Emulator Release: Virtual 86 1.3b
22:56:  Since the last ZD update, TI-86 Virtual has changed it's name to Virtual 86, and also moved. Here's a short what's new since 1.1b:

Site News: Nostradamus, NSM contest #3, and other things
22:14:  Hey everyone. It's Zophar here with another installment of "Zophar's Ramblings", "State of the ZD", or "Zophar's Diary" (heh heh heh). Whichever name you choose, this is where I get to say everything that's going on with ZD and other things.

First off all, many of you may remember that since I started ZD back in November of 1996, I have posted that Nostradamus "1999" prediction, which said (according to most interpreters) that WWIII would start sometime in July of 1999. It looks like it isn't going to happen, so what can I say? I never really believed it anyway. ;)

Second of all, NSM contest #3 is coming along nicely. I've received a number of submissions, and someone is definitely going to win at least $50. No one has beaten the game twice through, however, so whether or not it's going to be $50 or $65 is still up for grabs. You can read the official rules right here, and remember, there's only 1 week left to submit!

I promise this will be the second-to-last time I talk about pro-wrestling on ZD (the last time will be if I ever create a pro-wrestling page). I know many of you don't care for it, but many do. For those who do, you can check out the new ZD Pro-Wrestling board at this location. If you haven't registered as a user to any of ZD's boards yet, do so!

I've been receiving a lot of news lately, which is great. However, many people are still sending the wrong news to the wrong people. Don't choose 'other news' unless the news is really not covered in any of the other topics on the submit news page.

Remember, ZD is nothing without all of the thousands of visitors that come to download emulators each days. If all of you just told 1 of your friends about emulation and ZD, we could grow to an even greater height. Thanks to every single person reading this for visiting ZD!

Misc. News: Borland releases old software for free
21:32:  I don't know if you care, but I'll post about this anyway :) If you feel like coding something in Turbo Pascal 5.5 or Turbo C 2.01 you could go to the "Museum" on the Borland site. I don't know why you'd want these programs except for nostalgic reasons, though, hehe.

Media News: bleem! advertisement
19:34:  It has come to ZD's attention that bleem!, the commercial PSX emulator for Windows9x, is now advertising in video game magazines. You can check out a very intriguing bleem! advertisement, found in September's Next-Generation, at the link below. Thanks to ZD's very own Infe for the article.

Emulator News: Progress on the Raine front
15:54:  Another update on the upcoming version of Raine (a multi-arcade emulator for Windows9x) has been posted on the official Raine page:

One more game for the Raine fans in Japan, this time it's Cadash Japanese version. The other it's a Tetris clone that you play upside down and the objective is to do lines with ballons, the game is called Balloon Brothers and it was made by Seta/Taito.

Thanks to EvilRyu for the news. You can check out the screenshots at the official Raine page.

Emulator Release: Z26 v1.32
15:46:  John Saegar has released version 1.32 of Z26, his Atari 2600 emulator for DOS. Here's what's new:

Some minor things. But mostly, this is the first round of support for Starpath Supercharger games. There are still a few rough edges, and we only support single-load games.

Thanks to Guyfawkes for the news. You can download Z26 v1.32 from the Atari 2600 emulators page.

Emulator Release: Pasofami 1.1w
15:09:  Another new version of Pasofami has been released, but I don't know what's new. You can get it at the NES page.

Misc. News: Happy 24th birthday to Atila!
13:58:  I'd like to wish a very happy birthday to Atila of www.retrogames.com. The countdown many of you saw was in reference to his 24th birthday. We here at ZD hope you have another happy 24 years!

Translation News: Seiken Densetsu Top 10?
13:42:  According to gamefaqs.com the #6 spot today in top 10 games is, Seiken Densetsu 3. Either this is a mix up with Legend of Mana, or the translation has struck a cord throughout gamers everywhere.

Thanks to Braindead for the news.

Emulator Release: GalEmu & JFF missed releases
13:39:  In the final chapter of missed releases that somehow slid past ZD, I've added JFF 0.23 and GalEmu (DOS) v0.40 beta 5 to the Multi-Arcade emulators page. Thanks to Jandar for bringing these releases to my attention.

Translation News: Tables Section Opened
13:32:  The Tables section has now opened. Please follow the rules stated if you wish to submit a table to me.

Emulator Release: WIN APE 32 v1.7b
13:09:  A new version of WIN APE 32, an Amstrad CPC emulator for Windows9x, was released a few days ago. Once again, we somehow missed it. Here's what's new in v1.7b:

Emulator Release: Bochs 990708a
12:58:  A new version of Bochs, a portable PC emulator for Win9x, was released about a week ago. We somehow missed it, so we've just uploaded the new version. Here's what's new in Bochs 990708a:

Utility News: XSPC v2.09 status report
12:28:  GreenAngel has announced the changes that will be present in the next version of XSPC, his SPC player for Windows9x. They are as follows:

Emulator Release: Palm OS emulator version 2.1d26
00:23:  The first ever Palm OS emulator has been released for Windows 9x. The Palm OS, is the Operating System that runs on a mini computer, some known as a "Palm Pilot". I have set up a new page for the Palm OS emulators. You can view them at the link below.

The Palm OS emulator page.

7/30/99
Emulator News: Pretendo's not dead
20:52:  Straight from the Pretendo website, we have news that they have NOT died *grin* and that they're using a new core (Shu Kondo's) because Neil Bradley's core was giving them difficulties. Pretendo may also emulate a few more mappers by the time the next release comes around.

Want more? Check out the Pretendo website.

Site News: Happy birthday to Taichou
20:37:  I'd like to wish Taichou, our Translations & ROM hacking maintainer, a very happy birthday! Since no one else posted about it, I figured I would. Happy birthday, Tai!

Translation News: Seiken Densetsu 3 (2)
17:42:  Forte has updated the unofficial SD3 manual which explains key parts of the game.

Also, an SD3 help board has been opened by QuasarMage

Translation News: SD3 & Ebay
16:36:  I just want to make a quick post regarding the latest translation being sold on Ebay. People sell translations on there all the time. It's wrong, but it happens all the time. I've received e-mails regarding the latest one (that being SD3). If you come across these, just ignore them. There's nothing anyone can really do, people can be very greedy.

Emulator Release: RockNES 0.94a
16:21:  A new release of RockNES, a NES emulator for DOS, has been released. Here's what's new in version 0.94a:

Emulator Release: Shark 3.1f
16:13:  The Dead Serious Clan has released version 3.1f of their multi arcade emulator, Shark. There's no list attached of version changes, but from what I hear, it's just bugfixes.

Thanks to Emuviews.com for the news. You can download Shark 3.1f from the Multi-Arcade emulators page.

Site News: Save archives updated
07:16:  Updated: CHT, GS0, NSF, NSM, SPC, STA, ZMV, ZST archives. The NSM archive now lists the prizes in the description cells for the ZD NSM Contest Hall of Fame.

Utility Release: Dragon Warrior town editor ver 2.2
02:51:  The new version of Dragon Warrior town editor has been released. Here is whats new:

Utility Release: ZST2SPC version 1.01
02:43:  A nice utility created by CaitSith2 to convert ZST's to SPC's, for those who want to play ZST's in SPC players which do not support the loading of ZST's.

You can download this utility from the SPC utilities page.

Utility Release: Mario Improvement 3 version 0.35
02:33:  Woo! A new version of my favorite NES face lift utility has been released. New in this version is as follows:

Links Update: 17 out of 65 sites added
02:27:  After almost a month or so of waiting to do the links, I have finally gotten around to devoting 3 hours to updating the links. This time, 17 sites have been added. The bad news is, that was out of 65 sites. You people have to send me your links CORRECTLY. No spelling mistakes. If you do, I simply delete your e-mail. Anyway, the site of the week is CyberAX. A nice site with emulation related material. It also has midi's, and soon to have sound fonts. Check it out.

You can look at the updated links over at the Links page.

7/29/99
Emulator Release: Basilisk II 0.7
21:23:  A new version of Basilisk has been released, and here's what's new:

Emulator News: Using a Voodoo3 with Snes9X
21:13:  Looks like we have a winner. It appears someone figured out how to make a voodoo3 work with Snes9x. Here's what to do:

Emulator News: Raine page gets wwwboard
20:57:  Raine has setup a new wwwboard with wwwthreads (the same system we have). Go visit it and say hi. Also, they now have a channel on EFnet called #raine.

Emulator News: Pagan
20:27:  As many of you probably know, Pagan is a N64 emu. It was scheduled to be released in 3 steps. Release 1 is already out, and you can get it at the N64 page. Release 2 was supposed to be out this summer, however, it has been cancelled. There will be no public R2. Don't worry, though, because Pagan is still being worked on. In fact, the author is busy implementing HLE right now! So be patient, because someday you may be playing N64 games on Pagan.

Emulator Release: BrMSX 2.01
19:24:  BrMSX, an MSX emulator, has been updated. This new release adds quite a few fixes, and here are the news:

Misc. News: Play MP3 files on your Sony Playstation?
18:52:  A website has recently emerged that claims they will be selling a peripheral to allow you to play MP3 CDs on the Sony Playstation. This looks to be very promising (although you could just as well play the CD in your computer with Winamp, but I digress), but all you can currently do is read the features and pre-order.

Thanks to NINTENDA for the news. You can check out the official website below.

Misc. News: Chrono Cross update
18:47:  The upcoming Chrono Trigger sequel known as Chrono Cross has just been previewed by Total RPG. They gave the game a very good preview, but until it's released, we can only keep our fingers crossed. You can read the full article at the link below. Thanks to emufreak for the news.

Emulator Release: RockNES 0.94
18:42:  A new release of RockNES, a NES emulator for DOS by Fx3, is now available. Here's what's new in version 0.94:

Emulator Release: Bleem! Demo 1.4
18:16:  The Bleem! Demo version 1.4 has been released on the www.bleem.com and I've added the file to our PSX Emulators pagez.

Emulator Release: 1964 0.1.8
17:50:  1964, a N64 emulator, has been updated. Here are the news for this version:

Utility Release: PSXPlay 1.31
17:31:  This one has actually been out for quite some time, but now it's been added to our archive. I have no idea what's new in this version since the readme and page are in Japanese, hehe.

You can download it from the PSX utilities page. Thanks to Brian for the news!

Translation News: Suck and Blow
07:12:  No, this isnt pornography. This is one of the Bandai Sateliteview games for Superfamicom. sl1me has translated the menu's for this...odd puzzle game.

Get it on the Translations Page.

Misc. News: The New PlayStations, Part II
00:34:  I would like to thank Barubary for this little tipoff; the model number of the new Playstations without the expansion port or demo disc is SCPH-9001. Also, Sony has reasons for doing away with the expansion ports, an InterAct lawsuit and a general hatred of external mods being two of them. If you want to double-check and make sure you're not getting one of these new models, that's what you want to look for. Once again, thanks to Barubary for the tip.

