X support (albeit slow at the moment).
- Joystick support in Linux.
- Movie Capture and Playback!
- Network Support!
- Perfect colours in Bump'n'Jump.
- Implemented mirror video in Burgertime (Chefs remaining now show).
- Replay+ - Developer version includes source code, and an integrated debugger.
- Supports game drivers as shared libraries in Unix. No need to link all games into the executable. Allows you to delete drivers you don't want and add drivers without recompiling the executable.
- Sound support in Linux.
- AY-3-8910 support for sound in Burgertime, Bump'N'Jump, Amidar.
- Sound support in Super Pac-Man.
- YM2203 support for future Robocop support.
- Robocop support (Pirate ROM set).
- Lock'n'Chase support.
- More, More, More...
You can download Replay+ 1.00 from the Multi Arcade page.
Emulator Release: Callus 0.42
02:57: Who: Bloodlust Software
What: Callus 0.42 for Windows and DOS
When: Now!
Where: Here!
Why: Because you want to play Street Fighter 2 Rainbow Edition (Pirate) and do fireballs in the air, and hit 'start' to morph into other charactars.
- QSound games run with z80 disabled
- Saved callus95 video settings
- Street Fighter 2 Rainbow Edition support (sf2rb)
- Slammasters crashes a bit less often
- Fixed Dynasty Wars layer priority
- Fixed Muscle Bomber Duo copy protection
You can download Callus 0.42
from the Multi Arcade page.
6/24/98
Emulator Release: SPCPlay 0.200
22:50: zsKnight and _Demo_ have released version .200 of their SNES SPC sound emulator. The most important changes are wave logging, ability to enable/disable channels, and a config file! The pitch was also fixed. Here's the full list
:
- Pitch was a bit too high in the first release. Fixed.
- Several Volume Fixes
- Completely Rewrote the ADSR/GAIN volume effects engine. Lots of bugs removed! Many games sound much nicer!
- Sped up sound echoing
- Fixed some sound echo bugs
- Added sound channel disable/enable
- Added Volume Adjustment
- Implemented .cfg file support (spcplay.cfg) Load spcplay once to create a default .cfg file
- Added .WAV logging support
You can download SPCPlay 0.200 from the ZSNES archive mirror page.
Utility News: New TG-16 Utility Area and Debugger
You can download the debugger from the new TurboGraphx-16 Utilities
page.
17:30: Another new section has been added to the utilities
area, this time dedicated to the Turbo-Graphx 16 and along with it, a TG-16 debugger. The debugger comes
with no documentation, so use at your own risk.
Emulator Release: SNEqr 0.340
02:04: Qwertie has released version 0.340 of his Super Nintendo Emulator, SNEqr. It's mostly bugfixes and little extra features, here's the full list of changes:
- DOS4GW stub replaced with PMODEW, so people without DOS4GW can now use SNEqr (all 1 of you!)
- Another important part of the screen renderer has been converted to assembly language, and existing assembly has been Pentium-optimized somewhat for memory usage and register pairing and u/v pipe usage, but to my dismay, whatever optimizations I make us
ually seem to not make a difference or slow it down slightly! However, I have a Cyrix and not a Pentium, so I'll shrug it off.
- CPU core optimized somewhat. Speed increase is noticable, but I just can't get it running as fast as SNEmul and zSNES! Or SNES9X, for that matter (SNES9X 1.0 runs faster than 0.24.) I guess I shouldn't be concerned, since the entry-level system these
days is a P233MMX.
- I wrote a SNES demo to test mode 7... whoa! It was more complicated than I thought. However, I've finally unlocked the secrets of Mode 7! Now most games that use mode 7 rotation, scaling and 3D are playable. However, the emulation is still slow.
- I also figured out what was wrong with Indirect HDMA. Now FF5E, NG Trilogy, et al are playable.
- Obscure CPU bug fixed (typo: CMP [
- Revised algorithm for BG rendering; the new version is less memory-intensive, using 512KB less screen cache memory. Screen rendering should (in theory) run faster now, especially on computers like mine, with small caches and non-SDRAM.
- Fun little feature: when Show FPS is enabled (F4) you can also identify sprites with the mouse cursor! That's right, just put the mouse over something and a dotted line will appear around it if it's a sprite. Also its # is desplayed at the top of the
screen. This might be useful to other emu authors etc.
- Auto-backtrack system revised: when you auto-backtrack, the point you backtrack to is NOT immediately lost from memory. See the section on this feature for more info. Also another related pseudo-bug was fixed.
- SNEqr now remembers when you turn off Show FPS so you can turn it off permanently.
- Crappy fade-out added to GUI.
- Config-file option added: AskB4Exit. Set to 0 if you don't want the annoying quit-confirmation message.
- Quit-confirmation dialog now appears when you press ESC to exit.
You can download SNEqr 0.340 from the SNES page.
Emulator Release: Hu6280 beta with sound!
01:40: A beta release of Hu6280 has just been issued, and in this beta, there is but one update: sound! It comes with no documentation or anything, since it's a beta version, and it also slows down emulation considerably. You can down
load the Hu6280 sound beta from the Turbo Grafx 16 page.
6/23/98
Emulator Release: SNEmul 0.78
20:19: Archeide and v0x have released a new version of SNEmul. Lots of changes in this version, including a fast 8192 screen mode for transparency effects, and Terranigma now works! Here's the full list:
- Now the GUI can be used entirely with the keyboard.
- Many bugs fixed/improvements in the GUI
- Added the possibility to display the game in the background (use the old Full Screen icon to enable/disable it, and use ESC to hide/show the GUI)
- fixed some bugs in 8 bits mode
- fixed a bug in sound DSP. Now Secret Of Evermore works :)
- fixed another bug in horizontal scrolling
- fixed a bug when words were read from the ports
- optimized the CPU a bit
- fixed a bug in transparency effects
- added fast 8192 colors effects for subscreen/mainscreen add/sub(thanks a lot to zsKnight :)
- fixed/implemented Full Screen increment(now Final Fantasy Mystic Quest looks better :)
- fixed a bug in SPC700(now Terranigma works :)
- fixed a bug in HDMA
- implemented TCALL SPC700 instruction
- fixed another bug in old joypad reading method
- optimized 32768 colors effects for fixed color add/sub
- Sidewinder and GamePad pro support
- SNEmul used the new Allegro 3.0+WIP.
- other bugs fixed
You can download SNEmul 0.78 from the SNES page.
Frontend News: SNES9x Frontend Beta 3a
17:24: A SNES9x frontend with support for the new options has been released! This update from the former version Beta 2 fixes a bug that prevented file list from being updated on format change. This may seem useless now that SNES9x ha
s a GUI, but it's not. I know a lot of people who decide to turn the GUI off, so go try it.
You can get it from the SNES frontends page.
Frontend News: Game menu (2) :)
17:22: Another universal frontend with the same name as Jim Pragits frontend has arrived! This is not the same frontend though so give it a try. This one has configurable colors and has been made by the author to be visually pleasing.
Give it a chance and try it.
It's gettable from the Universal frontends page.
Emulator Release: Truereality 0.1.0
16:46: Ok, so here is another version of TrueReality, the n64 emu for unix.
So... what's the news in this version.
It runs the firedemo, almost perfect.
And it's faster then Project Unreality
So. You better go to the N64 Emulators for Unix page and get it now.
Emulator Release: Win64 b.40
16:23: A new beta of Win64, one of the few Commodore 64 emulators for Windows, has been released. I'd gladly tell you what's new in this version, but unfortunately there was no documentation explaining what was new nor was there any m
ention of it on the official web site, so I guess you're on your own.
As should be obvious, you can d/l Win64 from the Commodore 64 emulator page.
6/22/98
Emulator Release: I Robot Emulator 0.98
22:24: This new release of I Robot Emulator has a very cool new feature:sound emulation! Here's the full list of changes in 0.98:
- SOUND SUPPORT!!!!
- User configuration is saved in Windows registry. There's no longer any reason to hit F1 every time you run the emulator.
- High scores are now saved in Windows registry.
- Now that the user configuration is saved, the default screen size is once again 'Normal'.
- Now that the user configuration is saved, the default dip switch settings are the same as the manufacturer recommended default settings (from Atari manual)
- Fixed more flickering bugs. At this point I think I've fixed all of them (knock on wood).
You can download I Robot Emulator from the Single Arcade page.
Emulator Release: BrSMS 1.10
21:46: A minor release of BrSMS is now available. There's just one bugfix in 1.10:
- Limited support to line interrupts ("Psychic World")
Download BrSMS 1.10 from the Sega Master System/Game Gear page.
Utility News: UNIROM 0.42
18:35: Yes folks, that's right. UNIROM has been updated and improved! The really big news in this release is probably the faster searching. If you found the searching slow in the last version(you probably did) then try this new versio
n out.
It's available for download on the UNIROM homepage or the Translation utilities page.
Misc. News: Game Genie ROM Available
17:07: Ok, I'm sure the first thing you're thinking is "Big
deal, most good emulators already have Game Genie support built in" which is true, but this isn't a program to affix Game Genie codes to ROMs, this is an actual ROM of the Game Genie code selection menu screen...the screen you see when you turned on your
Nintendo with the Game
Genie attached.
You can't actually attach the codes to any ROMs at the present, but it's still extremely kewl for nostalgic purposes. You can download the Game Genie ROM from the NES Public Domain ROMs section.
Game Genie is (c) Copyright Codemasters Software Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Emulator Release: TOSBOX 1.05
Thanks to [_nIRV_] for the news.
14:09: TOSBOX, an Atari ST emulator, has been upgraded to version 1.05 and now has limited sound support! Here's everything that's new in the update:
- Limited sound support has been added, just enough to get thesystem error bell and keyclick if desired.
- The bug has been fixed, which had been introduced in version 1.04, where sometimes a parent program's open files would be closed when the child terminated.
- A CPU bug affecting leftward shifts of magnitude zero has been fixed.
- Native vt52 emulation speeds up text-only applications greatly (though this feature cannot be used in the presence of GFA BASIC and certain programs compiled with it).
You can download TOSBOX (along with several other emulators) from the AtariST emulators section.
Misc. News: Of Classicgaming.com, NesWorld and oatmeal
04:33: Many of you may have been to Acey's NesWorld website. Some of you may also have visited Classicgaming. Unfortunately, it appears that 3 events have occured.
Exhibit A: Classicgaming asks Acey to join them.
Exhibit B: Acey says no.
Exhibit C: Classicgaming registers nesworld.com as revenge and points it to Classicgaming's website.
Read more about it at NesWorld. And please, boycott Classicgaming. Also, tell Y0SHi to eat his damned oatmeal!@!
6/21/98
Emulator Release: DTMNT 0.41
21:48: Yet another emulator release. This time, it's the fastest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles emulator around, DTMNT. The coolest new feature is speech through the use of samples. Here's the full list of new stuff in 0.41:
- After getting deafened everytime I hit something metal, I've put in a sound code remapper, which by default changes the louder hissing-type sounds (which obviously aren't properly emulated!) into other quieter ones!
- Samples can now be used (I can't supply them though).
