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Ads From The Past 207: Pirates NES

Ads From The Past 207 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 03:13:00 +0000

Arrrr it's I Famicom Freak the pirate showing my treasure for ya! You would think this meant that type of pirate but no, it's actually a game about pirates! Not bootlegs...oh well, it would've kicked ass though... Enjoy!

Emulation News 287: Updates for 2-7-12

Emulation News 287 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:51:00 +0000

The news are here! Check them out!

Jpcsp SVN r2453

"r2453
More work on software rendering:
- implemented color doubling
- draft implementation of a filter compiler in specific cases just a try to check if a compiler would be useful here
- small fixes"

Fceux SVN r2399

"r2398
* refined Recording, now can safely record commands Power, Reset, Insert, Switch
* new Lua scripts: SoundDisplay.lua, TrackNoise.lua
r2399
Replaced "Turbo seek" and "Follow cursor" checkboxes"

PCSX2 SVN r5088

"r5088
gsdx: linux compilation fix. Gcc don't support same name for variable and template parameter
cmake: compilation fix on debian sid and potentially ubuntu
i18n: add some comment for potential language change in the future."

SNES9Xbox v6 Fixed

"*********************************
*** Changes To Snes9Xbox Core ***
*********************************

* New APU Sound core hiccup issues now solved! Big super duper thanks to Philexile for pointing the way.
* Border at bottom of screen should be gone now
* No more lockups when using software filters silly regression bug . That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
* Force Screen Size Accurate Pixel Ratio should work on all cores now.
* MP3 Volume issue should hopefully be fixed when loading a game that switches the cores.

**************************************
*** Interface Related Changes ***
**************************************

* I foobared the code that stores the text/game screen size/position there are two ways to correct this..

1 Go into Configuration -> Video Configuration -> Game and Text Screen Size/Position and configure your screen the way you want it to be. Once you do that you will get a popup "Do you want to use these settings globally?".. select "Yes". This will go thru all the existing saves and set them to match your selected game screen size/positions.

1.2 If you have "Automatically Use Default Game Configuration?" set to yes. Be sure to go into Configuration -> Set Default Game Configuration and set those as well.

2 the long way .. Delete the *.keh files for all save game configurations created using the beta. The easiest way to do this is to copy the emulators "save" directory from the xbox over to a PC. Use the windows explorer "search" option to search for "*.keh" files, select those files ctrl-a and delete them. Then delete your saves directory off the xbox and copy the files back. Doing so this way will keep your game configurations intact. Sorry about that.. :s

Sorry for the inconvenience... :s

**** This only needs to be done if you used Snes9xbox V4 or later. Or if you used any of my beta's once I rebuild them and make them available . ****

* Fixed screen blurring when selecting Return to launcher on the home screen and using a skin that uses "sprites as background".

* Code that runs when you select "Yes" to save screen size/positions "globally" is now properly functioning.

* Complete reworking of the auto screen sizing and lock code and I also tweaked the numbers a little. It should be a little more intuitive now. Unfortunately it had a bug which needs to be remedied with a few manual steps.

* Fixed issue where emu would crash if no accurate pixel mode settings were defined for the currently selected video mode.

* Checks put into the cheatcode database checker to let you know if the file is to big or has too many game entries and needs to be split up.

* Gilou9999's HD Colour skins should work properly now no weird hacks . Be sure to at least copy over the "settings.ini" files in the skin directory and the skin "configurations" directories and "reload the skin".

* Added new skin transition option "none". Real handy for skins like Gilou9999's that uses the HD sprite trick.

* Windows 7 users should have no more weird issues on samba shares! Woohoo! Thank you YRUSirius for pointing out the available patch and Buzz for creating that patch.

* Fixed issue where emulator menu video mode was reverting to last played games video mode in emu's that support game specific video modes.

* When switching cores you are now properly placed back to where you launched the game from favorites or game select ."

MESS SVN r14369

"r14368
Fully rewritten gc registers from scratch
r14369
sms.xml: added new Korean dumps from SMSPower. no whatsnew.
famicom_flop.xml: fixed a few descriptions and added real support status + fixed attempt to read past the end of the disk in some games. no whatsnew.

Side note on the famicom disks: 90% of currently not working games fails due to lack of write-to-disk support, so you can continue an existing game but you can't start a new one...
In a sense, this is good news: when we eventually get to adding write support, compatibility should jump to almost full ;- "

FourDO SVN r235

"r235
Adding changes to hopefully support ISO/BIN Mode1+2352"

Emulation News 286: Updates for 2-6-12

Emulation News 286 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:26:00 +0000

The news keep coming! Emulation style!

Altirra 2.1 Test 12

"Bugs Fixed:
Disk: Fixed inverted write protect bit status.
Disk: Attempted writes to a write protected disk now return errors instead of a NAK.
Disk: Fixed command response when accessing a drive with no disk.

Author's Comment:
Fixes several disk drive issues, tunes the drive sounds a bit, and fixes the Dimension X regression.
XEGS game ROM banking should be fixed now.
DOS XE issue should be fixed now was a problem with XF551 high speed I/O .
Dimension X issue was due to a display list timing issue related to a jump instruction fix -- both cases should work now.
CPU emulation speed should be cycle exact or very close to exact, certainly not off by an order of magnitude. The rule for performance is: anything done in a loop in BASIC is going to be dog slow, no exceptions. BASIC is itself an interpreter, and on top of that Atari BASIC is not a particularly fast one. The only way to get good performance for vertical sprite movement is to move the sprite data in assembly language, which means either calling an ML routine directly or aliasing the sprites on top of string buffers so you can move the sprites with Atari BASIC string commands."