7/28/99
Misc. News: Information regarding the newest Playstations on store shelves.
23:06:  Well, this morning at work (Target), my Sony Playstation rep came in and informed me of several things I was unaware of, and that some of you may be unaware of as well. The newest models of Playstations come in a blueish box now. He informed me that the units no longer come with demo discs. It was explained that Sony receives numerous complaints from upset mothers, etc, regarding the violent games such as Syphon Filter, Bloady Roar II, etc, and games like Tomb Raider, where female characters have large chests, being included on these demo CDs. Apparantly, Sony felt there was no compromise, and that from now on the units will ship with nothing but their Dual Shock controller. He also informed me that none of the demos running in stores will have any games with any of these types of violence or sexual content. Look for alot of Ape Escape and Sports games. The biggest suprise was that he told me that there was no longer an expansion port on the back of the unit. This means that add-ons such as the Game Shark, Game Enhancer, etc, will no longer be available for use to new Playstation buyers. He said that Sony felt that since this port was only used by third party companies that give Sony no money to make product for the system, Sony felt no need for including this port. Now, while some of this may have just been his own opinion, the missing port and no demo disc is 100% fact. I apologize for not getting the model number of these new Playstation units, however they are easily detectable by the blueish color of their box, as opposed to the standard grey.

Translation News: UniROM news
19:41:  I know you all just LOVE my nice icon, so I'll just keep handing you updates here. I know that it's been about 2 months (maybe more) since I said that UniROM was being released soon. Well, I was wrong and I admit it. A big bad bug popped up out of nowhere and messed up the windowing system with crashes and stuff and I ended up having to rewrite all of it. I'll be done soon, and on top of that I promised Lina`Chan I'd have a release out within two weeks from yesterday, so I have to work HARD on it, heh. For those of you who don't know what UniROM is it's a ROM hacking tool with a load of features such as GFX editing for NES, SNES, N64 and others and text editing capabilities with support for pointers and DTE. Bye.

Interview News: I have been interviewed!
19:33:  That's right boys and girls! I have been interviewed again, hehe. You can go read the interview at http://taxol.emucamp.com.

Emulator Release: Pasofami 1.1v
18:25:  Pasofami, a nowadays regulary updated NES emulator, has been updated once again. This time to 1.1V. The webpage is completely in Japanese except for a few English words a bit here and there.

You can download it from the NES Emulators page.

Oh, yeah. If you haven't already, go play the small Java game that resides on the Pasofami homepage, hehe.

Emulator News: PCNES is being continued
18:01:  The quite old NES emulator PCNES is being resumed. Its old homepage resides at http://pcnes.8m.com, but the homepage isn't there. Keep a close eye on this one.

Utility News: PSXVideo FAQ updated
17:54:  The PSXVideo FAQ has been updated. For those of you who don't know what PSXVideo is, it's a program that let's you convert PSX Video files found on PSX CDs to AVI files.

You can go view the FAQ and/or download PSXVideo on the PSX Utilities page.

Links Update: The return of news-u-lator MCMXVIII
17:37:  Well, maybe not that high of a number. ;) News-u-lator, a former emulation news site that has been resumed and discontinued various times during the past year and a half, is coming back at the end of the summer. Keep your fingers crossed. You can check out the remnants of the site at the link below. Thanks to emufreak for the news.

Interview News: TRAC: Author of SNEeSe
17:31:  The author of SNEeSe, known as "TRAC", has recently been interviewed by Emulators Unlimited. You can check out the entire interview from the link below. Give it a read, it's worth the time. Thanks to emufreak, ZD's former assistant updater, for the news.

Misc. News: GeechyGuy returns!
02:46:  After over a month absence, GeechyGuy has returned to the Emulation community! It was a shock when he decided to leave it and everyone was quite upset about his decision. But, never fear! He's back, and we at Zophar's Domain welcome him back into the Emulation scene.

You can read his return message here.

From all of us at Zophar's Domain, Welcome back, GeechyGuy! We've missed you!

Translation News: The End of the Long Wait... SD3 translated!
00:05:  Japan, Circa 1995.. Seiken Densetsu 3 by Squaresoft takes Japan by storm. 2 Years later, word of the game hits North America. With hits on the SuperNES such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 6, diehard fans wanted this game. Alas, Playstation had arrived and it was forgotten.

A Year or so later, emulation has gone mainstream, Personal Computers were being used as piracy devices, and old classic console systems were being widely used a a source of enjoyment...Later came translations for such games as Final Fantasy 5, one of the classics that Square had denied us.

Later, April, 1998...
As the cries of translations are heard, the begging for such and such game continues, 1 man steps out and takes the ultimate challenge, one of the most complicated translations ever attempted, Seiken Densetsu 3, armored by the Huffman compression, and space requirements, something Squaresoft might not have been able to do, Neill Corlett starts one of the most anticipated translations ever.

Now, its finally finished. Over a year has passed since it was started, and has come a long way... The assembled team, Lina-chan, SoM2Freak, Nuku-Nuku, and lead hacker, Neill Corlett.

Many of you would have done anything for this, and i dont blame you...The work that this group has done has exceeded any other and have kept it quiet enough that the full public doesnt know.

My closing words are these...

Enjoy this, it was hard work for these people, and they felt that you people deserved it enough, that they finished it. I encourage you to thank Neill, and the team. I do not wish to see an email about this, Neill will handle it all. I hope you write him an email telling him how much you liked it. All your questions and comments can be directed to:

Seiken Densetsu Homepage

May the cries for Seiken Densetsu 3 perish with this note, never to be seen again...

Translations Page

7/27/99
Translation News: 5 more minutes...
23:55:  What's that? What long awaited translation? Go join #zopharsdomain on efnet. ;)

Misc. News: A bit of clarification regarding the post about Win2k and Millenium
21:41:  I just wanted to clear this up. I was in no way saying that because Windows 2000 has a command shell does it mean that it will run DOS emus ok. It will run them about the same as any other version of Windows NT will. You will probably get horrible sound, and poor compatibility, just like you do now. Windows Millenium, however "should" be fine. Since it is in very early stages at this time, it is hard to say. Hope that helps the confusion.

Emulator News: SNES9x to go Direct3D?
20:13:  Duncan3399 of WWEmu has told me that the SNES9x site has been updated with info that the new Windows version is to support Direct3D. It's on the BBS page if you feel like reading it. Feel free to go pay a visit to the SNES9x site.

Misc. News: Will the next Windows be able to run DOS emulators?
19:43:  I had noticed a thread in our message boards a while back regarding if emulators would work in Windows 2000 or not, because it was being said that Win2k does not have DOS in it at all. Well, I have two friends who work at Microsoft and they cleared things up for me. First, I should explain that the said Windows 2000 is the equivalent of Windows NT. The next Windows product that the majority of us "end-users" would buy, would be Windows Millenium, which would be the next version of Windows for regular users. Here is what they told me:

"Millenium still has the command interpreter (command.com) The OS boots out of DOS still - just like all other Win9x OSes

Windows 2000 doesn't have a DOS mode, but you can load a VM DOS session by typing CMD or COMMAND in the UI"

So, I don't forsee any problems with DOS emulators running on the next release of Windows. Hope this helps clear the confusion. Special thanks to my friends Nick and Joe from Microsoft. :)

Emulator Release: X-Mame v0.36b1.2
18:09:  Only days after the initial beta release, X-Mame, multiple arcade machine emulator for Unix, has a new bugfix version now, v0.36b1.2 (no, this is not a distraction). What's new:

Emulator News: Update on SNES9x and 3DFX
17:44:  Marp told me that his SNES9x's 3DFX support works, and he has a Banshee. He's using the Quake 3 compatible reference glide drivers, though and that might be why. I haven't had a chance to try this yet, but feel free to try it yourself. I've also heard that SNES9x doesn't work with Voodoo3 or Voodoo Rush either.

Emulator Release: NLMSX 0.07
17:10:  NLMSX, a MSX 1, 2 and 2+ emulator, has been updated. Here are the news for this version:

Emulator Release: MacV9T9 0.2a1
16:16:  Before I even start this update, I would like to apologize for the slowness some updates get done. I do not have the time now that I had when I first joined Zophar's Domain, so I don't have time to hunt down new versions of programs. Also, especially during the last two weeks, I just haven't really had the time to update, so some mailed-in updates were done quite slowly. But, like Zophar says, if you mail it to us, it WILL be done! Maybe not right away, but it will be. If you see any Mac emulators out of date, please e-mail me and tell me so I can update them. Please don't e-mail me about the few sections that I don't have up, however; they will get up. I promise. Now, onto the update.

MacV9T9, a TI/99 emulator for Macintosh, has been updated to 0.2a1. Here's what's new:

Site News: Some notes about the new boards
16:12:  It seems that everyone is starting to get used to the new boards (we aren't going back to the old ones, people). The poll also is pretty close, but as of right now, it looks like the majority prefers the new boards to the old ones.

A few days ago, we added 'sort by last thread', so if you just go to "Edit profile" in wwwthreads, you can make it sort by the last thread posted, which is the way our older boards used to be.

We're also going to be making each board's colors different soon, so that people don't get confused as to which board is which. Stay tuned for tons more changes coming to our new boards, courtesy of Brian. By the way... it seems that other sites will be jumping on the wwwthreads bandwagon that ZD has started. :)

I've noticed that the "Next-Generation" emulation board isn't getting many posts. I'd like to remind everyone that if you have ANY questions about Saturn, PSX, N64, Virtual boy, or other such systems released after 1994, don't hesitate to post about it on our next-generation board!

Emulator News: Snes9x 3dfx bug confirmation
16:05:  I tried out Snes9x 3DFX version today, using my Creative Banshee 16MB (AGP), and I can confirm that it is a bug in Snes9x. It doesn't seem to support Banshees at this time. Then again, you can always use ZSNES. ;)

Speaking of which, you can download either of them at the SNES emulators page, if you haven't done so already.

Misc. News: Secain leaves the emulation community
15:12:  Many of you have heard of Secain, who ran one of the finest SNES emulation sites on the web, the SNES Emulation Centre. He closed it down a few weeks ago, and now, he unfortunately does not have the funds to even stay on the 'net anymore:

After a lot of thinking and some new developments I have decided to leave the emulation scene. As you may or may not know I closed down the SEC some weeks ago... however after the response I recieved I realised what my site meant to people, and have spent my recent free time creating, updating, and desiging a brand new SNES Emulation Centre. The site is currently 60-70% finished.. and was looking something special - easily outclassing my old site.

