Fear not, emulation fans: my monthly news roundup is not dead yet. (It's just struggling to stay true to its descriptor.)

Nintendo Gamecube and Wii emulator Dolphin has made some big progress in the past few months. So big, in fact, that Wes Fenlon saw fit to write a cool feature article over at PC Gamer on the massive performance boosts brought on by Fiora Aeterna's contributions. The Dolphin team put together its own progress reports to highlight the gains, and also the new features and bug fixes. They've got posts up on August, September, and October. If you've been holding out on Dolphin for any reason, now's the time to dive in. New development builds are flying out of the compiler.

While I'm sending you off to read interesting articles about emulation, I might as well throw in David "Haze" Haywood's blog, which always picks out notable changes and discoveries in MAME and MESS development (or UME, if you're running it through Wine or virtualisation) — both in terms of emulation and hardware preservation.

Speaking of MAME and MESS, they're now at version 0.155. As always, the list of changes is huge for MAME and slightly less-huge for MESS. Would-be contributors and those of you who compile from source note that the code repository is now on GitHub. For everyone else, the OS X SDL ports are still available here. And if you want a proper frontend and launcher, QMC2 is all synced up with the latest builds. As is MAME Launcher.

CodeWeavers has released version 14.0.0 (since updated to 14.0.1) of its commercial Wine-based Windows application/game wrapper tool CrossOver. Besides Yosemite compatibility, this release overhauls the user interface — with shortcuts in the dock and the CrossOver app for individual Windows apps drawing particular attention in the announcement. There are new supported apps as well, including Terraria, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Cube World, and Path of Exile.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including back-from-the-dead JOYCE and double updates to Stella and VirtualBox, among others.

Emulicious, a Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Sega Master System, and Sega Game Gear emulator written in Java 1.6, is now available. The current version has built-in IPS patching, palette and tilemap viewers, a memory tracer, a debugger, and more. The developer also built an Alex Kidd in Miracle World editor, which looks pretty handy for would-be ROM hackers.

Atari 2600 VCS emulator Stella has a major update available. The 4.0 release ports Stella to SDL2, allowing native hardware acceleration. Other changes and additions include preliminary support for the DASH bankswitching scheme, a hidecursor command-line option, an updated PNG library, and more. Head over to Stella's news page for the full list.

GSport, an Apple IIgs emulator, has been updated to version 0.31. This build introduces AppleTalk networking emulation with bridging to EtherTalk (online multiplayer!), allows pasting of (text) clipboard contents from OS X, and fixes a few bugs, among other things. You can see the full breakdown here.

Continue reading for more updates, including Dolphin progress, new versions of Mednafen and Shoebill, and more.

Sixtyforce lives! After many years of development and a trickle of releases, Gerrit Goossen's Nintendo 64 emulator has hit the big 1.0 milestone. Additions include improved controller configuration and support, a new timing mode, new low-level graphics processing, and more, while there are also a bunch of bugfixes. See the release notes for full details. And remember to pay for a licence if you'd like to see better Nintendo 64 emulation on the Mac.

Nintendo Wii and Gamecube emulator Dolphin has shed its 32-bit support — although that shouldn't have much of an impact on us Mac users. Development highlights from May include a wide-reaching fix for indirect texture coordinate computation, fixed external frame buffer width/height handling, improved DVD seek timing, and a change to frsqrte and fres calculations (they were too precise) that fixes scores of problems. The latest dev build at the time of writing is 4.0-1859, with the most recent stable release dating back to 4.0.2 from the start of the year.

Macintosh II A/UX emulator Shoebill has been updated to version 0.0.3. This release adds support for PRAM and full-screen mode, plus you can now restart/shutdown the virtual machine without it crashing, and Shoebill uses less CPU when A/UX's scheduler idles. Get it from the Shoebill GitHub page, and follow the discussion on E-Maculation.

Game Boy emulator DMGBoy got a major update in May. Version 2.0 adds Game Boy Color compatibility and a GUI debugger, as well as a nifty 3D model of the original Game Boy that you can play your games on (see video below). You can also now resize the window in real time, with no change in aspect ratio. On my Mac it was throwing up wxWidgets errors on run, but it seems to work just fine if you suppress these. Get it from the DMGBoy Google Code page.

Continue reading for more a series of minor emulator updates, including new Mednafen, Bizhawk, and Bochs builds.

There’s a new Nintendo 64 emulator on the block. I don’t know how Daedalus compares to Mupen64Plus or SixtyForce, as I couldn’t get it to run after compiling, but it looks to be under active development. You can grab the source from the Daedalus GitHub page. Let us know how it performs if you get it working.

ScummVM, an interpreter for dozens of classic point-and-click adventure games, has been updated to version 1.6.0. This release adds four new engines, which adds support for such titles as Eye of the Beholder and The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime. Other changes include improved support for Macintosh versions of a few games, an update to the Roland MT-32 emulation code, a grid chooser for save games, three new translations, and more. See the release notes for more details, and grab ScummVM from its downloads page.

Arcade emulator MAME reached version 0.149 a few days ago. As usual, this update includes a raft of fixes, additions, and tweaks. There’s a detailed change log if you want to see precisely what’s new. You can grab the source code from the MAMEdev site, or grab 32-bit or 64-bit Intel binaries from the SDLMAME site.

Almost-everything emulator MESS was also updated to version 0.149, with a similarly-exhaustive change log. You can grab its source code via either the MESS Wiki or MAMEdev site, and download binaries via the SDLMAME/SDLMESS site.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including test builds for CocoaMSX and Sheepshaver, a return from the dead for Fuse, and more.

