Sorry it’s up so late. I’ve been busy meeting deadlines.

We’ve been mighty spoiled by Sixtyforce developer Gerrit recently. The 0.9.6 update reported on last time was quickly followed by 0.9.7, with automatic update notifications added alongside a slew of bug fixes. Get it from the Sixtyforce (or 64ce, as I hear the cool kids call it) website. And don’t forget to register to support further development.

SpeedofMac’s website went down a while back, and hosting troubles led to him moving to ConsoleEmu.com. Head there for the same downloads and information about (NES and later) console emulators that you came to expect from the previous incarnation, now with a more platform-agnostic outlook.

BSNES is no more; byuu has renamed his super-accurate Super Nintendo emulator Higan after adding multi-system support. You can now also use it to play NES, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS games. The source code is Linux only at this stage. No word yet on whether Richard Bannister is in any way equipped to port it to the Mac. This is the official Higan page.

Continue reading for more emulator news, including major updates to FS-UAE and zxsp and new versions of OpenMSX, ARAnyM, Stella, Bizhawk, and more.

MacScene's new sister site Archive.vg launched its public beta at the end of July. It's shooting to be the IMDb of video games, and has had some great feedback so far. The Archive.vg iPhone app was just released on the App Store (free!), with near-full access to the database—it's missing screenshots, but it has credits and contributors (which you won't find on the website just yet). The app also has collections, which you can expect on the site at a later date. On the Archive blog, two articles may be of special interest to MacScene regulars: An Emulator for the Rest of Us—How OpenEmu Changes Everything and The Perils, Challenges, and Uncertainty of Collecting and Preserving Video Games.

Dapplegrey, a DOSBox frontend, reached a major milestone sometime recently—version 3.0. I can't kind find any release notes, but it has a shiny new UI and organisational features—along with a new icon. Mountain Lion users take note that it's not signed for Gatekeeper. You can get it from the Classics for X website.

Classic adventure game interpreter ScummVM version 1.5.0 "Picnic Basket" has been released. This update adds support for 11 more titles, including Backyard Baseball 2003, Dreamweb, Blue Force, and Once Upon A Time: Little Red Riding Hood. Changes include "dramatically" improved MT-32 emulation and TrueType font support. See the Release Notes for more details. As always, you can download the latest release from the ScummVM downloads page.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including new versions of OpenMSX and Sheepshaver, a name change for gbpablog, and more.

CrossOver Games is no more. Codeweavers has rebranded and merged its two "Windows apps on a Mac" products, CrossOver Pro and CrossOver Games, into CrossOver XI. The new version comes with a huge change log, with key updates including Wine 1.4, an improved registration method, RAR file support, support for several .Net components, and a host of Microsoft Office improvements. You can learn more about CrossOver XI on the Codeweavers website.

FS-UAE, an Amiga emulator focused heavily on games, has received several updates since its initial release on February 4 this year. FS-UAE is built on the WinUAE code base, and can be fully controlled with a gamepad. The most recent update (0.9.10) adds experimental net play support. Check out the official FS-UAE website for more details, and a download link.

Nintendo 64 emulator Mupen64Plus received its first official update in more than 13 months a few days ago. Version 1.99.5 updates the audio plugin, input-SDL plugin, video plugin, RSP plugin, core emulator, and Consule-UI front-end for Mupen64Plus 2.0 API versioning; adds support for the Nintendo 64 real-time clock; allows 8-bit PNG images to be loaded for hi-res textures; and fixes many bugs. The full list is on the Mupen64Plus ReleasePage. You can download the emulator from the project's Google Code downloads page.

Boxer, a DOSBox-based DOS emulator, has been updated to version 1.2.2. This version adds the ability to paste text into the DOS prompt, makes improvements to keyboard input, changes the default games folder location to ~/DOS Games, and fixes several bugs. See here for the full list of changes and a download link.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including new JPCSP, Gambatte, Virtual ][, GSport, QEMU, 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...