Emulator Release: NIN64 0.01 beta 3
02:23:  NIN64 is a new N64 emulator. I can't tell you much about it, since all the documentation is written in Spanish. What I do know, is that it can play many demos, and I've heard that its fast. If you want to try it out, go to the N64 page.

Site News: Poll Update
01:50:  The results are in, and the majority believes that emulation is just fine and still on a rise in the world. Still, there was also many responses saying that they believed emulation was on a decline. So who knows, we'll wait it out and worry more about the future than what's going on now and how things were.

The last poll was:

Do you believe, with recent achievements and with the equal amount of losses in the emulation scene that things are spiriling downard?

Choice 1 was: "I'm not sure i haven't been involved long enough"
It received 35 votes (8.5 percent).

Choice 2 was: "Yes, I've been able to watch the scene decline rapidly"
It received 148 votes (36 percent).

Choice 3 was: "No, I've been here through it all and I think it's still on a rise"
It received 191 votes (46.5 percent).

Choice 4 was: "I don't really care to tell you the truth"
It received 37 votes (9 percent).

After noticing Zophar's post below, the poll has been updated with none other than a brand spanking new question for you to all tackle, the main focus...rumors. Let the polling begin, head on over to the Polling Grounds and make yourself heard.

Misc. News: Anyone for a Game of Java Mrs. PacMan?
01:37:  A group called Plutonium Software made a Java version of Mrs. PacMan called "Chomper Girl". It runs really well, so go check it out. Thanks to Michael Andresen for the e-mail.

Emulator News: No, A/PMAME are NOT dead
01:26:  Am I the only person who views every website's page source? ;) I guess it's a habit from the old days of Sardu. A/PMAME, despite what the webpage says (try checking the source), has moved to the website address below. I've updated the MAME page as well.

Site News: Hello everyone!
01:21:  Yes, It's me, Zophar, with another dose of ZD fun. There are many things I want to cover in this morning's post, so I'll start off with the NSM contest.

The NSM contest #2 has ended. I'm now in the process of reviewing all of the entries, and I will have the winner announced to everyone very soon. I received a pretty good number of submissions, so I feel that we'll have a third contest soon.

Next, an issue involving rumours. As of today, June 30, 1999, I will be monitoring ZD to insure that *NO* rumours involving emulators are posted. At all. I've always believed in publishing the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The reason that ZD posted nothing on bleem! until it was released was for that very reason. It seems that many rumours have been posted lately, and now it will come to an end. We at ZD apologize for any inconvenience that any rumour posts may have caused you.

I still have about 30 more e-mails in my inbox to check, so I'll be doing that before I fall asleep. If you haven't received a reply to any e-mail you sent, it's either because it was a ROM request, or you sent it to the wrong person. Remember, I do NOT handle translations, frontends, and utilities. Please check the bottom of the front page of ZD for the correct e-mail addresses.

Remember, without the support of each and every ZD visitor, we would be nothing more than a bunch of words and HTML tags. Thanks for visiting ZD!

6/29/99
Emulator Release: Nemu64 0.5a
19:34:  This is the 2nd Nemu64 release in a day, but there is only one thing new this time. It now supports ROMs flipped with Fliprom. Get it at the N64 page.

Misc. News: Nintendo's FAQ
18:50:  It seems that Nintendo has recently changed their intellectual property FAQ. Read the original one here, and then read the recently updated version here. An example of one of the changes is that Nintendo changed the "all ROMs are illegal" part of the FAQ.

Thanks to F. Siff for the news.

Misc. News: Windows 2000 to have "game protection"
18:16:  According to BetaNews, the consumer version of Windows 2000 is going to have a "virtual v-chip", which will regulate the types of games that users can install, and on games that support it, turn off the violence. Give me a break. I'm really tired of the BS that claims that video games cause violence. This may be true for complete retards who don't know any better, but for the rest of us who have something higher than the IQ of split pea soup, no.

Thanks to finalfansix for the news. You can read the official BetaNews article here.

Misc. News: Chrono Trigger 2 rumor confirmed
18:07:  According to Reality Check, Square Co. has registered the name "Chrono Cross", and they are working on two RPGs, one named Dewprism, and another which can't be named due to confidentiality, but they said that it "starts with ch." Hmm, I wonder what it could be. ;)

Thanks to Mayhem for the news.

Misc. News: The Scribe's thoughts on the next-gen PC era
17:50:  The Scribe, author of the EmuFAQ and many compatibility charts, has written an article on the next generation PC era...

"Passing the Torch"
Thoughts on the NextGen PC wave
-------------------------------

It's amazing how far we've come in a quarter-century.

I took the time this weekend to check out TNT's movie "Pirates of the Silicon Valley," a made-for-television production about the early formative days of personal computers. Was it your typical television production - full of half-truths, media stereotyping, and not-so-subtle slams of favorite targets? Yes, it was. Did I watch it anyway? Yes, I did.

Why? Because I lived through those years.

I'm old enough to remember the MITS Altair. I'm old enough to remember those wonderful, glorious, early heady days for Apple. I'm old enough to remember the gamble IBM took with its personal computer project and that alliance that eventually made Bill Gates and Microsoft the current kings of the industry. I'm old enough to remember having to chose among the very first personal computers, and both the Apple II and IBM PC were prime candidates. I'm old enough to remember a television commercial of a man sitting all by himself in a large room with a new and revolutionary Apple computer that was to be named "Lisa." I'm old enough to remember the displacement of CP/M by Microsoft MS-DOS. I'm old enough to remember that infamous "1984" ad for the Macintosh and how that computer swept the industry. I'm also old enough to remember receiving one of the very first commercial copies of Microsoft Windows 1.0, as well as the firing of Steve Jobs by Apple. I may not have been a player in the events depicted by the TNT film, but I was one of those early users who was as eager to join the scene as that mad crowd at the Computer Faire, and I and many others of the current elders in the personal computer scene lived through that time and remember it well.

I'm not going to editorialize over what parts of the movie were right and what were wrong, why or why not the depictions of certain characters in the film (Wozniak, Jobs, Gates, Allen, and company) are correct, or even if the movie is worth repeat viewing. I would like to say, however, that you youngbloods out there need to see it at least once if you can.

Why? Why watch a second-rate documentary about computer geeks?

Two reasons. First, those computer geeks are the ones in the corporate boardrooms today. Bill Gates would not be where he is with what he has had he not taken advantage of every opportunity that he could grasp, no matter how remote. The same could be said of Steve Jobs, although history (and the film) shows that he peaked earlier in his career than his bespectacled rival. The quick-minded hackers of yesteryear are now the corporate vendor establishment of today. They know what can happen in the industry, because they helped to build it. They are now the ones in the dark suits and white shirts singing the company song - although their suits may be mismatched warmups, their white shirts may have coffee and sweat stains, and their company songs may be licensed pop tunes ("Start Me Up," for example). They are now the ones having to deal with young upstarts with fresh concepts that are new and not all that clear to them - just as was the case with Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, and IBM over two decades ago.

Second, you as the next generation of hackers are in the same shoes as those pioneers of yesteryear. You are the ones trying to buck what seems to you as an unfeeling and obtuse establishment. How soon we forget that those pioneering hackers of old said the same things in almost the same way about the establishment of their day that you are saying now. Disputes over development approaches, interest in alternate systems, and even a little "friendly borrowing" from others - none of this is new. Those guys in the corporate boardrooms were there a full two decades before you. The only problem with them, perhaps, is that they might have forgotten what it's like to really "hack." For them, it's no longer a question of finding a means to an end, but making an end in itself. The revolutionaries of yesteryear are now the Big Brother of today, and it will not be long before a new Steve Jobs or a new Bill Gates appears to throw that hammer and smash the way open to a new future for the personal computer industry.

We are already seeing signs that personal computing as a whole is currently
undergoing what amounts to a paradigm shift. Even the pioneers of old are
at something of a loss to cope with it, although not for lack of trying.

Those of us down here in emulation land can also feel it, as we go through with highly specialized videogame console emulators what Simon Douglas went through with Macintosh emulation a mere decade ago. Change is in the air - can you smell it? Are you ready to rise to the challenge of molding the NextGen revolution, or will you leave it all to the corporate big boys to subvert and eventually distort to the point of uselessness?

Are you listening, the new crop of innovators out there? Are you up to the NextGen challenge? History can and does repeat itself, and a new cycle is already underway. Can you catch the wave, or will it wash over you?

Until then, anybody know where to get an Altair emulator?

- The Scribe
26 July 1999

Emulator Release: Nemu64 0.5
12:07:  After months of waiting and looking at the great screenshots, a new version of Nemu64 has finally been released. It supports many commercial games such as Mario64, WaveRace(JAP), Mortal Kombat Trilogy, Starfox, Mario Kart, and more. Here's what's new:

*** Lemmy ***

Emulator News: Bleem! 1.3b1 is on the way
11:50:  Since a new full version of Bleem! was released, the time is right for more betas. Here's what is planned for 1.3b1:

Emulator News: Bleem! 1.2b2 Upgraded to 1.2 Full
11:46:  The last Bleem! beta has proven to be bug-free, so it was upgraded to an official full version. Here's what's new from 1.1 to 1.2:

6/28/99
Utility Release: New SPU plugin for PSemu
18:48:  Pete Bernert, author of a GPU plugin for PSemu, has now released a sound plugin. Get it from the PSemu Plugins page.

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Misc. News: Two new interviews at lator.com
17:52:  News-U-Lator, an emulation news site, is "back" with two new interviews: Gridle (The author of MAME) and lev (Owner of Emulation World/ZTNet and the one who hosts ZD). Go read them.

Emulator Release: Come Back 64 beta2 for Windows
17:33:  A new beta of the Win32 version of CB64 has been released. Here's what's new:

Misc. News: BEL-coming back?
15:49:  Backyard Emulation Links may be making a comeback! Here's what the webmaster posted:

B.E.L.'s Back???
I've had tons of email's pleading with me not to close the site down, So I've had a bit of a re-think. I'm not saying that B.E.L. will be back anytime soon - that depends on you! - but it stands a very good chance that it will re-open in the not to distant future...

Before I even think of re-opening B.E.L. I need you to do something for me... I want to get B.E.L. it's own domain name instead of using u-net's web space, and (as with most things) this isn't going to come cheap, so I have installed a banner program. All I want you to do is click on one of the banners (below) every time you visit B.E.L. That's it! Nothing more... As soon as I've generated enough money to pay for the domain I'll re open B.E.L. Now I can't say fairer than that.

Normally I'd pay for it myself, but I have an impending wedding!!!! ;)

Cheers,
Steve.

Great! Click those banners, people! ;) Thanks to Elijah Chu for the news.

Emulator News: DBoy cancellation reason
15:40:  Here's why DBoy was cancelled....

Firstly, why I decided to label it "Project halted at the moment". This is because I still do want to continue with the project, alas currently, I have no plans of restarting.

