. 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 .



July 31, 1998
Arcade
¤ AMAME v0.33 r1 released! (MS-DOS)
¤ MAME v0.33 r1 released! (MS-DOS)
¤ MacMAME v0.33 r1 released! (MacOS)
¤ PMAME v0.33 r1 released! (MS-DOS)

Emerson Arcadia 2001
¤ 2001 r1 released! (MS-DOS)
  • semi-scanline based screen engine implemented
  • accurate palette from real screen shots
  • block graphic mode implemented
  • console keys latched
  • horizontal scrolling bits implemented
  • palette switching for sprite multiplexing works properly.
  • sound tuned [reasonably] accurately
  • noise channel added
  • all controller keys emulated
  • emulation now much faster

July 30, 1998
Nintendo
¤ PasoFami v2.7b released (7/19)! (Win9x)

Sinclair QL
¤ UQLX v7/30/98 released! (Unix/X)

Super Nintendo
¤ Snes9X v1.05a added! (AmigaOS)
¤ Snes9X v1.05 added! (BeOS)
¤ Snes9X v1.05 added! (FreeBSD)


July 29, 1998
Atari 800/5200
¤ Atari800 v0.97g (Source) released! (MS-DOS)
¤ Atari800 v2.2 (Source) added! (Win9x)

Commodore 64/128
¤ CCS64 Beta v0.2 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Cartridge emulation, Normal, Action Replay, KCS Power cartridge, Final cartridge III, and Simons BASIC.
  • SID filter
  • SID oversampling factor
  • parrallel cable emulation
  • rom set selection
  • multiple 1541 disk drives emulation
  • NTSC
  • RAM EXPANSION UNIT (REU) 16 MB.
  • 1541 disk drive RAM expansion
  • MOUSE C1351
  • USER INTERFACE CHANGES
  • bug fixes ...

NEO GEO
¤ NEO RAGE v0.01b released (some time ago)! (MS-DOS)
  • Non pentium bug-fix.
  • Small animation bug-fix
  • Small zoom bug-fix
  • Super Spy is playable again
  • Puzzle de Pon & King Of Monster2 are also back but they are not really playable
  • Sidewinder Y-button = A+B and Z-button = C+D

Nintendo
¤ A/NES v0.99.11b added! (Amiga)
  • Changed the memory-monitor.
  • Optimised the graphics-engine.
  • Primitive Vs.Unisystem support.
  • Small mapper 3 fixes.
  • Bugfixed mapper 22/23.
  • Added fwMapper66.
This emulator was updated a while ago but wasn't updated here.

TRS-80
¤ XTRS v2.0 added! (MS-DOS)


July 27, 1998
Arcade
¤ XMAME v0.33b7.1 released! (Unix/X)
See whatsnew.txt for update information.

¤ System 16 v0.78 released yesterday! (MS-DOS)
  • 5 new games:
    • Flash Point
    • Aurail
    • Alexkidd : The Lost Stars
    • Major League (not playable)
    • Fantasy Zone (Japan version).
  • Quick save/load by F5/F7.
  • Zip sound samples. Place zip sample files in .\zipsampl directory.
  • Yes, joypad works now.
  • No more Space Harrier random crash now.
  • The dirts, smokes and turbo fires of Super Hang-On can display correctly now.
  • The command line help can be seen by using "system16 -help" now.
  • In Shinobi the screen can flash like AC version when the player applies a ninjutsu.
  • The title logo display problem is solved.
  • Load game after a pause command wouldn't make the internal timer crazy now.

Sinclair QL
¤ QPC press release! (MS-DOS)
"Last update: 27.7.98. Update almost finished"
¤ UQLX v7/27/98 released! (Unix/X)

TurboGrafx 16
¤ Hu6280 v1.75 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Found a big in timer irqs, added temporary -notiq command line option to get toyshop boyz to work... :)
¤ Hu6280 v1.74 released yesterday! (MS-DOS)
  • improved cpu emulation, now faster
  • improved irq emulation, now faster
  • fixed bug in screenshots filename


July 25, 1998
Arcade
¤ AMAME v0.33b7 added! (MacOS)
¤ MAME v0.33b7 added! (MacOS)
¤ PentiuMAME v0.33b7 added! (MacOS)
I hate MAME releases.... see whatsnew.txt for update information.

Archaic Ruins
¤ Michael is back!
I'm back from an ISP problem and will try to catch up on the updates that was obviously missed for a few days.

Atari 2600
¤ Stella v1.0b1 released! (Unix/X)
  • Improved graphics emulation (TIA)
  • Improved timer emulation (6532 PIA)
  • Improved CPU emulation (6502)
  • Improved Supercharger support
  • Supports Robot Tank and Decathlon
  • Supports Joystick, Keyboard, Booster Grip, and Indy 500 Driving controllers

Gameboy
¤ PalmGB v1.5.0 press release! (WinCE)
"For registered used of PalmGB: PalmGB 1.5.0 will go into public beta testing on July, 31. I am really sorry for all the delays, but I'm currently in a rush for finishing my Ph.D. dissertation (it must beready on August, 20). You have to understand that it is my first priority forthe next weeks. Nevertheless, this does not mean that you will not have lotsof new features in future versions of PalmGB after this date. Thank you foryour patience."