- You can do the equivalent of a sound test now, by sending sound codes directly to the z80. (Hit 'E', type in a hex code from 00-ff, and press enter.) The music codes are 0x60-0x70 ish. 0x7d is the theme music. 0x00 stops all sounds, and 0xfe fades out a
ny music.
- Display the sound codes the game is producing by toggling display_scodes with 'W'.
You can download DTMNT 0.41 from the Single Arcade page.
Misc. News: Snes9x Compatibility List
21:36: I received the following e-mail from Bellicose:
I have completed a 95.5% Beta SNES9x Compatibility List. This includes ~700 US/PAL SNES ROMs and complements my already existing ZSNES List.
The list is beta due to me not testing all of my ROMs (due to time constraints) but only 50% of them including:
1) all the ROMs that SNES9x v0.24 had problems with
2) all the ROMs that ZSNES currently has problems with
3) a selection of ROMs that stress the emulator (ie ones that either SNES9x or ZSNES had problems with previously)
The 50% that I did NOT test were those that SNES9x v0.24 had no problems with and I am assuming the current version does not either.
Please if you would place a news item up for this. The list can be found a The Nintendo Resource http://www.golden.net/~bellicos/
Check it out.
Emulator Release: NeoRAGE 0.0015
21:34: Lots of emulator releases today. This time, it's a new NeoRAGE, the only Neo Geo emulator for DOS. Here's what's new in this bugfix release of NeoRAGE 0.0015:
- Screen capture (F8).
- Support for more of the big and newer games. Ex. Goal Goal Goal, Galaxy Fight & Samurai Showdown. But Pulstar have still problem in Stage 2-4.
- Metal Slug fix (no reset on level 2)
- Vga bug fix.
- No crash if not VBE2.0 detected.
- Keyboard bugfix(some had problem with strange response from keyboard).
You can download NeoRAGE 0.0015 from the Neo Geo page.
Emulator Release: CAGE 1.07
21:21: A new release of CAGE, a multi arcade emulator for Win95, is now available. Lots new in 1.07:
- Added display of frame rate to title bar.
- Fixed ROM reading to open files as READ_ONLY. Some have reported problems reading ROM files because CAGE was trying to access them as READ/WRITE.
- Squeezed another 10% of speed out of Ms. Pac-Man & Pac-Man.
- Crush Roller now works; the problem was that it uses undocumented Z80 instructions which I had not previously implemented.
- Added support for Galaxians; sound not implemented yet.
- Tweaked Z80 ASM code for even more speed. Now PacMan runs at 650-700 frames per second on my P233. Space invaders goes at 1100-1500 fps.
- Added support for reading from zipped ROMS; thanks to Brian Levine for providing the source code.
- Rewrote inner loop timing logic to make use of the high resolution timer. This means that 60fps really is 60 instead of 62 or 58.
- Fixed some of the sounds on Joust - the 6808 was executing code in zero page RAM which was not accounted for by my 6800 emulator.
- Fixed hiscore save/restore on PacMan, Crush Roller, Ms. PacMan
- Rewrote the load/save game functions to work properly. Now you can load or save a game (up to 5) at any time by pressing F1 to load or F2 to save.
- Added joystick support to all games.
- Added option to use my software stretchblt routine when running windowed at 2X scale and without DirectX. On some machines, my code is faster than the Windows GDI.
You can download CAGE 1.07 from the Multi Arcade page.
Emulator Release: Hu6280 1.07
15:31: JamSponge has released version 1.07 of his TG-16 emulator for DOS, Hu6280. Here's what's new:
- Fixed a bug in irq emulation!
- Fixed AIRZONK locking up problem
- Dinosaur egg now works
- A lot of games glitch less now :)
You can download Hu6280 1.07 from the Turbo Grafx 16 page.
Utility News: UNIROM, try it.
08:43: UNIROM is my ROM text editor. It has an advantage over most rom text editors, and this advantage is called DTE. DTE means Dual Tile Encoding and it's when one hex value on the file represen
ts two letters being printed on screen. This is very useful for translating some games. And as a plus, you can edit games that do not use DTE too. The editor only comes with files for Final Fantasy 2 US for SNES but if it gets popular I'll start and archi
ve with files for other games, since this editor can virtually be used to translate ANY game for ANY system.
Go visit the UNIROM homepage!
6/20/98
Site News: Save archives updated
22:34: The CS0, STA, SPC, and
ZST archives have been given minor updates. Keep them coming in.
Emulator Release: DTMNT 0.40
22:16: The day has arrived. DTMNT 0.40, which has just been released, now has a great new feature: music and sound effects support! Here's the list of what's new:
- SOUND! MUSIC! The Z80 and YM2151 are emulated at last...! This means music and sound effects throughout the game. Many many thanks to Jarek and the Mame guys!
- Compiled with a newer version of Allegro (30th May) which means a few more joystick types I think.
However, there are some minuses in this update:
- Unfortunately still no speech effects
- MAJOR speed loss with the sound on - I'm really sorry about this: If you have a P133 or below you will REALLY see a drop. Sorry - all the sample rendering is in C. The speed *will* go back up again when I'll optimised bits of it.
- The white noise bug, which occurs in Mame when you hit metal objects haunts DTmnt as well, (because it uses the same YM2151 code).
You can download DTMNT 0.40 from the Single Arcade page.
Emulator Release: HU6280 1.05
14:30: HU6280 has been updated again. This emulator is probably looking forward to beating up Magic Engine. I hope it does that... and stays freeware.
Here's the news:
- fixed burning angels gfx corruption bug (this game doesn`t seem to even run in magic engine)
You can go get it from the TG-16 emulators page.
Frontend News: TechNeo 0.2
13:32: TechNeo, the NeoRAGE frontend without a homepage has been updated! This is a fairly good frontend, so give it a try. Remember. E-mail the author with comments and maybe he'll get a webpage up for
it. The big news are mostly support for all the command line option of NeoRAGE 0.0010 and a picture made by him has been added :).
It's downloable from the Arcade frontends page.
6/19/98
Translation News: More translation goodies
23:51: Well here are a few more updates to add to the Patches page and the Utils page.
- Glorious Light of Heracles 2 v0.12 (resized windows)
- Some links were updated as well on the patches page
- Final Fantasy Ve v1.00 (06/16/98) released!!
The following things have been changed/improved:
The Ending
Job names
Completed script
Long item names
Fixed up bugs
A few other random things
- _Bnu's Unirom Rom text editor v0.40 has been released which comes with DTE support as well as significant speed improvements, so be sure to check out the latest of his work. If you know the new links to all the previous squareplanet sites i.e (Dragonsoft, Lashiec's Domain, Dejap) please email the new info to me.
Emulator Release: BrMSX 1.134
22:04: 2 BR releases in one day! This time, it's BrMSX 1.134, the fastest MSX emulator for DOS, that has been released. Here's the newisms:
- Fixed a problem in the mapper manager, now "Super Laydock" works again.
- Fixed a minor bug in the memory dump of debugger
- Added two new commands to the debugger, F7 and F8, "step into" and "step over", suggested many times by Adriano Cunha.
Download BrMSX 1.134 from the MSX page.
Emulator Release: BrSMS 1.9
21:50: A new release of BrSMS is now available. New in 1.9 include:
- Fixed a bug in the sound engine, now the voice is working again.
- Fixed a minor bug in thew memory dump of the debugger
- Added two new commands to the debugger (F7/F8, "step into" and "step over")
Download BrSMS 1.9 from the Sega Master System/Game Gear page.
Emulator Release: First release of Psyke!
20:03: Psyke, the new revolutionary PSX emulator that uses dynamic recompilation has been released! This is one groovy PSX emulator! It doesn't have CD emulation yet though, but you can get some demos that run from the Psyke homepage. By the way. If you like it please email the authors: RaskY or mOoNsHaDo and give them your compliments.
Now go get it from the PSX Emulators page!
Emulator News: Gekko Dead
16:37: According to a small post on ROMLIST, John Köhler aka DRAC has stated that Gekko, the Neo-Geo emulator that was never released beyond a teaser, is officially cancelled for good.
While there's still NeoRage, of course, losing any emulator is a sad thing, especially when it's one of the originals.
Emulator Release: z26 1.05
11:44: z26, one of the best Atari 2600 emulators available, has been updated once again to version 1.05 with the following improvements:
- More improvements to CPU emulation.
- More games now play:
-- amidar.bin
-- starempr.bin (Empire Strikes Back)
You can download z26 (along with the source code) from the Atari 2600 emulators section.
Emulator Release: Callus 0.41b
02:38: Version 0.41b of Callus, consisting of all bug fixes, has just been released by Bloodlust Software. (Callus 0.41b, not Bloodlust 0.41b...Hi Jim!) Here's the list of beetlefixes:
- 400x300 tweaked mode (maybe not very compatible)
- 16-bit SB output via 8-bit dma
- Fixed minor start/coin input bug
- Fixed DOS 8-bit QSound output (typo)
You could download Callus 0.41b from the Multi Arcade page, or you could eat a stick of butter. Either way, you'll get your daily allowance.
6/18/98
Emulator Release: SNESKeys Released!! Sorta.
23:14: For some reason... Zophar's Domain never had SNESKey available... so, I decided to post them... both the DOS, and Win95\98 version's are available in the Joystick Emulator page.
Site News: Wow.. New Assistant Maintainer.. Me..
15:52: Hey Everyone.. ok so like.. I'm Jenn or Fruitopia, the new Assistant Maintainer. I'm mainly going to be "helping" InVerse with the utilities while he works on new ZD sections, but I'll also be helping out wherever I'm needed, so if you have a suggestion or comment concerning ZD and none of the staff members are available, let me know and I'll do my best to help you out. :-) Thankies.
Emulator Release: DTMNT 0.37
14:35: DTMNT .37 has been released and includes (hopefully) a fix for the "blank screen problem" Straight from the README, here's the fix:
This isn't really a new version - it's just that people have been reporting that the screen goes blank sometimes apart from the energy bars.
IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOU in 0.37 (I haven't played the game much myself) try hitting the F11 key - I've put two little 'hack' keys which forces interrupt 5 on (F11) or off (F10).
You can download DTMNT and many other individual arcade game emulators on the Single Arcade Emulators page.
Utility News: Massacre 0.65
10:16: Johannes Holmberg has once again updated his Sega Master System graphics editor. Regardless of the fact that it's the only SMS ROM editor currently available, it's still an excellent program and is approving constantly.
The new update includes the following things:
- Slight speedup. About 30% faster.
- Main window and editing box now wrap (like Mario Bros).
- Nice logo fadeout.
Intresting(?) fact about Massacre: (Straight from the ReadMe)
This version (0.65) running on a 486SX 25Mhz is twice as fast as the earlier versions (0.2-0.35) running on a P2 300Mhz!
Emulator Release: Callus 0.41 & QSP 2.0
01:40: Bloodlust Software has released a new version of Callus, the Capcom System 1 emulator. The most important feature of this new release is Qsound emulation! Here's the full list of what's new in the DOS and Windows 95 versions of
Callus 0.41:
- Jap Magic Sword support (mswordj)
- Jap Daimakaimura support (gngj)
- Jap Muscle Bomber Duo support (mbomberj)
- Z80 CPU skipping
- ABC and XYZ button mappings
- RLE compressed state files
- 'qvol' option
- Automatic MMX detection
- Better input device remapping
- ROM loading from ZIP files
- Stereo output for QSound games (-stereo on/off)
- QSound emulation
- Kabuki Z80 decryption
Also released is version 2.0 of the Qsound player for Windows 95, which adds suppport for many more Qsound ROMs. You can download Callus 0.41 & QSP 2.0 from the Multi Arcade page.
