Translation News: Dark Half Patch Updated
00:06:  Phelan told us that the Dark Half (SNES) translation patch from Klepto Software has been updated to v0.20 (20% complete.) Get it from our SNES Translations page. Thanks again to Phelan for the news.

9/28/2000
Misc. News: OC Remix Updated
23:50:  David Lloyd has updated the Overclocked ReMix page again... the news remixes are the theme from Super Mario Brothers, and a song from 7th Guest (that old CDROM horror game made by Graeme Devine, the creator of Pole Position for Atari.)

Get them at the Overclocked ReMix Page.

Utility Release: TUCL 2000 .20
21:51:  I updated the Cheating Utilities page with The Ultimate Cheat List (TUCL) 2000. It has a database of cheats for almost every system.

Thanks to Sean for the news!

Links Update: Links updated
21:28:  I've added a link to DCEmul, a Dreamcast Emulation site. The site aims to be "the source for doing things on your dreamcast that it was not originally meant for"

Thanks to Sean for the news!

Site News: ZELDIT Official Page
04:36:  Incase you didn't notice, the official page for ZELDIT, a Legend of Zelda editor, is now hosted right here at ZD. Welcome to the family.

9/27/2000
Utility Release: Mr. Click's HiColEd
23:51:  MrClick, the author of TileEd (a tile editor,) has released HiColEd, a 15 bpb bitmap graphic viewer. According to the author, it is quite similar to Jabo's Killer Instinct Image Explorer. Included in the features are:

• Loading and viewing of 15 bpb bitmaps with user-defined address, width, height
• Scrolling up and down by buttons
  
• Zooming in and out
  
• Adjust bitmap by simply clicking on the window
  
• Bookmark feature

Utility Release: Z E L D I T Updated
23:40:  King Koopa has updated his Zelda editor (Z E L D I T) once again, this time to version 0.32. Here's what the editor can do currently:

• Edit through Level 3
• Edit Doors
  
• Edit (more) Floors
  
• Edit/Add Objects (like a Heart Container)
  
• Link's Music Book (change music's sound)

Utility News: ngine Screenshots Up
23:35:  tubooboo, creator of ngine, has updated his page at http://www.ngine.de/ with screenshots of Snes9x in action. Go check it out.

Translation News: Two Translation Groups Working Together
23:32:  Tiger Claw's translation group (Square Translations) has joined with Wakd Hacks to work on Rudra's Treasure (SNES). This is a joint project, and hopefully it will get us closer to a 100% patch... I would give you a link to their page, but the link I have doesn't work right now...

Site News: i goofed up
19:31:  Last night I added Chronicle of the Radia War to the SNES page mistakenly. I didn't read the page throughly enough and thought it was a SNES game. I have now placed it in it's new home on the NES Translations page.
Thanks to Aardwolf for always pointing out my stupid little mistakes to me. :)

Links Update: emulationvortex.com
19:03:  Frank and Impact304 pointed me to Impact's site EmulationVortex I've added it to our General Emulation links page.

Emulator Release: RockNes 1.303
15:46:  Mr. X let us know about a small update to RockNes. Here's the changes:

Site News: Poll Update -- Save State Sections
04:29:  New poll time, kids.. Here's what we had you vote for in the last poll, the Emu Dream:

Do you still believe in the 1997 ZD Emu Dream?
1167 34% I think it's still valid today.
279 8% It's something whose time has come and gone.
1911 56% ZD Emuwhat?

The Emu Dream was an important commentary on what Zophar hoped the scene to be at the time, and I suggest you all read it.

Anyway, as for the new poll, it asks the question:

Would you be interested in seeing new save state/music sections on ZD?

In particular, this deals with the addition of other consoles to the selection we have now. Should we add the GameBoy to the section, for example?

You can vote on it on the sidebar as always, or if you're using the news-only page, vote here. Happy voting!

9/26/2000
Translation News: Two translations added
23:59:  I've added Cosmo Police Galivan to our NES Translations page and Chronicle of the Radia War to our SNES Translations page. Both of these translations are from The Vale
Thanks to David for the news.

Emulator Release: Hugo 1.29 alpha
21:47:  A new version of Hugo, a TurboGrafx 16 emulator, has been released, and here's what's new:

Utility Release: Dragon Slayer IV Viewer
20:30:  The author of YY-SMB-EDIT has released a map viewer for Dragon Slayer IV (Legacy of the Wizard in the US.) The page shows an EDITOR in use, but the link downloads the VIEWER only. If anyone knows where this actual editor is (or if it has been released) I'd sure like to know.

Download the map viewer from our Facelift Utilities page. Thanks to Malachi Constant for the news.

Utility Release: SMB3 Discombobulator
20:19:  On September 18th, ACMLM posted news at ACMLM's Rom Hack Domain hinting that he had a surprise hidden in the page... There is a link on the page (I'm not telling where)that lets you download version 0.01 of the SMB3 Discombobulator. See if you can find it...

Given up already? Get it at our Facelift Utilities page.

Translation News: Serbo-Croatian Translators Needed
20:04:  Adnan has started a new team that will translate English roms into the Serbo-Croatian language. They do not have a homepage up yet, but should be releasing their first patch (Lufia II) some time in November. Next on their list is Final Fantasy III. If you'd like to help them, e-mail Adnan at ado92@hotmail.com.

Emulator News: ePSXe Progress
18:20:  Sandman writes:

EPSXE's (http://www.epsxe.com) homepage has been updated with new screenshots (FF8, Legend of Mana and the emulator's GUI, among a few others), and also mentions that Calb's computer died last friday, thus halting development momentarily.

They used a Matrox Millennium G200 with 8Mb to create the screen shots, and Pete's DirectX6 Plugin to enhance the graphics to 640x480.

Misc. News: Artists, Musicians and Programmers Wanted...
18:14:  David Pack writes:

I was reading IGN today and saw a interesting article. It was called "Making the Game". They want some artists,musicians,and programmers to work on a game project. Check out http://pocket.ign.com/news/25507.html for more info.

Emulator News: Author of Genital Comments on Fraudulant Emu
00:54:  Bart Trzynadlowski, the author of Genital, emailed me his thoughts on the whole situation.

Well, all I have to say is that I am quite disappointed with this little situation. When I put "public domain" on my work, I knew I was making myself vulnerable to such foolishness, but I went ahead anyway because the license is so simple to maintain on my part and gives genuinely nterested people the right to learn from my code -- which I am all for! Genital has been in development ever since the last public release (Version 0.3) and work will still continue on it. I have been contemplating a change in the license, but that was even before "SCD EMU" popped up. Thus, any changes I make will have been inevitable anyway, and I don't intend to quit working on Genital just because of this incident. Forgive and forget :)

3 cheers for open source! Good luck to Bart and Genital.

Translation News: Earthbound Text Editor
00:27:  Tomato has released version 2.0 of his Earthbound (SNES) text editor. You can get it at our Translation Utilities page. Thanks to Darknight16 for the news.

Translation News: Super Mario World Level Editor
00:06:  All I can say is... Oh my gosh!!! An editor for Super Mario World (SNES) has finally been released! All of you would-be hack writers out there, hold on to your hats... FuSoYa of FuSoYa's Niche has released his Super Mario World editor (called Lunar Magic) and the features are amazing. You can dump the GFX, move enemies around, and much more.

Pick up this awesome utility at our Facelift Utilities page. Thanks to Darknight16 for the news!

Links Update: Links updated
00:06:  I've updated a few links on our links pages:
http://klepto.jumpgames.com/ - Klepto Software has a few translations and mac utilities.
http://fly.to/vale - The Vale has a couple of translations and a few original java games
http://translations.animangarpg.org/ - Lina`chan, Nuku-Nuku and Filia's Translation Domain has about 7 different translations
http://arkana.consolemul.com/ - Arkana is a French translation site
Thanks to Dave for the news!

9/25/2000
Utility Release: MGlide Updated
23:46:  From the MGlide Readme:

MGlide project is dead since september 1999. This version (1.246H) was started in june 1999 but never finished. But due to the popular demand I have decided to release it unfinished. So, there's a lot of bugs and the previous version is probably better in most case, but not in all cases. That's why you should try this version.

Emulator News: SCD Emu a Fraud!
23:19:  ^ATani^ messaged me on IRC and let me know that the SCD Emu I posted on earlier (post and emu deleted), is no more than someone else changing a few words from the Sega CD emu Genital. It's open source, so I hope this doesn't discourage the author from continuing the project.

Just to make sure this is correct, I loaded both binaries (SCD Emu and Genital) in Hex Workshop and did a comparison. After adding up the differences, firing up my TI-86, it came out to 99.998% of the bytes were identical.

You can grab Genital from the Genesis emulators.

Emulator News: New PSEmu Plugins
21:43:  Chris Rock (love the name) sent us some news about Pete's PSEmu Plugins being updated. Check them out...

Emulator News: Magical32x
21:40:  Chris writes:

Yes, you hear me right. It's named "Magical 32x" and there isn't much known about this one yet, however,
we have a screenshot of the emu running Doom 32x. Oh yeah, we're proud to host this new goodie right here
at RetroBase :) On a side note, please don't beg me or the staff about a private beta or anything like
that. It will be released by its author when he thinks its ready.

The site mentions that it's compatible with just about every 32x game they've tested.

Emulator News: New Meka
21:37:  Just saw over on Retrogames that Opi got a new beta of Meka v0.55 RC1, Colecovision and Sega 8 bit emulator. Here's the changes:

Emulator Release: DarcNES Updated
21:34:  Josh Wink sent us some mail about a new DarcNES. Here's what's new:

Emulator Release: YAME v0.17
21:23:  YAME, a multi-system emulator, has been updated. Here are the changes directly from the website:

Emulator Release: SVGAMSX
19:58:  The MEP-Crew emailed us about a new MSX emulator for Linux x86 called SVGAMSX. Since there's no documentation, little is known about it. The only thing we're sure of is it requires svgalib.

Snag a copy from the Unix MSX emulators.

Misc. News: Snes9x Netplay
19:37:  Koji |{night writes:

I have finished the core of my flash database for snes9x netplay users. I could, however use, more people in it. If all goes well I should have snes hookups prepreprepre beta database up within a week or two.

Check out the site for more info: http://hookup.homepage.com

Utility Release: New ZELDIT
19:28:  King Koopa let us know about an update to his Zelda editor ZELDIT. Here's the changes:

Utility Release: Hapsby v0.3
19:12:  A new version of Hapsby, a universal save state editor for Java, was released. Can't seem to find a list of the changes since the last version.

You'll need several Java run-time libraries to use Hapsby, so visit the official site to obtain them. Head to the General Utilities to download a copy. Thanks to Hugues Johnson for the news.

Emulator Release: Final Burn 0.021
03:47:  Dave's emulator for the After Burner arcade hardware, Final Burn, has been updated to 0.021. Here's what's new:

Emulator Release: RockNES 1.300 for DOS
02:03:  A new version of RockNES, a NES emulator, has been released, and here's what's new:

9/24/2000
Utility Release: Killer Instinct Image Explorer
23:50:  It was just released days ago, and already Jabo (the author of Jnes) has updated his Killer Instinct Image Explorer. In the first version, the image colors were wrong, and the author has fixed it in the new version.

Get the Killer Instinct Image Explorer at our General Utilities page. Thanks to Andrew Mike for the news!

