emulation.net News Archives

July 1998

MacMAME Release Candidate 1 has been released! This version is more stable than MacMAME 0.33b7, fixing several small bugs.
The Swedish version of SNES9X 1.0.5 has been released, courtesy of SkalMac!

MacMAME Release Candidate 1 should be available very shortly! This version fixes many bugs from MacMAME beta 7.
MacMAME users looking for the best way to update their ROM archive in preparation for Release Candidate 1 need look no further than the Insert Coin web page, which has merged, verified archives of all MacMAME ROMs. (Having recently updated my personal ROM archive to be in sync with MacMAME 0.33b7, I know how difficult it can be to find complete ROM sets.)
Easy-GZ has been updated to version 1.1! This version now uses the updated Zlib 1.1.3 core, and adds several features requested by users.

Peter Liddle has resumed updates to EmuMac, giving it a new look as well. Although there are a few rough edges, Peter deserves congratulations for getting the site up and running again. (Note: his update about Catakig is erroneous; don't write me about it. The latest version is 1.10b.)
Although the PSMac emulator is still far from actually running games, it has been updated to version 0.1a. Currently, this emulator will not run any Playstation games at all; the core processor is under 30% complete, and graphics, sound and CD-reading subsystems are entirely unemulated. (I'll add a page to emulation.net for this emulator as soon as it actually emulates something correctly.)
The BBC Games Archive is dedicated to collecting information on every BBC Micro game in existence.
Although I'm unsure whether this is a full emulator or not, a WebTV Simulator has been released. If you have further information about this simulator, please contact me.

MacMAME has been updated to version 0.33b7! This version supports the usual flood of new games, and now supports "merged ROMs" so that games with multiple, nearly-identical versions (for example, English and Japanese) don't take up tons of space.

Thanks to everyone who listened to the Computer America show yesterday afternoon. It was a blast.
The Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator has been updated to version 0.8.5! This version supports Amiga hard disks, joysticks, Picasso96, and GZ compression.
Oric/MacOS 1.2 fixes several bugs from the previous version.
TO8/MacOS has been updated to version 0.5; this release apparently contains many significant fixes.
A Connectix staff member has written step-by-step instructions for installing Red Hat Linux on Virtual PC.
A reader sent me the URL of a fantastic site; if you ever read Analog magazine, this can be quite a fascinating story.

Computer America is holding a radio show on emulation and cross-platform computing, and I'm going to be one of the guests! You'll need RealAudio to listen to the broadcast. The show is being held today (July 19) from 12:00 to 3:00 Pacific Standard Time.
If this is your first visit, welcome to emulation.net! This web site is the home of hundreds of emulators for the Mac OS. Thanks to emulation, a standard Power Macintosh is able to run Windows 95 software, play Nintendo games, house a virtual arcade, and run classic Apple II titles! If you're new to the world of emulation, feel free to browse emulation.net (or read our frequently asked questions).

Virtual Gameboy 1.1 is has been released! This version now supports several new games that wouldn't work before, such as Mystic Quest. Also, games which wouldn't save properly, such as Pocket Monsters, should now work properly. Finally, smoothed video is now available to registered users! (Support for 1MB games is still under construction.)
AudioReplay 1.2 is under construction! (Until it is released, audio recordings from Virtual Gameboy 1.1 will not be usable, since it uses a new, more compact format.)
An updated version of iNES is coming soon! This version will include TV Mode, better support for Vs. System ROMs, and ought to be a bit faster as well! (Vs. System was an arcade system based almost entirely on NES hardware; among others, the arcade versions of Super Mario Bros., Castlevania and The Goonies were hosted on the Vs. System hardware.)
In a followup to the previous news, a reader reminded me that Macintosh ports of NetBSD for PowerPC and 680x0 machines already exist.

Virtual Gameboy 1.1 is coming soon! This version features support for large battery RAM (for Pocket Monsters) and compatibility with a few more games.
German, French and Japanese versions of SNES9X 1.0.5 are now available.
A link to a web page dedicated to software for the TRS-80 is now available.
A user reports that, after some hacking, it is indeed possible to run NetBSD on VirtualPC! If you were interested in running NetBSD on your Mac, this seems to be an easy and practical solution.

SNES9X has been updated to version 1.0.5! This release fixes a few bugs in the emulation core.
The SNES9X home page has been moved to www.snes9x.com! Also, the SNES9X source code base has been puclicly released. If you were looking for SNES information, want to contribute to the project, or are just curious how SNES9X works internally, feel free to download the code and check it out.

