October 1999

10/31/1999
Site News: New Poll/Contest announcement

23:01: Here's the moment I know a few of you have been waiting for. Since it's Halloween, I decided that I should update the poll. Oh yeah, I'm also announcing the contest, too. :)

Last poll:

What contest do you want for ZD's Birthday celebration?

Choice 1 was: "I'm making a title bar!"
It received 101 votes (16.2 percent).

Choice 2 was: "I feel in a Jeopardy mood today, so how about the quiz?"
It received 327 votes (52.3 percent).

Choice 3 was: "Yeah! I'm wanna make meself a MP3 for the 9th of November!"
It received 104 votes (16.6 percent).

Choice 4 was: "Well, let's just do a survey and see where we can go with that."
It received 93 votes (14.9 percent).

Guess what this means: We're having a quiz contest. Zophar will throw the leading names in a hat, and we'll choose a winner for the B-Day. The quiz will be up in just a couple of days. You love anticipation, no? :)

What about the new poll, you say? Well, I took an eye at ZD and decided that you guys need to tell us how we're doing on ZD. So, the new poll question is:

What feature of ZD do you think could use the most improvement?

We know that we could do our job better, but we need to focus our energy on what you guys want us to fix up most.. So, go vote.

Oh yeah,

Happy Halloween.

Site News: Speaking of Halloween
20:33: InVerse brought to my attention that The Arsenal's Halloween games page is still up, so if you feel like playing some horror games on one of your emulators, go visit the page and chop 'em good, hehe.

Emulator Release: PS2PC v002
13:32: A new version of PS2PC, a X86 emulator for the Playstation2, has been released. According to Breakpoint, he has implemented a few more opcodes. That's about it.

You can get it from the X86 Emulators for the PSX2 page.

Emulator Release: RockNES 0.981
12:04: RockNES has been updated, for the 2nd time in 6 days. Here's what's new:

Fixed a sprite priority problem (Punch-Out!! is ok again)

Fixed some mirroring problems due the new code

Fixed palette RAM mirroring

Fixed `-cps' option (cycles per scanline), working again

Pattern blitter rewritten;

Default cycles per scanline changed to 113;

Joystick calibration disabled.

You can get RockNES at our NES page.

By the way...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Misc. News: Halloween NES Demo released
09:40: In the spirit of Halloween, Memblers has released a little Halloween NES demo. Run it, and press the buttons a few times, and enjoy!

Grab it from our blood curdling NES ROMs area.

Emulator Release: Speccyal 0.67!
07:32: Speccyal, a Sinclair Spectrum 48k emulator, has been updated, and here's what's new in this version:

The emulator window is now resizable !

Display surface is not erased anymore when another window overlaps it or when you resize it.

At startup, the window is displayed at the center of the screen.

Bugfix: the F' register in the debugger window is correct now.

Integrated z80 debugger, just press F11 to launch it.

Added a Spectrum keymap picture in the help menu (thanks to Raúl Gomez Sanchez)

You can download it from the Sinclair computer emulators page. Thanks to Stephane Schmitz for the news, and happy Halloween to ya all!

Site News: Accept The Lord of Darkness as your savior...
02:03: Allow the purity of evil to guide you....to The Wrestling Rewind! Happy Halloween all you ZD-ites! As my contribution to our Halloween festivities, I have posted a total of six of The Undertaker's various themes from the World Wrestling Federation. If you are a wrestling fan, or just like dark music, you don't want to miss these! Enjoy!

The Wrestling Rewind - It's hotter than hell!

Site News: Halloween: Misery, grief, doom, horror, murder, suffering (and candy?)
01:50: Yep, it's Halloween again, kiddies. The highlight of my life. Yes, truth be told, the time period between October 31, 1999 and November 11, 1999 is the best period in the world. More on that some other time.

Last year, we celebrated Halloween with a couple of Necronomican links. I've decided to spice things up a bit (you'll notice some changes on ZD already for today), and leave you with some interesting links on the history of Halloween, and the oh-so-popular Halloween slasher film series.

By the way, keep an eye out, you might run into the King of Hell himself... say hello, Hellbending fiend.

Sweet dreams, children.

The Real Origins of Halloween

Halloween:Carefree Children's Holiday or Demonic Day of Darkness?

Official Halloween horror series website

Misc. News: Happy Halloween
01:41: The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.

Muhahaha...

Site News: New ZD-spc to come...
01:34: That's right, a new ZD-spc will be coming soon. November 9th, will be the day of its release. (Which happens to be ZD-spc's 1-year birthday, and when Zophars Domain turns 3 years old) This new version will have lots... some stuff I've been holding back for months... and you will love this version. It is the most stable version yet, and have the thing most of you have been waiting for. So just sit back... November 9th is only 10 days away.

You can get the current version of ZD-spc at the ZD-spc homepage.

You can also get some SPC's from the SPC Archive.

Site News: Happy Halloween
01:08: I would like to say to every one of our visitors out there, a safe and Happy Halloween. Don't go eating all the kids' candy now, and don't Drink and Drive.

I put pictures of pumpkins on the news pages, if you wanted to know.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

10/30/1999
Site News: FudeBrowser fixed
22:46: I fixed the html for the SMS utilities page, so now Apocalypz's post will work. Take a look at FudeBrowser, it's really neat!

You can download it at the SMS utilities page.

Site News: Gen-sms
22:20: A new utility for converting Genesis graphics to SMS format, so they can be edited with Tile Layer. Very good utility if you are into editing graphics for ROMs.

You can download it at the Sega Genesis utilites page.

Utility Release: ROM Doctor beta
22:03: The ROM Doctor beta has been publicly released. This utility lets you fix your Arcade ROMs so they work in emulators. Take a look, its very good.

You can download it at the Arcade utilities page.

Utility Release: IPS-win 1.0
21:33: A new program for windows called IPS-win has been released. This program, like the IPS.exe for DOS, will patch your ROMs if there is a patch out for it. Commonly used for translation purposes. Check it out.

You can get it from the General Utilities page.

Utility Release: Che's Ultimate Cheater 1.18
21:17: A new version of Che's ultimate cheater has been released. New in this version, is the fix for the common dialog screen not loading on some peoples computers.

You can download the fixed version at the FaceLift utilities page.

Emulator Release: TI-83 Plus SDK
17:02: This simulator/debugger is for the TI-83 Plus calculator. It is freely distributed by Texas Instruments themselves. They didn't disclose all the features. You can get the emulator at the Texas Instruments page.

Utility News: Fude v1.1
16:04: Fude is an AMAZING web browser that converts any HTML files into a SMS ROM, graphics included. If anyone makes an excellent ROM image, he/she is encouraged to visit the brSMS page and submit it to the author. You can get Fude from the SMS Utilities page.

Emulator Release: MAME v0.36 Beta 8
15:43: The Multi-Arcade Machine Emulator, MAME, has been released. Here's what's new:

Graphics:

Fixed sprite lag in cps1, bionicc, lastduel
Fixed priorities in wndrmomo and genpeitd
Sped up a little the NeoGeo raster effects
Fixed sprite Y offset in the Simpsons dreamland level

Sound:

CVSD sound in Mouse Trap

Main Program:

Changed the autoframeskip code, making it less anxious to increase frameskip as soon as speed drops below 100%
The mouse buttons are no longer aliases for joystick buttons, they are independently recognized
Support for zipped input files and artwork

Source:

Finally fixed the CMPX instruction in the 680x core
Fixes to the x86 asm 68k core
VIDEO_BUFFERS_SPRITERAM
Added vh_eof_callback to the MachineDriver structure
Cleaned up the 6809 and Konami-2 emulations
C140 emulation

New Games:

Bogey Manor, Trio the Punch, Chuka Taisen, Ordyne, Mirai Ninja, Phelios, Legend of Walkyrie, Finest Hour, Burning Force, Marvel Land, Dragon Saber, Rolling Thunder 2, Cosmo Gang, The Hustler, Vulcan Venture, Devil World, Cue Brick, Hard Puncher, R-Type II, Arkanoid 2,
Looper, The End, Tumble Pop, Tokushu Butai Jackal
Out Zone, Hyper Olympic '84, Guttong Gottong, Strategy X

Make sure you check out the license information, as the authors had to add an additional clause to section 7 (derivative works). Grab your very own copy from the MAME page!

10/29/1999
Site News: Poll update..
21:19: Well, I'm going to do one more poll update before I change the poll. It's important to vote for this one, because that will be the contest we're going to do for our Birthday celebration.

Here's the question again:
What contest do you want for ZD's Birthday celebration?

Choice 1 was: "I'm making a title bar!"
It received 88 votes (16.2 percent).

Choice 2 was: "I feel in a Jeopardy mood today, so how about the quiz?"
It received 274 votes (50.6 percent).

Choice 3 was: "Yeah! I'm wanna make meself a MP3 for the 9th of November!"
It received 94 votes (17.3 percent).

Choice 4 was: "Well, let's just do a survey and see where we can go with that."
It received 86 votes (15.9 percent).

The poll will be announced in two days (on Halloween), so make sure you exercise your right to vote.

Emulator Release: Anex 86dx
16:30: Anex seems to be a PC-98 emulator. I'm not sure, but I think the PC-98 is a Japanese computer. You can get it at the PC Emulators page. I'm not sure what its features are, it's all in Japanese.

Emulator Release: Virtual TI 2.5 beta 3
16:11: A new version of Virtual TI has been released, and here's what's new:

Released version 2.5 beta 3

Parallel link is now supported, although it is a bit slow

Organized list of ROMs into separate tabs for each calculator

Get it at the TI calculator page.

Misc. News: X-Box Handheld version
15:05: According to a FGN article, Microsoft has planned a supplement to their upcoming X-Box console, which will have a CPU produced by Toshiba (Which happens to be the brand of my cable modem ;) Anyways, you can view this article here.

Frontend News: Calliope 1.30
14:54: A new version of Calliope has been released, along with a site move. As of now, Calliope will be at http://emuhq.com/calliope/. This is an update version, so if you don't have Calliope 1.04, download it and the update from our Arcade Frontends page.

Here's what's new:

Added mini captions for each rom underneath screenshots

Skins implemented!

Smaller screenshot can be hidden

Buttons can be repositioned

Panels can be of different dimensions

Most buttons on the main window can be transparent

Skins can be switched while Calliope runs

Setup window reworked

Flyers are shown if there's one, and no screenshot present.

Thanks to ryuunosuke, the Calliope programmer, for the news.

Misc. News: BleemBoost! 0.2
12:34: BleemBoost! is a program that will let you speed up Bleem! by disabling multitasking and pretty much everything else that would slow it down in Windows. If you're having problems with Bleem!'s speed, download it and try it. You can get it at Megaman's Bleem! Network.

10/28/1999
Utility Release: Final Fantasy 3j (NES) Save State Editor released
05:59: SquareHead01 has released his a save state editor for Final Fantasy 3j for the NES. This editor allows you to edit party stats, inventory, and characters. It was designed for, and recommended to be used on, the save states from Nesticle x.xx.

You can grab your copy from the Facelift Utilities area.

Utility Release: NESToy 1.2b released
05:17: NESToy, a .nes ROM utility has been updated to fix the following bugs:

Fixed incorrect detection of ROMS with trainers present

Fixed a mistake where when NesToy found a duplicate rom, it would flag every rom after that as a duplicate

Thanks to VintageGaming.com for the news

You can download this utility from the NES Utilities area.

10/27/1999
Emulator Release: MAME for Digita 0.1
15:59: According to Retrogames, this emulator has been tested, and it is real. MAME for Digita 0.1 allows you to play most MAME games on your Kodak DC265 camera. This makes me want to go out and buy a DC265... almost. ;)

You can get it at the MAME for Digita page.

Emulator Release: Calypso build 010
15:22: A new version of Calypso has been released, and here's what's new:

It now has digital sound synthesis. Thanks to Nyef and SMS Dev.

Programmed a voice skipper for Adlib sound.

Incorporated a small scheduler. Now you can see what the emulator spends its time on. Key G

Added a left column crop (leftmask) for Game Gear. This is ideal to play BigGameGear games like Sonic and the like. Key K.

Corrected a small bug with the GameGear BigGameGear crop.

Debugger: Enhanced some options, like watching the tile numbers on screen. (key I)

Debugger: Breakpoints support. Up to 16 breakpoints. Key Y

Debugger: A new option lets you advance one scanline. Key H

A GUI. Read the news section.

Render: corrected a BUG related to Verticla Interrupt generation.

You can get it at the Master System/Gamegear page.

Misc. News: www.emuforce.com is up!
06:49: [D]J's new site www.emuforce.com has now been opened up for the public! www.emuforce.com is a new emulation site that's currently being maintained by [D]J, Kíllzat, styx, Sha!, Ajii and Emulation-X. The site itself has a very nice layout and emulator sections for most systems are up, so feel free to pay www.emuforce.com a visit!

10/26/1999
Utility Release: SCDConv version 2.50
22:41: A new version within days of its' last release. SCDConv converts between the different country versions of Sega CD games. New in this version, is the program is now able to detect whether it is necessary to relocate the initial and system programs or not. This improves success rates greatly, especially for European -> American conversions.

You can download the new version at the Sega Genesis utilities page.

Misc. News: Intel looking to get back on top with fastest processors on the market
22:21: Looks like yesterday, Intel launched a family of 15 new Pentium processors, including a 733 mHz processor!! You can read all about it on this Yahoo! News Article.

Special thanks to Jerell Elayda for pointing this out to us.

Utility Release: Super Jukebox 1.3
21:52: For the 2nd day in a row, a new Super Jukebox has been released. Here's what's new:

Added the ability to play songs randomly, for a little more excitement.

Added some statistical information for the playlist in the "About" dialog box.

Now displaying the drive labels in the left pane.

Fixed a minor issue with the MCI driver.

Get it at the SPC players page or the Super Jukebox homepage.

Misc. News: The official UltraHLE site is back up
20:07: Like the title says, the official UltraHLE site is back up. There is no new news as of yet, but now that it's back up, it might not be long till there is something new.

You can visit the UltraHLE home page here.

Emulator Release: JNes 0.26c!
18:06: JNes, a NES emulator for Windows, has been updated with some cosmetic changes, and a rather large processor alignment issue that affected performance was discovered.

You can download it from the NES emulators page.

Site News: New hosted site: GCT
17:56: That's right, we're hosting a new site called GCT (General CoolNes Translations). GCT is a group of Swedish people translating games from English to Swedish. Right now they have 3 translations in the works: Final Fantasy 1, Final Fantasy 5 and Final Fantasy 6. The page is only available in Swedish yet, so non Swedish people might find it a bit confusing, hehe, but feel free to check it out anyway.

