. an archaic crossroads site .
founded April, 1996
accesses since March 1, 1998

Contained here is our 'morgue', so to speak, of past updates. Some links may work, some may not. The purpose of providing you with this history of releases is purely for your entertainment (and so that you can bet your friends money that certain emulators are really that old).

. return to news page .
1999 . january . february . march . april . may .

1998 . january . february . march . april . may . june . july . august . september . october . november . december .

1997 . november . december .



MARCH 26, 1999

Archaic Ruins
¤ MAJOR REHAUL UNDERWAY!
Before Spring Break, I had completed 70% of a rehaul for Archaic Ruins. I now present you a new, easier to browse, more simple, more eye-pleasing, more flexible, and more convenient Archaic Ruins! Everything with the exception of the emulation archive has been rehauled and the emulation archive will follow with some suprises instore! My access to the Internet right now is very limited -- perhaps only once or twice a week! However, I will do the best I can until I can return to Archaic Ruins and restore Archaic Ruins to the most rootin' tootin' emulation site this side of the Internet!


MARCH 12, 1999

News
¤ DragoNES is not dead!
Jonathan Phenix, the author of DragoNes, has updated his website. Here is his announcement:

" News (99/03/12): Even if this page was unchanged for more than 1 year, the project is not dead. I have worked hard to release a new, better and faster version but there is a terrible bug in the code and I was unable to find it. Some people that will stay annonymous for now are working on the project right now, they will continue with the old v0.20 code. They said to me that a new version can be expected! I might continue to code the emulator with them or not... this depend on the time I have.... "

Check out the DragoNes website.

Nintendo
¤ RockNES v0.74 released! (MS-DOS) - Download
  • Fixed NES RAM, SPR-RAM (Sprite RAM) and SRAM (Save RAM, battery) sizes and features;
  • Found the CPU bug which was breaking/hanging some games (Battetoads \ games, Karateka and others);
  • NES background render partially rewritten/optimised;
  • Fixed `-nosound' option (no sound!);
  • Fixed `-info' option (mirroring was being displayed incorrectly);
  • *Preliminary? incomplete?* Mapper #24 support (CastleVania 3 Jap.);
  • Joypad 2 working with no problems;
  • Better IRQ emulation support (no more the same for every mapper);
  • Major fix for save/load state feature!
  • On Reset, the native ROM mirroring is being restored;
  • Fixed Mappers #4/#64 reset! (Super Mario Bros.3 is ok);
  • Fixed some OS quit problems (memory related);
  • Fixed a minor mid-hblank problem;
  • Fixed 8-sprites/line detection;
  • Fixed a screen layout bug (262 lines/frame, 19/VBlank);
  • Better way to access MapperX_Write() functions (w/ pointers);
  • Minor fixes across CPU/PPU functions;
  • Compiled with Allegro 3.11.

Gameboy
¤ DBOY v0.45 released! (MS-DOS) - Download
BouKiChi has released DBOY v0.45. I have no clue what is new cause the page is not in english. =) Also I have zipped the files for you convience. ;)

Nintendo 64
¤ TrueReality v1999030900 released! (Unix) - Download
  • I updated most files in the 'Documentation' directory.
  • New 'README.os2'.
  • New 'FAQ.roms'.
  • New 'GREETINGS'.
  • Developer -> DeveloperTeam.
  • There are no news about DEMOT.
  • It shows the 3 text lines.
  • I just have found out that it draws the playfield correct in the background.
  • But it is hidden because of doublebuffering and before it swaps the screens
  • the playfield is cleared - no idea why.

MARCH 12, 1999

News
¤ DragoNES is not dead!
Jonathan Phenix, the author of DragoNes, has updated his website. Here is his announcement:

" News (99/03/12): Even if this page was unchanged for more than 1 year, the project is not dead. I have worked hard to release a new, better and faster version but there is a terrible bug in the code and I was unable to find it. Some people that will stay annonymous for now are working on the project right now, they will continue with the old v0.20 code. They said to me that a new version can be expected! I might continue to code the emulator with them or not... this depend on the time I have.... "

Check out the DragoNes website.