QMC2 v0.35

"- fix: minor: hide the software-list favorites column 'device configuration' for MAME targets as it's a MESS-only feature
- fix: minor: corrected the main progress-bar's visual behavior when ROM status checking and software-list caching are running in parallel
- fix: MAME targets: the software-list widget wasn't cleared upon reload
- fix: the last active detail-tab's header wasn't always shown initially
- fix: software-snapshots were positioned incorrectly under certain circumstances
- fix: corrected a few minor log-scrolling issues
- fix: individual ROM checks didn't work correctly when the ROM status was 'not found' since output is written to stderr in this case and not to stdout as otherwise
- fix: YouTube video-player: avoid crashes on exit by waiting for all application threads to finish before returning to the OS
- fix: YouTube video-player: attached videos could get lost when changing the current game/machine very quickly
- fix: ROMAlyzer: correctly 'remove' the progress-bar item-widget before deleting it worked w/o until Qt 4.7.x, crashed since Qt 4.8.0
- fix: corrected restoration of main-widget's layout when the front-end was showing a maximized embedded emulator during clean up on the previous run
- fix: corrected Windows 64-bit builds with DEBUG=2 see bug tracker ID #21
- fix: file-chooser: the underlying item model now produces correct minimum widths for icon-less columns size and modification date
- fix: embedder on X11: corrected initial input focus after launching a new embedded emulator
- imp: ROM status exporter: additional output-format choice 'all formats' to export the ROM states to all three formats at once
- imp: when a software-list can't be found though it's expected to exist , leave the software-list widget disabled and don't try to parse the invalid XML a warning will still be logged since this is actually an emulator bug, but probably also a wanted/known situation as told by etabeta78
- imp: MAME/MESS emulator templates updated to 0. 145
- imp: faster display of software-snapshots by using tool-tip like window attributes for the viewer widget this also fixes bad-window errors on X11
- imp: slightly bigger icons in all game/machine list views
- imp: updated template format to v0.2.5 which adds support for an optional 'part' attribute that can be used in file-type options to specify the extracted part of the file's path currently only "basename" is supported, used by the effect-option
- imp: loading of software-lists can be interrupted now and is indicated accordingly for larger lists i.e. cpc_cass/cpc_flop
- imp: Mac OS X build: moved macx/Info.plist.in to arch/Darwin/Info.plist.in where it belongs
- imp: build: added a 'configure' make target to create platform dependent project file s and stop i.e. to open it in XCode and build from there on Mac OS X, or to run MinGW make in job-server mode on Windows
- imp: MiniWebBrowser: browser-plugins are now enabled per default see make option BROWSER_PLUGINS
- imp: build: removed make option PRETTY as it's no longer usable in the supported Qt versions
- imp: Mac OS X build: provide application icons .icns to be associated with the apps
- imp: created new logo images thanks to JacKc
- imp: ROMAlyzer: checksum-wizard: when the user changes the checksum-type and the current checksum is available in the 'other' type as well, display it in the line-edit not available when the checksum is edited manually
- new: the ROM state filtering mechanism can now be enabled/disabled on-the-fly the default is 'enabled', just as before
- new: added support for multi-device software-list entries as well as automatic vs. manual mount-device selection includes the ability to mix parts from different software-list entries
- new: added an alternative game/machine search entry box to the tool- bar
- new: added a CSV and ASCII export tool for software- lists
- new: added import/export functionality for software-list favorites
- new: changed the MESS device configurator so it offers available device-instances based on the slot-options specified, thus allowing to mount them as well through the legacy device-mapper and the file-chooser
- new: added ZIP support for software- snapshots
- new: X11 and Windows only: game/machine icons are now also shown on the tab headers of embedded emulators
- new: all images have an additional context-menu item 'refresh' now to clear and reload their cached pendants
- new: integrated the HTML editor from Qt Labs / graphics-dojo for all kinds of upcoming rich-text editing purposes
- new: added content-zoom to the MiniWebBrowser
- new: top-level windows can now optionally be minimized upon emulation launch and automatically restored when the last emulator instance has ended
- new: YouTube video-player: added a semi-transparent overlay widget to display status information at the bottom of the player's viewport
- new: software-lists: added software-compatibility filtering
- new: added a 'MESS wiki' detail to look up available driver information
- new: added an option to suppress all messages sent through QDebug and related convenience functions
- new: added an optional startup splash-screen utilizing the new logos
- new: added support for emulator-embedding on Windows ! -- note, however, that embedding of emulators running in Direct 3D mode '-video d3d' has two known issues: full-screen switching will lead to a crash of the emulator and screen-shots aren't taken correctly from within the GUI just a black image
- new: X11 and Windows only: added an option to select the default launch-mode used when starting emulation by activating i.e. double-clicking an entry in any list
- new: X11 and Windows only: replaced the style-controlled embedder-release icons usually a red 'X' which some users wrongly interpreted as 'exit emulator' with a more suitable / less irritating and style-independent icon by setting explicit style-sheets on the tab-bars of all embedders
- new: added two options to allow for hiding of BIOS and/or device sets in all master-lists see Front end -> Game/Machine list in the main setup dialog -- both will trigger an automatic reload when changed
- new: added a dock-able/floating software-detail widget with a separate snapshot-browser, a ProjectMESS software-lookup feature, and an HTML editor/viewer for personal rich-text software- notes
- inf: the new required minimum Qt version is 4.7.0, support for older versions of Qt has been dropped"

WolfMame v0.145

multiMAN v04.01.00

"* Changed: Nethost PC server application "ps3serv" is replaced by new windows/linux application "ps3netsrv" !
NOTE: For best performance and compatibility of the new net_host interface, a WIRED network may be required Wi-Fi is also supported ! NOTE: Root folders served by remote hosts must contain /PS3ISO, /BDISO, /DVDISO and /PSXISO folders to enable remote content
* Added new option in SETTINGS column: "Network Servers" for setting up to 10 remote nethost IP:PORT values
* Removed: *nethost* settings from options[_default].ini are ignored and no longer supported
* Added support for thumbnail images for remote BD/DVD/PS3/PSX ISO/BIN+CUE files *.jpg / *.png
* Added support to copy files from one net_host to another
* Added support to delete folders from remote net_host
* Added support to view files in TextViewer from remote net_host folders
* Added support to copy games and ISO images to remote host from SIDE menu [TRIANGLE] in XMMB/XBDM/BOARD display modes
* Added support for 3.55DEX additional DEX UPD MOD update package required "

Retro Gaming Life: So What's Going On? Some Answers!

Retro Gaming Life — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:54:00 +0000

So what's been going on? I know the updates for the past month or so have been nothing spectacular but there have been a lot of things going on in my life to be able to care for this blog properly. We all go through these problems but I'm happy to announce that I'll be able to do the things I wanted like usual. Furthermore here are some questions I asked myself and answered as well lol!

What happened with Famicom Guide?

Nothing actually happened I just had a lot of things to keep me occupied like a promotion and the lack of a good internet connection to actually keep working on it. I'm finally going to be able to upload more videos and keep the guide growing. I do apologize for the lack of news but things will get better.

Any new series on the horizon?

Well, I'm still with the quest of acquiring my action figures in order to create that comic book I always wanted. The story is there and it only needs time to get everything together. I might also not be making a trip to Peru this year due to a lot of things such as school and moving to another state. I do promise to bring up a lot more interesting topics in the future.

Will this blog ever be shut down?

I highly doubt it because all of this is in my blood! This is my life's work and I'm willing to do the best of it to share it with everyone. To be honest, things have just begun! I can't wait for the future which is a bright and prosperous one.

Anything we should be looking out for?

Absolutely, in the next couple of months I'll start doing a monthly giveaway for a retro game or even game of my choice. To enter, it'll be as easy as to post a comment or share an article of mine on your own blog or even facebook. I want to share retro games and video games with all of you out there in the entire world!!

I think that should answer some stuff of what has been going on. There is a lot more to do and so little time. I really need a vacation from at least one of my jobs. Till then, cya later!!

Retrobeat Tuesdays 001: Top Gear 2 Music -Title Music-

Retrobeat Tuesdays 001 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:46:00 +0000

So a new series I've been meaning to start is finally here! What's Retrobeat Tuesdays? It's plain and simple retro music for your ears! You can't get any better than this! Rest assure, these beats can't be beaten! For our first entry, we have the title music for Top Gear 2. Probably one of my favorite songs of a racer game ever! Enjoy!