6/17/98
Emulator Release: DTMNT 0.36
19:41: DTMNT 0.36 has just been released. There's only one change in this version which is:
* MAME 68000 C core exchange for StarScream 68000 Assembler core. Large speed increase! Many thanks to Neill!
It can be downloaded at the Single Arcade emulator page.
Site News: New legal Roms section: Gameboy
19:06: Yes, that's right. A new legal Roms section has been added to Zophar's Domain. Right now this section is not big, but I know that there are several other homebrewed Roms out there that are just waiting to get onto our legal Rom
page.
Go check this new section now!
Frontend News: NeoGeo FrontPad 1.50
17:57: Another NeoGeo emulator frontend has also been updated. This new release adds, among other things, support for NeoRAGE 0.0010.
Here's the news:
- All function from NeoRAGE v 0.0010
- Snapshot View
- Options for change Rom path, NeoRAGE emulator path, Snapshot path.
You can get it from the Arcade frontends page.
Frontend News: Neo Knob 2.6
17:51: The NeeGeo emulator with a knob has been updated! It has now added support for the new stuff in NeoRAGE 0.0010.
Here's the news:
- Support for new options in Neorage 0.00010
- Added a confirm for deleting snapshots
- CHANGED name of run directory from ~ziprun to ~del~~, just in case some dick puts his roms in there :-) (on NT it leaves the directory there ?!?)
- No Sound :-)
You can get it from the Arcade frontends page.
Emulator Release: BrSMS 1.8
11:26: Ricardo Bittencourt has released another new version of one of his emulators: BrSMS. Here's the minor fixes in BrSMS 1.8:
- Fixed a vertical IRQ problem, now "Sonic 2" runs at correct speed.
- Fixed a problem in memory emulation, now "Spellcaster" fires to correct side and "Wonderboy 3" doesn't lock anymore.
You can download BrSMS 1.8 from the Sega Master System/GameGear page.
Emulator Release: BrMSX 1.133
11:07: A new version of BrMSX has been released. (I really need to find a new way to say that an emulator has been released). Here's what's not old:
- Fixed a problem in memory emulation, this fixes many games, including "Phantis 2", "Mopiranger" and "Maze of Galious" (yes, now you can conjure the boss). Thanks to Vanessa Sabino for the reporting and Isaac Solorzano for MSKISS debugger.
- Support for two cartridges at the same time. Try the combos "Nemesis"+"Twin Bee", "Nemesis 2"+"Penguin Adventure" and "Salamander"+"Nemesis 2" (required to see the good ending).
- New options "-roma" and "-romb" to select the MegaROM Mapper.
- Support to MegaROM Mapper #2 (Konami with SCC) and MegaROM Mapper #3 (Konami without SCC). They were included only for completeness, since the default Mapper #0 already runs most of these games. Game Master 2 is not supported yet.
- Support to MegaROM Mapper #5 (ASCII 16kb). Now you can run the original version of "Gall Force"!!! This Mapper also supports the cracked version of "Gall Force" and "Eggerland Mystery 2". Thanks to KSH for the original ROM and Sean Young and Marco "Não
sou fudeba" Dal Poz for the info.
- Support to 80/1 (360kb) .DSK images, like "Elite".
- TURBO mode is even faster than before.
- Additions to debugger: Stack Dump and Advanced Info. (Suggested by Isaac Solorzano).
You can download BrMSX 1.133 from the MSX page.
Emulator News: Project Unreality's future uncertain
10:57: Although I knew about this for over a week now, I never got around to posting about it, so I guess I will now. Breakpoint has been given a job offer for a company which shall remain unnamed. Therefore, he is going to discontinu
e work on his N64 emulator, Project Unreality. Whether or not the co author, Brian Gordon will continue it, is uncertain. More news will be posted here as it unfolds. Good luck, Breakpoint!
Project Unreality homepage
Emulator Release: More on Grytra
10:48: Thanks to Marco Damonte, we now have a list of what's new in the latest version of Grytra. Here 'tis:
- Fixes Error in level 2's background
- Better Palette (but not perfect)
- If the system has a joystick, you can play 2 players
Thanks Marco!
6/16/98
Emulator Release: Gytra 2.0 (?) Released
![news by [noam]](/personal/[noam].gif){kind=small}
23:56: Hmm, my spanish skills aren't what they used to be. So far i'm unable to determine the exact version number right now, the file is gytra02.zip, but the last version was .8 so whatever.
I'm also unsure what is new in it..again because the documents are in Spanish.
Pick it up at the Arcade Emu Page.
Translation News: A few updates...
23:29: I have done some updates to the Patches page and the Utilites page. Changes are as follows..
- Glorious Light Of Heracles 2 v0.11 by The Spoony Bard was added
- Ninja Boy v1.0 by The Spoony Bard was added
- Sumo Wrestling v1.0 by The Spoony Bard was added
- Warrior of Algos v0.1 again by The Spoony Bard added
- The Naga Homepage was updated on the utils page
- Dragon Warrior Map Editor v0.99b added to the utils page as well
Squareplanet seems to have disappeared and from what I have heard, they are supposed to be back in a few months. If someone can confirm this or offer further information please let me know asap.
Emulator Release: GBE 0.30
23:00: Jim Geffre has released version 0.30 of his GameBoy emulator for DOS, GBE. Lots new in this release:
- Major rework of CPU flag emulation. This fixed Final Fantasy Adventure, Darkwing Duck, Kid Niki, F1-Race, and others. Thanks go to Matt Currie.
- Partial Super Gameboy support. Thanks to Marat Fayzullin, Jeff Frohwein, Anders Granlund, and k00pa, I was able to add support for Super Gameboy borders. Improved SGB emulation will follow shortly.
- Added an integrated debugger. (Paul Robson)
- Added two new video modes, both 256*256*256, one with scanlines.
- Various bug fixes (Fortress of Fear, Daedalian Opus, Zoop, Alfred Chicken, and several others)
- Added correct CPU cycle counts.
- External saves for various configuration flags
- Improved LCD emulation (sprite on/off bit, Taz Mania. Thanks to Anders Granlund for reporting this.)
- Two screenshot sizes to accomodate SGB and non-SGB compatible games.
- Fileloader now allows for directory changes
You can download GBE 0.30 from the GameBoy page.
Frontend News: NeoFront 0.4
19:55: NeoFront 0.4, the first NeoRAGE frontend ever available, has been updated! It now supports all the command line options of v0.000010 of NeoRAGE.
You can get it from the Arcade frontends page.
Frontend News: FWNFE 0.8
19:07: A new release of FWNFE, the fwNES frontend has been released! It's a bit late but now it's here, being able to handle all the options of fwNES 0.2. The program no longer uses .ini files. It saves to the registry.
Here's the news:
- NEW RELEASE! Yes, I finally got the damn thing ported to Delphi3. No more stupid VB libraries! Oh, and it supports
- all of FWNES 0.20b's new options
- Also fixed the long file name bug.
- No morry ini files! SAFELY saves to the Windows Registry.
- Oh, and stay tuned for something new soon!
You can get it from the NES frontends page.
Emulator Release: NeoRage .00010
18:41: The newest Neo-Geo emulator has been updated. Here's what's new in version .000010:
- Joystick support
- Vesa hi-color support 320x240 (default) and 640x480 w/ scanlines(-s)
- Support for a lot more of the bigger games (such as King of the Fighters '94.)
- Auto frame skip is added!
There's still no sound support, but with all these other great new additions, you really can't complain. NeoRage can be downloaded from the Neo-Geo emulator section.
Emulator Release: PC Atari 2.1
18:19: Although the emulator is dated May 1998, it seems that no other emulation page ever reported this, so here goes. PC Atari, a fast DOS emulator for the Atari 2600, has had a huge update in version 2.1:
- Ability to capture the screen to Windows .BMP files
- Ability to save a game in progress to disk and restore it later
- Vastly improved sound using revamped sound code (XMS is no longer necessary). However, sound cards must now be compatible with Creative Labs DSP versions 2.00 or greater (the vast majority of sound cards at this time)
- Emulation of Pitfall II music is much more accurate, no longer using FM synthesis but instead attempting to generate the correct waveforms digitally
- Minor graphics engine bugfixes
- If a file is missing or there are no game files in the target directory, the emulator exits gracefully and displays an error message.
- Compiler run-time library problems relating to ultra-fast PC's (300MHz+) have been fixed
- Updated joystick code that might help with faster machines
- Sound cards set at DMA 0 to 3 now work properly
- In the debugger, hitting the "-" (minus) key toggles display of a hack mark showing the current scan line when the game screen has been displayed with the space bar.
You can download PC Atari 2.1 from the Atari 2600 page.
Emulator Release: DTMNT 0.35
18:06: A new version of DTMNT is out. It's just a minor release:
- Sprite routines sped up considerably (if you have any problems, let me know whereabouts you see them. Note that I know about the sprite/backdrop out of sync problem, e.g Mole drilling on level 1)
- Also there was another problem with the timer code, which should now be fixed. As always, let me know about crashes (I've tested it as much I could but you never know!)
You can download DTMNT 0.35 from the Single Arcade page.
Emulator Release: Z26 1.04
00:03: After a month of inactivity, John Seigar has blessed us with another version of his Atari 2600 emulator, Z26. Here's what's new in Version 1.04:
- Improved CPU emulation based in part on 6510core.c by Ettore Perazzoli (ettore@comm2000.it). In particular, decimal arithmetic works much better now, and we support all of the CPU's undocumented instructions. 6510core.c is part of the VICE Commodore 64
emulator.
- Many games now play better...
airaidrs.bin -- It's now much easier to take off and fly.
choprcmd.bin -- Gun now fires correctly in both directions.
demonatk.bin -- Now plays fifth level and beyond.
enduro.bin -- Odometer now works correctly.
startrek.bin -- Plays !
venture.bin -- Graphics no longer messed up inside upper-left room.
You can download Z26 1.04 from the Atari 2600 page.
6/15/98
Site News: New Shrine Maintainer and new Zsnes Shrine added.
20:50: The Esnes shrine has been deleted about 2 weeks ago, and in it's place will be the Zsnes shrine. Also I will be maintaining the Shrines. Please take a look at the new Zsnes Shrine.
Emulator Release: Snes9X For Linux/SunOS/Solaris 1.0!
19:24: Snes9x for Linux/SunOS/Solaris has been released, and finally the Linux version is catching up with the others! It always used to be the one lacking speed and things that the other had, but now it's practically running side by
side with the others.
Although the SunOS and Solaris versions have been updated, they are not carried by Zophar's Domain. You'll have to download them from the Snes9X homepage.
You can get it from the Unix SNES emulators page.
