The homepage to NINCEST64, a Nintendo64 emulator that could run a few demos, has been removed. I've been informed by the author that the emulator is officially discontinued. This is another casualty in what will no doubt be coined as "The UltraHLE effect". (heh, I think that sounds cool).
There's no link to check out, it's just gone.

Adrox has just informed me that the RockNES site has been updated, and what's posted there is very disturbing. It seems that with the recent events going on as far as Nintendo and the Nintendo 64 emulator are concerned, the author of RockNES doesn't want to be associated with doing anything illegal. I suggest you all check out the official page and form your own opinions.

It was inevitable thanx to all the ROM beggars out there.. UltraHLE development has been stopped and the site temporarily removed. This is what was left:

"The UltraHLE project was a technical demo, an experiment to see if N64 emulation really is possible. It was not designed to be a tool for piracy.
"Once it was released, things moved at an unforseen pace. A lot of people seemed more interested in acquiring illegal copies of game ROMs, than looking at the technical efforts that went into producing the emulator. We do not condone the use of illegal roms in any form and this emulator was not designed to be used for this. The reaction we saw was not the one we expected. It seems the emulation community is not ready for something like this. The UltraHLE project is now on hold, and will be discontinued if this activity continues. Our aim is to develop emulation technology further, not to hurt Nintendo. Without them none of this would be possible.
"This site is temporarily down and under modifications."

Well it's about time IGN came up with a decent article. Too bad it had to be like this. N64.IGN.COM interviewed RealityMan, the IDSA, and Nintendo about the release of UltraHLE. All three do not condone these ludicrous N64 warez exchanges, and rightfully so. IDSA basically says what it has been saying, except they take it a step farther trying to define what is a "legal" emulator.

Of course, we all know that emulators themselves aren't illegal, it's what you do with them that makes them illegal. The big companies don't want you to know that though. However, none of this has ever been tested in court, but it soon may (see below article). Anyway, Nintendo has taken the stance against emulators the same as it has with console copiers (which I bashed in my legality article last year). All they offer is:

Well it seems that this is what it took to finally blow open emulation to the general public. Sony has gone ahead and sued Connectix. Sony claims that VGS is inferior to a real PlayStation and therefore degrades the apparent quality of their system. They also claim that VGS circumvents their antipiracy protection. Connectix has now released an update to VGS which enhances the anti-piracy code. It does not look like Sony will win this one however, which is good news for emulation. Read any of the following articles... this coverage may only be shadowed by UltraHLE.
[ ZDNet "Sony sues Playstation emulator" | ZDNet "Connectix fights back with upgrade" | ZDNet "Connectix strikes back at Sony" | MacCentral "The Sony/Connectix battle: Sony files suit" | MacCentral "The Sony/Connectix battle part 2: Sony issues Statement" | MacCentral "The Sony/Connectix battle part 3: New VGS coming to stores" | Next-Generation "Sony Sues Connectix" | GameSpot "Sony Defends PlayStation Turf" | Wired "PlayStation Clone Irks Sony" | Wired "Sony Sues Over PlayStation Clone" ]

They sure know how to stay in the spotlight don't they? :-) The Bleem site has been updated with more news about the progress of their emulator. Quoting directly: "Good news about DirectX 6.1! The public release of DirectX 6.1 is right around the corner, and in the meantime, we're now working directly with Microsoft to get everything ready for our mastering! A huge thanks to everyone who EMailed us about DirectX 6.1, and a big "yay!" to Microsoft for helping out the little guys! Oh, and the software? Optimizations for all machines are coming along really well, and full MMX and 3DNow! support is in progress!". Additionally, the FAQ has been updated again as well. Thanks to Adrox of EmuSphere for the news.