However I can not finish it. Here in the UK we pay per minute phone bills for our net access and I simply cannot afford to be online anymore - which means I cannot finish the SEC, or even upload what I have (around 50-60Mb of files/info) - basically I can't afford it.

Also my P133 is slowly grinding to a halt and until I can afford to build myself a new computer I simply do not have the motivation to watch FrontPage 2000 crawl by.

Therefore I am leaving the scene, not because I particuarly want too, but because I have no other choice. Its been fun, and it is my intention to come back as soon as - and lauch the all new SEC, as the net hasn't seen a SNES site like this! Rumours here in the UK suggest a subsription based ADSL offer in the next 4-5 months, so that might help, and I'm hoping to have a new PC by Christmas.

Thanks to everyone, the authors, the webmasters, and the friends I've made. If you want to email me you can, I will try to check it in the coming weeks, so don't expect a speedy response. As always its cm.wright@virgin.net

Hope to see you all again some day.... please make sure I have a scene to come back too.....

Secain

I'm very sad to see him go. If everything works out in the coming weeks, perhaps I'll be able to help people suffering from financial difficulties.

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.33
15:03:  A new version of SNEeSe, an SNES emulator for DOS, has been released. Here's what's new in this bugfix release of SNEeSe 0.33:

Translation News: Small Note:
07:28:  Due to a special event later today, the table section will not open untiil wednesday. Please do not email me about this

Emulator Release: bleem! v1.4 full
01:08:  For registered bleem! users with the bleem! CD key, there is now a new bleem! version available for download. Here's the huge list of changes in bleem! v1.4:

7/26/99
Emulator News: SNES9x stuff, hehe
19:48:  I noticed this when playing around with the new SNES9x, and I'm sure some of you others did, too. The new SNES9x does not work with Banshees. I'm not sure if it's incompatible with all Banshees or just some, but it won't work for me when I turn on Bilinear filtering mode, so go figure. Simon Diabolic also noticed this. At first I thought it was just on AGP-V3200s it didn't work, but it doesn't work on his Guillemot PCI Banshee either, so thanks to him for making me post this.

Emulator News: BrMSX 2.00 stuff
18:36:  I've received word that the newest version of BrMSX is kind of unstable, and on top of that the ROM loader is busted, it crashes when loading a disk and that certain games such as Bubble Bobble and Arkanoid 2 don't work. Thanks to JustinR for the news!

Emulator Release: SNES9x 1.20 for Windows
17:35:  A new version of SNES9x for Windows has been released. Actually two versions. One with 3DFX support and one with regular 2D card support. Here's what's new:

Misc. News: ZSNES.com back
17:09:  After a mysterious disappearance, www.zsnes.com is back up. Of course, the official ZD mirror is always up. Ok, bye. ;)

Emulator Release: BrMSX 2.00
16:30:  BrMSX, a really good MSX1, and now MSX2, emulator, has been updated. This new version features, as I just said, MSX2 emulation. But I can't find a readme file and the homepage seems to be down. On the other hand it doesn't seem to be virus infected or anything, so just hope for the best and go download it from the MSX Emulators page. Thanks to TFH for the news!

Emulator Release: NIN64 0.01 beta 5
12:09:  A new version of NIN64, a Nintendo 64 emulator for Windows9x, has been released. The documentation has finally been translated into english; here's what's new in 0.01 beta 5:

Misc. News: Dracula X copy project dropped
11:51:  Many of you may remember reading about a project by Harry Tuttle (of The Dump fame) to copy Konami's "Dracula X". Due to legal action, it has now been dropped:

Due to the threat of legal action by Konami of America, I am unable to continue with the Dracula-X copy project. We have come to a mutual agreement, but unfortunately it involves the complete abandonment of the project. I ask that all mirror sites please delete the mirrored files immediately, and please do not spread them around.

You can check out the full message at the official Dracula X homepage, at the link below. Thanks to Emucamp.com for the news.

Emulator News: New version of Snes9x due tomorrow
11:40:  The official Snes9x homepage has been updated by Gary Henderson, with news of what to expect in the latest Snes9x:

After weeks of struggling with Win32 API, DirectX, DirectSound and various Windows compilers, I'm finally a stage where I'm happy with the Windows port of Snes9x, so there will be a release tomorrow.

Lots has changed: the sound problems are fixed (hopefully), the stability problems fixed, SA-1 support, Windowed or full-screen, 3D/FX support, Kreed's output image processing fixed, TV mode, stretch image mode, more GUI options, ZSNES Super FX code, etc. TNT card owners can simulate the results of the 3D/FX support by enabling stretch image mode.

I could make a release now, except I haven't written README file yet, so if I did make a release now I'd be forever answering questions via e-mail.

It looks like the next Snes9x is going to be feature-packed. Thanks to Emuveiws.com for the news.

Media News: Emulation Talk on C|Net
00:54:  C|Net has written a short article on emulation. It just tells the basics, but you can read it anyway. I have also heard that there was a short segment about emulation on C|Net Central on TV.

Emulator Release: MAME32 0.36 beta 1 Unofficial
00:29:  An unofficial version of MAME32 0.36b1 has been released. Get it at the MAME page. Remember, this is an unofficial version, so don't bug the authors.

7/25/99
Emulator Release: DGen Unix v1.17
18:38:  A new version of Joe's Unix port of Dave's DGen. Thanks to the author for the news. Here's the what's new:

Emulator Release: RuMSX 0.18
17:06:  RuMSX, a MSX emulator, has been updated. Here are the news for this version:

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.32
16:01:  A new version of SNEeSe is out, and here's what's new:

Translation News: Stories Updates Front Mission Page
15:32:  Stories has updates the Front Mission translation page with great news:

Just letting everyone know that I'm not dead, I've been working a bit with the website I'm the Software GM at, Glide Underground writing reviews and updating news and stuff like that. I really like it, and it's a lot of fun. Anyway, onto the FM update... I've finished inserting the rest of ptrblk1 and looks like the game is finished, but I haven't thoroughly tested it yet (in fact, I've barely tested it :-) but testing should go full speed quite soon and we'll see what pops up! I'm not sure if I should do this, but again a tenative release date maybe sometime in September.

Thanks to darklore and Felix for writing in.

Stories' Homepage

Translation News: Hexecute v1.20
04:38:  A new version of hexecute has been released. Here's whats new from the documentation:

Site News: Note about NSM contest #3
00:56:  A few people were confused about the fact that to get the 'true' ending to Ghosts 'n' Goblins, you need to go through the game twice. Basically, you don't need to go through it the second time to win, BUT, if you do (the second time, deaths won't count against you), and you're the winner, you'll win an additional $15, for a grand total of $65.

The modified rules can be viewed at the link below. Happy gaming!

7/24/99
Frontend News: Arcade@Home 0.36b
19:38:  Arcade@Home, a very feature cluttered MAME frontend, has been updated and, uuuh. I have no idea what's new, since I can't install it for some reason. But I've heard that some bugs were fixed in between 0.36a and 0.36b, so I'm guessing it's only gotten better, heh.

Go download it from the Arcade emulator frontends page.

Emulator News: JNes
19:07:  JNes. You're probably asking yourself: "What's that?", and I'll tell you. Jabo (a frequent visitor to #nesdev) is making a NES emulator. Its 6502 and PPU core is written completely in assembly, it has sound support (DPCM, Pulse, Triangle & Noise), support for mappers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 66 and 69, support for battery backup RAM and Joypad #1. It also supports keyboard and joypad input, state saving/loading, screen capture (bmp) and sound logging (wav). Last but not least it requires DirectX (which I suspect most of you already have) and if you want to look at some nice screenshots, feel free to visit the JNes homepage.

Utility Release: MSP 0.35
13:06:  I'd like to apologize to Sevy & Marp for not doing this update sooner. Sometimes, updates just get lost in the shuffle, and other times, the e-mails themselves are overlooked. Like I said in an earlier post, however, they always get done.

So, here's what's new in Sevy & Marp's WAV/VOC/MID/MOD/etc. player, version 0.35:

Links Update: Archaic Ruins returns home
12:22:  If you haven't heard of Archaic Ruins by now, you've either just recently joined the emulation craze, or you have been living in a cavern since 1996. Archaic Ruins, 1/2 of the inspiration that Zophar's Domain was built upon, has returned to one of it's former hosts, parodius.com.

It also has a new look... well, it's not new-new, but this is the first time I've announced it so it's new to me. ;) I was pretty shocked to find out that no other sites are mentioning this. I feel that Archaic Ruins was one of two 'must-visit' sites in 1996/1997 (the other being Node99), and I hope everyone checks it out at the link below. And bookmark it while you're at it!

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.30
12:07:  A new version of SNEeSe, a Super Nintendo emulator for DOS, has been released. Here's what's new in version 0.30:

Emulator News: Very informative article on bleem!
11:43:  This is a very interesting post. Over the last few months since the release of bleem!, the first commercial PSX emulator for Windows9X, I've had many thoughts and feelings about it, few of which I have really shared with anyone. Emuviews.com has posted a very interesting article about why many magazines and online e-zines have been giving bleem! very low ratings.

Basically, JoseQ has said everything that I have been thinking, and more. He basically explains that there is a huge difference between the emulation community and the gaming community, which bleem! has thrust itself into. Throw in the fact that people are spending $30 on something that claims to do one thing (run PSX games), and you have the perfect formula for JoseQ's article. You can read it at the link below. It's a very good read and I do recommend that everyone read it.

Emulator News: Quick note about Hu-Go! 0.98a
11:34:  Zeograd has e-mailed me a detail that he left out when he informed ZD about the new release of the TG-16 emulator for DOS, Hu-Go!:

Misc. News: Quake 3 Tweakers Guide
11:18:  The following was sent in by EvilPaul13:

"Quake fans should check this out. It is a Q3 tweakers guide. It lets you get the best settings for both performance and visual quality for your Voodoo2 or TNT1 cards. The focus is on real people's systems and video cards so they are using PIIs not P3Xeons like many framerate people do."

Quake 3 fans can check out this guide on 3dgaming.net

Site News: NSM contest #3
01:21:  I've finally decided that now is the perfect time to announce the third monthly ZD NSM contest. This one is probably one of the toughest to date, in my opinion. The game? It's Ghosts 'n' Goblins. MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... whew. I have never actually beaten this game without cheating, so this will be an interesting one to watch.

Basically, the trick is to beat the game by using as few lives as possible. If anyone should tie (such as multiple people never dying), then the people who tied will have their NSMs timed, and the winner will be the one with the fastest time.

As usual, no cheating is permitted. The winner of this contest shall receive a $50 check from yours truly. (The prizes keep getting better and better each month, don't they?) I'll be honest: most of the suggestions I got were for one of the Super Mario Brothers; however, I feel that a challenge is much more fun, and much more worth my money.