SNES ROM Info has been updated to version 1.0b4! This release supports GZ-compressed ROMs and will even compress your ROMs for you as it catalogs them.
The House of Coins has now set up an English news page! Although this site focuses on MacMAME, they've recently expanded to cover information about a variety of emulators.
Sources report that the next version of MacMAME will support some Neo-Geo games; currently working games include Puzzle Bobble and Nam 1975. Unfortunately, no firm release date has been specified yet.
The developers of Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.0 report that progress is steady; they anticipate a release in September or October if all goes well. (Bernie for the BeOS has also recently been released; although it's only at version 0.9, apparently it is fast, stable and takes good advantage of parallel processing.)

Virtual Gameboy has been updated to version 1.0.2! This release adds support for GZ-compressed ROMs, as well as fixing a few minor bugs from the previous release.
Jammer Fi has left EmuMac, a popular Macintosh-centric emulation website, in order to "pursue other ventures." He'll be missed, but with luck, the other members of EmuMac will be able to keep the site going.

Connectix has officially announced Virtual PC 2.1, bundled with Windows 98! Version 2.1 will offer Voodoo 2 support, enhanced Windows NT support, improved Ethernet support and video compatibility, and compatibility with PowerBook drive hot-swapping. The 2.1 updater, to be released in August, will be a free download for owners of 2.0.
MacTiger, the TI92 emulator, has been updated to version 0.1a3! This version includes a clickable keypad for entering equations; quite a useful feature for such a complex device. However, it requires MacsBug to be installed.
The French translation of SNES9X has reached the newest version, 1.0.1.

A demo of MagiCMac 6.0 has been released! Unfortunately, it is all in German for now.
On a related note, the author of PowerST has responded to claims that MagiCMac's claim of superior benchmark speeds. Apparently, this is a misleading statement because ST programs running under PowerST will always report that they're running at the speed of a normal Atari ST, even if they're running much faster than that on the Macintosh itself. Also, PowerST is compatible with non-MagiC applications.
A prerelease of version 0.8.4 of the Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator has been released! The finished version should still be available within a week. (I'm still unclear as to what will change between the prerelease and final versions.)

I've spent the last week developing a freeware GZ compression tool called Easy-GZ. It's fast, easy to use, and works perfectly for compressing SNES ROMs. (SNES9X can load GZ-compressed ROMs automatically, without needing to decompress them first.)
According to its home page, the Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator should receive an update to version 0.8.4 within the week!
Power PC Engine has been updated to version 0.3.6! A few minor additions and a slew of bug-fixes are present in this release. Unfortunately, the long-awaited assembly CPU core is not present in this version.