General CoolNes Translations

Translation News: Final Fantasy 4 Returns!
17:22: J2e, who originally released a fully translated patch of FF4 has been working on an 'upgrade' to their original patch, with translation upgrades, as well as various fixes. AnusP, the project leader has the patch now in beta testing, and expects to see a release soon.

J2e Translations

Translation News: Translation Utility Section Updated!
17:12: A new version of the Final Fantasy 3 US Monster editor was updated, however, still no FF6 support.

Also, a new version of TranslationStaiton had been updated, but mainly just a bugfix.

Download them from the Translation Utility page.

Translation News: Translations Section Updated!
17:08: Many New Translations were added:

Venus Wars 2.0 for NES by J2e was released.

Majin Tensei for SNES by ShadowSlayerX was released.

Fire Bird for NES by Dragoon-X was released.

Get them off the Translations page.

Translation News: Hacks Section Updated!
17:03: The hacks section has been updated to include:

Strange Mario Bros, A hack of Mario Bros. 1

Super Mario Bros. Luigi Edition, A hack of Mario Bros. 3

Download them off the Hacks page.

Emulator News: Mame for a Kodak Digital Camera?
16:45: A couple of people have sent e-mails about a particular project dealing with a version of MAME for the Kodak D265 Digita camera. There's even a release (MAME 0.36b6). We'd like to post it, but we're still in disbelief about it.

Go view the page here. Then, do us a favor: If you own the Kodak D265 Digita camera, please try it for us. If it works, provide a screenshot (or a photograph) and submit it to us.

Thanks to Dekko and Peter Bell for the news.

Misc. News: Sega 32x Covers
14:38: Eric Hamel, the owner of the "FOREVER SEGA" site, has announced that he has scanned all Sega 32x covers, and 3/4 of the Atari Lynx covers, and will put them up later this week. I suggest you visit his site because it's sort of interesting to look through them.

Emulator Release: Bleem! 1.5
01:23: At last Bleem! 1.5 is out. Here's a list of the general changes:

Optimized Internal Emulation Logic

Rewrote All Speed Limiter Logic (... again)

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

Added Installer / UnInstaller Program

Game Database now uses an external file "bleem!.ini"

Window Title Bar now displays game title

Changed Menu "EJECT" Option to "NEW GAME" (ALT-SHIFT-N)

Added Menu "EJECT" Option (ALT-SHIFT-D)

This is just the basic stuff. There's much, much more that's new in this version. You can check it all out at the Bleem! homepage.

10/25/1999
Emulator News: MagicEngine Info
23:43: According to the MagicEngine website, the emulator is complete emulation-wise, but the GUI still needs some work. Expect a release in a few weeks! Also, the price has been dropped from $35 to $16. MagicEngine is a TurboGrafx 16 emulator for Windows. Thanks to Vick0083 for the news.

The MagicEngine website

Site News: ZD Poll Update
22:32: Well, the current poll is only going to be running for a couple more days (by necessity), so I'm going to put up an update on where the poll is at now.

In case you've forgotten, the question was:
What contest do you want for ZD's Birthday celebration?

As for the current results, here they are:

Choice 1 was: "I'm making a title bar!"
It received 74 votes (18.2 percent).

Choice 2 was: "I feel in a Jeopardy mood today, so how about the quiz?"
It received 196 votes (48.3 percent).

Choice 3 was: "Yeah! I'm wanna make meself a MP3 for the 9th of November!"
It received 60 votes (14.8 percent).

Choice 4 was: "Well, let's just do a survey and see where we can go with that."
It received 76 votes (18.7 percent).

If I ended the poll right now, the quiz would win (as the poll obviously points out).

If you haven't voted yet, make sure you do. The better the poll, the better the contest. :)

Misc. News: RPG Maker coming to the U.S.!
22:23: Here's a chunk of great news for anyone who likes popular Japanese games that haven't come to the States. Agetec has been allowed to release the popular (in Japan) Playstation game RPG Maker to the U.S.

Great news, eh? Go to Gamespot for the full story.

Oh yeah, much thanks to Viper_X for the news.

Misc. News: Rest in Peace Payne Stewart
19:36: Being an avid golfing fan (yeah yeah, laugh it up), I just felt I had to post on this. Payne Stewart died today in a plane crash, at the age of 42. He was the winner of the 1999 U.S. Open, and his nearly-20-year-old career was just in the beginning of a revival when he died.

Apparently, his private jet suffered a pressurization failure, causing everyone on board to lose consciousness. The plane then flew uncontrolled for hours, until it ran out of fuel and crashed in Mina, South Dakota.

This is a great loss in the golfing and athletic worlds, and he will be dearly missed.

Site News: Hob 0.9.0 for Java
15:39: The java spectrum emulator, Hob has been updated to 0.9.0. What's new:

'Java Plugin' Support

Support for Netscape/IE3.0+ through Sun's Java Plugin architecture.

Requires Javascript enabled browser.

New Look'n'Feel

It's available at the Java Spectrum page.

Utility Release: Super Jukebox 1.2
15:32: A new version of Super Jukebox has been released, and here's what's new:

Added the ability to fade-out a song before advancing to the next one.

Added a StopSPC function to SPC700EMU.DLL, before this was done with PauseSPC and RestoreSPC.

Get it at the SPC players page or the Super Jukebox webpage.

Emulator Release: RockNES 0.98
13:27: As predicted, a new version of RockNES has been released. Here's what's new:

Added a ID header to saved states (to prevent crashing when not compatible);

Mapper #19 improved (still buggy);

Mapper #23 fixed (Kid Dracula works ok);

Mapper #24 fixed (CV3j works ok);

Mapper #25 fixed (Gradius ][ works ok);

Mapper #26 fixed (Madara works ok);

NES NameTable mirroring fixed (CastleVania 3j mirroring is perfect);

Fixed ROM information display (mirroring);

Fixed an old sprite priority problem;

Fixed screen clearing (normal and intensity);

Fixed `-b' option (battery file, working again);

Fixed a mapper #0 loading bug;

Removed a sound hacking added in 0.97 (some notes were too short);

Loopy's palette updated (-pal 2);

Minor optmizations (less math) and cosmetic changes;

Compiled with Allegro 3.9.26 (WIP), hence support for Grip/Grip4 inputs;

Binary compressed with UPX 0.84;

Documentation (+FAQ) slightly updated.

You can get it at the NES page.

Emulator Release: MAME32 0.36 Beta 7
09:40: MAME32 0.36 Beta 7 is now out. This brings the Win32 version inline with the DOS version.

Get it at the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator page.

Emulator Release: MacSloMo 0.67
09:10: Sorry, I missed this one. MacSloMo 0.67 has been released. What's new:

68k support is currently broken

Removed some extraneous code

Rewrote main loop for clarity and speed (removed that horrid switch block)

Changed manually programmed windows (bleh!) into dialogs. (the about box appears to be insane though, I'll fix later)

Rewrote the Hog CPU scheme

Made tweaks for code size

Shaved some instructions from the addressing core

CPU core optimized significantly (main hangup is still graphics code)

Fixed mistakes with ROL and ROR instructions.

Fixed small division error

Get it at the Macintosh Multi Arcade page.

Site News: Save archives updated
07:02: Updated: GS0, NSF, NSM, STA, SRM, CHT, SPC, ZMV, ZST archives.

Misc. News: G3O Master Index Updated
02:44: The G3O Master Index (AKA the MegaChart "short form") has been updated by the Scribe. This revision includes many new games and URL fixes for the reviews. Go check it out!

10/24/1999
Site News: Download Problems Fixed
23:29: We finally figured what was causing the problems many of you were having with downloading. Lets just say that MSIE 4.0 didn't like Apache =). We would like to apologize for any problems you may have had with downloading. The files should work now.

Misc. News: DarkMazda's NeoGeo CD Cover Project
21:01: DarkMazda's NeoGeo CD cover scanning project is moving along quite nicely. Right now he has 8. Here they are:

Metal Slug 1

Metal Slug 2

ViewPoint

Fatal Fury Special

Art of Fighting 2

Puzzle Bobble

Samurai Shodown 2

King of Fighters '95

If you want to check them out or contribute, visit DarkMazda's Domain.

Frontend News: sMESS 0.15
20:43: It seems to be the first MESS frontend ever made. With this, you can choose the console, then the ROM, and a screenshot pops up for the game, showing you what it looks like under MESS. It has a nice, snazzy interface. If you have MESS, I suggest you get this frontend also!

You can get it at the Universal Frontends page.

Emulator News: RockNES WIP
20:25: On the RockNES page, it was posted that a new version of RockNES would come tomorrow, and it mentioned some of the new features.

Fixed an old sprite priority problem.

Great! Mappers #23 (Kid Dracula), #24 (Castlevania 3j), #25 (Gradius 2) and #26 (Madara) work perfectly.

A new version should come out this Monday, stay tuned. The RockNES page is at http://www.emucamp.com/rocknes/.

Watch out for a new RockNES tomorrow!

Utility News: KuroNekoSPC translation
08:33: A guy called [--==RaNMa==--] has guessed his way to a translation of the things in the SPC Player KuroNekoSPC, and he has a page up here: http://pluto.spaceports.com/~plonk/kuroneko/, I recommend you go check it out.

Emulator Release: gbe Win32 0.0.22
08:03: gbe, a mysterious Gameboy emulator with Linux and Windows source code released, has been released, and here's what it currently features:

All gameboy z80 opcodes (excluding STOP and HALT - these are ignored)

Minor color gameboy support

MBC1, 2, 3 and 5

Save ram (please "mkdir ~/.gbesav" to avoid errors)

Plus other stuff -- I'm just too lazy to finish this documentation

You can download it from the Gameboy emulators page. Thanks to relnev for the news!

10/23/1999
Misc. News: Enix stuff
23:06: 1. Enix has finished their US home page, you can view it at www.enix.com.

2. Dragon Warrior 7 was confirmed as on the release list for North America. Also, DW1 and 2 were hinted at for being released on the Game Boy. You can read more about it at this article.

Thanks to Jigsaw for both of these news items.

Emulator Release: JNES 0.26b
20:44: JNES 0.26b has been released, here's what's new:

Improved Direct Input interface

Better PCM channel accuracy

Better audio generation quality

Get it from the NES page. Thanks to TNSe^1999 for the news.

Site News: ZD Poll update... (Read for contest news)
20:05: Okay, folks.. You've been asking for a poll update for a while now, so we're updating the poll now. Here's the results from the last poll:

Would you be interested in seeing a BeOS section on ZD?

Choice 1 was: "Of course! What a great idea!"
It received 324 votes (53.4 percent).

Choice 2 was: "I don't think BeOS is really deserving of a section."
It received 50 votes (8.2 percent).

Choice 3 was: "Does it look like I care?"
It received 70 votes (11.5 percent).

Choice 4 was: "What's the BeOS?"
It received 163 votes (26.9 percent).

Well, now that we've gotten BeOS out of the way (watch for the new section), it's time for the poll you've been waiting for; the ZD Birthday poll. Now, you know that ZD has a contest planned for the birthday celebration. Well, we're letting you decide what the contest shall be. So, here's the question:

What contest do you want for ZD's Birthday celebration?

The first idea we had for the contest dealt with the title bar. If you've been going to ZD for a while, you've noticed that the title bar on the front page is an ever-changing pile of wit. Well, how would you feel if your idea was used for a title? We'd decide which one is the best, and ZD would have that as the title all day November 9th. That's twenty-four hours of fame, folks, and a prize on top of all that.

The second idea was a quiz. With the quiz, we'll give you twenty questions to answer. Those of you with the highest score not only have a really good mind for answering questions, you'll be in the running for the prize. We'll throw your name in a hat (along with the other 450 of you without a life :), and the person we pick wins the prize.

The third idea is a darn creative one. It requires a darn clever and creative person. This contest involves you creating a MP3 telling us how much you love ZD (as long as you don't do anything too stupid or obscene). Give yourself half a minute and roll with it. If it's downright amazing (standing above the rest), we'll pick it. Just think of it as a creative version of the NSM contest that requires a lot less work on your end of the deal. :) Oh yeah, you get a prize.

Finally, we ran out of creative ideas and came up with the de-facto choice, a survey. The idea is this: Just tell us a bit of info about your emu-related interests, and you could be the lucky person picked out of a hat.

Oh yeah, there's no "Indifferent" vote this time.

Just keep in mind that it's your choice. ZD is giving you a bit of the democratic ideals, and the ever-useful ZD Poll is there to take your vote.

Misc. News: MegaChart
19:35: A new chart called the MegaChart has been released by the Scribe. The Megachart is a list of all of the released Genesis/SegaCD/32X games, and it will eventually include links to reviews of them all too. You can view it from the link at the top of the Genesis page or directly.

Emulator Release: French MacMAME 0.36b7
19:19: The French version of MacMAME has been updated to 0.36 beta 7. You can get it at the MacMAME homepage.

Thanks to Marc Vielfaure for the news!

Misc. News: Gamepics Breaks the 2000 Mark
17:14: As of last night, Gamepics, an archive of video game screenshots, has accumulated pics of over 2000 games. Congratulations! Be sure to visit them to view the pics or contribute.

Emulator Release: PacDX Public Release 1.0
15:04: PacDX, the PacMan emulator with enhanced graphics is finally here, with PacDX Release 1.0. New in this release:

Added Frame skipping code, activate by F1(all frames) to F5 (least frames)

Added Throttling code to prevent PACDX running too quickly on fast machines

PACDX now runs on a 486/100!!!!!! (with max frame skip in 640x480)

Added de-throttle key 0 (only works with frame skip)

Removed sound and buggy joystick routine for the first public release

PACDX now compatible with the HOTROD arcade stick!

Added keys F6/F7 which switches between 640x480 normal and 800x600 stretched modes

You can get it at the Single Arcade section.

Emulator News: Bleem! 1.5 to be released Monday
14:35: That's the official word from the Bleem! website. Here's exactly what they had to say:

"Don't believe everything you read - The East Coast PR people got ahead of us on this one and (being 3 hours later there) we were too late to stop the news from hitting the wires.... 1.5 is done, but won't be up until Monday. We were able to include a few more systems in the last round of testing and decided that we needed a few adjustments to optimize the speed limiter for better timing on a wider range of systems. We're running our entire game collection through (again - 500+ games.. ugh) to make sure the database is 100% up-to-date. So far, everything's testing beautifully - stay tuned."

There you have it folks. It will be availible Monday night. You can get the latest version of the demo at the PSX page.

Misc. News: News-u-Lator returns
00:37: News-u-Lator, one of my favorite sites, has returned. It won't be updated daily, however, and will probably only mention releases of the more popular emulators.

Thanks to cleric for going on IRC (which reminded me to go look at News-u-Lator).

