This release has the much requested Donkey Kong II (d2k). It's mostly working, except that due to what seems to be some sort of protection, the game reboots after you complete the first level. We are hoping that some smart person may be able to work out what needs to be done to fix it.
Source changes
--------------
Dkong
- all - fixed messed-up display in cocktail mode
- all - widened screen a little, so that barrels don't get cut off on the sides
- dkongex - fixed freeplay dipswitch
- dkonghs, dkjrhs - replaced custom eeprom handler with mame standard; removed rom patches
Games Added
-----------
vhangly3 (Vector Hangly 3, hack by Gatinho)
d2k11 (Donkey Kong II: Jumpman Returns (v1.1), hack by Jeff Kulczycki) [Unemulated Protection]
d2k (Donkey Kong II: Jumpman Returns (v1.2), hack by Jeff Kulczycki) [Unemulated Protection]
Games Removed
-------------
cosmica, cosmica2 (They have sound in MAME, since 0.128u1)
matrimbl (in MAME, since 0.127u8)
- Fangface
Wednesday, October 29th 2008 - Last updated @ 17:05 EST
What's new...
- The interrupt processing of the CD-ROM access was brought close to the
movement of a real machine. In "Mahjong Lemon Angel", the bug sometimes
freezed (generated from v1.37) was solved.
- The timing of the raster interrupt processing was brought close to the
movement of a real machine.
In the battle scene of "Tengai Makyou II", the problem that the background
had shaken (generated from recent version) was solved.
In the battle scene of "Dragon Slayer - The Legend of Heroes", the problem
that the message window had shaken was solved.
In "Ramma 1/2 Toraware no Hanayome", the problem that the upper part of
the message window has blinked was solved.
I think that other games for the operation of the raster interrupt (line
scroll) also approached a real machine.
- In the game start of "Super Darius", when a fast CD drive is used, the
problem that the introduction music became interrupted occasionally was
solved.
- In the stage clear of "Don Doko Don", the problem that the scroll part
under the screen has fallen into disorder by one line was solved.
- At the customizing setting of full-screen mode ("Screen"->"FullScreen
Customize" menu), when setting it to a special resolution, in the settings
other than "Non-Stretch", the bug to which the screen had not been
occasionally displayed was corrected.
- Additionally, a detailed part has been improved and corrected.
- Fangface
Tuesday, October 28th 2008 - Last updated @ 20:08 EST
Gens/GS Milestone 5 released - Gens/GS is a version of Gens maintained by GerbilSoft. The main goal of Gens/GS is to clean up the source code and combine features from various forks of Gens. Find out what's new here.
- TheInformer
The change log for this release is quite extensive and can be viewed within the zip file of the download link above.
For those not familar with this emulator: "Gambatte is an accuracy-focused, cross-platform Game Boy / Game Boy Color emulator. It is based on hundreds of corner case hardware tests, as well as previous documentation and reverse engineering efforts."
- Fangface
What's new...
-Fixed GL_MULTISAMPLE bug with some ATI cards.
-Corrected controls and screen size in Black Widow. (note: screen size was set by making the boxes in test mode square. I think it’s right and I’m sticking with it.)
-Corrected Led disable in Bzone. Note: To set this and other values globally, set them in the front end. To set options in individual games, set them in-game.
-Corrected Tempest lockup on level 14.
-Fixed tempest “White Out” issues.
-Corrected non–working test advance switch in Tempest.
-Corrected bad random function in spaceduel.
- Fangface
What's new...
-Fixed a Linux listbox bug that left action buttons disabled when there was only one item [tukuyomi]
-Fixed a few strings that were not being translated by locale.cfg before [diminish]
- Fangface
PSP7800 v1.2.0 released - For those who haven't seen previous versions, ProSystem is the best emulator of Atari 7800 game console, running on Windows system. It has been written by Greg Stanton, see Greg's site for details.
What's new in version 1.2.0 :
Improve global emulation speed !
New render modes
Add vertical shift feature
Finally fix issue with "Home -> Exit" !
Add documentation for settings in help menu
The virtual keyboard is now usable in the file requester menu to choose the first letter of the game you search !
Improve file requester with virtual keyboard to choose
sequentially rom files beginning with a given letter
Text editor to write your own comments on games
Display first comment line while browsing game files
Cheat support !
Memory monitoring engine to find your own cheat code !
Text editor to modify the global cheat.txt file
Zip rom files are now decompressed in memory (much faster !)
Add option to disable auto fire in settings menu
Add eboot music (see http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/nexus)
Source code can now be compiled to build a linux version
What's new...