Benj Edwards: 10 Classic Video Game Hacks Everyone Should Play

Benj Edwards — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:16:05 +0000

Fans of my old VC&G column Hacksterpiece Theatre will enjoy my new slideshow on PCMag.com that profiles 10 amazing classic video game ROM hacks. Not surprisingly, the piece is titled, 10 Classic Video Game Hacks Everyone Should Play. I'm sure you can suggest some great hacks too, so I'd like to know — what are [...]

Benj Edwards: Benj Talks Piracy and History on Public Radio

Benj Edwards — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:41:34 +0000

Yesterday I made a live appearance on Word of Mouth, a show on New Hampshire Public Radio, talking about my recent piece, "Why History Needs Software Piracy." You can listen to the audio of the interview online. The interview appeared at the top of the show and lasted about 9 minutes. It was my [...]

Benj Edwards: [ Retro Scan of the Week ] F-15 Strike Eagle

Benj Edwards — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:18:30 +0000

When I grow up, I'd like to be a VMR Valued MicroProse Retailer . This week's Retro Scan is another Sid Meier MicroProse classic see my scan of Pirates! from last year and one of history's most famous combat flight simulator games. I remember trying F-15 Strike Eagle briefly years ago, but I soon gave up [...]

Retro Gaming News 101: The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle Two Two

Retro Gaming News 101 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:36:00 +0000

"This is a complete level hack for The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle II, with twenty-nine challenging brand new levels! There are also a few graphics changes."

Retro Gaming Life: Betrayal....we all have done it before, I know I have...

Retro Gaming Life — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:58:00 +0000

I really don't feel as bad to drop Yoshi to his demise. After all, you can always get a brand newborn one right out of the egg. This is just to show you when one life ends, another one begins.

Emulation News 285: Updates for 2-5-12

Emulation News 285 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:53:00 +0000

Happy Super Bowl Weekend! Now for the news!

Dolphin Git 3.0-415

"* TextureCacheBase: Remove a superfluous TODO texture hashing takes care of that stuff
* Merge branch 'texcache-preload'
For further info, see revision 56ccfc5d9d4defb308e02a71d201aee9eef0a76e.
* Added an error check for invalid contents in ES_OPENCONTENT. Fixes Jungle Speed and Doc's Punch Out.
Fixes issue 3035.
* Removed the busy-wait from DSP LLE on thread. Reduces the CPU usage in this scenario by around a third."

Source

WinUAE v2.4.0 Beta 15

"- Append 'i' to PC resolutions that are interlaced. TV Out, VGA + 15KHz hacks etc..
- Low latency Amiga interlace mode odd/even fields are now in sync with output's odd/even fields, if output resolution is also interlaced.
- Set cpu speed to "real" if it was fastest possible originally when switching cycle-exact on the fly using uae-configuration.
- MIDI device IDs are correct again b1
- Display panel displaydata PAL/NTSC/etc select box now mirrors currently active emulated setting.
- "Default refresh rate" skipped every other frame in DirectDraw mode b14
- gfx_autoresolution_min_vertical and gfx_autoresolution_min_horizontal support on the fly adjustment using uae-configuration.
- Write winuaebootlog.txt to Windows temp directory if original directory is read-only.
- Directory harddrives configured as unbootable are now really unbootable under KS 1.3.
- Mequa's optimized Akiko C2P added.
- HID raw input mask overflow when HID bitsize was 32. PPJoy "

Source

MESS SVN r14348

"r14347
Proper fix for issues with slots, removed old fix too no whatsnew
r14348
Sync with MAME r15303 nw "

Source

QMC2 SVN r3516

"r3512
imp: ROMAlyzer: checksum-wizard: when the user changes the checksum-type
and the current checksum is available in the 'other' type as well,
display it in the line-edit not available when the checksum is edited
manually
r3513
fix: embedder on X11: corrected initial input focus after launching a
new embedded emulator
r3514
imp: icon loader: ignore file extension completely when loaded from ZIP
r3515
imp: updated Polish translation
imp: added configurations for Fedoras 17 soon to be branched and 18 what rawhide will become after that
r3516
Updated the SVN exclude list"

Source

Emulation News 284: Updates for 2-4-12

Emulation News 284 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:49:00 +0000

Here are the news for the weekend!! ^_^

EmuPack v1.9 RC4

"- Integration into Windows Default Programs is beta.
- Right-click icons for File | Open actions. Windows Vista and Windows 7
- Runtime files are now installed directly to System32
- Runtime installation is now configurable, but will still be installed with emulators that call for them.
- Since EmuPack 1.8, I've dropped Magic Engine in favor of PCEjin and AppleII has been removed and files are now associated with AppleWin
- Several filetypes have been added. As well rPcS3 which is a PS3 disassembler and O2EM which is an Odyssey 2 and Videopac+ emulator.
- Several fixes include a few file icons changes, installer meta data, updated runtime files, links, and above all the script is ready for seamless upgrade to EmuPack 2.0 when it comes out."

Source

Stella SVN r2378

"r2378
Refactored the PERL properties set tools, in preparation for additional tools."

Source

FourDO SVN r231

"r231
Fixing Street Fighter II and Gex crash"

Source

Retro Gaming Life: Pacman and Mario Join Forces!

Retro Gaming Life — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:42:00 +0000

The picture should self explain what's going on. About time these guys figure something out to get rid of such pesky ghosts!

Emulation News 283: Updates for 2-3-12

Emulation News 283 — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:35:00 +0000

Here are the news! Happy weekend!

Wine v1.4 RC2

"- Bug fixes only, we are in code freeze."

Source

Project64k v0.35

"Final release for base 0.13 core 1.4. So until 1.6 or 1.7 source is public, no more updates.

Also, for future notice, this does not work with Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Donkey kong 64, Any mario party, mario golf, mario tennis. IF you want to play those games go get mupen.

For roms look down at the bottom for n64 rom searching.

Good bye~Smasherx74

*Yes I know the emulator name version says 0.32 thats because I wanted to rebuild off of the edits I did up to that version because one of recent ones messed a few things up. i'll change it later.*"

Source

Dolphin Git 3.0-408

"* Update some license headers."

Source

Jpcsp SVN r2452

"r2451
More work on software rendering:
- implemented rendering of bezier and spline
- implemented stencil operations
- improved lighting correct computation of normals in eye coordinates
- implemented material colors
r2452
Statistics were enabled by mistake in r2445. They are only useful for development. Now disabled again."

Source

FourDO SVN r229

"r226
So far so good. Checking in DirectSound audio that I suspect may be the winner!
r227
Checking in a copy of the new JohnnyAudioPlugin, although I don't really trust it. Good for troubleshooting DirectSound if I have to at some point. This version of not suitable for release, though, since it relies on a callback whose timing is unreliable on some systems.
r228
Now using DirectSound
r229
Including SlimDX.dll in the released ZIP file"

Source

Emulation News 282: Updates for 2-2-12

Emulation News 282 — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:29:00 +0000

Here are the news!

1964 SVN r112

"r112
1964Video, turn off D3D ZBias only for Diddy Kong Racing since it was causing problems with other games."