So, may the best man (or woman) win! You can check out the complete rules right here: NSM contest #3 rules. All submissions are due no later than August 6, 1999. Unlike last time, there will be NO extension period. E-mail all winning submissions to zophar@voicenet.com.

Site News: Thanks to everyone who e-mailed in
00:05:  The ZD staff would like to give a giant thank-you to all of those who e-mailed in about ZD Staff Appreciation Day. It was a huge success, and definitely raised all of our spirits. It's good to know that you, our visitors, appreciate everything we do, and we want to make the site even better for everyone!

I would like to say a few words, however, on the negative side of things. When someone sends me an e-mail, know this: I *ALWAYS* read my e-mails. Every last one is read by me. If the e-mail asks for a reply, you will get one! I've received a few e-mails lately, where when I reply, I'd get back a harsh reply as if the person didn't expect to receive a reply at all. People, when you e-mail zophar@voicenet.com, you get a real, live, 19 year old who has a job and a home just like every one of you. I never intend to upset anyone when I reply to an e-mail, so please, never take any reply the wrong way. I may not add internet smiley faces in my replies, but that doesn't mean I don't like you. ;)

The game for the third monthly NSM contest has been picked, and it's only a matter of time now, while I decide on the prize. Stay tuned for the third installment of the NSM contest, and may the best man (or woman) win!

Finally, as I like to end all of my "speeches", ZD is still here only because of the support of each and every one of our many loyal daily visitors. To each and every one of you, I want to say this: Thanks for visiting ZD! (We really mean it.)

7/23/99
Emulator Release: Hu-Go! 0.98a
23:40:  A new version of Hu-Go!, a Turbo Grafx 16 emulator for DOS, is now available. Here's what's new in version 0.98a (mostly minor changes):

Emulator Release: Mac TrueReality 1.1.3b2
18:40:  Mac TrueReality was updated a little while ago; I just found out about it now. Here's the scoop:

Emulator Release: MacMAME 0.36b1
18:33:  Brad Oliver has updated his Macintosh port of MAME to 0.36b1. Here's the scoop:

Emulator Release: WIN APE 32 1.6b
15:47:  A new version of WIN APE 32, an Amstrad CPC emulator for Windows9X, is now available. Here's the list of changes since 1.6b:

Emulator Release: SadNES 0.12
15:32:  Yet another NES emulator, SadNES is named quite appropriately. It has no sound, can run about three games, and is coded in (gasp) QBasic. The readme looks very familiar as well. If you're bored, give the emulator a test-drive by grabbing SadNES 0.12 at the NES emulators page.

Misc. News: Earthbound for GBC?
15:09:  There have been many rumours about Nintendo planning to port the original "Earthbound Zero" prototype for NES to the GBC. Here's an interesting e-mail I received, courtesy of EBounding:

A few months ago, two guys known as Tomato and reidman, started a petition to Nintendo to bring Mother (or Earthbound Zero) to Game Boy Color. The petition was sent in, we didn't hear anything about it, until now. Someone asked the IGN Pocket site (pocket.ign.com/letters.html) if Earthbound could be ported to the GBC. Peer then replied saying:

"Many Game Boy developers don't want to touch the RPG genre because it takes longer to come up with a complete scenario, interesting story, and so on. Many NES fans have been asking Nintendo for a GBC version of EarthBound -- and if rumors are true, then Nintendo has given in to popular demand."

It appears that the prototype NES cart known as "Earthbound", might just make it to the GBC after all.

Will it make it to GBC? Time will tell.

Emulator Release: MSKISS 0.22
15:00:  A new verison of MSKISS, an MSX emulator for DOS, is now available for download. Here's what's new in version 0.22:

Emulator Release: 1964 0.1.17a
14:41:  A new version of 1964, a portable Nintendo 64 emulator with freely available source, is now available. Here's the list of changes made to both versions 0.1.17 and 0.1.17a (which was released shortly after 0.1.17):

Emulator Release: A-SATURN 0.14d
14:24:  A new version of A-SATURN, a Saturn emulator for Windows9X, has been released. This version can even display some primitive screenshots. Here's what's new in 0.14d:

Misc. News: Stuff
04:55:  Hi, it's me. The fluffy ZD Animal. I'll be gone for a couple of days now because I'm going off to a friend's house where I and a couple of other guys from my school will get together and play games, program, etc. But please keep sending me frontend news, and I'll add them as soon as I get home. I would also like to thank all of you who have sent in staff appreciation day e-mails, they really made me feel good. Thanks everyone, and see you in a few days!

7/22/99
Utility Release: Metedit 0.91 and Yy-MarioEditor 2.23e
23:44:  Metedit, a Metroid editor, and Yy-MarioEditor, a Super Mario Brothers map editor, have both been updated. The Yy-MarioEditor update was just a slight bugfix release, but here's what's new in MetEdit:

Emulator Release: EMU+ 0.36b1
23:25:  EMU+, an enhanced version of MAME with a bunch of nice additions, has been released. The only change seems to be that it has been updated to correspond with MAME 0.36b1. Grab it on the MAME page.

Misc. News: Demo of Sinistar: Unleashed for PC released
23:17:  Peter from Games32.com sent in the following:

"Hi,
Perhaps you would like to know that the 80's classic Sinistar has been
re-released for the PC in all new 3D glory. But unlike other classic-to-3D conversions, this one is well made and retains the original fun. It is now harder as those little ships can come from anywhere in a 3D environment. Sinistar: Unleashed is now available as a demo with enough playability to keep anyone entertained for hours. The game is now available for download from Games32.com.

Peter
Webmaster@Games32.com /EMUX.com"

Go grab it at Games32.com.

Emulator Release: NLMSX 0.06
18:41:  A new version of NSMSX is out, and here's what's new:

Misc. News: MAME Flyer Archive Updated to v3.5
18:29:  The MAME Flyer and Poster Archive has been updated to version 3.5. There are 40 new flyers and 24 replaced flyers. Go check it out!

Utility Release: XSPC 2.08
18:02:  XSPC, an SPC music file player, has proven itself alive and has been updated. Here are the news:

Utility Release: uCON-unix 950117
17:54:  I've added the Unix version of uCON, the IPS patching and various task ROM manipulation program. Here are the main features:

Misc. News: Me!
17:47:  Well, I have been working as much as Zophar has, therefore, all my updates will have to be done on weekends. If you send a translations update, dont expect it up until the weekend, and I'm sorry for the inconvience.

I would also like to announce, a Table file section will be starting on ZD. Watch as the section opens next week.

Emulator Release: FCE Ultra 0.15
17:40:  FCE Ultra, a NES emulator, has been updated and here's the news:

Site News: The return of Zophar XXXVII
17:21:  Hey everyone, it's me, Zophar. I've been on another journey away from the world of emulation, but I always end up back at the same place. Many of you may be wondering where I've been and what I've been doing, so I won't keep you waiting! (Begin: Zophar's Diary transcript 5,321,234)

I've been working at the Best Buy in Northeast Philadelphia for the last five weeks, in the computer department. I've met a lot of interesting people (including some of you visitors who couldn't believe I was "Zophar", heh), and I've helped a lot as well. I'll admit, as many of you have probably noticed anyway, that it has been sucking up my free time to maintain ZD. However, I will not allow it to cause ZD's regular updates to falter, so I'll make sure that the staff and myself keep the site updated for all of you loyal visitors.

Speaking of the staff, I feel that everyone should give the entire staff of Zophar's Domain a round of applause! It's not every day that you find such an incredible group of people to work with, who do their job and love what they do! For the last 2 1/2 years, the staff has received no money whatsoever for the jobs that have been done, so I feel that the entire staff deserves a HUGE round of applause for the INCREDIBLE job they've been doing!

I hereby declare July 22, 1999 from now, until tomorrow at the same time, ZD Staff Appreciation Day. If everyone who finds ZD useful could send a mail to the entire staff with your comments, it would be much appreciated by the entire staff, who really do a great job.

I realize that many people have been sending us updates to do, and not all of them have been getting done. I apologize for this, but you have to realize that it's a tough job, reading all those e-mails. Do realize, however, that I and the ZD staff read EVERY e-mail we receive, so although you may not get a response, and though you might not see the update right away, rest assured that it WILL be taken care of. That's part of the ZD committment!

Then we come to NSM Contest #3. I'm almost ready to post the new contest, but I still have a bit of deciding to do as far as the prize goes. I just purchased a Creative Labs 4X2X24 CDRW (only $179.99, awesome sale at Best Buy), and I love it to death! (You might find me on a certain IRC CD-R channel too every now and then, hehe). I've been thinking about possibly offering a complete CD of ZD as the prize... the only problem is copyrights. I'm not sure if offering a free CD of ZD is legal, since some files readmes may say, 'not to be included as part of a compilation'. So I'll have to look into that.

WWWthreads. Ladies and gentlemen, I know some of you don't like change. However, the change was neccessary. Many people, including those who rhyme with TwinHurst (no names, of course), were using various CGI exploits to gain access to our server. The main problem we found was that Matt's boards were easily exploitable, so we had to kill them.

But besides that, wwwthreads makes you create a new account, which means that people who want to spam and cause trouble will have a slightly tougher time, and they can also be banned MUCH easier. This also means that people who use AOL, etc, are not punished for their domain. Bans are a per-account basis. The look is easily customizable, so stay tuned! Oh... one other thing. You DON'T have to log in all the time! Just log in once. It saves a cookie with your l&p, so that unless you log out, (and i've been logged in 1 week so far, no problems) it will remember you. Be sure to check the boards out.

There's so much more I want to say, but right now, I'll be testing my new Lexmark 3200 printer and Creative 4X2X24 writer out some more. By the way... anyone who I might have met at Best Buy, feel free to e-mail me. ;) And anyone who lives in the NE Philly area, you know where to find me.

Remember, ZD and its staff are nothing without the support of all of its thousands and thousands of visitors. Thanks for visiting ZD!

Site News: New web board system
03:37:  It looks like the new web board system is here to stay. WWWThreads is working out great, despite all the last minute customizations to it (thanks Brian). The colors are definitely going to change, and we're still implementing a lot of the suggestions you guys made, so sit tight and you may see what you suggested actually happen.

A quick word about the old web boards, though. The old boards were easily exploitable, took up far too many resources, slow, and very inefficient in storing and managing data. Sorry Matt, we're moving on. We can't afford to take the security risk and waste all the resources.

Remember, any problems regarding the functionality of the boards should be directed to Brian. Anything else can be sent to either me, Swamp Gas, or Zophar.

7/21/99
Emulator Release: BrMAME 0.35
14:15:  BrMAME, the Portuguese version of MAME, has been updated to version 0.35. Get it at the MAME page.