Emulator News: Bleem status
00:28: Bleem 1.5 is possibly going to be released sometime over the weekend, and directly from www.psxemu.com here's what will be new:

The speed limiter doesn't EXIST any more. Yep, no speed slider, the logic got that good that it's not required anymore! This also causes another speed up!

A new Texel Alignment option fixes the bugs in the 3d chipsets (causes 2D backgrounds to look better in D3D)

Bleem! now uses a file called "bleem!.ini". Guess what this means? The whole compatiblity database is now stored in the ini file so you don't need to download the whole program for compatiblity updates or can even modify it yourself. MAJOR bug fixes and loading fixes causing MANY more games to start now

Extremly long list of memory card improvements like : FF8, WWF Attitude, Street Figher EX+ Alpha, Star Ocean: The Second Story, G-Darius, CastleVania and many more

Major speed improvements with High-Res games like for example Tekken 3

Fixed more sound problems on MANY machines and soundcards wide support for mouse (many joysticks will now emulate the mSX Mouse)

Support for NegCon and JogCon (PSX controllers)

New CDROM access speed slider that lets the user adjust the settings to improve the playback on their particular drive (especially helpful with slower drives or high-latency drives)

Many multidisc games are working now (disc changing caused bleem! to crash before), also a better logic with ejecting CD's

MAJOR improvements on machies that used to stutter a lot in MDEC movies

Added new sampling rate selections and adjusted sound timing logic

A real installer and uninstaller

And that's not everything. Thanks to Gille999 for the news, and to Bobbi of www.psxemu.com for posting it in the first place!

Misc. News: CG Expo article scan
00:20: Tom Emerson sent me a scan of an article talking about the recent Classic Gaming Expo from the November issue of Next Generation. Check it out, it's a good read.

Classic Gaming Expo '99 (220KB)

10/22/1999
Utility Release: Super Jukebox 1.1
16:36: A new version of Super Jukebox has been released, and here's what's new:

Due to request, I have added support for ACE archives.

Added support for the ZSNES WinAMP plugin. This is totally unofficial, I hope nobody minds. :-) This is helpful because the Snes9X engine doesn't play songs from a few games, such as Lagoon.

Get it at the Super Jukebox webpage or the SPC players page.

Emulator Release: Palm OS emulator 2.1d29!
16:28: A new version of the Palm OS emulator for Windows has been released and here's what's new:

For temporary backward compatibility, "bare" file names on the command line are treated as paths to .psf files. [Andreas Linke, Mike McCollister]

Mac: fixed problem with receiving Error #18 when trying to download ROMs from actual devices over the serial port. [Mark Ordal]

In debugger/sockets communications, allow for recv() returning zero, indicating a closed connection.

Fixed multi-threading bugs. [Andrew Ball, Daniel McCarty, Scott Johnson, Keith Wolcott, Art Dahm, Mark Lussier, Alex Robinson, Patrick Porlan]

UNIX: fixed some makefile problems. [many]

Mac and Windows: new case graphics. Note that the edges of the new graphics are a little rough; we'll be working on that for the next release. Also, the Mac version doesn't set up a custom palette in 8-bit mode, yet, so for best results, you might want to put your monitor in 16- or 24-bit modes. Finally, the UNIX version will get the new graphics in the next release.

Print some logging information using signed instead of unsigned value. [Oliver King-Smith]

Don't go into infinite recursion when the emulated PC is set to an odd memory address. [John W. Marshall]

Fixed problem in the "NetLib redirected" version of NetLibSocketAccept where the address and address length were not returned. [Bill Pitore]

Windows: As outlined in the notes for 2.1d28, Poser will look for the last-saved .psf file when starting up. It used to save the reference to this file as a full pathname. Now, if the attempt to locate the file with the full pathname fails, Poser will look for a .psf file with the same name in the same directory as Poser itself. This approach is similar to the way in which Poser looks for .ROM files that are no longer at their last known location. [Michael Hado]

Worked around VC++ 6.0 bug where tabbed dialogs in applications built by it won't show up on systems without IE 4.x installed. [Michael S. Davis]

UNIX: Fixed a minor bug in skin loading code which causes Emulator to crash when it tries to load a skin file from current directory. [Vlad]

Set the command key bit when Gremlins posts an up or down arrow.

You can download it from the Palm OS emulators page. Thanks to Boba Fett for the news!

10/21/1999
Utility Release: SCDConv version 2.00
22:13: Eidolon has released version 2.00 of his utility SCDConv, which can be used to convert between the different country formats of Sega/Mega CD games. The new version features two more conversion methods (Japanese -> American, Japanese -> European), as well as improved reliability for the already implemented ones.

You can download this new version from the Sega Utilites page.

Emulator Release: OpenSPC .301
21:54: A new version of OpenSPC has been released. New in this version, is the support of the song name in the ID666 tag I created. This is featured in all versions, including the IT dumping part. Take a look.

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

Thanks goes out to Datschge for the news.

Utility Release: 6502d version 0.1
21:35: A new free 6502 dissembler has been released. It allows you to disassemble 6502 binaries. Take a look if you're interested.

You can download it at the Development Utilities page.

Utility Release: Che's Ultimate Cheater version 1.15
21:16: Che has decided to release a combo pack of all his cheat utilities in one. It has editors such as Lufia, Zelda3, MarioRPG, Breath of Fire2, and Final Fantasy 5 for the SNES, Shadowrun for the Genesis, Hero's of the might and magic 2 for the Computer, Pokemon for the GameBoy, and more. Check it out.

You can download this cheat utility from the Facelift Utilities page.

Site News: NeoCD 0.46
19:28: NeoCD, the one and only NeoGeo CD emulator, has been updated to 0.46. Here's what's new:

Recompiled using latest Allegro WIP.

Added gamma correction.

Dropped VM assisted screen save/restore. (Unstable)

Macrokeys for both players

Cheat codes

Possibility to mess with debug mode

Some bug fixes

Support for N64 pads

You can get it at the Neo Geo section.

Utility Release: IcoRoms 1.31
18:58: Ico ROMs is a new addition to ZD. It lets you add icons to your most used roms in Windows. It features icons for the N64, SNES, GB, NES, Genesis, GameGear, TG16, and more. Take a look, its all automatic.

You can download it at the General Utilities Page.

Utility Release: HebeGB 2.51
18:38: A new version of HebeGB has been released. HebeGB is a GameBoy utility for Windows that will let you edit\repair\view GameBoy ROMs. New in this version, fixes a small bug that was killing the Color GB flag.

You can download the new version at the GameBoy Utilities Page.

Misc. News: nEMU is back again!
17:24: nEMU, the emulation site currently only maintained by nIRV, has returned again! Most of you people may not remember nEMU, but most of the long time emulation fans should remember it. I must say that the idea behind the new nEMU quite unique, it's now a completely message board based news site. Sounds good, doesn't it? Well, he could sure need some help and visitors, so go pay the new nEMU a visit!

Site News: Pagan R2.5
17:10: Pagan, an N64 emulator, has been updated and with this new release comes dynamic recompilation, although not very fast it's still in there. This release also features some very, very basic graphics HLE code. It does some crazy stuff and doesn't run very much, but it's definitely a forthcoming emulator.

You can download it from N64 emulators page.

Utility Release: RomCenter 1.70!
16:59: RomCenter 1.70, a mutli emulator ROM checker/fixer/utility has been updated and here's what's new:

Audit and repair engine split (audit button added)

Audit engine rewritten (no bug known)

More audit options

Cancel audit button

Repair engine rewritten (no bug known)

More repair options

Cancel repair button

Bad rom management improved (move/delete/ignore)

Error buffering (no more errors messages during audit or repair process)

Game filter combo box now does nothing if filter is not changed

Progress info more accurate

Refresh button also refresh datafile list

No more messages when loading a datafile with bad roms path

Error when loading bad datafile fixed

Romcenter.dat doesn't appear anymore in the emulator list

Lowercase emulator list.

Moved some object in the interface.

Roms not reloaded when quitting option window without changing roms paths.

You can download it from the general utilities page. I also zipped all the data files for various emulators and made the pack available for download, too.

Emulator News: BrMSX 1.155 source code released!
16:33: The source code to version 1.155 of the MSX 1/2/2+ and soon-to-be Turbo R emulator, BrMSX, has been released. This is so that people can make their own patches and send them to the BrMSX author in order to speed up development.

The source code can be downloaded from the MSX emulators page. Thanks to ZeroAge of Emulation Camp for the news!

Emulator Release: PMAME 0.36 beta 7
15:50: Rodimus Prime has finished the latest build of PMAME, a version of MAME optimized for regular Pentium processors. You can get it at the MAME page.

Emulator Release: NLKE 0.04b
10:57: NLKE 0.04b is out. Here's what's new:

Support for every joystick included in the library allegro. (snespad, n64pad, sidewinder ..., no tested yet)

The emulator loads the configure files from directory what is nlke.exe.

Now, the sound hardware is init only one time.

Sereval bugs in the spc fixed, included a specially important in the opcode DIV.

Changes to the routines ADSR/GAIN fixing some glitches in the sound.

Some bugs found and fixed in the savegame function.

Support sprites changes during a frame.

Included the rest graphic modes to the engine line to line in 256 colors.

Found and fixed a bug what did crashes random with WIN95.

Engine graphic tile to tile works better now, without use the option what enable to paint the screen.

Fixed some problems in DSP1 (Thanks to _demo_)

Included support to ADD/SUB Screen/Fixed Color, and Color Window, using the modes -gfxmode 4 or -gfxmode 7.

Added options to the configure file to change the colors of the GUI. (gui***=)

Added the graphic engines Eagle and 2xsai, need -eagle/-2xsai or select it in the configure file. (Thanks to the authors)

Added the feature "direct color" to the Mode 7. (Thanks to zsKnight)

Added keys to save/restore savegames fastly using F3 to select the slot, F2 to save to slot, and F4 to load from slot.

And a lot of .. (more of 100 minnor changes) :-)

Get it at the SNES section.

Emulator Release: Z80Stealth 0.78
01:54: A new version of Z80Stealth has been released, and here's what's new:

SB routines optimizations. Now SB version is 40% faster and requires P133.

Improved file browser. Now it remembers last browsed directory and shows files alphabetically.

Get it at the Spectrum page. Thanks to Kirill for the news.

10/20/1999
Misc. News: Dreamcast Mods finally a reality?
21:24: I was checking out my buddies' site "The How to Compute Site" and I noticed a link he had which links to a site doing pre-orders on Dreamcast Mod Chip Plugins to allow American DC's to play Japanese games, and vice-versa. It is said to plug directly into the Dreamcast controller. Now, I have no way of knowing if this is legit or not, but I personally am tired of playing only Japanese games on my DC, so I'm game (not The Game), and I am going to do the pre-order thing. The tentative price for the Mod Plug will be $35 and can be pre-ordered from Level Six.

Emulator Release: Jnes 0.26a
21:22: Jnes 0.26a is out. Here's what's new:

Direct Input enumerator supports multiple gamepads that are under the same name.

Corrected the new dpcm buffering for games that use large buffers with low frequencies.

Implemented zapper into the via the mouse, preliminary but works in a few games

Get it at the NES page.

Utility Release: Super Jukebox and FrontRunner Source
16:40: Marius Fodor has released the source to his SPC player, Super Jukebox, and his universal frontend, FrontRunner. He also recomiled the MCI driver in Super Jukebox with 386 instructions enabled. You can download Super Jukebox at the SPC players page or the Super Jukebox webpage. You can get FrontRunner at the universal frontends page.

Emulator Release: WinUAE 0.8.8 R8 refresh update!
16:38: The most frequently updated Amiga emulator has been updated again. This is just a refresh build, and it doesn't seem to fix any of the problems I'm having (crashing whenever I use the joystick, etc), but you can download it from the Amiga emulators page.

Emulator Release: AMame 0.36 Beta 7
10:14: AMame, the compilation of MAME for AMD/Pentium 2 processors has been updated to the newest MAME version, 0.36 Beta 7.

Get it at the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator page.

Emulator Release: GeoMame 1.1b2 for Macintosh
10:00: GeoMame 1.1b2, the NeoGeo only release of MAME for the macintosh, is out. Here's what's new:

Numerous small bug fixes -- one worth noting is the combo code does not work in this release. I'm working on that.

Custom icon bit correctly set

New Game Info screen (when you start a game) that reflects the CPU Speed, Bit Depth, and Renderer Used.

Get it at the Macintosh Multi Arcade section.

10/19/1999
Emulator Release: MacMame 0.36 Beta 7
21:45: MacMame, the Multi Arcade Emulator for Macintosh has been updated to 0.36 Beta 7. What's new:

Many changes to the audit options, and the audit settings are now saved. [John Butler]

Brought the 680x PPC cores inline with their DOS counterparts. [Aaron Giles]

Fixed problem with Nemesis & related games rendering improperly in software mode. [Brad Oliver]

Get it at the Macintosh multi arcade page.

Emulator Release: Mess 0.36 Beta 6 for Macintosh
21:12: Mess, the Multi Emulator Super System Emulator for Macintosh, has been updated to 0.36 Beta 6. What's new:

Up to par with the DOS Mess 0.36 Beta 6

The core is based on MAME 0.36b6. [MAME team]

Zipped cart and image support added. To use, make sure that the zip has the same name as the file in the zip. (eg) for a coleco CART called "venture.rom", zip to "venture.zip". When running MESS, type "mess coleco venture.rom". MESS will then load "venture.rom" from "venture.zip". Any system roms can also be zipped and placed anywhere in you ROMPATH. (eg) coleco.rom in coleco.zip. [Ben Bruscella]

Emulator News: PSEmu Pro
19:35: The PSEmu Pro website was updated with the newest beta (1.0.21) and some of the newest plugins. Thanks to General Leo for the news.

Misc. News: Errors while downloading files?
19:30: Several people have emailed me regarding failed downloads from ZD. I really have no idea whether this is a server failure, bad coding, or what. So, if you have any of the following symptoms, email me:

Downloaded a file and there was an error copying it to the saved location

Downloaded a file and it seemed to sit there forever

Downloaded a file and the archive was corrupt

In your email, make sure to include the following:

Exact time you attempted to access the file

Browser version

Operating system version

Available disk space on any partitions that your browser may download a temporary file to or place the downloaded file

IP address (or ISP)

Thanks...

Emulator Release: SleepNES Debuts
15:50: A new NES emulator called SleepNES has made its debut. Right now it only supports mappers 0, 1, 2, and 3 and has no sound, but it may get better in the future. You can download it at the NES page.

Emulator Release: NES496 0.13
15:44: A new version of NES496 has been released. Actually, 2 versions have been released. We just missed the last one a few days ago. Remember to e-mail us about any news that we haven't gotten yet. Anyway, here's what's new in the last 2 versions:

Added MMC3 (iNES Memory Mapper 4)

User adjustable speed control

Keyboard support

Poor sound support

Last release before major overhaul!