Next, why I stopped development. There are several reasons for this, but the greatest one is "I believe I've achieved my goals". I've received less mails (presumably complaints) to show for this.

The next reason why, is because I "was angry with the treatment by a magazine". I felt stupid in giving them my ok to publish their article.

(extract)
"If there is a famous gameboy emulator, it's DBOY and NO$GMB. Smart thinking by a Japanese to profiteer off the aftermath of pokemon sales (laugh)." That's all.

I only had a glimpse at the article, and so it might be worded differently, but basically, that's what it meant to say. The saying "gobsmacked" is correctly used in this case, I believe.

Another reason is because of the " forgotten existance of proper English translations". Even though there were people whom translated for me in English, I disregarded that and only translated the 'what's new' section. I complete forgot about the prescence of English. The fact that my English page was shut down, I don't think most of you know (talking to a Japanese audience). DBOY is more famous overseas than within Japan, so in this sense, I could also foresee the end of DBOY.

Other reasons also included the fact that "The level of the mentality of the users has dropped". It seems that I can apply this to all Japanese people in general, and don't you think it's about time we tried to solve this problem ourselves?

"The difference between the maker and the user" has also been a factor. The maker struggles like hell, the user doesn't, and yet still bitches about the finished product. If you hate it so much, make one yourself from scratch, that's what I think.

Lastly, the reason "I lost something to me which I always took for granted". Similar to like having a tree in the corner of the park being cut down, and not noticing at all.

One point I would like to express is that I received absolutely no pressure from Nintendo. If anyone received pressure, it would be Mr. Marat. After all, he does his business on another persons lawn.

Well, I think I'll stop developing, but I think you'll still be able to download the emu from foreign emulation news pages.

When I look again, this page might be gone completely, I might be doing something different, or there might be another DBOY. I'll choose as I please.

A final note, a D-BOY secret only people close to me know, and one you might not necessarily want to know. D-BOY is short for Dangerous Boy, Who happens to be the main character for the Space Knight Tekkaman Blade series.

Well, till we meet again.

Scratch another emulator...Thanks to Xeur666 for the translation.

6/27/99
Site News: DBoy cancellation reason
22:24:  BouKiChi has posted his reason for cancelling DBoy-but, it's in Japanese. If someone could translate it, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks to Retrogames for the news.

Misc. News: News-u-Lator back?!
19:39:  It seems that News-u-Lator has returned. cleric is no longer covering emulation news, but he has some interesting stuff up-go take a look at it!

Thanks to EmuSphere for the news.

Emulator Release: Meka 0.20
19:31:  A new version of Meka has been released, here's what's new:

Misc. News: Alone In The Dark 4 in progress
16:49:  It seems like a sequel to the Alone In The Dark games is in progress. If you want to check out a few pictures of the game and its movies go to http://www.e3.net/image_pages/Infogrames_Entertainment/314_1.asp and if you want to check out one lonely picture with the text "We're making Alone In The Dark" and a picture of what I assume is the main character then go to http://www.darkworks-studio.com/. For those of you who don't know what Alone In The Dark is it's the first Resident Evil style game ever to be released. It was really cool for being a game released at the time it was when most of everything that included 3D wasn't very good.

Emulator Release: FCE Ultra .14
15:48:  A new version of FCE Ultra came out today, here's what's new:

Emulator Release: Snes9x 1.19b39 Windows Source
15:16:  The Snes9x Windows source has been released by the author. You can download it at the SNES page. Thanks to PRext and The Clueless Gamer for their e-mails.

Misc. News: Chrono Trigger 2?!
00:01:  This article is about the possiblity of a sequel to Chrono Trigger. Since Square has not said anything yet, this rumor can't be verified, but gamers have been waiting for a sequel for so long, I expect Square to open their mouth sometime soon and finally tell us whether or not they are making another CT.

Thanks to bludstone for the news.

Site News: Save archives updated
00:01:  Updated: CHT, CS0, GS0, NeoRAGEx, NSF, NSM, SPC, SRM, ZST archives.

6/26/99
Emulator Release: MAME32 0.35RC2
23:20:  MAME32 0.35RC2 has been released, so now both the DOS and the Windows versions are up to date.

Get it from the MAME page. Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Emulator News: RockNES status update
22:45:  Over at the RockNES homepage, there is the news of progress on the emulator:

Emulator Release: True Reality for Windows Release 3
17:37:  Another version of True Reality the Nintendo 64 emulator has been released. New in this version, is the ability to play Mario 64! True Reality is the only other Nintendo 64 emulator that can play commercial games, other than UltraHLE to be released publically. Take a look.

You can download it over at the Nintendo 64 emulators page.

Emulator Release: EMU+ 0.35 RC2 DOS
12:49:  Both versions of EMU+ DOS and the source have been updated to 0.35 RC2. This puts them right along side the official MAME. Get them at the MAME page.

Emulator Release: loopyNES 6/26/99 beta
12:27:  The 6/25/99 loopyNES beta was removed from the loopyNES page due to crash problems, and a 6/26/99 beta was released. I guess it fixes those problems. Get it at the NES page.

Emulator Release: AMAME/PMAME 0.35 released
00:30:  New versions of AMAME and PMAME have been released. Go and get them from the MAME page.

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

I am sorry that this update took so long to finally do, but I had to go through a lot of trouble to get the files uploaded to the FTP server.

6/25/99
Emulator Release: Arnold/MacOS 1.0.1
22:23:  Arnold/MacOS 1.0.1 has been released... I was unable to find a what's new, however. If anyone has this information and mails it to me, I will post it.

Grab it on the Amstrad CPC emulators page.

Emulator Release: loopyNES beta 6/25/99 released
21:17:  A new version of the loopyNES "secret" beta came out today, here's what's new:

Emulator Release: CaPriCe32 1.0.1 released
21:09:  CaPriCe32 1.0.1, the Amstrad emulator, has been released. Here's what's new:

Misc. News: MAME Flyers update
20:50:  The MAME Flyers and Posters Archive has been updated to version 3.3. Go take a look. There is a page which shows the changes, available here.

Emulator Release: Hu-Go! 0.96b
19:00:  A new version of Hu-Go!, a TG16 emulator, has been released and here's what's new:

Emulator Release: MacMAME 0.35RC2
13:12:  OK, before I begin, I realize I missed MacMAME 0.35RC1, and I would like to apologize; my life has been extremely busy the past couple of weeks. In any case, Brad Oliver has updated his Macintosh port of MAME to Release Candidate 2. Here's what's new specific to the Mac version.

Translation News: Deep Dungeon 4 Complete!
09:44:  kueller of Dragoon-X translations has released the 1.0 (100%) version of his patch for Deep Dungeon IV.

You can download it off the Translations page.

Misc. News: Archaic Ruins facelift
00:58:  Archaic Ruins, one of the oldest emulation sites on the Internet, has gotten a facelift. Check it out, it looks great! It has also gotten two new staff members. Maybe we'll be seeing more frequ ent updates from AR now. :)

Emulator Release: EMU+ 0.35 RC1 DOS
00:49:  Version 0.35 RC1 of EMU+ has been released for DOS. Only the assembly version and the source are availible. Go get it at the MAME page.

6/24/99
Interview News: Interview with ___Z___ of Nemu64
17:48:  Roy Kossen has done an interview with ___Z___ of Nemu64. You can check it out here. Thanks to Roy Kossen for the news!

I would also like to make an apology to ___Z___, because I forgot to include a link to the Nemu64 page on one of my updates. You can reach the Nemu64 page here.

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.251 released
17:37:  A new version of SNEeSe has been released, here's what's new:

Emulator Release: DGen Unix v1.14
13:03:  Another new version of the Unix port of DGen, wow, it's moving fast, reminds me of DarcNES, which, coicidently, I just did an update for. Thanks again to Joe Groff for the news on his Unix port, I really appreciate it. Anyway, wha t's new from the homepage:

Emulator Release: DarcNES v990620
12:49:  Uhm, I added the source to the Unix NES page, and since XiP already did the what's new, I guess there's really nothing else to say... Ok, bye.

6/23/99
Site News: NSM contest #2 extension
22:41:  I've extended NSM contest #2 until June 27, 1999, since many people requested it, and I realize that CV2 is a longer game to complete than Metroid. You can read the rules at this page if you haven't already. Remember, the fastest time wins $20 or a pre-owned copy of FF VII PC!

Emulator Release: FCE Ultra 0.13
22:14:  A new version of FCE Ultra has been released. Here's what's new:

Emulator Release: MAME 0.35 RC2
21:25:  MAME 0.35 RC2 is out, and the final version is approaching fast. There's a lot of stuff new, so check it out here. You can download the new version at the MAME page.

Emulator Release: Bleem! Demo b22253
21:15:  A new Bleem! demo has been released. Here's what's new:

Utility Release: Hexecute 1.01
20:24:  A new version of Hexecute was recently released. It fixes a few bugs from 1.0. Get it at the translation utility page.

Utility Release: PsxPlay 1.28
20:13:  A new version of PsxPlay has been released. Since everything is in Japanese, I can't tell you what's new. What I CAN tell you is that it plays the movies off the Lunar disks really well. Get it at the PSX ultility page.

Emulator Release: DarcNES 990620 Source
20:10:  A new version of DarcNES and the source were released recently. Here's what's new:

Site News: DGen Unix v1.13
16:08:  A new version of the Unix port of Dave's DGen, Genesis emulator. I just noticed that this is probably the best Unix Genesis emulator, hmm. Thanks to Joe Groff, the author of the DGen Unix port, for the news. Anyway, here's the what's new from the homepage:

Translation News: 2 New translations...
05:42:  2 new translations released. One from Aeon Genesis Translation Proclamation, who released their patch of Dezaemon which is a shooter-maker for famicom. J2e released one of their hidden projects, STED: Starfield of Memorable Relics which is supposed to be a Phantasy Star-like RPG.

Download these off the Translations page.