Source

Fceux SVN r2396

"r2395
sdl bugfix: compile with gcc 4.6.2
r2396
fix 2005 vcproj"

Source

Virtual GameBoy v3.5.12 for Android

"VGB emulates GameBoy handheld game consoles and their accessories. It will run GameBoy, GameBoy Pocket, GameBoy Color, and Super GameBoy games on your Android phone or tablet. VGB also supports the Pocket Printer, GameGenie cheat codes, and more. Please notice that VGB will not play GameBoy Advance games: you will need VGBA for that.

VGB package itself does not contain any games. You should place your own game files onto the SD card before running VGB.

Please, do not run any software you do not own with VGB. The author cannot and will not tell you where to find free GameBoy games."

Source

fMSX v3.5.22 for Android

"- No longer showing ads if you have bought at least one of my paid apps.
- Worked around an Android bug that prevented some ZIP files from opening.
- Added third virtual fire button and assigned it to fast-forwarding everywhere.
- Arranged fire buttons vertically in landscape mode.
- Moved joypad away from the bottom-left corner button in the portrait mode.
- Added multiple Freeze/Restore slots."

Source

Speccy v1.7.20 for Android

"- No longer showing ads if you have bought at least one of my paid apps.
- Worked around an Android bug that prevented some ZIP files from opening.
- Added third virtual fire button and assigned it to fast-forwarding everywhere.
- Arranged fire buttons vertically in landscape mode.
- Moved joypad away from the bottom-left corner button in the portrait mode.
- Added multiple Freeze/Restore slots."

Source

ColEm v2.6.16 for Android

"- No longer showing ads if you have bought at least one of my paid apps.
- Worked around an Android bug that prevented some ZIP files from opening.
- Added third virtual fire button and assigned it to fast-forwarding everywhere.
- Arranged fire buttons vertically in landscape mode.
- Moved joypad away from the bottom-left corner button in the portrait mode.
- Added multiple Freeze/Restore slots.
- Fixed ColEm on-screen dialpad.
- Added a public domain Kevtris game by Kevin Horton."

Source

Destructoid: GameStop's Retro Game Vault is ridiculously stupid

Destructoid — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Hey, guys! Remember when GameStop used to sell legacy games and hardware? Atari, Genesis, you name it. Those were the days, before the company began swallowing up the competition and ditched the retro wares in favor of almost exclusively cramming used copies of week-old releases down your throat. Wouldn't you like to go back to those simpler days? Fat chance.

GameStop has added the Retro Game Vault to its PowerUp Rewards program, giving you the option to use points accrued through in-store purchases towards titles from the SNES, Dreamcast, PlayStation, NES, and more. When you think about it, it's quite similar from Club Nintendo's downloadable games initiative. Wait a minute... no, it's not. Whereas Club Nintendo software is priced at a reasonable 100 or 150 points, easily earned after a couple of retail purchases, Retro Game Vault software is priced like that sh*t is gold.

You earn 10 points per dollar spent on new games and consoles, 20 points per dollar spent on used goods, and 20 points per dollar earned on trade-ins. So if you were to buy two used Xbox 360 games at $40 a pop, for example, you would earn 800 points. Sounds like a decent chunk of change, right? How many points does a random game like, say, Double Dragon cost? 32,500. Let me repeat that: 32,500. So in other words, if you were trying to maximize points earned, you would have to spend $1625 on used merch, trade in the equivalent value, or apply some combination thereof. What. The. Hell.

Every so often, GameStop runs a special promotion where you can earn extra points on top of whatever transaction you make that day, but let's be real. Reaching the lofty point totals that GameStop has set for its retro catalog is no simple feat. The only people who could hope to earn enough points are the ones who live and die by GameStop's services, who trade in every damn game they ever buy as if GameStop was some glorified rental chain, or who are so loose with their money that they would gladly spend thousands upon thousands of dollars per year on games alone. Even then, because of the high point values of the Vault items, those people probably couldn't order more than two games anyway.

I haven't even talked about the selection yet! As of this moment, the only games available are Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, and Quake III Arena for the Dreamcast. Everything else is either "sold out" or "coming soon." Double Dragon and Quake III are both 32,500 points, while Mario is 43,250. Of the unavailable games, the only one with a price tag is Sim City, and it's marked at 32,440. How on Earth is GameStop even arriving at these values?

Who is going to bend over backwards for a fuckin' loose copy of Mario when it can be found on eBay for the price of a family-size bag of Cheetos? And there doesn't seem to be any semblance of consistency when it comes to which games will be made available down the road. In all likelihood, these games are just the leftover shit from the earlier days, but instead of tossing them out, giving them away to employees, or -- God forbid -- selling them, GameStop opted to devise a ridiculous "incentive" program in the hopes that consumers would drive even more business to the store for the sake of "gifts" that could be acquired infinitely more easily and more cheaply anywhere else!

Seriously, fuck these guys.

Retronauts: 1UP's Classic Gaming Blog: Talkin' Resident Evil with the Retronauts

Retronauts: 1UP's Classic Gaming Blog — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:43:03 +0000

While we had a call-in episode about scary game not too long ago, the recent Resident Evil 6 trailer has the entire office buzzing about the highs and lows of the series thus far. So, in the spirit of this unexpected Capcom bomb, I've decided to devote the next installment of Retronauts to the Resident Evil series as a whole. And since 8-4 Play raised the bar to unreachable levels with their own RE retrospective, I must employ the help of you wonderful listeners for the sake of spirited discussion about this very uneven series. And maybe -- just maybe -- we can finally pin down just where we want Resident Evil to go in the future.

Pick up your phone and dial 415-896-3779 415-89-MESSY on Monday, January 30 at 3:30 P.M. PST please do your own time zone math if necessary for the chance to have your voice heard on Retronauts!

And be sure to check out this week's Retronauts Lunch Breaks -- we'll be playing Resident Evil games Monday to Thursday at 12:00pm PST! Follow our Twitter account for by-the-minute updates.

admin: Dragon’s Lair Documentary Incoming

admin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:01:25 +0000

When Dragon’s Lair was released in 1983 it immediately set arcades alight thanks to its amazing cartoon graphics. Drawn by legendary artist Don Bluth, Dragon’s Lair was unlike any other game of its time, and has gone on to build a massive fan base over the intervening 29 years. A new video on Youtube has revealed that a brand new documentary is being released, no doubt to celebrate Dragon’s Lair’s 30th birthday next year. The video itself doesn’t reveal too much, other than fascinating sketches into Dragon’s Lair’s development, and a few snatches of commentary from Don Bluth. Despite this small amount of information, we’re massively excited about an in-depth look at this classic arcade game, and will be bringing you more news as we get it. In the mean time watch the video and don’t forget to follow the Twitter feed.

Retro Game of the Week 100: Sonic CD Sega CD

Retro Game of the Week 100 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:11:08 +0000

So 99 down and 1 to go to get to 100! It's the 100th Retro Game of the Week! Of course, this should've happened months ago but there are always things that come and go with our lives and other things. It's finally here though and what better way to reach the one hundred mark than with an incredible game. A personal favorite if you ask me! Lets check Sonic CD out!

The music of Sonic CD is something to admire. Not even the Sonic 3 soundtrack which was directed by Michael Jackson was good enough to surpass this. There might be different opinions on this matter but the fact is that this game has an incredible soundtrack! Don't believe me? Just try it out for yourself!!