-added mouse support to DirectInput and SDL input drivers
up to 96 buttons per controller; 8 buttons per mouse (5 per mouse on Linux) can be mapped now
-added SNES mouse support (does not support speed setting yet)
-added Super Scope support
-added Justifier support (supports both Justifiers)
-input management system almost completely rewritten to support new controllers
-"Load Special" menu removed, all cart loading merged to "Load Cartridge ..." option
-replaced "Power Cycle" and "Unload Cartridge" with "Power" -> "On" / "Off"
-when video exceeds screen size and is scaled down, aspect ratio is now maintained [Ver Greeneyes]
-zlib modified to support non-ANSI characters
-cheat code count was limited to 1,024 codes before; it now supports unlimited codes per game
-added sort by description setting for cheat code list
polished listbox control interaction (disable buttons when nothing selected, etc)
-cleaned up OBC-1 chip emulation (code is functionally identical to v036)
-added option to toggle fullscreen mode to settings menu
-added advanced mode options to toggle base unit (none, Satellaview) and system region (Auto-detect, NTSC, PAL)
- Fangface
D-DGEN out - D-DGEN is a new Sega Genesis emulator for Windows that can emulate two machines at the same time to simulate a stereo view effect.
- TheInformer
Thursday, October 23rd 2008 - Last updated @ 17:52 EST
What's new...
- tile and sprite viewer can be resized
- added support for fMSX CAS images (tapes), including the ability to save separate blocks, and import common MSX files normally meant for MSX disks. Be aware that you'll need an official BIOS ROM to be able to play tape games.
- PSG: moved chip type configuration to the GUI
- VDP: added chip type configuration: TMS9118, TMS9129, TMS9918, and TMS9929 (TMSxx18 is NTSC/J, can also be TMSxx28. TMSxx29 is PAL)
- VDP: enabled 4KB mode address bus mangling for TMS99xx
- VDP: added M3 sprite cloning quirk
- fixed tile viewer screen loader BLOAD header detection
- Fangface
Tuesday, October 21st 2008 - Last updated @ 08:09 EST
You can play 54 different Atari 2600 games online in your browser at this site. A few of the classic games include Adventure, Ms. PacMan, and Missle Command.
- TheInformer
Finally - a controller to play video games the way they should be played - OLD SCHOOL STYLE !!!
-Standard USB HID --- NO DRIVERS REQUIRED
-Connect up to 4 Joysticks to a single computer!!!
-USB Cable Included.
-Windows 98SE to Vista Compatible
-Apple Mac OSX Compatible
-Linux Compatible
Also, the PC Board has 10 (TEN) Internal contact points to allow you to wire up to 10 additional firebuttons - great interface for Build Your Own Arcade Controls enthusiasts!!!
What's new...
Added driver for Contra [iq_132]
Added driver Funny Bubble [iq_132]
Added driver for Legend of Kage [iq_132]
Added driver for games on Legendary Wings hardware [iq_132]
Added driver for Son Son [iq_132]
Added Cue Brick to the Konami driver [Barry]
Added clone of Armored Warriors to the CPS-2 driver [Barry]
Added clone of Capcom Sports Club to the CPS-2 driver [Barry]
Added clone of Giga Wing to the CPS-2 driver [Barry]
Small speed-up in the generic tile handling, improving the speed slightly in lots of drivers [Barry]
Corrected the text rom size in Samurai Shodown V and Samuari Shodown V Special [Barry]
Updated the Neo Geo Bios roms [Barry]
Added support for the Samurai Shodown V bootleg [Barry]
Hooked up the region dip switch in the PCB version of Metal Slug 5 - this won't work until we have dumps of the actual PCB program roms though [Barry]
Corrected the road colours in Enforce [Barry]
Fixed sound in Ali Baba [iq-132]
Fixed an issue with icon handling in the favourites module [Captain CPS-X]
Disabled the Neo Geo multislot menu item until such time it does something useful [Barry]
Matched all sets to MAME 0.128
- Fangface
Friday, October 17th 2008 - Last updated @ 06:04 EST
Connected firefox audio enables and improved volume balance so you can hear the speech chip. Also fixed speech chip frequency. [Aaron Giles, Philip Bennett]
marked Hacha Mecha Fighter (nmk16.c) BG rom as a bad dump. [David Haywood]
Improved the poker41 and pulltabs button-lamps layouts to look more realistic. [Roberto Fresca]
Fixed the colors of Yumefuda. Added two new palette functions in generic.c: paletteram_xRRRRRGGGGGBBBBB_split1_w() andpaletteram_xRRRRRGGGGGBBBBB_split2_w() (used by Yumefuda).
[Angelo Salese]
Added function to get the status of CA2 on the 6821 PIA emulator. [Phill Harvey-Smith]
Added new tool ldresample to assist in resynchronizing audio tracks in a CHD with frames. Currently still WIP but useful if you know what you're doing. [Aaron Giles]
New games added or promoted from NOT_WORKING status
---------------------------------------------------
Tuesday, October 14th 2008 - Last updated @ 10:43 EST
Thailand is HOT - Hiho, I'm currently on a business trip in Thailand. And yes, while many 'farang' go to Thailand for the women, I'm not one of them. There's many 'working women' to be found in Nana and Patpong districts, but we had seen that the area in about 15mins and decided to leave. Too many drunk white guys looking to cause trouble.