6/22/99
Misc. News: News on Tristar64 and stuff.
19:00:  I have received some news about TriStar64, a device that enables you to play NES and SNES games on your N64. They have already completed the testing of over 700 NES titles and 300 SNES titles on their prototype unit, with 100% compability so far. There might be some slight issues with anti-piracy chips, though but about 99.9% of all NES titles should work OK. They have also hired a temporary employee for two weeks whose sole job is to test virtually every NES and SNES game ever produced to find out if there might be any problems with anything, and a compability list will be posted on the TriStar64 website when the testing is done (in approximately 2-3 weeks). After that testing is done they'll test all the "weird" hardware compability such as the Super GameBoy and GameGenie and anything the website visitors can think of. They also want you to report any odd NES or SNES hardware that you might know of that could be a good thing to test, so go tell 'em, hehe. The estimated retail price of the TriStar64 in USA will be $90 and the estimated release date is October 1 1999! They are also close to signing a bundle deal with a company to bundle up NES and SNES cartridges with the TriStar64. Hard to find cartridges such as PacMan will be bundled in some of the packs. The price of the TriStar bundle pack hasn't been determined yet, but expect it to be very reasonable. And for all of you who live in Europe: The Pal version of the TriStar64 is being developed right now and they're looking for exlusive distributors outside the USA. The expected European and Australian release date is November 1st 1999. Feel free to visit the TriStar64 website

Frontend News: DBoy Frontis 3.0
18:23:  DBoy Frontis, a DBOY frontend, has been updated. I'm a little bit late with this one and my sincere apologies go out to David Stankiewiz, The DBoy Frontis author, Here are the news:

Emulator News: Nemu64 news
15:55:  Here's the latest on Nemu64:

This update is to get everyone up to date on their Nemu64 information. Myself [PRext], Lemmy, and LaC have been hard at work on Nemu64 for over a month now getting it all nice for ya. It's not UltraHLE yet, but we'll get there. Lemmy has been reworking the floating point unit for increased speed and accuracy, and adding compatibilities so more games will run. He has added TLB support which allows several popular games to get much farther. Without this, you wouldn't be seeing any of the Mario or Starfox Shots. Thanks Lemmy.

LaC has been working with EEPROM support so that other games get farther. Also, he added mempack support, so all of our games should be able to be saved using the standard save spots that would normally save to the cart or mempack. Also, since he used a standard format, any of the save game sav files on dextrose and similar sites should be able to be used with Nemu64. This means that if you want to start mario with 120 stars already, it's not a problem. LaC has also started re-writing the audio interface plugin and hopefully by next (not this coming, but the one after) release you'll be hearing all the nice sounds as the programmer intended. LaC will also be working on better PIF emulation which will allow many games to work without cracks and whatnot. Thanks LaC.

What I've been up to is fairly obvious by all the screenshots we've been posting. I've been doing the graphics. I'd like to take this opportunity to let everyone know what I've been doing and clear up a few misconceptions. I'm programming the Video plugin in DirectX 6.0/6.1. There are several reasons for this. The main reason is that I wanted to learn D3D better and this was a great chance. Second is that most other emus are using OpenGL and I don't like being like everyone else. Also, the glide wrapper I worked on was in OpenGL and I wanted a change of pace. I'm not doing it in Glide because UltraHLE has that covered for now, and I don't particularly have a strong liking for the company that makes Glide. So the plugin is in DirectDraw/Direct3D. I will have several modes that you can run in. Dummy mode is the graphic off option. You get a grey screen and a really really high FPS. :) Reference Mode is using the DX reference rasterizer. This is *slow* but is the most full-featured, accurate software renderer there is for DX. Software mode is a fairly full-featured, but still relatively slow mode that uses no graphics acceleration. Hardware mode is dependent on your graphics card. It is fully accelerated, but as yet, I have made almost no hardware checks, so it does not always look right. If you card lacks a feature I use, it may not work at all. This will change in the future to increase compatability. It is mighty fast though, compared to software mode. I also support a limited wireframe mode, but it is mainly used for testing purposes. Last but certainly not least is Fullscreen mode. This can be used with any of the rendering modes stated earlier, but is currently limited to the N64's native resolution which is in most cases 320x240. I will soon (hopefully) be adding higher resolutions, but there are some compatibility issues with some demos/games that's holding me back. (The ones that UltraHLE doens't even try to run :).

I hope my little (not so little) discussion helped clear up some of the questions you might have had about who we were and what we have been up to so long. We are headed toward a full release soon, all of my efforts are now involved with getting us to a releasable state, which means I probably won't be adding new features (high res, Zelda, speed, etc) until the release after that. Drop by and see us every so often and we'll try to keep you up to date.

I can't wait to see Nemu64 running!

Emulator News: TrueReality Windows news
15:42:  I got an e-mail about TRWinGL:

Hi. Icepir8 here again. I made some progress on the rdp. fixed a small bug in the movemem routine. Mario's head is now visible. I still have a lot to do, but I am making headway.

Lots of progress going on in N64 emulation. RealityMan really started something with UltraHLE.

Media News: Dave of bleem interviewed
15:19:  Dave of bleem has been interviewed. Take a look at it here. Please note that you will need RealPlayer to listen to the interview. Thanks to HyperX for the news.

Emulator News: SNES9x news
15:07:  Here's the latest news from the SNES9x Developers' Journal:

With the availability of an English image of Mario RPG, I put on hold Windows port and 3dfx development and started work on SA-1 emulation, needed by the game. Two weeks later and the first part of the intro was up and running in C code, but a week later, still only the first part of the intro was running. Feeling fed up at the lack of progress, a switched to investigating and fixing other emulation problems, and fixed several more graphics clip window bugs and implemented horizontal offset per pixel mode.

Back on Mario RPG, I started to convert some of the C code to i386 asm, hoping to find the problem that was causing the intro to hang, it worked! I fixed the bug and Mario RPG seems to be working, a little slowly in places, but the mine cart section that ZSNES screws up works fine. zsKnight thought that was caused by a SA-1 DMA emulation problem; it can't be because I haven't implemented that yet! In fact I've hardly implemented any of the additional SA-1 hardware features, leading me to think the SA-1 is used more of a game protection device rather than a game enhancer.

Still got to look into the slow down problems, convert the SA-1 emulation to asm and play test the game some more before I can release anything (anyone got any S-RA1 files they can send from later in the game?)

Now I've got my desktop machine working again after I upgraded it (it only took 3 weeks, 6 complete Windows 98 reinstalls, a hard disk re-format, motherboard and video card bios upgrades and a new driver down-load for my scanner) and I can work on 3dfx and DirectX support again and look into the remaining Windows port sound problems (I might need some beta-testers for that).

Wow. Looks like Gary has even worse problems with his computer than I do. ;) Thanks to Hero of Time for the news.

Translation News: Sad News...
13:20:  Stovetop of J2E Translations has called it quits. Another one leaves to have a life ;)

Well, this weekend I graduated High School, which was fun and all, but now that I'm through with high school, my dad will be moving, and I will be moving to my mothers. So, I will be on very limited internet access (and having to go through aol makes it 10x worse) And all this means that I'm going to have to give up my position in J2e translations. I just don't have the time to do all that I want to do.. and I don't want to make promises I cannot keep. Like updating the page, answering e-mails, etc. I will stick around and finished DQ1&2 remix, but after that, I'm going to have to call it quits.

I'm very sad about this, J2e has given my a part of a my life that I will never forget. Even through all the e-mail and updates that took hours and sometimes days when I decided to give it a new look. But it was all worth it with all the wonderful commplements that you guys sent to us. Thank you for your all support that you have given us/me these past years. You'll never know how welcome it is.

I apologize for everytime it took me a month to reply to your e-mails, and also for failing as a webmaster to update the page on a regular basis. But even with my incredibly lazy work ethics, the support for our group never ceased. And I thank you for that as well.

Hey, and to all you people that can't stand on your own two feet, thanks for making my job a living hell! : ) Yeah, you might not think it's not that bad sending one e-mail asking a question, but just imagine answering the same question all the freakin time.. it's not fun. And I'm not the person to just blow someone off when they e-mail us, so I respond to every single lame question that I recieve. Even when the letter is one line, I still take time to respond to it. Unless it took me a month to respond, after that aol deletes the mail. I had to say that, becuase I know that someone's going to say "You suck because you didn't respond to my letter", being as lame as this scene is... Lamers kill everything..

So, I guess that's all i have to say. Again, I thank all the people that took the time to write us with their thoughts/opinions and support.

Thank You,

Stovetop/Blasted2
John Weber

We hope you have a good life...and we'll be sure to put up DQ12 when it comes out :) Thanks to Destination Emulation for the news.

Emulator Release: 1964 0.1.0
02:15:  A new version of 1964, a free-source N64 emulator project, with ports for Windows9x, has been released. Here's what's new in 1964 v0.1.0:

Site News: Lunar: SSS [Complete] article change
00:29:  As Rhonda Gibson would have said, "Oops! I bumped that." It seems that I missed something in the game, regarding a loose end. I've edited the article to reflect these changes. I've also added another little treat to the page, for those of you who go to find out what I changed. ;)

6/21/99
Emulator News: MORE Nemu64 screenshots
20:29:  Even MORE screenshots of Nemu64 in action are available at the Nemu64 page. There's also a compatibility list available. If the progress continues at the rate it is going, we're going to have another UltraHLE on our hands!

Misc. News: Geechyguy leaves the scene
18:39:  Geechyguy, former SNES Emulation Centre staff member, has now left them emulation scene. You can see his closing message here. *sigh*

Misc. News: News-u-Lator shuts down
18:17:  News-u-Lator has shut down. I wish cleric the best of luck... :/

Misc. News: New EmuFAQ released
15:47:  The Scribe has released a new version of his EmuFAQ. Get it here. It talks about the history of emulation, and other things.

Translation News: Zzzzz.....
15:22:  I'm gonna have to kill brad after this for dissing Phacia :P

Emulator Release: PX-Mame v0.35rc1.1
09:16:  Well, there's a new release of PX-Mame, first version on ZD, I didn't know they existed. Anyway, one for X11 one for Svaglib. Same features and what's new from X-Mame version 0.35rc1.1 except pentium optimized. Ok, bye.

Unix Arcade page.

Site News: Article #13: Lunar: Silver Star Story [Complete] thoughts
05:53:  It's amazing, but after over a year of me writing no articles, I've decided to write one! This article is all about my thoughts on Lunar: Silver Star Story [Complete], english version, for the PSX. Be warned, however, it contains *SPOILERS*, so do NOT read it if you haven't played the game yet. There's also an extra treat for anyone who reads the whole thing straight through... :)

Emulator News: HelloGB site closes down
05:23:  The official homepage of HelloGB (a Gameboy emulator for Windows9x) has closed down. The author has posted the following message (in rather cryptic english):

Hey,

I hear to the rumor that Nintendo might do legal behavior in emulation scene of Gameboy from the authorities.

This may be a mere groundless rumor, but everybody knows that Gameboy is the machine of main force of Nintendo even the present. Though I don't think that emulator itself is illegal, but, there is a fact that emulator influences an illegal act in consequence.

I don't know whether the rumor is truth, but I decided site to be closed for a while.

Poor English sorry.

Thanks for reading,
1999.06.20
-pop3

Thanks to Mog The Moogle for the news. It's a shame whenever an emulator is no more, especially when it's due to fear of legal action from giant game companies.

6/20/99
Misc. News: NeoCD FAQ
22:11:  I posted a NeoCD FAQ on the Neo-Geo page. Go and read it if you use the emulator.

Emulator Release: RockNES 0.91
19:32:  A new version of RockNES is finally out! Here's what's new in this release:

Misc. News: Some GameBoy free ROMs
18:59:  Here's some new free ROMs for GameBoy. It's the original Zork text adventures 1-3 for gameboy.

You can download them from the GameBoy free ROMs page.