The graphics are top notch for a 16 bit Sonic game. The game not only looks beautiful but it also has a 3D view at times especially when Sonic runs through some ramps. The angle switches and almost gives it a 3D look. There is plenty of color to see and lots of graphical beauties to admire. Well done Sega.

What can you expect from a real good Sonic game? Great gameplay of course. The levels get challenging along the way but not too challenging to make you throw your controller against the wall. The levels stay fresh and offer new ideas which is why this has been one of the more enjoyable Sonic games ever released. You have to search for all the secrets and even try to acquire all the stones. Can you accomplish such tasks?

The game has a great replay value. You can pick this game and beat it from start to finish and enjoy it every time. This is an example of why these games are referred to as "classics". They are always a great experience to come back and challenge yourself over and over. Keep this one in your collection for sure!

To conclude, the game is just a gem and probably one of the best Sonic games ever. After years of mediocre Sonic releases, we can always go back to this one and enjoy what Sonic was. Thank goodness for Sonic Generations reviving the franchise! Be sure to pick up Sonic CD to battle against Metal Sonic whenever you get a chance!! A must have!!

Playride: The Dirty Magazine of Hyrule!

Playride — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 23:02:00 +0000

I though I would share this with all of you! Can't get any better porn than this in the lands of Hyrule! Thanks to my baby for sharing ^_^

Finds 400: We Gotta Find the Technodrome!

Finds 400 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:07:00 +0000

The Technodrome is worthy of the 400th finds post!! Isn't it beautiful?? I was able to set it up with all the action figures I've picked up in the past months and I'm happy with the results!! I've been wanting the Technodrome ever since I was a kid and to have it in my possession truly makes it worth it!! Please check out the rest of the photos as there are other vehicles on display as well as more action figures and bad guys!!

Here is a nice shot of the Technodrome with all its servants fighting a war against the turtles. Of course, these fools can't stop the leader of the turtles Leonardo!

A giant Raphael statue is the main battleground for Donatello as he fights off some foot soldiers....never give up, it's the way of the ninja!

A tank is attacking first as a line of defense for the Technodrome. The turtles are going to need a lot of help to get through this.

Prisoners April on the left and Machine turtle on the right are fighting for their lives! Help them Leo!

With Mike on the wheel you can bet the turtles are going to bash their way into the Technodrome! Radical!

Here is another view of the war!

Super Shredder is commanding his army of foes while Leo keeps his cool.

Even Krang is in it commanding his Stone Soldiers from Dimension X to dispose of the turtles!

An army of foot soldiers might be too much for the turtles...can they come out victorious?

What an awesome way to reach finds number 400! The Technodrome is an amazing piece of machinery! I can't get enough of looking at it on display! Now, I gotta get the rest of the vehicles!
Cowabunga!

Technodrome!

Ads From The Past 206: Gaming Handhelds

Ads From The Past 206 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 03:02:00 +0000

I wish I could find these sometime as they look pretty kewl! I'm sure they even have the tunes in their classic form! Keep an eye out for them!!

Retro Gaming News 100: Mega Man X3 - Zero Project

Retro Gaming News 100 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:55:00 +0000

"–Mega Man X3 is a game that most would consider to be the first in the series in which Zero became playable. Unfortunately he was cut to be a very minor character with him being barely playable for more than 20 seconds per level.

This project aimed to incorporate Zero as a major character and also allow full use of him. Now many of Zero’s attributes consist of: Use of sub-weapons, gathering energy tanks, use of Ride Armors, charging weapons, use of capsules and much more!

With this group effort of two different communities chipping in the fully playable “Zero Project” is officially done!–

Note: This requires a headerless ROM!

A modification of Mega Man X3 that modifies and edits many aspects of the game to allow Zero being playable.

A few features taken from the read me:

Play as Zero anytime except areas where he’s unavailable such as the introduction stage.
Zero is able to use sub-weapons.
Zero is able to air-dash.
Z-Saber damage is varied depending on boss strength. Based on speed/power combined
Zero is able to gather Heart Tanks, Energy Tanks and Ride Armor chips. He’s able to fill sub-weapons and energy tanks while also able to use them.
Zero can use Ride Armors.
Slightly updated dialogue to reflect both characters being playable.
Zero can use Capsule upgrades to a certain extent.
Zero has new animations for charged Triad Thunder, Ray Shot & Gravity Well. There’s a new damage animation when you’ve obtained the armor capsule.
X and Zero are swapped during events. If you’re Zero, X will appear, vice versa. If Zero is destroyed for the ending then Doppler will take his place.
X and Zero have separate dialogue loading. Dialogue also spans across 2 banks so there’s more than enough room.
The game remembers who you played as last after you’ve beaten a level or died.
X2 Feature in which you can shoot both buster shots at once and both will deal damage instead of the large wait time.

Etc…"

Source

Emulation News 281: Updates for 2-1-12

Emulation News 281 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:19:00 +0000

Here are the news for the first of the month...ugh gotta pay all these bills! FUCK!

Mednafen v0.9.19 WIP

"-- 0.9.19-WIP: --

January 28, 2012:
Added workaround for questionable header changes with libcdio 0.83 and newer.

January 25, 2012:
Fixed "x" and "y" .videoip settings not working properly with screen rotation though the fix is a bit
convoluted, in the future it may make sense to completely re-evaluate how destination rectangles and rotation
are done .

Re-added "ipxnotysharper", "ipynotxsharper", and "ipsharper" pixel shader settings.

Fixed interpolation-pixel-shader algorithm texture coordinate evaluation.

January 24, 2012:
Re-added "ipxnoty" and "ipynotx" pixel shader settings, to compensate for the removal of the extended videoip settings.

Fixed "x" and "y" .videoip settings to work properly in full-screen mode.

PSX: Added default mouse button assignments for emulated mice.

PC-FX: Fixed a crash when selecting the "RAINBOW" layer in the debugger's graphics viewer. Note that viewing
the RAINBOW layer via this manner is still not supported; IE there's just empty space when the layer is selected in the
graphics viewer .

January 23, 2012:
WonderSwan: Fixed a reset initialization bug due to a design flaw that was partially corrupting internal and
external EEPROM.

PSX: Added emulation of LWL and LWR load delays, and emulation of LWL and LWR diversion of the register writeback
stage of a previous instruction's delayed load.

January 22, 2012:
libcdio version information is now printed out on startup.

January 21, 2012:
PSX: Added mouse emulation.

Changed how physical mouse events are processed, removing a potential thread-safety issue with some SDL functions,
and ensuring that a very quick mouse button press and release registers as pressed for at least 1 frame, as far
as command processing and virtual input device emulation go.

January 20, 2012:
PSX: Added default keyboard button assignments for emulated digital gamepad 1.

PSX: Worked on multitap emulation some more.

PSX: Corrected gamepad and memcard emulation, to only respond when the first communication byte is 0x01 or 0x81
respectively, rather than masking the byte with 0x81 and then testing, which is apparently incorrect based on
real system testing.

January 19, 2012:
PSX: Began adding multitap emulation.