IBM-PC
¤ Willows TWIN v3.1.7 released! (Unix/X)

Nintendo
¤ LoopyNES v0.50d released! (MS-DOS)
  • More VS fixes.. Ice Climber works now
¤ Rygar Improvement v1.01 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Crash bug fixed when input and output files are the same
  • Misc. Areas offset added... (ugh... reused areas)
  • Includes Rygar Improvement Demo v0.9 (Thanks Jay!)
¤ Rygar Improvement Demo Level released!
Here's the first level hack to be made with the new Rygar Improvement! Kudos go to Jay for the great work he's done making the editor possible and making the first level with it. If you haven't already, please check out Rygar Improvement -- I wrote it :)

Sinclair QL
¤ UQLX v7/24/98 released! (Unix/X)
I'm starting to feel a strange amount of resentment towards a certain program that has daily updates and an extremely low, if not almost nonexistant user following.

TurboGrafx 16
¤ fPCE v0.01 added! (PSX)
¤ Hu6280 v1.73 released 2 days ago! (MS-DOS)
  • Fixed bug in joypad emulation
  • Fixed Alices Dream, doesn`t seem to crash anymore
  • Improved audio mixing routines...
¤ xPCE v0.03 released! (Unix/X)


July 23, 1998
Arcade
¤ Raine v0.12 released! (MS-DOS)
Also added URL for homepage at retrogames.com.
  • Added Following games:
    • >>>>BUBBLE MEMORIES<<<< (F3-System; playable; dumped by araCORN)
    • Puzzle Bobble 3 (F3-System; playable; dumped by araCORN)
  • Optimized Sprites and fixed sprite flicker on F3-System games.
  • Partial idle 68020 skipping hacks for F3-System games.
  • Some more Dipswitches mapped/commented.
  • SnesPad (via LPT1) support (untested), thanks to Karl Stenerud for the code.
  • Mapped Foot Pedals on Space Gun.
  • Sound in Snow Bros (z80 hw info from Mike Coates).
  • Fixed WrestleFest sound bug in pure dos.

Game Gear / Sega Master System
¤ BrSMS v1.11 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Support to PSG white noise (try to play "Afterburner"!!)
  • Fixed a minor bug in the background renderer, this bug only happened when you started BrSMS after playing Nesticle (!?!)
  • All the sprite renderer was rewritten from scratch, the new version is 100% faster than the previous. It also fix some graphics bugs, like the score of "Pacmania", the logo of "Sonic 2", the janken match of "Aled Kidd" and the power selector of "Psychic World".
  • Added a new MMX sprite renderer (use the switch "-mmx"). This renderer is 80% faster than the normal one (yes, this means 180% faster than the previous version).
  • Added five new custom Z80 emulators, they are 50% to 300% faster than the default, depending on the game (sometimes even more than that!)
  • Added a preliminary video cache, this made the background renderer 100% faster than before. You can disable the video cache with the switch "-nocache", but so far I didn't found any game with cache problems.
  • TURBO mode is even faster than before (even on a 486sx33 the emulation is faster than a real Master System!)

Nintendo
¤ LoopyNES v0.5c released! (MS-DOS)
  • VS system dip switches

Sinclair QL
¤ UQLX v7/23/98 released! (Unix/X)

Super Nintendo
¤ SNEmul v0.82 released! (MS-DOS)
  • added some CPU/SPC700 speed hacks (SNEmul is much faster with some games)
  • SPC700 timing is more accurate
  • implemented joystick config dialog
  • reduced memory use a bit
  • implemented ASDR/GAIN sound effects (at least =)
  • fixed a big in port $2102/2103
  • implemented CGRAM read
  • fixed a bug in PPU multiply
  • fixed a bug is SPC700 division
  • fixed a bug in the Cheat finder
  • several other bugs fixed in GUI/PPU/CPUs...

TurboGrafx 16
¤ VPCE v0.3e released three days ago! (Linux)


July 21, 1998 - MAME v0.33b7
Amiga
¤ UAE v0.8.5 released two days ago! (MacOS)
  • Joystck emulation is now working
  • Picasso96 works, now
  • Can decode AmigaForever ROM
  • Can use HardDisk emulation ( a bit hard to configure :-)
  • Can read & write .gz file !

Apple IIGS
¤ KEGS v0.37 added! (HPUX / Linux)
KEGS is a new addition to Archaic Ruins.

Arcade
¤ MAME v0.33b7 released! (MS-DOS)
A list of new features is listed here.

Archaic Ruins
  1. The 800/5200 section's download directory is now /5200/, not /atari/.
  2. Hacking Utilities and Utilities sections fully merged on the FTP and WWW
  3. Old versions of files left on the FTP are now removed.
  4. Chris's download directory has now been emptied after almost a year :-)
  5. Added the RiscOS SNES '9x porter's name (thanks to Jason Renouf)

Atari 2600
¤ z26 v1.09 released! (MS-DOS)
  • New Games: califgms.bin, ofthwall.bin.
  • Activision (FE) Carts: decathon.bin, robotank.bin
  • Atari (F4) Carts: fatalrun.bin
  • M-Network (E7) Carts: he_man.bin, bnj.bin, burgtime.bin
  • z26 automatically sets player 1 difficulty to hard when playing he_man.bin so that the game starts up.