Emulator Release: TrueReality v1999061801
18:53:  New TrueReality, granted it's not the new version that is capable of running Mario64 (whoo), but the next best thing, eh? Oh, and the TR homepage moved to www.emuhq.com (free plug), I don't know how long the link on the N64 page was broken... What's new:

Emulator Release: New Bleem! beta
18:33:  Another beta of Bleem! has been released this new version has a few things new and here's a list:

Emulator Release: DarcNES v990619
09:46:  New version of DarcNES, these repeatative updates are getting repeatative, NES, SMS, and PCE emulator. What's new:

Emulator Release: Basilisk II v0.6a
09:10:  New version of Basilisk II, "An Open Source 68k Mac emulator". Apparently there's only a source distribution for this version right now. Thanks to Digital2k for the news. Here's the what's new from their homepage:

Emulator Release: DGen v1.12 for Unix
08:41:  Yes, you did read that correctly. As Dave has released the source to his DGen, Genesis emulator, it has been ported to Unix. There's a binary from Debian Linux and source code. There's no what's new, since this is jus the port o f v1.12 for DOS/Win.

Unix Genesis page.

Translation News: Seiken Densetsu 3 Update
07:47:  Neill Corlett has updated the SD3 webpage to state that the project is currently 85% complete.

Get your latest news at the Official SD3 Translationpage.

Translation News: Regarding Tales of Phantasia post....
07:42:  Although im still unsure of why emufreak is doing my news, Trans-tech has basically been idle for over a couple months. Theres *ANOTHER* group who is still doing ToP, so please dont worry.

Misc. News: Stephen King hurt in Accident
00:26:  I was scanning CNN news and I found out that Stephen King had been seriously hurt in a car accident! Here's a quote from their article:

King was walking south on the shoulder of Route 5 in North Lovell, where he owns a home, at about 4:30 p.m. when a motorist approaching from behind lost control of his Dodge Caravan because of a dog that was running loose inside, Oxford County Sheriff's deputy Matt Baker said.

I know I read and love a lot of Stephen King novels... let's just hope he comes out of this all right. You can read the full article here.

6/19/99
Misc. News: MAME WIP page update
21:00:  The MAME WIP page has had a big update, with news of quite a few new drivers. Go check it out.

Emulator Release: ZX Plus 0.21
19:12:  ZX Plus, a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K and 128K emulator for Windows 9x that uses DirectX, has been released. Here are the news:

Misc. News: Final Fantasy Movie Cast Announced
13:11:  Square has announced the cast for the Final Fantasy Movie! This is a completely computer-animated movie due out in 2001. Here are the voices that have been announced so far. Drumroll please...

Misc. News: EmuFAQ 061799
11:56:  The Scribe has updated his "Emulation, Right or Wrong?" document. There have been many new changes in this release, including a new part and some rewriting.

Grab EmuFAQ here. This is a ZIP file, so you'll have to download it to read it.

Emulator News: NES Emulator Compatibility Chart
11:18:  RougeX is arranging a compatibility chart for the most popular NES emulators to date. So far he's tested only a few things and will be updating weekly, check it out over here.

Media News: House rejects media violence bill
11:15:  Another attempt by government officials to ban violence and sexual content in media fails. Thanks to Aeryk for this article:

WASHINGTON -- In a victory for the entertainment industry, the House refused Wednesday to curb youth access to explicit sexual or violent material in video games, movies and elsewhere in modern-day culture. The vote was 282-146 and came as lawmakers in both parties said the restrictions would have violated the Constitution's free speech guarantee. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., authored the proposed curbs on sexual and violent material for minors, saying they were designed to "slow the flood of toxic waste into our kids' minds." "Parents need our help. Let's stand with them. Nothing we do in this life is more important than how we raise our children," the House Judiciary Committee chairman said. The proposal called for curtailing minors' access to pictures, drawings, video games, movies, books, recordings or other materials containing certain "explicit sexual material or explicit violent material." The measure drew the opposition of both Democrats and Republicans who cited concerns about the First Amendment.

Nice try, stay out of our damned games though.

Site News: Guess who's back?
01:47:  Yes, it's Zophar, back after my 8-day extended "vacation" from the internet! It's been a great week, let me tell you. I finished Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete today, and it's the *BEST* RPG I've ever played. While I do have some nitpickings about the music soundtrack, everything else beat the original Lunar for the Sega CD into the ground! I won't spoil anything on the main page for those who haven't played it yet, but I will be writing an article on it sometime this week, expressing everything I feel about the remake. Be warned though, the game is addicting! Once you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down. I also purchased Xenogears (which I haven't touched yet)... I'll be playing that over the next few days (or weeks?) as soon as I figure out how to find the time!

I got a part-time job at Best Buy. I'll be starting Monday (I hope everything goes well). Basically, my hours change from week to week. I'm working 30 hours this week, which is less than my usual 42.5 hours (that's because this job is only part-time), but that means more time to work on ZD and RPGs, right? ;)

I'm checking my 500+ e-mails as we speak, so be patient if you're awaiting a response. I'll also be going over the various NSM submissions I've received... if you haven't heard about it yet, head on over to the NSM contest rules and read about it for yourself.

Kudos to the ZD staff, each and every one of them. They've certainly outdone themselves, and I'm proud of them. Maybe they'll get a $0.00 raise, up from their current $0.00. ;) I'd also like to say farewell to Stick Figure, who was with ZD for nearly a year. He maintained the poll at one point, and we'll miss him. He was a great addition to ZD.

Yep, we need a new tech docs maintainer now! You have to be at least 18 years old to apply, and have some knowledge of technical documentation. You also need to be available at least 8 hours a week to be able to devote to ZD. If you think you fit the qualifications, then send me an e-mail at zophar@voicenet.com.

But give me a chance to check all of my e-mails first! ;) By the way... DIVX is DEAD! Hehe... for those of you have been visiting ZD for a while, we used to have a "Ban Divx" button on our website. I predicted the death of Divx, but I didn't think they would give up so quickly. (For those who are uninformed, Divx was like a DVD standard that let you "rent" DVDs without having to return them). You can read more about it at this site.

I have a lot more to say, so if you want to find me on #zopharsdomain, I'll be there late tonight. Remember, ZD is nothing without all of its visitors who have been supporting it. Thanks for visiting ZD!

Emulator Release: AMAME and PMAME 0.35RC1
01:20:  AMAME and PMAME, two CPU-optimized versions of MAME, have been updated to the latest MAME version. Here's what's new specific to these versions:

Emulator Release: Pretendo 0.04
01:04:  Pretendo, a NES emulator for Win9x, has been updated. Here's the scoop:

Interview News: Interview with Dave of DGEN/DTMNT
00:50:  Fixo has done an interview with Dave of DGen and DTMNT. You can read it here. It is pretty good, go read it. Thanks to Fixo for the news!

6/18/99
Site News: Poll Updated
23:38:  Well the results are in, and it's a close one but everyones favorite GameBoy emulator is..........No$GMB! Here are the specific results for each emulator:

Which Gameboy emulator do you use?

Choice 1 was: "NO CASH GMB, the emulator for poor people!"
It received 70 votes (23 percent).

Choice 2 was: "Say Hi to HelloGB"
It received 49 votes (16.1 percent).

Choice 3 was: "SmyGB is my heart's desire"
It received 56 votes (18.4 percent).

Choice 4 was: "I'm so rich, I can afford VGB"
It received 37 votes (12.1 percent).

Choice 5 was: "I'll Boycott all the other emulators and get Boycott!"
It received 4 votes (1.3 percent).

Choice 6 was: "I understand Japanese, so I use DBoy"
It received 68 votes (22.3 percent).

Choice 7 was: "Gameboy 98 is good enough for me!"
It received 21 votes (6.9 percent).

The new poll is based on the recent advances and losses in the emulation scene, with achievements such as Bleem! and UltraHLE, and emulators of that sort, there are still losses such as PSemu's end. Cast your vote over at the Polling Grounds.

Emulator News: MORE Nemu64 pictures
21:00:  The amount of pictures is getting crazy. Dave's Classics has posted some MORE pictures of Nemu64 in action. Check them out here.

Emulator News: SNES9x Windows port news
20:42:  Here's the latest on the Windows port from the SNES9x Developer's Journal:

The next Windows port(which will be released within a day or two) will have ZIP support like some of the other ports of SNES9x and like the upcoming version of ZSNES. I will also be releasing the source code, hoping that people will help eliminate bugs in the Windows port.

For now, you can get the latest SNES9x for Windows at the SNES page. Thanks to Pikaraichu and Hero of Time for the news.

Misc. News: EliteGamer shuts down
18:16:  EliteGamer has been shut down, maybe forever, maybe just temporarily. You can read the message here. It talks about Sony and bleem and the infamous legal problems going on between them. Unfortunately, it seems the legal problems extended beyond just bleem, Sony, and beta testers. Hopefully the site will come back up. Excuse me while I write some mail to Sony, as if they're going to actually reply...

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Misc. News: NeoN shuts down
17:49:  NeoN, a Neo Geo ROM dumping team, has shut down due to bankruptcy, lamers, and other things. You can read the closing message here. Please note that some people may be offended by the closing message.

Thanks to Retrogames for the news.

Emulator Release: ZX 0.5 Beta
14:18:  ZX 0.5 Beta has been released. ZX is a ZX Spectrum 48k emulator for Windows 9x with DirectX. This is the first English version of ZX. Here's what's new:

Emulator Release: v7800 0.12
14:03:  v7800, the only Atari 7800 emulator avaliable for Windows 9x, has been updated. Here's what's new:

Site News: I'm quitting.
09:25:  Well, it's been a nice nine months working on Zophar's Domain, but I have to bail. I think that I just don't have the enthusiasm to keep at it. Need proof of that? Look at the last time I did an update. I'd like to thank Zophar fo r giving me the chance to work on ZD, and everyone who has made working on it interesting.

My current plans after this are to begin doing reviews on 3DGaming.Net again. That's another reason why - I don't want my time to go down the toilet.

Bye-bye.

Emulator News: More Raine Shots
08:01:  There have been new screenshots posted on the Raine site about a new game called Strahl, which is like P-47. Also, this was taken from the Raine page:

BTW, this board was bought with money sent from Raine fans out there! Thanks again to all that contributed to make this happen. Without your support this game wouldn't be emulated so quickly!

It's so nice to see what people can do sometimes... get the shots and more at the Raine homepage.

Emulator Release: X-Mame v0.35rc1.1
07:19:  A new version of the X-Mame, multiple arcade machine emulator of Unix/X, released. The Unix port has now, finally, caught up with the DOS port again. What's new in this version, you ask?

6/17/99
Emulator Release: GLMAME32 v0.35RC1
22:44:  GLMAME32 has been updated updated to the latest MAME version, 0.35RC1. GLMAME is an OpenGL enhanced version of MAME which improves the video greatly. Grab it on the MAME page.

