Acorn Emulation Latest

Details of previous updates, can be downloaded in a ZIP file - recommended reading.

Thursday 26/2/98

Sorry its been so long since the last update, A level coursework is dragging me down, and I've not had time to tidy the page up enough for an upload in a while. Keep an eye on the message board as I'll try and post messages there while I'm busy.

Unfortunately the MSX emulator written in java uses some methods from java 1.1, and therefore cannot be run on the current version of Acorn's Java Virtual Machine, since it only supports up to Java 1.0.2 compliant code. I'm sure this will be rectified in time, and I'll try and find out when Acorn plan to implement the new version.

I've found the ColecoVision emulator written in java that I hinted at in the last update. See the colecovision page for more details.

David McEwen is working on versions of fMSX and Colem for older Acorns without redefinable 256 palette, with any luck they'll be working in the next few weeks.

I'm pleased to say that the Acorn Emulation page received it's 10,000th visitor on Sunday, February 22nd at 5:46am using the IP address: 1cust37.max7.miami.fl.ms.uu.net , from what I think was an Acorn Computer.

I've added the source code for the virtual colecovision emulator to the emulator authors page. I've updated the links page to add a link to Gareth Moore's Acorn Emulation News page. I've added an X68000 development page to my emulator authoring links.

Richard Talbot-Watkins is busy ironing out the very last obscure bugs from the Z80 emulator of the Sega Master System emulator, which are preventing a few games, such as The Simpsons, Hook and Zool from working, so it shouldn't be too long now before the initial release.

I've had very few problems moving the Acorn Emulation Page to the cybervillage site, I am planning to introduce new features, such as an AEP mailing list, not to compete with Gareth Long's emulation mailing list (mainly concerned with MAME, MESS and Qs and As), but to give out information about this page's updates, rather than relying on netmind, who can take several days to send the message. I am also planning to add a site searcher, to enable you to search the entire site for keywords. The guestbook that is provided by my page counter is now up and running (I only discovered it the other day) since I have just activated it - click on the labelled section of the counter for the guestbook.

One of the new features resulting from the move to the cybervillage server is that I have added an last modified page, this will tell you when each individual page from the AEP was last updated so that you can check for individual page changes by date, rather than relying on this news page alone. Unfortunately of course they are all set to 16/2/98 at the earliest, since this is when I uploaded to the cybervillage. I've also added a banner for the Anti-Microsoft campaign to my links page, I'll just have to work out what the link is now :o)

I've set up a new Acorn Emulation Chatroom, where I'll be happy to discuss anything concerning emulation, be it rumours, news, problems, and answer (or at least point you in the right direction of an answer) any questions you might have. I'll be popping in and out fairly regularly during the week, after 7pm and whenever I can at weekends, if you like I'll meet you in there at a pre-arranged time. Unfortunately your browser must be java-enabled for this to work - sorry :o( I'm looking around for a non-java chatroom of some kind, any suggestions?

There have been several small updates to the emulator authoring page, including a link to the superb Emulation Programmers Resource page. I've also added a link to the source code for Handy, an Atari Lynx emulator!!

Michael Koenig reports that Callus on the PC needs a special resolution for its Capcom System One games, this doesn't work on most PCs, but apparently works fine on the PC Pro :o)

xNES now has 3 games up and running apparently - Mario, Mario 2 and Zelda are all working perfectly, so it shouldn't be too long before the emulator is in a suitable position to be released. I've now got the entire C source code to the madNES emulator, from the author, so when things calm down a little in my academic life (mid-April) I'll see what I can do about porting it.

I will be uploading the latest versions of as many emulators as possible to the new Acorn Emulation Archive. Although strictly speaking this is just a dir at the acornusers.org FTP site, I personally will be keeping it up to date, as the primary storage for emulators. Emulators on the Acorn don't take up much space, but have lacked a decent store, as many are not updated very often, and most FTPs are not all comprehensive. James Sears very kindly updates uploaded files quickly, unlike some other FTPs, and the added download speed (over HTTP) makes it a good place to get your files from. I'd really appreciate it if emulator authors could upload their latest work here as well as to their own pages - it will be online very quickly, and provides a good mirror for your software!

MESS which was announced last week by Gareth Long is to be a multiple console and computer emulator all in one, so Gareth will be looking into emulation of BBC Micro and Spectrum quite soon with a view to including them in MESS, but don't expect this too soon. The first release of MESS should be relatively soon, with the first version already having NES, Colecovision and Atari Lynx emulation, as well as a few other secret things!!

In this month's (March 98) Acorn User, there isn't a great deal of emulation news, the Acorn Emulation Page gets a mention concerning the move to the cybervillage in the games section, and the release of MAME 0.3 (which is an obvious type error since the latest version is 0.30.2) on the PD pages.

MAME v0.30.2 is now available for testing, with new sound streaming code, and MameVox module, which improves the quality of the sound no end, as well as a few other small changes. MAME v0.31.0 is now being tested and adjusted by Gareth ready for release, which should be sometime in mid-March, with hopefully over 400 games emulated.

Previous update: Monday 16/2/98 (ZIP file)