Fixed broken emulated input device selection command keys for ports 6, 7, and 8

January 18, 2012:
PSX: Front port I/O changes:
Masked values written to control and mode registers to match tests on a real PS1.

Corrected RxD bit status when no device is driving it was 0, should be 1 .

Added emulation of DSR status bit to reads from the status register though DSR emulation is totally kludgy
at the moment, need to fix it up in the future .

Added emulation of interrupt status bit to reads from the status register.

Added emulation of memory card insertion detection bit, that is apparently set when the memory card receives
power after being off, and is cleared by issuing a successful? write.

Attempted memory card block reads from beyond the end of the memory card will now fail as tested granted
not extensively tested for multiple beyond-end address values on a real PS1.

The high byte of the read address specified in the memory card read command will now be echoed back in
the following byte sent back to the PS1, as per tests on the real PS1 previously in Mednafen, that byte was
just being sent as 0x00 .

The receive buffer byte is now duplicated across all bytes of multi-byte reads of the data port address,
as on a real PS1.

Began adding analog gamepad support; though, the current front port SIO device interface is a bit clunky,
so probably no more emulated devices will be added until that can be improved.

PSX: Removed asserts on MFC0 from a debug register; a warning message will still be printed if a debug register
is written with MTC0, however.

Fixed a bug that could cause an assert to be thrown with small effective y-scale values on certain types of
multires video frames, thanks to Speedvicio for reporting it.

January 17, 2012:
PSX emulation module compilation is now enabled by default in the configure script.

PC-FX: Fixed a lack of updating a cached copy of the debugger-editable KING register "ADPCMCTRL" on edit.

Added a rudimentary test in the configure script to determine if "-fno-strict-overflow" or "-fwrapv" should be used
in regards to gcc 4.2.x generating bad code for -fno-strict-overflow .

Updated list of gettext translateable source code files.

January 16, 2012:
PSX: Fixed emulation of bit7 of SPU control register, it actually appears to control the reverb algorithm writing
into the reverb work area, rather than setting the inputs to 0 as it was emulated before. Fixes music corruption
in "The Roots" demo, music playback in "Vib-Ribbon", and possibly minor sound glitches in other games as well.

PSX: CD audio data is now written to SPU RAM without SPU output CD volume being applied, fixes course generation
in "Vib-Ribbon".

Implemented support for mapping command keys hotkeys to mouse buttons; it was partially implemented before,
in that the command key configuration process allowed you to select mouse buttons for a command key, but the
mouse buttons had no effect in actually triggering the command.

January 15, 2012:
GB: Added GB system type selection via "gb.system_type" setting. Sound emulation nuances have
changed from the previous default, such that DMG games will select emulation of the DMG sound hardware whereas
before they selected CGB sound hardware. To achieve the previous behavior, set the "gb.system_type" setting to "cgb",
though note that in a future version this setting may change color and palette selection as well.

January 13, 2012:
Corrected a wrong argument type in an error reporting function in drivers/shader.cpp, which should fix compilation
issues with certain OpenGL implementations.

PSX: Removed erroneous coordinate check in line-drawing code that was preventing 1-pixel-long lines from
being drawn, and fixed a divide-by-zero issue that removing the check caused.

Port cache is now cleared on game close; has no practical effect on stock Mednafen, but needed for ports
that allow for more than one game loading per instance, to prevent problems with netplay and state rewinding.

PSX: Refined GPU status port bit28 emulation, per tests run on a
real system it's a bit weird and inconsistent .

PSX: GPU polylines now require at least one line segment two vertices to
be specified before the termination code is honored, per tests on
a real system.

January 12, 2012:
PSX: Fixed a problem with shaded polyline end code evaluation, fixes startup lockup in "Codename: Tenka".

PSX: Fixed GPU flipped sprite drawing, the starting coordinates were being set incorrectly as
to how a real GPU apparently works and how a real GPU apparently works is kind of wonky compared
to sprite flipping on older consoles! .

PSX: Sprites are no longer dithered, per test results run on the real thing though only with commands
0x64 through 0x67, it's possible that the others couuuuld be different, more tests will be run . Fixes
the motion-blurred running scene in the beginning of "Silent Hill".

January 11, 2012:
PSX: Improved GPU FB Read, FB Write, FB Copy, and FB Fill command emulation particularly coordinate and
size masking; and doing mask bit handling for FB Copy, which fixes FF8 battle transitions , based on tests
run on a real system.

January 8, 2012:
PSX: Fixed IRQ idle and FIFO room bits, fixes graphical update issues with "The Roots" demo.

PSX: Made OT clear DMA occur over time instead of instantly.

Fixed a deinterlacer bug that would cause a stale field to be displayed for the first interlaced frame after a
period of non-interlaced frames.

January 6, 2012:
More build information is displayed on startup.

Fixed a memory leak in the internal message display code.

January 5, 2012:
Improved PAL region game support, and added rough region autodetection, with a BIOS filename setting for each supported
region.

January 4, 2012:
Fixed multiple issues with the signal handler.

January 3, 2012:
Fixed temporal blur memory allocation that could lead to crashes with emulated systems that support
interlaced video, it was only allocating for a fixed height of 256 when it should have been using the fb_height
member of MDFNGameInfo.

Fixed problems with the configure script that caused user-supplied CPPFLAGS to be ignored.

The Win32 build is now compiled with gcc 4.5.4 20111030 prerelease , and compiled with gcc option "-mstackrealign".

December 30, 2011:
PSX: Added emulation of coprocessor->CPU transfer delay slots, fixes
graphical glitches in "Tekken 2".

PSX: Fixed bug that was causing timer overflow flag to be set when it shouldn't be when in target mode .

PSX: GPU CLUT offset wrapping fixed fixes "Next Tetris" .

PSX: Return interlaced mode field in bit 13 of GPU status port reads.

PSX: Miscellaneous GPU emulation improvements relating to coordinate precision.

PSX: Revamped GPU, SPU, and MDEC DMA, and GPU command buffering , to run over time instead of all at once.

December 29, 2011:
Lynx: Fixed EVERON detection emulation, and emulated a hardware bug regarding SCB data reading, the latter of which
fixes a graphical glitch in "Joust". Thanks to sage and LX.NET for information and patches.

December 21, 2011:
PSX: Fixed a typo in the return value calculation for control command 0x10, fixes graphical glitches in
"Xenogears".

December 19, 2011:
PSX: Added backing variables/memory for memory accesses to 0x1f801000-0x1f801023, though their actual functionality isn't
emulated yet.

PSX: Added dummy SIO rear serial port emulation to fix a divide-by-zero crash in Wipeout.

PSX: Altered ReadN and ReadS semantics, fixes a lockup in Suikoden II.

PSX: CD sector error correction will no longer be attempted on mode 2 form 2 sectors, fixes data corruption and lockup
issues with "Final Fantasy Tactics", "SaGa Frontier", and perhaps others.

December 18, 2011:
PSX: Fixed a problem with line drawing gradient shading, fixes some glitches with lighting effects
in "Quake II", "Need for Speed III", and probably other glitches in other games as well.