Emulator Release: IMAME & IMAME32 0.35
14:08:  New versions of IMAME, the Italian translation of MAME, are availible. Get them at the MAME page.

Emulator Release: RockNES 0.93
13:53:  A new version of RockNES is out, and here's what's new:

Interview News: Breakpoint Interviewed
13:41:  H-Clone and Zoop of Emucamp have interviewed Breakpoint, the author of PS2PC and Project UnReality. Go read it if you're interested.

Emulator News: PSEmu Page Updated
13:31:  The PSEmu page has been slightly modified. Instead of going diectly to the main page when you go to www.psemu.com, you come to a page with a link and this:

"no surprises this time... just wait... and it depends on you if you want..."

You can take it however you want, because I don't have an explanation. =)

Misc. News: Secret of Mana Forever Cancelled
13:24:  SOMF was supposed to be a remake of Secret of Mana for your PC. Unfortunately, it has been cancelled for legal reasons. Here's what the official site had to say:

"The SOMF project has been shut down do to legal reasons. Unfortunately we can't talk about it anymore, so don't ask. Hopefully we will finish the project someday. Thanks for all your support, and someday, sometime you might just find a game called SOMF posted on Zophar's Domain. But we can't do any more of this public stuff, so cya around and thanks again for your support...to be continued. "

We wish you guys the best of luck in the future.

Emulator Release: PasoFami 1.1s
13:09:  A new version of PasoFami has been released, but its in Japanese so I don't know what's new. Get it at the NES page.

Frontend News: Frontrunner 2.4 for Windows
06:34:  Frontrunner, a really good frontend, formerly only for DOS, has been ported to Windows! The Windows version is really nice and you can still use your old .txt files from the DOS version with just a little editing of them, nothing much, I promise.
Here's what's new since 1.1 (DOS):

v2.0 (7/11/99)

Site News: Save archives updated
03:48:  Updated: CHT, NSF, NSM, SPC, ZST archives.

7/20/99
Misc. News: Goodbye SnoBro!
18:22:  SnoBro is going away for a while now. A year, actually. This is due to the fact that in Norway (as well as Sweden) you have to attend to one year of mandatory military service. InVerse was kind enough to write a farewell speech to him, which I will copy and paste here at his request:

"Kent Hansen, aka SnowBro, author of the great ROM hacking programs TLayer and Hexposure (along with a half dozen or so level editors and various other great programs) leaves for his one year of mandatory military service in less than 24 hours. We would l ike to wish him luck and eagerly await his return to the civilian ranks. Thanks for everything you've contributed to the ROM hacking & emulation communities, SnowBro!"

Yeah, goodbye SnoBro, and know that you're always welcome to come back to us all :)

Misc. News: Landing on the moon
17:41:  This has nothing to do with emulation, but I figured some people might care....

Today is the 30th anniversary of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon and putting the USA at the head of the space race. Also, it's the belief of NASA that Neil Armstrong had a different meaning for his famous words, because that transmission was interrupt ed with static and a few words were lost.

Emulator Release: DarcNES DOS v990711
11:48:  The DOS port of DarcNES, NES, SMS, PCE emulator, has been updated. Here's what the author has to say about the new release, "Everything from Linux 990711, A HUGE speedup (you can play SMS games at FULL speed on a P166 with -fsk ip 1, previously you needed -fskip 3) and changed -info to -credits. That's all for now!!" Easy there, fella, and happy birthday to him as well ;). Anyway, here's the what's new from the Unix v990711 version:

Site News: Poll Update
02:04:  The Poll has been updated! woohoo! I wanted to let the last one run as long as I could since it was such an important topic, anyway the results for the last poll of Do you think Zophar's Domain should have rumors within its reg ular content?are in and most of you seem to like the idea of a seperate section on ZD for rumors. Who knows, maybe it'll happen.

Choice 1 was: "I love rumours! Stick them on the front page with all the news."
It received 116 votes (18.2 percent).

Choice 2 was: "I love rumours! But i want them on a seperate page, away from the main news."
It received 286 votes (44.9 percent).

Choice 3 was: "Ugh, i only like confirmed truths in my news. no rumours, please."
It received 188 votes (29.5 percent).

Choice 4 was: "I could care less"
It received 47 votes (7.4 percent).

Anyway, the new poll is also an important one, the question: What do you think of the new web boards? Head on over to the Polling Grounds and tell us what you think.

Emulator Release: Shark v0.31
00:04:  A new version of Shark, one of the many arcade emulators. Since I'm tired, and it's way past my bedtime, here's the what's new from the zipfile:

Emulator Release: 1964 v0.1.6
00:04:  A new version of the 1964, Nintendo 64 emulator. Well, since I don't know what else to say, what's new:

7/19/99
Site News: Unix calculator sectiosn added.
23:43:  That about sums it up. I HP and TI calculator sections for Unix. Go there, now. Ok, bye.

Misc. News: www.retrogaming.net
23:24:  Well, no, not another ZSNES release, but I'm just here to tell you about the debut of a great new emulation-related site, www.retrogaming.net. This new site has a fast-loading, easy to read, and quite pretty format, making for easy navigation. Well, just check it out, you'll see.

Misc. News: Chrono Trigger Reborn!
04:46:  MagicBox has reported that square plans on releasing a Chrono Trigger remake, which will stay close to the same, but with FMV video.

Emulator Release: ZSNES v0.941
01:10:  Minor bugfix release. What's new:

7/18/99
Emulator Release: MAME v0.36b1
21:53:  Ooh, the first MAME, multiple arcade machine emulator, 0.36 beta. Just the source at this point, but, the stage is now set for a binary, which should probably be along shortly. Read the long, official what's new here.

MAME page.

Emulator Release: ZSNES v.940c/a
20:53:  Another new version of ZSNES is here, yay. Thanks to many people for flooding my e-mail box with the news ;). As, _Bnu, with his blinding icon, said before, the site also recieved a revamp, this has also been done to our officicial mirror. Anyway, what's new in this version:

Misc. News: ZSNES site re-design
17:55:  http://www.zsnes.com has received a MAJOR overhaul and it looks really good. Go check it out!

Translation News: TableMaker Relative
04:16:  Hightimes, maker of TranslationStation has released a new program called "TableMaker Relative", which allows you to make .tbl files easier than before.

TableMaker Relative like TranslationStation was coded in Visual Basic 6.0. It sports a super easy to use User Interface as well a way to make table files ultra fast for SNES/NES/TG16/ETC for romhacking/translation and *NO* it doesnt search relative, it places table values relativily! TableMaker Relative even supports single characters, dte, and kanji table file entry! Many features included like you can change where in the font table the table set in the table order begins by giving a hex address to jump to(ie. 42, 20, 00). You can also specify the starting address of where the table begins so relative entry can be placed correclty.

If your need a quick solution to creating a complete table file for a rom and you have a brain. This is the solution. Just go into any rom gfx editor and find the font table order and the single entry values and note them and the app will can be used. Have phun.

I will also be leaving v33-b33 c0d3z for C/C++/ASM code for future apps... I'm getting tired of having to distro these apps with fucking runtime bs. Please give me feedback or bug reports at royalblu@silcom.com or reply to this post with what you thought of my app.


Yet again however, you will need the Visual Basic runtimes.

Download it off the Translation/Hacks Utility page.

Site News: Save archives updated
01:14:  Updated: NSM, SPC, ZST archives.

Site News: New Web Board System
01:06:  I'm proud to announce that we're now using a new web board system, WWWThreads. The old boards are still there, but we're asking people to stop conversing on them and to switch to the new system. Believe me, once you sneak a peek at the new system, you'll never go back to the old one. Here's a small list of the many great features it has:

• Choosing how you want the boards sorted: by date, subject or poster, in ascending or desceding order
  
• Flat, or threaded mode
  
• Have threads expanded, or collapsed for easy browsing (like newsgroups)
  
• Choose number of posts per page
  
• Choose your reading font size
  
• Get notified of replies via email

7/17/99
Emulator Release: RockNES 0.92
17:07:  A new version of RockNES has been released, and here's what's new:

Frontend News: MAMELOAD 2.75
15:47:  MAMELOAD, a really good DOS based frontend for MAME has been updated! I can't really find what's new anywhere, but I hope it hasn't gained any bugs, hehe.

Go download it from the Arcade emulator frontends page.

Site News: ZSNES Shrine Screenshots Compressed
01:04:  DarkMazda of DarkMazda's Domain added some additional compression to the pics in the ZSNES Shrine. Thanks!

Emulator Release: Pasofami 1.1p
00:50:  A new version of Pasofami is out, but I don't know what's new. Like always, this emulator is Japanese. If you want it, go to the NES page.

Utility Release: PSX Memcard Reader\Writer
00:36:  Have you ever played a game on the PSX, gotten very far, wanted to play it on Bleem! instead, but couldn't, cause your saved game was on a Mem card? Well now, there is a utility called PSX Memcard reader/writer. What it does, is lets you hook up a home made interface to your LPT port, and download the saved games off of the memcard, and save them to your HD, for backup, or just to play with Bleem!. Check it out.

You can download it over at the PSX Utilities page.

Misc. News: Chrono Cross Music Released
00:31:  Square of Japan has confirmed that composer Yasunori Mitsuda is back for Chrono Cross. (he was the previous musician for Chrono Trigger) Square Japan has put up a website on Chrono Cross, which can be found here. It contains a "Theme" for the game, written by Mitsuda in mp3 form.

You can download the Chrono Cross Theme here

Misc. News: Factor 5 releases games
00:07:  Factor 5, maker of many Star Wars games for Nintendo, has posted several backup ROMs on its site. R-Type, BCKid, and Turrican 1, 2, and 3 are all availiable to download in Amiga Disk Format if you already own them. And who says video companies can't have a heart? Check it out at the link below.

Factor 5 Download Page

Misc. News: NIN64 readme.txt converted
00:05:  If you wanted to use this emulator, but had no idea what the readme.txt said, then this txt file is for you. Translated by D1sk, you can now read this in plain english. Enjoy.

You can view the readme.txt here.

Misc. News: Letter to Sony
00:02:  Saint has written a letter to Sony and posted it publicly. He brought up many good points in it. If you're interested in what he has to say, read the letter.

7/16/99
Emulator News: Maximum PC's Bleem! Review
23:54:  A scan of Maximum PC's bleem review has been obtained, courtesy of DooMStalk.

Maximum PC's Bleem! Review

Misc. News: SFZero support
23:53:  Have you wanted to play this game, but wanted to convert it yourself? Well copy this batch file, into the same directory of your SFZero roms, run it... and it will convert them to a playable rom. Just like that other patch program, just this time, you get to see how it converts it.