I'm in Thailand to expand my Muay Thai business, looking for new suppliers and perhaps even sell my own fight gear in Thailand.
I'm meeting with several people this week and am flying back this weekend. The weather is HOT (about 35 Celsius with no breeze!) and I walk about 10km/day (6 miles) in this heat. Obviously, I'm losing weight ;)
I'm staying in the Embassy district, it's near the BTS ('Skytrain') and the whole city can be reached within minutes.
I'll be in New York and North Carolina in December and in Pakistan in January. I'm also planning on going to China (again), but I have to do a little more research first.
- atila
Monday, October 13th 2008 - Last updated @ 06:23 EST
midline resolution support changed again (should be "good enough" now, better compatibility requires bigger changes and boring logic analyzer testing)
centering was very broken in some cases (b2)
only accept openal32.dll 6.14.357.22 or newer. (fixes possible crash at startup)
missing sprites in some programs fixed, for example Leander and Battle Squadron (b2)
added descriptions to file associations, fall back to user-specific (instead of system-wide) file associations if no admin privileges (was broken in Vista)
added "Associate file extensions"-button to Paths-panel. Adds following extensions: .uae, .adf, .ipf, .dms, .uss. Removal not yet possible (it gets really tricky if other programs use same extensions and there is no API for adding or removing associations, only way is to access registry directly.. believe it or not.) Automatic .uae association removed. Better GUI in future. Maybe.
What's new...
Miscellaneous improvements and bug fixes.
- Fangface
OpenOffice 3.0 Final released - It's not listed on the official site yet (Monday October 13 is the official release date), but the final release of version 3.0 is now available for download. A list of mirror sites that have been seeded with v3.0.0 can be found here. The path to the final download is usually found in the directory stable/3.0.0/. One mirror I checked out had the file here.
- TheInformer
Friday, October 10th 2008 - Last updated @ 18:34 EST
What's new...
- User functions not done in the GUI when mapped to joystick buttons
- Database machine type fixes for 5200 diagnostic carts
- Launcher speed doubled
- Current machine not remembered if emulator is exited while playing
- Mapping shows correctly on main GUI screen
Per the author:
"I have a new release coming out soon and was hoping to get some feedback and bug reports. Here's what's new:
* GUI
- General Improvements
- Added Launcher to support Favorites list
- Added Atari 800/XL/XE images to Launcher list
- Added several User keys
* Video
- Changed drawing (less tearing?)
- Added 16/32-bit video modes
- Added Fullscreen mode configuration
- Added NTSC filter (thanks Blargg)
- Added 3x scaling
- Added Screenshots
* Core
- Atari 800/XL/XE support (see documentation)
- Fixed PM graphics in hi-res again (Bounter Bob Counter)
- Added PAL support
- Added INS instruction (Pac Pollux crash, slampam reported)
* Misc
- Changed configuration to SQLite database
- Improved directory handling (Frontends, Drag-N-Drop)
- Updated to latest GuiChan version
- Added INNO setup for Windows
- Now open source
- NOT backward compatible with previous versions
Some things I'm interested in knowing:
* All 8-bit images I know about (i.e. in the database) should work as far as using the correct machine, BASIC, ram size without the user needing to set those things. Let me know if that works. Also, for cassette images, you may need to disable the SIO patch, it needs a little improvement. Now that I think about it, you also need to hit space bar on boot to bring up a cassette.
* The Launcher by default only lists images for the current machine in one long list. I think what may be best are the options to show all the images for all machines and tab them by the type of image. Play around with these options and let me know what you think.
* Do the input and video configuration options make sense? Since I don't have documentation yet how easy is it to use?
* Other bugs / suggestions. There is an issues list on the page above, feel free to enter them there as well.
I have a couple of weeks here where I can't work on it. Seemed like a good time to get a little feedback before I clean up and release."
This release fixes long-term problems with the gui (enabling/disabling options) under Linux. Moreover it adds internal save state for SCD games, like in Gens for Windows.
- TheInformer
Saturday, October 4th 2008 - Last updated @ 01:26 EST
Playable online games - Prince of Persia, Raiden X, Sonic the Hedgehog, and others are playable online now! Whoever did the Prince of Persia conversion did a great job.
- TheInformer
Commander Keen - The classic game from years ago has been converted to Flash and is now playable online. This is episode 1 - Invasion of the Vorticons.
- TheInformer
Free games at GameShadow? - It looks like GameShadow is offering, for free, several games for your downloading pleasure. A few of the games are Broken Sword 2.5, The Suffering, and Area 51.
- TheInformer
Thursday, October 2nd 2008 - Last updated @ 12:52 EST
