Site News: X68000 games pile
19:55: If you haven't visited my site dedicated to Japanese computer emulation yet, and if you're interested, you should. The URL is x68k.retrogames.com tomorrow I'll be serving a request again.
Links Update: It's been a long road.
15:55: First of all, thanks to everyone who's stuck with me while I've been revamping the links section. I got it partway done when SwampGas, the incredible PHP coder, approached me with a link database. Finally, every link that was in the links section has been added to the database and it's ready to go online. By tonight, he ought to have everything transfered over (something that I myself cannot do), so look for it really soon.
If your link that was sent to me before Monday isn't listed, please send it again. It seems several of the links I had disappeared. I have everything that was sent to me this week and I'll get that up tonight as well.
I'm excited, personally, about the new database. It looks and functions great. Thanks again to SwampGas (happy birthday, too, by the way) for the program and to you, the visitors of ZD for sticking with me. When everything's moved over, look for a new link to the links section from him (as I don't know what it will be just yet).
Emulator Release: SEGAEmu 0.50
14:54: SEGAEmu, a SEGA Genesis/SEGA Master System/Game Gear/SG-1000 emulator for Windows, has been updated to version 0.50. Here's what's new:
You can download it from the SEGA Genesis emulators page, at least for now. Thanks to Cliff Byrd for the news!
Emulator News: Emulators at Shockwave.com?
14:26: Well, it certainly seems so. I went to check it out and when you run one of their Classic Arcade Games in their Games section, it requires you to download a Shockwave component called ArcadeEmu, so go figure. I tried playing Sinistar, and it played identically to as in MAME, but without the sprite bugs I suffer from in the Windows version, hehe. Anyway, it saves ROM files in the .bin format in a directory called ShockwaveArcadeCache somewhere on your hard drive. The ROM file is also identical in size (albeit 1KB larger) than the original Sinistar ROM set. Is it really an emulator? I don't know. Judge for yourself, visit Shockwave.com.
Thanks to Ugly Joe for the news!
Misc. News: Rom N Noodles to reopen
13:16: We got this little interesting news report a while ago:
"After nearly a year from its closing date, Rom N Noodles is planning to reopen! We are looking for a completely new cast (uploaders, graphics designers, cgi programmers, html programmers, account makers, etc) If anyone is interested, contact Lord Chaos at dsroper@jps.net."
So if you feel like helping out with the reopening of Rom N Noodles, mail Lord Chaos! Thanks to Lord Chaos for the news!
Misc. News: PS2 News and misc.
13:11: Visit DailyRadar.com for an article about the antialiasing problem on the PS2 being solved, as well as a nice new list on all the great gear you can get for your PS2 once you get it, hehe.
Thanks to white_rioter for the news!
Misc. News: Gameboy Advance stuff
12:54: If you want to read some nice articles on why Gameboy Advance will be the definite handheld (according to them), you might want to visit Pocket.IGN.com and scroll down on the page a bit. They say that the system will have the hardware capabilities of the SNES, but more powerful. Imagine that in a handheld system! Sounds promising!
Thanks to Rich Craig for the news!
Interview News: X-Box related interview
12:47: If you want to read a nice interview with J. Allard of Microsoft about the X-Box, visit this page:
http://www.ebworld.com/ebx/news/content_item.asp?cont_id=12194
Thanks to LordSnarf for the news!
Utility Release: NSF Tool 1.1
12:35: NSF Tool, a tool for Windows that can view/edit the info tags in NSF files and do other neat stuff, has been updated to version 1.1. Here's what's new:
You can download it from the NES utilities page. Thanks to Dan Saeden for the news!
Emulator News: Great MAME WIP news for fans of MK and NBA Jam
11:29: I was checking out the MAME W.I.P. site and saw some great news about progress on drivers for MAME. The following are the updates from the last two days:
"27th June 2000: Luca Elia added Dodonpachi and Guwange to the Cave driver. Nicola Salmoria added a clone of The Hustler called Rack 'em Up. Aaron Giles finally fixed the protection issues in Mortal Kombat 2 and NBA Jam, but graphics glitches still remain and sound is not emulated. He also sent in an update to the YMZ280B sound core with much better sound output."
28th June 2000: More progress was made on the Williams 34010 driver by Aaron Giles and Ernesto Corvi, fixing the T-Unit version of Mortal Kombat 1 almost completely and adding sound to NBA Jam (and Tournament Edition)."
Keep your eyes peeled for the next version of MAME.
Utility Release: SNESRL 0.9
08:27: SNESRL is a neat utility that makes a list of all your SNES ROMs in a certain directory and writes it to a text file. Still a bit primitive, but does what it sports to do.
You can download it from the SNES utilities page. Thanks to white_rioter for the news.
Misc. News: NEmu64 INI 3.4
05:41: The unofficial NEmu64 INI file has been updated to version 3.4 and I must say that it looks very good! There seems to be a whole load of playable games in NEmu64, just too bad that it chokes on my Banshee. I sure hope it'll work with my new GeForce 2, though.
Anyway, you can download it from the Nintendo 64 emulators page.
6/29/2000
Emulator Release: Meka v0.54
21:52: Since the school year is over, the author of Meka has had a chance to get some work done. Meka v0.54 is now available for registered users....here's the changes:
You can download v0.53c from the SMS/GG emulators, or visit http://www.smspower.org for info on registering Meka. Props to Brian for the news.
Translation News: French Traslation of Gens Released
15:18: From Top50 at Power3d comes yet ANOTHER French Translation of an emulator! This time, it's Gens, a Genesis Emulator for Windows.
Get it from our Genesis Emulators page.
6/28/2000
Translation News: French Translation of ZSNES Released
23:21: Top50 has released yet another emulator translation to French. This time, it's ZSNES 0.911!
Download it from our SNES Emulators page.
Emulator Release: Neko Project II 0.16
12:32: Neko Project II, a PC-98 emulator for Windows, has been updated to version 0.16. Here's what's new in this version and what was new in the previous version (that I missed):
0.16
0.15
You can download it from the PC-98 emulators page.
Emulator Release: Anex86 2.19
12:26: Anex86, a PC-98 emulator for Windows, has been updated to version 2.19. I don't know what's new since the readme is in Japanese.
You can download it from the PC-98 emulators page.
Emulator Release: Vegas 0.94b
12:15: Vegas, a SEGA Genesis/32X emulator for Windows, has had an "unofficial" update. Or rather, this is a test version for everyone to try out. This one has rewritten rendering engine and DirectX code, so try it out and mail the author and tell him if it runs better this way!
You can download it from the SEGA Genesis emulators page. Thanks to Dookie for the news!
Misc. News: This is better than super bowl commercials...
11:49: Our friend LordSnarf send us this link....old videogame commercials from back in the Atari/Collecovision/Intellivision days. I'm sure some of you will remember these being aired and shed a tear from the memories, but most of us will get a chuckle out of it.
Emulator Release: Come Back 64 v0.9H
11:46: LordSnarf let us know that Come Back 64 v0.9H was released...here's the changes:
Snag a copy from the Commodore 64 emulators.
Misc. News: VG Music Reaches 2 Million Hits
11:38: Video Game Music Archive surpassed 2,000,000 visitors yesterday. From their site:
At 11:35 am Eastern Daylight Savings Time, the front page reached 2,000,000 hits since December 19, 1996 (date the archive was founded)!!! I'm speechless. I'll let the numbers speak for themselves.
Thanks to Mike Newman for the heads up, and congratulations guys!
Emulator Release: Gens v0.76
08:28: Gens was updated...here's what's new:
Make sure you check out the official site for other notes and a list of games fixed/broken...then visit the Genesis emulators and download it.
Misc. News: ZD Listed in EGM
04:00: Electronic Gaming Monthly did a section entitled "Web Sites Phatter than Fat", and ZD was listed among them. Thanks to Brian Fish for the news and scanning the article.
Site News: Errors on ZD
03:57: I'd like to thank everyone for emailing me about the various errors (404, site not responding, etc), but the downtime and errors were expected. Our host, ZTNet, relocated their servers to a bigger and better place. Today may be a little bumpy as well, but it should be back to normal fairly shortly.
6/27/2000
Emulator Release: PNesX version Aloha
10:48: PNesX has been updated, possibly for the last time. It's an NES emulator that runs on the PlayStation. There is no news about it on the homepage, but according to the README, the emulator is no longer under development. The source files are included, so that anyone that wants to can revive the project.
Download the last version (PNesX Aloha) from the PNesX Homepage.
Thanks to Capt Nintendo for the news.
Free ROMs News: NES Demo Released
10:38: Chris Covell has realeased a new NES demo, called CMC'80s. The demo pays tribute to the NES and the 1980s, and according to Chris, only a real NES will run it perfectly.
Download it from our NES Demo Roms page.
Translation News: ASM Hacker Request
10:06: jbtrunks from DBZ GT is looking for an ASM hacker. He writes:
Our site DBZ GT is needing a ASM hacker! Most of the games are 100% translated other than a few certain parts in which an ASM hacker is needing..please e-mail me at jbhnrh@hotmail.com if you can help!
Emulator Release: French Translations
09:54: French versions of the emulators for Hu6280, RockNES X, and REW have been released by Power 3d Translations.
You can download Hu6280 at our TurboGrafx 16 page, and you can get the other two from our NES page. Thanks to Top50 for the news!
Translation News: A Beginner's Guide to NES ROM Hacking
09:18: Sliver X has just updated his site: A Beginner's Guide to NES ROM hacking.
It has some basic info about ROM hacking on the NES, and can be found here. If you've ever been curious about ROM hacking, or just want to get your foot in the door, this is a good place to start.
6/26/2000
Site News: Possible GameBoy emulator for Palm Pilot?
23:03: Mysidia writes:
Gameboy emulator for palm pilot -
http://www.gambitstudios.com
They updated the page with some wacky 4th of july thing so we can assume they're going to release something on july 4th (Theyve never had anything before except a "coming soon" notice and I doubt this update was an act of patriotism ;)
Though I'd let you all know...its the first hint of a gameboy emu release for PalmOS.
Looks like something is definitely up. We'll let you know.
Emulator Release: Stella for BeOs v1.1
23:01: Coming with the news of the new Atari 2600 prototype game is the release of the 2600 emulator Stella for BeOs. Here's what's new:
Grab Stella or visit the official site. Props to LordSnarf for the news.
Misc. News: Medicine may change forever..
22:54: It was announced today that the over 3 billion characters that make up our genetic code has been documented, and it may change the way diseases are detected and treated. Thanks to Lugnplu for the heads up.
Misc. News: Brand new game discovered...for Atari 2600
22:52: Yes, you read right. Atari 2600 Nexus has released a forgotten prototype called Kamikaze Saucer by Dan Wolf for Synco. I guess the 2600 is still alive and kickin' somewhere...
Emulator Release: Retrocade for OS/2 Alpha 4
22:50: Also just updated was Retrocade for OS/2...here's the changes:
Download Alpha 4, and make sure you go to the official site for additional components.
Emulator Release: Snes9x for OS/2 Release 2
22:45: The OS/2 port of Snes9x was updated...here's what's new:
Download release 2 or check out the official site.
Emulator Release: WinSMS Plus v0.922....in French!
22:40: Top50 let us know that Power3d has done their 10th translation into French...WinSMS Plus v0.922.
Check out http://www.power3d.com for all the translations.
Translation News: DBZ: Legend of the Saiyans v0.65
19:50: Klepto Translations has released version 0.65 of their English translation of Dragon Ball Z: Legend of the Super Saiyajin.
Get it from our SNES Translations page.
Emulator Release: DarcNES Ver. dn9a0625
07:35: New version of the multi-system emulator DarcNES is out. Here's the changes:
As always, the author only provides the source, and no site has compiled a binary yet.
Site News: Amiga Emulation Zone Updated
07:25: Shane Monroe of Amiga Emulation Zone added 22 new CD covers, and 47 games to their archive of amiga CDs.
Kudos to LordSnarf for the heads up.
Site News: NeoRageX Riddles
07:23: Well, I finally caught a glimpse of the NeoRageX homepage. They gave the answers to the little cryptic messages they were doing, and explained how they delayed the release because of a personal tragedy...