Nintendo
¤ RockNES v0.74 released! (MS-DOS) - Download
  • Fixed NES RAM, SPR-RAM (Sprite RAM) and SRAM (Save RAM, battery) sizes and features;
  • Found the CPU bug which was breaking/hanging some games (Battetoads \ games, Karateka and others);
  • NES background render partially rewritten/optimised;
  • Fixed `-nosound' option (no sound!);
  • Fixed `-info' option (mirroring was being displayed incorrectly);
  • *Preliminary? incomplete?* Mapper #24 support (CastleVania 3 Jap.);
  • Joypad 2 working with no problems;
  • Better IRQ emulation support (no more the same for every mapper);
  • Major fix for save/load state feature!
  • On Reset, the native ROM mirroring is being restored;
  • Fixed Mappers #4/#64 reset! (Super Mario Bros.3 is ok);
  • Fixed some OS quit problems (memory related);
  • Fixed a minor mid-hblank problem;
  • Fixed 8-sprites/line detection;
  • Fixed a screen layout bug (262 lines/frame, 19/VBlank);
  • Better way to access MapperX_Write() functions (w/ pointers);
  • Minor fixes across CPU/PPU functions;
  • Compiled with Allegro 3.11.

Gameboy
¤ DBOY v0.45 released! (MS-DOS) - Download
BouKiChi has released DBOY v0.45. I have no clue what is new cause the page is not in english. =) Also I have zipped the files for you convience. ;)

Nintendo 64
¤ TrueReality v1999030900 released! (Unix) - Download
  • I updated most files in the 'Documentation' directory.
  • New 'README.os2'.
  • New 'FAQ.roms'.
  • New 'GREETINGS'.
  • Developer -> DeveloperTeam.
  • There are no news about DEMOT.
  • It shows the 3 text lines.
  • I just have found out that it draws the playfield correct in the background.
  • But it is hidden because of doublebuffering and before it swaps the screens
  • the playfield is cleared - no idea why.

News
¤ KGB v0.20 to be released soon!
Matt Currie, the author of KGB(a Gameboy emulator for MS-DOS), has announced on his website that version 0.20 will be released on tuesday or wednesday. Here is the full story:

    99/03/12 The place doing my PC upgrade was too busy this week so it's getting done on Monday.. so.. all going well, I should be releasing v0.20 on Tuesday or Wednesday. For a list of what will be in the release and what won't, take a look at the Old News page..

Just in case you missed it, here is the link to KGB's website: KGB Website


MARCH 10, 1999

Nintendo 64
¤ Nemu64 v0.011 released! (Win9x) - Download
  • fixed the rotate bug (LH was wrong)
  • fixed bug in LWL and LWR ==> controllers work (thanks to Dimitri and LaC!)
  • fixed analog up
  • increased analog stick support: try holding shift while moving the analog stick to a direction
Super Nintendo
¤ Snes9x v1.18d(GUI) released! (MS-DOS) - Download
    GUI
    • Added Background Selector
    • Fixed up some code
    • Fixed the problem of not clearing the memory when loading a new rom!
    • Added Kreed's Interpolation routines (replaces TVMode for now)

    1.18

    • Implemented a sync-sound mode where sound data gets generated in sync with SPC700 instructions being executed. Finally the sound Williams Arcade classics can be heard. Also helps slight sound timing problems in many other games but doesn't fix Mortal Kombat 2 like I thought it would - its sound routine programmers must have been on drugs or something!
    • Added interpolated sound - gives low frequency sounds much more bass similar to a real SNES especially with the playback rate ramped up to 44KHz.
    • Added on-screen messages as various emulation options are toggled on and off using the in-game keys.
    • Fixed a PPU register read bug with the sprite register write position. Thanks to Takehiro TOMINAGA for the bug report.
    • Altered the auto-frame skip timing code to only wait and re-sync to the end of frame when frames haven't been skipped. Again thanks to Takehiro.
    • Speeded up the colour addition and subtraction code using ideas from Takehiro.