Clones
¤ Bombman v2.5 added! (Win9x)
Bombman is a clone of a classic Atari 2600 game.

Commodore 64/128
¤ MagiC64 page fixed! (AmigaOS)
Christer Bjarnemo was previously listed as the author, but he only translated it to Swedish; Michael Kramer is the real author (thanks Christer!). The homepage was also added.

Nintendo
¤ Getsufu Maden Translation v0.9 added!
¤ Mike Tyson's Bite Out!! ROM Hack added! (Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!)
¤ Potman Preview ROM Hack added! (Rockman 3)
¤ Super Castlevania II ROM Hack added! (Castlevania II)

Playstation
¤ Sope v0.01 added! (Unix/X)
Sope is a new addition to Archaic Ruins.

Super Nintendo
¤ Voxel ROM added! (SNES)

Utilities
¤ Lots of little internal rumblings :-)


July 20, 1998
Atari 800/5200
¤ Atari800 v0.9.7f (Source) released! (MS-DOS)

Nintendo
¤ LoopyNES v0.5b released yesterday! (MS-DOS)
  • 4 controller support
  • Preliminary VS SMB support

Nintendo 64
¤ True Reality 07/19/98 released yesterday! (MS-DOS)
"I added a new define: PUR03A_COMPATIBLE. This was done because I've included more (mostly interrupt stuff) in TrueReality then pur03a is able to do. So it's easier to compare the results of the emulators. I removed bugs in the following instructions: mult, multu, div, divu, dmult, dmultu, divu, ddivu, dsrl, dsrlv, dsrl32. I added the following instructions: ldc1, ldc2, swc1, swc2, sdc1, sdc2.

"TrueReality executes 0x165a91d (23,439,645) instructions of pong (they seem to be correct). After that a SI (serial interface) or PI (periphal interface) interrupt should occur. That's not implemented yet. Will come in next version!"

Sinclair QL
¤ UQLX 07/20/98 released! (Unix/X)

TurboGrafx 16
¤ Hu6280 v1.72 Beta released! (MS-DOS)
  • Fixed TigerShark (sprites are now visible)
  • Fixed a general sprite bug (see ALICES DREAM etc.)


July 19, 1998
Arcade
¤ Just For Fun v0.14b added! (MS-DOS)
¤ The New Zealand Story v1.01 relased! (MS-DOS)

Atari 2600
¤ z26 v1.08 added! (MS-DOS)
  • New games including: stargate.bin (8K), defendr2.bin (8K), beamride.bin, radarlok.bin, sprfootb.bin, and humancan.bin (AKA human_cb.bin).
  • Support for Parker Brothers cartridge format. This gives us: dethstar.bin, gyruss.bin, sprcobra.bin, tutank.bin, popeye.bin, swarcade.bin, qbrtqube.bin, frogger2.bin, montzrev.bin, docastle.bin, and toothpro.bin.
  • Support for TigerVision cartridge format. This gives us riverp.bin and polaris.bin. Other TigerVision games jitter. I'll look into that later...
  • Improved games include: oystr29.bin, spcinvad.bin, spaceinv.bin, and congbong.bin.
  • We now have variable game speed with the -r command line switch (see readme.txt). This is to provide an alternate speed control method for those systems that the default monitor synchronization doesn't work, and also to allow game play at other frame rates. I think some games were designed to run at 50 frames per second instead of the usual 60.

Gameboy
¤ GBLator v1.0 added! (Nintendo 64)
¤ GBLator Patch added! (Nintendo 64)

Macintosh
¤ Fusion v3.1 added! (AmigaOS)
¤ Fusion-PC Demo v1.2 added! (MS-DOS)

Nintendo
¤ xFCE v0.1 added! (Unix/X)

Super Nintendo
¤ SNES9x Slow Alpha added! (Nintendo 64)


July 18, 1998 - SNES '9x v1.05 (RiscOS)
Emerson Arcadia 2001
¤ 2001 Beta #4 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Sound and pallette generation added
  • Switch for old monitors (320x200 resolution)
  • The ROMs have been removed from the archive and are downloadable seperately (see below), just doing my bit for bandwidth. There is no need to download roms.zip if you already have a Beta 1, 2, or 3. Beta 3 was a testers release - if you really want it, guess the URL....

Gameboy
¤ Virtual Gameboy v1.1 released! (MacOS)
"This release brings Virtual Gameboy up to date, sporting a new Appearance Manager-savvy interface and Navigation Services support for enhanced file selection capabilities. Also, GZ-compressed ROMs work perfectly with this new version!"