Mike Balfour has released the first version of Mini-Pac, which is basically a bare bones pacman emulator plus source code to demonstrate C++/DirectX/emulation programming. This will be used to release the upcoming Pac-X, a 3-D first-person version of Pac-Man running off of the original game engine through the magic of emulation. While it runs the Namco Pacman game roms, it puts Pac-Man in an entirely new perspective, in 3-D! This version is also much harder than the original version. If you want Mini-Pac, or want to read more about Pac-X, check out Mike's page.

Peter Hirschberg sent me an e-mail to announce a few things. It's been a while since the last release of Vector Dream and he's been getting a lot e-mail lately asking him what's up. First, the reason why he's been so quiet lately is that he's been having some unfortunate health problems. He's decided to cancel his Vector Dream emulator and his Marble Madness Emulator. But the good news is that he's hard at work on a new emulator. Read on...

Richard Bannister has announced that he has begun work on the MAC port of Hu6280. While he has it up and running, there are still a few endian issues that need to be resolved. He has also announced that Mac Retrocade is rapidly apporaching a releasable state! Read more from his page.

I have been fortunate enough to see some screen shots of Retrocade for OS/2 in action. The GUI is now coming up nicely, but the games aren't working as of yet. I should hopefully have some shots to post here soon. More news as it happens.

Shane Monroe has released another installment of his Retro Radio episode. In this episode: There is an editorial on the current state of affairs with regards to the new digital protection laws, an update with the major emulators, and of course, the ever present 8-Bit flashback. He also tells you why he has been so busy! You can listen to the streaming versions from our Retro Radio page at the above link. Downloadable files will be online in a bit.

An unexpected annoucement has been made from the RockNES page. Nyef is leaving the project for an unannounced reason. If more info happens regarding this, it will be posted here.

Despite the IDSA's attempts to shut them down, Lazarus is back and with a cool new look too! Check it out at the above link. Their archives aren't fully functional as of yet.

Lot of Nintendo based things happening tonight, as there is some news regarding NES4PC, one of the most recent NES emulator for Windows. First off, V0.35 is coming and is slated for an early February release. Also, there was a status report posted on the author's page. Quoting directly: " Sorry it's been so long since I updated the page, but I've been kinda busy... I had to reformat my HD last weekend and I'm still trying to get the DirectX 6.0 LIB/H files to let me compile the emulator, since I can't even compile it without those files. However, before I reformatted, I had gotten much done. The current version has a new set of memory access routines. They make mapper 0 games run a little slower, but make most mapper games run a LOT faster. I also have added a few more mappers including the MK4/TEKKEN2 hack mapper. I'll try to keep the site updated better as the emulator gets back into the swing of things!"

David Tucker has announced that a 32-bit Windows port of his Virtual Boy emulator is being developed by a fellow programmer. VBEmu98 is the world's first and only Nintendo Virtual Boy emulator. So far, VBEmu98 is available for both DOS and Linux. Click here for more information.

The Nofrendo page was updated today, with the following progress report:

• Yes, Virginia, I still have a pulse. The project is still being worked on, and I will deliver a high quality piece of software. High quality pieces of software take time, especially when they can not be given as the author wishes. Please e-mail me if you have some spare time hanging around.
• There will be a Mac port underway very shortly. That is, of course, if I can ever get the source code to the person porting it!
• If there was something in Nofrendo 0.58 that you really did not like, please e-mail me and tell me what it is-- I'll try to make sure it does not creep into the next release.

Straight from the official VB98 page: Now Wario Land is very close to booting (Its hanging on a display status flag) and several of the other games no longer go off in the weeds. Also the intro to Telero Boxer is getting better, now the shadow shows up behind the boxer on the boot (Nice effect), the screens still fly by too fast however. Also, it was announced that friend of David Tucker is working on a Win32 port of the emulator! More news as it happens.