PSX: Altered Mem->GPU DMA completion calculation to take into account the GPU's FIFO, though the FIFO simulation
is rather crude; fixes various games that were flickering messes.

PSX: Fixed FB write coordinate and size masking to not be braindead it didn't allow 1024 width or 512 height,
which obviously broke games .

December 17, 2011:
PSX: Improved emulation of SPU control register bit 15, fixes sound effects and music glitches in "Viewpoint", "Mat
Hoffman's Pro BMX", and likely other games as well though "Hydro Thunder" still seems to have issues with
garbage sound .

PSX: Improved emulation of SPU control register bit 14.

December 16, 2011:
SMS: Began work on fixing H-counter behavior.

December 15, 2011:
PSX: Masked FB write coordinates and widths to the bare minimum; not sure if this is totally correct need to run
tests on the real thing , but it fixes a startup lockup in "Crash Team Racing".

Revamped internal CD direct reading abstraction, and made several user-visible changes:
Removed "cdrom.lec_eval" setting; it complicated internal design, and was a bad decision in the sense
that it could promote distributing patches or CD rips that would likely not work properly when burned to
an actual disc.

Added more proper support for multi-disc CD games; see the CD-emulation section in the documentation
for further details.

Dropped support for physical CD drives that don't support MMC commands, don't support raw sector reading,
and/or don't support raw subchannel reading.

December 7, 2011:
Added experimental support for enabling linear interpolation on one axis only via the .videoip setting ,
that doesn't require FBOs or pixel shaders.

December 4, 2011:
PSX: Corrected time of FB Y readout offset lower bit versus field bit setting, fixes startup freeze in
"X-Men: Mutant Academy".

PSX: Made SPU IRQ emulation slightly more accurate.

December 3, 2011:
PSX: Added a kludge to prevent the GPU from returning busy status on status port reads after DMA to the GPU
finishes its simulated run time, to fix major problems with the battles in "Valkyrie Profile".
TODO: This kludge will be removed when more accurate DMA emulation is in place in the future.

PSX: Reduced triangle vertex x,y coordinate integer precision, fixes missing level graphics in "Tony Hawk's
Pro Skater 2".

December 2, 2011:
PSX: Improved mask bit emulation, fixes text brightness issues in "Dragon Quest 4", and possibly other
graphical issues in other games as well.

Swapped the lines the scanlines effect is applied to, and removed the OpenGL texture offset hack used when scanlines
were enabled.

December 1, 2011:
PSX: Improved display FB Y readout position emulation, and added support for line skipping and "dfe" functionality
when drawing in interlaced mode it's likely not 100% correct, though .

November 29, 2011:
Added emulation of the VDP quirk present in the Japanese SMS VDP to fix the graphical glitches in the Japanese
version of "Ys"; however, the quirk will only be emulated when the "sms.territory" setting is set to "domestic".

November 28, 2011:
Replaced the various .pixshader ip* settings with "autoip" and "autoipsharper", and rewrote
the underlying "sharper" interpolation algorithm to produce more visually-pleasing results. There is some loss of
potential functionality with this change, but hopefully the gained functionality will greatly offset the loss in
practice.

November 25, 2011:
SMS: Reduced FM volume to prevent some kind of overflow clicking in Blip_Buffer TODO: investigate where
exactly it was happening .

November 17, 2011:
Fixed some code causing compiler warnings in:
psx/dis.cpp
pcfx/king.cpp
pcfx/fxscsi.cpp
pce_fast/vdc.cpp
pce/vce_sync.inc
nes/boards/emu2413.cpp
nes/ntsc/nes_ntsc.cpp
md/debug.cpp
md/cd/cdc_cdd.cpp

November 15, 2011:
Fixed the broken scanline effect when the screen is rotated when using the OpenGL video output driver.

November 13, 2011:
Genesis: Fixed left/right gamepad default key assignments, they were backwards for some reason.

Changed the default values for .xres and .yres to "0", which will cause Mednafen to use
the same resolution as the desktop video mode.

Changed the default values for .xscalefs and .yscalefs to "1", and changed the default value
for .stretch from "0" disabled to "aspect_mult2".

Revamped the quick help via F1 screen, removing the annoying partial opacity and changing colors and layout
slightly.

Remapped the screen rotation button from "F8" to "ALT + O", enabled screen rotation for all emulated systems,
and renamed the "command.rotatescreen" setting to "command.rotate_screen".

November 12, 2011:
Began adding support for emulated analog buttons/axes to the core and driver code to be used in the future
for additional PSX input device support .

November 11, 2011:
Implemented a workaround for compiling the unzip code with Gentoo's messed up zlib header files.

November 10, 2011:
NES: Corrected multiple problems with mouse coordinate translation for Zapper, Space Shadow Gun, Oeka Kids Tablet,
and Arkanoid controller emulation, especially with non-default video settings.

November 9, 2011:
Altered "video.glvsync" semantics slightly, such that a setting of "0" vsync disabled will override video card
system driver settings in the same way that a setting of "1" will. In short, it makes disabling vsync via this
setting more reliable

November 8, 2011:
Added new video stretch modes "aspect_int" and "aspect_mult2".

WonderSwan: Implemented experimental setting "wswan.language"; it's only known to affect one game.

November 7, 2011:
PSX: Made SPU execution slaved to the CDC, to prevent potential edge-case synchronization issues for audio streaming.

PSX: Implemented rudimentary CD-XA playback.

PSX: Implemented GetLocL CD command.

October 30, 2011:
PSX: Implemented more of MDEC, to the point where the video in FMV sequences is working to a degree.

October 27, 2011:
NES: Improved iNES mapper 69 expansion sound emulation accuracy volume interpretation and channel frequencies
were off .

October 26, 2011:
PSX: Fixed a bug that caused crashing when emulator sound output was disabled.

PSX: Fixed missing initialization of a local variable in a GTE emulation function very curiously, gcc 4.4 optimized it
as if it were initialized to zero, and didn't even print a warning about an uninitialized variable being used, but
the lack of initialization DID cause a warning and broke the code with gcc 4.6 .

October 25, 2011:
PSX: More GTE fixes.

October 19, 2011:
PSX: Altered GPU triangle rendering to fix the little problem of
invisible walls in "Doom".

October 18, 2011:
PSX: Corrected GTE MVMA when mx is 3 it has very strange behavior .

October 17, 2011:
PSX: Improved CPU branch delay slot emulation, fixes a few graphical glitches in "Threads of Fate".

PSX: Improved GTE flag emulation, and support for MVMA with the far color vector.

October 15, 2011:
Fixed a bug that caused crackling and increased CPU usage when using certain non-integer fast/slow-forward speed
multipliers.

October 13, 2011:
GBA: Added GSF-related file extensions to known file extensions list.

PSX: Added PSF-related file extensions to known file extensions list.

PSX: Disabled memory card emulation when a PSF is loaded.

October 12, 2011:
CDPLAY, SNES, PSX: Changed several large statically-allocated arrays to be dynamically-allocated to reduce
memory usage when those emulation modules aren't being used.

Increased the maximum supported sound output rate to 1048576 Hz, JUST BECAUSE.

GB: Fixed loading of custom per-game palettes.