You can get it at the NES page.

Translation News: J2e Booms Back!
11:02: After being idle for several months, j2e releases an almost complete translation of Fire Emblem Gaiden for Famicom. This strategy RPG is great for fans, and non fans alike. Currently its only 97% complete, but that shouldnt hinder the playing of the game.

Download it from the Translations page.

Emulator Release: swNES v0.1
02:30: swNES, another new NES emulator, has been released. I saw this over at Vintage Gaming. It features a fair amount of mappers (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10, 23, 24, 25, 33, 66, 68, 70, 73, 75, 76, 77, 86, 94, 97, and 112) and it has pretty good sound.

You can download it from the NES emulators page.

Misc. News: Wavy CMC NES Demo released
02:27: Chris Covell of Solar Wars (NES) fame has released another great NES demo, Wavy. This demo is the CMC logo with a wavy scrolling effect with trippy colors and well worth a run.

You can grab this demo from out NES Roms area.

Utility Release: HebeGB and HebeGB9x v2.5!
02:21: The two versions of the allround gameboy tools HebeGB have been updated! Both versions have been totally revamped and ll major problems and bugs should be fixed.

You can download it from the Gameboy utilities page.

Utility Release: Super Jukebox Update
02:07: Marius Fodor has updated Super Jukebox with some bugfixes. The version is still the same, but don't be fooled. You can get it at the SPC players page or the Super Jukebox homepage.

Emulator News: Bleem! 1.5 Update
01:57: According to the Bleem! homepage, a release candidate of Bleem! 1.5 is now in testing. Yay! Thanks to Later Dude for the news.

Emulator Release: loopyNES 10/18/99 beta
01:37: Yet another beta of loopyNES has been released, and here's what's new:

scanlines mode added, mappers 21, 25 added

Get it at the NES page. Thanks to everyone who mailed us about it.

Emulator Release: DarcNES Unix/LinuxPPC v991017
00:04: Two new version of DarcNES, source and LinuxPPC binaries. What's new:

Fixed GG pause button (again).

Added separate renderer for GG.

Unix NES page.

10/18/1999
Emulator Release: NLMSX 0.20
22:08: A new version of NLMSX has been released, and here's what's new:

Rewrote complete memory system and I/O system. Multiple memory mapper configurations with different mapper sizes are now possible.

Added memory mapped version of the TMS279x diskcontroller, only reading and writing of sectors is currently supported. This means that a disk cannot be formatted inside the emulator until the write track command is implemented.

Single Density and Double Density disk images.

Read-Only disk image are now opened with write protection enabled.

MSXDOS 2.x support added. 'MSXDOS2.ROM' file will be loaded if it is present. Beware that it might seem that a program isn't working because of the presence of DOS2. Try disabling DOS2 support by renaming the file 'MSXDOS2.ROM'. Configuration with or without DOS2 can be made when the GUI is ready.

Solved a problem with sprites in MSX 1 screen modes.

Get it at the MSX page. Thanks to everyone that mailed us.

Emulator News: helloGB details
21:49: A lot of people have e-mailed us about what's new in helloGB 110309+. It appears the this version fixes the problems helloGB was having with Color GB ROMs. Thanks to everyone who mailed us. Get it at the Gameboy page.

Emulator Release: MESS 0.36 beta 7
21:37: A new version of MESS, the multi console/computer emulator, has been released. You can go read whatsnew and download it at the MESS page.

Misc. News: DarkMazda's Domain redesigned and new project started
01:56: DMD, a great emulation website, has been redesigned with a cool new look. They have also started a project to scan Neo-Geo boxes. If you wish to donate, contact spkleader. Go check it out!

Darkmazda's Domain

Misc. News: Believe...
00:06: I bet you all were wondering where I went. And I would guess a few of you were wondering, if I had anything to do, with what you will believe...

So, I ask you this... do you believe? I know I do. Feel free to send your comments to phantom@zophar.net

You will believe...

10/17/1999
Interview News: Dave of DGen Interviewed
23:51: MD Master of Genesis Temple has interviewed Dave, the author of DGen. You can go read the interview at Genesis Temple.

Emulator Release: helloGB 110309+
23:07: It looks like a new version of helloGB has appeared at the helloGB webpage. The only obvious evidence of this is that the date next to the download link is now 10/10/99, and there is a "+" in the version number that wasn't there before. I have no idea what new features or bugfixes may be present, or why the version number is still the same but now has a "+" at the end. You can download this at the Gameboy page. Thanks to Mike D. for the news.

Misc. News: The Sega 16-bit Project
18:14: Chris of Emulation Camp and a friend of his are working on compiling a list of all the Sega 16-bit games available on the Internet. So far they've dug up 775 unique fully named ROMs, i.e: no duplicates/aliases/SMS games. They're currently hard at work on a web site which will get its own domain, but they are currently missing a few ROMs and they are asking for your help, so go visit Emulation Camp and take a look at their list of missing ROMs!

Site News: Atari 800 Emulator v0.9.9b
18:13: A new version of the Atari 800 Emulator (that's really the name) for Unix. What's new:

fixed SD and ED floppy formatting in SIO code (sector size is hardcoded)

monitor's commands 'COLDSTART' and 'WARMSTART' perform the reboot immediately now (previously you have to give it the 'cont' command to actually perform the reboot).

statesave bug in SaveINT fixed (negative integers weren't saved correctly).

Makefile.unix updated - the rawkey lib is now essential for the linux-svgalib version of Atari800.

Linux-svgalib version now recognizes F8 keypress for jumping to monitor

Unix Atari 800 page.

Site News: PX-Mame v0.36b6.1
18:01: A new release of the Pentium/AMD-optimized version of the multiple arcade machine emulator for Unix. What's new (basically the same as X-Mame v0.36b6.1):

Everything from msdos 0.36b4 & b5 & b6

Lots and lots of thanks goto William A. Barath for sorta taking my place while I was busy switching jobs and for a lot of the improvements in this release.

After a lott of discussion on the mailinglist about which frameskipping method is the best, selectable frameskipping methods have been added. Use -frameskipper # or the frameskipper keyword in xmamerc to configure this. The frameskipmethod can also be changed runtime with left-control + key combinations. Currently available frameskippers are:
*0 lctrl+insert Dos frameskipping code
*1 lctrl+home Improved frameskipping code thanks to William A. Barath

added toggleable idle sleeping "-[no]sleepidle" which can make xmame run smoothly on a loaded machine as well as freeing the CPU so we can do more than just play games... :) This defaults to -nosleepidle. You can see that it is enabled by an 'S' in the fps display. There also a T there if throttle is enabled. This can be toggled runtime with shift + F10. Thanks to William A. Barath.

added upper-bound for autoframeskip "-maxautoframeskip <#>" which assures a playable framerate even if the emulation can't keep up with real time. Thanks to William A. Barath.

Made -geometry work for fx and gl versions, it can be used to specify the windowsize / resolution now. Thanks to Nguyen The Toan

Fixed XIL (again) Thanks to Taso N. Devetzis

Fixed screenshots for 16bpp games. Thanks to Mathis Rosenhauer for the hint where the problem was.

It turn out that xmame compilation breaks when using egcs-1.1.x or gcc-2.95, added note to use -fno-strict-aliasing to fix it. gcc-2.95.1 does work with -fstrict-aliasing, and gives a nice speed increase.

Quieted make output. Thanks to David R. Hampton

Fixed making of obj/cpu/m68000/m68kops.o to not use implicit rules this was needed for the quieting to work. This should also make our openstep users very happy.

Preliminary SDL display target. Thanks to: Tadeusz Szczyrba

Fixed the trailing problem in a lott of dirty using games thanks to William A. Barath for pointing me in the right direction.

This also fixes the > 7 frameskip values to not skip more frames then asked.

Unix MAME page.

Site News: DarcNES Linux v991002
17:55: Sephiroth, of the DarcNES DOS port and, recently, of the LinuxPPC port, has released another port, a Linux i386 port. This is basically just the what's new from the source release of 991002, but anyway:

Changed how IRQs are handled.

Started adding a 68 disassembler.

More 68k core improvements.

Added preliminary IRQ support to the genesis vdp.

Fixed a problem with mirroring on mapper 1.

Fixed SMS psg to use the correct frequency.

Unix NES page.

Emulator Release: RuMSX 0.19
17:50: A new version of RuMSX has been released. The whatsnew list is very big. You can download it at the MSX page. Thanks to Samor for the news.

Emulator Release: Basilisk Unix v0.7-2
17:41: The slew of Unix updates is due. Basilisk, a portable Mac 68k emulator has been updated. What's new:

Added BasiliskII.spec for making RPMs [with assistance from Roman Niewiarowski]

Unix: "basilisk_ii_keycodes" renamed to "keycodes", default location of keycodes file is now /usr/local/share/BasiliskII/keycodes

Unix: improved the install target, added uninstall target

Unix/Windows: fixed bugs in protocol removal [Lauri Pesonen]

Unix/Linux/NetDriver: removed MAKEDEV, functionality now included in Makefile ("make dev")

Unix/sys_unix.cpp: Sys_open() checks whether an HFS volume is currently mounted under Linux and tries to unmount it

Unix/sys_unix.cpp: implemented SysAddDiskPrefs() for Linux (scans /etc/fstab to find HFS volumes)

Unix/sys_unix.cpp: implemented Sys(Prevent/Allow)Removal() [Ryan Cumming]

Unix/main_unix.cpp: added call to gtk_set_locale() before gtk_init() [Toshimitsu Tanaka]

Unix/video_x.cpp: "dga" screen preferences now takes width and height as parameters (e.g. dga/640/480), like "win" [Pablo Averbuj]

Unix/video_x.cpp: Caps Lock behaves as expected [Pablo Averbuj]

Unix/prefs_editor_gtk.cpp: made the window width/height widgets comboboxes providing some useful defaults

Unix Mac page

Misc. News: Enix Of America reopening
17:09: It seems that Enix, the company that released the Dragon Warrior series, might be opening its doors on American soil, after five years. They closed their U.S. offices back in 1994 for an undisclosed reason. In related news, the American site, www.enix.com, has reported to be in development as of now.

Misc. News: Stick-It Arcade Controller review
17:02: The Build Your Own Arcade Controls FAQ has done a review of the Stick-It arcade controller. It seems to be an interesting read. Thanks to saint for the news.

Utility Release: Pete's TNT OpenGL GPU 1.23
16:29: Pete has released another version of his OpenGL GPU for PSEmu Pro. This version adds back paletted textures and add LOTS of speed. You can get it at the PSEmu Pro plugsins page.

Site News: ...
04:25: The sky is ruddy, your fate is bloody.

Henry Stauf

Believe.

Misc. News: Could Final Fantasy 4 make it to the U.S too?
04:09: Well, this one is probably more doubtful than Chrono Trigger, but it's still possible. You may or may not remember, but before FF Anthology was announced for the U.S., a guy named Azrael was running a petition for it. We will never know if it played a part in FFA's release here, but it certainly didn't hurt. Now, Azrael is in charge of the FF4 protest. To participate, all you have to do is contact Square and ask for FF4 to be released here. If FFA sells enough copies, there is a possibility that they will do it. Just mail them at support@squaresoft.com. It also wouldn't hurt to request Chrono Trigger while you're at it. If enough people participate, we might be able to make a difference. =)

The Final Fantasy IV Protest

Emulator Release: HU-GO 1.04
03:50: A new version of HU-GO has been released, and here's what's new:

One can now choose between 2 sound driver

Slighty improved ISO support

Get it at the TurboGrafx 16 page.

Misc. News: Back In Time - Arena Blast Preview
03:35: Mike Stulir has posted a new Back In Time: an Arena Blast Preview. From the e-mail:

Back In Time has posted an EXCLUSIVE preview, with screen captures, of the new Arena Blast game, which will be the first completely original game to be published under the Atari name in several years. Arena Blast is based on the Unreal engine.

Granted, Arena Blast is not a "classic" game per se. However, it is the first completely new and original game to be released under the Atari name for quite some time, so I have decided to post a preview on it. Arena Blast is not your typical first person shooter, so I invite you to stop by the site and check it out.

You can check out the new Back in Time below.

Back in Time

Utility Release: Super Jukebox 1.0
03:09: A great new SPC player is debuting right here on ZD; in fact we're hosting it! It's called Super Jukebox. Here are the main features:

Intuitive, easy, standardized interface.

Uses playlists.

Can extract SPC files from ZIP archives. ZIP offers fast decompression.

Can extract SPC files from RAR archives. RAR offers *great* commpression for SPCs.

Thorough configurability.

DLL (SPC700EMU.DLL) for any and all programs to use. Header and import library provided.

MCI driver (MCISPC.DRV) for any and all programs to use (Media Player).

You can get it at the Super Jukebox webpage or the SPC page.

Emulator Release: fMSX for Amiga 2.3 Beta 2
02:01: Since we don't carry emulators for the Amiga platform, we will have to redirect you to the fMSX page. Here's what's new:

Fixed a bug in the '060 version that caused graphical garbage in some games (Ashguine; MonMonMonster; Super Rambo).

Improved render speed for screens 5 & 7 (cybergraphics) and eliminated a large lookup table for those screens.

Improved render speed for screens 5..8 (native) by 30..40%.

Greatly improved the speed when running on the workbench.

You can get it at the fMSX page.

Interview News: The Scribe and MDMASTER interview
01:48: Sam Pettus Jr., A.K.A. The Scribe, was interviewed by MDMASTER. The Scribe created the Emulation FAQ, and wrote the "Rise of Computer Emulation" article, also the "The History of Emulation 1800 to 1999". You can read the interview here.

Emulator Release: loopyNES 10/16/99 beta
01:30: Yet another loopyNES beta has been released. Here's what's new:

FDS IRQs fixed

Get it at the NES page. Thanks to magimoogle for the news.

10/16/1999
Emulator Release: MAME v0.36 Beta 7
18:36: MAME, the multi-arcade machine emulator, has finally arrived! Here's what's new:

Graphics:

Added raster effects to Neo Turf Masters and Sengoku 2

Fixed colors in Wanted, Marine Boy, Changes and Hopper Robo

More fixes in the Toaplan games

Sound:

Fixed YM2151 sound board support for Joust 2

Sound in Blasted and Max RPM

Completed samples support in Space Panic

Samples support in Invinco and Pulsar

Fixed coin sound in Naughty Boy

Sound in Hot Chase

Msc:

Improved Battle Lane

Fixed Turkey Shoot

Main program:

The new Allegro library supports the Gravis GrIP devices

New games:

Spiker, Finalizer - Super Transformation, Crazy Climber 2, Syusse Oozumou, Mayday, Chimera Beast, Iga Ninjyutsuden, Plus Alpha, Peek-a-Boo!, Orbitron, Mystic Riders, Herbie at the Olympics, Arcade Classics, Sparkz, Battle Chopper, Ninja Spirit, Image Fight, Legend of Hero Tonma, X Multiply, Dragon Breed, Snow Bros, Makai Densetsu, Growl, Runark, Tough Turf

Snag a copy from the MAME page!