Translation News: Translhextion Updated and Infontile Released
22:34:  Januschan has updated Translhextion, his hex editor, to version 1.6 and released a tile editor called Infontile. Here are just a few of the many things that have changed in Translhextion version 1.6 (taken directly from the homepage):

• Search for hex values directly
• Two-byte highlight values
  
• Saving resets changed-byte color
  
• SNES hex offset support
  
• Major bugfixes and more...

Translation News: Chrono Trigger: Another Stupid Spoof Updated
22:15:  cHiBiMaRuKo has updated his text-hack for Chrono Trigger. Here's what is fixed in this version (0.12):

• Almost all overflowed text
• Some shouldn't-be-there-text also deleted.
  
• Hacked up to 'The End of Time'

Site News: Z26 1.39
19:29:  Z26, an Atari 2600 emulator for DOS, has been updated to version 1.39. Here's what's new from the readme:

Starpath multiload support has been added. You must concatenate the
.bin files similarly to other emulators to play multiloads. A command
like this will do the trick:

copy /b load1.bin+load2.bin+load3.bin+load4.bin mload.bin

then run mload.bin in the emulator.

Added a new Starpath bios that shows the vertical blue progress bars any
time you load a Starpath game or go to the next load in a multiload game.

Added support for the 6144 byte Starpath format so that the 6K version
of Cubis that is floating around the net now plays.

Changed super-chip detection scheme. If the RAM area has all $00 or
$ff in it, z26 turns on super-chip support automatically. Now developers
can work on super-chip games without having to use the -g command
line switch.

Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for the nice Starpath support and the new
super-chip detection scheme.

Added some features to trace mode so that real addresses are shown for
indexed accesses. Thanks to Thomas Jentzsch for help with this.

Fixed bug in the GUI to allow the complete maximum number of ROMs to be
displayed (693). Thanks to Michael Walden Jr. for this fix.

Fixed a small mouse related bug in the GUI.

Re-vamped video support. Video mode 5 is now the default and the vertical
position of games is now adjusted automatically. If you wish to turn off
automatic positioning, simply press PgUp or PgDn to do positioning
manually.

PAL games are now detected automatically. A game is run for a few
frames and if it is a PAL game (lots of scanlines), the video mode
is automatically switched to a PAL mode (if you've enabled it with the
-5 command line switch), and the PAL palette is turned on.

Fixed what is hopefully the final Windows compatibility issue. Some rare
system crashes that happened when exiting z26 no longer occur.

You can find it on our Atari 2600
emulators page.
Thanks to Cloy for the news!

Emulator Release: PasoFami 1.4c
19:16:  PasoFami 1.4c is out. Here's what's new (translated with elingo.com):

Function enhancing of cassette RAM substrate
Addition of correspondence (*mappar*)
Disk game sucking out and writing

You can find PasoFami on our NES emulators page.
Thanks to Justin for the news!

Emulator Release: WinSTon Emulator Canceled
19:01:  We recently were pointed to the WinSTon development web page. Paul Bates, the author of the Atari ST emulator WinSTon has decided to cease development on the emulator. However, he has released WinSTon v0.5 and the emulator's source code (available on our Atari ST emulators page. Below is the text of Mr. Bates' final message from the WinSTon development page (editted for content):

For [f***s] sake! Well, looks like WinSTon was only wounded so lets finish the job and kill it, shall we?

It was brought to my attention that someone going under the name Lord Nisse hacked my PC while I was on-line and stole the complete source code to the WinSTon emulator. This leaves me with a problem as the source will eventually find its way onto the Internet. Are people just trying to [f***] me off?
Right, I've uploaded an official version of WinSTon as it stood when I terminated it last week. Together with this is the complete source code. There is no copyright on the source or anything like that, so anyone can do whatever they wish with it. I honestly couldn't give a [s**t] anymore.

WinSTon_v5.zip v0.5 (651k) WinSTon installation files. Simply uncompress using WinZip and run 'setup.exe'.
WinSTonSrc.zip (745k) Complete WinSTon source code. Requires Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 and Masm.


I've had quite a lot of lot of e-mails regarding the end of WinSTon and how they don't agree with what I'm doing. Time to make things clear. The GameBoy Advanced emulator opens a whole new can of worms for the emulation scene. Nintendo is not exactly happy to hear of this emulator to say the least.
You don't think emulators have any effect on games developers or software sales? Why would anyone want to use a handheld emulator, anyway? Well, ask Rare if they were happy that GB Perfect Dark appeared on the Internet just hours after it was released - and worked on a number of GameBoy emulators. If only they knew that just seven lines of Z80 code prevents a GB game from running on ANY emulator. Anyway, would you pay 30+ quid for a game when you can get it for free and play on your PC? Not many would and software sales DO suffer as a result - which means I, as a game developer, get ripped off worse than ever. If it didn't do any damage then why did Nintendo/Sony spend so much money trying to stop these emulators?
So how does a GBA emulator effect WinSTon? Not related you're thinking? Well, they are. I used to be a game developer who happened to write an emulator for a long dead machine. No harm with that. About a year or so ago, Nintendo and Sony emulators appeared on the scene. Being associated with emulation was not really a problem until then, but the emulation scene is being looked at in a very different light - this latest emulator puts me in a very difficult situation which could cost me my job, or even worse put me on a black-list never to work on console development again. So, I quit to preserve what I have. WinSTon is not worth risking my career over.

This web site account(and my e-mail address) has been cancelled so if you're interested in the above files, I'd get them now as they won't be around much longer!


Bye!
We'd like to wish Mr. Bates the best in his future endeavors.
Thanks to David for the news!

Emulator Release: MasterGear v1.4
17:50:  The Sega Master System emu, MasterGear, has been updated to v1.4. Here's the changes:

Site News: New design for arcadeflyers.com
17:43:  DinkeyToy writes:

We are all pleased to let you know, that www.arcadeflyers.com has a new design.

The database now runs completely on SQL and it has a gallery preview option now. It also has been updated to over 1500 flyers :-D.

Besides, we have released the new Mame Flyerpack #13, containing 16 new and 2 replaced flyers.

Misc. News: MIDI and MP3 Soundtracks
14:37:  Chris of RetroBase has uploaded various game MIDI and MP3 files at his site. Get them here.

Translation News: Megaman 2 Remix Released
14:24:  Kenclops has released a hack for Megaman 2. The patch has 5 levels completed and one level nearly completed. Right now, it's the only hack that we have for Megaman 2... Get it at our Hacks page.

Frontend News: FrontDBoy v1.4
04:21:  David wrote us to say a new FrontDBoy is out. It's a frontend for the GameBoy emu DBoy...we didn't have this in our section, so I just added it. Here's the changes (translated from Spanish):

Site News: Save archives updated
02:28:  Save archives updated: GS0, NSM, STA, CHT, ZST archives.

9/23/2000
Emulator News: Snes9X Progress Information
22:27:  Snes9X.COM has been updated with a progress report. SA-1 game speed ups are being worked on, and C4 chip support will be added as well as various other things. You can get the current version of Snes9X at the SNES page. Thanks to EmuCamp for the news.

Misc. News: ngine News
21:56:  Here's some news that tubooboo JUST put on his site:

Lets get one thing out of the way, it is NOT running games yet. However, after a few hours of work tonight I successfully integrated the SNES9x source (v 1.29) into the ngine environment. I have everything compiling and linking fine, hell, I actually invoke SNES9x code now, and I am writing the ROM loader now. We might see very interesting things, very soon, as the whole display environment is already taken care of by ngine, and this works a treat already. Expect no sound in the first version, though. signing off for the night now. cheers for all the support mail, keep it coming. And use the message board if you have a question. Thx, tubooboo

Utility Release: Killer Instinct Image Explorer
15:44:  Jabo, the author of JNES, has released a utility that can decode images in the Killer Instinct Roms. So far, he has been able to dump sprite data and intro movie frames...

You can get the Killer Instinct Image Explorer at the General Utilities page. Thanks to "the greg" for the news.

Misc. News: Final Warrior Updated
14:44:  Anthony J. Combieriate has released a second demo for his RPG, Final Warrior. (The RPG is written in Java.) He still has the first demo available so that you can compare them and see his progress. Some of the new features are:

• Better animation and play control
• New backgrounds
  
• New music
  
• New battle screens
  
• People in towns walking around (rather than standing still)
  
• Better save and load system
  
• A new character

Emulator Release: MasterGear 1.4 Released
14:37:  Marat Fayzullin has released version 1.4 of MasterGear, his Sega Master Systems/GameGear emulator. Of course, you can't download the emu... he wants you to pay $35 to register it. If you feel like buying an emu today, visit his site here.

Thanks to DrSteveW for the news.

Overclocked Update: OC Remix Updated
14:29:  David Lloyd writes:

OC ReMix was updated with three new ReMixes - Castlevania, Super Mario Bros. 2, and . . . Castlevania! Also, each ReMix is linked to the original soundtrack, available separately through the MERIDIAN homepage!

Frontend News: Frontend Released
14:10:  Aussie of Dodgy Translations strikes again! This time, it's a frontend for Tile Layer (a tile editor). Because this is a frontend for a utility that works with multiple types of roms, I had no idea where to put it. After a few minutes of thought, I decided to put it on the NES Utilities page... the same page that the Tile Editor is on.

Translation News: English Translation Released
13:53:  Aussie of Dodgy Translations has released thier first public patch. The game is a Konami game called "Motocross Champion" and is for the NES. Just looking at the screenshots makes it look VERY MUCH like Excitebike.

Get it at our Translations page.

Utility Release: Z E L D I T Updated
13:45:  King Koopa has updated Z E L D I T, his dungeon tile editor for The Legend of Zelda (NES). You can now edit level 2... Get it at our Facelift Utilities page.

Misc. News: The True-Life Story Behind the Atari 2600 VCSp
13:35:  A guy by the name of Benjamin J. Heckendorn has build a portable Atari 2600 VCS using an Atari 2600, an LCD Active Matrix screen, and a custom built case. Read more about it here. Thanks to jakobud for the news.

Site News: Wrestling forums moving soon
01:15:  The Wrestling forums are going to be moving soon to Brad (Zophar) Levicoff's new project Wrestle1.com so all bookmarks should be changed to that site.

Link: Wrestle1.com Interactive Forums

Translation News: Other Smashing Pumpkins Hacks Added
01:00:  Ok.. here's the story behind the Smashing Pumkins patch. Two guys (Steve and David Pukin) made two hacks... one for Super Mario Bros. and one for Super Mario Bros. 3. Both had to do with the band Smashing Pumpkins, so they named them Super Smashing Pumpkins Bros. 1 and 2, respectively (even though SSPB 2 was a hack for SMB 3.) Macbee (of Macbee's NES Rom Hacks) got permission to make a patch for SMB 2 based on the first two patches. Because this was the third patch released, it was called Super Smashing Pumpkins Bros. 3.

If you're thoroughly confused by now, you're not the only one... Get all three of these patches from our Hacks page.

Translation News: Two Translations Dead
00:37:  Conrad tells us that PR Translations have dropped their Harvest Moon GBC 2 and Pokemon Gold English translations because of an imminent US release. Even though the projects never finished, you can download the existing patches at our Translations page.

Translation News: Two New Hacks
00:32:  Macbee has released two new hacks for the NES. The first (Batman MCB) is the original Batman for the NES with the costume and build changed to look more like the Batman in the first movie. The second hack (Super Smashing Pumpkins Bros. 3) is a hack for SMB2 (yes, I DID get the numbers correct.) It is based on the Smashing Pumpkins Bros. 1 and 2 hacks that were released by Steve and David Pukin. I have found the old games, and I'll be posting the IPS files for the older ones as soon as I can make them...