You can download the batch file Here

Misc. News: TriStar64 to play 8-bit Famicom games
23:50:  Zerothis has e-mailed us with a series of e-mails sent between him and the creators of the TriStar64. Basically, the TriStar64 will have support for 8-bit Famicom games through an adapter that will be sold or possibly included as an add-in. Once again, thanks to Zerothis for the info.

Misc. News: Bleem! page redone
23:47:  The Bleem! homepage has been completely redone. It's nice, except for the extreme use of bright primary colors... Anyway, click the link below to check it out.

Emulator Release: EMU+ 0.35 Final
23:45:  EMU+ DOS 0.35 Final has been released; there is a new Pentium optimized version in addition to the regular DOS binary and source. Also, the EMU+ homepage has temporarily moved to http://gato.ings.com/emuplus/. Grab EMU+ on the MAME page or visit the EMU+ homepage.

Emulator Release: SNEeSe version .277
23:38:  A new version of SNEeSe has been released. Here is what's new:

Emulator News: Spectrum in 256 colors?
23:18:  A new Spectrum emulator is being programmed that supports 256 color mode in ALL games. There is no official site for the emulator, but I will point you to the Spanish site that has awesome side-by-side screenshots.

Misc. News: Genesis Chart v2.02
23:06:  The Scribe has released a new version of Genesis Chart, a guide to Sega Genesis games and the emulators they run on. This version was slightly rushed, so there may be some errors. Grab the zipfile on the Genesis page.

Technical Docs News: Z80 section improved and new section added
18:31:  The Z80 technical documents page had been updated with a whole load of new documents. I also added a new section: Sinclair Computers. It's a bit small as of yet, but it'll grow. Have fun with them.

7/15/99
Site News: Save archives updated
23:12:  Updated: CHT, CS0, GS0, NeoRAGEx, NSF, NSM, SPC, ZMV, ZST archives.

Misc. News: Chrome's Place news
22:20:  ChromeX from Chrome's Place, told me to post some news about his site. Here it is:

"For those of you who are constant visitors of Chrome's Place you know by now that I haven't updated my website since May 7. All I'd like to say is I'm extremely sorry, and I want to explain why its been so long. First of all I am not that experienced in web design so I cant provide a cool professional web site like Zophar's Domain or any other popular sites out there. Second, I have no staff I'm all alone. I am very busy and I've been having lots a problems and I have no help. Third, I get no feedback on my site from u guys so I don't know what else to put on the site to make it better. Fourth, I have a very slow modem so I cant upload any large files to the site, and lastly I have very inadequate software to work with. I am once again very sorry, and if I can solve all of these problems, mark my words I'll make Chrome's Place the best site it can be. If you would like to help me out I'd appreciate it very much, because otherwise this site will just be a sitting duck. You can email me at CoDoChrome@aol.com, and I'd just like to say one more thing, thanx for taking the time to read this, I appreciate this very much."

You can visit his site, by going to Chrome's Place.

Misc. News: SOM Forever update
21:42:  I just finished trying a pre-beta version of Secret of Mana Forever, an unofficial remake of the SNES version. I must say that it is looking pretty good, not much added yet, but I am telling all of you that this is not fake.

You can visit the site Here.

Misc. News: SitC back
01:02:  Spirit in the Contraption is back with a new location. SitC is an excellent ROM and general emulation page.

7/14/99
Translation News: Balloon Mario 2.0
21:02:  Sl1me has released a new version of Balloon Mario, a hack for NES which allows
mario to fly across the screen.



Screenshot of The hack

Get it off the Hacks page.

Emulator Release: 1964 0.1.5
18:42:  A new version of 1964 has been released, and here's what's new:

Emulator Release: Bleem! 1.3 beta 1
18:14:  The Bleem! team released a new beta for the registered users today, and here's what's new:

Emulator Release: X-Mame v0.35.3 (final)
12:25:  Bugfixed (hopefully) version of the final version of X-Mame, multiple arcade machine emulator, 0.35 series. What's new(s):

what's new in 0.35.3:

Emulator News: New version of Master Gear
03:49:  Marat Fayzullin told me to post this:

Hello, everybody!
I have just received a new version of MasterGear, the 8bit SEGA emulator. It emulates SEGA SG1000, SC3000, Mark2, Mark3, MasterSystem, and GameGear hardware. See http://www.komkon.org/fms/MG/for complete information. Following is a list of new features and fixes:

Misc. News: Secret Of Mana: Forever
03:32:  A new group has gotten together to port SOM to the PC. SOM is the well known game called Secret Of Mana, which was created by SquareSoft for use on the SNES. These people who are making SOM: Forever, are gonna add a bit more too. Day \ Night effects, weather effects, and more secret locations. This is a page worth to keep an eye on.

You can check it out over here : http://members.xoom.com/somforever.

Emulator News: Vortex playable on ZSNES
03:07:  Evilpaul sent me an e-mail about Zsnes being able to emulate Vortex! Check out the screenshot below:



Thanks to Evilpaul for the news, and http://www.emulatronia.com for the screenshot.

Emulator Release: PS2PC version .001
02:39:  A cool PSY (PSX2) x86 emulator has been released. This project is open source, and is very preliminary. Also, the creator of this program, was the author of Project Unreality! What this program does, is makes your x86 programs, into PSY games, so you can play them on your PSY! Pretty cool, huh? Well go ahead and download it.

You can download it over at the PlayStation emulators page.

Emulator Release: NLMSX .05b
02:24:  Well, this isnt really an updated release. This release makes the program smaller. No real changes to the EXE have been made. But anyway, take a look at it.

You can download it over at the MSX Emulator Page.

Misc. News: Tech request
02:13:  NIKAN asked me to post a tech reqest for him, here it is:

Hi, I'd like to code a Sega Model 1 emu, but It's very hard to find technical info. If anyone has infos about Virtua Racing- Virtua Fighter board, please contact me at nik_can@hotmail.com.

So if you have any information, please contact him. Thanks.

Utility Release: Callus SFZ patch version 8
01:49:  I have finally been able to login to the FTP server to do some updates. Well here goes. I have added a fix for Callus to enable the use of Street Fighter Zero in the program. This is really good for Street Fighter fans.

You can download it over at the Multiple Arcade Emulator Page under the Callus section.

Thanks goes out to Sebastian for the e-mail.

7/13/99
Emulator Release: KEGS v0.52
07:22:  New version of KEGS, Kent's emulated GS (Apple II GS). Uhm, what's new:

7/12/99
Emulator Release: DGen Unix v1.16
23:29:  Joe Groff has completed another version of the Unix DGen port, my thanks to him for the news. The what's new:

Emulator Release: DarcNES v990711
23:08:  A new version of DarcNES, NES, SMS, PCE emulator. The author has discontinued binary compilations, so just the source will be updated from now on. Thanks to DrkSupMag for the news. What's new:

Site News: More sections
19:46:  Today is the first day this summer I haven't completely and totally out of it, and to celebrate, I have some new sections for you! I'm slowly but surely getting them done, and please don't e-mail me about stuff I don't have up yet. Thanks!

Emulator Release: MAME32 0.35
19:11:  MAME32 has finally been brought into sync with its DOS counterpart. Get it at the MAME page. Thanks to SeivO for the news.

Utility News: XSPC Discontinued
16:06:  Unfortunately, it looks like XSPC has been discontinued for good this time. Here's what the author posted on the official page:

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the silent days. My monitor died and forced me to take a break. Took a while for me to fix it, but now it's back and operating nicely.
Oh yeah, anyway, sorry for the missing v2.07b patch file. I have uploaded it, and you can get it from the download page.
There are still some bugs left (which I can't figure out where and how to fix them up), but I don't plan to update XSPC anymore. Why?

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.275
15:40:  A new version of SNEeSe has been released, and here's what's new:

Emulator Release: 1964 0.1.4
15:27:  A new version of 1964 has been released, and here's what's new:

Emulator Release: NIN64 0.01 beta4
15:21:  A new version of NIN64 has been released, but since everything is in Spanish, I can't tell you what's new. Get it at the N64 page. Thanks to Destination Emulation for the news.

Emulator Release: PS2PC build 001
07:38:  Wow, an x86 emulator for the PSX2. Kudos to breakpoint (Project Unreality, anyone?) on this one, and thanks to him for the news, hehe. Anyway, since it would seem to difficult to code a PSX2 emulator for a PC, how about a PC emulator for PSX2? It is kind of a developmental set-back that the PSX2 isn't out yet, althought I could be wrong. There is a Win32 binary and source code for the dynec recompiler and for the core emulator (yay, open source. Hey, this page is open source too). I couldn't think of anywhere else to put this, so I gave it's own section, I'm not gonna add it to the sidebar until it's permanent location is decided though.

x86 emulators for PSX2..

Emulator Release: jzIntv v008
07:08:  This is the first Intellivision emulator for Unix that I know of, so I also freshly created an Intellivision page. My apologies to author of this emu, last time I got the news of this emu, there was no URL. :/

As a side note, I would also like to add that if there are other emulators for Unix in existance that we don't have on ZD, I would really appreciate it if you told me about them! Ok, bye.

Unix Intellivision page.

7/11/99
Translation News: SM Remix Added
20:53:  Referring back to my post a few days ago, they only had the rom available. The patch they made is now available on the Hacks page.

Translation News: Heracles~
17:30:  Toma has updated his page, with a "demo" of The Glory of Heracles 2 translation. This is a BETA DEMO, and he would like people to know, its bound to have bugs, and not to report them, since it will be fixed in the final patch.

Download it off the Translations page.

Emulator Release: SASS 1.2
17:16:  A new version of SASS is out, and here's what's new:

Translation News: Moves
17:12:  Neo Demiforce has moved to http://demiforce.parodius.com/

and Ballzysoft Industries has moved to http://www.the-liu.com/ballzysoft/

The Hacks and Translations pages have been changed to reflect.

Site News: Gone for a while
11:53:  I'm going to be gone for two weeks, so if you have news to send, please send it to another staffer. Thanks!

Misc. News: Rockman: The Power Battle tournament
11:50:  Ratboy is having a Rockman: The Power Battle tournament. It sounds interesting, you can read about it here. This page has white text on a white background (obviously an accident), so to read it, highlight the page. I e-mailed Ratboy about it, so it'll probably be fixed soon.

Thanks to Ratboy for the news.

Misc. News: EmuZine
11:48:  I got news of an online emulation magazine, called EmuZine. I looked over it, and it's pretty good: it has a bunch of technical documents and news on the Game Boy '99 Demo tournament. You can read it here.

Thanks to redshadow for the news.