IBM-PC
¤ XT-CE Demo v2.0 released! (WinCE)
"The user interface, BIOS and hardware emulation have all been completely rewritten from the previous versions. This results in a much more user-friendly interface (including online help) and a much more accurate hardware emulation. All of the standard chips found in a PC-XT are now emulated fully with the exception of the floppy and hard drive controllers (these are emulated at a BIOS level) and the DMA controller (as this has no function in an emulator). This results in a much more compatible emulation. In addition the CPU emulation has been sped up by 20-30%."

Super Nintendo
¤ SNES '9x v1.05 released! (RiscOS)
This is a brand new port of SNES '9x. SNES '9x v1.05 (RiscOS) is a new addition to the Archaic Ruins emulator archives (obviously)!


July 16, 1998 - Netscape Communicator v4.5 PR1
Arcade
¤ Sparcade v2.24 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Vulcan Centure / Salamander / Commando sound improved
  • Terra Cresta colours + sound fixed
  • Joystick button mapping fixed
  • Galaxian background noise no longer affected by frame skips
  • Sound Blaster mixer settings now correctly retained
  • Windows keyboards now supported
  • Fire logo now drawn correctly in VGA mode
  • Fixed a bug in SVGA monitor mode

Internet Browsing
¤ Netscape Communicator v4.5 PR1 released! (MacOS, Unix/X, Win9x)
A preview release to the next major Communicator upgrade is here! Netscape Communicator v4.5 (preview release (PR) 1) is, as of today, available! This preview release is currently only available for Win9x (also supports NT), Macintosh PPC, and Unix/X. Still, those who use these operating systems are welcome to download Netscape Communicator v4.5 from Netscape's page here. (I will try to offer it locally on AR soon, but it totals 36 megs for all three, and so uploading will take time!)

Sinclair QL
¤ UQLX v07/15/98 released! (Unix/X)
I wonder if the UQLX author ever gets tired of uploading these every single day? I know I am...


July 15, 1998 - Virtual Gameboy v1.1
Arcade
¤ DTMNT v0.42 press release! (MS-DOS)
"DTmnt is definitely not dead/finished/buried! It is very much still going! - Mainly because there's a lot of room for improvement, and a few bits that need adding (drums and stuff). One thing you can fix now is timerb_speed (dtcfg.txt) which controls the music and should be 250 not 210 (apparently). 0.42 is in (very slow!) development, (proper shadows, faster z80, gamma correction and other stuff). When it's done I will release it."

Atari 800/5200
¤ Atari800 v0.9.6 released! (Falcon)
  • much higher compatibility rate (very close to 100%)
  • partial artifacting support
  • NOVA graphics card support (so you may try it on Medusa or Hades now!)
¤ Atari800 v0.9.7e (Source) released! (MS-DOS)

Gameboy
¤ Virtual Gameboy v1.1 released! (Unix/X / Win9x)
  • VGB-Windows can now be registered by phone or via WWW! Pay with a credit card! See INTRODUCTION section for details.
  • Fixed a bug in saving battery-backed RAM which prevented large (32kB) RAMs from being saved (PocketMonsters, etc.).
  • Added autofire and GameGenie keyboard controls to VGB-Unix.
  • Fixed a bug in support for 8MBit ROMs.
  • Fixed a bug which prevented MysticQuest, FinalFantasyAdventure, and SnowBrothersJr from working properly.
  • VGB-Windows no longer depends on WinG. Really. :)

IBM-PC
¤ Willows TWIN v3.1.6 added! (Unix/X)
¤ WINE 07/12/98 added! (Unix/X)

Nintendo 64
¤ TrueReality 98.07.11 released! (Unix/X)

Sinclair QL
¤ UQLX 07/14/98 released! (Unix/X)

Super Nintendo
¤ NLKE v0.02a (b15) released! (MS-DOS)
  • Added add/sub screen support. It is incomplete and NOT optimizated, don't sprites, mode 7 and other effects supported. (Try gfxmode 4 to see it)
  • Every command line is tested to see if the sintaxis is correct.
  • Fixed the autoframe rate support. (some ideas from Archeide)
  • Dinamy memory allocate.
  • Support to stereo sound, using 16 sound channels.
  • Added a alternative path to load files. It can be selected in the configure file. (nlke.cfg)
  • Added a GUI with windows. Two new options has been added to the configure file to activate/desactivate the GUI, and to change the resolution on the GUI. (640x480 or 400x300)
  • Added two gfxmodes with scanlines, gfxmode 5 (256x256) and gfxmode 6 (640x480).
  • Found and fixed a large number of bugs in the 65816, spc700, sound DSP, PPU, and HDMA, far too many to list here. (yeah again ;-)
¤ Virtual SuperMagicom Homepage removed!
Geeze... finally, The Brain has removed the VSMC homepage :-). It's been up for almost a year and a half without an update.


July 14, 1998
Amiga
¤ DOSUAE v0.7.5b (Source) released! (MS-DOS)

¤ UAE v0.8.4 pre-release (w/ Source) released! (MacOS)
This ( next :) version of UAE (will) emulates:
  • A 68000, 68010 or 68020 CPU, optionally a 68881 FPU
  • OCS Graphics Chipset, plus big blits from the ECS Chipset
  • Up to 2MB Chip RAM and up to 8MB Fast RAM, or 8MB Chip RAM without Fast RAM
  • Up to 64MB Zorro III Fast RAM, independent of Chip RAM setting (68020 only)
  • Up to 1MB Slow RAM, for extended compatibility with problem software
  • Up to 8MB of graphics card memory.
  • 4 x 3.5" floppy disk drives (DF0:, DF1:, DF2: and DF3:).
  • A hard-disk: either a harddisk image file
  • Mouse support
  • Ability to run in various screen modes (for better display quality or better speed)
  • - Full sound support, consisting of 4 x 8bit channels
But there isn't ( If you think, you can help me here, ask for sources )
  • filesystem emulation
  • Serial port emulation

Arcade
¤ Cinematronics Emulator homepage link added! (Win9x)

Commodore 64/128
¤ Power64 page fixed!
The page seems to have only been partially changed in the revamp (the emulator information was placed at the end of the code instead of within it), but now it looks okay :)

Sinclair QL
¤ UQLX v07/13/98 released! (Unix/X)


July 13, 1998 - SNES '9x v1.05 (AmigaOS)
Amstrad CPC
¤ CPC++ v1.4.0 added! (Mac PPC, Solaris)

Arcade
¤ Raine v0.11a released! (MS-DOS)
  • Much faster zooming routines (Operation Thunderbolt/Space Gun).
  • Idle 68000 skipping in virtually all games (gives speed increase).
  • Removed UAE 68000 engine (all 68000 games are Starscream'ed now).
  • Inserted UAE 68020 engine (Taito F3-System).
  • Inserted Marat Z80 engine (For Op Wolf bootleg c-chip, I'll use a faster one soon).
  • Early Sound (adpcm samples only) for WrestleFest, Double Dragon 3, Zero Zone.
  • Mouse support (Op Wolf, Op Thunderbolt, Space Gun).
  • Joystick support (hopefully it works...).
  • Dipswitch support for some games (early, but seems ok).
  • Simple Save/Load support (F2/F4), Toggle FPS (F11).
  • Auto frame skipping, scanlines hack, less ugly gui.
  • Compiled with Allegro WIP beta, this adds vesa3 and vbe/af drivers for screen selection.
  • Added Following games:
    • Space Gun (dumped by malcor; playable; Dual 68000)
    • Ninja Warriors (dumped by malcor; playable; Dual 68000)
    • Double Dragon 3 (dumped by Thierry Lescott; playable)
    • Operation Wolf (dumped by NAZ!; playable)
    • Operation Wolf bootleg (dumped by Thierry Lescott; bootleg; playable)
    • Elevator Action 2 (dumped by 'PowerJaw'; playable but messy)
    • Twin Qix (dumped by 'PowerJaw'; playable but messy)
    • Puzzle Bobble 2 (dumped by araCORN; playable but messy)
  • Other various cleanups/optimizations not worth mentioning (all games are faster)...

¤ System 16 v0.79 released! (Win9x)
  • New ROMs supported:
    • Aurail
    • Alex Kidd - The Lost Stars
    • Fantasy Zone
    • Flash Point (bootleg)
    • Major League (not playable)
  • Some fixes on older games (Shinobi, Alien Syndrome, ...)
  • DirectX port!
  • Log YM2151 option.
  • Now using the latest version of T.Satoh’s YM2151 Emulator
  • 16-bit sound output (optional)
  • Windows-Explorer-integration (you can either double-click a .GCS-file), Command-line (e.g. SYSTEM16DX.EXE AURAIL.GCS)

Atari 5200
¤ Atari800 v2.2 released! (Win9x)
  • A disk indicator is drawn at the bottom right hand corner of the display when sector I/O occurs. The small block drawn contains the number of the drive being accessed, and is red for writes, green for reads.
  • 5200 controllers work. F5 is reset, Shift-F5 is coldboot, F4 is the start button. Keyboard 0-9 are equivalent to the 5200 controller 0-9 (you can use the keypad if you aren't using it for a joystick). Keypad * or regular * work as the 5200 * key, and keypad - or regular - work as the "#" key. When running in 5200 mode with a joystick triggers 2-4 operate as 5200 triggers 2-4, NOT as function shortcuts like in Atari computer mode. WARNING: At present several 5200 carts fail. This will have to be worked on for a while.
  • Found the (atari side) bug that was keeping multiple stick inputs from working. You can now play with at least two sticks; I don't have four to test but that should work as well. I HAVE played a full game of MULE with joystick on one port and keypad on another. It works.
  • ModeX was abandoned in favor of simple linear modes at 320xXXX resolutions. Some cards will support these modes, some won't - but at least when present they work reliably. If you have "use ModeX for 320 resolutions" set in your DirectDraw control panel you might want to turn it off (default is off).
  • Switched back to DirectDrawSurface revision one interfaces, since it's obvious some cards that claim to be DirectDraw 5 compliant are not, and do not support DirectDrawSurface2 or 3. If full screen wasn't working for you, this was probably the reason (and it should work now).
  • Shift-ctrl + keycode is sent properly to Atari machine now
  • Fixed a potential Windows crash condition when the Atari crashed
  • Fixed a bug that could cause some cartridge options to not be saved out.
  • DirectDraw mode transitions are a little smoother (one screen size to other)
  • Sound is not restarted on mode changes, but it will still get a little garbled (unavoidable).
  • Various small tweaks and refinements.
  • Source code released (this doesn't imply it is done).

Super Nintendo
¤ SNES '9x v1.05 released! (AmigaOS)
  • The master volume disable code was looking that the wrong variable!
  • Fixed crash bug in newer sound code if a ROM tried to start a sample playing who's data went oast the end of SPC700 memory. (Cannon Fodder)

TurboGrafx 16
¤ Hu6280 v1.69 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Fixed sidewinder joypad + audio problem
  • New assembler sprites routine (faster than before


July 12, 1998 - SNES '9x v1.05 (MacOS)
Atari 2600
¤ z26 v1.07 released! (MS-DOS)
"This version has new timer code. It should fix the problem some folks have been having with z26 running too fast. If you are still having that problem with this version please let me know."

Gameboy
¤ Wzonka-Lad discontinued! (AmigaOS)
"Project Terminated"
Wzonka-Lad, the premier Amiga Gameboy emulator, has been abruptly discontinued. The page has been updated with a simple discontinuation notice (above). This is a pity for Amiga users (especially those that registered Wzonka-Lad), since this was the best Gameboy emulator they had. This is both unexpected and unfortuneate.

Request
¤ Dave Spicer requests arcade boards...
"A plea to arcade board collectors in the UK: I'd like to obtain the following arcade boards, with a view to adding emulation support in Sparcade: Gradius 3, Salamander 2, Lifeforce, and StarBlade. If you have any of these and would be willing to sell them, please get in touch with me, via email, using the addresses in the Sparcade documentation. "

Reviews
¤ Playstation section updated!

Super Nintendo
¤ SNES '9x v1.05 released! (MacOS)
Please see yesterday's update log for SNES '9x; I don't really want to repeat it (it's over a page long). Thanks.


July 11, 1998 - SNES '9x v1.04/v1.05 (Various)
Emerson Arcadia 2001 & Genesis
¤ More tweaking done!
Thanks to all those who have sent me comments about the tweaks I did to the Genesis and Emerson Arcadia 2001 pages (the latter only because it was conveinent). I went through the four pages I've changed and added one more item--file sizes. You can see these changes on the pages I have played with (and listed here):

News
¤ Some layout tweaks performed!
I noticed when making the snes9x.com update that we weren't quoting text in italics and quotes on this page like is done on every other page in AR. I have changed this. I also added our colors when we quote ourselves to make things easier to view and see (the snes9x.com update was somewhat difficult to follow in all white). I think it actually looks quite nice. =) I have also made a double carriage return between updates in the same subject, instead of a single carriage return (which looked sloppy and cramped).

¤ Translation Section revamped!
The revamps don't end with the emulation and news section of Archaic Ruins! I spent a few hours today revamping the Translations section, and have done some work on the Archaic Ruins FAQ.

Nintendo
¤ CoolNESs v0.692 released! (AmigaOS)
"V0.692: IPS fixed."

Sinclair QL
¤ UQLX v07/10/98 released (yesterday)! (Unix/X)

Super Nintendo
¤ SNEmul v0.8 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Implemented Object Name Select (fixed sprite bugs)
  • Fixed some bugs in the GUI that made SNEmul crash
  • Added a "game codes" dialog
  • Added a "search codes" dialog

¤ SNES '9x v1.04/v1.05 released! (Various)

  • Version 1.05
    • The master volume disable code was looking that the wrong variable!
    • Fixed crash bug in newer sound code if a ROM tried to start a sample playing who's data went oast the end of SPC700 memory. (Cannon Fodder)
  • Version 1.04
    • Fixed DSP1 ROM header detection bug.
    • More DSP1 work; still nothing works, although I know the multiply command is correct because I've compared the results against a real DSP1.
  • Version 1.03
    • Oops, the multi-player 5 disable code change broke the multi-player 5 being the default controller.
    • Implemented the colour window on the main screen - now Zelda's oval zoom window displays correctly and Krusty's Super Fun House clips the left-most 8 pixels as it does on the real SNES.
    • TERRANIGMA didn't like me returning a random value when it attempted to read a channel's the current smaple byte.
    • Hacked in initial support for mode 7 priority-per-pixel - the priority bit doesn't actually change the priority of the pixel but the two games that I know of that use the feature look OK. (Winder Extreme Skiing and the intro of Tiny Toons Adventures).
    • Colour addition/subtraction code now uses RGB565 rather than RGB555 calculations - helps a little with the loss of the bottom bit of SNES colour data.
  • Version 1.02
    • Switched to adding back drop colour rather than fixed colour when sub-screen addition is enabled but there's nothing on the sub-screen. Uniracers seems to need it. - DISABLED it again. Causes problems for the other ROMs and Uniracers itself on later screens.
    • Fixed XOR window login combination mode and area inversion code, now Uniracers works correctly.
    • Oops, if colour window and half colour addition/subtraction were both switched on, area outside color window was still being halved, it shouldn't. Hacky fix at the moment until I implement the correct fix.
    • Fixed several bugs with the mosaic effect and 16×16 tiles and a few possible background scroll offset bugs and the mosaic effect.
    • Optimised the sound sample generation code for cases when the SNES sample playback frequency was higher than the sound card playback rate.
    • Fixed possible click sound when a sample was first started to be played.
As an additional note, SNES '9x has two new ports: AmigaOS and AcornOS.

¤ SNES '9x gets its own domain name!
Yep, it's true, folks, and you heard it here at Archaic Ruins first! SNES '9x has been the first non-commercial emulator to get it's own domain name. Although the domain has been up since late June, it has just now been made the official SNES '9x site this morning.
"We moved to our own domain and our own server which resides in the USA and it has a 135Mbit line to a UniSource backbone, so speed should not be an issue. With this move comes a major a new look."

TurboGrafx 16
¤ Hu6280 v1.65 released! (MS-DOS)
  • tweaked internal emulation core
  • removed -freq44100 option (its default)
  • added assembler ram access routines
  • tweaked audio code, should be more stable now


July 10, 1998
Archaic Ruins
¤ Broken Links fixed!
Thanks to Raze, Sandman, and a few others, many broken links were fixed. -- I had a list of thanks and changes, but I overwrote it by mistake (oops!) Changes include fixed links on translation pages, a removed link to the NAGA Homepage, fixed Wabi link, and the ZSNES Homepage being corrected.

Atari ST
¤ TOSBOX v1.06 released (July 8)! (MS-DOS)
  • It works under plain MS-DOS again.
  • Path handling for PC programs launched from within emulation was improved.
  • An experimental feature to help with keyboard behavior for machines set up for a language other than English was added.
  • Support for the hardware video address counter was improved.

Neo Geo
¤ NEO RAGE v0.01 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Much lower memory requirements.
  • Full background animations.
  • Zoomed object clipping bug-fix.
  • Language/System selection.
  • Native Sidewinder & Gravis Gamepad Pro (not tested) support.
  • Vesa bug-fix. More compatible.
  • Faded scanlines. Choose between 25%, 50% and 100% (same as double). This is a very slow operation so its not recomended on slow machines.

Sinclair ZX Spectrum
¤ Xtender2 Beta #4 released! (MS-DOS)
  • In DOS, ZX81-programs can now be auto-started directly from the commandline
  • In Windows-95/NT, ZX81-programs can now be auto-started simply by double-clicking a P-file in a files-menu.
  • Fixed bug to let ZXTricator run on Xtender2
  • Added support for keybaords with AZERTY or QWERTZ layout


July 9, 1998
Emerson Arcadia 2001
¤ 2001 Beta #2 released (yesterday)! (MS-DOS)
"Three new games are playable in this release."

Sinclair QL
¤ UQLX v07/08/98 released (yesterday)! (Unix/X)
¤ UQLX v07/09/98 released! (Unix/X)


July 8, 1998
Amiga
¤ UAE v0.7.5b released! (MS-DOS)
  • New interface code form the original unix UAE version, i know some people wont like the change, but its easier for me to mantain the port if i can reuse as much code as possible.
  • New keyboarb layout, READ THE DOCS FOR DETAILS.
  • New DosUAE logo! Since i'm too lazy to make a real GUI the logo is to fool everyone into thinking i did something... ;)
  • Joystick emulation bug fix.
  • All unix uae075b features like all CPU's and PICASSO on a single binary, and other things, read the NEWS file... (be sure to set CPU to 68020 if you want to use PICASSO)
  • No more GUS code, it was to buggy and out of date.

Apple II
¤ Bernie ][ The Resuce v0.1.3 added! (MacOS)

Archaic Ruins
¤ Chris is back ;-)
The last 8 days have been great! My girlfriend flew up to be with me, we rented several movies, hung out on the beach, talked, and did everything that you'd expect of a couple without a computer :). If you haven't turned your computer in the past few months for longer than a day, I'd suggest trying it for fun :) Anyway, I've come back with some changes to the layout:
  1. First, Luke's updated Genesis pages are great!
  2. I've fixed each of the system indexes. Table backgrounds were set wrong.
  3. NO$GMB page fixed.
  4. Primitive arcade emulators page fixed.
  5. Ugly yellow colour replaced with blue for each day's header ;-)

Atari 800/5200
¤ Atari 800 v0.97d(Source) released! (MS-DOS)

Atari 2600
¤ PC Atari v2.1a released! (MS-DOS)
  • Windows 98 timing problem fixed
  • Same timing problem when entering text into the filename dialogs fixed
  • Screen capture code fixed
  • Joust emulation fixed

Emerson Arcadia 2001
¤ 2001 Beta #1 released! (MS-DOS)
This is an early release. Some things are not implemented, but some things are working to various degrees, four or five games are playable (reasonably). There is no sound. The palette is not even nearly correct.