Until then, download both of these patches at our Hacks page.

9/22/2000
Translation News: The Elite Hacking Force
23:53:  Mottzilla of the Elite Hacking Force has informed us that his group is taking a break from the rom hacking scene. They will be back, but need some more people to help them out. If you think you'd like to help, visit their page at http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/games9000/elitehacking/index5.html or e-mail Mottzilla at mottzilla@aol.com.

Site News: dcwarez.com = gone
23:23:  Nijhazer was one of the first to tell us about dcwarez.com closing up shop. From the site:

Due to legal issues, www.dcwarez.com is suspended until further notice. However, a full statement will be issued regarding the future of this site in several days.

They're taking donations to put towards their lawyer..visit the site for more info on that.

Utility Release: Z E L D I T
21:20:  King Koopa writes in about ZELDIT, a Legend of Zelda Dungeon editor for Windows. Right now you can only edit level one, but it looks promising.

You can get it off our NES Utilities page.

Emulator News: Dreamer 0.000001
14:08:  The name of the recently announced "Dreamcast Emulator" has been changed to "Dreamer". Right now, it can only run a few demos, but hopefully that will change in the future. You can get the current version at the Dreamcast page.

Misc. News: Blip 'n' Blop III for PC in Production
10:54:  Bill Gros writes:

A bunch of programmers, the LOADED team, who made several
demos and games on Amiga is currently working on a new PC
game project called Blip'n'Blop: Balls of Steel. It's a 2D
shooter like Gryzor or Metal Slug and it's freeware. The
interesting part of the game is, that you have to kill some
video games characters like Mario, Lara Croft, Sonic and
harmless creatures like Pokemons, Smurfs, Care Bears,
Teletubbies, etc...

Emulator Release: fMSX SO v0.81 Re-Release
05:48:  TFH/Fony emailed us and let us know that fMSX SO, an MSX emulator, was re-released to include an english manual. I've updated our archive, but this time with a Zip archive (LZH gave people some problems). Thanks to File-Hunter.com for the Zip.

Check out the MSX emulators for a copy.

Emulator News: KIAME Page Updated
05:36:  Directly from the KIAME page:

The project as we keep stateing [sic] IS still alive so don't worry, I'l [sic] try to get hold of rcp to give a few words.

JPD sent rcp his sound source code the other day and were [sic] waiting for the results on that too.

What is KIAME? An upcoming emulator for Killer Instinct and Killer Instinct 2. Stay tuned.

Misc. News: Ghost In The Machine
05:03:  No, this isn't about the ROM release group...

Remember that movie Grumpy Old Men? Well, in the movie Walter Matheau (R.I.P.) lived next door to Jack Lemon, and he changed the channel on his television while Jack Lemon was watching it. It really happened, but in a less humorous way.

...the Smiths discovered that someone had taken control of their televisions, which are hooked up to both a nationwide satellite TV service and an Internet provider.

Channels would change, seemingly without cause, authorities said. In the middle of the night, a television would mysteriously turn on at high volume.

Authorities said that an enraged Charlotte Smith reported that she yelled at her television on one occasion, only to have a message flash across the screen reading, "Shut up, Charlotte."

While the details of the story are less than amusing, the concept is pretty neat.

Emulator Release: AdvanceMAME 0.37 beta 7
03:50:  A new version of AdvanceMAME, a MAME for DOS build that gives added video support, has been released. It is now up to date with the newest official MAME. Get AdvanceMAME at the MAME page.

Site News: More trouble from "them"...
03:37:  To avoid legal trouble, I'm going to have to be official.

jandaman of dcwarez.com, a site devoted to Sega(r) Dreamcast(tm) news, is under more legal trouble. Here is what's on the site:

Some of you may know www.dcisos.com was forced to shut down by Sega[(r)].We recieved the same letter as dcisos.com asking us to comply. Time is not on our side as we have till tomorrow to tell Sega's[(r)] lawyer of our intentions. They plan on filing formal papers on the 29th of this month. I will be meeting with some legal contacts tonight and will see what they have to say. I do not want to shut this site down but if that's what my own legal contacts say, I might have to. I will keep you updated on the situation.....

It looks like Sega(r) is being the bully again...

* This news item copyright ©2000 Climax Media, Inc. "ZOPHAR'S DOMAIN" is a registered trademark of GameArts, Inc. and JapanArtMedia Co.,Ltd. "CLIMAX MEDIA" is a registered trademark of Climax Media, Inc. "SEGA" and "DREAMCAST" are registered trademarks of Sega Enterprises, Ltd. Any other references to other trademarks are property of their respective trademark holders.

Interview News: Zophar Interviewed
03:09:  FANDOM Videogamers is showing an interview they had with Zophar, the founder and former owner of ZD.

If you're wondering about what got him started and what he's going to do now, check it out.

9/21/2000
Emulator Release: GiriGiri project
22:04:  We got word of a new Sega Saturn emulator in development called GiriGiri. This release is ver. 0.3 and has a debugger. From the readme:

GiriGiriDebuger is a SEGA Saturn Emulator with Debugger.
This version is NOT playable. It emulates 'Timer Setting Screen' only, yet.
The webpage is at http://www.ops.dti.ne.jp/~s-miya/girigiri.htm, but is in japanese. use elingo to translate it.
Looks promising! I've added it to the Sega Saturn page.
Thanks to David for the news!

Site News: 128 Museum Gets a New Home
16:59:  Jan Werner writes:

128 Museum has moved !!! New address is http://128museum.speccy.cz .
Please update your bookmarks...
In connection with that, e-mail address was changed to 128museum@speccy.cz .

In addition, they've also added the following games: Advanced Flight Trainer 128 , Arc Of Yesod 128 (better version), Bionic Commando 128, Chain Reaction 128 (version with music...one and only on this site), International 3D Tennis 128 , Tusker (128 Remix), Where Time Stood Still 128 (superb version with manual).

Site News: Boards fixed
16:50:  If you haven't noticed yet, the boards are fixed...someone went to change around the script that displays the posts to make it go faster, and it hosed it.

Misc. News: Similar OS to "ngine"
16:21:  starfire sent us a message about a similar OS to "ngine". He writes:

In reference to the "ngine" OS, I'd like to point out that there's a much more powerful similar OS developed currently by Amiga, Inc (www.amiga.com). It goes beyond platform independence and implements a virtual processor that converts its own machine code to machine code for whatever processor it is currently running on. It currently supports about 20 families of processors and more are coming. The only files that need porting are the ones related to the virtual processor, and that porting is done by Amiga Inc themselves. Everything else is just compiled once and never needs porting. And you can run it as a separate OS or on top of whatever OS you are currently using. Cool huh? I encourage all emulator developers / end users to use this new environment as it becomes available. It'd mean the end of troublesome porting and constant whining from uneducated newbies in the style of "wanna-see-a-port-of-emu-x-now".

Site News: Introducing MameMix!
12:49:  Maurizio Galeone just emailed us with word that he's released a new frontend for MAME called MameMix. From my initial usage, I think this frontend has quite a bit of potential. Nice work, Maurizio!

you can pick this one up at our Multi-Arcade Frontends page.

Translation News: FF3 Monster Editor 4.0 Released!
12:14:  Ermac was kind enough to let us know that Jumper and Lord J had updated their FF3 Monster Editor to version 4.0 a while ago. pasting the "what's new" would make this post far too long, so I'll let you read it for yourself. :-)

you can pick the file up at our Translation Utilities page.

Emulator Release: Visual Boy v1.4.6
02:39:  Visual Boy, a GameBoy emulator, has been updated. Here's what's new:

9/20/2000
Misc. News: Rom Dump Available Soon
23:36:  According to DoomX, bootleg carts of King of Fighters 2000 are now available in Hong Kong. Project-0 (that's a zero) have said that they are going to dump it, but need more donations to get the game dumped.

Check out their site at http://projectzero.39m.net/index.html.

Emulator News: Multiplatform Operating Environment
23:14:  tubooboo sent us an e-mail telling us about a project that he's working on. It's called "ngine", and I probably can't do it justice, but here's the basic concept: He's writing a multiplatform operating environment (engine) that attempts to simplify porting applications to different operating systems. I'm really struggling with how to define this, so here's the "Small FAQ" from the project's homepage.

Does it work with Platform X? Yes. all that needs to be done ONCE is writing the plugin code. ONCE only for ANY given ngine program.
What are the minimum requirements? A C++ compiler for the target platform, a display able to display a pixel based image, and some means of input. The ngine core will not use a lot of resources, but the ultimate amount of RAM required is based on your target program running in the ngine.
This sounds pretty familiar to what MAME / PSEmu does... ...but it's SO much more powerful. Talk about system independent menuing and messaging.
Is this going to help me find ROMS? no. go away.
Does it support DirectX? It supports whatever you want it to support. Included in the current implementation are DirectX and GDI plugins for Windows and Windows CE.
OK, i want to develop using this / port your emu, where is the download? Well, it isnt completed yet. It is heavily under construction, and some major parts of the application already work. In a few weeks, I will be posting a beta of the program to a limited amount of testers.

Site News: Harvest Moon Editor Updated
22:54:  Jathys has updated HME (Harvest Moon Editor) to version 0.4u. The previously existing Ranch Editor has been slightly improved and a brand new Mountain Editor has been added with "full" support.

Get it at our Translation Utilities page.

Translation News: Secret of Mana 2 German 100%
22:29:  Special-Man of G-Trans (a German translation group) told us that he has released a 100% German patch for Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2 in the US.) This patch is the product of a year of work by the following people:

• Special-Man - Project Leader, Translator
• LavosSpawn - Programmer, Translator
  
• Ryu - Translator
  
• Effioso - Translator
  
• Reaper - Translator
  
• Sic! - Translator

Utility Release: Meridian v1.0
22:19:  Meridian, an NSF and GYM player, is out with some excellent new features. Here's the changes:

Emulator Release: DBoy v0.70a
22:09:  Elijah Chu was one of the first to let us know about the new DBoy. My Japanese->English isn't great, so I hope these changes are accurate (help anyone?):

Links Update: The Verge Source
21:57:  tatsumi_oreo writes in with:

Perhaps you've heard of VERGE? The engine used to create console-style pc games? Well, me and some friends have created a new site for VERGE.

Link: http://www.vergesource.com

Emulator Release: EX68 2.14
21:27:  A new version of EX68, a X68000 emulator for Windows, has been released. There are various release notes on the site, but no definite "what's new" in this version. If you're interested in EX68, go visit yourself. However you may want to use the e-Lingo webpage translator since it's in Japanese. You can get EX68 at the X68000 page. Thanks to EmuCamp for the news.

Site News: Emulating video game systems...on video game systems...
21:15:  cleric writes:

Some of you might remember me. I am cleric, the guy who ran news-u-lator and lator.com. I decided that I wanted to make a comepletely different kind of site, so I just launched NGE (a site dedicated to emulating video game systems on video game systems). It is hosted by ROAR!

Link: http://nge.roarvgm.com

Emulator Release: DarcNES dn9a0916
21:08:  A new version of the DarcNES source has been released, as well as an official Windows build. Here's what's new:

Emulator Release: French MacMAME v0.37 Beta 7
21:06:  The french translation of MacMAME has been brought up to the latest MAME release. Grab it from the Mac Multi-Arcade emulators.