A new version of Boycott will be coming along soon, and here's some new features it will include:

• MBC3 support (Pokemon blue)
• MBC5 support (Color Gameboy roms playable but without colors)
• Improve MBC1/2/3/5 support

A message about the status of the Windows port of Retrocade was sent to beta testers. It seems the Windows version is coming along nicely, however they still have a few games that won't run properly and the sound is hosed, but they are working on it! Also, Neil Bradley is looking for someone to create an "ultra-groovy-cool Retrocade icon". Interested? Contact Neil at the provided.

An even newer version of VBEmu98 is in the works and should be out within a day or two. It will feature improved BGMap scrolling code which should help games like Space Squash and Glactic Pinball. Click here for more information.

After numerous delays, NSFE has been canceled. The last version available was known as Reality 64 if you still have the desire to try it. Hopefully something good will come out of this, though. (Read the message)

NSFE has been put to rest. As of 1/18/99 project has been canseled.
Gordon has been working on a nother n64 emulator ( yet to be named ) that is currently in the adavanst stages.

It seems as though it's been ages since Marcel de Kogel last updated his Coleco Adam / ColecoVision emulator, but today he's updated his webpage to announce that a brand new version is on the way. Here's a partial list of features of AdamEm version 1.0:

• Vastly improved sound emulation
• Improved ADAMNet emulation
• Parallel port emulation
• Snapshot support
• 80-column TDOS support
• Cheat-code support
• Reverb, chorus and stereo support for SoundBlaster Pro and SoundBlaster
• 16 compatibles
• Many bug fixes

A new Neo Geo emulator called Neo Master apparantly is in the works. Its claims to be full speed on a p66 with 8 megs of mem (16 under Windows). These are awfully low numbers for a such a system to be emulated, but you can make your own judgements. The emulator isn't released yet, but you can read more about it from it's official site. Thanks to Bahamut^ for the news.

I received a very interesting e-mail from John Schappert, VP, Product Development for Electronic Arts. It seems they are seeking current emulator programmers interested in possibly filling jobs with EA. While emulator programmers are generally in it purely for the hobby, or preservation, this sounds like a great oppurtunity for those people to finally receive something for all their hard work. If you are a programmer of a current emulator and are interested, contact John via e-mail at the above link. Good Luck. :-)

After nearly a year of discontinuation, Atmospherical Heights has reopened! It originally went down after John den Hartog's HD crashed. It was formerly the best arcade emulation site around.. and one of the oldest. Apparently EmuWorld asked John to bring back AH. All it is now is a newsletter, but I'm sure it will get much better. Welcome back AH!

There appears to be a new project just getting off the ground that will emulate the Sega Genesis/32x and Sega CD. Announced on the page are planned versions for the Amiga with PPC accelerator and Power Mac. It will use ASM cpu cores for the fastest possible emulation. The emulator is called ARES and progress reports will be posted here as they come in. Thanks again to Jack for the news.

Gollum, author of Boycott, has released some preliminary information on the next release of his Gameboy emulator:

• Working on GUI improvements
• Start reading CGB docs
• Start adding MBC3, MBC5 support
• Can't get working SGB support :)
• Sound support is discontinued as for now (too much work)

As everyone knows, Savoury Snax dropped his Super Nintendo emulator many months ago. But co-author Esaelon continues working on it. Here's a list of improvements he's working on so far:

• Timing improved
• Scanlines per frame fixed (270 to NTSC:262/PAL:312)
• Cycles per scanline fixed (174:NTSC/205:PAL to 171:NTSC)
• First line in line x line gfx emulation is now done at CPU reset instead of after first scanline of CPU execution
• Memory mapper fixed: Implemented support for 32Mbit LoROM and corrected
• support for 32Mbit HiROM
• Hblank emulation added (hblank timing in CPU, hblank bit in HVBJOY)
• SLHV emulation improved

David Tucker has released a mini-compatibility list, to give us a taste of what to expect in his next release. This is just a summary (his webpage goes into more detail):

• Galactic Pinball: Playable, but has graphics glitches.
• InsMouseHouse: Not playable, loads bug hangs before game starts.
• Mario Clash: Playable, but has graphics glitches.
• Mario Tennis: Not yet playable, but does load. Graphics glitches.
• Space Squash: Almost playable, graphics glitches.
• Telero Boxer: Playable, but slow and has problems with hands scaling.
• VTetris: Fully playable.
• VFishing: Almost playable, no sprites scaling.