Nintendo 64
¤ Nemu64 v0.01 released! (Win9x) - Download
  • Controllers are partially working....right now they only work in liner. The key mapping is following:
      A,S,X : The 3 main buttons
      Cursor UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT : Analog Stick (always at maximum)
      I,K,J,L : C-Buttons (used in liner to control the line)
      T,G,F,H : Joypad
      Return : Start Button
  • RSP bug fixed....RSP code executes now correctly
  • Almost complete Audio Emulation (missing: 8 (and maybe 4) Bit sound support, only 16 Bit implemented)
  • Internal changes
  • fixed problem with vi interrupt
  • changed the way the screen refreshes ==> Liner works


MARCH 9, 1999

Master System

¤ BRSMS v1.18.2 released! (MS-DOS) - Download
Version 1.18 and version 1.18.2 were released and since v1.18.2 is just a bug-fix, I have left up what's new for both versions.
    [1.18.2] (3/3/1999)
  • bugfix to make BrSMS works under Win95

    [1.18] (1/3/1999)

  • now -res 4 and -res 6 can be used with SG1000/SC3000 games
  • added -sc3000 (enable SC3000 computer emulation)
  • added -lightgun (enable lightgun emulation through the mouse)
  • improved support to nationalization (GG Pop Breaker)
  • improved Z80 initialization (GG Evander Holyfield Boxing)
  • added -2d to play 3D games without 3D glasses
  • improved speech support (GG Chakan)
  • added -lcd to enable LCD persistence (GG Halley Wars, S. Monaco GP 2)
  • fixed SRAM emulation (GG Shining Force 2/3, Desert Speedtrap)
  • improved IRQ engine (GG Smash TV, Spiderman: Return of Sinister Six)
  • improved HALT emulation (SMS Sh.Beast,P.Fox,GG Poker,SG1000 Orguss)
  • improved VDP emulation (GG Ax Battler,SMS S.Chess,Zool,Bart vs.SpM)


MARCH 8, 1999

Bulletin
¤ Change in Address
Just to let you know, my e-mail address is now zheights@unbounded.com(not that I get massive amounts of it =). Also I have trimmed down this page so that it'll load a little quicker. All old news can be found in the old news archive.

Gameboy
¤ Virtual Gameboy v1.5 released!
Download - (FreeBSD, Solaris, OSF/1)
  • Implemented correct GameBoy hardware reset.
  • Added emulation state saving/loading.
  • Added Rumble Pack emulation.
  • Added working HuC3 emulation.
  • Added some explanations to builtin help page.
  • Corrected GameBoy clock timings.
  • Corrected LCD state transitions.
  • Improved VRAM->SGB copy routine and its timing.
  • Fixed SGB frame color #0 (Pocket Monsters Blue).
  • Fixed SGB FILL FRAME function (King Of Fighters 96).
  • Fixed SGB CHRGEN transfer function (Shanghai Pocket).
  • Added speed control to VGB-Unix.
  • Small speed up in CGB emulation in VGB-Windows.
  • Fixed sound balance in VGB-Windows.
  • Fixed joystick support in VGB-Windows.
  • Corrected several errors in the documentation.


MARCH 7, 1999

Various
¤ DarcNES v19990305 released! (Linux) - Download
  • Fixed bug with debug command parsing (not that anyone will notice).
  • Added BSR instruction to 6280 disassembly tables.
  • Disabled WAI and STP in the 6280 core (they shouldn't be too important).
  • Fixed bug in pce_init_mmap() (now a lot more games fondly imagine that they work).
  • Added PCE horizontal resolution control.
  • Increased the XWindows default window size by a whole bunch of lot as a workaround for a problem with changing the game resolution on the fly.