Thanks to Marc Vielfaure for the email.

Emulator Release: Final Burn 0.20 released!
11:44:  Man, does Dave work fast! already, he's released a new version of Final Burn! Does this man ever sleep? here's what's new:

v0.020
* Changed the scanlines method back so only one blit is done (probably more reliable in the long run), mainly because blitting each scanline is too slow in DirectDraw.
* Unfortunately, some of you may have some vertical banding ffects. Try disabling the bilinear filter on your video card. I'll have a think about how to sort this one out.

You can pick this up at our Multiple Arcade Emulators page.

Emulator News: Some NeoPocott News
11:14:  PnP mailed in to let us know about some goings-on in the NeoPocott world. First of all, there's a NeoPocott Compatibility List for version 0.35b. Second, the due date for the NeoPocott Logo Contest is Sept. 24th, so all you artists should get cracking. you should check out the current entries, as there's some fierce competition going on. :)

Media News: New Retrogaming Times is up
10:47:  seems that this month's episode (issue) of the Retrogaming Times is up. here's what's new:

-MAME Reviews of Dino Rex and Hippodrome!
-First news on the Phillyclassic and C.C.A.G. classic game shows!
-Wrap-up of the TI 99/4A coverage!
-A whole lot more!

do yourself a favor and read up!

Site News: A few words...
05:46:  First off, I need to say something about Brad (Zophar).

4 years ago when I first met him on Undernet IRC, he was one of those "elite" people that you didn't dare to talk to. But I did, and he actually took the time to chat with me. Time passed, and I had the utmost respect for him. Finally, I got the guts to ask for a job here, and he let me in the family.

After awhile, and probably from seeing him from an insider's perspective (and going to his place and hanging out a few times), he lost the "eliteness" and just became another guy I knew. We argued, fought, etc...I even publically stated I lost all respect for him and I figured ZD would fall the ground. I even had my finger on the "Send" key with my resignation written.

In actuality, it was because I was truely devoted to seeing ZD succeed, and Brad was neglecting the site by dedicating his time to things more important than a web site (aka real life). After getting my own life (girlfriend, job, massive debts, etc), I understood where he was coming from.

As it stands now, and below the surface, I still do have the utmost respect for Brad, and a firm devotion to ZD. While I've always lacked interest in emulation (never played video games), my devotion comes from the technical side of things...from being able to say "I helped do that".

ZD wasn't taken over, Brad didn't quit...he handed the torch to me, and I'll continue to keep it bright. I look forward to any contributions from Brad (articles, guest judge for future contests, etc). We're not changing the name, as Zophar's Domain is just a name...the "'s" is not posessive, and you all voted that idea down.

To Brad: "Hi, I'm Bob. What's an emulator?" (inside joke) Your site is in good hands and will always be #1.

To the staff: The last few months haven't been great...let's not lie. Now it's time to pickup the pieces and give the people what they've always wanted. The BEST news FIRST. The largest, most complete and most updated archive of emulators on the internet.

To the visitors: If it weren't for you guys, we'd be typing to ourselves. Your support and occasional "Good job!" emails are our driving force. If ZD is missing something that you'd like to see, by all means, contact us. Your voice will be heard. A lot of people said they want a new design and an easier interface...that system is 10 months in development and is nearing completion. You said you want updated emulator descriptions that are more precise and less BS to fill the space...virt is doing a great job getting those updated. You said you wanted an email address that you could include in your mass mailings about emu releases, site news, and such...we gave you news@zophar.net.

Emulation is not dying. Emulation is slowing down a bit, as most systems are emulated and emulated well (GB/NES/Atari/etc). It's extremely difficult to emulate the next generation systems, so updates and new releases for those emulators are few and spaced far apart (DC/N64/CPS2).

As Brad has always said, Emulation Forever. Long live Zophar's Domain.

Misc. News: Uhm, hello.
04:18:  Wow, talk about a time to make an introduction.
Hi. I'm mushroom blue (Jason Oliveira) and I'm one of the new site maintainers. I've been in the emulation community for roughly 3 years now, and am excited to help make ZD an even better site than it is today.

We'll miss ya, Zophar.

Site News: New Senior Staffer...
00:35:  Well, in light recent events, I, Ernie Smith, have taken the open position on ZD's Senior Staff. Me and Kevin (XiP) will be in charge of the day-to-day issues involved in running the site starting today.

As always, if you'd like to send us a news submission, Contact Us. I'm looking forward to running the site with as much energy as (and probably even more than) I've used to work on ZD in the past.

Any concerns? Mail me, because I'd like to personally hear what you have in mind for making the site even better.

Emulator Release: Laser 0.11a
00:30:  As promised, I have released Laser 0.11a. Here's what's new:

Site News: The End of an Era: Brad 'Zophar' Levicoff to depart ZD, Sam Michaels left in charge
00:01:  Hey everyone. I apologize for not returning under better circumstances, but before I begin I'd like to say something.

This is in NO way an unhappy 'emulation is dead' cry of sadness. I want everyone right now reading this to laugh. Or smile. Or stand upside down on your head and say 'BOOGIEWOOGIE'. Whatever is fun for you do, or I'll kill you all. :)

It's been a wild rollercoaster ride for the last four years and I have to say, I've learned quite a bit. Whether it was helping out an emulation author debug one of their latest emulators, offering help to a budding new site webmaster or overseeing a site with some of the greatest team players I've ever seen, I've always tried to give 110%, even in times when it would seemingly dip into negative digits.

Sure, it's never been easy and it's been FAR from perfect. It's true - the saying goes that ZD has gone through more staff members than Bill Clinton through interns - hey, we never claimed to be perfect! The one thing we always did come through with is the fact that we never gave up.

Over the past four years, I've seen and done many things. Not everything was the right decision, and looking back there were many things that I would have done differently. However, I can't turn back the clock and neither can any human being. All we can do is learn from our mistakes in order not to repeat them.

Sam Michaels (aka SwampGas) has been a part of Zophar's Domain for well over two years. He knows the site inside & out and has been designing a "Next-Gen" system, to be unveiled soon that will hopefully breathe new life into a site that has truly been through hell and back. It's still here to tell the tale! If anyone has good business know-how and is capable of running a site in a firm but fair manner, it's Sam. I am very confident that as the new owner and C.E.O. of Zophar's Domain, he will work to oversee the site in the best manner possible, as I have always tried to do for the last four years.

Effective September 20, 2000 @ 12:01AM (ie, immediately), Samuel Michaels will be your new party-host. I ask that you all treat him with the same respect that you would treat any other webmaster or staffer that devotes their time to providing you, the visitor, with the best possible browsing experience you could ever hope to receive. Running a website, as well as maintaining, takes a lot of work and is not as rewarding, financially, as you may think. So the next time you visit the site, show your appreciation and drop the staffers a mail. Let them know they're doing a great job and tell them you want them to keep it up. A few words goes a long way - trust me, I've been there!

Many people will ask the obvious question - why? Well, there are a variety of reasons. I went back to school this fall. Although I've never really said this to anyone, I've really been falling behind in my studies since I began devoting more time behind the scenes to ZD in 1999. It came to a point where I almost thought that I could make a few hundred dollars a month, get by and save 'college for later'. Friends, let me tell you - BIG MISTAKE. There is *nothing* more important in the world than school. This may sound cheesy and overplayed, but the best thing you can do is get an education, because there's pretty much nothing in this world that's certain. My father always told me that there were only two things other than death in life that you could be certain of - "You're born, and you pay taxes". :) Words of wisdom, no?

Kind of ironic how today's Overclocked.org is about "quitting the scene". That's not the only weird thing. Here in Philadelphia, it's raining something fierce! This exact kind of storm was present on November 9, 1996 in Philly as well - the very day I founded Zophar's Domain! It doesn't get much more eerie than that. It's kind of like things coming around full circle.

Enough stalling! I'd like to take the last few moments of my time to thank everyone - and I mean EVERYONE - who I can possibly remember that has helped me in someway with my own personal life, or contributing to Zophar's Domain. If I forget anyone, I sincerely apologize - I am going 100% from memory right now and I'm sure I'm missing some people. If I spell your name wrong, please forgive me. Real names are used when I can remember them in place of nicknames. Most last names are abbreviated to protect the innocent. ;)

In no particular order:

The emulator authors: Marat Fayzullin, Chris George, zsknight, _Demo_, Icer Addis, Pharos, Carlos Alberto Lozano Baides, Ishmair, TRAC, Fx3, Steve Snake, RealityMan, TNSe, Quietust, Markus Gietzen, Jerremy Koot, Gary Henderson, James McKay, Matt Conte, Paul Robson, Haruki Ikeda (R.I.P.), Marcel De Kogel, and all other emulator authors that I've spoken with throughout the years that my horrible memory prevents me from listing - as well as those I didn't know but who helped the community through their tireless efforts.

The Staff - Past & Present + direct help: Ryan Vines, Alan Lanoie, Rend0002, Steve Demeter, Jeremy Chadwick, Bjorn Astrom, Sam Michaels, Kevin Young, Ernie Smith, noam, Jake Kaufman, Lawson Culver, Louis Martinez, Sam K., Stacey & Matt Flewelling, rouge, grit9000, emufreak, gangis, Mickey McMurray, crispana, icewizard, shamanix, yakko, mushroom blue, Ben Funk, rza, poetess, CB4, "Tanarus/Athena Asamiya", grimmett, and all those who directly or indirectly contributed somehow over the last four years whose names I somehow cannot recall.

My Philly boys (and girls): Ross B., Ed B., Michael Jacobson, Philip J., Richard B., Brian S., Harris R., Chad F., Gloria C., Vera F., David P., Chris M. and Adam. Thanks guys - I'd still be stuck behind a video card or something without you!

The IRC/Net Guys & webmasters: EFX, Faraway, The_Sheik, mascot, BlackPuma, Deathrage, vore, Dave W. of VG, bwb & Peter Dalton of EmuHQ, uzplayer, everyone at Emucamp & Emuunlim, Jim Pragit, Sasha, Powerlord, xxdethxx, xscrawlx, __Daria, Trixie Firecracker, MindRape, MadHatter, TuxedoMsk, ChaosKnight, nutmonkey, azimer, backdrop, kitten, atila, prophet, darkmazda, marp, sevy, rob(wild), Moogie, HBKid, everyone at emusphere, Braxus, geechyguy, David Lloyd, thirty-ninester, GhaleonX, the old undernet "Zophar", zane, The Scribe, chrono, lk*1, SoM2Freak, David Timko, Magickian, reptile, mooglezz, riddler, JL_Picard, Zachary Williams, Ubu, Ripfob, hiryuu, NS, bigjake, Lance McKay, 4999, lowrider, gloone, lepper, Joe, letoram, chromium, herbman, cixel, sui, niczak, midnight_mage, Astos, Kry, hiroshi, IJ... so many more. Please don't take offense if I forgot you, it's been a long time...

The Israeli Grobemeister: Jeremy Schwartz (mwuahahhaha - visit me in Philly sometime, damnit!)

The Little People: The midgets + Bloodlust Software / Ethan Petty, Evan J., Ritesh, Nikool, Matt E., Greg Levicoff, Petey and all the kids and midgets who supported ZD all these years by visiting...