Emulator Release: NeoCD 0.40 released
22:32:  NeoCD is the world's first Neo-Geo CD emulator to play games! I haven't tested it, as I have no CDs for it, but if you do, give it a try, and tell me what you think of it so I can stick something useful in the description box on the Neo-Geo page. Source code is available for download also.

Thanks to Voxxel for the news.

Emulator Release: NeoRAGEx 0.6b released
20:27:  Here's what's new in NeoRAGEx 0.6b:

Emulator Release: SNES9x for Windows 1.19a38 released
19:28:  This is only a minor update of the program. Here's what's new:

Misc. News: A reader's thoughts on videogame violence
18:47:  I got an e-mail with an excellent article by a ZD reader on video game violence. You can read it here. I highly suggest you read it.

Misc. News: Article on Dreamcast
18:37:  WiredNews did an article on the Dreamcast.

Dreamcast's Worst Nightmare

Thanks to yahiko-ch for the news.

Misc. News: Interesting site
18:33:  I received news of a page about a group which is against the censorship of games. You can see the page here. Make sure you take a look at the Congressional bills section.

Misc. News: Bill for blocking violence in video games rejected
18:19:  I'm sure happy that the idiotic bill to block people under the age of 18 from buying games with violence/etc. was rejected. Read this:

WASHINGTON -- In a victory for the entertainment industry, the House refused Wednesday to curb youth access to explicit sexual or violent material in video games, movies and elsewhere in modern-day culture. The vote was 282-146 and came as lawmakers in both parties said the restrictions would have violated the Constitution's free speech guarantee. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., authored the proposed curbs on sexual and violent material for minors, saying they were designed to "slow the flood of toxic waste into our kids' minds." "Parents need our help. Let's stand with them. Nothing we do in this life is more important than how we raise our children," the House Judiciary Committee chairman said. The proposal called for curtailing minors' access to pictures, drawings, video games, movies, books, recordings or other materials containing certain "explicit sexual material or explicit violent material." The measure drew the opposition of both Democrats and Republicans who cited concerns about the First Amendment.

Thanks to Aeryk for the news.

Frontend News: StartRAINE 0.23.2
17:43:  A new version of Dennis Piet's RAINE frontend StartRAINE has been released and here are the news:

Translation News: Hacks update
16:38:  Updates:

BS Zelda Hack: Roto has made a BS Zelda hack which enables sound, and cuts off that nasty time limit.

Final Fantasy 6 Hack: Changes some things around such as changing Shadow into Clyde

Download them off the Hacks page.

Emulator News: New UltraHLE compatibility list
12:38:  A new UltraHLE compatibility list has came out, you can see it here. The list is used with .ini version 1-E2. It also includes almost playable games, and games that will do an intro only.

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news on the new list. The ini file is available on the N64 page.

Emulator News: EVEN MORE Nemu64 screenshots
11:46:  The official Nemu64 page has posted some screenshots of StarFox 64 running on Nemu64. Will the screenshots ever stop?

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

6/16/99
Emulator News: More Nemu64 screenshots
23:30:  The screenshots just keep coming in. There are a bunch of new ones at this site.

Thanks to Cadillac Joe for the news.

Emulator Release: MSX 2 0.04
17:52:  MSX 2, the MSX 1, 2 and 2+ emulator for Windows 9x, has been updated. This new release is just a bugfix and it fixes a small bug in the VDP-handling.

You can download it from the MSX emulators page.

Emulator News: MORE Nemu64 screenshots
12:46:  There's plenty of progress on Nemu64, it seems. There are more screenshots, showing transparencies and other stuff in software mode (hardware mode doesn't work very well at the moment).

Nemu64 homepage-contains screenshots and other stuff

Thanks to EmuHQ for the news.

Emulator News: Lewpy talks about PSEmu
12:41:  Lewpy has written an article on the current state of his plugin for PSEmu, and just in general about the current state of the program. You can read the article here.

Thanks to EmuSphere for the news.

Misc. News: Interview with Jeff Miller
09:30:  Fixo has interviewed Jeff Miller (Stella, MAME, etc.), Jeff talks about his emulation projects, the future of emulation, and other things. The link. Thanks to Fixo for the news.

Emulator Release: New Bleem! beta (v1.2 b1)
09:13:  A new Bleem! beta released today. This one, again, requires a CD key to run, paying customers only. Here are some listed improvements, from the Bleem! page:

Misc. News: NES Emulator Compatability List
08:10:  RougeX (my clone, perhaps?) has submitted a new NES emu/ROM compatability list for us. Now, you have no excuse to ask what the best emulator for your ROM is, that is, if you're into that sort of thing. You can find this on the regular old NES page. My name is rouge, and I thank you for your time.

Misc. News: Government Push to Censor Games
00:29:  Stalphos Knight informed me of an article on GameSpot which discusses the new game censorship bill:

Hyde's measure as it stands would seek to bar minors from viewing or buying certain video games, books, pictures, and films if the materials qualified as obscene or being "designed to appeal or pander to the prurient, shameful, or morbid interest." The Republican chairman has defined violent material as items depicting sadistic or masochistic flagellation, torture, acts of mutilation, or rape.

I for one think this bill is a flagrant violation of our first amendment rights, and is also extremely vague. Please call your local congress persons and ask them to vote no! Once again, thanks to Stalphos Knight for the news.

6/15/99
Emulator Release: DGen 1.12 released
23:06:  DGen 1.12 was released, here's what's new:

Emulator News: More Nemu64 pictures
20:39:  EmuHQ has more photos of Nemu64 in action!

Jeopardy title screen
Mario64 title screen-This may not look any different, but it is: on the old Mario64 title screen picture, the Nintendo text and the copyright text were screwed up

Thanks to Cadillac Joe for the news, and for saying that he hopes that ZD stays around forever. :D

Emulator Release: VirtualE
20:24:  VirtualE 1.0 has been released. It's been about 2 months since its last release and it's been well worth the wait. Chock full of fixes, here's what's new:

Interview News: 3 interviews at Emulation Zone
18:49:  Emulation Zone has got 3 interviews up with zsKnight, Gollum and Martin Korth up in their interviews section. Feel free to go check them out. Thanks to EvilRyu for the news.

Misc. News: Two interesting articles
15:26:  Here are two interesting articles (thanks to News-u-Lator for the links):

PS2 Too Powerful for China?-shows that the US government is even more retarded than we thought
N64 modem-sounds like XBAND (anyone remember that?)

Emulator News: SNES9x Windows port news
12:43:  Here's what's new from the SNES9x developer's journal concerning the Windows port:

If all goes well, a new version of the Windows port will be released soon, I will be updating the interpolation routines written by Kreed, these are now faster and will support 15-bit RGB display modes... Although I have not verified this, I also have a feeling that it will work on non-RGB modes(like BGR modes) used on some cards... Also, if all goes well, I'll add cheat-support too...

Thanks to EmuSphere for the news.

Emulator News: Bleem beta news
12:39:  Here's what will be in the latest beta of bleem (which is not out yet):

Emulator Release: AMame and PMame
07:43:  Rodimus Prime has updated his AMD and Pentium optimized versions of M.A.M.E. to be up to date with the latest M.A.M.E. 0.35 RC1. Remember, these are pretty much the exact same thing as M.A.M.E. 0.35 RC1 official, but optimized for AMD and/or Pentium systems.

You can get the new AMame and PMame from the M.A.M.E. page.

6/14/99
Emulator News: New Nemu64 screenshots
20:20:  EmuHQ has some screenshots of Nemu64 running Mario 64 with filled polygons and some quick news about it.

SM64 title screen
Mario's head
The princess

Thanks to cadillacjoe for the news.

Misc. News: Article on video games that never made it
19:13:  Videogames.com did an article on games that never made it, and it is quite interesting. It mentions quite a few games, including Earthbound. You can view the article here.

Thanks to Crono for the news!

Emulator News: FPSE 0.5 changes
19:01:  Here's whats new in FPSE 0.5, which I updated about earlier:

Emulator Release: 1964 0.0.18
18:58:  1964, the open source N64 emulator has been updated. Both new binaries and source code has been added. Here's the news:

Emulator Release: Neo-RAGEx v0.6
20:47:  A new version of Neo-RAGEx has been released, excellent. Here's the what's new from the readme:

Emulator Release: MAME 0.35 RC1
20:43:  At long last, it looks like we will soon see the final version of MAME 0.35. MAME 0.35 RC1 was released today. Download it at the MAME page. Also, be sure to check what's new.

Emulator Release: Ultee 0.12
18:20:  Ultee, a NES emulator being programmed in Delphi by Vincent, has been updated. Here are the highlights of this version:

Misc. News: Sqrxz v0.95 Color Gameboy ROM released
15:58:  Icarus Productions has released version 0.95 of their Color Gameboy game Sqrxz. This is a run and jump game where you guide Sqrxz the bug through tricky levels to get him to his home. Avoid spiketraps, nasty blobs, dangerours hedgehogs and flying bats! This is a Color Gameboy ROM and runs best in No$GMB.

Grab yourself a copy in the Freeware Gameboy ROM area.

Emulator Release: FPSE 0.5 released
15:09:  A new version of FPSE, the new PlayStation emulator, has been released. You can get it from the PlayStation page. If anyone can read Japanese, please tell me the changes, and I'll post them here.

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Emulator Release: NESemu8 0.01b released
14:55:  A new NES emulator called NESemu8 has been released today. It doesn't support very many games, and the sound is awful, but it should improve over time. Get it at the NES page.

Thanks to Martin F. for the news.

6/12/99
Utility Release: GYMX version 0.1.2
23:52:  The first ever GYM player, has been renamed (from GYMPlay to GYMX), and a new version has been released. Nothing new from what the readme has told me, but hey, get it if you like Genesis music.

You can download it at the GYM Players / Utilities page.

Utility Release: Danji Conversion tool Version 1.0 Beta 5
23:38:  Danji Conversion tool Version 1.0 Beta 5 was released. Danji is a utility to make easier conversion of neogeo roms to Danji format. Here's what's new:

Utility Release: RomZIP version 0.5
23:26:  A general utility for zipping ROMs has been released. Many people say it is inspired from the new Zsnes that is soon to be released with ZIP support. Check it out.

You can download it at the General Utilities page.

Utility Release: AGE version 0.7
23:13:  AGE, an arcade graphic editing utility has been upgraded to version 0.7. And here are the new features:

Media News: MacWorld articles on VGS
22:45:  Here are the scans that I promised:

Page one
Page two

Utility Release: Pete's OpenGL plugin 1.16 released
20:47:  A new version of Pete's OpenGL plugin for PSEmu has been released. You can download it at the PSEmu plugins page.

Thanks to Daniel Farstad for the news.

Site News: Save archives updated
19:46:  Updated: GS0, NeoRAGEx, NSF, NSM, SPC, SRM, STA, ZST archives.

