All of us who like emulation and homebrew are very much into retro games and today ive heard of a new magazine (thanks to kojote for the tip) that specialises in that field.
Heres whats featured:
Regulars:
Raiders of the Lost Arcades - Battle Plan! Vol. 5
Unfortunately, the arcade is becoming extinct as a gaming platform, so we take a trek back through time - using MAME's random generator - to relive some of the arcades greatest, worst, and indifferent games.
Retro Respect - Jill of the Jungle
We've all missed a minor classic during our time. we resurrect the forgotten classics, the misunderstood, the underdogs, the games that are actually quite good, but never gained the attention or accolades it deserved.
GamesMaster Lookback
Lookback at an episode of the classic GamesMaster television show. Challenges, games, celebrities, Dominik. Series one, episode one gets the 'Lookback' treatment for issue one.
Computer Warrior
Memoirs of the Computer Warrior, from the 1980s Eagle comic strip, where gamers discover how to play computer games for real, virtually. We start where it all began with the first story arc.
Retro Respect - Speedball 2
Bitmap Borthers' finest game gets the Retro Respect treatment.
The Weird and Wonderful World of Retrogaming
There have been some truly strange games released in the past. This is our feature where we dig up some of these weird and daft games from yesteryear. Sensible Train-Spotting is first up.
Reviews:
Legend of Wukong
Sub Hunter
Perfect Fit
Shoot Redux
Sudoku
Albatrosity
Interviews:
John Wilson - (a.k.a. the Balrog) of Zenobi Software
Brandon Cobb - President of Super Fighter Team (the developer/publisher of Legend of Wukong)
Paul Kooistra - developer of CPC game Star Sabre
Features:
Retro Remakes Competition 2008
The competition, all the categories, all the games...
Clash of the 8-bits
Mark Hall takes on the CPC, C64, and ZX Spectrum to discover which machine has the best version of Space Harrier.
Amsoft - A Personal Experience
Richard Goulstone relives some of his fondest memories of Amsoft; the company, the games, and the experience.
Emulator Profile - DOSBox
Duncan Rule informs us all about the number one DOS emulator.
Franxis has released a new port of Mame for the unreleased Wiz Console, heres the release notes:
MAME4ALL has been ported to the GP2X WIZ console to be released on march:
This is an early beta version based on MAME4ALL 1.6:
- Download and install MAME4ALL for the GP2X.
- Remove old files in the 'frontend' folder.
- Overwrite the executables with the WIZ ones.
- It is faster than the GP2X port.
- It contains some specific features, such as horizontal scaling with linear filtering in 16 bit color mode.
--------------------------------------------
What is WiiXL?
--------------------------------------------
WiiXL is a port of the Atari800 emulator 2.0.3 to the Wii.
The Atari800 emulator is a free and portable Atari 800/XL/XE/5200 emulator,
originally written by David Firth and now developed by the Atari800 Development
Team [http://atari800.sourceforge.net/].
--------------------------------------------
Current status
--------------------------------------------
WiiXL is definitely a work in progress. At this point much of the emulator's
extended functionality is only accessible via a USB keyboard. While most of the
common buttons/keys have been mapped to the Wii/GameCube controllers others
are unavailable (HELP, PAUSE, etc.). Also, if you attempt to use functionality
such as state loading/saving you will be prompted to enter a file name. Until
a virtual keyboard is implemented, this must be accomplished via USB keyboard.
I will also be adding user-defined key mappings in a subsequent release.
To install WiiXL, simply extract the zip file that this README was distributed
with directly to your SD card (retain the hierarchical structure exactly).
WiiXL includes the Atari 800/XL/XE BIOS, OS, and BASIC ROM files.
However, it does NOT include the Atari 5200 ROM file. If you want play Atari
5200 games you must obtain the ROM file, "5200.rom", and place it in the WiiXL
application directory (/apps/wiixl).
Disk and cartridge images should be placed in the software directory
(wiixl/software).
02/07/09 (0.1)
--------------
- Initial release
- Wiimote/Classic/GameCube controller support
- USB Keyboard
- Audio/Video etc.