Nintendo
¤ RockNES v0.74 Compatibility List
Fx3 of RockNES fame has released the Offical RockNES Compatibility List for the upcoming release of RockNES. The compatibility is pretty high. Sooo, go check it out! =)


MARCH 5, 1999

PC Engine
¤ HU6280 v1.89 Beta 7 released! (Win9x) - Download
This was released a couple days ago.
  • SPEED! SPEED! SPEED! SPEED! SPEED! SPEED! SPEED! SPEED! SPEED!
  • as you may have guessed, this bitchcow is running a tad faster thanx to jamsponge getting off his arse and coding some tasty x86 ASM with a MASM/VTUNE combo. :)-~
  • Please report any bugs you find...

Super Nintendo
¤ Snes 9x v1.18e Source released! - Download
I don't really know what to say except for this is the new source from SNES9x.


MARCH 4, 1999

Bulletin
¤ Notice to AR Staff Members
I don't have time to update this site, or Emulation Camp, or anything else I do. I do not have access to a computer unless I go to my parents house (something I don't like doing). So I leave this message for you all to read. I am going to buy a laptop in a week or two depending on my money situation. Until then I am taking leave from my jobs of maintainence. I will not write or return e-mails until I am good and ready to. I will not be on the internet. recluse's message below made me think also, while I don't have time to update here shoudn't someone have picked up the slack from me not being here? Well noone did. Staff members who do not start updating (except for Chris, Luke, and myself) will be automatically fired from AR. You have one week. I'm not playing games with you people. Either help or out you go, staff members who do nothing are not members they are worthless. A few of you are friends and I would hate to see you go but if your worthless then your name is wasting space on this page. If you cannot update for a reason let me know, I'll be happy to pardon you from this execution.

I would also like to wish recluse luck in his endevours of ROM hacking. Make some good tranlations for us, and I hope to here from you again soon!! :)

Bulletin
¤ I am resigning.
The only person that consistantly updates this page is Roni. Without him this site would be quite dead. (As far as I know) I just want to say I respect him and I wish him well. As for my retirement, what can I say? I didn't do jack anyhow! =p

Nintendo
¤ LoopyNES Secret Beta 03/03/99 released! Download for (MS-DOS)
All that is known to be new is support for Dragonball. Loopy was very nice to update his emulator to support Dragonball so TransBRC's hard work wouldn't go to waste. Prior to this release FWNES was the only emulator (That I know of) to support this game. The resent version however has buggy support for the mapper Dragonball uses. Thus the update.

Translation
¤ Dragonball 1.11 released! Download
With LoopyNES now updated to support Dragonball, Blibber has in turn updated his translation's text font.


MARCH 1, 1999

Bulletin
¤ Hear me roar...
As most of you may notice, AR has not been updated in days. Notice I haven't done anything so why would anyone else? I hate lazy people. I have been moving out of my parents house for the past three days and this is what I come back to. How nice, I've missed a ton of things and I'll finish up tomorrow but I've got to get some sleep now.

Atari 2600
¤ Stella v1.1 released! Download - (MS-DOS, Linux, Source)
  • DOS and Linux versions support real Atari 2600 paddles using a special PC game port adaptor
  • Linux version uses the new 1.2.x joystick driver API
  • Added support for the -display option to the X Window version
  • Added support for private colormaps to the X Window version
  • Fixed a few bugs in the Supercharger emulation
    • A major bug in the ROM loading routine was fixed
    • Multi-loading in Escape from the Mindmaster works correctly
    • All Supercharger games load and execute at this point
  • Added a small hack to the TIA code to fix a display problem in Escape from the Mindmaster
  • Improved TIA emulation to support the RESPx multi-sprite trick

Colecovision
¤ ColEm v1.0.1 released! (MacOS) Download
  • GZ-compressed ROMs support
  • InputSprocket
  • NetPlay
  • TV Mode

Nintendo
¤ DarcNES v990222 released! (MS-DOS) Download
  • The only change: Now I'm using Allegro 3.1 to compile DarcNES DOS.