Misc. News: UltraINI 1E-2
19:36:  The ultra.ini file for UltraHLE has been update to version 1E-2 and with this update comes a few nice things. Have a look for yourselves:

Emulator Release: Bleem v1.1 Final
14:01:  Bleem! has been upgraded to v1.1 FULL, there is nothing new code wise since version 1.1b2 so unless you just want to go to FULL there's no need to download the new one. Straight from their page here's what they said:

Beta Version 1.1b2 has been upgraded to v1.1 FULL. (You do not need to re-download it, if you have the beta, it is the SAME exe). We are happy to start taking reports on this version of bleem! Full version 1.0 will no longer be supported. A new series of betas will be showing up soon, I mentioned a bit about it yesterday. (Thanks for the note AnEvilYak, date corrected.)

You can get the new Bleem! from The Bleem! Page.

6/11/99
Media News: More media attention on emulation
23:54:  Updates.com has done an article on emulation. You can read it here.

Thanks to Moogle Madness for the news.

Interview News: Interview with loopy
23:05:  Archaic Ruins has done an interview with loopy of loopyNES. You can read it here.

Related link: loopyNES "secret" page

Utility Release: BGMapper .162
22:33:  WOW! A new version of BGMapper has been released. I havent updated this utility in a while, because I didnt get an e-mail. :) Well here is what's new in this version since my last update:

- Nicer looking scene viewing keyhelp
- VRAM graphics exporting, all sprites and tilesets (by pressing 0 in graphics viewer or selecting from scene export menu)
- Subscreen/mainscreen layering fixed
- Allow mainscreens and subscreens to be toggled on/off
- Set key for merging screens of games that use transparency. Should greatly improve viewing in some cases (press '7')
- Add little messages to let you know what happens
- Raw palette exporting (also by pressing 0)
- Different color palettes for each bg in mode 0
- '-info' startup switch

Well there ya go! You can download the most up to date version, at the SNES Utilities page.

Utility Release: MarioRPG Savestate editor .5
22:08:  A new utility has been released named MarioRPG editor. It lets you edit the EXP levels, FP levels, and the amount of coins you have. It edits ZSNES save states .800c only. Check it out, I'm making a VC++ port of it now, to make it not require runtime files. I am just about done now.

You can see it for yourself at the SNES Utilities page.

Emulator News: New RockNES soon
21:58:  According to the RockNES page, a new version should be released soon.

RockNES homepage

Misc. News: Tristar64.com update
21:53:  Wow! Tristar64.com is going to be my homepage for a while until their TRISTAR64 comes out! This thing is awsome! It lets you play N64, SNES, and your NES games on the N64! And on top of that, it looks very good for an accessory! They also have Gameboy Blaster for the N64 which enables you to play GameBoy games on the N64! They also have the Gameboy Blaster for the PSX almost the same as the N64 version, but this enables you to play them on the PSX! If you think the N64 version is pointless, that all you have to do, is get the Tristar64, and a Super GameBoy, and then play the game like that.... go ahead... hehe. But this way, all you need is the Gameboy Blaster, which (get this) is only 34.95 US!!!!!!!!!!! You can't buy a Color Gameboy for that price... and this plays both Color gameboy, AND original gameboy games!! I say you should buy this right now! I know I am gonna get one... and I will get a Tristar64 aswell. I wish the very best for Tristar64.com and Ultimate Videogame Accessories.

Misc. News: New arcade games site
19:17:  A new arcade games such, with a lot of Space Invaders stuff on it has been launched and is available for your viewing at http://www.spaceinvaders.de. Feel free to check it out.

Misc. News: Emulation Ireland shuts down...
18:35:  Because of the death of PSEmu. The leaked beta that caused the new version of this emulator not to be released is one of the biggest happenings for emulation this year. On the other hand it's not really for the good of emulation. Anyway, this guy closed down his site Emulation Ireland (which I was unable to find the former URL for, sorry) as an apology for posting the leaked beta there. I think it's a good thing that someone realized that it was wrong to have it available for download and removed it. He is starting up a new site, though, but I don't think it'll carry any leaked betas, hehehe.

Misc. News: 3Dfx sues yet another company
18:12:  Add 3Dfx to the list of companies that have way too much time on their hands. 3Dfx is now suing Creative Labs, the company which made the Sound Blaster and many other multimedia accessories. Read more about it here.

Thanks to Jeff Green for the news.

Misc. News: Mega Man NES games rerelease
12:43:  Capcom is planning on rereleasing their Mega Man NES games for the PlayStation. Unfortunately, they will be sold separately, not one just one CD. You can read more about it here.

Thanks to EmuSphere for the news.

Emulator News: Bleem bits
11:57:  1. Bleem beta testers have been subpoenad by Sony. Can't Sony find something better to do with their time?

2. Bleem has updated their site with a new look, news of a new beta, and a contest for free copies of bleem.

Thanks to EmuSphere for both bits of news!

Media News: Austin Chronicle article on emulation
11:51:  More media attention to emulation! The Austin Chronicle has done an article on emulation, mostly about Atari emulation. You can read it here.

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Emulator Release: StellaX 1.1.2
11:39:  A new version of the Win32 port of Stella has been released. I can't tell you what's new, because the documentation doesn't say. However, you can pick it up at the link below, and I'll get the what's new posted ASAP.

6/10/99
Misc. News: Another editorial
22:33:  I received news on another editorial on emulation. You can see it here. It's pretty good!

Thanks to George Moffitt for the news.

Site News: WHOO!
19:02:  I've finally received Lunar: Silver Star Story! I can't begin to tell you guys how excited I am about this. For over 5 years, I've waited for the remake, and here it is!

As such, I will be taking a leave of absence from ZD until I play through Lunar: SSS Complete, in its entirety. In my absence, [NOAM], _Bnu and XiP will be doing the updates that I would normally do, so please e-mail them, not me, with updates.

To anyone who needs to contact me, have patience. After nearly 3 years of doing this non-stop, I'm taking my first true leave. I'd like to have some fun myself, you know. ;)

Thanks for visiting ZD! See you in a few days!

Emulator Release: New 1964 0.0.17 Binaries and Source code
18:44:  The binaries and sourc code for 1964, the open source Nintendo 64 emulator, has been updated. Here's the news:

Emulator News: PSEmu is really dead...
00:09:  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but yes, it's true. PSEmu is officially dead. It appears as though a certain person at a certain emulation site twisted his e-mails up and around and all over the place, and the e-mail he descr ibed in fact was received before the decision to kill PSEmu. This is the real thing, this post is supported by Zophar.

This truly is a loss for the emulation community, and it's too bad that one person ruined this whole great project by leaking the beta. Best of luck to the PSEmu team!

PSEmu homepage.

6/9/99
Emulator Release: DGen/MacOS 1.0.9c
23:10:  This is a minor update to DGen for Macintosh; here's the what's new:

Site News: Quickie update
18:26:  Here's a quickie update, just so you know I'm the new polls maintainer. I've got a few nifty polls in my head to try out in the next few weeks, so sit tight and we'll see what's next.

Emulator Release: SMSFan Plus 1.09m
17:38:  A new release of SMSFan Plus, a shareware Sega Master System emulator for Windows9X is now available. Here's the translated changes since version 1.08, thanks to Steven Livingston:

Utility Release: FPCE ID 2.0
14:50:  A new utility for Hu-Go, the Pc-Engine/TG16 emulator, was just released. This utility helps you sort all the roms, rename them, and delete duplicates. It's great for people that doesn't have the time to screen them. You can get it from our TurboGrafx 16 page.

Interview News: "Some guy" interviewed
14:28:  Necromancer VMX has interviewed a prominent webmaster at his site. You may want to read this interview, since you'll learn more about the person being interviewed by going to the link below . ;)

Misc. News: SNES RPG FAQ Release 1
11:59:  Alex W. Jackson has submitted SNES RPG FAQ Release 1 to us. It is a compilation of the questions he is most frequently asked about running RPGs in emulators. Grab it at the link below.

Emulator Release: GrayBox 0.3
11:36:  Well, it seems as though a new version of Graybox was released a couple of weeks ago and I missed it. Here's what's new:

Media News: PS emulation article in July GamePro
11:33:  Well, we have a scan of the article in GamePro about PlayStation emulation. It talks about not only VGS, but Bleem! as well.

Go check it out here.

Thanks to Zulu for the scan.

Misc. News: Stuff
03:46:  Sorry for the lack of updates by me lately, but I've been kind of not so motivated to use computers since I've been stuck with my P100 fitted with 24 MB of RAM for about a week now. I hope you can imagine how hard it is to do some thing on a computer which causes CuteFTP to crashe every time you launch it and takes IE5 one and a half hour to start up. But hopefully enough I'll get my 128 MB DIMM today and be back in full force again.

Site News: Zophar's Dungeon
03:20:  Before reading this, be sure to check below for NSM Contest #2, if you haven't read it already.

I'm still awaiting my copy of Lunar: Silver Star Story complete (never, ever order anything from Funcoland, you'll regret it). I've tried to deal with it by playing FF7 for PSX, and Resident Evil: Director's cut. However, it's been to no avail. All I know is that once it does arrive, I probably won't be doing a single update (except maybe my progress in the game) on ZD until I beat it. The ZD staff will have to work double time!

Tomorrow, I get the results of my drug test that Best Buy had me take. Unless I ate too many poppy seeds, I don't anticipate there being any problems. My starting salary is $7.25/hour. Go me.

Was it just me, or was the revelation of "The Greater Power" on last nights WWF Raw the stupidest, most non-sensical piece of trash that the world has ever seen? I truly thought that at that moment, Eric Bischoff had taken over the booking scene for the W WF.

Once again, remember that without the support of all ZD's millions... (pause), and millions of fans.. we'd be lost. Thanks for visiting ZD!

Site News: NSM contest #2
03:12:  Well, lots of people have flung Klingon food at me, but it's OK, because I love the taste of dried worms! Anyway, the NSM contest #2 is now ready to be announced! This month's contest is Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. I know, it's an even longer game to complete than Metroid, but this month's prize is better!

You'll win a boxed copy (pre-owned) of Final Fantasy VII PC! If you prefer cash, you will win $20 (US currency) instead. Your name will also go down in ZD history, and you'll be placed on the "NSM Hall of Fame" page when it is opened. When I start making more money, the prizes will get even better!

Complete rules & contest information are available by reading the NSM: rules & regulations text sheet. All submissions MUST be e-mailed to me by June 23, 1999. No exceptions!

Thanks for visiting ZD, and may the best man (or woman) win!

Emulator Release: EMU+ Adds Support for 2 New Games
02:08:  The EMU+ author has added support for Pop 'n Bounce and Shock Troopers 2 to the latest version of EMU+. You can download this updated version at the MAME page.

Emulator Release: Bleem! (beta) full v22126
01:25:  A new, full version, of the Bleem! beta has been released. This is the paying customer version, so don't get too excited if you're poor like I am. Two things worked on, if you had problems reading the CD key, you're probably set now and clipping problems (Grand Turismo, 2-player mode) have been fixed/worked on. Well, that's all for now, hopefully you're getting your Bleem! dollar's worth now. And, of course, this new version is available at www.Bleem.com.