Emulator Release: Snes9X DOS 1.00a
19:05: A bugfix release has been issued to Snes9X DOS (the version without a GUI). In Version 1.00a, to anyone having problems with joysticks, this should now be resolved. You can download Snes9X DOS 1.00a (NO GUI) from the SNES page.
Utility News: Massacre .60
18:05: Massacre, the only Master System graphic editor..or any other type of SMS utility. I'm still waiting to see some Master System hacks. Where are all the creative geniouses out there? If you're not interested in the Master System
, I urge you to give it a try anywayz. It's recently became my 2nd favorite system, next only to the NES. Anywayz, here are the fixes & additions to v.60:
- Nice Logo.
- Fixed another harmless bug.
- Byte counter added.
- The GUI is a little more friendly.
- Fixed the damn palette editor.
- Added auto-drawing mode.
You can naturally find Massacre 0.60 in the Master System section of the utilities area.
Frontend News: Neo-Yune discontinued!
18:04: The NeoRAGE frontend Neo-Yune has been discontinued. This is sad, since it had one of the best looking GUIs among all the NeoRAGE frontends out there. The authors final words were:
"Even though I have gotten support, and many people enjoyed my program, I've still decided that frontends are crap. There are about 20+ other frontends for NEORage, so where does my frontend stand out?.. A sizeable portion of the Frontends are crappily
-written Windows 95 ones... but they work."
I really just hope that not all of you frontend authors out there start deciding that frontends are crap, because then I'd be out of a job! :)
Site News: Poll results
17:55: Last week (more like 2 1/2 weeks ago but who's counting?), we asked you the poll question "What do you think about emulation going mainstream?" The majority, 54.4% of you, felt that emulation going mainstream into the press and
in magazine articles and such was a bad idea (I happen to agree). 33.1% of you feel that it is a good idea, and mainstream exposure is good. 12.4% don't care one way or the other. I think the results speak for themselves...
The new poll question is "Would you be interested in a video game manual section?" If 60% of you or more are interested, we'll be adding one. Cast your vote today!
Site News: Snes9x 1.00 file fixed
16:55: I apologize to the people who downloaded Snes9x 1.00 (no GUI) for DOS from Zophar's Domain yesterday, there was a problem with the zip that caused errors to appear, although the emulator worked fine. You can now download the no
n corrupt Snes9x 1.00 DOS from the SNES page.
Emulator Release: Hu6280 1.04
12:11: What would a day be like without a release of the newest Turbo Grafx 16 emulator for DOS, Hu6280? Here's what's new in 1.04:
- Added frameskip for shit pc's
- Added gamepadpro support (please tell me if it works, i don`t have a gamepadpro)
- Added some proper options to the command line:
"-v1 " - use 320x200x8 mode13h mode
"-v2 " - use 320x240x8 modex mode
"-sidewinder" - use sidewinder
"-gpp " - use gamepad pro
"-skip1 " - frameskip=1
"-skip2 " - frameskip=2
"-sync " - vsync on
"us " - force usa decryption
You can download Hu6280 1.04 from the Turbo Grafx 16 page.
Misc. News: Zophar graduates High School tommorow
11:58: Although this is 100% non emulator related, it's worth noting that I graduate high school tommorow! Yes, at 10:30 EST in the morning I will be in a processional to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance. If it doesn't rain, that is
(the graduation is outside in the football field). The idiots at my high school accidentally gave me a female cap & gown though! I was like, huh?! But they found me an extra guy's cap and gown of the same size, so everything is ok.
Anyways, back to your regularly scheduled broadcast.
6/14/98
Site News: Save Archives updated
21:54: The SPC, ZST, and GS0 archives have been given minor updates. Keep them coming in.
Emulator Release: Snes9x 0.96/1.00 DOS released!
16:34: After over half a year of no new releases from the Snes9x camp, we have finally been blessed with a new version of Snes9x for DOS! Two new versions, in fact. 0.96 for DOS has a GUI, and is more stable. Here are the new features
in Snes9x 0.96/1.00 for DOS:
- 16-bit colour support added.
- Sound echo support added.
- Sound pitch modulation added.
- New ROM type and interleaved detection code.
- Added AND multi-graphic window combo support.
- Preliminary Super FX chip emulation
- Lots of PPU/SPC700/CPU emulation fixes
- Microsoft Sidewinder support.
Amazingly, the emulator was released a day before it's actual set release date! I bow to Trepalium & The Teacher ;)
You can download Snes9x 1.00 and 0.96 for DOS from the SNES page.
Emulator Release: DTMNT 0.34
16:15: A new release of the fastest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles emulator is now available. Here's a list of the newisms in 0.34:
- All kinds of Joystick and mouse support! (Use allegro.cfg file)
- Redefinable keys and joystick buttons. (press 'R')
- (As a result) Four-player simultaneous now possible! (e.g. two on keyboard, mouse, joystick / four on keyboard - whatever you want)
- F12 toggles emulator keys on/off (useful if your keys cover the whole keyboard)
- Slowed down the theme music a bit (thanks for pointing it out!)
- Frames per second counter (for the emulator) (press 'I') (NB - f.p.s. takes a few moments to settle down)
You can download DTMNT 0.34 from the Single Arcade page.
Emulator Release: Hu6280 1.02
15:29: A new release of Hu6280 is now available. This is just a minor update release:
- Added sidewinder joypad support
As usual, download Hu6280 1.02 from the Turbo Grafx 16 page.
Emulator Release: Pasofami 2.6c
15:04: Nobuaki Andou has released a new version of his NES emulator, Pasofami, one of the first NES emulators available for the PC. Here's what's new in version 2.6c:
- Implemented a new custom NES/Famicom palette from harmony7, CrAsHman (looks better and almost perfect)
- Fixed some mapper bugs
You can download Pasofami 2.6c from the NES page.
Site News: Problems
11:21: It appears that the storm last night here on the east coast caused some routers to be screwed. As it stands, there's a problem with a router somewhere between voicenet and malicia, so it's nearly impossible for me to upload any
thing. Therefore, the rest of my staff will be doing Emulator Release updates until this problem is resolved.
Thank you for your continued support to ZD.
Emulator News: Nofrendo progress report!
07:06: There I was, cruising around on the freeways of internet, when suddenly I got a hunch to go visit the Nofrendo homepage. And when I got there I saw this:
Progress (as of June 13, 1998)
Nofrendo II has been scrapped, as the techniques I was using to increase speed severely compromised accuracy.
Work has resumed on the original Nofrendo. Approximately 60% finished with the entire rewrite.
Scanline based sprite engine, and rewritten line engine both implemented.
Modified version of Neil Bradley's make6502 core (supporting bankswitching) implemented.
Partial GUI implemented.
So, there you have it. Now you know what to expect.
Remember to check out the Nofrendo homepage.
Emulator News: I Robot emulator
03:00: Somehow, I didn't notice that an emulator existed for I Robot. There is one, however, for this Atari arcade game. You can download the I Robot emulator, which is currently at 0.97, from the Single Arcade<
/a> page.
6/13/98
Frontend News: Neo Knob 2.5
19:48: Neo Knob, a fairly new NeoRAGE frontend, has been updated! This frontend looks really good and has a friendly interface. It looks like it's going to be one of the leading NeoRAGE frontends.
Here's the new stuff:
- Made it easy to add snapshots.
1) Run Game
2) Press "Print Screen"
3) Exit Game
4) Press Import Button
You can get it from the Arcade frontends page.
Frontend News: Z-GUI 0.5
19:44: Z-GUI, the ZSNES frontend, has been updated again, adding some things and fixing some things. Among the most important things: Better support for SPCPlay!
Here's what's new:
- Redesigned to give a more finished look
- Added more options
- Ability to change automatic tab switching
- Closing SPCplay on exit
- Major improvements to SPCPlay support and the playlist support in what is now called "Z-Play"
- Should now be able to close spcplay a lot better than before, and now should close it even when working in another window.
- Fixed a few other bugs
You can get it from the SNES frontends page.
Frontend News: SPCPlay Plugin updated and renamed to Forté
19:41: SPCPlay Plugin will from this day be known as Forté. And with the name change some other changes came as well. Remember. This program can be used as a plugin for StarLaunch.
Here's the news:
- Experimental multiple playlist support.
You can download it from the SNES frontends page.
Emulator News: New Sega Master System emulator in progress
16:28: DarkGhost is writing an all new Sega Master system emulator for Windows 95. It has no name yet. Currently, it runs 30% of the available SMS games on the net. It may be ported to DOS or Unix OSs in the future. Stay tuned for more updates about this upcoming emulator.
Official homepage
Site News: zophar.net
13:52: We now have a domain name, thanks to JavaGod! You can now reach Zophar's Domain by going to http://zophar.net. You can also use http://www.zophar.net, but since zophar.net is shorter, that's what I'll be using.
In any case, update your bookmarks to http://zophar.net. Thank you for your continued support to Zophar's Domain and expect even more from us in the future!
Emulator Release: DTMNT 0.33
13:09: Dave's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Arcade emulator has received yet another update. In fact, two updates! Here's the combined list of what's new in 0.32 & 0.33:
- Jeff pointed out I was only showing 49/64 sprites (d'oh!) Cheers Jeff! Now fixed: e.g. cone of light from sewer on intro
- may be a small bug in the timing routines? not sure - use 0.32 to be safe
- A few other bits.
You can download DTMNT 0.33 from the Single Arcade page.
Emulator Release: Handy 0.41
12:45: After almost one year of no releases, Handy has come back from being discontinued (it has been resumed by a new author) and is at Version 0.41. It's a LOT faster now. Here are the changes since Version 0.40 of this Lynx emulator for Windows 95:
- Considerably faster
- The project is being continued
You can download Handy 0.41 from the Lynx page.
Emulator Release: DTMNT 0.31
04:53: The world's fastest TMNT emulator has been given an update less than a day after its initial release. In fact, it was updated a couple of times. Here's what's new in 0.31:
- F9 - snapshot
- Some code tidying
- Theme music! But NO in-game music or sound. (Use the config file to turn it off.)
You can download DTMNT 0.31 from the Single Arcade page.
Emulator Release: Hu6280 1.01a
04:44: A new release of Hu6280, that TG-16 emulator that's updated once a day, often more, is now available. Here's what's new in Version 1.01a:
- Fixed bug in cpu/irq emulation... now casino, toiletkids, darius and ordyne work! Please report any other games that have started to work!!!
You can download Hu6280 1.01a from the Turbo Grafx 16 page.
6/12/98
Emulator Release: SNEmul 0.73 Linux
21:19: Version 0.73 of the SNEmul Linux port is released.
And the new things are:
- added sprites/tiles editor
- better joystick support(see snemul.cfg)
- fixed a bug in vertical scrolling that made some ROMs to crash
- fixed VRAM read. Many gfx glitches removed...
- added primitive dual window support
- 0.72 snapshot format was no more compatible with 0.6 format. That's - fixed(although the palette of old snapshots will be not restored correctly)
So... you SNEmul fans, goto Snes Emulators for Unix Page and download this.
Emulator Release: TrueReality 980611
20:54: Another release of TrueReality, the unix n64 emulator is here.
Here is the new things added:
- 6,239,865 (0x5f3679) instructions of FIREDEMO are executed correct (compared with pur03a).