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.371
15:47: There has been a minor update to SNEeSe, and here it is:

Config: Added save directory support (must be set manually in cfg file, read the config file section of the readme for info)

Get it at the SNES page.

Misc. News: DavesVGC dead, "VintageGaming" in its place
05:06: Citing lack of time as his reason, Dave has withdrawn from actively updating his site "Dave's Video Game Classics" and has instead opened up "The Vintage Gaming Network" in its place. Apparently Dave will only be supervising the MAME and Retrocade releases; all other sections will be maintained by others. They will support arcade emulation and "classic console" emulation.

Emulator Release: loopyNES 10.15.99 beta
01:12: Another loopyNES beta has been released, and here's what's new:

6502 bug fixed

Yep, there's only one thing. You can get it at the NES page. Thanks to FF Fanatic for the news.

10/15/1999
Misc. News: Chrono Trigger re-make to come to the U.S. ?
21:27: Well, Square's FAQ says no, but we recently got an e-mail that hints otherwise. According to the e-mail, the latest issue of Game Informer magazine says that Chrono Trigger will not come to the U.S. UNLESS Square gets enough requests. It says that they got this information from a source at Square. This means that there's still hope. If you want to see the re-make of Chrono Trigger make it here, contact Square and voice your opinion. They have taken the comments section out of the user registration, so the only way I have found to contact them is by mailing them at support@squaresoft.com. If I find a better way, I'll let everyone know. Thanks to Shaun Graves for the e-mail.

Emulator Release: Street Fighter Alpha Patch for Callus 1.1a
20:57: The CPS-1 Patch Team has released another version their SFA patch for Callus. It comes with an alternate installer (for people having trouble with the 1st one). Get it at the multi arcade page.

Emulator Release: Come Back 64 for Win9X beta3
12:02: A new version of CB64, a Commodore 64 emulator for Win9X, has been released. Here's a little info about this version:

Done: Fullscreen mode (640x400)

Done: Window fully resizable

Done: 'Remove Cartridge' added to menu

Done: Slight changes to 'open' dialog

Done: 'About' box changed to a dialog window

ToDo: Sound has to be fixed

ToDo: Emulation speed should be set to 100% or so..

ToDo: Windows help file should be added

ToDo: Cool icon should be designed

ToDo: Joystick emulation should be enhanced

ToDo: Screenshot function should be added

ToDo: Additional Hardware may be emulated

Get it at the Commodore 64 page. Thanks to Erik for the news.

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.37
11:49: A new version of SNEeSe has been released, and here's what's new:

PPU: Modified the way VRAM read is done - now uses 'VRAM read buffering' which makes MUCH more sense, thanks to Ben Parnell of FCE Ultra (NES emulator) for info!

Sound: Made a few improvements to the sample decompression routines

Sound: Figured out why Soundscape cards weren't getting any sound and told Allegro to put the drivers in

Sound: GUI should now be quiet on more cards

CPU: Completely redid CPU opcode timing tables - thanks to Neill Corlett for better timing info!

CPU: More improvements to the execution loop

HDMA: Removed some unnecessary code that was in since the last rewrite

Source: Removed an erroneous extra line in one file, thanks to TNSe^1999 for finding this...

Source: Added a kludge in many files to work around the DJGPP linker's lack of object file alignment

SPC700: Changed flag format conversion to use lookup tables

65c816: Fixed a few bugs related to the Break flag in emulation mode (allowing Break flag to be cleared, Break flag set on stack after NMI)

65c816: Simplified stack operations

PPU: Fixed a bug that caused CGDATAREAD to be disabled

Commandline: Added support for video standard forcing (-fvp to force PAL, -fvn to force NTSC)

Get it at the SNES page.

Site News: MacBochs 991012
11:31: MacBochs 991012, an IBM PC emulator for Mac, is out. What's New:

Bochs now emulates a Pentium/586 processor

Miscellaneous emulation enhancements

Console window removed for the moment

Fixed bugs in MacBochs Setup.

Get it at the Macintosh IBM PC section.

Emulator Release: Stella 1.1.1 for Mac
11:26: Stella 1.1.1, the Atari 2600 emulator for Macintosh, is out. Here's what's new:

fixes the buggy control problems that many users experienced

no longer requires Mac OS 8.5

Fixed a few bugs in the Supercharger emulation

Get it at the Macintosh Atari 2600 section.

Emulator Release: SNES9x 1.2.6a for Mac
11:11: SNES9x for Macintosh has been updated to 1.2.6a. Here's what's new:

Fixed a serious crashing bug that affected Mac OS 8.1 and below.

Freeze/defrost screens now put a yellow box around the most recent freeze file. This is useful if you like to keep a lot of freeze files, but occasionally forget which one is the newest.

There is a new option to display a framerate counter in the lower-left hand corner. This is useful for benchmarking purposes and is pretty cool.

Version 1.2.6 brought back the evil glitches in Super Mario Kart (as well as less-fatal-but-still-irritating problems in Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, etc). This problem used to be solvable by compiling with MrCpp with all optimizations off, but this fix no longer seems to work. I spent several hours trying to find a fix, but no dice so far. Sorry.

Thanks to Destination Emulation for the news.

Get it at the Macintosh SNES page.

10/14/1999
Misc. News: A restriction on VIDEO GAME ADS?
19:50: Our little friend Doug Lowenstein just made another wonderful proposal: Censor video game advertisements. *sigh* Doesn't he have better things to do?

Thanks to TuxedoMsk of the NES World Jukebox for the news. You can read more about it at this page (scroll down a bit, you'll see it.)

Misc. News: Latest TRWin Screenshots
19:12: There are new screenshots for a new version of TRWin, showing improved compatbility. You can view them at the TRWin Screenshots page.

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Emulator Release: Pang 3 Callus Patch
15:31: The CPS-1 Patch Team has released a patch that allows Pang 3 to run on Callus. You can get it at the multi arcade page.

Emulator Release: WinUAE 0.88 Release 8!
15:26: WinUAE, the most frequently updated Amiga emulator, has been updated to release 8, and here's the news:

Fixed crash when no kickstart-ROM was selected, or xdms.exe not present.

Fixed Sound output on Diamond Monster Sound MX-300 and similar devices.

Illegal audio-frequency choices for the user's system are now masked.

8-bit Picasso screens (256-colours) in windowed mode on a 15-bit (or higher) Windows desktop would have problems when the Amiga's palette should've changed.

MIDI-output has been re-written and now works perfectly!

Socket code could fail on some machines because of bad version check.

Socket code has been changed and optimized, so that changing display modes during socket operations should no longer cause crashes.
Fixed bugs in 68881 (FPU) implementation involving FMOVE not updating FPSR, and FMOVEM pushing and popping things in the wrong order.

BlitRectNoMaskComplete now implements all blit-opcodes, for better performance and no more warnings.

Arrow-gadgets of the XEN BOOPSI class now render properly.

CD-ROM drive(s) will now work without a LoadWB being issued.

Enforcer-hits aren't reported while the CPU is in supervisor mode.

Accelerated InvertRect functionality. Oooh... Ahhh...

z3 fast-mem allowed up to 128-Megs again. STILL MIGHT BE BUGGY!!!

German translation of help-file available on web-site.

English help-file is improved. Thanks to Georg Veichtlbauer!!!

Printing may work better now.

Go download it from the Amiga emulators page!

Misc. News: ...
03:11: On November 9, 1999...

Believe.

10/13/1999
Emulator Release: Virtual TI 2.5 beta 2
23:59: A new beta of Virtual TI, a TI-8X emulator for Win9X, has been released, and here's what's new:

Added support for black TI-Graph Link cable

Fixed support for serial link cable

Get it at the TI calculator page.

Misc. News: A restriction on M games?
22:33: Doug Lowenstein, famous for being a broken record when talking about emulation ("Emulation only hurts the industry," yadda yadda yadda), is trying to get a restriction on sales of M-rated games to minors (minors being people under the age of 17). Irritati ng that some people don't have anything better to do than annoy the rest of the world.

Media News: Bleem! CEO Interviewed
22:29: The All Games Network has interviewed the CEO of Bleem! on a show called Gametime. You can watch or listen to the interv iew.

Links Update: 6 sites added
03:22: Now I'm all caught up on my mail. I've added 6 sites to the links page. The links (if you haven't already noticed) have gone through yet, another change. Take a look.

You can view the links by going here.

Site News: KuroNekoSPC version 3.96
02:08: A new (Japanese) SPC player for Windows has been released. This SPC player isn't really new, I just didn't add it because it was Japanese, and I know that most of our viewers are English speaking. But recently, its gotten a bit better, so I decided to upload it. This SPC player features channel muting, emulation speed up, and other cool things.

You can download this new player from the SPC players / utilities page.

Utility Release: SPC Disassembler .1
02:03: The very first ever SPC disassembler has been released. This disassembler will let see how SPC's work internally, and maybe with these results, be able to make a new utility.

You can download this program, from the SPC player's\utilities page.

10/12/1999
Utility News: SNES Sprite Editor version 1.0
22:32: A new sprite editor has been released for Windows 9x. I remember seeing this editor about 2 years ago. Just never found it again to upload it. Thanks goes out to Kong K. Rool for the e-mail. This editor has a horrible palette, and GUI, but it does wor k. Give it a shot.

You can get it at the SNES Utilities page.

Technical Docs News: Y0SH Strikes Back!
19:22: Y0SHi has released version 2.0 of his NES technical doc. Here is what is new:

Removed: Sections F-H.

Updated: Minor terminology adjustment for pAPU.

Updated: All information removed.

Updated: Terminology.

Updated: Removed. Refer to loopy-2005.txt.

Updated: $2006: More accurate definition.

Updated: $2007: More accurate definition.

Updated: $4000-4013: Descriptions removed.

Updated: Minor modifications.

Updated: All information removed.

Updated: http://nesdev.parodius.com/

Updated: Removed all smilies from document.

Grab a copy off the NES Technical Documents page.

Emulator Release: SNES9x 1.26b DOS
18:09: A new version of SNES9x was released. The contents of the What's New section in the readme includes:

Fixed a bug in the config file support, which caused Snes9x to 'do nothing' when no rom was loaded from the command line. Snes9x would fail to run anything and would show only a black screen. Now how come I didn't notice this earlier??

Added an option to disable the GUI. Edit 'snes9x.ini' and set 'UseGUI = 0'.

The debugger is back [for those who understand the concept of debugging]. Press F5 to start the debugger. Debugger options and commands can be found in 'debugger.txt'.

It seems to me that it is a minor update. Anyways, you can download SNES9x at our SNES page.

Emulator Release: REW 0.7d preview version!
16:06: BouKiChi, the author of DBOY, has released a new GB/SGB/CGB emulator for Windows! It's called REW and features most of the stuff that DBOY has, but there's a strange bug that causes some sprites to become entirely black. Anyway, it's worth a try, and here 's a list of its features:

Color gameboy/super gameboy support

Digital sound emulation (almost as good as smygb!)

MBC 1/2/3/5 HUC 1/3 TAMA 5 support (the gb mappers)

Save states

Keys configuration and joystick support.

It can be downloaded from the Gameboy emulators page. Thanks to Kosh for the news! Also, sorry for the bad link in the loopyNES update earlier today. Thanks, whoever fixed it, hehe.

Emulator News: Moonlit Coalition site updated
14:26: The Moonlit Coalition webpage has been updated with news about Sunset. There is talk of WinNT compatibility, re-doing the dynamic recompilation engine, and many other things. Go read the page for yourself, or download the current version at the N64 page.

Emulator Release: New loopyNES beta
02:30: Yup, yup that's right. A new loopyNES beta has been added to the NES emulators page. Thanks to JustinL we now know what's new:

Support for FDS games!

Ability to choose an NSF file from the GUI and play it.

Emulator Release: MESS 0.36b6!
02:22: After over a year of no updates MESS, an emulator for a load of systems, has been updated! It's now being developed as an override of the MAME source code, which explains why it went from 0.2b4 to 0.36b6, hehe. And here is the list of what's new:

New drivers supported:

Amstrad CPC [Kevin Thacker]

Atari 7800 [Dan Boris]

Commodore Amiga [Ernesto Corvi]

Dragon 32 [Mathis Rosenhauer]

EACA Colour Genie 2000 [Mathis Rosenhauer]

Enterprise 128K [Kevin Thacker]

KC Compact [Kevin Thacker]

PC-Engine / Turbo Graphics-16 [Charles Mac Donald]

PC-compatible (MDA, CGA) [Juergen Buchmueller]

RA+A Spectrum I+ [Mathis Rosenhauer]

TI-994a [Raphael Nabet]

ZX-Spectrum 48k [Allard van der Bas]

These drivers have improved graphics:

Misc. mapper and PPU fixes for the NES. [Brad Oliver, Firebug, Fx3]

Rewrite of Sega MasterSystem/GameGear code. It is now much more playable than before. [Charles Mac Donald]

Better color imager support for the Vectrex. [Mathis Rosenhauer]

Vectrex Driver overlay support. [Mathis Rosenhauer]

These drivers have new or improved sound:

Adjusted timing of NES clock to be accurate. [Brad Oliver]

Sound in the Astrocade driver. [Frank Palazzolo]

Preliminary Mockingboard support for the Apple II. [Brad Oliver]

Genesis sound improvements. [Gareth Long]

Other driver changes:

Several drivers have had compatibility improved (eg. NES, Genesis and Coleco)

The Apple II drivers have been fleshed out a little more. The //e family now works. The disk emulation is significantly faster as well. There is still plenty of work to be done though. [Brad Oliver]

Bug fixes to the TI9928a video code. This affects the ColecoVision and the TI-994a drivers. [Raphael Nabet, Sean Young]

There are major keyboard problems with most of the emulated computer systems (eg apple2, kaypro, ti99). This is known, and we are looking into it.

Changes to the main program:

The core is based on MAME 0.36b6. [MAME team]

Zipped cart and image support added. To use, make sure that the zip has the same name as the file in the [Ben Bruscella]

GAME_COMPUTER flag added. Use this to specify that the system requires full keyboard emulation. Emulated Computer systems now use the scroll_lock key to toggle the keyboard emulation. When on, MAME keys (such as "P" for pause) are disabled, until toggled with the scroll_lock. [Juergen Buchmueller]

Well, that certainly was enough for a year of rewriting every single driver to work with the MAME source code, don't you think? Now go download it from the MESS page and try it out! Only the DOS port has been released yet, but all the other ports should be out soon.