2001 is a new addition to the Archaic Ruins emulator archives.

GameBoy
¤ Virtual Gameboy v1.0.2 added! (MacOS)

IBM-PC
¤ Bochs 07/07/98a released! (BeOS, Linux, Unix)
  • added commands to debugger
    • CRC debugger command to checksum regions of memory
    • "info dirty" command, to display pages dirtied since last display
    • "take dma" now takes optional count.
  • rehashed phyical read/write routines for effeciency
  • Winstone'98 success so far:
    • Access 97
    • CorelDRAW! 7
    • Excel 97
    • Lotus 1-2-3 97
    • Word 97
    • PowerPoint 97
    • Quattro Pro 7
    • WordPerfect 7
  • Winstone'98 tests remaining:
    • Netscape Navigator
    • Task Switching 1
    • Task Switching 2

Nintendo
¤ CoolNESs v0.69 released! (AmigaOS)
  • Added insert coin for vs-system (backspace)
  • Added a fix for the "gfx-take-too-long-time-so-now-I-quit" bug =)
  • Fixed nearly all gfx for mapper #9/#10.
  • Added a little looping on samples (Punch Out).
  • Fixed sample active-bit in PPU (Racket Attack)
  • Smal speedup in CPU-code.
  • Fixed a minor error in PPU-Scroll registers (NARC).
  • Added IPS "on-the-fly" support (patch games).
  • Added mapper#66 (SMB/DuckHunt 2-IN-1, Gumshoe).
  • Added mapper#65 (Hammering Harry 2 Jap).
  • Added support for paddle (Arkanoid) use F7 to turn on.


July 6, 1998
Arcade
¤ Sideway v0.201 released! (MS-DOS)
  • The filecheck is fixed, thanks to a helpful person that read the code on the homepage. It was a problem caused by the 'cut and paste method'.
  • Gunfight Sample support added. Sample filenames are snd0...snd7, but I dont know which is which sound or how many sounds there should be.
  • Even more "I dont have the ROMS but I guess they might boot this way" is included.


July 6, 1998
Arcade
¤ Sideway v0.201 released! (MS-DOS)
  • The filecheck is fixed, thanks to a helpful person that read the code on the homepage. It was a problem caused by the 'cut and paste method'.
  • Gunfight Sample support added. Sample filenames are snd0...snd7, but I dont know which is which sound or how many sounds there should be.
  • Even more "I dont have the ROMS but I guess they might boot this way" is included.


July 4, 1998
Archaic Ruins
¤ My emulator page touch-ups begin (on Genesis pages)!

Gameboy
¤ PalmGB v1.5.0 to be released in July!
"PalmGB 1.5.0 will be released by mid-July. You can see screenshots of PalmGB 1.5.0 running SuperGB games on a Velo 1 with 16 shades of gray here."

"The next version of PalmGB is currently in beta test. It is optimized for Windows CE 2.0, supports color, Super GameBoy, and more..."


July 2, 1998
Apple II
¤ AppleWin v1.4 added! (Win9x)

Gameboy
¤ NO$GMB v1.6 released! (MS-DOS)

Nintendo
¤ LoopyNES v0.5 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Improved mapper support (1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 15, 64)
  • Major PPU rewrite
  • SRAM saving
  • Sound
  • (partially working) GUI
  • Configurable Keyboard/Joystick Controls
  • Arkanoid Paddle Emulation (w/ mouse)

TurboGrafix 16
¤ Hu6280 v1.63 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Added Stereo sound if your sound card supports it
  • Added -bigbuf for bigger audio buffer, beware though, it tends to delay the audio
  • Fixed bug in the sound, sound should now sound ALOT better...


July 1, 1998
Gameboy
¤ PalmGB v1.0.0 Demo released! (WinCE)

Nintendo
¤ xNES v0.52 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Compiled with PGCC (for Pentium processors);
  • Fixed bugs parsing command line switches;
  • More video resolutions, with all modes merged to -gfx switch.

Nintendo 64
¤ TrueReality v980628 released! (Unix/X)
  • Changed the configuration stuff completely. Now everything has to be configured in Makefile.tmpl.
  • TrueReality supports ZLIB now.
  • Compressed images (by gzip & pkzip) can be used like uncompressed images. Just activate support in Makefile.tmpl =)

TurboGrafx 16
¤ PowerPCEngine v0.3.6 released! (MacOS)
  • Fixed the problem with the menubar hiding routines.
  • If sound began at 'mute' you could never turn it back on until closing and reopening the game; fixed.
  • Found a potential problem dealing with the blitters; it could have possibly caused a crash (although very rarely).
  • Added support for navigation services.
  • PowerPCEngine v0.3.5 was messing up the menubar font upon exit; fixed.
  • PowerPCEngine wasn't changing the type/creator; fixed.
  • Created icons for ram images (not rom images, ram).
  • Fixed a minor UI problem.
  • Added support for on-the-fly IPS patching [thanks to jens].
  • Added the ability to save rom-specific settings to the header of each rom.


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.

© 1996-1999 Archaic Ruins
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