- Save/load state
- Screenshot support
- Audio recording support
VBA-M is a [Super] Game Boy [Color / Advance] emulator for Windows, Linux & Mac. Here you can get information about the latest development build of the Windows version and download it while you're at it.
Changes in this release:
bgk: Initial version of the GTK GUI (forwardported from VBA's CVS)
xkiv: SDL: new option to slow down autofire (needed for it to work with some games)
bgk: Fixed MFC
ZachThibeau: Compiled release. used yasm instead of nasm. (nasm giving errors in release build but not in debug build), fixed url in about box to point to http://vba-m.mudlord.com
Hard Core Rikki tonight let me know of a recently opened Emulation site called Xtemulation, with the demise of the PC Emulation scene in recent years its great to see new sites with newsposters and owners who bring their own fresh enthusiasm to a scene that has and is seeing too many good sites gone to the ground.
New beta version of Sony Playstation 2 emulator for Windows has been released. Changes:
- Removed 2 of the gamefixes, which are now simply included in the code in a more stable fashion;
- More frameskip/vuskip fixes;
- Fixed some potential VU micromem clearing problems;
- Some fixes for opcodes, should help a few games, including Naruto Shippuuden Narutimate Accel 2;
- Some cdvd fixes;
- Version numbers included when compiling files;
- Usual code cleanups and reorganizations.
P.S. This is the last beta before the merge. From now on, the beta program is on hiatus till authors sort out any and all merge issues.
Pad plugin for Sony Playstation 2 emulators has been updated. Changes:
- Will no longer hide the cursor when testing a force feedback binding and mouse mode is not set to disabled.
- Bug that required the GS window to be unfocused and then focused again for keyboard input to work when only one pad plugin was set to LilyPad fixed.
The playground team have started a new project to emulate dolphin the gamecube and wii emulator for windows:
Playground version of dolphin-emu (http://www.dolphin-emu.com)
This is not an official Dolphin-Emu project, this is a fork. This is too try crazy things with Dolphin, understand its code, and add more dev GUI to it. Also to document the Gamecube system from this emulator and Dolphin's code.
http://code.google.com/p/dolphin-emu-playground/
This has been considered for a long time and after the two teams met,we have come to a merge The new talented coders have already done great work on the emulator and will now be joined by the old PCSX2 team for an even better coding team!
This means that:
1)The PCSX2 - Playground project will be renamed and will from now on be the official PCSX2 project
2)The whole PCSX2 - Playground team will be added to the existing official PCSX2 team
3)The next PCSX2 release will replace the 0.9.4 version and the 0.9.5 beta which we provide will be replaced by new betas after the new release.This means that the current PCSX2-Playground build will not be provided as a download (since it will actually be an older version of the released PCSX2)
4)Our forum structure will be re-organized to match these changes after a new release has been made
On other news,we now host the PCSX2 Mac port made by Zendr0n in our forums here.Head there for the latest compiled build and try it on your Mac!
Many plugin updates,as usual grab them from our downloads section!
Lino has released a new version of the Nintendo DS Emulator for Linux:
Here is the new version for Linux, updated to 1.0.2.9 Final version. The changelog is the same as Windows with some extra changes like the Video Memory Accesses violation bugfix.
Krakatos has posted a new version of the PS2 Emulator for Windows:
Heres whats new:
Pcsx2 PLayground beta 681
Main changes are, God of War and Kingdom Hearts 2 are now playable. Kingdom hearts 2 requires the appropriate gamefix, same as God of War
Changelog
- God of War and Kingdom Hearts 2 now work if you use the appropriate gamefix
- New gamefix to be selected for tri-ace games. Be sure to enable both!
- Bugfix for emu crash after deleting the ini file.