It seems that after that an exception occurs. Exceptions are not emulated right now :(
- I have made a lot of "#define" changes.
Now you can choose in "config.h" which debugging code should be compiled in.
There is also a new extern global variable ('debug') in debug.h.
- Additional information for X display:
If you press the 'r' key, the display is refreshed.
'!' key ends the display server and sends 'QUIT' via IPC.
- There is a bug (or some bytes of missing code) in 'IPC/comm.c'
When all IPC connections are removed it is impossible to 'bind' a new server to a socket.
- The debugger can deal with breakpoints now ('b').
Go download this at the Nintendo 64 Emulators for unix page.
Frontend News: NeoRAGE Loader 0.5
18:47: A new NeoRAGE frontend has been released! This one is written in VB and so it needs a few DLLs required by all programs created in Visual Basic 5. Try it though, since it has a friendly GUI and support for all the options of NeoRAGE 0.00005.
And this is the initial release, so there are no news.
You can find and download it on the Arcade frontends homepage.
Utility News: Dragon Warrior Town Editor
17:00: Dragon Warrior Town Editor does just that, edits the towns in Dragon Warrior, along with the dungeons & Dragonlord's castle. While not as fancy as some of the other facelift programs, it's still a nice program which is certainly worth checking out if you're a fan of the Dragon Warrior series. You can find it in the NES section of the utilities area.
Site News: Links Page Updated
12:29: I've finally been able to get a few moments free to check out the many submissions I've received about adding site links to the links page, and I've selected a few sites I think you may want to peruse. I will be re-evaluating all the sites and changing the ratings accordingly, and even plan to add 1/2 stars to the rating system, so watch closely in the next while.
Note: To all of you that submitted links which haven't been added yet, I've still got a lot of submissions to go through with CB4 not updating the page in quite a while, I'll review all your sites in due time, so don't worry. With that in mind, here's a couple of the new sites I've come across:
Apocalypse
This site is to the NES and SNES what ZD is to emulation.
The Video Game & Emulation Emporium
Lots of information and reviews on current and past consoles.
Rast's Games and Music
Has a large archive of SPC music files for use with the SPCPlay Super Nintendo music player utility.
Stay tuned for many more new links to come, and a total revamping of the links page, which you can find here.
Emulator Release: New TMNT emulator: DTMNT 0.2
05:46: A new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade emulator has been released. It's called DTMNT (Dave's TMNT emulator) and is coded in C. It's the fastest TMNT emulator around at the moment, although it has no sound. You can download DTMNT 0.2 from the Single Arcade page.
6/11/98
Site News: SPC Archive added
20:26: Zophar's Domain has added a SPC Archive. It is maintained by me, alamone, so please send correspondence to me only. The SPC Archive is also accessible by the menu-bar on the left, under "SaveGame Archives" (consider SPCs as "saves" of the music). It has just started, so only 1 contribution is available. Please help it grow through your contributions!
Emulator News: New Snes9x release this week! (yeah, right)
18:19: The Snes9x page is once again reporting that there will be a release of Snes9x 'by Monday'. I also think that there will be a new VSMC! And maybe a new Genem! And I hear that Sardu is writing an N64 emulator in assembly that will run on a 286/8mhz!
Seriously though, don't expect to see Snes9x 0.96 Monday, regardless of what the Snes9x page says :)
Emulator Release: Boycott 0.40
18:14: Gollum has just released version 0.40 of his GameBoy emulator, Boycott. Here's what's new:
- Add a timer util to evaluate Boycott emulation speed
-> FPS (Frames Per Second)
-> IPS (Instructions Per Second)
-> You only have to prefix Boycott with TIMER
- New default screen (default.pcx) smaller
- New skin (smaller) pack in .pcx (old .ski do not work anymore)
- PCX loading added (skins)
- Parameter added to disable joystick detection
- Optimize BG Displaying (11% faster)
- Fixes command line parser (parameters)
- Optimize some Z80 instructions
- Fix 32Ko batteries saving
- New memory engine
- Optimize RAM bank switching (faster now)
- Optimize ROM bank switching (faster now)
You can download Boycott 0.40 from the GameBoy page.
Frontend News: UFE 0.376
18:00: UFE, the universal frontend, has been updated! 65 emulators are now natively supported! Have fun, go download it.
News:
- 65 emulators now supported !!!
- Better presentation for UFE (maybe a future screensaver...)
-> press the 'z' key to see scrolling + zoom features
- Add two keys CTRL+Home and CTRL+End for fast browsing
- Bug fixes AT LEAST for files copying
- Bug fixes while copying files
- AUTOPATH 1.05
-> autodetect LHA
-> display comments in order to sort which emulator to use
- Remove special char to automatically add spaces
-> make a little easier to understand command lines
- Bug fixes with command line (it was destroyed !!!)
- UFE presentation is now only shown the first time you launch UFE
- LZH archives management added
- LHA SELF-EXTRACTING ARCHIVES added add support (variable parameter) for LHA (ADD AND MOVE FILES TO ARCHIVE)
- Fixes default UFE.LST (it was not clear)
- Add default support for
NEORAGE (now 100% compatible with NEORAGE 0.0005)
GEKKO
SHARK GAMES (now 100% compatible with SHARK 2.0)
TNZS SETS 1 AND 2 (now 100% compatible with TNZS 0.60)
VGEN
KGEN98
PROJECT UNREALITY 0.4a1 (Z64 files support)
NLKE
You can get it from the Universal/Multi System frontends page.
Emulator Release: Hu6280 1.0
10:43: The Turbo-Graphx 16 / PC Engine emulator Hu6280 has been upgraded once again to v. 1.0. The changes are as follows:
added -v2 command line option (320x240 modex screen!)
According to the readme.txt, Mr Kipling has promised to port the Hu6280 emulation to asm, so, lookout for a major speedup coming soon... ;)
You can download Hu6280 at the Turbo-Graphx emulator section.
Emulator Release: TrueReality
06:51: The first Nintedo 64 emulator for unix is here, TrueReality.
It's in very early stages but it features CPU and simple 2d graphics emulation with X and it seems to be a serious project.
So you n64 and unix fans, go download this from the new Nintendo 64 Emulators for Unix Page.
Frontend News: Arcade@Home 0.33 beta 5a
02:30: A new MAME frontend has been added, and this one is GOOD! It has loads of features and automatically detects new games and upgrades when a new version of MAME is released.
Here's the news:
-Fixed problem were wrong game was run when installed or uninstalled games were selected.
- Fixed another (similar) problem where typing game name didn't work when installed or uninstalled games were selected.
- Fixed problem where Arcade@Home window became invisible when configure default settings was selected.
- Doesn't crash and burn if it can't find the ROMS directory.
- Fixed stack overflow problem when running Arcade@Home?
- Made Default Settings disabled when starting Arcade@Home.
You can download it from the Arcade frontends page.
6/10/98
Emulator Release: SNEmul 0.73
20:18: A new release of SNEmul is upon us! This one sports mainly bugfixes,
al;though there is also better joystick support now and an experimental tile/sprite editor. Archeide e-mailed me just moments ago with the following new stuff in 0.73:
- added sprites/tiles editor
- better joystick support(see snemul.cfg)
- fixed a bug in vertical scrolling that made some ROMs to crash
- fixed VRAM read. Many gfx glitches removed...
- added primitive dual window support
- 0.72 snapshot format was no more compatible with 0.6 format. That's fixed(although the palette of old snapshots will be not restored correctly)
You can download SNEmul 0.73 from the SNES page.
Site News: New section: COCO 1/2 and Dragon
By the way, thanks to Mark Glicksman for making the original pages later modified by me.
Be sure to visit this new section now.
19:36: A new emulator section has been added to Zophar's Domain! A section carrying emulators emulating the computers COCO 1, 2 and The Tandy Dragon. We here at Zophar's Domain hope that you will have some use and/or fun with this new section.
And for all of you who wonder: "What is a COCO anyway?", it's a TRS-80 Color Computer.
Emulator News: Upcoming PSX Emu
10:30: Giovanni Bajo (aka RaskY), has informed us of an upcoming PSX emu that he has co-authored called PSyKe. Many screenshots of it at work have been tossed around the Internet, and it was rumored to be a hoax, but the PSyKE team has opened up an official web site for the project. It already runs some demos, and when it is released to the public, you can be sure I'll be there to give it a whirl (once I get my new system, that is...) =)
You can find the official PSyKe homepage here, or if the first URL doesn't work, here.
Misc. News: More Rippers
06:23: I've been alerted of another site ripper today. This time, it's this site that's ripping. All the news is ripped right off of Emu News Service, and all emulator sections are ripped right off of the Zophar's Domain emulator sections. Feel free to e-mail this person and tell them how you feel about ripping people's work.
Emulator Release: No$GMB 1.5b
05:58: A new release of the world's fastest, most optimized GameBoy emulator, No$GMB, is now available. Here's the list of changes in Version 1.5b:
- 2nd cheatfix: ID7 byte (zen - intergalactic ninja)
- gamegenie cheats: fix for pokes in rombanks 01..nn (zelda, etc, etc)
- gamegenie cheats: inputbox shows internal performed poke (NNNN) NN->NN
- emufix: rombanking ignores dirtbits (fifa96)
- emufix: bugfree initial 32K ram allocation (warioland2,furaino siren)
- romsize: rom banking exceptions verify rombank against romsize in header
- romsize: warning if incorrect (different to header specification)
- internal: emulation code segment splitted into core and lcd
- fix for battery ram saving after loading a snapshot
- fix for combination "graphix debug PLUS 3..6 machines PLUS hardware swapping"
- re-fix for int48 while lcd disabled (bartsimpson/campd)
- re-fix for calling OS shell (with upper mem enabled)
- re-fix for calling external dos editor (with upper mem enabled)
- Undo Run Function (writing to UNDO_RUN.SNA) can be disabled
You can download No$GMB 1.5b from the GameBoy page.
6/9/98
Site News: New ZD Links Page Maintainer
13:06: Hi, everyone - I'm JavaGod, and I'm taking over the links page duties in the absence of CB4. You may already know me as one of the ops in EFNet #emu, and as an n0rp webmaster =). I will be fair in my judgement of ratings for links, and will update often, so if you have a site you deem worthy of being linked to from Zophar's Domain, just contact me, and I'll check your site. If you want to e-mail me with any comments, questions, or to send me praise on my porn pimping abilities, contact me at javagod@softhome.net. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming....
Utility News: Massacre Updated Again
11:10: Johannes Holmberg has made a tiny update to Massacre 0.50. So small, in fact, that there wasn't even a version change.
- Fixed a rather harmless bug. (A stupid typo in the source code...)
For those of you that don't know, Massacre is the first and, so far, only graphics editor for the Sega Master System. You can download Massacre 0.50 from the Master System section of the Utilities area.
Emulator Release: New GameBoy emulator: KGB 0.10
05:12: A new GameBoy emulator has been released, named KGB (creative name, russians beware!) Here are KGB's features:
- Basic Gameboy emulation in Assembler, no sound yet
- A GUI
- Battery backed ram
- Blur mode, try Punk.gb without blur mode
- Full screen view
- Speed throttling
It's coded in a mix of assembly and Delphi. Run it under DOS, however, since it crashes a lot under Windows 95. You can download it from the GameBoy page.