¤ DRR-NES v0.30 released! (MS-DOS) Download
No page here yet, why don't someone make one?
  • By rewriting the entire memory system (several times :S), the speed has been increased like 50x! (not kidding)
  • The graphics engine is super-fast now because of that (over 100 fps), but the main CPU is still really slow so the only way that you can get those speeds is to play something that only uses a little CPU time and then enters a do-nothing loop for the rest of the frame (which DRR-NES will automatically skip).
  • I finally got around to implementing some mappers (numbers 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 11)
  • You can set a frameskip now, but it doesn't help much because the CPU is what's slowing everything down - not the graphics.
  • Most games run at 12-15 FPS on my P166 with the exception of mapper #1 games that do about 1.5 FPS because of constant bank switching. Demos go over 60 fps.
  • Lots of CPU bugs were fixed and plenty of commercial games work (or at least work partially) now!

¤ NES4PC v0.35 Alpha 2 released! (Win9x) Download
  • Interface: Added the graphic NES4PC logo to the about window.
  • Interface: Killed the debugging options for now, I'll be re-adding them. Too much of the interface wasn't working, I decided it was time for a re-write...
  • Mappers: Rewrote mapper 15 in a cleaner way... Still doesn't work...
  • Mappers: Fixed a few bugs in mapper 24 involving the scanline timer and mirroring.
  • Mappers: Added Mappers 16, 17, 23, and 91! Too bad only mapper 23 runs anything so far. ^_^
  • Mappers: Fixed up a few bugs in the scanline timers for a number of mappers.
  • CPU: Fixed a few bugs in the mid-frame vram write code.
  • CPU: Fixed fairly large bug in the sprite 0 hit code, now zelda 2 and a number of other games work again!