- speed optimizations (as always, game dependant)
- fixes for some random and semi-random crashes
- implemented COP 2's branching instructions
- code cleanups
The JPCSP Team have released a new build of their Java PSP Emulator for Windows,
Heres whats new:
r912 fixed system time (nanos -> micros) Jan 25, 2009 pfft.whatever
r911 more patches thanks to raziel1000 Jan 22, 2009 geo...@moralis.gr r910 Fix divide by zero (Issue 66) Jan 21, 2009 gi...@web.de r909 Patch for Patapon provided by raziel1000 Jan 20, 2009 gi...@web.de r908 fixed SceKernelSemaInfo Jan 19, 2009 pfft.whatever
r907 ops i commented out something by accident :D Jan 19, 2009 geo...@moralis.gr r906 fixed a small bug in sceKernelThreadInfo (write was 2 bytes wrong ) Jan 18, 2009 geo...@moralis.gr r905 Patches for Castlevania X and Patapon provided by raziel1000 and snkmad. Jan 18, 2009 gi...@web.de r904 ... messed up the last commit. This time: updated ResolveUnmappedNIDs tool, you can now copy paste lines from html logs as well as output directly copied from the log window. Last time: fixed thread issue in pspge. fixed endianness issue in mpeg module. tweaked devctl 0x02425818 to 32mb empty ms (values still guessed). Jan 16, 2009 pfft.whatever
r903 updated ResolveUnmappedNIDs tool, you can now copy paste lines from html logs as well as output directly copied from the log window. fixed endianness issue in mpeg module. tweaked devctl 0x02425818 to 32mb empty ms (values still guessed). Jan 16, 2009 pfft.whatever
r902 +1 Implemented sceUtilitySavedataInitStart mode 8 (Issue 51). Enhanced test program SavedataTool to test mode 8. Jan 16, 2009 gi...@web.de r901 improved io seek. added fatms0 mapping to ms0 (untested). removed context switch from fast check sema when inside callback, who knows what will happen if the sema wanted to wait. converting ge sync(type=queued) to sync(type=done). Jan 15, 2009 pfft.whatever
r900 fixed PSF write (value offset was not getting updated) Jan 15, 2009 pfft.whatever
r899 fixed ioXXXAsync -> context switch -> waitAsync blocking forever. added devctl 0x02015804, 0x02015805, 0x02425823. Jan 14, 2009 pfft.whatever
r898 accidentally left GE callbacks disabled in the conversion - restoring Jan 14, 2009 pfft.whatever
r897 Fixed 2D display to no longer ignore depth information. - ZTST: fixed for 2D. Not yet fixed for 3D. - CLEAR: set DepthFunc to GL_ALWAYS instead of clearing the depth buffer Tested with 2dstudio.prx and different games. E.g. display problems in ToE are now fixed. Jan 14, 2009 gi...@web.de r896 Fixed 2D display problems: - ATST: do not disable ALPHA_TEST when reference value is 0 - CLEAR: ALPHA_TEST is always disabled in clear mode - TME, ABE, ATE, ZTE: they have no effect in clear mode (other flags not tested) Tested on a real PSP using 2dstudio.prx Jan 14, 2009 gi...@web.de r895 +1 Added test program 2dstudio.prx to test different parameter combinations when drawing 2D objects. Jan 14, 2009 gi...@web.de r894 Added jaxen and jdom to .classpath for Eclipse Jan 14, 2009 gi...@web.de r893 oops, didn't comment out a test properly Jan 13, 2009 pfft.whatever
r892 missed a file for the last commit. other minor changes. Jan 13, 2009 pfft.whatever
r891 re-wrote emu thread <-> graphics thread interaction. list sync implemented. old code/files will be removed later. Jan 13, 2009 pfft.whatever
Dolphin the Gamecube/Nintendo Wii Emulator for Windows has had a new public beta release, heres the news details:
This week we havn't changed much that the end users might notice
however we did do some wiimote & njoy fixes and DSP_Null is now itegrated in HLE .
64bit should also be fixed now :)
for more info and to talk about this rev build go to our forum
have fun
- Daco
PS: to download go to downloads( dur ) and login
The JPCSP Team have posted a new PSP Emulator for the PSP which is a port of their Java PSP Emulator to the c++ language, heres the changelog
Changelog from 191:
Added debug for unknown syscalls, now it will also return the name
Prelimary work on plugin configuration dialog. Still not useable
Added prelimary RTC module support. (rtctest now works,some other demos might behave a bit better)
Consolius contacted DCEmu today and asked us to release 2 emulators on his behalf, heres the details:
Colem for the Wii
=================
Colecovision emulator for the Wii game console.