10/11/1999
Misc. News: Patent Pending hits 70,000
23:20: Patent Pending had its 70,000th hit today! Let's hope it hits 100,000 some time soon.

Congratulations to Megabyte for keeping Patent Pending going since 1997.

Note: Patent Pending is another site I do stuff for, so I just thought I should mention it. :)

Site News: November 9, 1999: 29 days away and counting...
19:49: We are just under a month away from the second biggest event of 1999 (December 31, 1999 will be more fun) that ZD will ever encounter! You guessed it: Zophar's Domain will turn 3 years old on November 9, 1999! Less than 2 months away from the year 2000 (not to be confused with the new millenium which actually happens in 2001), we'll make sure that everyone remembers exactly why ZD has been here for so long.

I and the ZD staff have a multitude of things planned for our third birthday on November 9th, including:

The unveiling of the ZD Real Video show, which has been in beta stages for the last month.

The release (if all goes well) of "The Chronicles of Zophar", a text documentary of everything that I've encountered from pre-ZD years to the present.

A very special website (a blast from the past, shall we say) will be hosted right here on zophar.net! Hints may be thrown as time goes on as to the identity of this site.

Re-postings of last years "Reflections", a collection of past news and past thoughts as we count down to November 9, as well as some new chapters.

A facelift to the main page.

... and so much more!

This is just a small part of all the things that I have planned for November 9, 1999. I'll be going into these items in-depth as the days go on, so be sure to check back here *EVERY DAY* so that you don't miss a thing!

We're also going to be announcing a special contest tomorrow, one in which you can win $75 US cash, so be sure to keep checking back for all the juicy details!

That's all for now. If anyone has anything they want to ask me about, or if you just want to send your wishes, be sure to send along an e-mail and let me know what's up. As always, I want to thank all the DOZENS... (pause)... AND DOZENS... of ZD's fans. Thanks for visiting ZD!

Emulator Release: WinEmu 0.46 b4
18:04: WinEmu, a C16/Plus4 emulator, has been updated. New in this release are loads of bugfixes and better emulation, heh.

You can download it from the Commodore 64 emulators page.

Emulator Release: R80 0.20
17:34: R80, a Sinclair Spectrum emulator, has been updated and here's what's new:

New Additions:

Spectrum 16k support.

Accurate contended memory emulation. Spectrum 48k, 128k and +2A multicolor demos now are right. Note that still there is not T screen update (32T screen update at the moment) nor accurate border emulation. This means border effects (like border texts) are not right. The accurate contended memory emulation makes Z80 emulation use more CPU time than in previous versions. I suppose at least a Pentium 100 or maybe more is required to run R80 at good speed. Thanks to Pedro Gimeno for the info in CSS FAQ.

Sound Blaster support. Beeper and AY-3-8912 emulation.

Pentagon and Scorpion 512k memory emulation.

Scorpion turbo mode emulation.
Support for new formats:

TRD (Betadisk): Save (full size) and load cutted files.

SCL (Betadisk): Check CRC.

VOC (Tape): Handle a some blocks and checking if VOC is in a format supported by R80 (mono, no compressed, 8 bits ...)

DAT (Database): Added support for version 2.02. Old version still supported.
New in Debugger:

Added support for Spectrum 16k

Main window: (1-8) set breakpoint in line of code. (F8) if block instruction (LDIR,CPIR,DJNZ to itself,...) executes it in one step, otherwise works as F7.

Timing information.

Memory (F2): (F4) Save dissembled code to a file.

(F5/F6) Load/Save bytes from/to a file

Show screen (F9): In Spectrum 128k,+2,+2A, Pentagon and Scorpion, keys 1/2 select screen buffer to show.
Updates to the user interface.

Main Help (F1): Divided in three windows, F?, CTRL+F? and ALT+F?

Command help (ALT+F1): Command/Key help. Check yourself, enter here and type something.

Disk Browser (F8): Save, enable/disable write protect and create new disk.

Tape Browser (F9): Updated 'Custom Info Block: POKEs'.

POKEs (CONTROL+F7): POKEs window. Load from .POK files.

Current model configuration (ALT+F2): Configure current model configuration (ROMs, memory, devices, sound, ...). You can change these settings from Reset/Hardware (F2) too. Select the model you want to change and press SPACE.

You can download it from the Sinclair Spectrum emulators page.

Links Update: Links page given a face lift
16:19: After over 2 years of the same looking links page, I have decided to change it. Now it is split up into 5 pages:

General Emulation sites

News sites

ROM sites

Translation and Save state sites

Emulation, and NON Emulation related sites

They load much faster now, I hope you like them. Any comments on the new Links pages, please e-mail me.

Take a look at the new and improved, Links page.

Links Update: Added 4 links, deleted 13
15:40: Well, links are hard work sometimes, but it helps when people like emuLynx help out a bit to make the workload less. A big thank you goes out to him for his assistance.

Take a look at the new updated Links section.

Media News: New Dreamcast controllers
08:09: On IGN.COM, there is a picture of four new Dreamcast controllers, all transparent. In my humble opinion, they all look really good.

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Dreamcast Controllers

Misc. News: SNOW NES demo added
03:34: I know I announced the release of this demo, but I can't seem to remember why I never added it to our free ROMs page, hehe. Anyway, SNOW is a scrolling (kinda sine-scrolling) text demo with some nice gfx by me, heeh. Anyways, the main code was done by Repulse, the music was re-done for NES by Memblers and Bananmos coded the sound engine.

Okay, now go download it from the NES free ROMs page!

10/10/1999
Technical Docs News: Chris Covell's NES Music Ripping Guide v1.2
23:10: Chris Covell has updated his document on how to rip NSF files, including the updated NSF spec and a new "NSF Guidelines" section. Thanks to Kinox for the news.

Site News: Save archives updated
22:59: Updated: NSF, SPC archives.

Emulator Release: Corn 0.01a
17:14: The really fast N64 emulator for Windows: Corn, has been updated. This update adds support for AMD processors.

You can download it from the N64 emulators page.

Emulator Release: JNes 0.26!
17:09: JNes, a NES emulator for Windows programmed by Jabo, has been updated, and here's what's new in this version:

Added Konami VRC4 Emulation (iNES #21)

Added Konami VRC2b Emulation (iNES #23)

Added Konami VRC4b Emulation (iNES #25)

Added Konami VRC6 Sound Emulation, Thanks to Kevin Horton for his docs

Improved PCM channel emulation

Minor MMC1/MMC3 mirroring change

Tweaked MMC3 IRQ

Fixed 4-window vram

Support for Controller #2

Put back correct palette reading

Fixed game genie length detection

Major 6502 core optimizations

MMX enhanced PPU emulation

DirectSound is now used again

Dialog for input devices with button config

Background Sleep is now an option

Sound output graph

Command line load option

You can download it from the NES emulators page. Thanks to Jabo for the news!

Emulator News: HelloGB recontinued
16:58: HelloGB is being recontinued by its author:

hey ya all, I'm back. next release is unknown, but it isn't so far.

Thanks to EmuCamp for the news.

Emulator Release: Atari 800 v0.9.9b
14:04: A new version of the Atari 800 emulator has been released. It is now up to 0.9.9b. Here's what's new:

Changes in 0.9.9b

fixed SD and ED floppy formatting in SIO code (sector size is hardcoded)

monitor's commands 'COLDSTART' and 'WARMSTART' perform the reboot immediately now (previously you have to give it the 'cont' command to actually perform the reboot).

statesave bug in SaveINT fixed (negative integers weren't saved correctly).

Makefile.unix updated - the rawkey lib is now essential for the linux-svgalib version of Atari800.

Linux-svgalib version now recognizes F8 keypress for jumping to monitor

Changes in 0.9.9a

full NOVA graphics support on Falcon including double sized screen

double buffering of screen on NOVA gfx

16,32-bit X11 shared memory support. Compile with -DSHM. Quote: "Just in case you're interested, here's a patch for Atari800 that will allow shared memory to be used in 16-bit and 32-bit colour modes. There isn't much of a performance benefit on my system (the emulator's CPU usage drop from around 68% to 53%, but the X server rises from 5% to 28%) but it might be useful in some environments. It's a bit of a hack since it adds another copy of each frame's data, but it's probably the best that can be done without changing the non-interface-dependent code."

SIO fix: register A should always contain 0 on return from ROM(?)

Unix fix: call select() in the main sync loop to reduce system load

SIO format fix: realsize is set - formatting should work (7 Cities of Gold) . Though I think we probably should not call SizeOfSector since someone might want to reformat double density diskette to single density. Thus I think realsize = 128; should work better. Let's test that.

Linux SVGALIB - proper keyboard support implemented using the rawkey lib (http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/ui)

You can get it at the Atari 8bit page.

Misc. News: New RAINE Screenshots
13:45: On the RAINE site, there are new screenshots for various games. They include:

The Lord Of King

Iga Ninjutsu Den

Yuuyu No Quiz De GO!GO!

Teki Paki

Again, you can view them at the RAINE site.

Misc. News: NES Instruction Manual Scan Project
03:59: Vimm has started a project, to scan the entire contents of every NES instruction book. Right now he only has one online, but more will follow. Eventually he will need submissions. Go check out Vimm's Lair for more details.

Misc. News: Emugaming.com is offering a FREE Dreamcast
03:36: To celebrate the launch of their new Dreamcast site, a site with DC news and reviews that is completely compatible with the DC browser, Emugaming.com is offering a free Dreamcast to one lucky individual that enters the competition on the site.

Emugaming's Dreamcast page

Emulator Release: ZD-spc 1.92
01:44: A new version of ZD-spc has been released! And in this version, here is what's new:

RAR SUPPORT!!! Thanks goes out Green Angel

ZD-spc Web Browser (check out the ZD archive, or other links provided)

Title bar dim when ZD-spc is not active

Scrolling title displayer (and option to turn it off)

Keyboard led visualization added, cool, but can be annoying when typing

Fixed a bug for DDE. It made external programs not be able to communicate with ZDspc.

Added Text color change in INI Skin Support

Added Mouse cursor change in INI Skin Support

Added Titlebar in INI Skin Support

Added Region support in INI Skin Support

Fixed many bugs with internal timer

Fixed ZST \ ZMV loading, cause before some played for 2 seconds, then stopped

Added new ID666 strings (Author, fade in milliseconds, emu dumped from)

Fixed Skin support. Now when a picture isn't specified in INI, it loads that default button

I hope you like this version, it's the most stable version yet! And if you have an SPC page, and would like it shown in the ZD-spc Web Browser, then just e-mail me, I will be glad to put it in.

You can download it at the ZD-spc web page.

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

Links Update: 8 sites added
00:12: Yup, I finally did another links update. This time, I've added 8 sites, deleted 2, and changed 4. I really appreciate that you people are sending me the correct address when your site's address changed. I also like the fact that some of you (2 out of the 30 I've received) gave a description with their link. Anyway, please give a description, a link, and the name of your site before sending. It really helps me a lot.

You can see the updated links section, at the Links page.

10/9/1999
Frontend News: EMUStation 2.0
22:40: Ah, a new version of this great emulator. It's now up to 2.0. Here's what's new:

The Engine now runs anything that has command line support!

Added a Toolbar and a Menu bar in Windows Explorer Style.

Stalker Engine 0.7 merged in the program to perform ROMs importing. This means that you can import and ZIP a sequence of individual files specifying any filter you want. Soon it will be release also in Stand-Alone version for those who want to use it for other purpose (visit http://members.xoom.it/zerosoft/stalker/ for details).

Fixed the checkbox that in the options dialog refers to the program calling itself "Emu Max" (the old name of the project).

Rewritten ini file management.

In ROM Properties now you can also delete files that are within the ZIP file that contains the ROM.

Scan Dialog restyled.

Added a Progress Bar to be aware of the Unzipping status of the running ROM.

Added multiple types of visualization of ROM lists: Big Icons, Small Icons, List, Report.

The font of the ListView can be changed in all its characteristics: style, color and effects.

The Toolbar, the Statusbar, the Progressbar and the tooltips can be hidden.

You now may choose to enable or disable the HotTrack style.

When HotTrack is diabled the ROM Description can be renamed like files in Windows Explorer.

Rewritten Running engine, now the ROMs are temporary unzipped in the subdir \Roms of the Path of the Emu that should be run the ROM.

The changes in ROM Properties dialog are in effect if you browse to another ROM or press the OK button, no more need of the apply changes button...

The Icons of ROMs signal availability of ROMs.

The Abuot Dialog now sports an hyperlink to our site...

Changed DLL used for ZIP-UNZIP: now we used a customized version of ZipBuilder 1.52L.

Added custom tooltip engine.

Help File rewritten.

You can get it at the Universal Frontends page. Thanks to Zero, the author, for the news.

Utility Release: PSXPlay 1.32
22:16: A new version of PSXPlay has been released. PSXPlay lets you view PSX video's directly from your PSX CD. I do not know what is new in this version, But you can download it at the PlayStation Utilities page.

Thanks goes out to Brian for the news.

Utility Release: SpriteView .162
22:02: A new version of Sprite View has been released. This utility lets you view the graphics of an NES, Sega Genesis, Virtual Boy, Game Boy, and N64 console graphics. Great for making maps, and getting graphics without the sprites, or anything else you can think of. Here is what's new in this version:

Supports VB tiles.

Detects ZSNES savestates, automatically setting the position to VRAM (20C13h) and loading the color palette. Of course you still have to use the command line switch (-p) for viewing a ROM along with a savestate's palette.

You can download the new version from the SNES Utilites page.

Utility Release: SMCREN 1.5
21:57: A new version of SMCREN has been released. This utility renames your SNES, GameBoy, and Lynx roms to its correct name. Instead of having 218935235.rom as your filename, it will read the rom, and using the CRC of the rom, it will rename it to its correct name. For example, it will become "Final Fantasy III.smc". In this new version, more games have been added to the list.

You can download the new version from the SNES Utilites page.

Emulator Release: Corn 0.01
19:41: I saw this update earlier today, I just forgot to do it, hehe. Anyways, Corn, an N64 emulator, has been updated. This update mainly fixes some bugs and gfx issues, so if you want to play Super Mario 64 at godspeed, go download it from the N64 emulators page.

Emulator Release: Z80Stealth 0.77
18:32: Z80Stealth 0.77 has been released, here's what's new:

New: Beeper emulation using Sound Blaster! Note that now Z80Stealth comes in two varieties:
1) The Adlib version (z80s_adl.exe). Includes AY-3-8910/12 emulation. This version is faster than the SB version but has no Beeper sound emulation.
2) The SB version (z80s.exe) uses the Sound Blaster to emulate Beeper sounds. (If you have problems with the SB version or do not have a SB card then use the Adlib version. Sound Blaster clones may work or may not. The Current SB version requires P166.)