Super Nintendo
¤ SNES9x v1.18d released! Download - (Linux, Solaris, SunOS)
  • Implemented a sync-sound mode where sound data gets generated in sync with SPC700 instructions being executed.
  • Finally the sound Williams Arcade classics can be heard. Also helps slight sound timing problems in many other games but doesn't fix Mortal Kombat 2 like I thought it would. :(
  • Added interpolated sound - gives low frequency sounds much more bass similar to a real SNES especially with the playback rate ramped up to 44KHz.
  • Added on-screen messages as various emulation options are toggled on and off using the in-game keys.
  • Fixed a PPU register read bug with the sprite register write position. Thanks to Takehiro TOMINAGA for the bug report.
  • Altered the auto-frame skip timing code to only wait and re-sync to the end of frame when frames haven't been skipped. Again thanks to Takehiro.
  • Speeded up the colour addition and subtraction code using ideas from Takehiro.
  • Linux and UNIX sound code now driven directly from signal timer handler rather than the timer handler just setting a flag which had to be polled in the main emulation code. Slightly faster execution.
  • Fixed the crash bug in the ZSNES Super FX asm code with Vortex - the game's polygons still aren't visible though.
  • Implemented bent-line increase and exponential decay and sustain volume envelopes - they should match, or at least be very similar to the real SNES sound DSP chip now.
  • It would seem ROMs can key on sound channels even if the channel hasn't been keyed-off, Pac-In-Time requires it. Changed code to allow it.
  • Quick mod to ZSNES Super FX code to get Winter Gold working - it was already working with the C Super FX code.
  • Added emulation of the extra 1/2 scan-line per frame on PAL and NTSC - should help improve music speed emulation.
  • Worked around the click sound heard when ROMs use 0 volume envelope attack rate.
  • Removed the 'check for IRQ already happened' H-IRQ position register setting code - it was causing problems for Ninja Warriors and was not required by F1 Grand Prix.
  • Fixed a bug in the new sound code - the sustain part of the attack-decay-sustain-release volume envelope was being skipped if the sustain level wasn't at 100%. The fix has helped some music notes from being cut off early in a few games.
  • Added fix to Pro Action Reply support (again). Thanks to Paul Shoener III for the original fix and Gil Pedersen for reminding me to apply it!
  • Finally fixed the Tales of Phantasia 'bum note' problem! The ROM set its sample directory to the upper-most page and I forget to code for the hidden 64 bytes of RAM, that appear when the boot ROM is switched off, when fetching sample addresses.
  • Adjusted the relative cycle length between the 65c816 and the SPC700 slightly to get Terranigma working again.
  • Oops, the emulated joypads 3 and 4 via the emulated Multi-player 5 interface weren't working. Thanks to Steffen Schwenke for the bug report.
  • Optimised the echo sound code - by-passed the the FIR filter code if only a pass-through FIR filter was defined by the ROM.
  • Modified V and H-IRQ register changing code to trigger an IRQ immediately if V-IRQ is enabled and the scan-lines match and either H-IRQ is not enabled or the electron beam position has already gone past the trigger point. Fixes the screen flicker in F1 Grand Prix.
  • Modified the priority-per-pixel mode 7 code to use BG#1's clipping data if the top bit of the mode 7 pixel is set. Fixes initial track drive-through display in F1 Grand Prix.
  • Modified the sprite priority levels for the priority-per-pixel mode 7 display. Now the car can be seen in F1 Grand Prix.
  • Wrote a sound DSP register recording scheme which 'plays back' the register changes in sync with the sound generation code. I'm bit disappointed, it only improves the sound in a very few games... Scrapped the code, it actually causes more problems than it fixes. Oh, well, another 3 weeks work wasted...
  • Fixed a SPC700 wake up problem for Lufia I - made the SPC700 also wake up when the 65c816 read from one of the four comm ports.
  • Included lots of sound code speed ups and sound quality improvements from Takehiro TOMINAGA - many thanks go to him.
  • Look out for stage 1 3Dfx support (bi-linear filtering in hardware) in an upcoming release and stage 2 support in a future release that will use the hardware to render the SNES screen. Expect a large increase in emulation speed.


MARCH 4, 1999

Bulletin
¤ Notice to AR Staff Members
I don't have time to update this site, or Emulation Camp, or anything else I do. I do not have access to a computer unless I go to my parents house (something I don't like doing). So I leave this message for you all to read. I am going to buy a laptop in a week or two depending on my money situation. Until then I am taking leave from my jobs of maintainence. I will not write or return e-mails until I am good and ready to. I will not be on the internet. recluse's message below made me think also, while I don't have time to update here shoudn't someone have picked up the slack from me not being here? Well noone did. Staff members who do not start updating (except for Chris, Luke, and myself) will be automatically fired from AR. You have one week. I'm not playing games with you people. Either help or out you go, staff members who do nothing are not members they are worthless. A few of you are friends and I would hate to see you go but if your worthless then your name is wasting space on this page. If you cannot update for a reason let me know, I'll be happy to pardon you from this execution.

I would also like to wish recluse luck in his endevours of ROM hacking. Make some good tranlations for us, and I hope to here from you again soon!! :)

Bulletin
¤ I am resigning.
The only person that consistantly updates this page is Roni. Without him this site would be quite dead. (As far as I know) I just want to say I respect him and I wish him well. As for my retirement, what can I say? I didn't do jack anyhow! =p

Nintendo
¤ LoopyNES Secret Beta 03/03/99 released! Download for (MS-DOS)
All that is known to be new is support for Dragonball. Loopy was very nice to update his emulator to support Dragonball so TransBRC's hard work wouldn't go to waste. Prior to this release FWNES was the only emulator (That I know of) to support this game. The resent version however has buggy support for the mapper Dragonball uses. Thus the update.