Sony has announced that it currently has no plans to sue Connectix. Connectix is still planning the release of VGS. Neither company will say more than that. Right now it seems that Sony may license Connectix. You can read the article at Wired News. Their first emulation related one that I know of.

PSG.IGN.COM is reporting that Sony will sue Connectix over their new commercial PlayStation emulator over "intellectual rights infringement." If this is true and Sony wins the court case, this could be a huge blow this the growing emulation scene. Thanks to Ben and Phillip F. for the e-mails.

Well, this seems to be my first update here at Patent Pending. I hope the other members make me feel welcome :) Today I added the index page (only) to the Cheats and Codes section of the video games. Hopefully very soon I will start adding the pages for the games. That's about all, be looking for future updates from PP's newest member!

Hmm, well sorry for the lack of update, but I've been busy playing SMRPG :) I've completed the whole game, and gotten most of the hidden/special stuff.. I've also ripped all of the SPCs.. 69. You can get them at the partly restored SPC700 archive. I'll be updating regularly now..
[SMRPG Ending ZSTs | SPC700 Archive]

Hmm, well I haven't heard from MEGAߥTE since the first of the month... either his computer blew up, or he's still partying like it's 1999. Anyways, I uploaded a Star Fox 64 manual today, and I should be done typing up the Mario Kart 64 manual in a few days. Also because MEGAߥTE hasn't been online for more than a week, I put up the emulator releases for the week of January 1st.

According to the latest update on David Tucker's webpage, a new version of VBEmu98 is on the way, possibly within a week. David's been focusing on VBEmu98's speed and it's now much faster. VBEmu98 can now run Telero Boxer at an acceptable speed on a Pentium 100 Mhz with a frame skip of 6. For David's complete announcement, follow this link.

The links and Ratings page is coming along nicely now... as soon as I add a couple links to get started, I'll post it. It loosk pretty complex for just a ratings page :) hehe.

Tratax has confirmed that he will be resigning from the PSEmu Pro development team, effective February 1rst. Tratax has accepted a "very good job offer at a USA based game programming company" and will no longer be able to work on PSemu Pro. For the next few weeks, Tratax will concentrate on trying to improve the current recompiler and fix as many bugs as possible. But once February rolls around, he will leave the PSEmu Pro project. While this is certainly bad news for the PSEmu Pro project, it is good news for Tratax and I know I speak for everybody when I say that we all would like to thank Tratax for the hard work he's put forth into making PlayStation emulation a reality, and that we all wish Tratax the best of luck at his new job.

New Virtual Gameboy 1.4

Hello Everybody!
I have just released a new version of Virtual GameBoy. This version includes emulation for the Pocket Printer and much improved GameBoy Color emulation, among other things:

• CGB CPU STOP opcode implemented correctly.
• CGB double speed switch implemented.
• CGB HFLIP tile attribute implemented.
• CGB VFLIP tile attribute fixed.
• CGB DMA mode fixed.
• Added Pocket Printer emulation.
• Added Hudson HuC1 mapper emulation.
• Started adding Hudson HuC3 mapper emulation.
• Minor changes in video controller emulation.
• Fixed implementation for MBC3 realtime clock.
• Minor changes in GameShark emulation.
• Version number fixed in VGB-Unix.
• Number of palette entries corrected in VGB-Unix.
• Multiple fixes to VGB-Windows startup code.
• "Size|Snapshot" option in VGB-Windows.
• VGB-Windows now remembers window size/position.
• Added miscellaneous keyboard controls to VGB-Windows.