Mac gaming classic Pathways into Darkness, a precursor to Bungie's more famous first-person series Marathon and Halo, has been ported to OS X. This is a faithful, loving, free port with full blessings from Bungie. Go get it to revisit a slice of Mac gaming history. (If you're so inclined, I wrote up my thoughts on this OS X release here.)

There’s a new MSX emulator on the scene. CocoaMSX is based on blueMSX, and offers what looks to be a pretty robust feature set. You can follow its development on Google+ or track (and download) it on the CocoaMSX Google Code page. Be sure to let us know how it stacks up to openMSX (which has now moved from svn to Git repository, I might add).

Just over a year since the last release, Nintendo DS emulator DeSmuME has hit version 0.9.9. This build introduces a new JIT CPU core, which the devs say “yields some impressive speedups,” and specifically improves the OS X port with a ton of new options and enhancements. There’s also a bunch of bug fixes across the entire emulator. Get it from the official DeSmuME website.

Gaming-focused Amiga emulator FS-UAE has moved to fs-uae.net, and it’s been updated to version 2.2.2. Changes since March are mostly bugfixes and improvements to existing features. You can see lists here (2.2.1) and here (2.2.2). As always, head over to the FS-UAE website for more information and a download link.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including new versions of two PSP emulators, long-overdue updates to ARAnyM and Bochs, and more.

Nintendo 64 emulator Sixtyforce got a rare update recently. Version 0.9.6 adds code-signing, 64-bit Intel support, bug fixes, updated memory protection, USB controller hot-pluggable support, faster texture conversions, basic Conker’s Bad Fur Day support, and loads more. It also drops PowerPC support. See here for the full release notes. Limtc on the forums has reported less jerky performance and better sound. Grab it here, and be sure to let us know how it performs for you. 

Parallels 8 has been released. New features include full Mountain Lion integration—full screen, Mission Control, multi-touch gestures, Launchpad, Notification Center, etc—a presentation wizard, dictation, shared bluetooth, shared trash, drag and drop attachments in Outlook, and some other stuff. You can run Mountain Lion as a guest OS, too (bring on the infinite recursion). It also comes with the usual performance improvements and enhanced security. Check it out here.

There’s heavy competition, though, as VMware Fusion 5 dropped this month. It comes “loaded with more than 70 new features.” There’s Launchpad integration, AirPlay Mirroring, Notification Center support, a new UI, Mountain Lion guest support, Windows 8 “optimization,” USB 3 support, “near-native” performance, improved battery life, faster 3D graphics, one-click snapshots, a new Linux 3D graphics driver, and a new “embedded learning center.” You can peruse the full sales pitch here.

Continue reading for more updates, including new versions of DBGL, VirtualBox, QEMU, Bochs, and others, and an upcoming FS-UAE 2.0 release.

Classic Sierra adventure game Space Quest 2 has been remade by Infamous Adventures with 320x200 resolution, a 16-bit colour palette, and over 4000 lines of recorded dialogue, along with allowances for mouse-only control. Team VSB have also released a feature-length Space Quest sequel called Vohaul Strikes Back. The SQII remake is currently Windows only, although a Mac version should be coming soon. Vohaul Strikes Back is Windows only.

OpenEmulator now supports the 1977 Apple II. The latest update (1.0.2) to the module-based emulator supports early Apple II hardware with cycle-accurate video emulation and joystick/mouse support. OpenEmulator also supports the Apple I. See here for a feature list for the Apple II support, or head over to the OpenEmulator website for more information and a download link.

Atari 2600 VCS emulator Stella has been updated to version 3.5. Stella is now donationware. You can donate many things other than money—there's a list of suggestions provided on the Stella website. Changes include improvements to joystick management code, restructuring of the OpenGL code, and a new default snapshot directory, amongst many others. See the Stella news page for the full list. Hit up the official Stella site for a download link.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including new Hatari, Mini vMac, Dapplegrey, Bochs, RPCEmu, and more.

It's two months for the price of one, since we missed the roundup last month.

Aleph One, the open-source continuation of Bungie's Marathon 2 engine, has reached its 1.0 milestone after 12 years in development. For those unfamiliar with the project, Aleph One allows all three games in the Marathon trilogy (which are now freeware) to be played on modern systems, with OpenGL shader support, mouse-look, gamepad support, mod support, and Internet co-op and multiplayer. The new version fixes lots of bugs, offers a plethora of Lua updates, adds HD graphics to Marathon 2, and more. Get it, and the Marathon games, from the Aleph One homepage.

Legacy computer emulator OpenEmulator has reached version 1.0.1. The Apple I emulation is now working. The authors claim to have the first emulator that features a fully functional Apple Cassette Interface Card and CFFA1 expansion card emulation. Other new features include an audio recorder and a selection of several virtual monitors. Check it out on the official OpenEmulator website.

ScummVM is celebrating ten years of existence with a new release. Version 1.4.0 adds support for Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos, Blue's Birthday Adventure, and Ringworld: Revenge of the Patriarch, along with the Amiga version of Conquests of the Longbow. Notable new features include PC speaker support for SCUMM v5 games, better handling of digital/synthesized sound effects in SCI, and out-of-the-box support for building with MacPorts. See the Release Notes for the full list, or head over to the ScummVM homepage.

Mini vMac author Paul C. Pratt is now offering a Custom Variations service for custom-made, sponsored versions of Mini vMac. If you want to support the development of classic Macintosh emulation, this is currently the best option.

Continue reading for more emulation updates...