October 10, 2011:
Changed setting and code constraints to increase the maximum supported sound output rate from 48KHz to 192KHz.

NES: Altered the resampler to work for output rates higher than 48KHz.

Modified Blip_Buffer to use 64-bit types for time-keeping and calculation instead of 32-bit, and extended
the precision of the fractional component of the output-to-input rate ratio from 20 bits to 32-bits. This
change to 64-bit types also has the effect for allowing for very large buffer sizes with very high
output rates. However, if you're using a custom video mode with a refresh rate tuned to minimize juddering
and frameskipping, you will need to adjust/recalculate those modes for all emulation modules
*other* than "nes", "psx", and "snes".

October 8, 2011:
NES: Fixed a bug in the MMC5 split-screen emulation that caused a garbage scanline in the intro sequence
of "Uchuu Keibitai SDF".

NES: Fixed MMC5 32K PRG switching mode.

September 29, 2011:
Fixed a file descriptor leak in the gzip loading code, and removed usage of dup .

Maximum ROM image size is now enforced in the gzip loading code.

September 25, 2011:
GBA: Fixed an endian-related bug in the sound emulation code.

September 22, 2011:
Changed an erroneous memcpy of an object to an assignment in the MDFN_Surface constructor.

SMS: Removed an unecessary memset that sometimes tried to memset a NULL pointer.

September 5, 2011:
PSX: Changed coordinate precision in the GPU sprite drawing code so that the level in "Skullmonkeys"
doesn't disappear when your character goes far enough to the right.

September 4, 2011:
PSX: Added memory card support.

PSX: Reworked SIO for front ports code, fixes problems with controllers acting totally wonky on some games.

August 29, 2011:
NES: Fixed potential in ports memory leaks in the Game Genie emulation code.

August 28, 2011:
PCE, PCE_FAST: Fixed an Arcade Card emulation bug that made Garou Densetsu 2 virtually unplayably difficult.

August 25, 2011:
Added a "close " method to FileWrapper, and modified the QuickTime and WAV recording code to make use of it.

August 24, 2011:
GBA: Encapsulated in a namespace.

GB: Encapsulated in a namespace.

GB: Added a few minor missing variables to save states.

PCE, PCE_FAST, PC-FX: Fixed potential memory leak in ports in the SCSI CD emulation code.

NES: Fixed potential memory leaks in ports in the FDS and PPU emulation code.

August 23, 2011:
PC-FX: Fixed a potential memory leak in the RAINBOW emulation code, again currently only relevant to ports of Mednafen.

Refactored and reorganized physical CD and image reading code, and moved utility-type functions, types, and
enums into their own namespace, with somewhat more consistent naming, and removal of redundant functions and macros.

Fixed a crash when "cdrom.lec_eval" is "0" and a physical data CD is loaded.

Fixed potential in ports of Mednafen memory leaks in the CD-ROM emulation code.

August 20, 2011:
PCE, PCE_FAST: Fixed potential memory leaks in ports of Mednafen, not Mednafen as-is in HES player code.

August 18, 2011:
WonderSwan: Fixed an issue in the debugger's disassembly code that had the potential to cause the
compiler's linker to error out in certain situations.

NGP: Fixed a memory map initialization bug won't affect Mednafen as it is currently, but may affect ports that
load more than one game without restarting Mednafen . Thanks to raz0red for pointing it out.

August 13, 2011:
Fixed again waveform Y coordinate saturation in the music player."

Source

Dolphin Git 3.0-397

"* Merge branch 'texcache-cleanup'"

Source

PCSX2 SVN r5087

"r5087
Set the EE round mode to nearest for SMT: Nocturne.
Fixes the problem where players can not use ladders mid-game."

Source

FourDO SVN r225

"r225
Adding a copy of the DirectSound audio plugin before I bork it up"

Source

MESS SVN r14297

"r14296
Fixed build. nw
r14297
Remove printf"

Source

ScummVM v1.4.1

"AGOS:
- Fixed loading videos directly from InstallShield cabinets in the Windows
version of the The Feeble Files.

BASS:
- Added support for Enhanced Music by James Woodcock
http://www.jameswoodcock.co.uk/?p=7695 .

Broken Sword 2:
- Slight graphics improvement for PSX version.

KYRA:
- Fixed bug in the original Lands of Lore GUI which made ScummVM error out
in the case the user did not have a contiguous save slot usage.
- Add support for original DOS Lands of Lore save files also applies to save
files made with the GOG release .

SCI:
- Fixed race condition in SCI1.1 palette changes. This fixes an error in
QFG1VGA, when sleeping at Erana's place.
- The option to toggle sound effect types between digitized and synthesized
has been disabled until a more user-friendly GUI option is possible.
Digital sound effects are always preferred for now.
- Fixed a case where starting a new song didn't fully reset its channels,
thus some notes sounded wrong."

Source

Boxer v1.2.1

"Rendering fixes:
- Eliminated screen-tearing in fullscreen and windowed mode, woohoo!
- Fixed crappy fullscreen performance on certain Mac models.

Game compatibility fixes:
- Fixed crashes and broken CD imports when importing GOG.com games that contain BIN+CUE images affected Dungeon Keeper, Castles II, Redneck Rampage and others.
- Fixed CD copy protection in the GOG.com release of Pro Pinball: Timeshock.
- Fixed hang when switching CDs in Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars.
- Fixed crash when launching Comanche 3 installer.
- Fixed hang when launching FIFA ’94 installer.
- Fixed CD copy protection in abandonware rips of Steel Panthers 2.
- Fixed juddering animations in Commander Keens 4–6.

Input fixes:
- Updated Joypad integration to improve joystick mode switching.
- Fixed keyboard lag in other applications when Boxer was busy and “Ignore OS X hotkeys while a game is running” was enabled.
- Fixed thankfully rare issue where keyboard stopped responding after quitting Boxer, when “Ignore OS X hotkeys while a game is running” was enabled.
- Improved mouse pointer behaviour when “Use seamless mouse pointer” is enabled.
- Fixed keys sometimes getting ‘stuck’ if Cmd was pressed while they were held down.
- Fixed controller axis mappings for Thrustmaster T.Flight HOTAS stick.

Other fixes and tweaks:
- Removed choice of DOS Games folder location when launching Boxer for the first time. This now defaults to Documents/DOS Games, though the location can still be changed later from the Preferences window or moved/renamed in Finder.
- Fixed bug in Inspector panel that was preventing changes to settings from getting saved occasionally.
- Fixed notification icons and bootleg cover art being scaled incorrectly on OS X 10.5.
- Boxer now always auto-pauses in the background while waiting at the DOS prompt.
- Made help pages look tidier and prettier. "

Source

Retro Gaming Life: Find of the Month January

Retro Gaming Life — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:13:00 +0000

This had a more sentimental value than value on its own. This is by far my favorite Final Fantasy game period. It's mainly because it's one of the more odd Final Fantasy games ever released. The first time I played this game was via-emulation and the discovery of such an unheard of game was incredible. I was shocked that it had been released so I played it to the very end. It was a pretty big deal especially since I played it back in 1998. Top honors to one unforgettable fantasy!