Emulator Release: MySNES 0.13b
05:11: MySNES 0.13b has been released! I know that Zophars Domain does not carry emulators for the Amiga, but I just thought that I might just as well tell you all that it has been released, since this is my definite choice of a SNES emulator for Amiga. If you're an Amiga fan then try this. It's definitely worth it.
Here's the news:
- Sprites were drawn in reversed order, that is corrected now (see gooftroop, simcity, ...)
- Up to 20% faster.
- Better header-detection, you don't have to have a 512-byte header anymore.
- Corrected two CPU-bugs making LufiaI and Big sky troopers start correctly (I haven't tried so many).
- Fixed color-settings => perfect colors in Alien3, Censor, Intro-3, LufiaI, ...
- Fixed screenwrap for 32*64-screens. Jaki Crush fully playable now.
- Screenwrap correct in FAST. Now gooftroop looks very good.
- You can now press F1-F5 when using a CD32.
- Screenupdates done in a different way (depth-first) so there is no blinking anymore when scrolling.
You can get it from the MySNES homepage.
Frontend News: KGEN Loader 0.31
04:51: The KGEN FrontEnd KGEN Loader has been updated to support KGEN 98! Even though KGEN already has a GUI a frontend might be useful sometimes.
Here's the news:
- Support for KGEN 98
You can download it from the Genesis frontends page.
Emulator Release: SNEqr 0.315
04:19: The newest SNES emulator around, SNEqr, has been updated to 0.315. For some reason, no other emulation news pages want to report on this emulator. I don't know why...it's pretty fast and the GUI is killer! Here's what's new:
- Teaser release: because of final exams, employment hunting, end-of-year school projects, etc. this may be the last release in a while. I was going to develop it a little further before release, but I don't have time at the moment.
- Windowing (Single and Dual OR-logic) added; things like the circular opening in Mario World now work.
- Indirect HDMA added; required for most windowing to work properly. A little buggy at the moment.
- Options added to GUI to enable or disable Windowing and Indirect HDMA if you have problems with them
- Partial Mode 7 added. Doesn't look right most of the time because I can't figure out how the image is supposed to be centered. *Slow* (unoptimized)
- Improvements made to Old-style joypad system; Mario Allstars, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy etc. now pick up input.
- Readme file removed; it's not being updated.
You can download SNEqr 0.315 from the SNES page.
Misc. News: Zelda: Online
04:07: Although this has nothing to do with emulation, here's the e-mail I received from Chris Wright regarding a java version of Zelda:
could you please let everybody know that version 1.2 of Zelda: Online Java, is now available.
New features include multiplayer support, chat support, a map option, and a pause button, along with many other minor bug fixes and features.
This game is available at the SNES Emu Centre
Thankyou, i am grateful for your help
You might want to check it out if you have some time on your hands.
Emulator Release: SNEmul 0.72 (DOS)
03:51: SNEmul 0.72 for DOS has been released. This SNES emulator is also available for Linux (the Linux version will be uploaded to ZD by Total sometime today). Here's what's new:
- speeded up palette update, colors add/sub, scrollings effect, etc. (all thoses optimizations give a 4 FPS increase)
- SNEmul now uses 16 bits video modes instead of 15 bits video modes
- implemented NTSC timing(SNEmul now play NTSC game faster)
- added a timing option to choose between Auto/NTSC/PAL timings
- fixed a bug un HiROM mapping(now Illusion of Gaia works)
- removed a bug in SPC700 that made some games to hang at the beginning
- fixed an other bug in SPC700(now DKC1 works :)
- fixed a bug in port $2102
- fixed vertical and horizontal scrollings(especially for 16x16 tiles) (now EVO works :)
- fixed flipped 16x16 tiles
- added transparency effects clipping windows
- now SNEmul play more game without gfx glitches
- added tiles display. you can select the palette with the right mouse button
- added truecolor graphics(the GUI looks nicer :)
- added palette and tiles/sprites viewer
- added a dialog to config the joypad keys
- fixed a bug in full screen modes(Thanks to JACKY to tell me :)
- fixed many bugs and removed mouse glitches
You can download SNEmul 0.72 from the SNES page.
Emulator Release: Hu6280 0.00099
03:47: Another day, another new Hu6280. Here's what's new in this Turbo Grafx 16 emulator for DOS:
- Added lo-res mode! (just for those people who keep on asking for it!) Ok, it uses a 320x200 screen mode so not all of the screen is visible! You can however use the PageUp and PageDown keys to centre the screen to your taste though. If anyone wants to supply me with some info (or even some example code) on setting up a 320x240 screen, i`d appreciate it. But until then you`ll just have to live with the fact that the lores mode is crap.
You can download Hu6280 0.00099 from the Turbo Grafx 16 page.
Emulator Release: KGen98 0.4b
03:44: A new release of Kgen98, a Sega Genesis emulator for DOS, has been released. Here's what's new in 0.4b:
- Various compatibility issues have been fixed. Surging Aura, MazinSaga, Dashin' Desperadoes now work correctly, to name but three.
- Improved ScanLines support. (VESA 2.0 ONLY). Should work on more video cards. Use at your own risk.
- Altered EUROPEAN mode. Previous versions only had full European support when in 50Hz mode. Note that music / sampled sounds will sound faster - This is due to emulating 1/50th Sec. of European Genesis in 1/60th Sec ! But this will fix the European games that only worked in 50Hz mode.
- Stopped LEFT & RIGHT or UP & DOWN being pressed at the same time. This can happen on a real Genesis with a worn pad, and programmers are SUPPOSED to make sure it won't affect their games.... But some people don't listen, apparently.
- Improved the File Requester Keyboard Shortcuts. You can now type a few letters within a short space of time, and it will jump to the first file starting with those letters. The current search string is displayed at the top of the file requester. Also, pressing SHIFT and a letter will jump directly to the Disk Drive of the same letter.
- Added 16-Bit Video Mode. (VESA 2.0 ONLY). This was ported from the now defunct KGen-X, and has been considerably rewritten to cope with the new Raster FX System. It is slower than the 8-Bit mode, but allows games that try to do more Palette Raster FX than the 8-Bit mode can cope with to function properly. Note that there are a few things left to do in this mode - for example, you cannot currently save a ScreenShot when you are in 16-Bit mode, and the only Joypad modes that work in this mode are SLOW and SIDEWINDER.
- Various small changes to the GUI.
- Various cosmetic fixes.
You can download KGen98 0.4b from the Genesis page.
6/8/98
Translation News: Translation Update
20:58: I have done some changes to the Patches page which may be to your interest. A few new patches have been added and broken links fixed.
- Three Man Translation ff3j v5.4 patch added.
- J2E's Nadia v1.3 patch was added as well.
- J2E's Final Fantasy 4 patch added (2 different font types)
- Finally got around to removing snesmerism
There were some problems with my email recently and some of the emails were lost. If you can think of any other current translations over 10% completed and not listed, please let me know asap.
Frontend News: AssiST 0.29a
16:47: A bugfix release of AssiST, the currently only Atari ST emulator frontend carried by Zophars Domain has arrived.
This new release fixed the bug when mouting *.ST images.
You can get it from the Atari ST frontends page.
Site News: A Brief Note on News Submissions & Comments
15:46: Whenever you're submitting news and/or comments to Zophar's Domain, pay attention to who you're sending it to. Emulator news goes to Zophar, Utility news goes to me, FrontEnd news goes to Bnu, etc. If you're unsure of the proper person to submit news to, there's a box at the bottom of the page that will remind you. And note that I AM NOT ZOPHAR nor is anyone else on the ZD staff other than Zophar himself. I bet at least 50% of my e-mail concerning ZD starts out with "Hi Zophar". In case you haven't figured it out yet, there are several staff members on Zophar's Domain. Each staff member is a different person, not just Zophar with multiple personalities, so please pay attention to who you're writing to when you e-mail ZD.
Utility News: AmigaTRANS v2.07.95
15:33: Nitro9 has updated his utility for transfering files from an Amiga to a PC via a serial cable. Straight from the author's e-mail, here are the changes:
- removed the 1200 baud rate, because it doesn't work.
- updated the timeout feature, because that didn't work (does now)
- compacted the GUI
You can download AmigaTRANS from the recently created Comp System Utilities section of the Utilities area.
Utility News: Massacre .50
11:46: The newest version of Massacre has been released. To quote the author:
"Here's a list of what's new in this version: *Speeeeeeeed."
As always, Massacre can be downloaded from the Master System area of the utilities section.
I urge everyone to download Massacre & give it a try. We need to get some good Master System hacks out now.
Emulator Release: Pasofami 2.6a
11:17: Thanks to "LuckyMan", the documentation to Pasofami 2.6a, which was released last week, has been translated. And what a release! It appears Pasofami is now freeware, and can run the .NES rom fromat! Read on...
- Starting from 2.4c Pasofami is now freeware (no more disabled versions such as Time Limits , you actually get a full ver. of it)
- you can reg. directly from Pasofami by selecting it's menu option if you have internet access.
- Improved 6502 core like ShuKondo's core!!!!
- support .NES/.NEZ rom format!!!
- Changed Pasofami DiskSystem format to *.PSO
I was not able to get sound working, unfortunately, since the menus are all in japanese. You can download Pasofami 2.6a (Direct-X version) from the NES page.
Emulator Release: PaCifiST 0.49 pre-release
10:46: A new release of PaCifiST, an Atari ST emulator for DOS, has been released. Here's what's new in this pre release 0.49 version:
- Fixed several bugs in ACIA emulation
- Timer B fixed back
- Fixed problem with 4x joysticks interface detection
- File selector allow disk images creation
- Blitter emulation speeded up
- Support for raw 'DIM' disk image format
- PCX saving now works in medium resolution
- Monitor improvements (Commands stack, mem search...)
You can download PaCifiST 0.49 pre-release from the Atari ST page.
Emulator News: PC-NES discontinued
01:35: PC-NES, a NES emulator coded in 32 bit assembly for DOS, has been halted. From the PC-NES webpage:
Unfortunately, I am going back on my word. PCNES, as of today, is discontinued. I simply don't have the time to adequately maintain two emulators. There is an abundance of quality NES emulators available, so I would like to focus my efforts on my GB emulator. I would like to thank all those that have helped on my NES emulator, I truly appreciate it.
However, GBE, a Gameboy emulator by the same author, is still being worked on.
6/7/98
Emulator Release: Hu6280 0.00097
21:58: A new release of Hu6280 is upon us. Here's the new stuff in 0.00097:
- Tweaked vram emulation (now correct i think)
- Save games are 64k smaller... :)
- Turrican titlepage now works
- No gfx corruption on impossamole
- Ninja gaiden seems to work
You can download Hu6280 0.00097 from the Turbo Grafx 16 page.
Frontend News: ZFront 0.180
17:15: Another ZSNES frontend has also been updated, not today, and not too far away from today. This one is also a good alternative to a ZSNES frontend.
