Articles tagged with: qemu

News Roundup: Jaunary 20 - March 21

mossy_11 on Friday, 22 March 2013. Posted in News

Apologies for the break in service. We should be back to roundups every 4-5 weeks from here on out. We could always do with volunteers to help carry the weight, though.


Atari 2600 emulator Stella hit version 3.8 in February, with major changes to the sound system and ZIP archive handling. 3.8.1 followed at the beginning of March, with a few bugfixes and support for TIA RSYNC writes. See the Stella news page for more details. As always, you can get a download link here.


After taking more than nine years to reach its first stable release, ResidualVM has already popped out another one. Version 0.1.1 fixes around 20 bugs in the engine code and a dozen in Grim Fandango’s game data. Get it from the ResidualVM downloads page.


Sega Saturn emulator Yabause got its first update in 14 months near the end of January. Version 0.9.12 (link to announcement post) includes major updates to both the software and OpenGL renderers, adds ISO support to the OS X port, and adds the debug interface to the Qt port. Grab it from the Yabause download page.


Four years to the day after its last release, Sega Master System, Game Gear, SG-1000, ColecoVision, and NES (those last two are newly-added) emulator CrabEmu has been updated to version 0.2.0. You’ll have to download it for the full (and lengthy) changelog, but there’s been extensive work done on the GUI and Master System core.


Continue reading for more emulator updates from the past two months, including new versions of FS-UAE, XRoar, DBGL, VirtualBox (of course), and more.

News Roundup: November 8 - December 8

mossy_11 on Sunday, 09 December 2012. Posted in News

There’s a new PSP emulator on the scene! From one of the members of the Dolphin team, in collaboration with the fine folks of the Internet, PPSSPP uses a JIT (just in time) compiler to keep its hardware requirements minimal, and it’s looking very promising. At this early stage (0.4 at the last release) it has been confirmed as supporting several games, but nothing at 100% compatibility. It’s being developed on five platforms simultaneously, so expect rapid progress. Check it out. (The Mac version must be built from source.)


The classic and groundbreaking real-time-strategy game Dune II is now playable in your web browser. Based on the game’s open-source implementation OpenDune, Dune 2 Online seems pretty faithful to the original experience. I haven’t encountered any problems yet, but I’m still early on in the campaign.


ZX Spectrum emulator zxsp reached version 0.8.0.pre9 this week. The developer wrote a long-ish post explaining the new features in detail. In short, the emulator now supports audio input from a standard audio input device, and it includes memory inspectors. Get it here (scroll to the bottom).


It was a quiet month in emulation on the Mac, but continue reading for more updates—including progress on the Mini vMac Cocoa port and new versions of QEMU, VICE, and FCEUX.

News Roundup: August 15 - September 15

mossy_11 on Sunday, 16 September 2012. Posted in News

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.

News Roundup: May 9 - June 6

mossy_11 on Wednesday, 06 June 2012. Posted in News

Boxer, a DOSBox-powered DOS emulator, has been updated to version 1.3. The release notes list taking screenshots and fast-forwarding games among the new features, with heaps of bugfixes and improvements to input handling and gameboxes. Get it from the official Boxer website.


Multi-system emulator Mednafen has been updated to version 0.9.22-WIP, while Jazzin's launcher app NekoLauncher Mednafen received an update (0.9.22 Build 21) to fix a crash bug. Mednafen's new version includes improvements to and L3 and R3 button simulation in the PlayStation emulation, improved Sega Genesis/Mega Drive YM2612 emulation, and broken compatibility with 0.9.21-WIP Genesis/Mega Drive save states. See the NekoLauncher site for more details, and download it at the Mednafen forums.


Amiga emulator FS-UAE has been updated to version 1.2.1, fixing a crash that occurred when saving states with mounted directories. See the FS-UAE website to learn more about this games-focused emulator.


Continue reading for updates to JPCSP, Mini vMac, XRoar, Stella, VirtualBox, and more.

News Roundup: February 8 - March 12

mossy_11 on Tuesday, 13 March 2012. Posted in News

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.

News Roundup: October 12 - December 5

mossy_11 on Monday, 05 December 2011. Posted in News

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...

News Roundup: August 5 - September 9

mossy_11 on Friday, 09 September 2011. Posted in News

cog_iconWe're leading the news roundup with something a little different this month. Following a suggestion from seanstar to plug little-known audio player Cog, I thought it'd be a good idea to (briefly) highlight a few audio apps for those of you with collections of game rip audio and other video-game sound formats. Please let us know in the comments if there are any others you recommend.

So first up there's Cog, a free open-source audio player that supports tracker formats (it, s3m, xm, mod), several video game formats, and a host of other common audio formats. With playlists, Growl support, and a small memory footprint, it's a great choice. But development has fallen away over the past few years. Use the latest nightly build rather than the 0.07 release, unless you run into stability issues.

Vox_iconThe lightweight Vox music player is in rather more active (albeit slow) development, and comes close to matching Cog feature-for-feature -- with the bonus of a slick interface and some cool effects plugins.

Old school Mac fans will be pleased to note that SoundJam MP is available for OS X, although it doesn't work in Lion (nor does it support any video-game music formats).

sidplayGetting a little more focused, the Commodore 64 music player SIDPLAY was recently updated to work in Lion. It mimics the look and feel of iTunes, and was designed with the huge High Voltage SID Collection in mind.

Richard Bannister's M1 and Audio Overload lack the bells and whistles of the other players mentioned, but between the two of them they cover 34 different video-game music formats (M1 is for arcade music only; Audio Overload is for everything else).

If you're looking towards Apple's iDevices, try Modizer for multi-format playback. Sid Player and Module Player offer music in the Commodore 64 and Amiga sound formats, respectively.

Keep reading for the emulator updates, including new versions of Parallels Desktop, Pom1, Atari800MacX, and more.

News Roundup: July 10 - August 4

mossy_11 on Friday, 05 August 2011. Posted in News

Apple has released the next major update to its Mac operating system. Mac OS X Lion, which is currently available only through the Mac App Store, serves as a great indication of Apple's future direction, and not just because it integrates the most successful aspects of iOS. There are changes afoot in the world of personal computing; Lion may well be both a beginning and an end. Check out John Siracusa's incredible 19-page review on Ars Technica for a complete breakdown

As always with major system upgrades, due caution is advised -- backup your system, research app compatibility, and be prepared for problems. Many older emulators will likely no longer work, as Lion drops PowerPC support altogether. Richard Bannister notes that all current releases of his emulators and other programs are "believed to be compatible," with the sole exception of audio editor Cacophony. Many others, as you'll see, have put out updates to address Lion compatibility.

Keep reading for more emulator updates.