1: ((nop>>4)*3)++ = nop is opcode 0x90/144 in x86, that gives us this formula
((144/16)*3)+1 = 28 days left to a release
2: sub bh,7 = (b equals the second and h the eight letter of the alfabet)
This gives us 28-7 = 21 days left to a release
3: (ffff%4) * smtwtfs = ffff stands for 6666 (f equals the sixth letter of the alfabet) and smtwtfs is the days of a week. 6666 % 4 equals 2. This gives us 2 * 7 which is 14 days left to a release
Unfortunately, the site exceeded its hit ratio as I was trying to see it, so I can't tell if they released it yet or not.
Emulator News: NO$GMB Site Closed
07:16: Directly from the NO$GMB site:
No$gmb seems to be published by somebody called "utopia" now, so this webpage doesn't appear to be of very much use anymore. Please inform me if anybody knows the identity (real name, and address) of this so-called "utopia" group or person...For anybody else, I haven't decided yet if I continue to release freeware/shareware updates in future.
He then goes on to explain how for each crack released, he'll delay development for 4 months.
Ok, I must digress....sure, authors deserve money for their work, but delaying development as "punishment" seems like they're in it for 1 thing and 1 thing alone (not to mention it sounds childish). I can't believe an author would go nuts like cracks never existed before or something. Feel free to discuss this on the message board. Thanks to Cephiros for the tip.
6/25/2000
Emulator Release: RockNES v1.090
18:15: New version of RockNES is out...here's what's new:
Check it out the NES emulators.
Also, BNSF, the NSF (Nintendo Sound File) player from the same author is now in sync with RockNES and available from the NSF players
Misc. News: Callus95 v0.42 Patch 2.2 Updated
18:05: A new version of Callus95 v0.42 Patch 2.2 is available. It fixes the problem Windows 2000 users have had.
Grab the patch from the Multi-Arcade emulators. There's also new DAT files available for CLRmame and ROMcenter.
Translation News: Terranigma French Translation
15:33: A new French translation patch for Terranigma has been done by the group Sonic Dream. Currently, all of Chapter 1 is translated. Right now the group doesn't have a homepage, but of course we've got a local copy of the patch.
Thanks to Terunaga Matsumoto of Sonic Dream for the news. Pick up this patch at our French Translations page.
Site News: News Submissions
06:21: I was looking in the logs for our news submitter, and noticed a large number of submissions were being filtered out because they appeared to be duplicate news.
I altered the algorithm used to detect similar text, so if you had this problem in the past, it should work alright now. I knew I should have paid more attention in math class:)
As always, you can submit news or email us by visiting the contact page. Special thanks to those people who emailed me directly and mentioned the glitch.
Emulator News: Virtual Game Boy Color now free
06:12: The author of VGBC sent us a note that his emulator for GameBoy Color, VGBC, now doesn't require registration.
Download it from the GameBoy emulators.
Emulator Release: iNES for Mac v1.0.2
06:00: Vimm let us know that the Macintosh port of iNES has been updated. This update improves video emulation and has smarter mapper handling.
Grab it from the Mac NES emulators.
6/24/2000
Translation News: New French Translation Section
19:52: I've just put up a new French Translation Section, and as of right now, it has 35 patches! Thanks to Card Master of Terminus Transductions (that's Terminus Translations in English) for helping me get up to speed in the French translation world.
Make sure to visit our French Translations page to get the latest French patches.
Site News: HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWAMPGAS!
03:44: He does more behind the scenes than we can possibly imagine. His charming personality is loved by people of all shapes, sizes, and colors. And NOW HE'S TURNING 9! I don't know if you folks remember, but in June, right before I signed on, Zophar had a birthday and SG posted a few pictures of himself with a little sign wishing him a happy one.
Sam, now it's your turn.
Yes, that's me. Yes, I obviously know he's not nine. Yes, he can grow facial hair and I can't. Werd. :D
Misc. News: Addendum: Backing Up A Dreamcast
03:11: We recently received this e-mail as a clarification to SwampGas' post on Dreamcast backups. It was sent to us by Jeomite. The following is quoted directly:
First of all, I'm pretty sure Lik-Sang is selling this alleged DC Boot Disc without consent of the creator. The creator is known as a video games group called UTOPIA (#UTP on EFNet). They made the boot disc in order to make Dead or Alive 2 playable, which they released and ripped themselves. Therefore Lik-Sang is selling their, Utopia, boot disc for a price, when everyone on the Internet can download it for free!
I personally own a Dreamcast (Japan version, in fact). I burned the boot disc and Dead or Alive 2 ISO onto two Sony CD-Rs. And it worked great. Quit incredible if ya ask me, since I don't have a mod chip or anything in my system. This boot disc allows you to play any import/copied Dreamcast game. The only game out is Dead or Alive 2 as of right now, since Dreamcast games cannot be ripped from any ordinary method. UTOPIA only knows of a method to rip games, and it's been held secretive for now. -Jeomite
This does indeed make a few things clearer; Keep your eyes peeled for further developments.
Site News: Happy Birthday to me!
00:00: I, your faithful server and coding dude, will officially be 19 years of age as of 7:03am EST. Or, as us Unix people like to say, as of 961844580.
Therefore, I'm declaring this my day off...I hope ZD doesn't break:)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEEEEE, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME. And many mooooooooore...
6/23/2000
Translation News: DBZ Bugfix Releases
23:02: Both the recent Dragon Ball Z translations (Super-saiya-jin and Hyper Dimension) have been updated with bugfix versions. Thanks to Vimm for the news.
Download them from our SNES Translations page.
Emulator Release: AMAME/PMAME 0.37 beta 4
22:41: AMAME and PMAME have been updated to the same version as the latest official MAME. You can get them at the MAME page.
Misc. News: Backing up a Sega Dreamcast?
20:48: Rich Craig let us know that DC backups are now available. From the Lik-Sang newsletter:
Some clever persons have turned what seemed to be impossible, into reality. An Internet cracking group has released the first ever DC backup overnight.
Released was a special boot CD along with the game 'Dead or Alive 2'. The usage of playing the backup game is absolutely easy:
-Insert Boot CD into your DC and power on
-Wait until the program is loading
-Open the disc tray, exchange disc with backup and close again
-Game will be loaded automatically
We have tested the backup and it was running 100% on our Asian non-modded Dreamcast machine.
Preorders are being taken for the boot disc at Lik-Sang for US$14.90, and will begin shipping in early July. The site looks professional and legit, and accepts major credit cards.
Emulator Release: MESS for DOS updated to version 0.37b4
11:49: A new version of MESS - The Multi-Emulator Super System - has been released, and of course we've got it for you. Piping hot. The new supported system drivers include:
In addition, it's packing the following new features:
As always, the software is located in all its various flavors on its very own MESS page.
Media News: ZD listed in PC Data Online's top 10,000 US-visited sites
11:08: After receiving lots of mails about PC Data Online's site-listing statistics, I decided to finally look into it. PC Data Online is (in plain english) an independant company that surveys large groups of people acro
ss the United States and Canada to determine things such as website and product popularity.
The information that interested me was their list of the most popular 10,000 websites (domains) on the internet. They arrived at their data by keeping tabs on a large group of people (around 120,000) much the same way TV and cable ratings are generated. T
he results are highly accurate and make a lot of sense, such as Yahoo.com being #1, and microsoft.com being #5. Remember, however, that a site might rank higher than another but in reality, not get as many uniques in the real world. You should feel safe i
n knowing that if one site ranks higher than another, the average internet user is more likely to have been to the one site than the other.
I compiled a list of a few popular emulation, music, gaming and other such websites from their listings, and organized them by the rank that was given to them by PC Data Online. Remember - this is for people that visit websites in the United States for Ma
y, 2000. It's pretty interesting - ZD ranked at 3,575 of their most popular 10,000 websites, and look at who we outranked!
Chew on that, Dave Matthews! ;)
Thanks to all of the people that have been mailing in about this forever - I finally got the courage to look! Be sure to visit the site and subscribe - it's free for a week of statistics. Also, feel free to converse about this on our discussion message board.
Misc. News: New episode of Back in Time
09:19: Mike Stulir has posted a new version of Back in Time, a webcast for retrogaming, at his website. A brief description of the new webcast, from Mike himself:
The latest episode of the "Back In Time" webcast is now available, and it was recorded at the Twin Galaxies' "Classic Pinball & Video Game Championship." The tournament focuses on classic coin-op video games from the late 70's through the 80's. The
event took place June 1st through June 4th, 2000 at FunSpot in Weirs Beach, NH.
My co-host for this episode is Walter Day, founder of the Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard.
I have a number of great guests for this episode, and they are some of the "who's who" of classic coin-op video game players. My featured guests are Billy Mitchell & Chris Ayra, who are probably the two most famous video game players in the world. Also
joining me are Steve Krogman and Dwayne Richard. Bob Lawton, the owner of the incredible FunSpot arcade, spends a few minutes discussing the arcade business, and the changes in the arcade industry over the years.
I have also posted over 50 photos from the tournament.
Be sure to visit the Back in Time website for the new webcast.
Emulator News: Pasofami v1.3w4 changelist
09:12: Yesterday, I posted the new release of Pasofami, a NES emulator for Windows9x. We now have the full translated list of changes for v1.3w4! Here's what's new:
Thanks go out to Tomato for the translation. For those who haven't downloaded it yet, it's available at the NES emulators page.
Site News: New Favorite Icon!
08:53: Responses to the new Zophar's Domain logo have been overwhelmingly positive. Something like 98% of the e-mails were "lookin' good!" Thank you to everyone who took the time to let me know what you think.
I've started standardizing things, and the first (and obviously easiest) is the new Favorite Icon ico file that you can slap right in your start menu or Quick Launch bar! (Actually, you have to create a shortcut link and select
that as the icon, but I think you can all figure that out.) :D
Hit the message boards to discuss it.
Extreme gangsta-fonk repz to W1k for the suggestion.
Translation News: FF3 Bugfix
01:09: ManuLoewe has released another version of FF3 Bugfix, which fixes some known English grammar mistakes in the US version of Final Fantasy 3.
Get it now from our SNES Translations page.
Translation News: Dragonball Z: Hyper Dimension - 100%!!!!
01:03: jbtrunks of Dragonball Z Game Translations informed us that SS4Squall has completed his translation of DBZ: Hyper Dimension. BTW, SS4Squall is now a staff member at Dragonball Z Game Translations.
Pick up the 100% patch from our SNES Translations page.
Translation News: Columbus English Translation Updated
00:51: MegamanX updated his English translation of the NES Columbus game a while back, but it wasn't updated here. The latest version is 0.4, and here's what has changed:
Pick it up from our English Translations page.
Translation News: SMB 2 Fun Updated
00:32: Jazz411 has updated his Super Mario Brothers 2 hack. The latest patch is completed up to level 3-3.
Get it from our Hacks page.
6/22/2000
Emulator News: XGS/32 v1.6.4
20:14: XGS/32 is an Apple ][ GS emulator for Win9x, and it's been awhile since we updated it. To see whats new, check the docs.
The new official site for XGS/32 is xgs32.emucamp.com.
Check out our Apple 2 emulators. Kudos to Cat for the news.
Emulator Release: Past-O-Rama v0.01
19:59: A brand new SG1000 emulator has come into the world...Past-O-Rama. From the official site:
Past-O-Rama is a free Windows9X/DirectX based emulator for the Sega SG1000 system. It requires at least DirectX 5.0 For now, it's not really optimized, because it's nearly my first "serious" C program. I've started this because i'd like to improve my C
skills and to learn a bit more about the emulation process.
The emulation is not perfect, but the compatibily is quite high. For the few roms that i've tried (+-40), i get only troubles with :
Yamato ( slowdown : bad interrupt handling )
Exerion ( slowdown : bad interrupt handling )
Rock'n Bolt ( sprites priority but playable )
Safari hunting ( crash )
Sounds good. Get your very own copy from the SMS/GG emulators. Thanks to NeoZeed (the author) for the news.