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	MacMAME Release Candidate 1 has been released! This version is more stable than MacMAME 0.33b7, fixing several small bugs. The Swedish version of SNES9X 1.0.5 has been released, courtesy of SkalMac!
	MacMAME Release Candidate 1 should be available very shortly! This version fixes many bugs from MacMAME beta 7. MacMAME users looking for the best way to update their ROM archive in preparation for Release Candidate 1 need look no further than the Insert Coin web page, which has merged, verified archives of all MacMAME ROMs. (Having recently updated my personal ROM archive to be in sync with MacMAME 0.33b7, I know how difficult it can be to find complete ROM sets.) Easy-GZ has been updated to version 1.1! This version now uses the updated Zlib 1.1.3 core, and adds several features requested by users.
	Peter Liddle has resumed updates to EmuMac, giving it a new look as well. Although there are a few rough edges, Peter deserves congratulations for getting the site up and running again. (Note: his update about Catakig is erroneous; don't write me about it. The latest version is 1.10b.) Although the PSMac emulator is still far from actually running games, it has been updated to version 0.1a. Currently, this emulator will not run any Playstation games at all; the core processor is under 30% complete, and graphics, sound and CD-reading subsystems are entirely unemulated. (I'll add a page to emulation.net for this emulator as soon as it actually emulates something correctly.) The BBC Games Archive is dedicated to collecting information on every BBC Micro game in existence. Although I'm unsure whether this is a full emulator or not, a WebTV Simulator has been released. If you have further information about this simulator, please contact me.
	MacMAME has been updated to version 0.33b7! This version supports the usual flood of new games, and now supports "merged ROMs" so that games with multiple, nearly-identical versions (for example, English and Japanese) don't take up tons of space.
	Thanks to everyone who listened to the Computer America show yesterday afternoon. It was a blast. The Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator has been updated to version 0.8.5! This version supports Amiga hard disks, joysticks, Picasso96, and GZ compression. Oric/MacOS 1.2 fixes several bugs from the previous version. TO8/MacOS has been updated to version 0.5; this release apparently contains many significant fixes. A Connectix staff member has written step-by-step instructions for installing Red Hat Linux on Virtual PC. A reader sent me the URL of a fantastic site; if you ever read Analog magazine, this can be quite a fascinating story.
	Computer America is holding a radio show on emulation and cross-platform computing, and I'm going to be one of the guests! You'll need RealAudio to listen to the broadcast. The show is being held today (July 19) from 12:00 to 3:00 Pacific Standard Time. If this is your first visit, welcome to emulation.net! This web site is the home of hundreds of emulators for the Mac OS. Thanks to emulation, a standard Power Macintosh is able to run Windows 95 software, play Nintendo games, house a virtual arcade, and run classic Apple II titles! If you're new to the world of emulation, feel free to browse emulation.net (or read our frequently asked questions).
	Virtual Gameboy 1.1 is has been released! This version now supports several new games that wouldn't work before, such as Mystic Quest. Also, games which wouldn't save properly, such as Pocket Monsters, should now work properly. Finally, smoothed video is now available to registered users! (Support for 1MB games is still under construction.) AudioReplay 1.2 is under construction! (Until it is released, audio recordings from Virtual Gameboy 1.1 will not be usable, since it uses a new, more compact format.) An updated version of iNES is coming soon! This version will include TV Mode, better support for Vs. System ROMs, and ought to be a bit faster as well! (Vs. System was an arcade system based almost entirely on NES hardware; among others, the arcade versions of Super Mario Bros., Castlevania and The Goonies were hosted on the Vs. System hardware.) In a followup to the previous news, a reader reminded me that Macintosh ports of NetBSD for PowerPC and 680x0 machines already exist.
	Virtual Gameboy 1.1 is coming soon! This version features support for large battery RAM (for Pocket Monsters) and compatibility with a few more games. German, French and Japanese versions of SNES9X 1.0.5 are now available. A link to a web page dedicated to software for the TRS-80 is now available. A user reports that, after some hacking, it is indeed possible to run NetBSD on VirtualPC! If you were interested in running NetBSD on your Mac, this seems to be an easy and practical solution.
	SNES9X has been updated to version 1.0.5! This release fixes a few bugs in the emulation core. The SNES9X home page has been moved to www.snes9x.com! Also, the SNES9X source code base has been puclicly released. If you were looking for SNES information, want to contribute to the project, or are just curious how SNES9X works internally, feel free to download the code and check it out.
	SNES ROM Info has been updated to version 1.0b4! This release supports GZ-compressed ROMs and will even compress your ROMs for you as it catalogs them. The House of Coins has now set up an English news page! Although this site focuses on MacMAME, they've recently expanded to cover information about a variety of emulators. Sources report that the next version of MacMAME will support some Neo-Geo games; currently working games include Puzzle Bobble and Nam 1975. Unfortunately, no firm release date has been specified yet. The developers of Bernie ][ the Rescue 2.0 report that progress is steady; they anticipate a release in September or October if all goes well. (Bernie for the BeOS has also recently been released; although it's only at version 0.9, apparently it is fast, stable and takes good advantage of parallel processing.)
	Virtual Gameboy has been updated to version 1.0.2! This release adds support for GZ-compressed ROMs, as well as fixing a few minor bugs from the previous release. Jammer Fi has left EmuMac, a popular Macintosh-centric emulation website, in order to "pursue other ventures." He'll be missed, but with luck, the other members of EmuMac will be able to keep the site going.
	Connectix has officially announced Virtual PC 2.1, bundled with Windows 98! Version 2.1 will offer Voodoo 2 support, enhanced Windows NT support, improved Ethernet support and video compatibility, and compatibility with PowerBook drive hot-swapping. The 2.1 updater, to be released in August, will be a free download for owners of 2.0. MacTiger, the TI92 emulator, has been updated to version 0.1a3! This version includes a clickable keypad for entering equations; quite a useful feature for such a complex device. However, it requires MacsBug to be installed. The French translation of SNES9X has reached the newest version, 1.0.1.
	A demo of MagiCMac 6.0 has been released! Unfortunately, it is all in German for now. On a related note, the author of PowerST has responded to claims that MagiCMac's claim of superior benchmark speeds. Apparently, this is a misleading statement because ST programs running under PowerST will always report that they're running at the speed of a normal Atari ST, even if they're running much faster than that on the Macintosh itself. Also, PowerST is compatible with non-MagiC applications. A prerelease of version 0.8.4 of the Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator has been released! The finished version should still be available within a week. (I'm still unclear as to what will change between the prerelease and final versions.)
	I've spent the last week developing a freeware GZ compression tool called Easy-GZ. It's fast, easy to use, and works perfectly for compressing SNES ROMs. (SNES9X can load GZ-compressed ROMs automatically, without needing to decompress them first.) According to its home page, the Ubiquitous Amiga Emulator should receive an update to version 0.8.4 within the week! Power PC Engine has been updated to version 0.3.6! A few minor additions and a slew of bug-fixes are present in this release. Unfortunately, the long-awaited assembly CPU core is not present in this version.