Instructions:
------------
* Copy the application folder in the "apps" directory of the SD card (HomeBrew channel structure).
* Create a directory "/roms/romscol" on the SD card
* Put all your roms (.rom or .zip) in that directory including the system rom (named "coleco.rom")
* Boot the emulator from the HomeBrew Channel.
* Select ROM and press the "2" button."
* Press:
"HOME" to exit the emulator at anytime.
"cursor keys" to navigate up/down/left/right.
"button 2" to shoot (or whatever...)
"plus" to invoke the emulated console's Keyboard/keyPad (press "plus" again to swap the joystick/keyPad number)
and "2" button again to come back to the game and/or confirm the pad key press.
"minus" to go back to the ROMs menu.
Features/known bugs:
------------------
* SDHC support (build with latest libogc and libfat)
* Some incompatibility issues
* some problems in double buffering causing some corruptions in GFX.
* Sound to be improved in a next release...
Consolius contacted DCEmu today and asked us to release 2 emulators on his behalf, heres the details:
O2em for the Wii
================
Odyssey/Videopac emulator for the Wii game console.
Instructions:
------------
* Copy the application folder (o2em) in the "apps" directory of the SD card (HomeBrew channel directory structure).
* Create a directory "/roms/romsodd" on the SD card
* Put all your roms (.bin or .zip) in that directory including the system rom (named "o2rom.bin")
* Boot the emulator from the HomeBrew Channel.
* Select ROM and press the "2" button."
* Press:
"HOME" to exit the emulator at anytime.
"cursor keys" to navigate up/down/left/right.
"button 2" to shoot (or whatever...)
"plus" to invoke the emulated console's Keyboard/keyPad (press "plus" again to swap the joystick/keyPad number)
and "2" button again to come back to the game and/or confirm the pad key press.
"minus" to go back to the ROMs menu.
Features/known bugs:
------------------
* SDHC support (build with latest libogc and libfat)
* some problems in double buffering causing some corruptions in GFX.
* Sound to be improved in a next release...
As we are in the process of preparing the next closed beta release (N'Sider), we have decided it would be best for the project to expand our team to include new programmers. The emulator, although very far along in development, is still at a stage where there are many areas of emulation that have yet to even be touched, and the areas that have been worked on are still very incomplete and lacking features. It is simply a lot of work to keep up with with only two developers.
If you are interested in contributing to the project, please let us know what section of the project you are interested in working on (although you will not be limited by this), and your relevant programming experience. If we feel that you will be an asset to the team, we will then welcome you and provide you will all developer access. :-) Any inquiries or questions can be sent to me via forum PM. It's a great opportunity to join a very motivated team (I speak for both the developers, testers, N'Siders, and everyone else part of the project) and a very great community.
In addition, we are looking to enhance the website design. If you have interest in this, and experience, please feel free to contact me as well.
Updated plug-Pad for Sony Playstation 2 emulators. Changes:
- Creating a new force feedback binding while testing an old one will no longer cause a crash.
- Pressing a button after clicking on one of the bind axis buttons will no longer result in a crash.
- Disabled pads now have their tabs hidden.
- Sensitivity for DirectInput relative axes was set so low they were unuseable. Fixed.
- Replaced "Start in analog mode" with "use analog mode whenever possible". New option will auto switch pads from digital to analog after a mode change whenever the pad's mode is not locked.
Lino has released a new version of his DS emulator iDeaS for Windows.
Here's the changelog :
Fixed bugs in OAM Bitmap rendering.
Fixed bug in GXSTAT register.
Fixed bug in SWAP_BUFFER register.
Fixed bug in Rendereing for Mode3 e Mode4.
Fixed bug in AlphaBlend Rendering.
Fixed bug in Increase CPU speed.
Fixed bug in Path Selection in Properties Page.
Fixed bug in Enable/Disable layers.
Fixed bug in Pause Emulator Option.
Download and Give Feedback Via Comments
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