Utility News: Nosefart v1.91
18:48: Nosefart, a popular NSF player, was updated a few days ago. Here's what's new:
Grab a copy from the NSF Players. Props to EFX for the news.
Utility Release: Super Jukebox v2.4
18:33: An excellent SPC player for Windows, Super Jukebox, has been updated. The only thing new in this version is the ability to run on Win machines with a shell32.dll less than version 4.71.
If you haven't noticed, the SJ official site is now superjukebox.zophar.net.
Grab a copy from the SPC Players. Thanks to Marius Fodor for the news.
Misc. News: Entire Unix section updated
18:32: I took a dig through all the pages in the Unix section today and uploaded the newest versions of the emulators and updated the pages.
You Unix people out there have got to help me and submit some Unix emulator news! Currently, the only emulator news have been submitted about for a long time is Little John, and I don't think that's everything that has been updated duin all that time for
some reason, hehe.
Anyway, check out the Unix section! All the newest versions of your favourite emulators should be up now! Do you see an emulator missing? Sumbit some news with links to its homepage, etc. and I'll add it. Enjoy!
Emulator Release: TRWin v2.34 WIP
18:16: TrueReality for Windows, an N64 emulator, has been updated to v2.34. Not many bug fixes, just minor stuff, such as the graphics of Duke Nukem.
Keep in mind you can find the latest .DAT files for TRWin at www.myzar.com.
Snag a copy from N64. Kudos to ZGuy for the heads up.
Misc. News: Snes9x Dev Journal Update
18:10: Gary updated the Snes9x Developers Journal a few days ago, and talked about NetPlay for S9x. He's currently looking for beta testers for it...if you're interested, visit www.snes9x.com.
Thanks to AJ for the news.
Utility Release: Meridian v0.32
18:08: Meridian, an NSF player, has been updated. Here's what's new:
Grab a copy from the NSF Players.
Misc. News: Follow-Up on Parental Supervision for VGs
07:28: The other day I posted about how they were going to pass a law in Indiana that required parental supervision to play violent video games. Well, here's the rest of the story:
(Indianapolis, IN) -- A proposal by Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson to limit the exposure of violent video games to children has unanimously passed the City-County Council's "Rules and Public Policy Committee". The measure would require businesses to
label coin-operated video games featuring graphic violence, or strong sexual content. It also prohibits children under age 18 from playing them without adult supervision. Violations would result in fines of 200-dollars per offense. If a business recei
ves three violations in one year, it would be forbidden to offer such games. The measure goes before the full City-County Council next month.
One simple phrase can probably sum up what most of us are thinking: "Uhh...what?"
The discussion continues on our message boards.
Site News: On the message boards, and a farewell...
05:35: Ever since Zophar's Domain opened its doors on November 9, 1996, there have been two things that have always been true. The first was a desire for communication. Even in the beginning when there was but one, I always wanted to put up some kind of 'message
board' system. I had been fond of the forums in various BBS software, and I loved going on the internet newsgroups after BBSs started dying out. In January of 1997, my vision came true when we added our very first message board. Dubbed "Zophar's Message
Domain", it ran Matt's (very buggy) WWWBoard script. Suffice it to say, I was 17 years old, had only run a site for 2 months and knew nothing about setting up a board, so how did we do it?
Alan Lanoie. Also known as Infe, he was the very first official staff member (Evilhomer technically was, but it was purely for layout) to Zophar's Domain. Responsible for things such as the very first ZD message board in 1997, and ev
en a redesign later that year, he was without a doubt the greatest staff member Zophar's Domain has ever known.
I promised that I wouldn't make a big deal over this, but heck, 3 1/2 years is a long time. It's on that note that we all say farewall to Alan as he moves on in life. He's now married and we realize what everyone realizes at some point - life goes on. Goo
dbye old friend, you'll be sorely missed.
Emulator Release: DreamNES 2000 Beta 3
05:06: A little over a week ago, a new beta of DreamNES 2000 was released to the public. We somehow managed to neglect it so we're choosing the 'better late than never' motif to live with ourselves. ;) Here's what's new in DreamNES 2000 Beta 3:
A big thanks to RaNMa for the news of this new release. You can download DreamNES 2000 Beta 3 from the NES emulators page.
Emulator Release: TRwin v2.33 WIP
04:45: A new Work-In-Progress release of Trwin (a popular N64 emulator for Windows9x) is now available. There isn't a list of changes at the present, so one should assume it's the usual round of bugfixes. Thanks to [NOAM] for informing us of this latest release.
You can download TRwin v2.33 WIP from the N64 emulators page.
Emulator Release: PowerMSX v0.07
04:30: There has been a new release of PowerMSX, an MSX emulator for DOS. The following is a list of changes present in PowerMSX v0.07:
Thanks to the MEP-Crew
for the news of this release. You can download PowerMSX v0.07 (and source) from the MSX emulators page.
Emulator Release: Pasofami v1.3w4
04:19: A new version of the timeless (japanese) NES emulator for Windows9x, Pasofami, has been released. Since the changelist isn't in the english language, we're counting on one of our visitors to drop us a line if anyone knows the ch
anges.
A big thanks to LordHunter from our General Emulator Board for the news about the latest release. (Yep, we DO read them!) You can download Pasofami v1.3w4
from the NES emulators page.
6/21/2000
Translation News: Zelda II Challenge Updated
21:53: x-4000 has released version 2.3.40 of his Zelda II patch. The numbering system is quite different, but here's what that means: The overworld for the first two sections of the game have been completed, as well as the first two palaces. Also, 40 non-overworld, non-palace areas of the game have been edited.
Pick up Zelda II Challenge at our Hacks page.
Misc. News: The X86 Still
18:40: Ok, so they banned alcohol on your college campus, or you're too young to drink and don't want to risk being tossed out. Problem? Nah. James Sharman has discovered how to create a still out of your PC by using the heat generated by the CPU, and the fan to cool it off. Check out the X86 Still page for instructions and pictures of the actual device.
Now you can store pure alcohol in tiny little bottles in your shoes, and break them out next time you have an Xmen vs. SF competition in your dorm:)
Thanks to Kuro5hin for the story.
Misc. News: Parody of Life
16:54: Recently, I've been working on a site on the side, which I've been making into my own little baby of sorts. I spent weeks trying to figure out exactly what I should do with the site, at http://www.parodyoflife.com/, and I finally had an inspiration about how I should go about this.
My idea bases itself around this:
I was looking at one of those cheesy personal sites the other day, and I kept thinking to myself how cheesy those looked. Their purpose as being useful ways to meet people has failed them.
I made something completely different, but still along the same lines. All you do, very simply, is take five minutes of your time, write whatever's on your mind, and submit it. (Call it a small "parody" of your life.) Then it gets posted online with your e-mail, other people view the parodies, and if someone likes what you write (seeing as that's all they have to go on), they can send you an e-mail. In other words, it's a way to meet people by revealing very little about yourself. (Not even sexes or ages.)
It's still a work-in-progress (in other words, the design sucks), but if anyone wants to help out with it, e-mail me with ideas.
Again, go check the page out at http://www.parodyoflife.com/.
Emulator Release: Apple II Oasis 2.4
16:09: Apple II Oasis, an Apple II emulator for Windows, has been updated to version 2.4. Here's what's new:
Apple II Emulator:
Apple II Disk (image) Manager:
You can download the shareware version from the Apple II Emulators page. To register costs 25 US dollars.
Site News: Vegas V. 0.94 Link Fixed
16:02: We'd like to apologize for the recent mess-up we made when we did the Vegas V. 0.94 update. The file for the V. 0.92 update was linked to instead of the new version. We'd like to apologize for this mistake, and we're happy to say that we fixed the problem.
As mentioned before, you can go pick up the latest version of Vegas on the Genesis Emulators page.
Site News: New Poll
14:52: Yep, I'm updating the poll again. Here are the results from that last poll:
What do you think about backup devices like the Game Station?
I own one, and I'm impressed. -- 264 votes, 10% of total vote.
I own one, and I got ripped off. -- 106 votes, 4% of total vote.
I think they're a great idea. -- 1136 votes, 44% of total vote.
They're bad ideas in general. -- 176 votes, 6% of total vote.
Who cares? -- 876 votes, 34% of total vote.
This poll was a lot more heated than many other recent polls we've had, with a number of heated arguments on both sides. Still, it wasn't the most popular topic, based on the huge "Who cares?" percentage.
Anyway,Here's the new poll question:
What's your favorite section of ZD?
Over the past few months, we've been making quite a few changes to the page, and we'd like to know what your favorite section of the site is.
You can vote on the sidebar if on the main page, or the poll is also available here if using the Lite version of ZD.
Site News: A new board maintainer
14:26: Hey all, your friendly anal0g controller here, with some new info. As you may have noticed, I have taken over the position of discussion board maintainer. As such, I'd just like to review the rules with everybody out there so we don't have any problems. This is just an abridged version of the rules.
Any violation of these rules will result in deletion of the thread and/or ban of the poster. Remember, the boards are simply a place to converse about emulation-related topics. Flames and other such lameness will not be tolerated.
That having been said, enjoy the boards!
Emulator Release: Vegas 0.94
10:31: Vegas, a SEGA Genesis and 32X emulator for Windows, has been updated to version 0.94. Here's what's new:
You can download it from the SEGA Genesis emulators page. Thanks to kbpun for the news!
Site News: New Logo and Title Graphic!
10:26: Do you like it?
As I'd pretty much resolved to do from the start, I've pixel-pushed a new design that we can use to identify the site. We think it'll be quite neat to have an established logo since we never really had one in the past. The new ZD figure is easy to draw, [etch into SUV windows, spraypaint on government buildings, etc] and even though Justin's previous logo was gorgeous, the new color scheme will be easier to match up with (cough) future (cough cough) renovations! It's originally an Illustrator EPS, so it's infinitely reusable.
Here's a sample implementation showing what it's capable of. (grin)
First up, I'm going to see about making us some new sectional header images - you know, the little banners at the top of the various pages - right now they aren't too homogenous. I need feedback, though, so please lay it on me. Also, head on over to our Message Boards and stir it on up! Love it? Hate it? Let the world know. THE POWER IS IN YOUR HANDS.
6/20/2000
Media News: Retrogaming Times Issue #34
20:21: A new issue of the old-school video game 'zine Retrogaming Times was recently posted online. Here's what you'll find in this issue of the mag:
You can go view the issue right here.
Much credit goes to Tom Zjaba for making a great 'zine.
Misc. News: Grandia 2 Video @ RPGFan
17:40: RPGFan has recently acquired a Grandia 2 video that shows the characters running around the game's environments and talking to eachother. The video also shows some of the monsters that appear in the game, a spell in close up action and you can also hear some background music.
Visit RPGFan and look at the Grandia 2 Video. Thanks to Nicole Kirk of RPGFan for the news!
Media News: Parental Supervision for Arcade Games
06:18: This came down on the wire just before I left work this morning:
(Indianapolis, IN) -- What could be the nation's first proposed city ordinance to clamp down on violent video games coud take a big step forward tonight. An Indianapolis City-County Council committee is expected to endorse the plan this evening, setting it up for a final vote in about a month. Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson's proposal would require youths to have parental supervision to play the most violent arcade games. Business would have to put specific labels on those games, if they haven't already. Peterson has pointed to recent school violence incidents as examples of how exposure to violence hurts the culture. But the video game industry has called the plan unconstitutional. A spokesman for the Mayor says the ordinance is undergoing some tweaking, so it can withstand a court challenge.
Anthony Swinger/crh
Feel free to discuss this on our message boards.
Misc. News: New Virus
06:12: Another Love Bug copycat virus is out...saw it in the paper this morning, then came online to find McAfee had released some stuff for it. From the McAfee web site:
IRC/Stages.worm is an Internet worm that began spreading rapidly on 6/19. McAfee AVERT has assessed it as a HIGH-risk threat. McAfee.com Clinic users who have used VirusScan Online later than 6/16 have the protection against this worm. The worm uses Microsoft Outlook to send copies of itself to all entries in the address book and through installations of Pirch, ICQ and mIRC.* It also spreads to all available mapped drives on your system.