Emulator News: Nemu64 continued
01:15:  Although this news is a few days old, it's new to ZD, so why not? Lemmy has decided to continue his N64 emulator project, Nemu64. From the homepage:

After several discussions with team members and authors of other emulators I decided to make Nemu public as it was before. It has been some time, so first of all a status update.

Our team consists of Lemmy (cpu core and main programmer of the emu), LaC (eeprom, audio and responsible for hacking out a lot of useful info), hWnd (Direct3D graphics plugin), Fires (OpenGL graphics plugin), TheN64Fan (mail), Zoric and Coolbest (Alpha testers) and soon ___Z___ (who designed a kickass new layout).

So what's the latest on Nemu? The cpu core is now about twice as fast as it was in the last release version, but I can still speed it up with better register caching. The Direct3D Graphics plugin plays 2D games like Mortal Kombat and NBA Hangtime almost perfectly and 3D games are about to start working. Many 3D demos show already nice graphics. The OpenGL plugin has been started.

We started working on some additional things like eeprom, which work pretty fine. Their advantage is that you can save your game as on the real n64 without the need of huge memory dumps, but we plan to feature memory dumps as well, as they allow you to save every game at any point.

Now you probably wonder when we will release next time. Well....I can't say yet. I expect this to be soon, but all I can say now, is "please wait" :)

Be sure to visit the official homepage at the link below.

Translation News: Hacks and Translations Updated
01:10:  Gema2k has made a hack of Final Fantasy Legend 2 for Gameboy, which changes it back into Saga 2. Changes included are:

6/8/99
Media News: GameSpot article with bleem president
12:39:  The media attention just doesn't stop. The GameSpot website has done an article with David Herpolsheimer, the president of bleem. The article talks about the future of bleem, the commercial bleem release (in other words, bleem being in a box at your local computer store), the legal run-ins with Sony, and bugs in the program.

Bleem!'s President On The Record

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Utility Release: WonderTheme 1.1!
04:49:  WonderTheme, currently THE MEKA theme editor mad by lilac of Emulation Camp, has been updated. Here's the news:

Emulator Release: 1964 0.0.16a
02:00:  A new source release of 1964, a freely available/open-source N64 project, is now available. Here's what's new in the 1964 0.0.16a source archive:

Emulator Release: New loopynes beta
01:46:  A new beta of loopynes, a NES emulator for DOS, has been released on the official homepage. Here's what's new in the 6-6-99 beta:

Site News: DS9, drug test & more!
01:43:  I have to say, kudos to the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine team for making a series finale that I'll never forget. I was very upset when Dukat fell to a fiery death, and I feel my only consolation is that Captain Nabisco... (err Crisco... Cisco?) died with him. The loss of a fellow cardacian is never an easy one.

Tomorrow, I go for my drug test, as required by my new employers at Best Buy. Whoo.

I promise that I'll post the NSM contest #2 data on the site tomorrow, or else you can hurl a pile of Klingon food at me. Remember, without your support, we would not exist. Thanks for visiting ZD!

Interview News: EmuUnlim E-Mail Wars #57: Jay Fenton
01:10:  Well, another EmuUnlim E-Mail Wars has been posted. This time, it's with Jay Fenton, creator of Gorf, among other arcade games. Among the topics in the interview is the release of the ROM for the game Robby Roto, which is one of a mere handful of ROMs freely available for MAME.

Read the article here.

Now that I've posted this, I'm going to sleep. Watch out, keyboard.

Emulator Release: Raine 0.22
00:27:  A new version of Raine has just been released! There's too much new to post on the main page, so you can view it here. Go download it at the multi arcade emulator page.

6/6/99
Emulator News: Bleem beta news
22:33:  A beta of bleem has been released to beta testers only. Here's what will be in the upgrade that should be released sometime soon:

Media News: Emulation Sites mentioned on GameSpot TV
15:36:  Emulation was featured in a recent episode of GameSpot TV. Several emulation sites were mentioned (unfortunately not ZD), and UltraHLE was also mentioned. You can find more, including some RealVideo clips, on the GameSpot TV Websi te. Thanks to FrozdSolid for the e-mail.

Misc. News: MAME Flyers v3.2
15:23:  The Flyer and Poster Archive for MAME has been updated. There are 38 new images and 4 replaced images, making a total of 670 images in this archive. Check it out on their homepage. Thanks to Xray1 for the e-mail.

Misc. News: Pokemon savegame editor fixed
12:45:  Sorry for any problems you may have had yesturday because of the corrupt file. It is now uploaded correctly. Enjoy.

You can pick it up over at the GameBoy Utilities page.

Emulator News: ZSNES web page updated once again
12:17:  The ZSNES page has been updated once again, and here is what they have to say about the next release:

Misc. News: SNOW NES Demo released!
11:41:  A new NES demo has been released for your watching and listening pleasure. This new demo is coded by Tennessee Carmel-Veilleux, the graphics are done by me, so you'd better like them, hehe, and the music has been done by Memblers. Adore this info you and download it here. At least until I get some time to add it to the free ROMs pages.

Translation News: Legend of the Blob Bros. v1.0!
07:14:  Yay! a complete hack change, everything is new, nothing "mario" is remaining. A great hack to check out.

Download it on the Hacks Page.

Translation News: Translation Station added!
07:11:  TranslationStation, a new utility for win95/98 combines features from other utilities such as Thingy, Hex Workshop, and others to create a nice program all in one. The downside is, its written in VB, which means its a rather large file. If you have the time to download 1.5MB, go for it...but you might be better off keeping the other DOS apps.

Download it (1.5MB) on the Translation Utility page.

Technical Docs News: EMUFAQ (multilanguage) v1.031
02:18:  The Scribe has sent a minor update to his EMUFAQ, a document about the rights and wrongs of emulation. This update is mostly editorial connections, and also rough drafts of French, Spanish, German, and Italian versions of the EMUF AQ; he asks that anyone who wishes to clean up the translations e-mail him first, so he can give credit to you.

Technical Docs News: Return of Genesis Chart?
02:12:  Zophar's Domain receieved an interesting e-mail from The Scribe today; it seems that he will be re-releasing his Genesis ROM Compatibility Chart shortly. From the end of the e-mail: "I promise! Really! It's true!"

Technical Docs News: Sega Genesis Compiler
02:08:  A software development tool for the Sega Genesis has been released. It is a modified version of a Sozobon C compiler. Grab it on the Genesis Tech Docs page. Thanks to Johan Långström for the e-mail .

Emulator News: English translation of EX68
01:50:  EX68, a X68000 emulator, has been translated to english. The english version has been uploaded. Thanks to Roushi for the news.

Utility Release: Pokemon save game editor
00:38:  Ever want to change your items? Well then use this utility. It enables you to edit alot of items, name, and money.

You can download this utility from the GameBoy utilities page.

Utility Release: Danji Conversion Tool 99 Beta 4
00:11:  Danji Conversion Tool 99 Beta 4 has been released! Here's what's new:

Utility Release: Sonic the hedgehog editor
00:03:  Like Mario improvement, here is a sonic the hedgehog editor for DOS. This is what it features:

6/5/99
Utility Release: in_gym, a Winamp plugin for GYM files
23:20:  A new Winamp plugin has been created by Chipmunk. It has a nice interface, and supports many other files too. Oh, forgot, we were talking about the plugin... (sorry). Well, what can I say? It is based off of Charles MacDonald's DOS GYM Player, and is now in Winamp... take a look, I have it, with my other many plugins for Winamp.

You can download it from the GYM Utilities/players page.

Site News: Quick note (or notes?)
22:59:  X-HBlade, when you read this, could you re-email me? I somehow accidentally deleted your e-mail, and lost your address.

On a second note, I'd like to let everyone know that I purchased a Sony PSX 2 days ago, and FF7. Lunar: Silver Star Story should be here any day now, I can't wait!

Thanks for visiting ZD!

Utility Release: Gdebug64 beta 0.1
22:19:  A new N64 debugger has been released. This debugger is pretty much straight forward, and gives you the basic debugging features. If you are interested in debugging for the N64, then download this.

You can download it at the N64 Utilities page.

Emulator Release: True Reality WIN Release 2
21:43:  A new version of that nicely comming N64 emulator has been released. Nothing to the core has been touched in this version, just a new GUI.

You can download it, and the source from the N64 emulation page.

Thanks to Rusty1 for the e-mail.

Misc. News: Squaresoft Sound Font 3.0
21:25:  The Squaresoft sound font version 3.0 has been released. The author said that it sounds better than the previous ones.

You can go download the new version at the SoundFont page.

Emulator Release: Just For Fun 0.22
20:42:  A new version of the Just For Fun multiple arcade emulator has been released. In this version, here is whats new:

Emulator News: Project Unreality source code released!
20:15:  The source code to the world's first working Nintendo 64 emulator, Project UnReality, has been released! Straight from pur.parodius.com:

Well, I finally broke down and decided to release the source code to Project Unreality 0.4a-1. I don't know if it's going to be of much help to anyone now or not, but with some good low-level N64 emulators on their way (Nemu64 and TRWin come to mind), I figured I might as well.

The code base hasn't been touched since November 14th, 1998 when I fixed a bug in the DSLLV opcode. If you look in R4300I.ASM, you'll see the RCS comment I put in. Before this date, the code was last modified on May 25th, 1998 -- before I started my new job doing PSX stuff.

For all programmers into N64 emulation, this should prove useful! A big thanks to koitsu for the news. You can download the source from the Nintendo 64 emulators page.

Site News: ...and the 3,000,000th visitor is...
19:35:  Congratulations to X-HBlade who e-mailed in the *real* winning 3,000,000th counter screenshot! He will be e-mailed shortly, while I think of a prize to give him.

By the way... to the few people who e-mailed in fake screenshots, you should know that we've installed a CGI that makes every landmark hit counter *TOTALLY DIFFERENT*, so here's the list that I promised of all the people who had photoshop and edited *green* counters. :)

e-zrider@geocities.com, KuBandC@aol.com, xpoolboyx@hotmail.com, peepoop@hotmail.com.

Remember, without the support of all of our visitors, we'd be lost. Thanks for visiting ZD!

Zophar

Links Update: 16 sites added
18:25:  Wow! After about 2 weeks of no updates, I have finally done them. Sorry for the time absent, I have just been really busy with my job, and taking care of the animals at my camp. So here are 16 sites, out of 45 that I have received. Now people, if you want your site up, dont send me a broken link. Oh, and one more thing... Don't send more than 1 e-mail, it gets a bit irritating. I get them all, so please don't.

You can check out the links, of course, over at the Links Section.

Be sure to check out Gothic EmuStation when you have time.