Translation
¤ Dragonball 1.11 released! Download
With LoopyNES now updated to support Dragonball, Blibber has in turn updated his translation's text font.


MARCH 1, 1999

Bulletin
¤ Hear me roar...
As most of you may notice, AR has not been updated in days. Notice I haven't done anything so why would anyone else? I hate lazy people. I have been moving out of my parents house for the past three days and this is what I come back to. How nice, I've missed a ton of things and I'll finish up tomorrow but I've got to get some sleep now.

Atari 2600
¤ Stella v1.1 released! Download - (MS-DOS, Linux, Source)
  • DOS and Linux versions support real Atari 2600 paddles using a special PC game port adaptor
  • Linux version uses the new 1.2.x joystick driver API
  • Added support for the -display option to the X Window version
  • Added support for private colormaps to the X Window version
  • Fixed a few bugs in the Supercharger emulation
    • A major bug in the ROM loading routine was fixed
    • Multi-loading in Escape from the Mindmaster works correctly
    • All Supercharger games load and execute at this point
  • Added a small hack to the TIA code to fix a display problem in Escape from the Mindmaster
  • Improved TIA emulation to support the RESPx multi-sprite trick

Colecovision
¤ ColEm v1.0.1 released! (MacOS) Download
  • GZ-compressed ROMs support
  • InputSprocket
  • NetPlay
  • TV Mode

Nintendo
¤ DarcNES v990222 released! (MS-DOS) Download
  • The only change: Now I'm using Allegro 3.1 to compile DarcNES DOS.

¤ DRR-NES v0.30 released! (MS-DOS) Download
No page here yet, why don't someone make one?
  • By rewriting the entire memory system (several times :S), the speed has been increased like 50x! (not kidding)
  • The graphics engine is super-fast now because of that (over 100 fps), but the main CPU is still really slow so the only way that you can get those speeds is to play something that only uses a little CPU time and then enters a do-nothing loop for the rest of the frame (which DRR-NES will automatically skip).
  • I finally got around to implementing some mappers (numbers 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 11)
  • You can set a frameskip now, but it doesn't help much because the CPU is what's slowing everything down - not the graphics.
  • Most games run at 12-15 FPS on my P166 with the exception of mapper #1 games that do about 1.5 FPS because of constant bank switching. Demos go over 60 fps.
  • Lots of CPU bugs were fixed and plenty of commercial games work (or at least work partially) now!

¤ NES4PC v0.35 Alpha 2 released! (Win9x) Download
  • Interface: Added the graphic NES4PC logo to the about window.
  • Interface: Killed the debugging options for now, I'll be re-adding them. Too much of the interface wasn't working, I decided it was time for a re-write...
  • Mappers: Rewrote mapper 15 in a cleaner way... Still doesn't work...
  • Mappers: Fixed a few bugs in mapper 24 involving the scanline timer and mirroring.
  • Mappers: Added Mappers 16, 17, 23, and 91! Too bad only mapper 23 runs anything so far. ^_^
  • Mappers: Fixed up a few bugs in the scanline timers for a number of mappers.
  • CPU: Fixed a few bugs in the mid-frame vram write code.
  • CPU: Fixed fairly large bug in the sprite 0 hit code, now zelda 2 and a number of other games work again!