This worm will arrive in an email message with this format:
Subject: "Funny", "Jokes", or "Life Stages", sometimes followed by "Text"
Content: "The male and female stages of life"
Attachment: "LIFE_STAGES.TXT.SHS" (the suffix ".SHS" may be hidden)
If the attachment is run, the user sees a list of jokes while the worm infects the system and attempts to send copies of itself to all addresses in Outlook address book, as well as through the other channels mentioned above.
Translation News: DragonballZ: Hyper Dimension - 40%
00:24: SS4Squall has updated his DragonballZ: Hyper Dimension patch to version 0.40. Thanks to Son Gokuu for the news.
Get it from our SNES Translations page.
Utility Release: Super Jukebox Updated to v2.3
00:04: Super Jukebox, Marius Fodor's fantastically flexible SPC player, has been incremented. New in this version:
Folks, it's hot, waiting, and ready. You need only click over to our SPC Players page. It's also worthwhile to note that Super Jukebox's homepage has recently moved to its own hosted subdomain. Update your bookmarks!
6/19/2000
Emulator Release: Virtual Gameboy 1.7
23:50: Marat Fayzullin has released version 1.7 of his Gameboy emulator (available on many platforms), Virtual Gameboy. Here's the list of changes:
Virtual Gameboy 1.7 is available for FreeBSD and Solaris, while the Windows9x version has been sent out to registered users. If you're interested in purchasing VGB v1.7 for Windows, head on over to the official page below.
Misc. News: Bungie Software purchased by Microsoft
21:25: This morning, Microsoft announced its purchase of Bungie Software, creators of excellent titles such as Myth and and the Marathon series for Macintosh. Financial details of the deal remain undisclosed.
As for the future of Bungie's upcoming titles, the Microsoft deal changes things a bit. Take 2 Software had a 19.9% stake in Bungie, and in return for the sale of their part of Bungie to Microsoft, Take 2 gets permanent rights to all titles in the Myth series and the rights to create future Myth games, and also rights to Oni, one of Bungie's upcoming releases. Microsoft will maintain the rights to Halo, the much-anticipated 3D shooter/adventure, and it appears that a planned PlayStation2 port of this game will not see the light. A quote from the Bungie web page says, responding to the question of a PS2 port, "We had considered doing one at some point, but this new development changes that."
AltaVista Tech has a full article on the deal.
Emulator News: VEGAS News
18:34: On the new VEGAS webpage there is some news about the progress of this Sega Genesis/32X emulator:
Well, I've finally created a web page! Let's start things off with some news on Vegas! Last night I found a huge bug in the 32X code. Combined with a few other bug fixes since the last release, I should have much better compatibility with the next release. Speaking of which, the next release of Vegas should be really soon. I'm trying to fix a few more incompatibilities first. If I can't fix them soon enough, I'll just go ahead and release it as is.
Go to the VEGAS homepage for more on this promising emulator.
Site News: TRWin 2.32 WIP
17:18: The WIP version of TRWin, a Nintendo 64 emulator for Windows, has been updated to version 2.32 WIP. I don't really know what is new, can't find the release notes. Anyway, I read that Diddy Kong Racing didn't run in this version. Not such a big loss anyway, hehe.
You can download it from the Nintendo 64 emulators page.
Emulator Release: DarcNES v9a0617
16:43: The source code of DarcNES, a multi console/computer emulato for various platforms, has been updated to v9a0617. Here's what's new:
You can download it from the DarcNES page, the NES emulators page or the NES emulators for Unix page.
Translation News: German Translation Page
16:36: With the addition of two new German translation groups, our German translation patches have increased to the point that they're getting their own page! If anyone is aware of any German (or any other language) patches that we don't have, please let us know.
Get the latest German patches from our German Translations page.
Frontend News: MSX Mania Brasil Frontend
15:10: The MEP-crew tells us that MSX Mania Brasil Frontend has been updated to version 0.4b. This frontend is for BrMSX, and here's what is new:
Download it from our MSX Frontends page.
Translation News: SMB2 Fun Updated
09:32: Jazz411 has updated his patch for Super Mario Brothers 2 (SMB2 Fun). It is about 33% done, and levels are changed up to 3-1.
Download it from our Hacks page.
Emulator Release: RockNES 1.080
07:53: Rocknes has been updated to 1.080. Here's what's new:
You can download it at our Nintendo Entertainment System section.
Emulator Release: Aquarius Emulator 1.0
07:37: Kenny Millar has released the first emulator for the short lived computer, the Mattel Aquarius.
You can download it at our Mattel Aquarius section.
Translation News: German Patches Galore
00:47: Tomy of G-Trans told me about their German translation site. Since we haven't had patches from that group before, there's a lot of updating to do. So far tonight, I've updated 12 SNES German translations of games like Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy 6. There are also NES, GB, and MegaDrive patches to update, so I'll put those up Monday afternoon.
If you can't wait until then, check out their page now at http://www.g-trans.de.
Translation News: DeJap website back up!
00:24: DeJap, a translation site currently working on a Tales of Phantasia patch, is back up. They haven't released a patch to the public yet, but their new website can be found at http://dejap.zsnes.com/.
Thanks to SirBurns for the news.
6/18/2000
Emulator Release: Basilisk II v. 0.7 build 130
17:38: Two new versions of the Mac emulator for Windows NT/2000, Basilisk II, have been released over the past couple of weeks, v. 0.7 builds 127 and 130. Here's what's new in each:
Win32 - 18.June.2000, build 130
Win32 - 09.June.2000, build 127
You can pick it up at the Macintosh Emulators page.
Site News: Visual Boy 1.4.2
14:56: Visual Boy has been updated to 1.4.2. Here's what's new:
You can download it at our Nintendo GameBoy section.
Translation News: Dragon Ball Z: LOTSS 100% Translation!
00:24: Dragon Ball Z Translations has gotten a new staff member, and he finished their English translation of Dragon Ball Z: Legend of the Super Saiyajin.
Download the 100% patch at our SNES Translations page.
6/17/2000
Utility Release: Meridian v0.3 Released
17:44: Version 0.26 was released a couple of days ago, and already there's an update! Thanks to Nakatsu for the news. Here's what is new in version 0.3:
Download it from our NSF Utilities page.
Misc. News: Homebrewn console-style games
17:35: The Constable told us about a page of Homebrewn Javascript games. I've played a few of them, and they're not bad...
You can find them at http://plaza.harmonix.ne.jp/~jimmeans.
Translation News: Dragon Ball Z: Hyper Dimension
17:15: Two different translation groups have released English translation patches for Dragon Ball Z:Hyper Dimension.
SS4Squall has released a 35% complete translation patch.
Dragon Ball Z Translations has also released a patch that is estimated at 10% complete. They also have the following games in progress:
Download both of the patches from our SNES Translations page.
Site News: TGB 0.1AX
16:08: TGB, a GameBoy emulator for Windows, has been updated to 0.1AX. This version is now available with either a Japanese or an English GUI.
You can download it at the Nintendo GameBoy section.
Emulator Release: Basilisk II v0.8-1 Released
15:35: Basilisk II, a Macintosh emulator for Linux (which has been ported to BeOS, Unix, AmigoOS, and Windows NT) has been updated to version 0.8-1. There have been many changes since the last release, so check out what's new here:Change Log.
You can download the latest version from our Macintosh Emulators for Unix page.
Translation News: FF3 German and FF3 Bugfix
15:19: ManuLoewe of Alemanic Translations has released a German translation patch for Final Fantasy 3 (US). According to ManuLoewe, the patch is about 23% complete.
He has also made a bugfix for the normal English version of Final Fantasy 3. It corrects a few spelling and grammar mistakes left over in the original translation.
Download both of these patches at our SNES Translations page.
Emulator Release: Gens 0.73
15:05: The Windows version of Gens, a SEGA Genesis emulator, has been updated to version 0.73. Here's what's new:
You can download it from the SEGA Genesis emulators page. Thanks to Electro Punk for the news!
Misc. News: Yet another Unofficial Chrono Trigger 2
15:03: Gangis (formerly Apocalypz) is heading up a team to make an Unofficial Chrono Trigger 2. This one is going to be for the PC, and it too will be freeware. It's still in the works, but you can check out their page at http://chrono.ztnet.com/.
Links Update: Looking good
13:21: If you've been watching the links pages over the last few days, you'll notice something: I took the stars out, rewrote most of the descriptions, took the stars out, and made the section look, for the most part, like the rest of ZD. Right now I'm in the process of visiting 40-some sites and writing descriptions, which will be uploaded sometime over the next week. Thanks for being patient with me, faithful visitors of ZD. If you haven't looked into the links section, why not do it now?
Site News: Change of plans...
01:03: Due to incompetance at Level3, the moving has been postponed until Monday June 19th. Expect some downtime then.
Misc. News: Unofficial Chrono Trigger n64
00:54: According to ZDNet, a group of programmers are developing an unofficial Chrono Trigger game for the N64. The ROM file will be distributed, so you can use it on your favorite N64 emu. Check out the page at ZDNet.
Thanks to DCX for telling us about this project!
6/16/2000
Site News: Power64 2.8 for Macintosh
19:26: Power64, the excellent Commodore 64 emulator for the Macintosh, has been updated to 2.8.
You can download it at the Commodore 64 for Macintosh page.
Emulator Release: DBOY 0.62
18:19: DBOY, a Gameboy/Super Gameboy/Gameboy Color emulator for DOS, has been updated to version 0.62. I can't translate the what's new list, but there's something new with PSG sound support, something new with SEGA-IF support and something with the DMA has been updated.
You can download it from the Gameboy emulators page. Thanks to Silver X for the news!
Translation News: SMB2 Discombobulator Updated
15:16: The SMB2 Discombobulator has been updated to v.95. Here's what is new, according to the readme:
Download it from our Translation Utilities page.
Site News: Downtime
05:28: Expect some down time later on today as our host, ZTNet, moves to a new location....better bandwidth and better routing. With this, we'll also get a new IP. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes for the IP to filter through (unless your ISP overrides the cache time limit we set), so we should be back in an hour or so after we go down.
Bye bye Verio, and hello Level3!
6/15/2000
Frontend News: QDBoy released in English
23:33: ^BDFM^ has released an English version of QDBoy for those of you English speakers out there. The version number is 0.7b-e, and an English version will be released with v0.8b when it comes out soon. I'll keep you updated.
Download the English version at our Gameboy Frontends page.
Emulator Release: MAME v0.37 Beta 4
19:24: Just saw on Retrogames that a new MAME is out. Here's the changes:
Graphics:
Sound:
New games:
New clones:
Also, those of you who port MAME or compile your own copy, make sure you check out the official MAME site and pick up a new copy of SEAL.
You can find MAME on the Multi-Arcade page.
Emulator Release: Little John New Generation 0.2 beta for Linux
15:42: The Linux version of Little John New Generation, a NES and SNES emulator, has been updated to version 0.2 beta. This one is only for testing purpouses as it might have some bugs, but feel free to try it out and report them. Here's what's new:
You can download it from the NES emulators for Unix page. Thanks to Yoyo for the news!
Utility Release: Meridian NSF Player v0.26
11:02: As we hardcore NES zealots know, there're no new tricks you can pull in an NSF player, right? Wrong. Some more conservative folks might cringe at this prospect, but this slick, skinnable player by Jason Cline separates NSF channels into stereo. It's a neat trick, and in many cases provides an interesting separation; I will be the first to say that its effect on the TMNT 1 soundtrack is dazzling. Here's the lowdown:
Grab it at the NSF Players page and, as always, stop by our mind-numbingly complete NSF music section.
Utility Release: BGMapper v0.176
10:57: Remember seeing those big level maps in Nintendo Power as a kid, and wondering HOW they DID THAT? Did they sit there with a camera and go "Okay, I think Mario moved a whole screen, quick, snap a shot!" Well, If they were doing it today, and for SNES games, they'd use this great tool by (:Peekin:). It allows you to load ZSNES Save States and view the cached background tiles, and export them. It doesn't have a "Publish to Magazine" option, though, so some of the work must still be done the hard way. Here are things he's changed since the previous version:
Get it from our SNES Utilities section, and you too can be a Power Player!