My Parents: Michele & Louis Levicoff

In Memory: Diana & Charles Eichler, Esther & Charles Levicoff (My loving grandparents... rest in peace.)

Very Special Thank-Yous

• Ross B. - For showing me VGB-DOS in 1996, opening the door for ZD, and for being a good friend.
• Chris Hickman & Sean Whalen - Your sites (Archaic Ruins and Node 99, respectively) are what got me hooked into emulation webmastering to begin with.
• Mike Jacobson - For showing me the internet in 1996 and being a good friend.
• Eugene Grinberg - He got me into computers & BBSs in 1995.
  
• Icer Addis - One of the most twisted and intelligent guys I've ever met. Hope to see you again someday. :)
  
• DemonKnight - First 'underground emulation' BBS in Philly that I ever visited. Contact me sometime!
  
• Dave Scherer, Bob Ryder & Dave Meltzer - Your alternative websites provided me with endless hours of bone-crunching entertainment.
  
• Vince McMahon & the entire World Wrestling Federation(If ya smell what the Z is cooking)
  
• The following music artists & bands who inspired my way of thinking & dealing with issues throughout the years - Marilyn Manson, Trent Reznor/Nine Inch Nails, Korn, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Rob Zombie, Information Society
  
• Ryan Vines & Alan Lanoie - We were the original triad of terror. Somehow, I always thought that Alan would outlast me. :)

9/19/2000
Site News: The Emulation Dream 2000
23:45:  Greetings.

Please check back here at midnight sharp for a special announcement that will change the face of Zophar's Domain forever.

After careful consideration and a few years, the emulation dream is not totally doomed - it just needs to be brought into Y2K. So, without any furthur delay I bring you... The Emulation Dream 2000!

Spread this on every website, upload it to FTPs, print it for your dartboard... do what you will with it, but read it and gather from it what you can. It's my final gift to the emulation community.

• The Emulation Dream 2000 (TXT)
• The Emulation Dream 2000 (HTML)

Emulator Release: Final Burn 0.019 Released
23:31:  Dave at The Final Burn Homepage has released version 0.019 of his Final Burn multiple arcade emulator. Here's what is new:

• Fixed the engine sound - it has to do with looping samples.
• I also increased the accuracy of the PCM emulation - the Vulcan gun now sounds better I think.

Utility Release: visine 1.0
23:29:  visine is a Mega Man 2 level editor by Fx3. It supports all 8 robots and Wily levels as well as other features. You can get it at the facelift utilities page.

Utility Release: Graphics Studio 1.2 Released
22:30:  Rusty Wagner (of Rusty Programming) has updated his full version of Graphics Studio to version 1.2. Here is what he fixed in this version:

• Everything correctly updates when a color changes in the palette, without the need for a 'dummy click'.
• Resize tile function under the Tiles menu. Use this to resize the tiles into metatiles in order to NOT mess up the tile data.
  
• Split tile function also under the Tiles menu. This will correctly split a larger tile into smaller tiles. This works with any size tiles now, not just 8x8.

Translation News: New Chrono Trigger Spoof
22:22:  cHiBiMaRuKo has released his own text-based spoof patch for Chrono Trigger (SNES) which he has affectionately dubbed "Chrono Trigger: Another Stupid Spoof." You can check it out at his site (you guessed it... the Chrono Trigger: Another Stupid Spoof Site!) OR get it from our Hacks page, as usual.

Misc. News: Fangame Project, "Operation Earthbound" in Need of Additional Artist
03:58:  Crazypumpkin writes:

A few weeks ago, I have posted news of my Earthbound fangame "Operation Earthbound". The game is meant to be an independant sequel to the SNES RPG. It's creation was in response to the Earthbound 64 cancellation. However, while the story (and a good part of scripting) is completed at this point, our artist is overwhelmed with schoolwork. He needs someone who can help him out.

If any of you are experienced with SNES/NES/GBC tileset design and sprite design, and are serious workers (though real life commitments take priority of course), we could use you!

If you are interested, please either
ICQ me at 12002761 or email me at rosfam@worldnet.att.net

Emulator Release: fMSXSO v0.81
03:56:  What happened to MSXSO you may ask? Well, the author decided to rename it to fMSXSO because it's based on fMSX. Here's the changes:

Emulator Release: New STEM
03:40:  STEM is an RCA Studio 2 emulator written by Paul Robson. This new version allows support for binary roms.

Head over to the RCA Studio 2 emulators page for a copy.

Also, check out the Studio 2 ROMs, as we've collected Spaced Invaders as well as Hockey, an improved version of Pong.

Thanks to Paul Robson for the email.

Frontend News: kSnes9x
03:18:  Omkar Namjoshi wrote in and told us about kSnes9x, a frontend for Snes9x written for KDE. It features automatic saving of options, profiles and a easy to use interface.

We didn't have this before, so check out the SNES Frontends to get a copy, or check out the official site.

Site News: New Look for VG Museum
03:03:  Mek emailed us to tell us that the Video Game Museum got a brand spanking new design. Check it out.

Emulator Release: EMU+ v0.37 Beta 7
02:58:  danmanya gave us the heads up about EMU+ being updated to the latest MAME release. Here's the changes:

Emulator Release: BasicNES v0 Debugger Level 1.3
02:54:  Don Jarret let us know that there is a new build of BasicNES out. There's far too many changes to list.

Grab it from the NES emulators.

Misc. News: AmigaTRANS Gets a New Address
02:45:  PJ writes:

The AmigaTRANS project (as on your Comp. Systems Utilities page) has been moved to a new address which is http://www.agnus.org.uk

A new version (3.0) is in development and will be released shortly. AmigaTRANS is a program to automate transfer from Amiga to PC with a null-modem cable.

9/18/2000
Misc. News: Experienced HTML Coder Needed
23:51:  jbtrunks, the creator of DBZ Translation is going to be doing a major overhaul of his page at http://www.dbztrans.net and is looking for someone experienced in HTML and Flash. If you would like to apply to help, e-mail him at jbhnrh@hotmail.com.

Utility Release: EarthBound Save State Editor 1.5
23:17:  I've added the EarthBound Save State Editor 1.5 to our SNES Utilities page. This is an editor for ZSNES EarthBound save states.
Thanks to Tomato for the news!

Emulator Release: WinFellow 0.4.2 alpha 1
22:42:  A new version of WinFellow, a Amiga emulator for Windows, has been released. You can see what's new in this file. You can get WinFellow at the Amiga page. Thanks to Tony for the news.

Emulator News: Laser Progress
19:27:  I have been working on Laser, trying to get the release out that was mentioned in JoseQ's Rumor Mill. I have some good news and some bad news regarding this release.

First, the good news:
Laser has moved to it's own domain. It can now be reached at www.laseremu.com.

I have been working on adding more games. 4 Player Bowling has started to work.

Now the bad news:
I've come across a stumbling block. I can't figure out how to emulate some of the controls. ie: The 2 player controls in Space Invaders, and the controls in 4 Player Bowling and Chess.

If you can help me with these problems, I would be greatful. I have looked through every source I could think of to no avail.

Thank you in advance for any help,
Mickey McMurray

Misc. News: Baltimore Sun ArcadePC Article
16:51:  The Baltimore Sun has done a story on Hanaho's ArcadePC, which lets you use emulators in a real arcade cabinet.

You can read the story here.

Thanks to Retrogames for the news.

Emulator Release: Final Burn 0.015
13:45:  Final Burn has been updated to 0.015. Here's what's new:

Emulator News: GBA Emulator *NOT* Leaked!
05:55:  In a twist of irony, the author of the GameBoy Advanced Emulator was the person who "leaked" it. Here's what the official site says:

The versions of GbaEmu that are available on the Internet aren't leaked, they were actually released by myself ...

I hereby apologize to everyone whom I've caused harm in any way whatsoever...

I hereby quit from the GBA dev scene and discontinue the work on my GBA emulator/debugger.

There you have it...

9/17/2000
Utility Release: Three new file renaming utilities
17:05:  I've updated the General Utilities page with three new utilities from The Webulator, RomSort, JSort, and DiskSort RomSort supports RomDoctor and Good* files to rename ROM files and JSort uses JSheriff .crc files to rename JPEG files. JSort and the source is included in the RomSort Zip file.
DiscSort is a file renamer for disk-image based emulators. Supports PRG, P00, CRT, T64, D64, G64, and TAP and pleminary Amiga ADf/ADZ support.
The files can be found on our General Utilities page.
Thanks to The Webulator for the news!

Emulator Release: WinUAE 0.8.14 R3
16:55:  A new version of WinUAE, an Amiga emulator for Windows, has been released, and here's what's new:

Utility Release: Two New Playstation Utilities Added
16:47:  Two new PSX utilities, FF7vM and PSX Multi Converter, have been added to the PSX utilities page. FF7vM is a utility that reads Final Fantasy 7 character models in the LZS files on the CDs. PSX Multi Converter converts PSX XA and STR files into PC readable formats. Thanks to r30y162part2 for the news and for translating these utilities.

9/16/2000
Emulator Release: MAMED/MESSD 0.37 Beta 6
23:59:  Both MAMED and MESSD for Digital Cameras have been updated to 0.37 Beta 6. Here's what's new:

Emulator News: FPSE's site designer opens his big mouth
18:29:  Mr. Fog, the designer of the webpage for the PSX emulator FPSE, recently made a very offensive post on the FPSE page, which I'll share with the rest of you:

WOW... we make and all Other copy :-))
1) Jackal (I think it's dead)
2) Sope 0.4
3) Pcsx
4) ePSXe
And now????
What emulator do U want to make with our sources today?

WE ARE THE BEST!!!
FPSE LinuX version: -1 day.
!+Mr.Fog+!

Wow.

Well, in response, the author of PCSX in particular cancelled his project but then reopened it due to fan support.

I'm not going to judge Mr. Fog, but saying something like that is rather dangerous and ruins fan support for his site's emulator. I'll let you guys have your say about this on the General Emulation board.

Thanks to cebrian99 and The Great D2 for the news.

Media News: Twingalaxies Press Release
15:42:  Walter Day of Twin Galaxies submitted a press release on his site, a video game high-score website. Here's the info:

NEWS RELEASE
Video Game World Records Now Online in Free Database

The high-score database containing the official world records for video game and pinball playing is now available on the Internet as a free reference source.

It can be found by clicking on SEARCH SCORES at:
http://www.twingalaxies.com

This body of information is essentially the statistical history of video game and pinball playing from 1977 to present and has already been used in years past as a reference source by many news agencies and Hollywood producers, including the Guinness Book of World Records, ABC-TV's That's Incredible and Jeopardy, the TV game show. In the forthcoming months, this data will be supplemented with 15,000 further high scores which represent the new
world records on today's current game titles.

For more information, contact emma@twingalaxies.com

Also, we'd like to post more press releases in general on the site. As long as they're valid in the realm of emulation or video games, and include valuable information to visitors, we'll post them. Simply contact us with your information, mentioning your website and release.

Thanks again to Walter Day for the news.

Emulator News: SSF Readme Translated
15:33:  Thanks to kaioshade, we now have a translation of the SSF emulator's Readme. Here's the info on the first playable Saturn emulator ever:

Production record(2000.9.10)

PREVIEW


Corresponding OS
Window 95 / 98 / Me (requires I32.dll, direct X7. 0 or higher)
Does not work on Windows 2000 currently



Minimum Syetem
Processor: Mmx-pentium or better
Graphic card: Direct Draw capable and capable of 32 bit color
Resolution: 800 x600 OR 1024 x768
Sound card: capable of 44.1 KHZ stereo and able to reproduce PCM sound (corresponds to directsound )
CD ROM drive: Above (for non SCSI) the ATAPI 8 time speed
In addition, you need the Boot ROM image

Recommended System
System clock: 100 Mhz or greater
Processor: Pentium II 450 Mhz or greater
Memory: 128 MB SDRAM
Graphics card: AGP 2 X or Above
CD ROM drive: 16X or greater

Development and operational System
Processor: Athlon 650 Mhz
Memory: 128 MB SDRAM
Graphics Card: Voodoo 3 3000
Soundcard: Soundblasterpc I64
CD ROM Drive: 32X
In addition: Boot ROM ver. 1. 01


Current Progress:
90% S H2 emulator
30% CD block
80% VD P1 processing
5% VD P2 processing
80% SCU processing
80% SMPC processing
50% 68000 emulator
0% SCSP processing
10% picture synthetic processing

In other SSF news, sidewalker sidewalker notified us that the SSF homepage features a preview page, with screenshots of a number of different games.

Anyway, if you're interested in checking SSF out, you can pick it up on the Saturn Emulators page.

Thanks to kaioshade and sidewalker sidewalker for the news.

Translation News: Daisenryaku Gameboy 100% English
14:37:  Gaijin Productions has released a 100% English patch for the Gameboy version of Daisenryaku, a strategy game. Pick up the patch at our English Translations page.

Translation News: Earthbound Hack Updated
13:50:  Bubble Monkey has released version 1.5 of his Earthbound (SNES) hack. The hack mas created to make the game harder by modifying enemies, items, and making new enemies. There are also some graphics that have been changed.

Download it at our Hacks page.

Emulator News: GBA emulator leaked...
12:05:  In some unfortunate news, today we found out from looking at the author's homepage that the program was leaked. Here's a quote:

Two weeks ago a person called 'Peter Claeyssens' (his real name?) asked me if I needed any help on my GBA emulator/debugger. After he showed me some of his work (starting to doubt if it was his) I decided to give him the source code for the GUI to help me out with the debugger, bad choice, a few days later he stopped responding to my e-mails ...

This lamer actually thinks he can pull this off, but he forgot one important thing, he doesn't have the source code for the cpu core / gfx engine.
Translation ... he f'd me, himself, and everyone else.

If anyone has comments about the emulator, please go to the General Emulation board and post your opinion on it.

While the emulator can be found at a number of other places, for the time being we've decided to remove the link to the file on our GBA page, while leaving the entry intact. Hopefully, the author doesn't give up his work due to such a disheartening incident.

Thanks to hyperX for the news.

9/15/2000
Emulator Release: GameBoy Advance Emulator -- No, it's not a joke.
21:55:  The first release of a GameBoy Advance emulator -- that's right, an emulator for a system which won't be out for months at least -- was released today. While GBAEmu doesn't play much beyond a rare technical demo, it has been confirmed to work by multiple sources, with graphics. (It does not run in real-time yet, though. You have to debug the emu through to get it working.) In case you'd like to see some screenshots of the emulator in action, check out gameboy advance development, which features a number of them, including a rotating image (animated GIF, of course) of the Yoshi demo.

Anyway, go to the brand-new GameBoy Advance Emulators page and check it out.

Thanks to mark for the impressive news.

Translation News: FF3 German Patch
17:22:  ManuLoewe has released his 40% complete German patch for Final Fantasy 3 US (SNES). Get it from our German Translations page.

Emulator Release: NeoPocott 0.35b
17:15:  Just as predicted, a new version of NeoPocott has been released. If you want to know what's new, scroll down to yesterday's news. You can get NeoPocott at the NeoGeo Pocket page. Thanks to PnP for the news.

Misc. News: More about that NES emulator for SNES...
15:07:  I've received some more information about that SNES NES emulator from Jigsaw. It's actually not really an emulator; it's more of a converter. It will convert the NES games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, and Popeye into SNES format. There's no sound and the games are buggy, but they're fully playable. You can go check it out again if you're interested.

Emulator Release: Daphne 0.99.1
15:03:  A new version of Daphne, a LaserDisc arcade emulator for Windows, has been released. I don't have a list of what's new, but you can get it at the LaserDisc page. Thanks to SephirothBCH for the news.

Site News: Message Boards
14:54:  I've axed the next-gen emulation board due to lack of activity. Feel free to visit General Emulation board to discuss emulation.

Site News: Save archives updated
14:25:  Due to unforseeable circumstances, the new archive system could not be implemented as I had mentioned in an earlier post. Just proceed as normal for now, and I will let you know when it is really ready.

Save archives updated: NeoRAGEx, NSM, STA, SRM, CHT, ZMV, ZST archives.
Game music archives updated: GYM, SPC archives.

Emulator Release: FCE Ultra 2.5
03:57:  A new version of FCE Ultra, a NES emulator, has been released, and there are DOS, Windows, and Unix ports. Here's what's new:

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.48
03:28:  A new version of SNEeSe, a SNES emulator for DOS, has been released, and here's what's new:

Emulator Release: NO$CPC 1.7
03:21:  A new version of NO$CPC has been released, and here's what's new:

Translation News: Dragon Warrior 1 Hack: Dragoon X Omega
03:08:  Silver X has released the final version of his great Dragon Warrior 1 hack, Dragoon X Omega. Prety much the whole game is changed. Go get it at the hacks page.

Emulator Release: NES emulator for Super NES
02:51:  Neat. A NES emulator for SNES. I don't know how much good it will do most of you, but you could probably have some fun if you have a copier. Go check out this "FC emulator for Super Famicom."

Update by swampgas @ 5:14am: To translate the site (since it's in japanese), check out the eLingo Web Page Translations.

Emulator Release: nester 2000.08.17
02:37:  nester is a new NES emulator for Windows. Here are the features:

Misc. News: MAME Targets Site Updated
02:26:  The MAME Targets site, a website that lists unemulated arcade games, has updated their list. Here's what's new:

Misc. News: MAME Flyer Pack #12
02:22:  The Arcade Flyer Archive has released pack #12 for your viewing pleasure. 26 new images are added and 5 are replaced. This brings the total number of flyers to 1180.

Emulator Release: DPCE
02:19:  DPCE is a new TurboGrafx 16 emulator thta is mostly written in Delphi. It supports sound, save/load states, and window/full screen modes. However, it's still very buggy. You can get it at the TurboGrafx 16 page.

Emulator News: Dreamcast Emulator Readme
01:59:  Barubary has kindly translated the readme file for the Dreamcast emulator announced last week into English. If you were wondering the specifics, you can find out now.

Utility Release: "King of Fighters" Trainers
00:56:  Kyo Takagen wrote in about the trainer he created for "King of Fighters 96." He says:
Just added the KOF96 Trainer with a Special Mode function that allows :
i) Execute skills on air.
ii) Move character before match starts.
iii) Crazy combos. (Best use with Turbo movement.)
I've added it and his other "King of Fighters" trainers to our Neo*Geo Utilities page.
Thanks to Kyo for the news!

Translation News: FF6 Bugfix Updated
00:27:  ManuLoewe and Tzepish (try saying that five times fast) have released their FF6 Bugfix version. You can get it at our SNES Translations page.

Translation News: Final Fantasy 1 Hack Updated
00:08:  Frioniel has updated his hack of Final Fantasy 1 (NES, of course) to version 1.11 and changed the name to Final Fantasy Bronze. Get it at our Hacks page.

9/14/2000
Translation News: Brainlord French Translation
23:56:  Crispysix has completed his French translation of Brainlord, an RPG for the SNES. The actual version number is 0.99. Get it at our French Translations page.

Emulator Release: Bochs 2000.0325a
23:19:  A new version of Bochs, a PC emulator for Unix, has been released. If you missed it ('cause we sure did), Bochs is now licensed under LGPL. You can get the latest version at the PC emulators for Unix page.

Emulator News: NeoPocott 0.35b Released...Tomorrow
23:03:  A new version of NeoPocott, a NeoGeo Pocket Color emulator for Windows, will be released tomorrow. Here's what will be new:

Emulator Release: YAME 0.13 & 0.14
22:52:  YAME is a multiconsole emulator. There are version for Windows and Unix. The documentation is in Japanese, but it seems to support TurboGrafx 16, NES, and Gameboy. You can get YAME 0.13 for Windows or YAME 0.14 for Unix. Thanks to nimrod for the news.

Emulator News: ePSXe
22:11:  Information about a new freeware PSX emulator called ePSXe has recently surfaced. The emulator supports some commercial games, and it has sound, mdec and memory card support. It also uses PSEmu Pro plugins. There's not really any word on a release date. Here's the system requirements:

Minimal requeriments are windows 9x, Pentium 200Mhz MMX, 32 Mb, and a nice videoboard, recomended at least Pentium 2 450Mhz, 64 Mb and geforce 2 :-)

You can read more at the ePSXe webpage. Thanks to cebrian99 for the news.

Interview News: Sega-related Interviews Anyone?
21:54:  Eidolon's Inn has interviewed an enormous amount of people related the the Sega emulation community. Here's the list:

Emulator Release: NLMSX 0.29
21:46:  A new version of NLMSX, a MSX emulator for DOS, has been released, and here's what's new:

Misc. News: Major CPS2 progress being made
10:31:  The following comes from the Work In Progress on CPS2 Shock:

08/09/2000
I managed to place a small piece of my own 68k code (non encrypted) into the CPS-2 systems screen memory. To my disbelieve the code ran perfectly on forcing the main processor to execute it, I've confirmed it to.

This basically means;
The 68k CPU runs on standard 68k instructions. Not so custom after all?

Only CPU fetches from ROM are encrypted, fetches from RAM are not.
This makes it highly likely that decryption takes place between CPU and ROM and not inside the CPU itself.

I'm now thinking about possible exploits I can use by inserting and executing my own code, I'm still getting numbers using the EPROM emu too, more soon.

11/09/2000
With some help from the MAMEdev I have determined the main processor isn't a 68000, it's another from the 680x0 family. I will know which once opcodes are tried that only run on certain processors in this family.

13/09/2000
The main processor is in fact a 68000 and not any other from the 680x0 family like I mentioned in the last WIP. My silly mistake, I deleted the instruction to place the CPU into supervisor mode by accident.

I also corrected a few typos in the latest spreadsheet.

To download their latest spreadsheet, head over to CPS2 Shock.

Site News: new ZD staff member
00:22:  Hello Nurse! I'm Yakko, one of your new ZD news updaters. I would say something witty or funny, but I can't think of anything. I'll be back soon, so for now Goodnight everybody!

9/13/2000
Misc. News: RetroBase Adds NeoGeo Section
03:12:  RetroBase has added a SNK NeoGeo sections with 129 games covered (screenshots and all). Go drop by and take a look.

Emulator Release: WinUAE 0.8.14 R2
03:01:  A new version of WinUAE, an Amiga emulator for Windows, has been released, and here's what's new:

R2

Site News: Poll Update
00:11:  Okay kids, new poll time. The old poll was gathering dust, so we decided to update it. Here's the old poll:

What new sections would you like to see on ZD?
13% (661 votes) Emulators for the Amiga
10% (525 votes) Emulators for the Palm Pilot
11% (551 votes) Computer Hardware Reviews
12% (600 votes) Another type of music file section (SID, etc)
26% (1297 votes) I'd like them all to be added!
25% (1231 votes) I don't care for any of them, ZD doesn't need anything new.
Total Votes: 4865

I would say that it looks like a good chance that all suggested sections may be added to the site in the future.

Anyway, here's the next poll:
Do you still believe in the 1997 ZD Emu Dream?

I won't elaborate on it, except to say that this is the message in which Zophar put thought into to make a meaningful statement regarding what emulation should be. It's still on ZD today.

Wanna vote? Just check the poll above, or check this page if you're on the news-only part of the site.

9/12/2000
Misc. News: Dejap Chinese Mirror
21:35:  lac29 tells us that DeJap has put up a Chinese mirror of their translation site. The site is hosted by FanWen, and can be found at http://dejap.fanwen.com. The page appears to be loading very slowly, so be patient...

9/11/2000
Translation News: Japanese/English Translation Page
17:59:  Boco316 told us about a site called elingo that will do on-the-fly translations (similar to Altavista's Babelfish.) Unlike Babelfish however, this page will translate Japanese pages to English as well. Try it out for yourself...

• Go to http://www.elingo.com/browse/index.html and select Japanese as your source language.
• Cut and paste the SSF url (http://www5.airnet.ne.jp/phantasy/saturn/main.html) and click "Go".
  
• When the page loads, click on the "English" version at the top of the page, and the page will be translated to readable English on the fly!

Translation News: DeJap DQVI Patch
12:23:  As we noted last night, DeJap Translations is now back online. What I did not mention is that they have released a new downloadable patch for Dragon Quest VI (SNES), which you can also get at our SNES Translations page.

Thanks to everyone for the info.

Translation News: Final Fantasy 3 Re-translation
12:13:  Sky Render of Sky Render Translations has released his 100% complete patch for Final Fantasy 3 US. Thanks to RGD for the news... You can download the patch at our SNES Translations page.

Translation News: Moon Crystal French Translation
11:55:  Biglo of BessaB Traductions has released the final patch for Moon Crystal (NES.) Get it from our French Translations page.

Misc. News: Japanese/English Translator Needed
11:41:  DarkStalker has just started an english translation of Kunio Kun No Nekketsu Soccer League for the NES. (This is the sequel to the game that became Nintendo World Cup in the US.) He's looking for a Japanese translator to help out... If you would like to help him, e-mail him at DarkStalker@darkstalker.org.

Translation News: Snes9x German Released
11:38:  sgtSummoner let us know that GhOStFaCe necroMANIACS have released their German translation of Snes9x v1.31. You can get it at our SNES Emulators page.

Links Update: Challenge Games News
03:55:  Recently, one of my personal favorite fan sites, Challenge Games, added new features to itself. Here's the press release:

Challenge Games is now a web portal!

That's right... we're now powered by google.com's site search program, the same as yahoo and lycos and ask jeeves are. What does this mean for you, a member of the emulation community?

It means that you can have a start page that is tailored to your needs and interests. It means that by starting with CG, you have the world of emulation right at your fingertips. From our search bar, you can search through the archives at darkmazda.com and zophar.net, or you can do a general search on the internet's leading engine.

Need roms? Search on CG.

Need to do some reasearch for an English term paper? Search on CG.

On a side note, the site updates continue. I'm sure that you notice the new title graphics around the site, and the new colorations for links and such. I have also started in on the web boards, and have much of the work on them done, but have just a tad more to go before they are truly finished. And there are still many more pages to update around the site. Hopefully, all of this will be taken care of by tomorrow morning at the latest.

If you're at all interested in what the CG staff is cooking up, go check out Challenge Games. Tell the staff I gave them props. ;)

Emulator News: Sad news for those "Expecting something"...
03:37:  Our favorite competition, Vintage Gaming, recently posted the bombshell we were all wondering about, and now find to be true:

UltraHLE is dead, and Jagulator is now a private project.

Here's a quote from the confirming e-mail:

Thank you, I appreciate kind your words.

You must of just caught the post before it disappeared. You will find out now the sites have gone. UltraHLE and Jagulator are now no longer public projects. I have done some hard thinking this evening (well morning now actually - 1:39am) and decided that my hobby is no longer of public concern. I will be asking ZTNet toremove the domains from DNS and my e-mail addresses. As far as I am concerned UltraHLE is dead and buried and I will be deleting the source, roms and all the documentation I have (they will be gone by the time you receive this e-mail). Also, the RealityMan nick is, as of this e-mail, terminated.

No doubt some people will say that this is another smoke screen or delay but to be honest I have had enough of the back biting etc that I have receivedfrom people that do not even know me personally or who have seen my work. HLE is dead now but it set out to achieve its aim and suceeded - to prove N64 emulation was possible.

I will miss many of the people I have met in the community and will stay in contact with a select few but this is it for me. I have a family and new life to consider now - time to face the real world. Jagulator will continue privately as an interest for me when things are quiet.

This is the final statement I am making so if you want to post it then do so.

Kindest Regards,RealityMan

Wow. I think it's a sad day in emulation to see the first great N64 emu die, but I respect RealityMan's wishes for peace, which he can't get with his name attached to such a big deal as HLE.

Anyway, comments? Come to the General Emulation board and post your thoughts.

Thanks again to Vintage Gaming for the news.

Emulator Release: SSF V. 0.04 Alpha
03:20:  Okay, if anyone wants to shoot a staff member of their choice, they can do so now. That's because we missed a big deal: The first playable Saturn emulator, well, ever. There's a bit of bad news about SSF V. 0.04 Alpha, though. The author is Japanese, and his webpage is equally Japanese. So, little is known about the emulator that could at this point, though information is bound to slowly but surely leak to us all.

Anyway, check out the emulator on our Emulators for Sega Saturn page.

Also, sidewalker sidewalker has referred us to a link featuring a message board post featuring screenshots of the emu in action. Pretty cool, to say the least.

Thanks to everyone for the news.

Translation News: DeJap Page Updated
02:50:  In a bit of interesting news, which I'm sure we've all been lacking lately, the DeJap translation group has updated their page for the first time in ages. As many people know, the group was the victim of a leaked beta of their Tales of Phantasia translation, and not only was the beta leaked, but their due credit wasn't even given. Here's a quote from the web site:

To answer many of your questions: The Tales of Phantasia translation has not been dropped. Please be patient, we've had little time in the past few months to work on it and we might be slow answering e-mails about it.

While the page has that very leaked beta on it, we have decided out of respect to the authors not to carry their patch until they have the full release ready.

Anyway, go check out DeJap Translations for more info.

Thanks to Boba Fett for the news.

9/10/2000
Emulator Release: RockNES 1.200 DOS
03:24:  A new version of RockNES DOS has been released, and here's what's new:

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.47
03:11:  A new version of SNEeSe, a SNES emulator for DOS, has been released, and here's what's new:

Emulator Release: ZSNES 1.01
03:08:  A new version of ZSNES (both the DOS and Windows ports) has been released, and here's what's new:

9/9/2000
Emulator Release: DBOY 0.70
20:05:  A new version of DBOY, a Gameboy emulator for DOS, has been released. I don't know what's new, but you can get it at the Gameboy page. Thanks to Elijah Chu for the news.

Emulator News: Everyone is "expecting something" all of a sudden.
19:25:  Over the past day or so, since aardWolf posted about the blank UltraHLE page, we've received dozens of messages noting a PSemu-esque hidden message on the page, hidden within a comment. Here's what it says:

Expecting something?

I'm not going to interpret it at all, but I'll leave it up for speculation at the General Emulation message boards.

In other related news, a few other people have noted that the UltraHLE author's other site, Jagulator is also blank, but lacks the interesting comment on the page.

Thanks to a large list of people for the news.

9/8/2000
Misc. News: Dreamcast Emulator Compatibility Page
22:19:  I have set up a page for the new Sega Dreamcast Emulator. I am going through just about every Dreamcast program I can get my hands on. If you are curious as to my findings on the new Dreamcast Emulator you can find out at The Dreamcast Emulator Tribute on Emu X.

Misc. News: UltraHLE Page Blank!
22:13:  Doomsday told us that the UltraHLE page is blank... Does this mean the site has been taken down, a new release is imminent, or am I just paranoid? Discuss amongst yourselves at our General Emulation web board.

Translation News: Complete English Patch
22:08:  Project: Sailor Moon has released a complete English patch for Panic in Nakayoshi World (SNES.) The zip file contains the standard IPS file, readme.txt, and an English instruction manual!

Get it at our SNES Translations page.

Translation News: Ranma 1/2 Translation Patches
21:56:  Naruto Translations has released TWO 100% Ranma 1/2 RPG (SNES) English patches. There are two versions... Anime and Manga. From my limited knowledge of Anime and Manga, Anime is ANIMATED Manga. I'm not sure what the difference is between these two patches, so if someone wants to check them out and let me know, feel free...

Download both patches at our SNES Translations page.

Emulator Release: SNEeSe 0.46
16:35:  A new version of SNEeSe, a SNES emulator for DOS, ahs been released, and here's what's new:

Misc. News: Another rant and rave...
15:52:  It's been awhile since I complained about something. Well, here's something that might interest you.

I use McAfee Clinic, which is basically the online version of the VirusScan suite. Not bad for only $30/yr..already picked out a few bad files. The problem is, during an online upgrade, I noticed the ad at the top of the screen had "Powered by Silhouette" underneath it. Since this was not part of the ad, I clicked thru, and it brought up a screen saying I had installed Silhouette, which is a program that tracks my internet usage and records information about me.

WHAT? I DID???

Well, there were "disable this" and an "uninstall this" buttons, and I did that, but I'm guessing it'll take about 2 days for it to get installed again.

I just needed to get my discovery off my chest. Comments should be directed towards the boards.

Emulator Release: Sega Dreamcast Emulator
15:08:  The Dreamcast emulator reported by Emulatronia has been released. I have tried it, and it looks like it is real. The only thing it runs so far is the included Star demo. It runs it at a fairly decent speed on my computer.

You can download it from our Sega Dreamcast emulators page.

Thanks to Emuforce for the news.

9/7/2000
Emulator Release: PCSX v0.5.240
20:51:  AkumaX of the PCSX team sent us a note about their new PSX emulator, PCSX. So far it runs around 100 demos and about 6 commercial games, including Rockman X4, PANG! 3 Collection, and Incredible Hulk. It's supposedly compatible with PSEmu plugins, but none have been tested by the team.

Grab a copy from the PSX emulators, then head over to the PCSX site and grab the plugins.

Misc. News: "No, you may NOT have that!"
19:36:  From CNN:

"Executives of retail giant Kmart are expected to announce Thursday a new policy requiring proof of age for the purchase of violent video and computer games."

"Prompted by Ryan, Sears and Wards, two major retailers decided to stop carrying "M" rated video games."

'Nuff said. Comments anyone?

Emulator Release: Final Burn 0.011
13:48:  Dave's excellent arcade emulator for the After Burner hardware, Final Burn, has been updated to 0.011. Here's what's new:

Emulator Release: Snes9X 1.31 French
13:40:  Snes9X 1.31 for Windows has been translated into French by the good folks over at Power3d. You can get it at the SNES page. Thanks to Top50 for the news.

Emulator Release: MacMAME 0.37 beta 7
13:22:  A new version of MacMAME, a Macintosh port of MAME, has been released. This version just brings it in sync with the official version of MAME. Get it at the multi arcade emulators for Macs page.

9/6/2000
Translation News: Help Needed
17:53:  Dragonite_300 is making a hack for Megaman 2 (NES) to make it into a "Dragonball Z" game, and he is looking for some help. If you would like to help him out, send him an e-mail at dragonite_300@yahoo.com.

9/5/2000
Emulator Release: MAME 0.37 beta 7
21:57:  A new official version of MAME has been released, and here's what's new:

These drivers have improved GRAPHICS:

Translation News: Final Fantasy Text Hack
21:11:  Travis Burden has released a text hack of Final Fantasy I (NES). The purpose was clarity, cohesiveness, and overall enjoyment. Basically, the text is easier to read... On the menus, instead of seeing "INT" and "VIT" the full names (Intellect and Vitality) are there.

Check it out at our Hacks page.

Translation News: French Translation Released
20:45:  Biglo of BessaB Traduction has released a 100% French translation for Moon Crystal (NES). It's version 0.99 (and is still a beta), but look for the final patch to be released very soon...

Get it at our French Translations page.

Emulator Release: Snes9x 1.3.0 for Macintosh
11:17:  A new version of Snes9x for Macs has been released, and here's what's new:

"This version includes many new features, such as Mode 7 Smoothing, as well as several compatibility fixes. The most important change to the emulator, however, is that SNES9X has been fully Carbonized, so it is ready to run natively on Mac OS X! Native Mac OS X applications can take advantage of seamless multitasking, and have increased stability. (Mac OS 8.1 and the CarbonLib extension are now required to run SNES9X.)"

Get it at the SNES for Mac page. Thanks to Edmon Uyan and Emulation.net for the news.

Emulator Release: iNES 1.2
11:09:  A new version of iNES, a NES emulator for Windows, has been released, and here's what's new:

Misc. News: Top 10 Multiplayer Console Games Ever
11:04:  VideoGames.com has published an article that lists their picks for the top 10 multiplayer console games of all time. Every major console system is included from the Atari 2600 to the N64 (sorry, Dreamcast didn't get any votes). Of course, the results for something like this are very disputable. Go see them for yourself and descide if you agree.

Thanks to Bytoro for the news.

Emulator Release: VisualBoy 1.4.5
10:52:  A new version of VisualBoy, a Gameboy emulator for Windows, has been released, and here's what's new:

9/4/2000
Translation News: New Hack Released
16:04:  Krillen, a member of The Elite Hacking Force has released his hack of Super Mario Brothers 1. Both the graphics and the levels have been modified.

Download it at our Hacks page.

Translation News: Transformers Translation
15:55:  MEGATRON of The Elite Hacking Force has released his translation of Transformers: Mystery of Ultra Magnus (NES) today. (a.k.a. Transformers: Mystery of Fire Convoy)

Get it from our NES Translations page.

Emulator Release: Gens v0.81 released
15:31:  Gens has already had a minor update. Here's the info:

Emulator Release: Final Burn v0.009 released
15:22:  Final Burn has been updated yet again. From the readme:

Emulator News: SegaEMU CD being worked on by Atani Software
12:02:  Orbmaster informed us that the mystery SegaCD emulator mentioned before is being done by Atani Software. Their site has a screen shot of the MegaCD BIOS screen.

If you'd like to check it out, head over to Atani Software's website.

Misc. News: Retrobase.com update
11:57:  Here's the lowdown from Retrobase.com's Chris:

1)
Our new Game of the Week is "Military Madness" (aka "Nectaris") for the PC-Engine/Turbo Grafx 16 platform. Read the review and download the ROM from www.retrobase.com.

2)
RetroBase added another rare Lynx game to its still growing archives. This time it's a homebrew one named "Pong5" by Carl Forhan. For info and screenshots, please visit our Atari Lynx section.

3)
Finally, ROAR! The Video Game Museum (http://www.roarvgm.com) made an
affiliation with our site. In case you don't know ROAR! yet, it's a superb source for info on most classic 8/16-bit hardware with great photos and specs.

Why not head over to Retrobase.com when you're done here and check it out!

Emulator News: 25th game of JAE: Kung-Fu Master
11:51:  Norbert Kehrer sends us the following:

Hi,

the 25th game of JAE, the Java Arcade Emulator, is out:

Kung-Fu Master (Irem 1984)

Being one of the best video games of that time, Kung-Fu Master is the father of fighting games. It was the first of a whole genre of side-scrolling beat'em up games - a concept that is still popular today.

The emulator was not easy, the Irem hardware is pretty powerful for its era. To give Kung-Fu Master the tribute it deserves, the complete sound effects are emulated, as well as the wide-screen display.

Play Kung-Fu Master online at Norbert's Emulator Software at http://web.utanet.at/nkehrer/.

Emulator Release: Callus95 0.42 FR update released
11:45:  The French version of Callus95 has been updated. Here's the info:

New French translation of Callus95 0.42 (A really good one ^_^) that adds some explanations to some unclear english menus. This update can be installed in US or old French Callus95 directory so you can keep all configuration files and Roms =)

You can get it in the Multi Arcade Emulators area.

Emulator Release: MAME32 FR beta 5 released
11:35:  MAME32 FR is a French port of MAME32. This version is current with 0.37 beta5 of MAME32.

Download it now from the MAME emulators area.

Emulator Release: Gens v0.8 released
11:16:  Gens, a Genesis emulator for Win9x, has been updated to version 0.8. Here's what's new:

9/3/2000
Frontend News: MrClick's Final Burn Frontend Updated
10:27:  MrClick has updated his frontend that was released as "After Burner Emu Frontend" a couple of days ago. The update lets it support version 0.007 of the Final Burn emulator (which was just released,) and all of the games that it will emulate.

Get it at our Arcade Frontends page.

Emulator Release: Afterburner Emu now Final Burn
10:24:  The Afterburner Emu is now called Final Burn, and supports the following games:

• Outrun
• Super Hang On
• Thunderblade
  
• Afterburner 1
  
• Afterburner 2

9/2/2000
Misc. News: Goodbye
23:57:  I have decided to quit Zophar's Domain. I have been given a choice to quit the other emulation sites I work for, or quit ZD. I do not feel that I should be forced to work for only one site. I have an intense love for emulation, and I like to spread it around to any place that will allow me the opportunity. I have enjoyed working for Zophar's Domain for the past year, and I wish them the best in the future.

You can still catch my insane number of news posts and huge love for emulation at my website, Laser Emulation, and occasionally on Emu Camp.

Translation News: Two New Hacks
21:18:  Mottzilla of The Elite Hacking Force has released Megaman EX, his hack of Megaman 1 (NES, of course.) The level has been changed around to make it more difficult, but at version .01, it's just getting started.

MEGATRON, also a member of the team, has released a really cool hack for SMB 1... It's called Atario Brothers, and it looks like something you would see on the Atari 2600.

Get both of these at our Hacks page.

Translation News: Super Techmo Bowl III Patch
21:05:  A patch for the SNES game Super Techmo Bowl III has been released by guruzeth. He has replaced the character names/team rosters with the correct ones for the 2000 football season.

Download it at our Hacks page.

Utility Release: Super Jukebox v2.9 Released
20:55:  Marius Fodor has released version 2.9 of his Super Jukebox (SPC Player.) Here's what is new:

• Fixed a bug that prevented Super Jukebox from reading ID666 tags from SPC files that were located in the root directory of a drive.
• Fixed a bug that made the timer message handler stall every once in a while thereby making the status bar update stall as well.
  
• Added a new visualization gauge for the pitch rate parameter of the SPC700/DSP channels. This basically indicates what musical note is playing, but rather graphically.
  
• Changed the status bar layout to display some additional information, such as a graphical progress bar for the currently playing song and descriptions for the menu items.
  
• Added the ability to switch between buttons with text labels and buttons with pictures. Special thanks to Datschge for designing these bitmaps.
  
• Added an option to limit the size of the frequency spectrum for the Spectrometer using a percentage representative of the current sample rate for the player.
  
• Made it so that the program settings are saved to the registry every time you close the Configuration dialog box by clicking on OK.
  
• Added the ability to hide the window controls, so you can see more of your precious skins.
  
• Made it possible to seek to a specific position in the song by moving the mouse over the status time bar and clicking on it, this works both when the song is playing or not. Note, however, that some songs may sound somewhat screwy after you seek in it, but this is a matter of the emulation and is most likely not even a bug. Also note, that due to an apparent bug with Windows (caused by capturing the mouse input), if you have the mouse cursor on the status time bar that the accelerator shortcuts will not work, so just move the mouse off of the status time bar.
  
• Added the ability for the installation program to detect which directory the previous installation was installed to and use that as the default choice, of course this won’t work the first time you run it since the last version never saved that information.
  
• Added a new “Edit With Notepad” entry to the Explorer context menu for PL files, since they are just plain text files.

Emulator Release: T98-Next 5th beta
00:01:  The PC-9801/9821 emulator T98-Next 5th beta has been released. You can download it from our PC-9801 section.

9/1/2000
Emulator Release: TrevGB Java
23:58:  Para Syte let us know that a gameboy emulator for java has been released, named TrevGB Java. It is quite limited, but runs simple games like Tetris alright.

You can try it for yourself at the TrevGB homepage.

Misc. News: zsKnight to leave emulation
19:35:  On a less happy note, during the release of ZSNES 1.000, zsKnight announced his intention to leave the emulation scene:

Here comes the bad news. I (zsKnight) will soon leave the emu coding scene (Well. I guess I haven't done that much other than ZSNES and helping bits of other emus) which will happen after I help _Demo_ work out TCP/IP for the windows port, which is probably the only major thing left for me to do, to move onto the game development scene...I will still provide support for the current and future ZSNES team developers (when ZSNES becomes open source). Although I doubt open source would help that much, especially when ZSNES is mostly in assembler, I'm pretty sure it will still move on without me coding for it since it is still backed up by _Demo_ and Pharos, who are both really talented coders.

Emulator Release: ZSNES 1.000 DOS and Windows
19:25:  Drumroll please... The ZSNES team has decided to grace us with ZSNES 1.000 today. There are many new things in this version, the biggest of which is C4 emulation. Yes, that's right, now you can play MegaMan X2 and X3! While this version is labeled 1.000, the authors have said that it is nowhere near perfect emulation:

First of all, even though this version is 1.0, don't assume that it is supposed to have perfect emulation because it doesn't. It is pretty much at the point where I am pretty much satisfied with the overall state of the ZSNES engine.

Frontend News: Afterburner II Frontend Released
12:40:  MrClick, the author of Tiled (a tile editor) has released a frontend for the Afterburner II Emulator (found in our Arcade Emulator section.) It supports all of the games supported by the Afterburner II Emulator, including Outrun, Super Hang On, Thunderblade, and of course Afterburner 2.

Get it from our Arcade Frontends page.

Translation News: New Translation Site Added
12:28:  I have just added Macbee's NES ROM Hacks to our rom hacking game. The hacks are graphics-only, and the games hacked are:

• Adventure Island
• Ice Climber
  
• The Legend of Zelda
  
• Pinball
  
• Super Mario MCB
  
• Rockin' Kats
  
• Wrecking Crew

Misc. News: SNK Japan Closing?
10:58:  A few weeks ago, SNK closed its North American division, and now NeoRageX reports that it is closing in Japan too. SNK is the company that is responsible for the NeoGeo and popular games like the Metal Slug series and the King of Fighters series.