Super Nintendo
¤ SNES9x v1.18d released! Download - (Linux, Solaris, SunOS)
  • Implemented a sync-sound mode where sound data gets generated in sync with SPC700 instructions being executed.
  • Finally the sound Williams Arcade classics can be heard. Also helps slight sound timing problems in many other games but doesn't fix Mortal Kombat 2 like I thought it would. :(
  • Added interpolated sound - gives low frequency sounds much more bass similar to a real SNES especially with the playback rate ramped up to 44KHz.
  • Added on-screen messages as various emulation options are toggled on and off using the in-game keys.
  • Fixed a PPU register read bug with the sprite register write position. Thanks to Takehiro TOMINAGA for the bug report.
  • Altered the auto-frame skip timing code to only wait and re-sync to the end of frame when frames haven't been skipped. Again thanks to Takehiro.
  • Speeded up the colour addition and subtraction code using ideas from Takehiro.
  • Linux and UNIX sound code now driven directly from signal timer handler rather than the timer handler just setting a flag which had to be polled in the main emulation code. Slightly faster execution.
  • Fixed the crash bug in the ZSNES Super FX asm code with Vortex - the game's polygons still aren't visible though.
  • Implemented bent-line increase and exponential decay and sustain volume envelopes - they should match, or at least be very similar to the real SNES sound DSP chip now.
  • It would seem ROMs can key on sound channels even if the channel hasn't been keyed-off, Pac-In-Time requires it. Changed code to allow it.
  • Quick mod to ZSNES Super FX code to get Winter Gold working - it was already working with the C Super FX code.
  • Added emulation of the extra 1/2 scan-line per frame on PAL and NTSC - should help improve music speed emulation.
  • Worked around the click sound heard when ROMs use 0 volume envelope attack rate.
  • Removed the 'check for IRQ already happened' H-IRQ position register setting code - it was causing problems for Ninja Warriors and was not required by F1 Grand Prix.
  • Fixed a bug in the new sound code - the sustain part of the attack-decay-sustain-release volume envelope was being skipped if the sustain level wasn't at 100%. The fix has helped some music notes from being cut off early in a few games.
  • Added fix to Pro Action Reply support (again). Thanks to Paul Shoener III for the original fix and Gil Pedersen for reminding me to apply it!
  • Finally fixed the Tales of Phantasia 'bum note' problem! The ROM set its sample directory to the upper-most page and I forget to code for the hidden 64 bytes of RAM, that appear when the boot ROM is switched off, when fetching sample addresses.
  • Adjusted the relative cycle length between the 65c816 and the SPC700 slightly to get Terranigma working again.
  • Oops, the emulated joypads 3 and 4 via the emulated Multi-player 5 interface weren't working. Thanks to Steffen Schwenke for the bug report.
  • Optimised the echo sound code - by-passed the the FIR filter code if only a pass-through FIR filter was defined by the ROM.
  • Modified V and H-IRQ register changing code to trigger an IRQ immediately if V-IRQ is enabled and the scan-lines match and either H-IRQ is not enabled or the electron beam position has already gone past the trigger point. Fixes the screen flicker in F1 Grand Prix.
  • Modified the priority-per-pixel mode 7 code to use BG#1's clipping data if the top bit of the mode 7 pixel is set. Fixes initial track drive-through display in F1 Grand Prix.
  • Modified the sprite priority levels for the priority-per-pixel mode 7 display. Now the car can be seen in F1 Grand Prix.
  • Wrote a sound DSP register recording scheme which 'plays back' the register changes in sync with the sound generation code. I'm bit disappointed, it only improves the sound in a very few games... Scrapped the code, it actually causes more problems than it fixes. Oh, well, another 3 weeks work wasted...
  • Fixed a SPC700 wake up problem for Lufia I - made the SPC700 also wake up when the 65c816 read from one of the four comm ports.
  • Included lots of sound code speed ups and sound quality improvements from Takehiro TOMINAGA - many thanks go to him.
  • Look out for stage 1 3Dfx support (bi-linear filtering in hardware) in an upcoming release and stage 2 support in a future release that will use the hardware to render the SNES screen. Expect a large increase in emulation speed.


Archaic Ruins is not connected or affiliated with any mentioned company in any way. Companies and all products pertaining to that company are trademarks of that company. Graphic design exclusively for Archaic Ruins by aquis. For information concerning Archaic Ruins, please contact Chris Hickman.

© 1996-1999 Archaic Ruins
. about archaic ruins .