Utility Release: PSMPlay Public Test - v0.4.6/12
10:51: There really aren't many tools available with a more comprehensive featureset for Playstation media viewing/playing. Segu's program lets you examine and convert video, audio, and image files in popular Playstation-readable formats, and analyzes PSX CD-Roms to find and categorize these files. It's skinnable, and has generous documentation, if a bit cryptic. A few of the new additions include:
A more inclusive revision history is outlined on the author's site - The download's available on our Playstation Utilities page. Collective 'big-ups' to Powerlord and Morpheus for the information.
Utility Release: NESToy32 Updated to v1.1
10:47: NES rom utilities might be ubiquitous, but NES rom utilities with a clean interface and a bunch of configuration options are much less common. This gem works with .NES format roms, and will find, repair, and rename games according to your specifications.
You can find it at the NES Utilities page. Two enthusiastic thumbs up to Quietust for the reference.
6/14/2000
Translation News: DQ5 Status Update
19:48: Partial Updates has updated their page with the status of their Dragon Quest 5 translation. It talks in depth about the problems that they're running into. Bottom line: We're just going to have to wait.
To read the news, visit Partial Updates at http://tcowen.com/pt/. Thanks to Jamie Spencer for the info on the page update.
Media News: Playstation 2.....cancelled?
16:19: It seems as though someone thought it would be funny to announce that PS2 was cancelled, Japanese units recalled, and turned into low end DVD players.
If you're bored and want to chuckle, check out the fake story (my favorite part is where he yells "those jaggies suck", and how there "wasn't a dry eye in the house"):
Thanks to T-Spanks and Mike Schultz for the tip.
Misc. News: Digital Relicts
16:16: If you are you a fan of the Genesis, Atari Lynx, and the PC Engine, then you have to check out Digital Relicts. They have tons of reviews and screenshots for these systems.
Emulator Release: Gens 0.72
16:12: Gens 0.72 has been released. Here's what's new:
You can download it from our Sega Genesis section.
Translation News: DBZ Game Translations co-maintainer needed
00:18: DBZ Game Translations is in need of a co-maintainer for their site (http://dbztrans.nethop.com.)
Please send applications to jbhnrh@hotmail.com.
6/13/2000
Emulator Release: Dboy 0.61a
18:12: Dboy has been updated to 0.61a. Here's what's new:
You can download it at the Gameboy section.
Site News: QDBoy readme translated
12:12: FlySwat has translated the QDBoy readme from Pourtegese to English, and here it is:
QDBoy!
Made in Qbasic 1.1
I Do not have much to say:
*** Some ROM's such as POKEMON, have modified CRC, and therefore in the OPTIONS|SETUP area verification of the CRC must be disabled.
*** If two roms exist with the same name name such as POKEMON.GB and POKEMON.GBC then the GB one will be defaulted if not specified and the SAV will be used for both.
*** When leaving DBoy and returning to QDBoy all options will be reset except for Path.
Thanks to FlySwat for the translation!
Translation News: Strange Mario Brothers 2 Updated
00:03: As the name implies, Strange Mario Brothers 2 is a hack for SMB 2. Here is what's new:
Get it at our Hacks page.
6/12/2000
Frontend News: QDBoy versions .7b and .7b-r
23:55: QDBoy is a frontend for DBoy written in QBasic. This frontend is in Portuguese, so I have no idea what's new. If anyone wants to try and translate, feel free to e-mail me...
If you speak Portuguese (or just want a Portuguese frontend), get QDBoy at our Gameboy Frontends page.
Emulator Release: Pretendo 0.20
22:32: Pretendo 0.20 has been released. Here's what's new:
You can download it from our NES section.
Emulator Release: 1964 0.4.9
22:26: 1964 0.4.9 has been released. Here's what's new:
There are two executibles. 1964dynarec.exe is faster but not as compatible.
You can download it at our Nintendo 64 section.
Links Update: Updated descriptions and goodbye stars, goodbye.
18:57: Well, after a weekend of intense goofing off, I got the first page of the links section updated completely to my own personal standards, and hopefully made it all a little easier on the majority of ZD visitors to pick out somethi
ng useful. I'm at school again, which means all the new links are at home, as, silly me, I forgot to bring them with me. As the title says, I took the overwhelming (and somewhat odd) response as a clue to get rid of the stars. I'll go back and add them
and get another page updated in the morning. For now, though, it's off to class. In the mean time, enjoy the General Emulations Pages section.
Contact ZD
Misc. News: Contest at TwistedGaming.com!
18:01: Tsengrei has started a little contest over at TwistedGaming.com! The task you have to undertake is to recognize small pictures from 16 different games, and the prize is a whopping $20, hehe.
Check out TwistedGaming.com for more info and to submit your answers!
Emulator Release: Neko Project II 0.14
17:46: Neko Project II, a PC-98 emulator for Windows, has been updated to version 0.14. Here's what's new:
You can download it from the PC-98 emulators page.
Emulator News: Clarification on Corn 0.30
17:19: A number of weeks ago, Corn (an N64 emulator for Windows) was updated to v0.30. We posted the file and news up on ZD but it was later determined that the file was a leaked beta. (This was confusing, since Corn v0.30 was actually on the official Corn page!
)
However, the rather cryptic message on the official website didn't seem to give much info as to whether or not the author wanted v0.30 removed or not. We never did receive word from the author what to do, and therefore decided that the right thing to do w
ould be to remove it and replace it with Corn 0.29, the release before v0.30.
It has always been ZD's policy to never post leaked betas, and the fact that the leak was actually put on the official page is what confused so many webmasters. I hope this clears everything up.
Emulator Release: Jamicom v0.1 build 000606
17:08: In addition to the recent Javanese release, Brice Fines has also made the new build of Jamicom available as well. There's no list of changes in Jamicom v0.1 build 000606, so let's go straight to the download.
Jamicom v0.1 build 000606 can be downloaded from the NES emulators for JAVA page.
Emulator Release: Javanese 0.2005
16:58: Brice Fines has released v0.2005 of his NES emulator for JAVA, Javanese. Here's the list of changes in this latest build:
Brice also said the following information about the new version:
WARNING !! WARNING !! i changed the keys : S,D,F,G. This way querty and azerty keyboards will be the same. If you like this version, let me know. If you know how to execute .class without JDK (i.e. with only JRE) please let me know. I just tried this v
ersion with JDK 1.3 beta (Sun) under Linux, it is faster than JDK 1.2.2 (Sun) (including with a JIT), but it is still unplayable for me (it seems there is a keyboard buffer problem.) The todo list is quite big (contributions are still welcome): synchroni
ze cpu code with mame/mess 0.37 beta 3, add more features (color emphasis,...), add more mappers, change palette, add more and more things... The emu is a bit slower now, but it is still playable (frameskip 0).
You can download Javanese 0.2005 from the NES emulators for JAVA page.
Emulator Release: RockNES 1.070
16:48: A new version of RockNES, a NES emulator for DOS, has been released. Here's what's new in v1.070:
Thanks to MDMaster for the news of the new release. You can download RockNES 1.070 from the NES emulators page.
6/11/2000
Translation News: Super Mario Brothers 2 Fun
21:13: Jazz 411 has released a patch that he made for Super Mario Brothers 2. Basically, the character attributes are changed around, making it very different. For instance, Luigi jumps high like usual, unless he's carrying something. Then, he can't jump hardly at all... it's very challenging to say the least.
Pick it up from our Hacks page.
Emulator Release: DBoy 0.61
12:04: DBoy, the Gameboy Color emulator for MS-DOS, has been updated to version 0.61. However, the docs are in Japanese, so I can't tell you what's new.
Grab it on the Gameboy page.
Site News: Hu-Go! 1.25
06:38: Hu-Go! has been updated to 1.25. Here's what's new:
You can download it at the TurboGrafx-16 section.
Site News: FCE Ultra 0.21
06:36: FCE Ultra has been updated to 0.21. This is a bugfix release that fixes the problems with inserting coins in VS Unisystem games.
You can download it at the NES section.
Misc. News: SNK closes in Europe and USA
06:33: SNK is closing up it's US and European markets as of this coming Monday. They are recalling all of their Neo Geo Pocket Color, Neo Geo, Dreamcast, and Playstation products in these regions, as well as cancelling any new products that were scheduled to arrive in the US and Europe. This is rather odd considering SNK's presence at E3 2000.
You can read the entire article at IGN Pocket.
Misc. News: BeOS 5.01
06:27: BeOS 5, the excellent Operating system that is free for personal use, has been updated to 5.01.
There are alot of changes in this version - most notably, the increased hardware compatability and the improved network interface.
You can view what's new here, and download it at the BeOS 5 Personal Edition homepage.
Emulator Release: Mimic 1.01
06:23: Mimic has been updated to 1.01. Here's what's new:
You can download it at the Multiple Arcade section.
Emulator Release: SMS Plus for Macintosh 0.9.2
06:22: SMS Plus for Mac has been updated to 0.9.2. It is now in line with DOS SMS Plus.
You can download it at the Mastersystem for Macintosh page.
6/10/2000
Misc. News: Corn fixed
14:39: After several weeks of confusion, ZD has decided to remove the Corn 0.3 leaked beta, and it has been replaced with Corn 0.29, which was released by ContraSF before he left on his internship.
Grab it on the N64 page.
Misc. News: Video Game Museum surpasses 7,000 games
14:36: The Video Game Museum has surpassed seven thousand games in it's library, making a total of more than fifteen thousand screenshots! Congratulations to the VG Museum team on this.
Check out the Video Game Museum.
Misc. News: Interesting site...
00:48: Next time you get bored, check out www.bogbeast.com. No real content, but the Flash stuff they have there is very funny. Fatty Big-Eye is my favorite (he supposedly came from "Swamp Gas"...no relation to me).
Kudos to my girlfriend's mother for giving me the URL...and I thought *I* had a weird family.
6/9/2000
Emulator Release: SMS Plus 0.9.2.1
19:37: The Windows version of SMS Plus, a Sega Master System emulator, has been updated to version 0.9.2.1. Here's what's new:
You can download it from the Sega Master System/Game Gear Emulators page.
Emulator Release: iNES v1.2
18:59: Marat Fayzullin has released the long awaited update to his timeless NES emulator for Windows, iNES, to registered users. Here's the list of changes in iNES v1.2:
Marat also had the following statement regarding piracy of his emulator:
Support iNES development by registering the Windows version, not stealing it. The delay with this new version of iNES has been largely influenced by the fact that many users preferred to steal my work and then defame my name, which apparently makes them feel better (I noticed that most rabid critics tend to be people who actively pirate iNES and other programs of mine).
Registered users of iNES will receive an e-mail within the next few days with the new version. For those who are interested in registering, check out the official page at the link below.
Site News: And the 9,000,000th visitor to ZD is...
18:52: Matthew Fern! He became the nine millionth visitor to Zophar's Domain at around noon. His name will go down in history along with all the other landmark hits that ZD has surpassed over the years.
I'd also like to thank everyone for not submitting false pictures. This time around, we only received one - from a "Kris Fredrick". Remember - we can tell if your screenshot is a fraud. Thanks to everyone for visiting ZD, and you can be sure that we'll be around for many more years to come!
Emulator Release: Gens v 0.7
14:50: Stephane Dallongeville has updated Gens, a Genesis emulator for Windows9x, to 0.7. New in this release:
Download it at the Genesis page.
Emulator News: Corn to be resumed in a few months
07:04: Sakimori sent Zophar's Domain word that he happened upon the official Corn page (or what's left of it) and found the following information:
ContaSF reports that his internship is going very well and he is having lots of fun. He will be back in 3 months and he sends word that he will continue Corn then. I will try to find a backup of his homepage soon.
For those who have not kept up with N64 emulation, Corn is a highly optimized N64 emulator for Windows whose future was in doubt until now. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best! In the meantime, you can download the latest Corn version from our N64 emulators page.