Emulator Release: X-Mame v0.35.1
08:41:  Finally the final release v0.35 release of X-Mame, the multiple arcade machine emulator for unix. What's new:

Emulator Release: DarcNES 990704 DOS
03:58:  Sephiroth has released a new version of his DOS port of DarcNES. It should contain all the features of the official DarcNES. You can get it at the NES page.

Site News: ZSNES Shrine Redesigned
03:48:  If any of you have been to the ZSNES Shrine recently, you have probably noticed that it took forever to load. That's because there was over 250K of data to load! Well, that's not the case anymore. I updated the information, added a few new screenshots, and, best of all, put it on multiple pages. Go see it for yourself.

7/10/99
Emulator Release: NeoMAME PPC 0.35Nb
23:08:  I've been recently informed of a NeoGeo only version of MacMAME. This version is unsupported, so don't e-mail the authors about it.

Grab it at the Multi Arcade emulators for Mac page or the NeoMame PPC page.

Emulator Release: MacMAME 0.35 Final
22:48:  OK, this is the first in a long string of updates that I have to do tonight; I've been extremely out of the loop the past couple of weeks because of a family vacation and an infection, so this is catchup time. First on tonight's agenda, MacMAME 0.35 final. Here's what's new with this version:

Emulator Release: NLMSX/MSX2 0.05
19:21:  NLMSX/MSX2 has been updated to version 0.05, here's what's new:

Misc. News: Intellectual property
18:54:  MajereDB8 submitted news about the Rio portable MP3 player, sold by Diamond Multimedia, and the RIAA, which tried to stop the sales of it. He included a link to this article, from the New York Times (you need a free account to read it), and in it is mentioned that intellectual property experts say that it is within fair rights to own an MP3 of a song, even if you got it from an illegal source. He stated something interesting, however: Could this also be applied to ROMs? We'll just have to wait and find out.

Thanks again to MajereDB8 for the news.

Misc. News: Info regarding pros and cons of Tristar 64 converter
02:50:  I stumbled upon an article at AdvancedImports.com regarding the Tristar64, a converter device used to play NES and SuperNES games on your N64. They mention that the unit does not support using an S-Video cable. They also state that American NES cartridges do not currently fit into the unit, meaning you can only play 8-bit Famicom games. They do say that they have no problems using SuperNES and Super Famicom games, and that a customer reports that it also runs the Super Game Boy unit with no problems either. Still sounds like the perhiperal to own.

7/9/99
Emulator Release: DGen 1.16
22:25:  A new version of DGen from the author of DTMNT has been released. New in this Windows version is Game Genie codes, SRAM support, Raster Effects and lots more.

You can download it at the Genesis emulation page

Misc. News: Chrono Cross pictures?!
21:48:  EmuCamp has reported news on pictures of Chrono Cross! You can take a look at them here. From the look of these pictures, I can't wait until the game comes out!

Emulator Release: Hu-Go! 0.97
21:45:  Hu-Go!, the TG16 emulator, has been updated to version 0.97! Here's what's new:

Emulator News: Zsnes runs starfox?
21:34:  Wow! Zsnes is the first SNES emulator to support StarFox! At least this is what it looks like. Take a look at the picture:



You can view it at the official page if you like...

Thanks goes out to terrorcide for the e-mail.

Misc. News: Wook's articles
20:40:  1. A list from Gamecenter lists some games that the public will probably never see. Funny stuff.
Article 1

2. FGNonline says that Nintendo's new system won't support DVDs. Will Nintendo ever learn?
Article 2

3. Next-Generation has a bit of news that states that the next Chrono Trigger might not come out in America.
Article 3

Misc. News: EmuFAQ 7/04/99
17:00:  The Scribe has released the latest version of his EmuFAQ. It talks about the history of emulation, whether it is legal or not, and other things. Get it here.

Media News: Another article on bleem
16:43:  The US News and World Report had a small article on bleem, which read:

Good games cheaper
For $30, you can enjoy Playstation games without having to buy the system. The CD-ROM Bleem!, coming this week, lets you run the games on your PC for about $100 less than it costs to buy the stand-alone system.

Thanks to Jacob Cappell for the news.

Emulator News: Moonrise news
16:37:  The Moonlit Coalition has posted news on the release of Moonrise, their in-progress multiple system emulator. Keep your eyes peeled for a release soon.

Emulator News: TRWinGL screenshots
16:25:  EmuHQ has posted some screenshots of TRWinGL playing StarFox 64, go check them out!

Thanks to BWB for the news.

Translation News: Super Mario Bros. Remix 0.90
09:27:  sl1me and Omniverse have almost completed their SMB1 hack for NES, SMB Remix. They have released a beta rom to download.

SMB Remix Homepage

Translation News: Trans Otaku Dies...
09:20:  The group responsable for the Pokemon Card translation has shut down

I'm sorry to do this, but I have no choice. Due to fear of leagal action from Nintendo of America, I have to close down this site and CANCEL the translation of Pokemon Card GB for now. I'm sorry to do this. Please don't e-mail myself or anyone in this translation group about this.
-nodeX

Trans Otaku

7/7/99
Emulator News: PC64 news
20:15:  It seems that PC64 has been cancelled due to lamers, but it will be restarted again soon. You can read about it at the PC64 page.

Thanks to EmuHQ for the news.

Emulator News: New pictures of Nemu64
20:09:  The Nemu64 team is evidently working on a new build of the program, as EmuHQ has posted pictures of a new beta of the emulator.

Thanks to Retrogames for the news.

Misc. News: Chrono Trigger 2 is OFFICIALLY Confirmed
19:41:  After much speculation, the existence of Chrono Trigger 2 is no longer a mystery. According to RPGamer, it exists and will be titled Chrono Cross. There will be a playable demo included in Seiken Densetsu 4: Legend of Mana, which will be availible in Japan on July 15th. Chrono Cross will be released in Japan this Winter.

Emulator News: DGen 1.15 source
19:38:  The source to DGen 1.15 has been released, finally. You can get it from the Genesis page.

Thanks to Retrogames for the news.

Emulator Release: DGen Linux v1.15
19:27:  Another missed update, this one if for the Linux DGen port. Thanks to Joe Groff for the news. What's new since the last release:

Emulator Release: DarcNES v990704
19:27:  Hehe, I missed this update of the DarcNES, NES, SMS, and PCE emulator, while I was on vacation. Anyway, what's new:

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.27
18:17:  A new version of SNEeSe has been released, and here's what's new:

Translation News: Bishoujo Senshi Translations!
16:37:  Bishoujo Senshi Translations, responsable for the Sailor Moon RPG translation has updated their webpage with new screenshots!

Bishoujo Senshi Translations

Emulator News: TheSE-not dead
13:44:  It turns out that TheSE, an old SNES emulator, is not dead after all. Take a look at homepage!

Thanks to Gryphon for the news.

Emulator Release: ZSNES v910/a
00:47:  Yay, another new version of ZSNES, albeit just a bugfix version. As, always, use the assembly (a) version only if you're having trouble with the regular version. What's new:

Misc. News: NES Stars Demo Updated
00:03:  The Nintendo Stars demo by Chris Covell has been updated. It now has original music to it, and is known as Stars SE.

You can get this demo in the NES Free ROMs area.

7/5/99
Misc. News: My Birthday
23:36:  I'd like to wish myself a Happy Birthday while it's still the 5th over on the East Coast. I's kinda cool having a birthday after the 4th of July and now I've learned that it also is kinda sucky. You see, I'm now 17 (yay) and getting set to get my license however in NJ the DMV is closed today due to the holiday, and then tomorrow, I can't take my test because they are backed up due to todays closure so NOW I have to wait till Wednesday...piss me off. Oh yeah that and my parents got me nothing for my birthday, I had to work till 5 AM last night, and today the girl I've been dating for like over a week decides to tell me she has a boyfriend, all in all..it's been a great birthday (). So anyway, now that I've taken up a considerable amount of space, Happy Birthday to me, later.

Any comments, feel free to email me: [noam]

Utility Release: GG-HEX
23:32:  A new beta of GG-HEX has been released. I dont know what has changed, because no readme.txt is included. You can download the new version at the SNES Utilities page.

There is also a Java Version of GG-HEX up. Check it out.

Utility Release: MSP 0.30
22:37:  MSP, the Micellaneous Sound Player, has been updated to version 0.30! Here's what's new:

Emulator Release: DGen 1.14
22:31:  A new version of DGen is out, and here's what's new:

Emulator Release: MSKISS 0.2.1
22:01:  A new verison of MSKISS has been released. I don't know what's new, but you can get it at the MSX page.

Emulator News: MAME 0.35 bugfix
20:32:  A bugfix of MAME was issued. Here's what has been fixed:

Misc. News: First perfect score on Pac-Man
19:34:  The first perfect score on Pac-Man ever was achieved on July 3rd. You can read about it here.

Thanks to Walter Day for the news.

Emulator News: Pasofami 1.1m What's New
18:57:  Steven Livingston was kind enough to e-mail us the what's new for Pasofami 1.1m. Here's the scoop:

Misc. News: Wook's articles
18:37:  Wook has sent news of interesting articles, which are the following:

Emulator News: fwNES News
03:17:  After many months of silence, some word has finally come from the fwNES page. First of all, it has moved to a new host. Second, and most importantly, Fanwen is out of the army and is working on fwNES again. According to the page, a Win95 version of fwNES is in the making as well as a new DOS verison. New verisons will feature a speed increase, more mapper support, better Zapper support, and many big fixes. Thanks to Dark Blaze for the news.

7/4/99
Interview News: Geeknews.net interview
23:40:  Geeknews.net has done another interview with the webmaster of another popular emulator website, and has placed the answers side by side next to Dave of Dave's Classics. I wonder who this guy could be? =]

Emulator Release: 1964 0.1.3
23:06:  1964 has been updated to version 0.1.3, here's what's new:

Emulator Release: ZSNES 0.900
22:53:  After over half a year of people believing the ZSNES team to be idle, we have been graced with version 0.900 (on July the 4th, happy Independence Day to Americans!) of the ultimate SNES emulator in existance for DOS, ZSNES. zsKnight, _Demo_ and Pharos have worked very hard on this version, as you will see from the whatsnew.txt, which you can check out below. Here's the condensed version of changes, for those who just want to know the major changes:

• Optimised SA-1 emulation
  
• Implemented Surround Sound. It is defaulted off since it seems to create some bad static in some games. Thanks to Crono for info!
  
• Wrote Interpolation in MMX. MMX cpu is required.
  
• Implemented MMX auto-detection for MMX Interpolation and MMX Copy.
  
• Optimised 320x240x16b and 640x480x16b for ARGB cards
  
• Clock option is now visible to anyone. You can enable the in-game clock through the GUI in Config->Options.
  