Media News: Yet another article on emulation
17:48:  Salon.com has done an article on emulation, which, to my surprise, was quite good. You can read it here:

Why emulators are making video-game makers quake

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Site News: 3,000,000 is near
14:14:  Alright people, this time, I've taken precautions to ensure that fake screenshots are not possible. When the 3,000,000th person hits ZD, that person may e-mail me with a screenshot (hit print screen, paste into paint. ONLY *zipped* BMPs will be accepted. No JPGs/GIFs, etc). I *will* know if you are faking this time, and if you do, your e-mail address will go up here forever.

To the true 3,000,000th visitor, maybe I have a surprise waiting for you. :)

Emulator Release: Snes9x 1.19a36
13:46:  A new version of Snes9x for Windows has just been released! It's been half a year since a release of the Windows port. There's a LOT of changes in Snes9x 1.19a36, so here's a partial list of what's new in version 1.19a36:

Emulator Release: DarcNES v990525a for DOS released
13:22:  A new version of DarcNES has been released by Sephiroth. Here's what's new from the README:

Emulator Release: Megasis 0.04
13:20:  A new version of Megasis, a Sega Genesis emulator for Windows9x, is now available for download. Here's what's changed in version 0.04:

Utility Release: MSP .25
13:11:  A new release of MSP, a Callus CYM player for DOS, has been released. It also plays other sound formats. Here's the list of changes for MSP .25:

Misc. News: Jet Pak DX v0.08 Color Gameboy Free ROM released....
12:56:  ...over a month ago. :) Here is what is new:

Misc. News: Free ROM information updates
12:40:  No new ROMs added yet, but there were a few things I needed to update that I failed to do until now. Here goes:

Translation News: Hotman 1.0 and New Hexecute!
03:23:  Six Feet Under has released a completed patch for the Hotman translation! Also, a new version of Hexecute has been released, which fixes some minor bugs, you probably didnt even notice.

Download these on the Translations and Translation Utility page.

Emulator News: ZSNES report
00:21:  The ZSNES page was updated today, with some little bits about the next release:

6/4/99
Misc. News: Drive crash
19:19:  Well, while Zophar gets a new drive, I get a dead drive. Recently, my 16.8GB IBM Deskstar crashed, and I lost everything. I should be able to do updates again soon, however. I find this incident funny because my old 13.6GB Maxtor crashed just a few months ago. I must be cursed.

Misc. News: Some announcements
18:45:  Hello everyone, Zophar here. I've had a pretty interesting day today. I recently purcahsed a new hard drive. It's a Maxtor 8.4 gig, and my friends are currently at my house, installing it (thanks Mike!) while I'm at my uncle's house.

What am I doing at my uncle's house, you may ask? I've been working on a simple webpage for his company, The Camera Man / Treasure Hunter. He specializes in used collectables, cameras, lenses, and accessories. You can check out his webpage at camera-treasure.com. For anyone who's into cameras, I'm sure you'll find a good deal on his site! He also buys/sells jewelry, gold, silver, oil paintings, diamonds and antiques.

The NSM contest #2 will be announced Sunday at the latest. I'm sure you'll all be interested in it, since the prize will be different.

Finally, I'd like to thank everyone for their continued support of ZD. Without your support, we're nothing. Thanks for visiting!

Translation News: Hexecute v 1.0
09:39:  A new version of Hexecute has been released, totally re-written and with a bundle of new features.

Hexecute is a hex editor for DOS

Download it on the Translation Utility

Emulator Release: basicNES 0.15 beta2
05:19:  Don Jarret has updated basicNES, his NES emulator written in VB, with some new nice tidbits. This new version introduces mapper 7 & 11 emulation plus it adds the much wanted Load File common dialog so that you won't have to type in the file name of the ROM anymore!

You can download it from the NES Emulators page.

Misc. News: WARNING
04:56:  Here's a warning for those of you out there who are desperate enough to try anything that says it is an altered version of UltraHLE, etc. I friend of mine was, and now his Windows directory is gone, heh. Also thanks go out to Cymeria for mailing me about this new "emulator" so that I remembered it. This fake emulator is called UltraN64 and in the readme it states to be a continuation of UltraHLE. It isn't. All this program does is a deltree C:\Windows, which could be harmful enough. You've been warned.

6/3/99
Emulator Release: Pagan R1
21:10:  A promising new emulator, Pagan, has been released publically for the first time. So far it runs just about all the demos you can toss at it but has still got a while to go. I'm interested to see where it goes from here. Anyway, here is what's in this first release (thanks to EmuHQ for the listing of what is included in this release):

Emulator News: Bleem! video configuration
20:58:  The official bleem! homepage has posted a support page for anyone having troubles or questions about what their optimal video settings should be. You can check it out at the link below.

Emulator News: ZSNES gets a domain name, and progress report
20:49:  The official ZSNES homepage has moved to www.zsnes.com. They've also posted a little bit of news on their site about an upcoming version of ZSNES:

The wwwboard should now be functioning properly. Thanks to Zophar's Domain for providing help on the wwwboard! Also, a new version of ZSNES shouldn't be too far from now depending on how much time we get to work on it.

Thanks to WoRmBoY for the news. You can check out the official ZSNES homepage at the link below.

Misc. News: Emulation FAQ v1.03
20:42:  The Scribe has updated his legal Emulation FAQ to v1.03. Here's what's new in this latest edition:

Utility Release: XSPC not dead, v2.07 now available
20:31:  The author of XSPC, an SPC player for Windows, recently lost his source code due to a hard drive crash. However, a friend e-mailed him back the source, so the SPC player will go on! Here's a status report, right from the official page:

For those who had downloaded v2.06 patch, I'm very sorry that you need to get XSPC v2.07 binaries. I forgot what I have done into v2.05 that day... so I just took a bit of my times debugging the source code again, and the result is v2.07. Here's a list of what has been done :

Emulator Release: BRSMS 1.21r
20:17:  A new version of BRSMS, a Sega Master System & GameGear emulator for DOS, has been released to the public. Here's what's new in version 1.21r:

Site News: Some things
20:08:  Hello everyone, Zophar here. I guess I'll start this post off by explaining what happened today, as best I can. I was at work all day today, and came home late. It seems that earlier today, someone (not a ZD staff member) had a little too much fun compromising our security. This has been rectified. I apologize to anyone who sent any SD3 beta e-mails. No, there is no SD3 patch, and no, ZSNES is alive and well and NOT owned by AOL... hehe.

Next, I'll be doing a number of updates, since I did miss a few here and there. Also, I'll be posting about NSM contest #2 over the weekend, as many people have indiciated interest in it.

Finally, I'll be receiving my PSX and Lunar: SSS any day now, and I just want to say that I'm totally pumped up! I can't wait to sink my teeth into the ultimate RPG remake in the world.

Thanks for visiting ZD!

Misc. News: Well, if Zophar can, I can too!
16:51:  I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to a friend of mine, Mike.

Hope theres many more to come :D

Site News: No, ZSNES is NOT being bought out by AOL.
14:54:  As much as you'd all like to hear that ZSNES is being bought out by AOL (probably not much), it isn't. Also, our friend Neill Corlett doesn't have a beta of the SoM2 English translation released, so leave the man alone -- I know you will. :)

Site News: New Sections!
07:57:  As promised, I have uploaded new sections before I go under the knife. They aren't all here, so please don't e-mail me asking about sections I don't have up yet. I have 13 new sections for you today, enjoy!

Emulator Release: New PlayStation emulator
00:43:  A new PlayStation emulator, called PSFE, has been released. Not much is implemented right now, as the emulator is quite new, but it is worth a look. The homepage can be found here.

FPSE is available from the PlayStation page.

6/2/99
Utility Release: GYMPlay
23:58:  A new (but same named) .GYM player has been released. This player is a bit slower than the other GYM player, but it does sound better. It also supports many sound cards. This GYM player is worth a look... if you are into Genesis music.

You can download GYMPlay from the GYM Utilities / Players page.

Emulator Release: 1964 0.0.15a Sourcecode released
23:44:  1964, the open source N64 emulator, version 0.0.15a has been released. There is no binary, though. Here's what's new:

Utility Release: GYM page added
23:31:  After 2 utilities for GYM files have been released, I have decided to make a seperate GYM utilities page for them.

You can go and check out over at the GYM Utilities / Players page.

Translation News: Yy Mario Editor Release AGAIN!
16:12:  Just a day after I put up Yy Mario Editor v1.76, 1.8 comes out! I'm not exactly sure what is new, but take a look if you're a Mario Hacking fan.

Download it off the Translation/Hacking Utility page.

Emulator Release: bleem! Full v22113
06:53:  For all people who purchased the bleem! key, you can head over to www.bleem.com and download a new beta version, v22113. Here's what they've worked on for this beta release:

Emulator News: Bleem status update
00:17:  A new beta of bleem! will be out in about two days. Here's what will be new:

6/1/99
Misc. News: AOL buys Nullsoft
23:09:  AOL bought Nullsoft, creators of WinAMP and SHOUTcast. You can read more about it here:

America Online Acquires Leading Internet Music Brands

Misc. News: Speak and Spell Simulator Author Working on Gameboy Tetris Clone
17:52:  The author of the Speak and Spell Simulator (SASS) has notified us that he is working on a Tetris clone for the Gameboy, and already has a working version.

He states:

"I'm also not quite sure of the legal status of this, BUT the plan is to re-write Gameboy Tetris and make it opensource. It's already very playable, scoring, lines, etc, but needs a substantial bit of coding before complete."

Keep your eyes open for this one.

Emulator News: Sunset
16:19:  The Moonlit Coalition has updated their page with info on Sunset. The DirectX graphics mode is pretty much done, and a software mode and OpenGL mode are being worked on. The update also mentions NesRise, the NES emulator that they are working on.

Misc. News: Tristar64
15:50:  Have you ever wanted to play NES games or SNES games on a N64? Well the Tristar64 lets you do just that! If you're interested, check out the page.

Translation News: Supa Ascii Bros.
15:30:  A new hack today, which I found quiet funny, called Super Ascii Mario Bros, which is in the spirit of old BBS Doors and other such Ascii games.

Here's a screenshot:

Download it on the Hacks page.

Misc. News: HotRod Joystick Review
15:18:  Saint has obtained a pre-released edition of the HotRod and posted an in-depth review of it on his site. Go read it 'cause its pretty cool.

Emulator Release: GLMAME32 0.35 beta 12
15:12:  GLMAME32 is a Windows port of the GLMAME for Linux. It uses OpenGL to do some of the graphics in MAME. You can download version 0.35 beta 12 at the MAME page.

Misc. News: SNES9x domain
12:07:  SNES9x.com now points to the correct place. You can now visit the page by typing www.snes9x.com.

Translation News: Yy Mario Editor Release!
01:58:  Yy has updates his Mario Editor for Win95/98

Here's Whats New:

Site News: Search Engine working
00:18:  The Search Engine mysteriously broke recently. It's been fixed. You can go to it at the link below.