Emulator Release: FPSE v0.07
06:52: A new release of FPSE (an open-source Sony Playstation emulator for Windows9x) is now available. Here's the changelist, in somewhat broken english, for FPSE v0.07:
You can download FPSE v0.7 from the Sony Playstation emulators page. Thanks to Skates of EmuSphere for the word.
Emulator Release: 1964 v0.4.8
06:42: A new version of 1964, an open-source N64 emulator for Windows9x, has been released. Here's what's new in 1964 v0.4.8:
You can download 1964 v0.4.8 from the N64 emulators page. Thanks to Peter Dalton of EmuHQ for the news.
Site News: 9,000,000 soon...
02:59: We'll be hitting our 9,000,000th smack on the counter very soon. If you're the 9,000,000th visitor, take a screenshot of the entire screen with the counter in it, zip it up and send it to myself. You'll get a nice mention on the main page and maybe something else, if I come up with a fresh idea. :)
And remember - no fake pictures! I'll know, and you will be smitten for it.
Emulator News: Clarification on NESten's new "CRC-check" feature
02:51: Lots of buzz has been going around many major emulation sites on the net about new features in the next version of NESten, which will be released very soon. One of these new features was reported to be "bypassing the mappers" and "emulating CRC", or something similar. Unfortunately, wherever the news originated, someone threw a few incorrect words here or there around.
The new feature is as follows: NESten will no longer read the iNES 16 byte header at the top of every .NES ROM out there. Instead, it will use the database from NEStoy, a NES utility (available at our NES utilities page) that checks all the NES ROMs in a directory, sorts them and lists their names. It basically will check the ROM's CRC, and use that information to determine information such as mapper, mirroring and save RAM flagging.
What does this mean for you? Well, if you have corrupt ROMs, at least you'll know it now. :) Also, if your header is incorrect it won't matter - NESten will bypass it. This feature can be disabled, however - and will be in the new version of NESten.
Pass the word around and remember - you read it at ZD first! :)
6/8/2000
Translation News: Western Kids 25%
23:43: Ice Translations has released a translation of Western Kids for the NES that is 25% complete.
Get it from our Translations page.
Frontend News: OpenSPC Loader 1.01
23:26: OpenSPC Loader has been updated to 1.01. Here's what's new in this version:
Get it at our SPC Frontends page.
Media News: Article on Homebrewn Games
13:44: Gamespot ran an article on homebrewn games a while back. It's an interesting article called "New Blood for Orphaned Systems". I recommend it to anyone interested in homebrewn or homebrewing games.
You can read it at Gamespot's homepage.
Thanks to Bytoro for the news.
Misc. News: Sony unveils "PS one"
13:31: At a news conference today in Japan, Sony Computer Entertainment revealed the newest incarnation of it's aging Playstation system, the PS one. The PS one is a portable version of the current Playstation, with a much smaller design (the PS one is about one-third the size of a Playstation), an optional 4 inch LCD screen that hooks to the back of the system, and also an optional adapter for mobile phones, which will also be compatible with the PS2.
The PS one will be released on July 7th in Japan, and in September in the US, to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the original Playstation. The LCD screen will be availiable in the spring, and the mobile phone adapter available for all Playstation family consoles this winter in Japan (no US date has been hinted at yet).
Get more PS one fix at your local psx.ign.com dealer.
Misc. News: Clarification on Microsoft breakup
07:46: Yesterday, senior reporter Sam Michaels posted the breaking news about the Microsoft anti-trust decision. However, I feel that I should clarify the actuality of the decision so people don't get confused.
Microsoft has *not* been broken into two companies yet. The judge ruled that Microsoft was to submit a plan within four months that would break them up into two seperate companies - one for the OS, and one for the remainder of their holdings. Needless to say, we're still a while away from four months, and with the expected appeals it may take over a year or more before this is settled. Once again, Microsoft is still Microsoft until/unless the appeals are all rejected and the plan is submitted to the government.
I know this not only from the many e-mails we received on the post, but because at about 4:30pm EST yesterday, I stepped out of the shower to the sounds of "Breaking News! A judge has just ruled that Microsoft is to be split into two companies within four months" on NBC. There you go! :)
Site News: Emulators, a PC Gamer BBS connection & more!
07:41: Yo!
I had a great vacation down at Ocean City, New Jersey. Lots of crazy and exciting things happened, most of which I can't mention here to protect the guilty. It's been a few days since I returned, and let me tell you: severe sunburn around the neck and ear area is even more painful when you start shedding skin. Ouch...
But other than my peel-a-potato neck area (and equipped with the knowledge that no-name brand sunblock is a bad thing), I had a great time. I spent some of Tuesday and Wednesday smashing through the hundreds of e-mails that had been festering in my box since March of 2000, when morale was not at its highest. Needless to say, I'm down to 205 emails and have replied to most of you. If you still haven't received a reply, don't worry - we're almost there!
I received the new PC Gamer the other day and came across one of the funniest displays of goof-ups you'll ever see from a professional magazine. Ever hear of the game "Alone in the Dark?" Great 3D (for the time anyway) adventure game where you play as a guy (or girl) going through the house - The mission? Escape and win... except that it looks like the PC Gamer editor escaped too early. In the PC Gamer CD for July, Alone in the Dark is one of the 12 classic full games it comes with. However, they should have checked their distribution - look at an excerpt from one of the files...
ma&pa.bbs: This program is brought to you with the blessings of Rusty n Edie's BBS and it's Users. We have the largest collection of Public Domain Software and the largest collection of Adult GIFS & Programs
... and it goes on. Someone forgot to remove the old BBS tag from the zip file - whee! if you thought emulation sites could be unprofessional, sheesh...
Remember folks - keep sending in those news submissions and mails. It's what keeps the news flowing. Keep on visiting us, because that's the best way you can support us.
Thanks for visiting ZD!
6/7/2000
Translation News: Translhextion Updated
20:48: Translhextion was updated by Januschan to version 1.4. There are a LOT of new things, so here they are:
A more complete list can be found in the README.TXT included in the zipfile. Download it at our Translation Utility page.
Frontend News: ZSPCfe Updated
20:37: SephirothBCH has released version 1.03j of his frontend to SPCPlay. Here's what's new:
Download the frontend at our SPC Frontends page.
Misc. News: Microsoft Now 2 Companies
17:24: It's official. Microsoft has been broken up into 2 companies. One for applications (Office, Internet Explorer), and one for the operating system (Win98/NT).
Of course they're going to appeal, so it's not like anything is going to be done immediately...and they could always go to Canada:)
Misc. News: WinAmp v2.64
16:17: Well, just a few days after I posted about v2.63, a new Winamp has been released...in this release:
The official Winamp site hasn't been updated at the time of this posting, so I'll provide you with the Netscape mirror.
Misc. News: Diablo 2 Goes Gold
15:59: Some friends on IRC pointed me to a press release stating Diablo 2 has gone gold, and is scheduled for release later on this month.
Utility Release: SPCPlay v0.700
15:47: The ZSNES team has released a new version of their SPC player, SPCPlay. Here's what's new:
Grab a copy from the SPC Players. Kudos to BraK for the news.
Emulator News: Callus 95 v0.42 Patch 2.1
15:14: The CPS2 team has released patch 2.1. Here's what's new:
Links Update: Didn't think I'd EVER get this done.
15:03: Well, all five of the links pages have been purged. No more should you find 404's, "we've moved" messages, or "we're closing" messages. What you will still find (for a couple of days, anyway) is out-of-date descriptions and those nasty star ratings.
In the last few days I've gotten 23-8 against keeping the star ratings. That's the kind of definitive opinion that I asked for last week when I came on as a ZD staffer. Thanks to everyone who wrote in with their POV on the topic. :)
What I'll be doing for a couple days is going through and writing more helpful (hopefully) and more objective (definitely) website summaries/descriptions. I've also got 40-some (!) new links to add. I haven't had a chance to respond to everyone who sent me a link, but I've got them all.
Sorry this has taken so long, but the good news is that it'll be fixed right around the corner. Thanks to all of ZD's many fans for their patience with this new staffer. :)
6/6/2000
Misc. News: The first of Square's Big Three for 2000 arrives in stores
22:16: The Legend of Mana, the highly awaited sequel to Seiken Denetsu 3, has been released today. This is the first of Square's Big Three planned releases this year (Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy IX are the other two). From what I've seen of this game, it takes Seiken Denetsu 3 and just blows it through the roof. In any case, it looks like a good buy.
Get more info at your friendly RPGamer.
Emulator Release: Raine v0.28h
19:02: I saw over on GeoShock that a new unofficial Raine is out. What's new:
Snag a copy from the Multi-Arcade page.
Emulator Release: Handy v0.73
18:55: A new version of the Atari Lynx emulator Handy is out. Here's what's new in v0.73:
Grab a copy from the Atari Lynx page.
Utility News: Super Jukebox - Correction
16:59: I woke up this morning, and the first thing that ran through my mind was "OH NO! I've broken the Super Jukebox Links!" This is doubly important; for one, it is proof positive that I need to get out more often. However, it also indicates my loyalty to bringing you accurate posts!
Sure enough, I received a great many e-mails on the subject - enough to warrant this somewhat unorthodox post on its status. Thank you to all involved.
Gentlemen, the links are now working. Stop reading this, and start downloading. Again, our SPC Utilities page, and the official SJ Page.
Misc. News: Got questions?
14:48: You a newbie to emulation, or maybe someone who just needs to know something? If you've ever submitted a question through our news submitter, I'm sure you're still sitting there waiting for a reply...
We're working on a new project, and the details are still a little fuzzy at the moment, so I'll just be brief. Follow the link at the bottom of this post and type in a question you'd like answered, such as "Where can I download roms?", or "How do I compile MAME?", and help us build a database of questions, so we can see what the most frequently asked questions are.
Sure, ZD has attempted a FAQ before, but it really didn't get anywhere because we never had asked what you guys want to know. Well, a FAQ would be nice, but this new project is taking it a step further. Please enter in a few things you'd like answered. Your help and maturity is appreciated.
Site News: Pretendo BeOS 0.10a
14:37: Pretendo 0.10 Alpha has been ported to BeOS. The code is the same, more or less, as from the Windows port. Some features are missing that were in the Windows port, but the author states they will be added.
You can download this at the BeOS Console Emulators section.
Emulator Release: MESS 0.37 Beta 3 for Macintosh
14:32: MESS for Macintosh has been updated to 0.37 Beta 3. It is now in-sync with the latest version of MESS.
You can download it at the MESS for Macintosh section.
Emulator Release: French MacMAME 0.37 Beta 3
14:30: Marc Vielfaure has updated his French Translation of MacMAME to 0.37 Beta 3. It is now in-sync with the latest version of MacMAME.
You can download it at the Multi-Arcade for Macintosh section.
Misc. News: Phone Bashing
12:14: Ok, ripping news from elsewhere is frowned upon, but this is too hilarious...from Retrogames:
Imagine you're making a call on the streets using your cellphone. Yes, you're being obnoxious and loud, but hey, it's your right ... or something. Then these 2 guys dressed like cellphones step up to you, take your phone and SMASH AND STOMP YOUR PHONE INTO A BAZILLION PIECES!! But that's not all, they also tape it and put it on the internet for EVERYONE to see! It's real and it's phonebashing.com, thanks to *Michiel* (USENET) for the link. - atila
I laughed so hard I cried...
Utility Release: SMB2 Discombobulator Update
10:26: This is an update from May, before I was a staff member (just catching up)... A new version of SMB2 Discombobulator has been released. Here's what was new:
Pick it up at our Translation Utility page.
Utility Release: Super Jukebox Updated to v2.2
07:00: Super Jukebox is an SPC player hosted by Zophar's Domain - and there's no coincidence that it's of the highest calibre. In its most recent incarnation, author Marius Fodor has changed the program as follows:
You can find it at our SPC Players page - In addition, check out the software's official page here at ZD.
Emulator Release: RAZE Updated to v1.03
06:26: The "Little CPU Core that Could," RAZE is a tiny bit slower but a lot more determined; It has an outstandingly complete featureset. The author, Richard Mitton, has made the following changes in v1.03:
You can pick up your copy of RAZE at our Z80 Emulators page.