• Fixed a VESA2 divide by 0 bug in Banshee cards by checking the scanline length instead of setting it immediately. Thanks to Crono for some help!
  
• Added sound interpolation based on Crono's code. Thanks to Crono for his help!
  
• Fixed a nasty bug in the ADSR engine. It was sometimes using an incorrect decay value, causing the sound to stick instead of fading out
  
• Implemented the 2xSaI graphics engine (MMX Only). Many thanks to Kreed for this wonderful engine and source code!
  
• Implemented Kreed's Super Eagle engine. Note that for both 2xSaI and Super Eagle, you need an MMX processor, enough RAM for the new gfx 16bit engine, and also be in 640x480x65536 video mode.
  
• Implemented .ZIP support. Thanks to Jean-loup Gailly, Mark Adler, and Gilles Vollant for the ZIP routines!
  
• Implemented longer cheat descriptions. The cheat window and the .cht file format had to change a bit, however, ZSNES automatically converts any old formats to the new formats when it detects it.
  
• .ZIP files can now be run from the commandline
  
• Implemented Single Windowing in the New Gfx 8bit engine, 8x8 and 16x16 tile modes only
  
• Implemented 640x480x65536 VESA 1.2 support. Currently supports Full Scanlines and Smallscreen modes. However, it is strongly recommended that you only use VESA 1.2 support if your card cannot support VESA 2.0 (w/ linear framebuffer) since VESA 1.2 runs slower.
  
• Fixed the 'FIX' feature in the cheat menu. Seems like it wasn't writing any value to memory when it was clicked.
  
• New Gfx 8bit engine is now the default graphics engine in 256 color modes. It still lacks sprite windowing and also has some sprite flicker issues, but it's overall more stable, faster, and has more features. You can still switch back to the old gfx engine by pressing '8'.
  

Emulator Release: MAME 0.35
20:20:  MAME 0.35 has been released. There are way too many changes to list, so download it yourself from the MAME page and check out the whatsnew.txt.

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Translation News: Minor update to Langrisser 2
20:11:  warui toransu has released v0.04 of the Langrisser II translation. Now the package includes a IPS utility called "IPSIT" coded by alamone, and a proper information file to read. Download the patch from the Translations page or directly from warui toransu's site.

Utility Release: Pete's SPU plugin 1.0.1
19:41:  Pete Bernert's SPU plugin has been updated to version 1.0.1, here's what's new:

Emulator Release: Pasofami 1.1m
16:13:  A new verison of Pasofami has been released, but I don't know what's new, cause the page is in Japanese. You can get it at the NES page. Thanks to Destination Emulation for the e-mail.

Emulator News: Atari Arcade Hits #1
01:26:  Hello boys and girls, I've returned from vacation and have a treat for you. Hasbro is set to release it's Atari Arcade Hits #1 pack in two weeks. This pack is Pong, Asteroids, Tempest, Centipede, Missile Command, and Super Breakout all running on an emulator. Be sure to check it out, and thanks to Mike Stulir from Back In Time for the e-mail.

7/3/99
Interview News: Geeknews.net interview with Dave
23:03:  Geeknews.net has done an interview with Dave of Dave's Classics. You can read it here.

Thanks to EmuCamp for the news.

Emulator News: RockNES news
23:00:  The RockNES homepage has been updated:

On July 3rd, there was news on the status of the emulator:

Emulator Release: PC64 1.01
18:28:  Hehe. Before I say the whole lot about this emulator I would like to send out a big "I'm sorry!" to the PC64 coding crew for instantly assuming that this emulator was fake when I read the e-mail. But luckily I tried it out and it works. It can run Mario64! (The only ROM I have, heh) I have a feeling that if the coders of this emulator keeps working on it it might become really great. This emulator uses Glide for rendering and such but it hasn't got any HLE implemented yet, so it's slow. But it supports Mario64 and Rampage 2, so if you've got a really fast computer go try it out. I've checked it for viruses and the program said it was clean. I've run it too and no doom has struck my computer, so go download it from the N64 Emulators page.

Translation News: Langrisser 2 Patch Released!
17:48:  alamone, (yes the guy who works here) has released his new Langrisser 2 patch, for Genesis. It translates the first scenario.

Download it off the Translations page.

Translation News: Front Mission
17:25:  This is a bit of late news (basically because i never knew about it) But the Front Mission translation is still quite alive!

According to Stories' homepage, its 95% complete with the following done:

Text Blocks #2, (20k), #3 (20k), #4 (7k), and #5 (2k) fully completed.

Screenshots of their Progress:


For More information, visit Stories' Homepage.

Misc. News: Nintendo FAQ response v2.0
12:06:  The Scribe has released version 2.0 of his response to the infamous Nintendo FAQ. You can get the new version of the document here.

Thanks to the author of the document for the news!

Emulator Release: 1964 0.1.2
02:35:  A new version of 1964 was released, and here's what's new:

Here's a build that actually plays the demo "rotate.v64" 100% :) Many, many thanks to Zilmar for his rewrite of the interrupts code and for his time. Interrupts had been driving me nuts for weeks. I think we still have some issues with it, but now it is much better. There are still many demos that will not work and will crash, but I suspect that many more of the more basic demos will work properly now. Also, I have learned a few new cool speed hacks and will implement them in a future release. (schibo)

Get it at the N64 page.

Site News: Save archives updated
01:59:  Updated: GS0, NSF, NSM, SPC, ZMV, ZST archives. The NSM archive now has the "ZD NSM Contest Hall of Fame" appended to the end. From there you can download current and future winning entries of the ZD NSM Contests.

7/2/99
Utility Release: SPCAMP v0.500 released
21:55:  SPCAMP is a SPC Winamp plugin by the ZSNES team. There doesn't seem to be a list of changes, but from what I can tell interpolated mixing is now implemented (which improves the sound quality dramatically). Grab SPCAMP v0.500 from the ZSNES mirror.

Misc. News: SMSpower news
21:09:  On the SMSpower main page, Zoop has said that it might not be possible to release one ROM each day as usual, due to a resignation at the site and lameness.

Thanks to EmuSphere for the news.

Misc. News: PS2 and China
20:51:  As you may know, the US wasn't going to allow shipments of PS2s to arrive in China because they might be used for military purposes (hehehehe). That ban will be lifted in six months, that is, if Congress doesn't override the changes.

Read more on the subject here.

Misc. News: EmuCamp returns
20:40:  Emulation Camp has finally returned from its message-board-as-the-front-page state. Take a look at it here. There's a lot of new staff members over there also, so expect more frequent updates.

Thanks to EmuSphere for the news.

Emulator News: Nemu FAQ
20:22:  hWnd has posted an FAQ for Nemu. There's news about it on the Nemu main page.

Thanks to -ZeX- for the news.

Misc. News: Zoop's new SMS site
13:02:  Zoop of EmuCamp and MEKA fame has put up a new page on SMSpower, called SMSdev. It is dedicated to SMS programming and hacking. Go check it out!

Thanks to Zoop for the news!

Misc. News: FF7 added to Greatest Hits
00:21:  IGNPSX recently had an article stating that Final Fantasy 7 was added to the PlayStation Greatest Hits library. For those of you who still haven't played the game, go get it-it's really inexpensive now, and it's an excellent game! A PC version is also available-I suggest you get this version if you have a good computer with a Voodoo2 card in it, the graphics are amazing with one.

7/1/99
Emulator News: SNES9x SMRPG screenshots
23:52:  The SNES9x page has three screenshots of Super Mario RPG, and it looks great! You can visit the page here.

Thanks to Hero of Time for the news!

Interview News: Interview with Tiger Claw and Lost
23:38:  satsu has interviewed Square Translations's Tiger Claw and Lost. You can read it here.

Misc. News: fwNES mirror move
23:32:  The fwNES English mirror has moved here. Update your bookmarks, if it is in there!

Thanks to Dark Blaze for the news.

Emulator News: Meka & a ZD theme?
23:05:  I hear from the grapevine that someone is submitting a ZD GUI theme to Zoop for addition to MEKA. Guess we'll have to wait and see. ;)

By the way, if you haven't already downloaded MEKA 0.20, what are you waiting for?! Grab it from the Master System & GameGear emulators page.

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.26b
22:58:  TRAC has released version 0.26b of his freely available SNES emulator for DOS, SNEeSe. Here's what's new in this build:

Emulator News: bleem! hits the shelves of retail stores
22:47:  According to Bluesnews.com, it's been announced that the commercial PSX emulator, bleem!, will now be available in retail stores around the country. The article follows:

A press release just came rolling in announcing that bleem!, the PlayStation emulator for the PC, that has survived legal hassles to see the light of day, should now be available in retail stores in the US (the emulator was previously only available through mail-order online). The release says bleem is "now for sale at outlets nationwide, including CompUSA, Fry's, Electronics Boutique, Hastings, and Virgin Megastores."

Thanks to all who mailed in.

Site News: Nostradamus... bwuahahah
22:43:  I just felt the need to post this. ;) Nostradamus predicted in the 1500s that this was the month that something big would happen to the world. "In the year 1999, and seven months from the sky...". I scanned the prediction about a year ago, and now, I present you with it again. Is it true? Heh... I don't know about that, but it sure makes for a good read. :)

Misc. News: nEMU is back!
17:52:  nEMU, a general Emulation news and downloads site is back from the dead!

Its new URL is http://nemu.ztnet.com, go pay it a visit!

Emulator News: Legal Intellivision emulator
17:46:  Joseph Mason(a.k.a JEd_) sent us a rather interesting mail. I'll just cut'n'paste it here for your reading pleasure:

"Looks like there is going to be a Legal emulator for the Intellivision that (according to this article) has _all_ of the games except for the old D&D games. Maybe it's just a conversion of the old games, but I don't think so. Go take a look at
www.go.com
Joseph Mason
( aka JEd_ )"

Once again, thanks to Joseph Mason for this piece of news.

Emulator Release: 1964 0.1.1 Source
13:46:  A new version of the 1964 source has been released. Here's what's new:

Translation News: PokeCard v0.15 Released!
10:16:  Trans-Otaku has released the newest PokeCard patch which fixes some bugs.

Download it off the Translations page.

Translation News: Pokemon~
10:07:  This is a rather unusual request, but I've seen and heard so many "rumors" i think its time for public help.

I've recieved countless emails regarding the Pokemon Card/Pinball translations. Yesterday in a flyer, I saw Pokemon Pinball in it for sale, so that rules out a translation for it. However, I wish to know if Pokemon Card is coming out in the US or not, to see if there is a point to keeping these Pokemon translations up to date. Email me if you have any solid proof of this.

Emulator Release: Meka 0.20 is availible to the public
02:13:  The public version of Meka 0.20 is now availible. Just in case you forgot, here's what's new: