Breaking News
News Archives
Submit News
News Only
Mobile News
NewsBoy
ROM Files
Arcade Emus
M.A.M.E.
Console Emus
GameBoy Adv
PlayStation 2
PlayStation
Nintendo 64
Dreamcast
Pinball Emus
Front-Ends
Cabinet Pics
Forums
Site Map
Site Links
Contact Us
352,651,140 Served 118 Users Online
|
|
| | |
News Archives
| E-Mail |
News from September 2001 | |
|
Sunday, September 30th, 2001
|
NeoGeoCD v0.1.7 Released
The "new" NeoGeoCD emulator was updated to v0.1.7 (also v0.1.8 is expected today). Here's what's new in v0.1.7:
- A 68K core is corrected. It does not move or some games whose screen was amusing also operate.
- Since reset of F3 was amusing, it corrects.
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
z26 v1.50 Released
The best (in my opinion) Atari 2600 emulator z26 was updated to v1.50. Here's what's new:
- Kinder gentler sound routines. Known to work better on some PCI audio cards and with audio built into some motherboards. Don't know if it is any better with XP though.
- A vertically squished video mode that displays alternate scanlines. You can turn it on with the -h command line switch and it works with the linear video modes (0 - 3). Although many games don't look good with it, it's the fastest video mode of all for games that look O.K.
- With that, we've used up all of the command line switch letters. So we probably won't be adding too many new features to the DOS version of z26. What a long strange trip it's been...
Dowload it from the Console Emulators section.
VisualBoy Advance v0.5 Released
The EXCELLENT Nintendo GameBoy Advance emulator was updated to v0.5 and includes the following enhancements:
- fixed bug accessing the BIOS (caused apparent hang in some cases)
- reverted the ARM to previous version (sound distortion fixed)
- fixed a bug in the 16-bit and 32-bit cheat search
- fixed a slowdown on GB emulation
- fixed screen capture to only take one shot while the button is pressed
- fixed problem of not saving battery file when using recent menu
- fixed problem starting from double-click on binary image (association)
- fixed missing GB filters when selecting files to open
- removed unimplemented opcode for SWP opcodes
- added auto-fire option for buttons A, B, L and R
- added full screen mode (640x480 only - 320x240 will be enabled later)
- added DirectDraw option for Emulation only (removes filtering problem) and use video memory (may speed up some machines)
- added graphic filters: TV Mode, 2xSaI, Super 2xSaI and Super Eagle (adapted from Snex9x code). Note: fast machine needed.
- full screen option to stretch to fit image
- added option to associate emulator with GB and GBA files
- added priority option to avoid problems on some machines
- added dialog with cheats in use
- added option to freeze memory location: infinite money, lives, etc...
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
Unofficial HighScore.dat v7.8
The unofficial MAME HighScore.dat file was updated to v7.8. Download it from the MAME Utilities section at the above link.
retoDrive Release 3 Released
The Sega Genesis/32X emulator for Windows retroDrive was updated to Release 3. This release includes bug fixes, faster execution, and now introducing: 32X PWM sound!
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
|
Saturday, September 29th, 2001
|
DAPHNE Images
Got that DAPHNE fever? Looking for the ROM images for these laserdisc games? Look no further than Arcade Emulation which (like always) is
linked from the ROM Files section.
VirtuaNES v0.30 Released
The Nintendo NES emulator VirtuaNES was updated to v0.30. Here's what's new:
- Addition of speed adjustment by the number of frame skip (Do it with shortcut key during emulation).
- A movie, addition of folder appointment of WAVE recording.
- Addition of a rerecord function of a movie (Can't do postscript with rerecord in a movie file of a former version).
- Addition of a WAVE file output function.
- Add a button to a formal page to version information DIALOG.
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
Modeler v0.9.2 Released
The multi arcade emulator Modeler was updated to v0.9.2 and includes the following changes:
- Fixed some V60 CPU core bugs that were afflicting Alien3 and Title Fight.
- Fixed Z80 banking for Super Visual Football and Alien3. Both games now play correct sounds.
- Changed EEPROM and savestate filenames to use the game name rather than the internal number. This allows us to add and reorder games in the future without causing strange problems. You should delete the old contents of your EEPROM folder before running this version to reduce clutter (the old files won't be used anymore).
- Arabian Fight protection fixed (all 4 players are now playable).
- Support for up to 4 joysticks (may not work properly until SDL 1.2.3 is released).
- Hopefully fixed the problem with uncalibrated joysticks (it works for one up/left "wandering" joypad FF had around).
- Fixed crash when pausing with sound disabled.
- Second screen is cleared correctly in dual monitor mode (fixes test menus mainly). Thanks Tourniquet.
- Fixed a sprite positioning bug (Sonic: Double robotnik, ARF: ppl on carpets, Outrunners: stuff on the road). Thanks CoolBurn and Haze.
- Fixed a rare hard-to-notice off-by-1-pixel sprite positioning bug (Alien3: energy bars).
- Fixed Alien3 controls for player 1 (use the mouse, it works great!)
- Fixed start and coin inputs for Alien3 (they're now wrong in the test menu but correct in the game).
- Fixed color 0 masking with lineselection and scrolling. (RadRally/RadMobile background). Thanks Haze.
- Fixed a bug in mouse steering (sometimes it was not detected correctly that the mouse had stopped).
- Implemented experimental trackball support for Sonic (activate "mouse steering" to try it). Give it a shot if you have a trackball.
- Fixed a desync bug in multiplayer (the eeprom and backram are not read anymore). Thanks Guile_Charlie.
- Fixed Z-buffer out-of-range writes (Sonic: portion of background being clipped out). Thanks Torniquet.
- Reordered game list to group games by type.
- Alien3, Rad Mobile, and Hard Dunk promoted to "playable", Title Fight added as a "watchable" game (you can play it, but there are some serious graphics glitches).
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
|
Thursday, September 27th, 2001
|
NeoGeoCD v0.1.5 Released
The new NeoGeoCD emulator that gets updated what seems like once a day was updated once again to v0.1.5 to include the following changes:
- GOUKAIZA came to operate.
- The bug by which a sound is not reproduced by Sonique UINGUSU 2/3 is corrected.
- A 68K core is updated just for a moment.
- Correction of Z80 core interface.
- The CDDAWait option is abolished. It judges like the system whether a synchronization is required by the emulator side.
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
DAPHNE v0.99.3a Released
The laserdisc emulator DAPHNE was updated to v0.99.3a. But, larger news is that a tool called dvd2daph was released that allows you to
convert the DVD-ROM versions of laserdisc games to MPEG to be used with DAPHNE. Download both DAPHNE as well as dvd2daph from the Arcade
Emulators section. Thanks to Brad Oldham and Chip for the news.
|
Tuesday, September 25th, 2001
|
ClrMamePro v2.22b Released
The MAME ROM mamager ClrMamePro was updated to v2.22b which fixes some problems that were created from the speed optimizations. Download
it from the MAME Utilities section
NeoGeoCD v0.1.4 Released
The new NeoGeo CD emulator was updated to v0.1.4. Here's what's new:
- The bug into which graphics change themselves in a game in part is corrected.
- It changed into BIOS of 512K in front of strip. although BIOS of 128K also operates -- among those -- Since correspondence is stopped.
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
|
Monday, September 24th, 2001
|
Complete Modeler Set
Still looking for Modeler games? Look no further than the Arcade Emulation site linked on the ROM Files section.
ClrMamePro v2.22a Released
The MAME ROM mamager ClrMamePro was updated to v2.22a which includes the following:
- added: optional no drag'n drop warning for scanner->rebuild dropped files
- added: switch to show/hide missing files in 100% missing sets
- fixed: remove-rebuilt-BIOS-source files didn't work in all cases
- fixed: number of rebuilt bios files isn't correct
- misc: detection of MAME sample/rom merge errors (thehand/gotcha)
- misc: biosets are now checked like the other sets, too
- misc: hiding parentset messages in clonesets in fullmergemode
- misc: new method to detect a running ClrMamePro
Download it from the MAME Utilities section
z26 v1.49 Released
The excellent Atari 2600 emulator was updated to v1.49. Here's what's new:
- A faster Pentium optimized routine for video modes 0-2. (Thomas Jentzsch)
- A sideways video mode for games like Merlin's Walls that can be used in video modes 0-2. This is enabled with the -z command line switch. (Eckhard Stolberg)
- You can now toggle through the NTSC, PAL, and SECAM palettes on the fly by pressing the "-" key. (Eckhard Stolberg)
- Some other improvements to PAL game detection and the CPU emulator. (Eckhard Stolberg)
- A more descriptive error message when z26 thinks you need a VGA. It turns out that on some Geforce 2 MX-200 and Geforce 2 MX-400 video cards, you need to set the program properties, by right-clicking on z26.exe from the Windows explorer to screen usage "full-screen", or else you get the error message. Thanks to James Bell for help figuring this out.
Download it from the Console Emulators section
NeoGeoCD v0.1.3 Released
This newish NeoGeoCD emulator was updated to v0.1.3. The docs are in Japanese only so only those that can read that chicken scratch know
what's new. Download it from the Console Emulators section
DreamGBA v2.3 Released
I don't know where katharsis got this release of DreamGBA
(it's not on their home page) but here's version v2.3 which includes the following:
- Better save area limitation, will solve some save problem
- Full mosaic function added
Download it from the Console Emulators section
DAPHNE v0.99.3 Released
The ultra-cool arcade laser disc emulator DAPHNE was updated to v0.99.3. This emulator is basically useless unless you have a high-end
laser disc player (rare) or a special MPEG version (which certain groups are trading now). Anyway, if you want to play with it, get it
from the Arcade Emulators section. Thanks to Brad and Don for the news.
Weekend Off
I took the weekend off and did a little end of the season touring on the motorcycle with the wifey riding two-up. Note to self: Get rain
gear before my next tour.
|
Friday, September 21st, 2001
|
Gens Win v1.10 Released
The best Sega Genesis (and now Sega CD) emulator Gens was updated to v1.10. Here's what you get:
- Prelemenary SEGA CD emulation added:
- Sub 68000 (100%)
- Prg Ram and Word Ram implemented (95%)
- PCM chip (100% but stil buggy)
- GFX rotation and enlargement (60%)
- Font color/data (100%)
- CDD (70%)
- CDC (60%)
- BRAM saves supported
- No graphics conversion, no ISO support, no save state support yet
- Added an option to improve the DAC sound (voices) or not.
- Added the possibility to force software blit for Fullscreen "Normal" and "Double" render mode.
- We can now choose the order of country detection.
- Undocumented scroll mode implemented.
- Undocumented plan size mode implemented.
- Rewrite the VDP IO control part, little speed increase.
- Fixed VDP sprite table register (bug added in Gens 1.00)
- Fixed a bug in the 68000 Starscream core (bit-shift instructions).
- Fixed a bug in VDP control decoding (Gens v0.8 was right about it).
- Fast-blur fixed for no MMX processor.
- A minor bug in DAC recovering sound has been fixed.
- others minors changes.
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
Modeler v0.9.1a Released
The System 32/Model 1/Multi32 emulator was updated again today to v0.9.1a. Here's what's new:
- Fixed crash when the frame counter was displayed and e.g. switching in or out of full screen mode.
- Fixed weird sprite lagging behavior when frameskip was non-zero.
- Promoted SVF to playable - the white box no longer blots out the screen after you score a goal (this is a result of the GA2 Death Adder fix).
Also, a Mac version has been added (although using a v0.9.0 core). Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
Nebula v1.91b Released
Need your daily Nebula fix? Seems some do so here's version 1.91b that includes the following changes:
- Fixed kof99 (and some other games) sound "clicks".
- Due to a stupid bug, the new delta-t interpolator was no enabled in previous versions (they were using the old one).
- Now Ninja Commando and Ninja Combat music sometimes work (and sometimes doesn't :( )
- 640x480 scanline modes are now centered on the screen.
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
|
Thursday, September 20th, 2001
|
NeoGeoCD v010920b4 Released
The new NeoGeo CD emulator was updated to v010920 Beta 4. Here's what's new:
- I think the kana which has come to move directly as it is.
- The schedule set to Ver.0.1 next.
- As for the sum rye spirits RPG, ADPCM is not reproduced yet.
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
Modeler v0.9.1 Released
The System 32/Model 1/Multi32 emulator was updated once again to v0.9.1. Here's what's new:
- Win32 specific: Rewritten DirectSound driver (with inspiration from Final Burn) that fixes the major sound-related slowdowns people were seeing. Also behavior is much better when the framerate is below 60 (sound will no longer break completely up except on extremely slow computers).
- Linux specific: Changed "Multi32 second monitor" option to the more useful "Multi32 dual screen". This is also consistent with the Win32 version.
- On-screen message added when the mouse grab/ungrab toggle is used.
- Keyboard steering for the driving games added.
- Frameskip and autoframeskip added.
- GA2 black screen bug when fighting Death Adder fixed.
- Sound clipping in the F1 games and Burning Rival improved.
- Speed throttle added for no sound mode.
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
Nebula v1.91a Released
The CPS-2 emulator Nebula was updated to v1.91a which includes the following additions:
- Fixed macro support that was broken in previous version.
- Fixed a stupid bug in default control, hotkeys and macros that prevented it from working.
- Fixed the size and crc for the NG-LO.ROM file, it should be 64k (65536 bytes) and CRC: E09E253C. It's the same than the old dump but with only the first 64k (last 64k are a copy of the first 64k)
- Nebula will still recognize the old 128k rom.
- I forgot to mention an experimental option in nebula, it's the -blade15 option, it will generate 15Khz output signals (for arcade monitors) if you have a Trident Blade3D card. You'll need the BLADEIO.VXD file from the
- Blade15khz package in http://www.beimborn.com/mame/dl/blade15_24.zip (mirror because the original page is about to disappear).
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
Retrogaming Times #49 is Released
One issue from #50 and what an issue it is. This issue features:
- Information on a classic game auction to help the victims of last week's tragedy.
- Interview with Leonard Herman, the author of Phoenix, The Fall and Rise of Videio Games!
- Review of Venture 2 and an interview with creator, Tim Snider!
- A whole lot more!
Check out the always fun and free newsletter that has been coming out monthly since 1997 at the above link.
|
Wednesday, September 19th, 2001
|
Modeler ROMs
Looking for the elusive ROMs for the Modeler emulator? Look no further than the Arcade Emulation site. As always, there's a link on the ROM Files section.
NeoGeoCD v010920 Beta 3 Released
The NeoGeo CD emulator was updated to v010920 Beta 3 which includes the following updates:
- There is restriction still more.
- Although the fault of the reproduction speed of a sound was corrected, as for the sum rye spirits RPG, ADPCM is not reproduced yet.
- They are changed part a large number.
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
Snes9x Win v1.39 Released
The excellent Nintendo SNES emulator Snes9x was updated to v1.39 and includes the following:
- Added SDD-1 unknown graphics data logging at the dumper's request. A bit late but might help with Street Fighter 2 Alpha's data dumping. Creates a romname.dat file in the freeze file folder.
- Implemented 16-bit texture support for OpenGL modes in Windows and Linux. Had to support a new pixel format type to do it - RGB5551 (one bit of alpha) which caused me some major problems - black was no longer always pixel value zero!
- Removed the Bump map OpenGL mode from the Windows port (didn't look so good anyway and was slow).
- Added a hidden novelty OpenGL mode (clue: a keyboard shortcut activates it)
- Reverted back to FMod version 3.20 after reports that version 3.33 broke AD3 support.
- Implemented a better work-around for the broken select system call in the Linux kernel - the original work-around was long-winded and stopped working when I implemented OpenGL support under Linux.
- Added the same speed-up hack to the OpenGL code that the Glide code already supported. Basically, if your OpenGL implementation supports 16-bit textures then OpenGL mode should be as fast, or faster than the 3dfx Glide mode.
- Hopefully fixed Glide support.
- Reverted back to the original colour blending code. The newer code, although more accurate in most cases, had too many glitches and was slower.
- Included multiple Japanese games fixes from Iswashi San.
- Fixed a timing problem caused by a speed up hack that was affecting Top Gear 300. No the game still isn't playable yet, but I noticed the problem while investigating the DSP-4 chip used by the game.
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
Nebula v1.91 Released
The CPS-2 emulator Nebula was updated to v1.91. Here's what's new:
- Added a "Smart" romset name recognition
- Corrected X Zoom tables with values checked in the original board
- Corrected Y Zoom tables (You'll need to have the ng-lo.rom file inside your NEOGEO.ZIP file)
- Balanced AY and YM volumes
- New interpolation mode for Frecuency control type (Delta-t) ADPCM sound samples
- Added the new Kof99 decrypted set (kof99d)
- Fixed double dragon (and probably many more) FMV intro sound problems
- Added Hotkeys
- Added a new stretch mode called "Keep aspect" that keeps the original aspect while using the bigger possible screen area (good for vertical games)
- Added FreePlay switch to the Machine Settings menu.
- Added a Control configuration menu for GUI keys
- Rewritten the rom checking code. Now it's faster and has a progress bar.
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
Final Burn v0.137a Released
The CPS-2 emulator that started it all was updated to v0.137a and includes the following:
- Added volume control
- Added more accelerators
- Fixed auto-pause
- Fixes to dozea.asm
- Fixed an input menu bug when there's no DIP-SW data available.
- Updated and fixed dipinfo.dat file
- Updated fbcheat.dat file
- Fixed HotRod inputs
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
Ace v1.5 Released
Ace is yet another CPS-2 emulator and this update adds the following:
- Added System 16, System 18 and NeoGeo emulation!
- Added Shinobi.
- Added Shadow Dancer.
- Added Puzzle de Pon.
- Added Puzzle Bobble.
- Added Neo Drift Out.
- Added Metal Slug 001.
- Removed midas11.dll - exe filesize is only 165k!
- Code is more object oriented.
- Added the "usesysmem" parameter in the ini file - be sure to try it out if emulation is slow.
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
Dega v1.07 Released
The Sega Game Gear/SMS emulator written by the author of Final Burn was updated to v1.07. Here's what you get:
- Added native Dega save state format, .dgz
- These save states are GZip compressed and also store the FM chip state.
- To load and save in .dgz format, use Load State and Save State.
- This format is also used for the auto save/load function.
- To import and export in Meka's .s00 save state format, use Import Meka and Export Meka.
- Changed the window sizing routine since it was changing a bit too much, now the window is just simply 3/4 of the desktop space.
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
AdvanceMAME v0.53.2 Released
AdvanceMAME is an unofficial version of MAME that designed to work with arcade monitors and includes many special video modes. Download
it from the M.A.M.E. section.
Xmame v0.55.1 Released
The Unix port of MAME was was updated to the core MAME v0.55 source code. Download it from the M.A.M.E. section.
|
Tuesday, September 18th, 2001
|
WARNING! Nimda virus
A new computer worm hit the net today called Nimda (official long name W32.Nimda.A@mm). This worm spreads via e-mail as an attachment
called "readme.exe" which is 57.4k in size. It's spreading VERY fast and I've already got about 10 infected e-mails. Norton AntiVirus
doesn't have a fix yet, but should shortly. Needless to say, don't open attachments to e-mails, even from people you know.
Modeler v0.9.0 Released
The Sega Model 1 and System 32 arcade emulator Modeler was updated to v0.9.0. This release adds the following playable games:
- Golden Axe 2 (1992, System 32 type A hardware)
- Spiderman (1991, System 32 type A hardware)
- Arabian Fight (1992, System 32 type A hardware)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (prototype) (1994, System 32 type B hardware)
- Holosseum (1992, System 32 type A hardware)
- Outrunners (1993, Multi32 hardware)
- Arabian Fight (1992, System 32 type A hardware)
- Burning Rival (1992, System 32 type A hardware)
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
SNEeSe v0.60 Released
The Nintendo SNES emulator SNEeSe was updated to v0.60 which includes the following:
- Render: Fixed a bug in mode 7 vertical-flip
- Render: Rewrote sprite rendering again - improves speed
- Configuration: Restructured config file
- Render: Added independent horizontal/vertical stretch options
- Source: Now linking with Allegro 3.9.34
- DMA: No longer preventing HDMA register from being written to during display - fixes some graphics glitches in Chrono Trigger
- PPU: No longer allowing writes to VRAM and OAM outside v-blank, force-blank
- PPU: No longer allowing writes to CGRAM outside v-blank, h-blank, force-blank
- 65c816: Modified cycle counter and wait-for-interrupt emulation
- Timing: Improved 65c816<>SPC700 timing slightly
- GUI: GUI is now by default DISABLED because of instability - those who still wish to bear with it can enable it via a commandline switch
- Commandline: Added several new configuration switches
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
|
Monday, September 17th, 2001
|
MAME v0.55 ROMs
Arcade Emulation has added the latest games added and updated in MAME v0.55. The ROMs are now split because of the many requests and the
speed of downloading these huge ROMs. If you want your ROMs merged, use a tool like ClrMAMEPro to automatically merge them. You can visit
the Arcade Emulation site by going to the ROM Files section.
MAME32 v0.55 Released!
The 32-bit version of MAME that includes a GUI was updated to v0.55 also. This is first time in a VERY long time that MAME32 was released
at the same time as the core versions. Sounds like they waited to release v0.55 till MAME32 was updated also. Is this good or bad? You
can download it from the M.A.M.E. section.
MAME v0.55 Released!
The king of arcade emulation was updated to v0.55 and includes the following new game drivers:
- Ninja Baseball Batman [Bryan McPhail]
- Sports Match [Sports Match]
- Zero Hour [David Haywood]
- Sky Smasher [David Graves]
- New York New York [Darren Olafson]
- Crazy Rally [Mathis Rosenhauer]
- Space Fortress [Mike Coates]
- Ultraman Club - Tatakae! Ultraman Kyoudai!! [Luca Elia]
- Dream Soccer '94 (Japan)
- Space Invaders DX (Japan v2.0)
- Typhoon (= Ajax)
- Rambo III (Europe set 2)
- Space Invaders DX (US)
- The Hand (=Got-Ya)
- Ms. Pacman Champion Edition / Super Zola Pac Gal
- Kuri Kinton (Japan, US)
- Blomby Car (encrypted)
Download it from the M.A.M.E. section.
VisualBoy Advance v0.4 Released
The best Nintendo GameBoy Advance emulator was updated to v0.4. Here's what's new:
- can now play Gameboy and GameboyAdvance games
- recent menu with 10 recent loaded roms
- save state slots (like Snes9x)
- fixed 24-bit screen capture
- fixed sprite corruption
- added 3 missing BIOS calls (DiffXbitUnfilter calls)
- fixed freeze loading VisualBoy 1.4.10 save game
- fixed reset problems on some CGB games
- fixed a timing issue that caused blinking sprites
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
VisualBoy v1.4.12 Released
One of the best Nintendo GameBoy emulators VisualBoy was updated to v1.4.12 to include:
- fixed freeze loading VisualBoy 1.4.10 save game
- fixed reset problems on some CGB games
- fixed 24-bit screen capture
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
|
Sunday, September 16th, 2001
|
Afghan Women Under the Taliban
Everyone interested in the inner-workings of Afghanistan and the Taliban (as I'm sure we all are) should read the above story from beginning
to end. It shows how violent and inhuman the Taliban are how they treat women. It's also sad how poor and uneducated most of the Afghan
people are because of the Taliban's control. Again, I suggest you read it from beginning to end as it gives a LOT of insight on the Taliban.
The CIA's facts on Afghanistan
also has ton's of statistical information on Afghanistan and shows all their problems like their major source of income is the production
of heroin. Afghanistan is the world's largest opium producer and "major political factions in the country profit from drug trade". I'm
guessing that Afghanistan's major political factions also sample their crop, and sample it a LOT.
|
Friday, September 14th, 2001
|
ClrMamePro v2.21 Released
The MAME ROM manager ClrMamePro was updated to v2.21 and where's what was added:
- Logfile button added back
- Updated for BIOS recognizing
Download it from the MAME Utilities section at the above link.
z26 v1.48 Released
The excellent Atari 2600 emulator z26 was updated to v1.48. Here's what's new:
- Screen capture now works in all video modes. If you hold down the = key, you get a fairly continuous stream of pcx files.
- New fast video modes. These are accessed with the -e (for Eckhard?) command line switch. This allows the Mode-X routines to do 32-bit accesses to the video card. On my computer this more than doubles the speed of the emulator when running in these modes. Unfortunately, they may not work on all video cards. The -e command line switch also enables tall and narrow 160 pixel video modes for modes 0, 1, 2, and 3. These are very fast modes, and they give your games a Vectrex like feel.
- Added support for a couple of new ROM images.
- Fixed a stack overflow bug in the GUI.
- Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with this version. I did not suspect that so much more speed could be had from the video system.
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
Final Burn v0.137 Released
The first CPS-2 emulator Final Burn Alpha was updated to v0.137. Here's what's new:
- Added a new GUI.
- Added rom scanning to check what roms you have.
- Added options to show all, CPS-1 only or CPS-2 only games.
- Added option to only show the games you got.
- Added esc=exit for all dialogs.
- Added CPS1 QSound (thanks for info ElSemi)
- Added IIR low pass filter
- Added Dip Switches Engine
- Added Mikes changes to inpcheat.cpp at line 54.
- Updated the What's New txt file with the current changes to v0.137
- Fixed stupid error I made with the cheat dialog column widths :P
- Set nApplyCheatEveryXFrame to 0 as standard.
- Fixed so the 4 player fix for batcirj only applies to netplay.
- Added light blue background as standard for SFA3 + clones in netplay.
- Added flip monitor as standard for XMvSF in netplay.
- Added drivers for ddsom, dstlk, dstlkr1, sfa & sfar1.
- Updated cheats file.
Download it from the Arcade Emulation section.
CPS2mame Released
The CPS-2 only version of MAME, CPS2mame was updated to include the newly decrupted ROMs. Download it from the Arcade Emulation section.
Kawaks v1.31 Released
The CPS-2 emulator Kawaks was updated to v1.31. Here's what's new:
- Corrected the NeoGeo zoom system. Now uses the true original zoom patterns, verified on the real system
- Support for the new kf99_s1d.rom in the KOF99 romset
- Many CPS1 fixes:
- Captain Commando set to 4 player for netplay
- Player 4 mapped in Captain Commando
- Player 3 mapped in Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and Warriors of Fate
- Test menu for all CPS1 games (press F11 or whatever you redefined it to access it)
- EEPROM no longer saved for EEPROMless games
- Timing fixes (fixes Mercs splash screen, Pang 3 bottom of screen...)
- Sprite/bg sync fix
- Added language switch for Dungeons & Dragons (uses Region switch)
- Drivers for
- Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara (Euro 960209)
- Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (US 940818)
- Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors (US 940705)
- Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams (Euro 950727)
- Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams (Euro 950605)
- Various romset changes to accommodate the above new games, and the latest MAME conventions
Download it from the Arcade Emulation section.
You're About to Learn
This is the final statement from an article written by Leonard Pitts Jr. and printed in the Miami Herald. It was written to the cowards that declared war on the US:
"What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case,
consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what we're capable of. You
don't know what you just started. But you're about to learn."
Well said. And it's no wonder that these cowards hide in shadows. They know the gates of Hell are about to open on their front door.
|
Thursday, September 13th, 2001
|
Tribute to the United States
This, from the Canadian newspaper "Congressional Record" in 1973, is worth sharing: "America: The Good Neighbor."
"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the United States.
When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.
The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.
I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly American Planes?
Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon - not once, but several times and safely home again.
You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an old Both are still broke.
I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."
|
Tuesday, September 11th, 2001
|
Cowards Strike the US
Cowards struck the US today with their hijacking and suicide crashing of 4 planes. My heart goes out to the victims and their families
that were involved in this. But be reassured that the US will avenge this tragedy. Just as in Pearl Harbor, these sub-human cowards have
underestimated the scale of the retaliation that will happen as a result of their actions. The World Trade Center is a symbol of not just
the US, but of the entire peaceful world. This is a time for all of the World to come together and choose sides. You either support
peace and justice or cowardly acts of terrorism, there's no middle ground. If a country doesn't fully cooperate with bringing those involved to
justice, the entire country should be considered at war with the US and the rest of the World. Total, unrestricted force should be used
against these countries that support and/or tolerate the acts of terrorism. This is the last time I ever want to see real-world images
of scenes from the movie Independence Day.
NYC and DC, Donate Blood!
Everyone who's able in the NYC and DC area you are urged to donate blood. Huge amounts will be needed and I'm sure reserves are running
low. My prayers go out to the injured, casualties, and their families that were involved in these cowardly acts of terrorism. The best
I can do is keep everyone in my thoughts and spread the word about the need for blood.
|
Monday, September 10th, 2001
|
Meka v0.59b Released
The best Sega SMS/GameGear emulator Meka was updated again to v0.59b. Here's what's new:
- Fixed vertical scanline counter emulation.
- Fixed a minor hardware collision bug introduced in version 0.59.
- Fixed usage of '%' in ROM comment field.
- Changed message logging (with /LOG) to avoid cutting text in the file when it doesn't fit on the GUI message box.
Download it from the Console Emulators section. Like always, if you don't agree that Sega rocks and Nintendo sucks you're in violation of the Meka user agreement.
ClrMamePro v2.20 Released
The MAME ROM manager ClrMamePro was updated to v2.20 to include the following:
- New engine system. Biosset entries aren't used in engine.cfg anymore. ClrMamePro now uses resource tags in the datfile. Old cachefiles will be removed and you have to adjust your SystemDefaultPaths. This will also mean that irrmaze is now a pure neogeo set and im_bios.rom should be removed from neogeo.zip and should be placed in irrmaze.
- fixed: fastscan for split-merged sets
- fixed: fake 0-crc roms won't be shown as wrong named
- misc: save-missing list was put in the popup menu
- misc: save-logfile was put in the popup menu
- misc: only one menuitem to set a current url
- misc: generate missinglist with optional url + extensions (for you downloadmanager maniacs...hey Adam :o))
- misc: support for spaces in COMSPEC environment variable
- misc: default.fsc will be used if no fastscanname is given
- misc: resized the setselector window
- misc: faster cancel button check when looking for wrong named sets
- misc: message & speedup for internal crc32 list creation
Download it from the MAME Utilities section at the above link.
Bliss32 v1.9 Released
The Bliss quartet of Intellivision emulators were updated today. Bliss32 was released for the first time as v1.9 while the three
Java-based versions were updated to v1.61. Download them from the Console Emulators section.
MAME WIP September 4th-10th
MAME WIP news for September 4th through the 10th:
- September 10th, 2001: David Graves cleaned up the Taito Z graphics emulation and road transparency. Mike Coates added Space Fortress to the CVS driver.
- September 9th, 2001: SUZ improved graphics in the Toaplan1 driver. David Graves yet improved the Taito Z road graphics emulation. William Kucharski submitted a bugfix to prevent Shark Attack from crashing. Nicola Salmoria fixed the title screen graphics in Mad Motor.
- September 8th, 2001: David Haywood resubmitted the New York, New York driver originally made by Darren Olafson, and added Waga Seishun no Arcadia to it. David Haywood also added another version of Got-Ya called The Hand. Nicola Salmoria improved the graphics emulation in New York, New York. SUZ added a Xevious bootleg called Battles to the Xevious driver. Phil Stroffolino improved the Namco System21 driver, but it is still far from perfect.
- September 7th, 2001: Jan Tleskac added another version of Rambo 3 to the Taito B driver. Jarek Burczynski added another version of Space Invaders DX to the same driver.
- September 6th, 2001: Gerardo Oporto fixed DIP switch settings in some Nichibutsu drivers. David Haywood added Typhoon to the Ajax driver and converted the Car Jamboree driver for tilemaps.
- September 5th, 2001: inside out boy submitted a driver for Car Jamboree.
- September 4th, 2001: David Graves improved the road colors in Continental Circus. Nicola Salmoria added preliminary sound support to Zaccaria. Mathis Rosenhauer converted all vector games to use the direct RGB modes.
Check out the screen shots at the above links.
|
Saturday, September 8th, 2001
|
Unofficial MAME32 v0.54
For those of you that can't figure out how to use a front-end and use DOS MAME or WinMAME, "wa9g" released an updated an unofficial version
of MAME32. Download it from the M.A.M.E. section.
Dega v1.06 Released
Our best buddy Dave of Final Burn fame released an update to his Sega SMS/GameGear emulator. Here's what's new:
- Added VGM sound logging. VGM is a sound format that Zoop and I have come up with for logging sound on various consoles. It is like GYM, CYM and SSL except the accuracy can be stepped up to 44.1khz sample accuracy if voices or other sampled sounds are used.
- Added .PNG screenshot saving (F12). Screenshots are saved to a "shots" subdirectory.
- (Changed Start button to C, this was to stop the game pausing when you press enter to okay a dialog.)
- Added Pause function
- Added frame advance function
- Fixed Ghouls 'N Ghosts (sprite offset)
- Changed volume table based on Maxim's real SMS experiments
- Added a disable switch for the Red/Blue mode (e.g. for playing 3D games in 2D mode)
- Noise channel is now rendered using pseudo-random numbers. (hiss is XOR with 0x12000 and buzz is XOR with 0x10000) Both use 0x0001 as the seed, which is reloaded when the noise type is written to.
Download it from the Console Emulation section.
Meka v0.59 Released
The best Sega SMS/GameGear emulator Meka was updated to v0.59. Here's what's new:
- Various changes to the sound engine:
- Fixed PSG Periodic Noise emulation (bass in some Marble Madness tunes, Daffy Duck in Hollywood, and few other games). Thanks Ziria and Maxim!
- Added PAL/SECAM machines accurate base clock for PSG wave generation (pitch is around 1% off from NTSC machines).
- Added VGM logging. VGM (for Video Game Music) is a new file format recently developed on S8-Dev with collaboration of Dave, Maxim and some other people. Maxim has wrote a WinAMP plugin already.
- Added PSG registers to the technical information window.
- Fixed a very weird bug introduced in version 0.58, where a certain sprite configuration and positionning could screws up the whole emulator! This caused problems in Terminator 2: The Judgment Day and Ghouls'n Ghosts.
- Added Korean mapper (9) emulation, as used by Dodgeball King.
- Added Italian messages translations (by Andrea Ballandino).
- Added German messages translations (by Tilman Hesse).
- Fixed some Portuguˆs messages.
- Fixed/added accentued characters in some Brasilian game names.
- Added new "Mario Must Die" theme, with a nice handdrawn picture :-)
- Added new entrys to the checksum and compatibility lists.
- Fixed and improved various minor things.
As always you must agree that Sega rocks and Nintendo sucks before downloading this from the Console Emulators section.
Raine v0.33 Released
The excellent arcade emulator Raine was updated to v0.33 for Windows, DOS and Linux. Lots of things were added including two new games
Mazinger Z and Battle Bakraid. Download them from the Arcade Emulators section.
|
Thursday, September 6th, 2001
|
Kawaks v1.30 Released
The CPS-2 (and now NeoGeo) emulator Kawaks was updated to v1.30 and includes the following:
- NeoGeo emulation!
- Support for 136 games
- Runs the new King of Fighters 99 dump ! (see FAQ for details)
- Excellent compatibility: runs all games with sound
- Works with macros, netplay, sprite table, etc
- Specific settings in the INI for the fullscreen resolution
- Please read the FAQ for eventual troubleshooting
- New enhanced Load game dialog box
- CPS2 timing fixes
- defaultkeys.ini becomes
- defaultkeysCPS.ini for CPS1/2 games
- defaultkeysMVS.ini for NeoGeo games
- So, rename your defaultkeys.ini to defaultkeysCPS.ini and create a new one for NeoGeo games named defaultkeysMVS.ini
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
|
Wednesday, September 5th, 2001
|
Shark Attack Samples
How fitting that this year we would finally see the sound samples for Shark Attack released. Also, Star Castle, Star Cruiser, and Xevious
got sound sample updates. Download them from the MAME Sound Samples section at the above link. BTW, there have been fewer shark attacks
this year than last year and the normal average, so they have just been played up by the media. Swim safe =)
Duncan Nemu64 INI v4.0 Released
Duncan's unofficial Nemu64 INI file was updated to v4.0 which adds the following playable games:
- Aidyn Chronicles
- DR. Mario 64
- Tony Hawks Pro Skater 2 (USA)
Download it from the Nintendo 64 section under Nemu64 Utilities at the above link.
AdvanceMAME v0.53.1 Released
The unofficial version of MAME that's designed to work with arcade monitors and do other video tricks was updated to v0.53.1. Download it from the M.A.M.E. section.
|
Monday, September 3rd, 2001
|
Generator v0.33 Released
The Sega Genesis emulator was updated to v0.33 to include the following:
- [SOUND] Added PSG sound generator (SN76496)!
- [SOUND] Re-wrote all the sound files so that they have better separation between Generator and the hardware
- [CONSOLE] Fixed crash if you try and reset (F12)
- [VDP] Fixed H/V counter which somehow I broke after 0.16 (fixes Sonic 3D, 3 Ninjas, Road Rash, etc. etc.)
- [VDP] Implemented Charles MacDonald's h/v size of 2 (repeat every row) for his test carts
- [VDP] Implemented VDP window bug (thanks to Charles MacDonald for his test cart)
- [VDP] Fixed interlace mode 1 (thanks to Charles MacDonald for his test cart)
- [VDP] Added invalid HSCR support for Populus (Charles MacDonald)
- [VDP] Fixed minor cram bug (possible segv)
- [VDP] Fixed bug in fill operation (contra hardcorps)
- [CORE] Re-formatted all code with indent (see .indent.pro file)
- [CONSOLE] Add joystick framework (thanks to Lester Barrows for his code submission)
- [SVGALIB] Add joystick support
- [CONSOLE] Add multiple keyboard positions for two keyboard players
- [CONSOLE] Add -j option to control input devices for players
- [68000] Optimised 68k writes in favour of RAM
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
Blade64 WIP5 Released
The up and coming Nintendo 64 emulator Blade64 was updated to WIP5. Here's what's new:
- Compatible with Zilmar's 1.3 GFX Spec
- All Plugins Except Audio Are Fully Working
- Added Screenshot Option
- Expansion Pak support added
- Internet play (using NooTe_DI.dll and KailleraClient.dll)
- 4 Player support (Only if the input plugin supports it)
- Improved compatibility/stability
- Added CIC-NUS-XXXX Support For Zelda OOT/MM etc...
- Other things that I can't remember right now. When I Do I'll let you know...
Download it from the Nintendo 64 section.
Calice32 v0.4.6 Released
The excellent CPS-2 emulator Calice32 was updated once again, this time to v0.4.6. Here's what you get:
- Support for Nebula Cheats
- Hardware Stretch
- 60 Hz limit and automatic frameskip
- Greatly improved the neogeo core: nearly 100% of compatibility
- Added four different rom paths
- Switched to starscream 0.26c
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
VisualBoy Advance v0.3 Released
VisualBoy Advance is probably the best Nintendo GameBoy Advance emulator. Here's what's added in v0.3:
- fixed window bug (vertical lines or missing column)
- fixed some sound mixing problems
- some speed improvements
- cheat search engine (based on Snes9x)
- battery saves are now supported
- save game loading fixed (crash or no sound problem are gone)
- disable special effects option (can speedup some machines)
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
|
Sunday, September 2nd, 2001
|
Project64 v1.3 Released
The Nintendo 64 emulator Project64 was updated to v1.3 which includes the following:
- Added Screen Capture
- Added Process RDP List
- Added Show CFB
Download it from the Nintendo 64 section. Thanks to Greg F. for the news.
Nebula v1.9 Released
The CPS-2 arcade emulator Nebula was updated to v1.9. Here's what's new:
- Added a MINIFAQ file, please read it.
- Fixed Neo Turf Masters driver that crashed nebula in the loading screen.
- Fixed puzzle bobble romset name to match the latest MAME name.
- Fixed w2k crashes when pressing the TAB key.
- Fixed misc crashes on startup in video cards with little VRAM
- Fixed DDTOD and DDSOM F2 key.
- Fixed the savestate time being always GMT.
- Fixed crashes when using ALT-TAB to switch task.
- Fixed Irritating Maze controls, now it works.
- Neogeo s1 and m1 roms with wrong sizes are now accepted and loaded.
- Added triple buffer option to video options.
- ALT-ENTER key now also works in the GUI.
- Removed 400x300 resolution from neogeo and added 320x240 as it's closer to the real res (304x224).
- Rewritten default controls code, now it works with all games, but you'll need to re-map the keys again.
- Added an option to disable debug dipswitches because they were causing problems in some games.
- Added an overclocking option for neogeo games in the machine settings menu.
- The overclock setting is stored for each game. Overclock only the games that actually need it (mslug2,mslugx for example)
- Fixed a major bug in savestate saving/loading code that caused nebula crash when loading states. Sound will not be restored when loading previous version savestates to avoid crashes.
- I forgot to state in the previous version that the neogeo bios MUST be in a file called neogeo.zip (neogeod.zip for the debug BIOS) in any roms folder.
Download it from the Arcade Emulators section.
24k Gold Mickey Mouse
Words can't describe this. Just click on the above link and check it out for yourself.
|
Saturday, September 1st, 2001
|
MAME v0.54 Screen Shots
The screen shots for MAME v0.54 are now available from the Front-Ends section. Also the Screen Shot Browser has been updated to v0.54.
Have fun all!
CatVer.ini v0.54 Released
Hey girls! Get your new version of the CatVer.ini file for Arcade@Home over on the Front-Ends section.
PCSX v0.9.221 Released
The Sony PlayStation emulator PCSX was updated to v0.9.221. Here's what's new:
- fix the bug in the configurator
- fixes to rootcouters many games work now :) Some SPU samples work better now
- fixes to cd-da. You can also enable or disable it now...
- add MCI commands for Cd-rom plugins that not have CDRplay commands (cdrduddie,cdrbarret)
- corrections to NCT-NCS of GTE
- SPU irq added
- Fixes to Iori SPU support
- various GUI fixes.
- CD-XA mono
Download it from the PlayStation section.
BoycottAdvance v0.22b Released
The very good Nintendo GameBoy Advance emulator BoycottAdvance was updated to v0.22b. Here's what's new:
- DirectX Fullscreen Support (Perfect Dark)
- DirectX Filtering Display (Perfect Dark)
- GDI/DirectX Dynamic Display (Perfect Dark)
- Full DirectX Support (Dysfunction/Perfect Dark)
- GZip/Zip Files Support (Gollum/Richard Bannister)
- Huge Optimizations (Gil Pedersen/Richard Bannister)
- Some Bug Fixes (Gollum/Dysfunction)
- Some Gfx Fixes/Optimizations (Gollum/Dysfunction)
- Huge Sound Improvements (Gollum)
Download it from the Console Emulators section.
| |
|
|
|