Bugfix: Crash under Qemm and some emm386 configurations.

You can get it from the Sinclair Spectrum page. Thanks to Mr. Kirill for the news.

Misc. News: Pong gone gold
16:53: Hasbro has completed the remake of the classic game, Pong. Straight from the "Back In Time" site:

Pong has gone "gold" and will hit the streets on 10/19/1999. Today, I received a copy of the "gold" code, and there have been some significant changes from the version that I previewed in September. Pong is developed by Supersonic Software Ltd., and will be published by Hasbro Interactive under their Atari Interactive brand.

I can't wait for this! It sounds really good! You can find out more at the Back In Time site.

Misc. News: GB game competition
16:49: Bung, the company that makes the Game Boy XChanger and other game copiers, is having a contest. The contest is where amateur GB programmers make hardware demos or games, and people vote to say which one is the best. Looks interesting.

Thanks to Dermot Mac Flannchaidh for the news.

Bung page

Site News: Problem solved!
15:12: Well, we're back to business as usual. I want to thank everbody for their patience when ZD was down. Again, thank you for visiting ZD!

10/8/1999
Translation News: SMB3 Second Adventure
21:47: In the spirit of the SMB3 improvement hacks, Super Mario Bros. 3 The Second Adventure hack has been released. This hack goes up to world 4.

Download it off the Hacks page.

Site News: Super Bonk 2!
21:11: Oopsie..It seems we missed this release! Gaijin Productions has released the 100% completed patch of Super Bonk 2, a sidescrolling adventure game for SNES.

Screenshots can be seen here

Get the patch off the SNES Translations page.

Translation News: Hiryuu Honyaku: Flying Dragon
20:56: Hiryuu Hon'yaku: Flying Dragon Translations has started a new translation of Treasure Hunter G, seemingly close to where Square Translations has left off.

Screenshots and Information is available on their homepage

Emulator News: J-NES status
19:15: According to the J-NES page, DirectSound is back and working, and support for two controllers has been added. The new build will be released soon.

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news.

Emulator News: Calypso build 009 what's new
19:09: The English docs for Calypso, an SMS/GG emulator, have been released, and I'll post the what's new list here:

Now if the emulator doesn't find an Adlib sound card lets you run the ROM (but with no sound, of course), skipping the error. Silly bug.

Fixed a small bug in Gamma

Now the slots are viewed as in Nesticle.

New message font, looks like Nesticle's.

Support for gamegear games (but with BUGS) and debugger. Dedicated to Charles Doty, so he can debug his demos correctly.

The Save games format has changed, to support Game Gear. Easy, you won't need to trash your old save games, because the new format is compatible with the older (or at least it should be).

Added some keys that do cool things.

Render: corrected the bug that didn't let you see characters greater than 448. Now all VRAM goes in cacht. A bit of speed is lost.

Render: sprite render accelerated. Now, the color 0 is used as transparent. This might not be right.

Render: At last a ZBuffer has been incorporated per cache so that the tiles are seen in front of the sprites. A bit of speed is lost.

Debugger: new option to see the screen at a bigger size.

New keyboard handler

You can download Calypso from the SMS/GG emulators page. You might also want to visit the English Calypso homepage.

I saw this piece of news over at Kinox.

Misc. News: SNES pad support site birthday tomorrow
18:43: Tomorrow is going to be the 1st birthday of the SNES Pad Support Site! Quite a handy site if you're having trouble getting your SNES pad to work.

Thanks to ChiPPy for the news.

Misc. News: Genesis Game Guide
14:00: The Scribe and Eidolon have created a site called Genesis Game Guild Online or G3O. It features reviews of and info for Genesis and Sega CD games. If you would like to contribute a review and/or a box scan of a Genesis or Sega CD game, head over to G3O.

Emulator Release: Tezxas ZX Spectrum Emulator 1.1
13:47: This is just another ZX Spectrum emulator, right? Wrong! The Tezxas ZX Spectrum emulator is a ZX Spectrum emulator for the TI-89 calculator. We don't exactly have a section for something like this, so you can get it at ticalc.org. More specifically, you can get it at their TI-89 misc programs page. Thanks to Sparky009 for the news.

Emulator Release: PMAME 0.36 beta 6
13:37: PMAME has been brought up-to-date with MAME and AMAME. You can get it at the MAME page. Thanks to Arcade at Home for the news.

Interview News: Shattered Soul, author of Sega32x
13:37: Rabid Frog of Total Emulation and uzplayer of Emucamp have conducted a live interview on the Emucamp IRC Channel with Shattered Soul, author of an upcoming Sega 32x emulator called Sega32x. You can check out the interview at the link below.

Shattered Soul interview

Emulator Release: SMS Plus 0.7a
12:20: A bugfix version of SMS Plus has been released, and here's what's new:

Fixed a lot of bugs that caused crashes.

Game Gear games properly detected now.

Fixed a bug that caused stereo sound to not work.

Much faster display rendering

Get it at the SMS/GG page. Thanks to Archaic Ruins and Destination Emulation for the news.

Emulator Release: Come Back 64 0.9B
12:03: A new version of CB64 has been released, and here's what's new:

Fixed bug in keyboard routines.

Added support for all VIC modes.

New color palette (Thanks to DeeKay & Area64).

Added /? for command line info.

Small bugfixes/updates.

You can get it at the Commodore 64 page. Thanks to Erik, Dave's Classics, Retrogames, and Emucamp for the news.

Emulator Release: 1964 0.3.1
11:40: A new version of 1964 has been released, and here's what's new:

Bug fixes to dynarec and interpreter; Compatibility of dynarec improved- appears to have same compat as interpreter with the exception of firedemo and audio- which do not work yet in dynarec

Dynarec speed increased (schibo)

Significant code cleanup

If you'd like to download or want more information, check out the official homepage by going to our N64 page and clicking the homepage link.

10/7/1999
Misc. News: SitC's new location
22:57: For those of you looking for the newest location of Spirit in the Contraption, it has moved to http://sitc.mine.nu/. Some sections have been cancelled due to lack of time, but a new section called the "SitC Museum" was just added. Thanks to SkrEmnJava for the update.

Translation News: Final Fantasy Anthology Translation
20:18: Thomas Jefferies has been kind enough to send us a mini-review of the translation of Final Fantasy Anthology, Released on tuesday:

Well, the translation in FF5 is decent. It's not as good as RPGe's translation, and it's hard for me to get used to the main character being named 'Bartz', but hey, thats just me. The translation is good, in some places it's a tiny bit better than RPGe, some of the sentences sound smoother than before, however, overall I would prefer the RPGe translation of it. It suffers from the same problems that most english FF's have, the translators really had trouble getting grammar done correctly. The differences, however, in the FF6 translation are much for the better. After playing through about 75% of the game, I have noticed a couple of spots where they did change it, and it was definately for the better.

Misc. News: Space Invaders Remake Review
18:05: Mike Stulir, the "Back in Time" guy, has written a review of the newly-released Space Invaders remake for the Playstation. Go to the Back in Time webpage to read it.

Emulator Release: Calypso beta build 009
17:50: A new beta of Calypso has been released. The documentation is in Spanish right now, but English documentation will be released in a few days. You can get it at the SMS/GG page. Thanks to Destination Emulation for the news.

Emulator Release: CCS64 2.0 beta 10/03/99
15:18: Another beta of CCS64 was released just a day after the last one. Here's what's new:

Ability to load/save the emulator state (Freeze) with different filenames (Alt+F11,Alt+F12).

Color saturation control for the palette.

Various new command-line options, selectable name of config-file (C64.CFG default) and options of fastload and autorun.

New fast-keys, like Alt+Shft+R for hard reset and Alt+Shft+8 for status page of device 8

You can get it at the Commodore 64 page.

Misc. News: Gorilla Monsoon, dead at 62
08:28: Gorilla Monsoon (whose real name was Robert Marella) has passed away at 62 years old. He was a pro-wrestler, commentator and announcer for years for the WWF. We at ZD would like to express our condolences to his family. He will be missed.

Rest in Peace.

Gorilla Monsoon [1937-1999]

Emulator Release: fMSX 2.3 beta 1 for Amiga!
08:02: fMSX , an MSX emulator for Amiga has been updated again, and here are the news:

Added support for Colleco Vision

2 Cartridge slots available again

Some debugging

Since we don't carry emulators for Amiga you can visit the fMSX for Amiga homepage. Thanks to Arnaud of M.E.P. for the news!

Site News: NSM contest #4 winner!
08:01: Yes, after weeks and weeks of putting it off, I have finished reviewing all of the NSMs. Thanks to returning staffer Bjorn Astrom for helping me out with the NSMs. The winner is...

Patrick Moreaultn (aka bors)! After only 1 hour, 1 minute and 15 seconds (01:01:15), he completed the entire game of Faxanadu in one sitting. He has been contacted, and will be winning the $75 grand prize. Thanks to everyone for their patience in waiting for the winner to be announced. Also, I have to mention that Kevin Shimamoto would have won, had he not spent so much time killing enemies! His time was 1 hour, 2 minutes and 25 seconds (1:02:25).

You can check out the winning NSM at the link below. Thanks to all who submitted, and stay tuned for the upcoming ZMV contest! A final word: this particular NSM was created in NESticle 0.42. Unfortunately, I did not make it clear to use NESticle x.xx, so I allowed it in the contest. In future contests, 0.42 NSMs will not be allowed.

NSM Contest #4 winning movie (NESticle 0.42 ONLY)

Site News: HP49G emulator
07:14: HP has released an official HP49 Graphic calculator emulator, which apparently is part of a contest to win an HP30C digital camera and an HP C30 digital camera and an HP Pavilion C475Z PC, so go download it from the HP calculator emulators page and visit its homepage to participate in the contest. This emulator has a really nifty GUI, too, hehe.

Thanks to RA-Zero for the news!

Emulator Release: GBX 0.02a
07:09: GBX is a kind of old Gameboy emulator that was being developed by ]SimKin[, the guy who made Sim-S.N.EX (an SNES emulator). Unfortunately this emulator ceased being developed when it reached the debugger state, too. Anyways, here's what was new:

Gameboy z80 Debugger Implemented

Gameboy z80 Core Complete

You can download it from the Gameboy emulators page.

Site News: And the 5,000,000th visitor was...
06:31: The 5,000,000th visitor to ZD was pencap! After over a week without checking my e-mail, I decided it was time to check them. I've checked about 850 so far, with all the e-mails from Tuesday until now to go. Rest assured, I will get to everyone's e-mail.

So, congratulations to pencap for being ZD's 5 millionth visitor! He'll win something. ;)

Media News: Squaresoft to develop for Microsoft?
06:23: An article has been posted over at RPGamer.com regarding Square possible decision to develop for Microsoft. From the article:

IGN website pc.ign.com unveils a startling piece of information on the Bloomberg News Service that came from Yoshihiro Maruyama, the vice-chairman of Square EA. Maruyama states that Microsoft's new console, the X-Box, "would feature common personal computer components, including a version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, an Intel Corp. Microprocessor and graphics chips such as those made by 3Dfx Interactive Inc." He also hinted at a formal announcement from Microsoft in the near future, possibly by the end of October. It's very apparant that Square EA and Microsoft have had talks with each other, and if Square is on board that means two things: the X-Box just might make it, and Sony, Sega, and Nintendo could be in deep trouble.

Thanks to Onimaru for the news. You can check out the full article at the link below.

RPGamer article

Misc. News: New MAME Flyer and Poster Archive release
06:19: Xray1 has e-mailed ZD to let us know that he has uploaded a new version of his MAME Flyer and Poster Archive online. From the e-mail:

As stated, another month another release ;-) Mame-Flyers pack#12 adds 26 new flyers to the archive and replaces 8 ones. The total number of images in the archive is now 867. =)

You can check out his archive at the link below.

The Flyer and Poster Archives

Misc. News: Chris Covell releases Solar Wars!
03:50: If you don't know what Solar Wars is, you probably just haven't followed NES development that closely, but I'll tell you what it is, hehe. Solar Wars is a homebrewn NES game made by Chris Covell. It has got really nice graphics for a NES game and from what I could see when I tried it out for about 10 minutes it seemed like a really nice game.

Go download Solar Wars from the free NES ROMs page and try it out!

Misc. News: New site
02:10: Sue me, I'm not asleep yet. Here's another bit of news before I really do fall asleep on the keyboard.

ZD is now hosting a site: Gamepics! The site shows screenshots of just about every game that I can possibly think of. Check it out!

Thanks to Mek, the webmaster, for the e-mail.

Misc. News: Space Invaders remake
02:00: I'm extremely tired right now (I've been getting to bed at 12:00 AM lately due to loads of homework (grr)) so I'm just going to paste this e-mail and go to bed:

Yet another classic video game lives again. Activision has recently released a modern version of the Taito classic coin-op game "Space Invaders." I've had the game in my posession for a while, and today, I posted an extensive review of the game.

To look at my review, be sure to click on the "Space Invaders" link on the Back In Time web site.

Look for a preview of Q*Bert in the next few days. Q*Bert is another classic coin-op game that is getting a modern facelift. The game is currently in "alpha" stage, but my spies have provided me with a copy of what has been completed so far. Q*Bert will be published under the Atari Interactive label by Hasbro Interactive.

Thanks to Mike Stulir of Back in Time for the news. 'Scuse me while I try to get to my bed before I fall asleep on the...zzzzz... ;)

10/6/1999
Emulator News: Pasofami 1.2a What's new
15:40: Here's a list of what's new in Pasofami 1.2a:

Network Battle play MACRO function added

Improved MIDI sound

Improved Save ability

Automatic title display

Works on Windows NT

Complete 32Bit Code

Speed up GUI

You can get Pasofami at the Nes page. Thanks to Johnson Lam and Dave's Classics for the news.

Misc. News: Nintendo Domain Still Looking for NES Box Scans
15:25: Josh from Nintendo Domian is making progress on his project, getting scans of the boxes and instruction books from all of the NES games. Right now he has about 150 done, but he needs people to send him scans of their games for the project to progress. If you have some NES boxes or instruction books and a scanner, head over to Nintendo Domian.

Misc. News: Final Fantasy Anthology
09:33: For those of you who are addicts to the Final Fantasy series (like myself), Final Fantasy Anthology has been released. It contains the first (official ;)) US version of Final Fantasy V, and also Final Fantasy VI. Somebody e-mail me and tell me if the quality of the translation is anywhere near RPGe's; I doubt it is.

Also, I'd like to let everybody know that I have NOT disappeared off the face of this earth, school, personal commitments, and work have drained most of my free time.

Site News: AMAME 0.36 beta 6
04:54: AMAME, the AMD/P2/486 optimized version of MAME has been updated to beta 6 and is now in sync with the regular DOS version.

You can download it from the MAME page.

Emulator Release: SMS Plus 0.7
04:45: SMS Plus, an Sega Master System/Game Gear emulator for DOS, has been updated and here's what's new:

Improved compatability, most games work flawlessly.

Added Richard Mitton's blazingly-fast RAZE Z80 emulator.

Rewrite of the VDP emulation; much more accurate than before.

Speed throttling, VSync polling, FPS meter.

Configuration file for easy customization.

Support for "full-screen" 512x384 / 400x300 scaled displays.

YM2413 FM sound emulation courtesy of Zoop and Hiromitsu Shioya.

MMX enhanced graphics routines.

Stereo sound for Game Gear games.

You can download it from the SMS/GG emulators page.

Misc. News: E-Maculation
01:38: I recieved an e-mail regarding the status of E-maculation:

E-maculation, as you all know, has been dead for some time. I have volunteered to help MeanE get it back, but his condition is to have enough support for it. So, if you wanna see E-Mac on a .com address, really soon, email sardaukar_siet@yahoo.com with your support to show that Macintosh emulation is NOT dead. If I get enough of them, we'll do it.

Misc. News: HotRod Joystick for Mac USB
01:35: A Mac version of the HotRod joystick (USB) is
under development and should come before Christmas, all being well. As you probably know, this joystick ships with 100% legal Capcom ROMs!
HotRod WebPage.

Emulator Release: French MacMame 0.36 Beta 6
01:32: The French version of the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator for the Macintosh is out.

Get it at the Macintosh Multi-Arcade section.

10/5/1999
Emulator News: Magic Engine progress
23:16: Here's the latest on the progress of MagicEngine:

CD-ROM emulation finished [and screenshots to prove it]

Windows version almost done, Mac version lagging behind

100% sound emulation is being worked on

Thanks to Vick0083 and Destination Emulation for the news!

Translation News: Doraemon RPG Patch Completed!
20:53: WakdHacks has completed their translation of the NES game, Doraemon.

You can download it from the Translations page.

Thanks to Nagash` for the news

Utility Release: Two new PSEmu plugins
17:36: Two new PSEmu plugins have been released. The first is Null's SPU Plugin, which is a Sound plugin. Here's what's new:

Fixed loop bug with non looping samples

It can be downloaded from its homepage.

Also, Segu has updated his Direct3d GPU plugin, and here's what's new:

The bug that made a flush have a screen is corrected. (Thank you Pete.)

It can be downloaded from its homepage.

Emulator Release: Basilisk II 0.7 build 94
15:53: A new version of Basilisk II has been released. There is over a page of features, so you'll have to view them elsewhere. You can get it at the Macintosh page. Thanks to Digital2k for the news.

Emulator Release: Street Fighter Alpha Callus Patch 1.1
15:37: The CPS-1 patch team has released another SFA patch for Callus. Here's what's new in this version:

Patch is 10% faster.

Fixed a problem with missing files, it now displays exactly which file is missing.

Fixed a problem with uncompressing Street Fighter Alpha (CPS-2). romset that was causing the patch to pause.

Renamed RSWAPSA to RSWAPSFA.

Fixed webpage address in RSWAPSFA.

Fixed a problem with duplicated filenames.

Easier Web page address (http://cps1patch.n3.net)

Added aditional checking for correct patch files decompression.

Fixed hiscores, if you don't enter anything, it shows SFA instead of SFZ.

You can get it at the multi arcade page.

Misc. News: WinAMP 2.50e Released
11:06: A new version of WinAMP has been released by Nullsoft. It has an improved cdda_in.dll and bugfixes for Mjuice support. You can get it at the WinAMP page.

Emulator Release: DBOY 0.53
02:19: BouKiChi has released another version of his emulator DBOY. I don't really have any idea what's new, but it seems to be something concerning zip files and MBC3.

You can download DBOY 0.53 from the Gameboy emulators page.

Misc. News: Hello everyone
02:15: Hello everyone, I'm now officially back as an assistant maintainer. I won't bore you all with the details, but rather get on with doing an update or two, hehe.

10/4/1999
Interview News: DarkMazda interviewed
22:55: SAV2800 of EmuCamp and #retrogamers has interviewed DarkMazda. You can read it at this page.

Thanks to Retrogames for the news.

Emulator Release: MGX 0.13
10:39: A new version of MGX has been released. I don't know what's new, but you can get it at the SMS/GG page.

Emulator Release: TRWin 1.23
10:33: A new version of TRWin has been released. There isn't exactly a file that tells what's new, but you can look at the read me instead. You can get TRWin at the N64 page.

10/3/1999
Emulator Release: French MacMAME 0.36 Beta 6
23:55: The French version of MacMAME has also been updated to v0.36b6, so go and get it from the MacMAME site.

Thanks to Marc Vielfaure for the news!

Emulator Release: RockNES 0.97
22:19: A new version of RockNES has been released, and here's what's new:

Appended datafile (yeah, bye rocknes.dat);

Fixed a CPU and a minor scrolling bug;

Minor fix in the sound core;

Added Mapper #8 support (such as Doraemon);

Minor Mapper #17 fix (Parodius looks better);

Mapper #18 rewritten, IRQs fixed (at least Bases Loaded works fine);

Mapper #26 (game Madara) fixed (still buggy);

Fixed a free memory problem;

Fixed a strange bug that causes random snapshot saving (???);

Better VS Platoon color support;

Second major code rewrite done (cleaned & bug fixed).

Get it at the NES page.

Emulator Release: MacMame 0.36 Beta 6
17:06: MacMame, the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator for Macintosh, has been updated to 0.36 Beta 6. Here's what's new:

In sync with DOS beta 6. [Aaron Giles]

Fixed bug in the Z80 core which affected sounds in Jungle King. [John Butler]

Renamed some files/targets. [Aaron Giles]

Fixed problem with game window occasionally downsizing to 1x1. [John Butler]

Get it at the Macintosh Multi-Arcade section.

Translation News: Chrono Trigger Spoof!
16:29: Apoc of ZD has created a spoof hack of Chrono Trigger, It looks to be interesting, but alas, Parental discretion is advised.

Download it from the Hacks page.

Also, I havent really recieved any new news in a long time, if you have something missing, drop me a line.

Emulator Release: jzIntv v010a
15:55: A new version of the Intellivision emulator for Unix. What's new:

keyboard support

Unix Intellivision page.

Emulator Release: DarcNES v991002
15:54: A new version of DarcNES, NES emulator for Unix. What's new:

Changed how IRQs are handled.

Started adding a 68 disassembler.

More 68k core improvements.

Added preliminary IRQ support to the genesis vdp.

Fixed a problem with mirroring on mapper 1.

Fixed SMS psg to use the correct frequency.

Unix NES page.

Emulator Release: X-Mame v0.36b6.1
15:53: A new version of the X-Mame, multiple arcade machine emulator for Unix, has been released. What's new:

Everything from msdos 0.36b4 & b5 & b6

Lots and lots of thanks go to William A. Barath for sorta taking my place while I was busy switching jobs and for a lots of the improvements in this release.

After a lot of discussion on the mailinglist about which frameskipping method is the best, selectable frameskipping methods have been added. Use -frameskipper # or the frameskipper keyword in xmamerc to configure this. The frameskipmethod can also be changed runtime with left-control + key combinations. Currently available frameskippers are:

added upper-bound for autoframeskip "-maxautoframeskip <#>" which assures a playable framerate even if the emulation can't keep up with real time. Thanks to William A. Barath.

Made -geometry work for fx and gl versions, it can be used to specify the windowsize / resolution now. Thanks to Nguyen The Toan

Fixed XIL (again) Thanks to Taso N. Devetzis

Fixed screenshots for 16bpp games. Thanks to Mathis Rosenhauer for the hint where the problem was.

Quieted make output. Thanks to David R. Hampton

Fixed making of obj/cpu/m68000/m68kops.o to not use implicit rules this was needed for the quieting to work. This should also make our openstep users very happy.

Preliminary SDL display target. Thanks to: Tadeusz Szczyrba

Fixed the trailing problem in a lot of dirty using games thanks to William A. Barath for pointing me in the right direction.

This also fixes the > 7 frameskip values to not skip more frames then asked.

Unix MAME page.

Emulator Release: TuxNES v0.72
15:51: A new version of the spawn of Nestra. Apparently the the author of TuxNES is discussing merging with Nestra. What's new:

experimental sound support

gzip file support

support for mapper 99, experimental support for mapper 23, and improved support for mapper 15

Unix NES page.

Emulator Release: Bochs v990925a
15:49: New version of the PC emulator for Unix, c'mon, I've still got more to do. What's new:

Generated new BIOS (bios/BIOS-bochs-990925a).

Fix to mouse BIOS code (int15h:c2:06:00). The use of local code block/variables is not handled correctly by the bcc compiler. Removed braces, and moved local variable to top level of function.

Fix to extended mem access BIOS function (int15h:87). This was killing Minix.

Fix to floppy.cc, was reading one extra sector.

Fix to Makefiles etc for compiling without floating point.

Minix boots again inside bochs. Though, the keyboard code is not yet right for running Minix. For some reason, if you comment out the 2 keyboard ACKs at lines 947 and 966 in iodev/keyboard.cc, it works.

Unix PC emulator page.

Emulator Release: GBE v0.0.22
15:47: A new version of this new Gameboy emulator. Since the author appears to be a documentation minamalist, here's the current emulation status:

all gameboy z80 opcodes (excluding STOP and HALT - these are ignored)

minor color gameboy support

mbc1, 2, 3 and 5

save ram (please "mkdir ~/.gbesav" to avoid errors)

plus other stuff -- I'm just too lazy to finish this documentation\
Unix Gameboy page.

Emulator Release: CCS64 2.0 beta
03:12: Another build of CCS64 2.0 beta has been released, and here's what's new:

Ability to swap between different session screens in the MC Monitor.

Cartridge types 7 to 11 (Fun Play, Super Games, Atomic Power, Epyx Fastload, Westermann).

You can get it at the Commodore 64 page.

10/2/1999
Emulator Release: DBoy 0.52
17:54: DBoy 0.52 has been released, but I don't know what's new because the documentation is in Japanese. Anyone feel like doing some translating? :)

You can get it from the Game Boy page. Thanks to Jay Lanagan of Archaic Ruins for the news.

Emulator Release: MAME32 0.36 beta 6
17:46: The official version of MAME32 0.36 beta 6 has been released. Now it's up to date with the latest DOS version. You can get it at the MAME page.

Emulator Release: Echo 0.7b
17:43: Echo, an Atari ST emulator, has been updated to version 0.7b. I don't know what's new in it, because the official page hasn't been updated and there's no what's new file in the zip.

You can get it from the Atari ST page. Thanks to cloy for the news.

Site News: Hu-Go 1.03
17:09: A new version of Hu-Go has been released, and here's what's new:

Beginning of scanline mode (not in the gui)

Corrected some bugs with HCD support that made the machine crashing

You can get it at the TG16 page.

Translation News: Panzer
16:56: Gaijin Productions has begun work on Panzer, a Genesis strategy game. Right now it's about 20% complete. You can get the patch at the translations page. Thanks to RPGd for the news.

Utility Release: Table Manager 1.0
16:36: A new translation utility called Table Manager has been released. Here are some of the basic features:

Support for tables of Thingy and Hexposure 0.44;

Support for Japanese characters (katakana, hiragana and the composed versions);

Support for two-byte characters;

Support for control characters;

Conversion of OEM to ANSI and of ANSI to OEM;

Interface very easy of using.

You can get it at the translation utilities page. Thanks to RPGd for the news.

Translation News: Lunar: Magic School
16:10: TheFreak and EsperKnight are continuing the Lunar: Magic School patch started by Square Translations. So far, Chapter 1 has been completed. You can get it at the translations page.

Translation News: RPGe Site
15:46: As some of you may have noticed, the RPGe site is gone. Don't worry, it's not dead. According to harmony7, "The contents are getting old so I need to find some time to give it new life." Expect it back in a few months. Thanks to RPGd for the news.

Emulator Release: New Playstation emulator
15:20: EmuAlliance has taken a break from its tabloid ways to release the much talked-about Playstation emulator, Jackal. According to the site, the following features are implemented:

The bios very well

Dynarec cpu core

No GTE at all

GPU in direct Draw

Partial but not available cd-rom support

Partial DMA and interrupts

You can get this emulator from our Playstation page. Thanks to NINTENDA for the news.

Site News: Save archives updated
09:06: Updated: CHT, GS0, NSF, NSM, SRM, STA, ZST archives.

Emulator Release: Pasofami 1.2a
02:14: A new version of Pasofami has been released. There's no english documentation, so I can't tell what's new. You can get it at the NES page.

Emulator Release: Street Fighter Alpha Patch (CPS-2) for Callus
01:48: The Capcom System 1 Patch team may need a name change now. They have successfully created a patch that will allow Street Fighter Alpha to run on Callus. You can get it at the multi-arcade page. Thanks to BlueMax for the news.

10/1/1999
Emulator Release: MGX 0.12fc
21:27: MGX 0.12fc has been released, but the only noticeable change is that the zip file's size has been decreased.

It's available at the SMS/Game Gear page. Thanks to Archaic Ruins for the news.

Thanks to Emulation_X for notifying me of the mistake I made on this post, also.

Emulator Release: Z80Stealth 0.065
16:22: A new version of Z80Stealth has been released, and here's what's new:

Now my emu draws screens line by line (as real Speccy) instead of simple redrawing every 1/50 sec. This fixes gfx problems (flicker) in some games (for ex. Puzznic,Joe Blade 2).

Get it at the Sinclair page. Thanks to Mr.Kirill for the news.

Emulator Release: 1964 0.30
13:52: The open source Nintendo 64 emulator for windows, 1964, has been updated to 0.30. Here's what's new:

First release with dynarec core; (schibo)

There are 2 binaries:
1964i.exe = interpreter (slower core)
1964d.exe = dynarec (faster core)

compatibility is not quite what the interpretive core is yet..
Here's a rough demo compatibility list from those demos i've tested:
1964.bin, dextrose, fzoom (fractal screen doesn't work yet), hi_cfb, liner, lfc-fmi, pong, n64stars, rotate, rpa, sinus, sp_crap

Many thanks to zilmar for helping me with dynarec and for teaching me perhaps more than was "deserved" :).

The dynarec core will not be made public.

Various bug fixes...no more crash on exit :)

RDP and dynarec continue to be in development

Get it at the Nintendo 64 section.

Emulator News: Bleem 1.5 status update
13:39: Randy of Bleem has posted a large status update on Bleem 1.5 on the bleem message board. You can read it at this page. I would post the whole thing, but since I know some people whine about long posts, I just linked to it.

Thanks to EmuHQ for the news.

zophar@voicenet.com