Utility News: Xtended SPC Player Update Bulletin
04:12: It has come to my attention that a new version of XSPC was released about two weeks ago; we did not post it, for one reason or another. Now, due to a serious bug in the program, the file has been removed for revision. However, you can visit the project's official page for more information.
I apologize for our delay in reporting this news; We will be posting the file as soon as it becomes available - count on it.
In the meantime, if you're still itching to play those shiny new SPC Files, we do have a very comprehensive library of other SPC Players.
Utility Release: FF7 Save Game Converter Updated to v1.2.1
02:48: If there is a single person in charge of granting Final Fantasy 7 Save Game Conversion wishes, that person is CaitSith. The new version of his fine utility adds the capability to write to empty PSX save slots, and overwrite existing PSX saves. Also added are extensions for each memory card type. This is *the* FF7 Save Game conversion tool.
Get it, once again, from our General Utilities page.
Utility Release: NSFTen v0.1
01:20: Are you an NSF fanatic? Do you eat, and breathe, and sleep square waves? Do you have the tenacity to browse through our extensive NSF Music Archive? If so, you will be extremely excited about NSFTen, a brand new NSF plugin for Winamp, written by TNSe. It packs a high degree of accuracy, and has an attractive interface.
Get it at our NSF Players page.
Translation News: FF6j Translation Beta 7
00:26: Sky Render Translations has updated their FF6j translation to Beta 7.
What's new (according to Sky Render, the author):
The main difference is that the menu font is different, the main font is no longer fixed width, and there's nothing I know of that needs to be translated outside of the script and battle script.
Get it from our SNES Translations page.
Translation News: Updated Rom Hack
00:18: A while back, Legend of the Blob Brothers 2 (a SMB 2 hack) was updated, but wasn't posted. This hack is a demo version, so the game loops back around to 1-1 after 1-3 is cleared.
Grab it while it's hot at our Hacks page.
Utility Release: PCEToy32 v1.0
00:18: A new TurboGrafx16 tool has been released. PCEToy is an all-in-one solution - It incorporates organization and naming features, for quick list-matching and uniform renaming. It also facilitates decryption of USA/foreign roms, and size-fixing and repair of overdumped and hacked roms.
Get it at our TurboGrafx/PC Engine Utilities Utilities page. Thanks to Skates of Emusphere for the news!
Frontend News: New SPCPlay Frontend
00:00: SephirothBCH has released a new frontend for SPCPlay .600+ called ZSPCfe.
Download it from our SPC Frontends page.
6/5/2000
Translation News: Dragon Ball Z Translations
23:47: There is a site that is doing Dragon Ball Z translations. They are looking for someone to help with DBZ: Legend of the Super Saiayjin.
Check out their page at http://dbztrans.nethop.com/
Emulator Release: FCE Ultra 0.21
22:39: FCE Ultra, an NES emulator for DOS, has been updated to version 0.21. Here's what's new:
Grab it on the NES Emulators for Dos/Win9x page.
Misc. News: RAINE site back up
22:24: The RAINE website has been put back online, with a new look. While the website still states that there will be no more development on RAINE, it is nice to see that the RAINE team hasn't turned their backs on the emulation community completely.
Check out the new RAINE homepage at it's old URL, www.rainemu.com.
Translation News: Rom Hacker/Translator Needed
20:24: Zoycite has decided to try and translate Double Moon Densetsu for the NES. He's looking for rom hackers/translators to help.
Drop him a line at AlexLunr@hotmail.com
Translation News: New FF6j Translation
20:16: Sky Render Translations is working on a patch for Final Fantasy 6j. In case you didn't know, Final Fantasy 6j made its appearance as Final Fantasy 3 in the US. There are some key differences in the versions however... For instance, the Japanese version is much more difficult. According to Sky Render, this patch is about 25-45% complete.
Get it at our SNES Translations page.
Misc. News: Omar has a home
16:53: I think I'm the only new staffer to take advantage of being able to put a personal homepage on ZD. I took it from its original spot and put it up here, and while it's unaltered in the last 8 months, I'd like to encourage people to take a look to see where I came from.
Emulator News: UltraHLE website updated again
10:36: The folks over at the Official UltraHLE website have updated again with more screenshots. The shots include the hopefully-soon-to-be-released UHLE running Super Smash Brothers. Thanks to the few of you who emailed overnight for the news.
Emulator Release: Laser 0.6
03:49: Laser, my arcade emulator for DOS, has been updated to 0.6. Here's what's new:
two executables - LASERS.EXE - the slower build of LASER with sound emulation - for you people with
fast computers who want to tinker around with it, and LASER.EXE - the faster build with sound turned off.
Now on to getting other games to work :)
You can download it at the Single Arcade section.
6/4/2000
Links Update: A little misunderstanding.
23:22: When I refered to a Rips"R"Us selling ROMs, I wasn't talking about http://ripsrus.retrogames.com as they're a great place for animated .gif files and is just really neat in general. I've moved their link out of the ROM section and into the "Other" section. I was talking of another site that HAS been removed. Permanently. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
Technical Docs News: Updated NES Ripping Doc
21:31: Chris Covell has updated his NES Music Ripping document to version 1.4. I'm not sure what's new in this version, but just to make sure you're up-to-date on the art of ripping NES audio, make sure you take a look at it. Thanks to Memblers for the news. Download the ZIP from the NES Tech Doc page.
Links Update: Now 3 down, 2 to go!
21:09: Hi again, kids! I've got a total of eleven 404's and four moves trimmed from the second and third links pages. I also moved one to the foreign sites page.
The star system is still being slightly favored in my email. Again, give me your thoughts.
One other site was removed because, of all the things to be linked on the ROM page, a site that actually SELLS ROMs was linked. I won't give the URL, but the site was named Rips"R"Us. I don't believe in such practices, and I'm surprised the previous links maintainer had the site linked in the first place.
E-mail Omar
Misc. News: Time Travel is Now Possible?
16:50: Lost One wrote in and let us know of an article in the Sunday Times which says scientists have accelerated a particle to 300 times its normal velocity (around 186,000 miles per second).
In short, it means that the light particle got to its destination almost before it started travelling, so it went forward in time. Or, in other words, it existed in 2 places at once. While this breaks Einstein's accepted theory, scientists say they honestly don't know the validity of Einstein, or any other physicists theories, since they can't actually prove it to any major degree.
The details are being kept secret for further investigation, but they say this can greatly speed up computers if they use this technology (if it really can be done).
Check out the full article.
Misc. News: Sony to open PS2 architechture
14:46: I saw over on TechWeb that Sony is planning on opening up the Playstation 2 by selling the microprocessors and graphics chips from the console. Sony will also open the platform specs, to allow direct development of games. I'm assuming the plan is to increase the user base even more and to give Sony the advantage when Microsoft's X-Box comes out.
Misc. News: WinAmp 2.63
14:34: A new version of WinAmp, the most popular media player, is out. Here's what's new:
Kudos to Tabmok99 for the news.
6/3/2000
Emulator Release: Little John New Generation 0.1.1
17:28: Little John New Generation, a NES and SNES emulator for Windows, Linux and BeOS, has been updated to version 0.1.1. Here's what's new:
You can download the Windows version from the NES emulators page and the Linux version from the NES emulators for Unix page. Thanks to yoyo for the news!
Media News: Amiga is....back?
16:32: Amiga is Back, and will change computing forever, again.
That is the start of a press release that Amiga sent out today, announcing a new development kit for Amiga, Linux and Java developers. A little bit ago, Amiga announced that they were going to "be back" with new technology, and now they're looking for developers. For only US$99, you can get their development kit and begin coding for their new Amiga OS.
Emulator Release: CHASMS V. 0.30
16:19: A new version of vecna's awesome SMS emulator, CHASMS V. 0.30, was released today. Here's what's new:
When vecna contacted ZD about this, he mentioned that while CHASMS isn't as good as MEKA, it does have some features that MEKA doesn't have yet. Well, I have a message for him: If he keeps this up, CHASMS will be as good as MEKA. :)
Anyway, you can go pick up the emulator at the Sega Master System emulators page.
Misc. News: Cryptic Messages
16:13: With all the sites giving cryptic messages to hint at something as of late, I feel that ZD needs something similar. Our cryptic message of things to come won't be in assembly or hidden in the HTML source...it's plain text.
-----BEGIN ENCRYPTED TEXT-----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=UOgl
-----END ENCRYPTED TEXT-----
Good luck:)
Site News: UltraHLE.com Updated
16:06: RealityMan has put up 8 new screenshots on the UltraHLE homepage, including 2 previously non-working roms. The new games are Hybrid Heaven and San Francisco Rush 2, although SF2 is still the wireframe model.
Emulator Release: DBOY 0.60
15:45: DBOY, a Gameboy emulator for MS-DOS, has been updated to version 0.60. Something is new with the PSG sound and something has been fixed with the CPU in order to get Ghost Babel running correctly.
You can download it from the Gameboy emulators page. Thanks to Kosh and Mr. X for the news!
Utility Release: Save State Editors: DW1, DW2, FF2j
00:47: Casmaster has been a busy bee for the past few months. Armed with little more than QuickBasic, he's created utilities to edit Nesticle-format Save States for the following games:
All have similar functionality - they modify character stats, gold, and inventory.
They can be found in our Cheats section.
Utility Release: PKHack - Earthbound Editor
00:37: The talented Tomato, of Starmen, has created a tool with which to edit various aspects of the SNES Earthbound rom. Everything short of game events/text are modifiable, including sprite assignment, character stats, and in-battle message selection.
Turn Pokey into a dog, for example. Poetic Justice. :)
Get your copy at our Facelifting Utilities page.
6/2/2000
Misc. News: CyberDog Rentals is now online
14:11: I have extended my rental store onto the internet. It currently offers DreamCast, NeoGeo Pocket, and Nintendo 64 rentals. I will be adding the rest of my inventory to it today - which includes SNES, NES, Genesis, 3DO, DVD, and VHS rentals.
We accept check and money orders, and credit cards through PayPal. If you know of a better way to freely accept credit cards, please e-mail me.
The rate of rental is now $3.00 for 5 days. Find out more at the CyberDog Rentals homepage.
Technical Docs News: 2 New NES Docs
12:21: Thanks to bonchs at #zopharsdomain, I have a plethora of new NES technical docs to upload. I have about 45 others, but the first two are up: NES Audio Ripping and NES Controller Plug Schematics. Both come with illustrations and are available in ZIP format on the NES Technical Documents Page.
Utility Release: Smiff's Nemu64 INI
11:58: Smiff has made his first release of his Nemu64 INI file. It works much the same way an UltraHLE INI does. From his email:
"To celebrate the opening of my new site, the N64 emulation Support Centre - www.smiff.clara.net - I'm releasing my first INI. Woohoo! ;)
"With a new file layout, a new comment style, entries for 50 to 200 more ROMs, dozens of fixes (and no doubt a few things broken...), this might be the most complete and accurate Nemu INI available.
"I found games that worked, games that didn't, even games that totally sh*gged my PC. Details inside the file.
"Enjoy! =] Smiff"
Download it from the N64 page.
Links Update: One Down, Four to Go
11:01: Hi everyone. So far it hadn't looked like I was much of a links maintainer, but today I'm coming back to show you what I've been up to. So far, the first links page has been totally purged of dead links and the first bit of the Foreign Speaking Links page has been uploaded. Support for that idea has been tremendous, so I decided to go ahead and start.
On the first links page, there were 12 404/page is missing/we are closed messages, 16 moved sites, and a total of 13 pages put into the Foreign section, with a total of five languages. And that was just the first page. Imagine what the other four have in store for me!
Also, feedback has been pretty evenly-split on the star rating system. I've gotten six for and five against. I'd like some more input so be sure to email me with your thoughts if you haven't yet. Description rewrite is going to wait until I get the pages cleaned up. Also, I have received some new links, but I'm also refraining from adding those until I'm totally done. In the next week or so, the links will be 100% up to date with new descriptions for all. Thanks for the help, you wonderful visitors of ZD!