Here's the new stuff:
- Now launches ZSNES in a seperate Virtual DOS Machine (VDM)
- ZSNES is now executed with HIGH priority (4-5 fps bonus)
- Added seperate ROM configurations
- Improved Favorites List customization
- Added templates (available through "Options" menu)
- Added Preferences dialog
- Improved ROM title reading
- Open Dialog now opens the Game Directory. Thanks to Sylvangale for the suggestion!
- "Apply" and "Cancel" changed to "Save" and "Close". Thanks again to Sylvangale!
- Removed a bug that prevented saving of some settings
- Improved look (gradient title bar)
You can get it from the SNES frontends page.
Frontend News: UZI 0.75
17:12: UZI, the (by name) Ultimate ZSNES Interface has yet again been updated! And again it is with an update patch, so remember: You have to download v 0.30 first and then v 0.75 upgrade.
Here's the news:
- Added smart screenshot archiving function. Take a screenshot, press ctrl+a et voila.
- Added menu items for delete and unzip.
- Added menu items for clearing the zip cache.
- Option to make the Quickrom bar stay on top.
- Turned Quickrom bar into graphical style.
- Individual ROM settings are now deleted from the registry when unchecked.
- Included a program that clears all UZI settings from the registry.
- Moved Quickdirs into the menu (no option to change at the moment).
- Added Directories to the Explorer view.
- Key controls are properly mapped now on non-US keyboards.
You can get it from the SNES frontends page.
Frontend News: MAME Loader 2.50
06:01: A MAME frontend has now been updated for beta 4 of MAME! This frontend looks good, so try it.
Here's the main features, since the only news are support for the new games:
- Full Game Names listed (taken right from MAME.EXE output)
- Allows you to run games ONLY if the program finds the directory or the compressed .ZIP file! No more excess baggage!
- Support for graphic/sound PATCHES to original ROMS in a PATCHES dir.
- Support for .ZIPped .hi/.cfg files in HI and CFG directories as well as uncompressed .hi/.cfg files.
- Option saving. (Currently only 1 set saved, but probably will add specific game options soon)
- Ability to search for Information for any OPTIONS or GAME NAMES in MAME's README.TXT. (Still a bit buggy, but works pretty well!)
- Regularly updated and quick response from the author, me... Even when there is not a new MAME release! If you can help me find a problem, diagnose or provide good suggestions, I'll be sure to add you to my CREDITS section.
- Easy addition to and editing of MAMELOAD.OPT, .PAT files. You can add new options/patches quickly and easily by simply text editing the file and adding a line or two! (see: Editing Info) Also, updates to keep MAMELOAD files on my page soon after release of MAME.
- Simple text interface and small in size and pretty quick!
- Random Game Select
- Snapshot support with PICTVIEW.EXE - a small/fast and excellent DOS-BASED .PCX viewer.
- 5 clear screen routines, chosen at random. Not very useful, just fun! :)
You can download it from the Arcade frontends page.
Emulator Release: xMAME 0.33b4.0
05:53: A new version of xMAME (MAME for unix) is released, this version puts xMAME in sync with the DOS version. It runs 565 games including bootlegs and duplicates.
New in this verions is:
- 2 new SVGALIB graphic modes (320*240, 320*400)
- New layer code with full dirty-region support under X
Get xMAME at the Aracade Emulators for Unix Page.
Frontend News: SNES Emu Launch 3.0
05:40: A new version of the Multi SNES emulator frontend SNES Emu Launch has been released! Actually I added it to the SNES frontends page two days ago, but was unable to add the news about it. Anyway.
Here's what's new:
- Support for ZSnes 0.400 including MMX copy routines
- NLKE support, which repleaces Esnes.
- Optimisation of code, and an almost complete re-write of cheat system, resulting in more responsive interface
- Better interface consistency throught the program
- Added .058, 0.78, .1, .USA, .JAP file formats to ROM formats section of select ROM dialog
- Finish button added to Add New ROM Wizard
- Default setting for each emulator are now related to the PC speed, which is selected in SNES Emu Launch setup
- Added Skip 0 setting to ZSnes Video options
- Yet more bug fixes to the status bar
- Other little things which are too numerous to mention
You can get it off the SNES frontends page.
Site News: Outlaw2 to become visitor #700,000
03:35: Outlaw2 has become visitor 700,000 to Zophar's Domain. To quote him, "Zophar's Domain is l33t! So what do I win?" Originally, I had planned to award the winner a t-shirt of Mario sodomizing an IDSA representative, but I felt that to be too brutally honest, so I guess the orange rubber ducky will have to do.
6/6/98
Misc. News: Sonic 4?
16:01: The GameRoms page has been updated with a new ROM, but you'll never believe which one...a prototype for Sonic the Hedgehog 4 for Genesis! It's called 'Sonic Crackers', and was never released on cart for one reason or another. It works with Genecyst or KGen.
GameRoms page
Emulator Release: Hu6280 0.00095
11:55: A new release of Hu6280, a Turbo Grafx 16 emulator for DOS, has been released. Just a bugfix release:
- Fixed bug in VRAM emulation, now seems to run P47 and YOBRO ok.
- save game format has changed (NOT backwards compatible)
You can download hu6280 0.00095 from the Turbo Grafx 16 page.
Emulator News: Another emulator author bites the dust
11:39: I read on sites such as Daves Classics and Emu News Service that Duddie, author of PSEmu, had sent them an e-mail declaring that he was leaving emulation and quitting PSEmu. Since I never received an e-mail from Duddie about this, here's the e-mail that was sent to Jim Pragit of Emu News Service:
"Due to my new contract (that is strictly confidential) I cannot code PSEmu any longer. But do not be afraid, PSEmu Pro is coded by Tratax with little help from me, so there will be Windows version that many of you expect so nervously. So... any questions, regarding PSEmu should be directly posted to Tratax. Do not bother me with mails like: "Oh G, do not do that!!" or something like that. However my mbox will be removed today! :)"
- Duddie
PSEmu Author
I have no idea what contract he is under, only that it sounds fishy. Best of luck to Duddie.
Site News: Updates
11:27: Sorry for the lack of updates, there was a problem with the CGI updater. If you're reading this, that means it's fixed :)
6/5/98
Site News: New Intro & Major Changes To Come
10:38: As you may have noticed, but probably didn't, a new intro has been added to Zophar's Domain. For those of you that don't know, which seems to be a lot of people, there's a text blurb above the news section...that would be the intro.
Obviously a new intro is no big deal, but it's just a foreshadowing of the major changes on the horizon for ZD. Some of these changes have already taken place. The most noticeable would be the addition of Unix based emulators. We've also added another branch to the message domains where you can buy/sell/trade carts, systems, copiers and just about anything else of interest to the patrons of ZD.
Our plans for the future are enormous right now...we'll not only be adding several new areas, we'll also being paying much more attention to older section that have been neglected as of late. Look for sections you've ignored before to take on a new life in the coming weeks and be sure to give us your input concerning these upcoming changes. We're willing to consider any ideas that might make Zophar's Domain more useful and interesting for our visitors.
Here is a brief list of the major changes under consideration:
- Creation of a section dedicated to featuring the portrayal of emulation in mainstream media. This section would contain articles published in major publications & websites as well as IDSA/SPA propaganda. We also hope to compile a list of major sites shut down because of the IDSA/SPA & video game companies.
- Addition of a 4th branch of Zophar's Message Domain dedicated to the programming of emulators. This would provide an open forum for emu authors to discuss projects as well as for aspiring emu authors to ask questions. We also intend to feature all of the technical documents currently available.
- Creation of ZD merchandise. We're considering having ZD T-shirts made up if there is enough interest. These shirts would be for sale at a reasonable price & might also be used for prizes in the monthly contests we intend to start holding soon.
- Creation of an Interview Archive. This is another idea that's not 100% agreed on yet, but if there seems to be an interest, we'll be opening an archive of interviews with emu authors, site maintainers & other individuals of note. There are several interviews floating around the 'net right now, but we feel it would be of interest if there was a single archive where you could find several high quality interviews all in one place.
These are just a few of the changes in store for ZD over the next several weeks. There are countless small changes that are too numerous to mention here. The goal of this major revamping is to better serve the patrons of ZD, and that means you, so we need your input. Feel free to e-mail me at InVerse@atheist.com with any suggestions or questions you might have.
Emulator Release: MESS 0.1 followup
07:10: A followup release has been issued to MESS 0.1 for DOS. MESS, a multi emulator for 3 consoles and 2 computers, was released yesterday. This is the first update to it, although it doesn't say what changes were made, and the version number hasn't changed. You can download MESS 0.1 (the new build) from the Genesis page, or from the NES page, or the ColecoVision page.
Emulator Release: BOO 1.00
04:33: A new emulator for Windows 95 has been released. It's called BOO, and it currently runs one Capcom system 1 game, Ghouls 'n' Ghosts. It has sound, but no joystick or dipswitch support currently. It requires Direct 3.0+. You can download BOO 1.00 from the Single Arcade page.
Emulator Release: KGen 98 0.3b
03:58: Another release of KGen 98 is here. This is just a bugfix release. Here's the bugfixes:
- Fixed minor VDP problem.
- Added bits to File Requester that I forgot to add last night :-( Maybe I should get some sleep.....
- Yes, I know I forgot to change the version no. in 0.2b ;-) I realised right after I uploaded it.
You can download KGen 98 0.3b from the Genesis page.
6/4/98
Emulator Release: MESS 0.1 DOS
14:35: After months of anticipation, the Multi-Emulator Super System, also known as MESS, has finally been released for DOS. (It has been releaasd as well for the Macintosh which, of course, you will not find here.) It currently emulates the Sega Genesis, NES, ColecoVision, TRS-80 and the Colour Genie. It has free source code available. Unfortunately, it is VERY slow (you'll need a P200 or more for the Genesis emulation, and a pretty fast Pentium for NES emulation). Also, I was unable to get Sega Genesis emulation to work at all. You can download MESS 0.1 from the NES page, or the Genesis page, or even the ColecoVision page.
6/3/98
Emulator Release: BrMSX 1.128
21:44: A new release of BrMSX, the fastest MSX emulator for DOS has cometh. Here's the list of changes in 1.128:
- Perfect IRQ emulation!! Many games will run at correct speed, including "Astro Marine Corps", "Circus Charlie", "Titanic 2", "Aekrus", "Super Laydock" and a lot more!! Thanks to Eduardo Toledo Santos for the databooks and Marcellus Pereira for the testing!!
- new option "-ramslot" to select the slot of RAM. Some games require "-ramslot 3", like the funet version of "Terramex".
- support to 180kb and 360kb .DSK disk images, required by some games, like "Amazonia" and "Robocop".
- emulation of the undocumented behaviour of VDP in VRAM reads, this fix the bug on "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles". Thanks to Paul Urbanus and Sean Young for the hint!!
- support to korean MSX memory layout (use the option "-korean", you will also need a korean MSX.ROM and MSXHAN.ROM). Thanks to KSH for the hint.
- emulation of the Kana LED, in the Num Lock LED (require japanese or korean ROM set).
- emulation of the Gradiente's green monitor!! (use the option "-green", looks great if used together with "-res 2"). Thanks to Mauricio Braga for the suggestion.