Emulator Release: MSX SO 0.71
10:58: MSX SO is a new MSX emulator for Win32 that has MSX, MSX 2, and MSX+ emulation.
You can download it at the MSX emulators section.
Misc. News: Microsoft can beat the anti-trust suit?
05:56: When a war breaks out, the US government drafts you. No questions asked. So, we said "the hell with you" and went to Canada.
Thats not far from what Microsoft may do. The Canadian government is asking MS to relocate its headquarters to Vancouver, B.C. and will give them 5 tax-free years and a loan to build the new building. Microsoft is undecided as of now and had no comments.
Cisco, another huge internet company, may do the same, but they deny the rumors about a possible relocation.
UPDATE (15:03):
I originally saw this on the AP wire at the radio station I work at, but now I found a link to back it up:
Site News: New article maintainer, new article submission guidelines.
03:12: Hey, Stick Figure here, and I'd like to talk about the new position I'm filling at the moment, the maintenance of the Articles page.
The page occasionally gets new articles in from time to time, but currently, it's on life support. I've taken it upon myself to try to bring the page back to beauty once again. So, to begin with, I've recently created a set of article guidelines. These guidelines will hopefully create interest in writing for the page once again, and maybe bring it back to life at the same time.
While I posted the guidelines on the Articles page, I'm also going to post them here to give an idea as to what we're looking for to those that wouldn't like to click the extra link:
"Okay, friends. Lets say youre an emulation fanatic with something to say. Sure, you can say something on our web boards, but it really doesnt have much of an impact in the long run. So, thats where ZDs 'Articles' page comes in. Its not an open forum of sorts, but its more like a place for editorial comments.
Here are the guidelines:
Theyre a little strict, but mostly because wed like to get some serious inquiries from writers.
While the position will not pay, the article has the potential to reach thousands of Zophars Domain readers, and will get free exposure on the page. If interested, please contact Ernie Smith a.k.a. Stick Figure for more information."
As I mentioned before, go visit the ZD Articles page, and hopefully we'll be able to make the page interesting once again.
Site News: Welcome to all new staffers, hosting and more!
01:57: I'd like to personally welcome new staffers Lawson Culver (aardWolf), Jake Kaufman (Virt) and Ben Funk (Omar) to the insanity that is Zophar's Domain. Anyone submitting frontend, utility, Tech Doc or Translation news in the last few months, or anyone who submitted new Links in the last few months and has not received a response should check out our Contacts page and contact our new members so we can catch up on all the stuff we've missed due to that cruddy lowpoint that ZD went through recently.
Lately, we've been hosting lots of new sites. If you think you have what it takes to join the list of hosted sites, check out our Hosted Sites page and drop me a line. Be sure to read the rules first, however, as I won't even consider anyone who hasn't read the rules (and I'll know - trust me).
Finally, I'll be down the shore from Friday until sometime Sunday. I still have somewhere in the realm of 700 emails to read, so I'll hopefully finish them all up this week and then we'll be rockin' and rollin'! I know it's been a rough few months, but anyone that's been following the recent events knows that ZD always bounces back even harder whenever it may be down. :)
I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who has supported ZD, even in the dark period, and everyone that continues to support us. Remember, those small banner advertisements that some people would consider a nuisance help to pay our ISP bills, bandwidth and put food on the table. They also keep me from working at Original Village Pizza (although I arguably could actually be making less now).
Spread the word, keep visiting us and we'll keep pumping out those updates. Thanks to everyone for visiting ZD! We mean it! And keep those News submissions coming in. We actually do read 'em! :)
Site News: New site added: "The Best Game Music!!!"
01:26: Zophar's Domain welcomes another hosted site which you can access at http://nesmusic.zophar.net/, run by Japanese webmaster Joseph/Izumi. Currently it focuses on NSFs, and supports playlists for use with NEZamp, a Japanese NSF Player for WinAMP. The archive has title listings in both Japanese and English, so be sure to check it out. If you're interested in getting your own quality site hosted at ZD, feel free to check out our Hosted Sites information page. Thanks!
Translation News: Majin Tensei English version 4d
00:24: A new patch for Majin Tensei (a SNES game) was released by ShadowSlayerX and his team.
Get it at our Translations page. Thanks goes to Sarke for the news.
Translation News: Super Carrots: A NEW Harvest (yes AGAIN!)
00:12: There is a NEW new version of Super Carrots: A NEW Harvest. It's a hack of Super Mario Brothers 2. What's new this time:
Get it in our Hacks Section.
6/1/2000
Site News: Another week, another poll..
23:38: Yes kids, it's time for another update to the poll. Due to the overwhelmingly positive responce to the previous poll, we might try other things with the poll at some point. Comments are still welcome on Talk of the Town, as they always are.
Here are the results from the last poll:
Would you be interested in seeing a Zophar's Domain online BBS?
938 votes, 40%: Wow! What an awesome idea!
189 votes, 8%: I don't like that idea too much.
399 votes, 17%: I don't care.
809 votes, 34%: What's a BBS?
Total Votes: 2335
That's enough support for a possible BBS in the future, so expect something soon.
Here's the new question: What do you think about backup devices like the Game Station?
This came about due to a large amount of mail on the system. Some people sent negative things, others sent more positive comments. Still others thought the think rocked. :)
You can either vote on the sidebar on the top-right, or you can vote here if on the news-only page. Whatever the case, the poll is your way to voice your opinion.
Site News: Kevin Horton's NSF collection, anyone?
20:42: Do you want a few NSFs? Better yet, do you want a whole big load of NSFs? Then visit Kevin Horton's NSF Collection and download the collection! It contains a total of 455 songs. You will not be disappointed!
Emulator Release: BeApple ][e
18:46: BeApple ][e has been updated to 0.1.1. The author simply says it's "Better than v010 which was avalailable on www.be.com".
You can download it at the BeOs Computer section.
Emulator Release: DarcNES dn9a0529 for BeOS
16:32: BeOS has recieved a port of DarcNES by the author of the emulator.
You can download this at the BeOS Console Emulators section.
Emulator Release: DarcNES dn9a0530 for Linux
16:29: DarcNES, the multi-emulator for Linux has been updated to dn9a0530. This is a minor bugfix release.
You can download it at the NES for Unix page.
Emulator Release: GEM 0.5
15:04: GEM, a Gameboy emulator for the MSX, has been updated to 0.5. Here's what's new.
You can download this emulator at The GEM Homepage.
Emulator News: Sega C2 Driver for MAME
14:47: Haze is working on a Sega C2 (Columns, Columns 2) driver for MAME. It is starting to look pretty impressive. The latest news is that he has found that the Columns hang on startup is due to a protection scheme. You can find out more at Haze's Sega C2 driver page.
Emulator News: More On UltraHLE
14:31: After a long bit of silence, RealityMan has made two news posts in two days. Here's the latest:
"After my post last night regarding compatibility I thought I would do a mini update and let you know how todays work went. Well, now we have three new games working on UltraHLE that never saw the light of day under v1.0.0. They are: NBA in the Zone 99, Goemon 2 and Knife Edge Nose Gunner."
You can see six new screenshots of those games at the UltraHLE Homepage.
Translation News: Fire Emblem 4 Translation
14:30: j2e has released version .25 of their Fire Emblem 4 translation. This is the first patch released to the public, and shows great potential. What has been done so far (from the homepage):
Find it at our SNES Translation Page. Thanks go to the LostOne from j2e Translations.
Misc. News: DOOM III
14:19: The big news today is the announcement of DOOM III. Seems like only yesterday we were bragging about our top of the line 486DX2/66 with 8 meg of ram and 540 meg harddrive with Doom....and multiplayer on our FAST 14.4 modem. John Carmack said in his .plan file:
"As many people have heard discussed, there was quite a desire to remake DOOM as our next project after Q3...we are working on DOOM for the next project unless you fire us."
He also goes on to discuss that if the project is actually completed, it will feature brand new technology where they focus on a single player environment. Mr. Carmack said he's not speaking about it any further, not offering any more details, and not doing any interviews until they have something to show for, to avoid misleading comments.
The only bad thing is that the 2 people "in charge" of id software, Kevin and Adrian, fired one of the major developers, Paul Steed, over the matter.
Emulator Release: G-NES 0.32
11:08: G-NES, the NES emulator for Win32, has been updated to 0.32. Here's what's new:
You can get it at the NES section.
Links Update: All 5 Links Pages and a Question
10:14: Well, the restoration of the links section is underway. I've filed out a few dead links so far and replaced the former maintainer's email address with my own.
I do have two questions for the visitors of ZD, though. Do you want to continue seeing star ratings on all the links? Some believe that it hurts up-and-coming websites with massive potential, but others like to look down the star column to see what's great and what's maybe not so great.
Unless there's an overwhelming demand for a star system, I'm more likely to rewrite descriptions for every link and do away with the stars.
The other question is mainly for our foreign (outside of the English speaking world, that is) visitors. Would you like to see the links to other-speaking websites on their own page? I'm all for it, myself, just give me the word, as I'm your ever-humble links servant.
Drop me a line with your feelings on the subjects.
Emulator News: FUSION-PC Cancelled, New Project Underway
09:41: The folks at Microcode Solutions have updated their webpage. FUSION-PC is the final release of Fusion, as they've begun work on a PowerPC emu caled iFUSION, which will, as the name implies, emulate the iMac. Something else interesting, though, was the headline of their article:
"Microcode Solutions Licenses FUSION-PC 68K Macintosh Emulation Technology!
"Today (5/23/2000), Microcode Solutions licensed the 68040 Macintosh emulation technology to Emulators, Inc. This in no way affects our customer support for FUSION-PC customers. All technical support questions concerning FUSION-PC should still be directed to Microcode Solutions."
See it for yourself at the Microcode Solutions website. This would also be a great topic to discuss over at the Message Boards.
Emulator Release: BasiliskII for Win32 build 126
09:18: Three days, three new releases of this swank 68k Mac emulatior. :) Here's what's new
Thanks to "sam" for the news. As always, pick it up from the Macintosh page.
Utility Release: DBeZ v1.0
05:16: A new .ZST saved-state editor has been released for 'Dragon Ball Z - Super Saiyen Adventure.' It simplifies the modification of HP, BP and Ki values, and also allows for character switching.
The hilariously quirky documentation is worth the price of admission; Admit one to the Cheat Utilities page and check it out.
Utility Release: FF7 SaveGame Converter v1.1.1
02:39: Ever wish you could load your PSX Final Fantasy VII saves in the PC version, or vice versa? By taking advantage of similarities in the file structure, this utility makes it simple. You can convert freely between:
The author, Cait Sith, has included the source code, as well. Get it at the General Utilities page.
Site News: 3 just may be a crowd; new staffer
01:04: Hi kids. There's still one more staffer to add. I'm Omar, and I'll be maintaining the Links and Technical Documents sections here at ZD. Feel free to drop me a line/flame here.
If anyone's submitted anything about links or tech docs, send it again. As always with anyone, beware sending me big fat attachments. At least ask me before hand, or you might just get them back. ;) I promise to get started on updating in the morning, but for now I'm going to bed. :)
Translation News: Angelique Tile Editor Released
00:38: John Fleming has released a tile editor for the Super Famicom game Angelique. It's basically a hex editor that allows you to paste as hex into 18-byte records.
Get it from our Translation Utilities section.
Frontend News: MAMEMenu v1.1
00:30: A new MAME frontend has been added to our Arcade Frontends page. The new features in version 1.1 include:
Get version 1.1 at our Arcade Frontends page. Thanks to Ed Salisbury (the author) for the news of this update.
Translation News: Thingy32 v0.18
00:22: Thingy32 (a rom-hacking utility) has been updated to version 0.18. Here's what's new according to the readme:
"Newest improvements include an options menu, ability to load new file and table, reload current table, and fixed manual insertion. Also many small bugfixes."
Get it at our Translation Utility page. Thanks to Badge for telling us about this update.
Translation News: New Super Carrots: A NEW Harvest
00:08: There's a new release of Super Carrots: A NEW Harvest. Here's what's new:
You can download it in the Improvement Hacks section. Thanks go to DarKnight13 of The NIFTY Page-O-Hacks for the info.