- now BrMSX can use read-only files, like files on CD-ROMs (thanks to Lex of RuMSX for noticing this).
- support to .PCX screenshots (use the F9 key).
- fixed a minor bug in Load Rom (now you can read "Magical Kid Wiz" through the GUI).
- improved idle bus emulation (now reading an unconnected I/O port also returns 0xFF).
- option to adjust joystick sensibility (use the option "-joysens").
- fixed a bug on Sound Blasters configured to IRQs greater than 7.
You can download BrMSX 1.128 from the MSX page.
Emulator Release: SNEqr 0.300
21:25: Somehow, I have never noticed this SNES emulator for DOS on any other site, yet it seems to have been around for a while, so I've added SNEqr (pronounced Sneaker) 0.300 to ZD. There's no sound yet, but it looks promising, and has an excellent GUI. Here's the list of changes in 0.300:
- This release is major because I converted the ENTIRE CPU core to assembly language! This has made the emulator as a whole almost TWICE the speed! Also, without the C compiler's FAT code, the size of the executable has decreased by over 300 KB! Incredible! Unfortunately, it's close but not as fast as SNES9X yet. This is very disappointing because it suddenly feels like all that work was wasted! Oh well, I'll be tweaking it to make it run faster.
- Small amount of assembly added to screen renderer.
- A couple of new bugs have appeared as a result of the new assembly core; nothing serious. For example, the color palette goes funny in Mario World right at the end of each level.
- Single windowing added... and removed. Unfortunately windowing won't work properly until I implement Indirect HDMA, which I have no information about!
- Mosaic (screen pixellation) added.
- Added direct ROM write protection. This will prevent copy protection schemes from working in some games.
- Documentation converted to HTML.
You can download SNEqr 0.300 from the SNES page. Thanks to SandMyth for informing me about SNEqr.
Frontend News: FEFA 2.0
15:04: The ATARI frontend FEFA has been updated to version 2.0. This is a good frontend, try it.
Here's the news:
- Removed the script files and start using the registry to store the games properties, support of windows 95 taskbar, improve preformence of loading the images by using some sort of cache system. use fixed font for the docs.
You may download it from the ATARI 2600 frontends page.
Frontend News: SPC 1.6b
15:01: A small bugfix version of SPC, the SPCPlay frontend, has been released.
Here's what's new:
- SPC was retranslated fully to English.
- Fixed a lot of bugs in the PLAYLIST system.
- Fixed a bug reading/writing playlist file.
- Fixed a bug reading playlist file header.
- Added 3 new functions:
Cut (deletes and copy the track);
Copy title;
Target filename (edit the target filename from current track).
Right-click under a track in playlist mode to get this menu.
- Don't worry. SPC is being improved with more features... Just wait, and don't forget to give me some feedback! Thank you.
You can get it off the SNES Frontends page.
Site News: ZMD3: Buy/Sell/Trade message board
09:27: A new message board has just been added to Zophar's Domain! You guessed it, it's called ZMD3 for short, Basically, it's a 'want ads' board where you can sell stuff, or request things you want to buy, and so forth. Console copiers, video games, consoles, whatever you want. Note that this does NOT include selling commercial ROM CDs, please don't use the board to do that.
ZMD3: Want Ads Board
Site News: MIDI Files Removed From ZD
03:14: All MIDIs have finally been removed from ZD (you used to be able to enable midis during your visit). As promised, all the midis from ZD are available for download in a zip file.
6/2/98
Emulator Release: KGen98 0.2b
21:29: 1 day after the release of KGen98 0.1b, a follow-up bugfix release ahs been issued. Here's the list of bugfixes and new additions in KGen98 0.2b:
- Fixed problem with KGen 98 locking with 8-bit soundcards. Turned out to be a line that I forgot to delete :-)
- Fixed VDP Status register - I don't know why I forgot this, since I had the same problem way back in KGen 0.32b !
- Fixed problem with Joypad modes - again, something that should have been deleted.
- Added Long File Name Support. I had actually written this before, but it got lost with the changes I made to the GUI / hard drive problem. Completely forgot to put it back in ! But it's there now.
- Also added -L command line option to disable Long Filename Support, incase it causes problems.... DOS 6.22, for example, reports no error..... I got around that problem, but other versions of DOS, or other OSses, may still die.
You can download KGen98 0.2b from the Genesis page.
Emulator Release: HU6280 ver 0.00094 Released!
18:37: HU6280 is a FREEWARE PC-Engine emu for DOS, and a new version was released today. Not many changes, but it should be a bit faster due to sprite masking. Check it out in TG16 Emulators
Site News: New UNIX Emulator Pages Maintainer
18:37: Hi... I'm Thomas Backmark, I will maintain the new UNIX pages here on ZD (Linux, FreeBSD, SunOS and so on). For the moment some emulators may exist in newer versions then what's on the pages, or i have just missed an emulator... So if you have a newer version of an emulator or have seen a really neat kickass emulator that's not on the pages, e-mail me !
Emulator News: Upcoming N64 emulator
16:53: An entirely new N64 emu for DOS is in the works! There is no release as of yet, but there probably will be.
Currently the authors need help. If you can help them with either the opplug feature or 3Dfx routines in DJGPP then mail them at u_ultra_64@hotmail.com.
You can also read more about it on the Homepage
Emulator Release: Callus 0.40 and QSP
03:16: Bloodlust Software (ie, Sardu) has released 2 new versions of the Capcom System 1 (CPS-1) emulator, Callus, and a new emulator, QSP. In Callus 0.40, there is now a Win95 version as well as a DOS version. The Win95 port has NetPlay (if you've ever used NESticle95, you should be familiar with this). Here's the total list of newisms in Callus 0.40:
- Senjyo no Ookami II support (mercsj)
- Ghouls 'n Ghosts support (gng)
- Fixed GrIP support
- TCP/IP netplay
- DirectX port ("callus95.exe")
- Game settings stored in game.ini
- 16 bit hicolor renderer (-hicolor)
- Jap Capcom World 2 support (cworld2j)
- YM logging
- 'map2to3' option
Also, a Q-Sound player for Win95 has been released. You can listen to the tunes of such Capcom System 2 (CPS-2) games as Super Street Fighter 2, and Street Fighter Alpha.
You can download Callus 0.40 and QSP from the Multi Arcade page.
Emulator Release: RuMSX 0.13
02:58: A new release of RuMSX, the MSX emulator formerly known as FreeMSX, is now available. Here's the changelist for 0.13:
- double-clicked disk- or tape-image inherits the configured (default) write-protect setting (previously always write-enabled)
- Media read-only change did not enable the apply button
- Inactive emulator-window does no longer accept device-input (keyboard, joystick)
- Support for real floppy-disks added
- Errorhandling during startup improved
- Minor support for Philips Music-Module external MIDI added (I/O port &H01 used)
- random error-message if DSOUND.DLL not found
- Command switches for troubleshooting added /SOS, /NoDDraw, /NoDInput, /NoDSound
- GET TIME returns correct time now (previously always GMT/UTC time!)
- Colored Screen 12 mode, if hires driver used (emulation runs very slow in this mode, also no sprites are displayed yet!!!!!)
- Help for MSX2 Basic improved
- Manual for memory-mapper (DOS2) added
- SETUP.EXE is now compatible with Disk-Manager (also FreeWare by Lex Lechz)
- Support for *.IMG disk-images added
You can download RuMSX 0.13 from the MSX page.
6/1/98
Emulator Release: KGen98 0.1b
22:39: Yes, you heard right! A new version of Kgen, (for those of you who don't know, is a sega Genesis emulator for DOS) has finally been released since last year. In fact, so much has changed, that it has been renamed to KGen98, and is now at version 0.1b. Here's a list of all the things that have been changed or added:
- Command line options have changed - see below for more information.
- Complete re-write of the VDP emulation:
All Raster Effects are now implemented.
Shadow / Hilight mode is now 100% accurate.
Most games that had severe graphics problems are now fixed.
(See below for more information on this.)
- Complete re-write of the YM2612 FM Sound Emulation.
Waves calculated with a much higher degree of accuracy.
Support for 44.1Khz 16-bit Stereo Sound. (SB16 and above only.)
Mixer values now restored on exit.
- Complete re-write of the PSG Sound Emulation.
Any previous problems should no longer occur.
Support for the undocumented features also.
- Complete re-write of the Control System.
Better support for Sega "Fighting Pad" 6 Button Controller.
New Joypad modes : Fast, Medium and Slow for both 4 and 6 button pads.
Support for one or two Microsoft SideWinder pads.
- Major changes to the 68000 and Z80 emulation.
- Near-Instant start-up time.
- Complete re-write of the SnapShot system.
- Load SnapShot still included for old SnapShot / Genecyst saves.
- Save SnapShot removed.
- SnapShot Slot system added.
- Saves / Loads are now done from within the game using F5 / F8.
- Added ScanLines video mode (VESA 2.0 Only)
- Added Game Genie Support.
- Parts of the GUI rewritten / improved.
- Loads more parts re-written to get all the new systems working together.
- Many, Many, Many bugs removed (most of it rewritten !)
You can download KGen98 0.1b from the Genesis page.
Utility News: Patch-A-Bobble 1.1
16:17: Patch-A-Bobble 1.1 is a level editor for the arcade version of Bubble Bobble as well as Bobble Bobble & Super Bobble Bobble. It features both drag 'n' drop mode for adding features & paint mode for backdrops & airflows. You can
download Patch-A-Bobble from the recently created Arcade Utilities area.
Frontend News: SPC 1.6
15:53: SPC, the SPCPlay frontend, has been updated! The really big news this time is a Playlist. But there are other things as well.
Read:
- Added PLAYLIST system.
- Startup diagnostic full and complete.
- Fast! Click again in the selected file to play. (No need for an "OK" button)
- Fixed a bug in the rollingbar.
- Some changes in the GUI, with new elements.
- A lot of bugs were fixed.
You can get it off the SNES frontends page.
Frontend News: SPC FrontPad 0.1
15:48: Another SPCPlay frontend has entered the scene. This one is from the author of the NEORage frontend NEORage FrontPad. It's not as easy to use and does not yet have zip support, but it's worth to try.
Here's the news:
- All commands is here
- Easy to use
You can get it from the SNES Frontends pages.
Utility News: Game Gear 2 Mega Drive Convertor
11:25: Ok...to answer all the e-mails I've gotten concerning the GG2MD Convertor...first of all, run the program from DOS or a DOS Prompt, not from Windows 95. Running it from Win95 will screw up your computer...hell, running Win95 wi
ll screw up your computer. But anywayz...as for what games it works with...it doesn't work with all Game Gear ROMs & I have no idea which ROMs it does work with. If you take the time to experiment with GG2MD, then let me know which ROMs it will work with
& I'll post a list.
Utility News: Utilities Section Updates
11:09: As you've probably noticed, there have been several updates to the Utilities Section lately. I currently have 20+ utilities sitting on my HD waiting to be tested so that I can review them properly. Some of these are new, others
are older. Rest assured that I'll be putting up the most recent versions that I can find. If you know of any utilities that aren't featured on ZD or that don't have the most recent version here, make sure you contact me. All utilities news should be sent
to me, InVerse,not Zophar.