This is the Acorn Emulation page, as it was back in October 97, just before I developed it to the full site you see now. The page had been up as an emulator page for about 6 months before that, but only as a link to the non-desktop Gameboy emulator, and Gareth Moore's Sega Master System emulator.

The Acorn Emulation Page

last updated: 27/10/97

MAJOR REVAMP IMINENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - more info, more emulators, more ROMs. Come back soon. Email any submissions to me NOW! probably uploading next weekend.

This page is used to distribute emulators for the Acorn range of computers. Now featuring more than 10 systems emulated. I have tried to collect together as many emulators as possible, for download from this site. No software to run on these emulators is available from here, but I have tried to provide some links to pages that the software is available from. If you are unsure about how to use these emulators or what they are, please read me beginner's guide.

While you are here, you may find it interesting to take a look at my homepage, for loads of free acorn software.

I am continuing to construct these pages, as new items appear, and when I have the time to investigate more, if there is any particular topic you would like me to cover in more detail, please email me. If you can contribute any screen shots to this page then I'd be very grateful! just email me. I'll try and add some more information to these pages as soon as I have the time, it's not that I don't know where the information is, it's just collating it.

Latest:
A new Gamegear, Master system and Gameboy ROM page added with loads of ROMs.
Just added MAME front end links and Arcade ROM site for MAME.
Added Yip's Game Gear page. Fixed Gameboy ROM link

Disclaimer:
There are no ROM images directly linked to, nor stored on this page or any of my pages! None of these programs are written by me. I discourage the use of emulators to run pirated software, and as such have not, and never will supply pirated software - do not ask me to send you images to run on these emulators, or I will send your email address to a copyright abuse page, so everyone can laugh at you. The rules for downloading images go as follows, you may NOT download such images unless you already own the software outright. ie. don't download Sonic for the Master system, unless you already own the cartridge - that's why there are only 2 screenshots on this page :o)

Game boy emulator

There are 2 versions of this emulator, the 1st one by the purple monichi is nonmulti-tasking, and will run at a decent speed on any ARM3 machine or better, with full sound, and almost full speed. The 2nd is a hacked version, that runs in the desktop, and provides the option to save the gameboy memory for saved games. This newer version still runs under an ARM3 computer but is a little slow, for best results try a Risc PC. For more techincal information on the gameboy emulator, including how to build a ROM copier, you can access Paul Clifford's page. He has also ported the Gameboy development kit, which allows you to write your own programs for the gameboy in C or Z80 assembly.
non-multitasking version (63Kb) Pack Dir archive
multitasking version (60Kb) ZIP archive
If you are finding it difficult getting hold of Gameboy ROM images or you could always try this page.

Game Gear/Master system emulator

As the hardware for the Gamegear and the Master system is almost identical in everything but size, by emulating one, the other is emulated too! This is an attempt at the conversion of 'massage' from the PC I believe, pretty well implemented. This version will just about run under an ARM3 chip, but the games are unplayable, this really needs a Risc PC to work properly. I believe this emulator does emulate the sound as well, and can run at full speed on a Strong Arm. This emulator was ported by Gareth Moore, and it's well worth taking a look at his acorn gaming site. There is unfortunately no sign of a port of the Megadrive or genesis emulator of Sega's more powerful 16 bit system, for which there are already several emulators available for the PC.
Gamegear & master system emulator (71Kb) Pack Dir archive

For Master System and Game Gear ROM images try these pages:
Sega Master System World
Emulation Camp
Yip's Game Gear page
http://consider.ferris.edu:8000/gamegear/
http://consider.ferris.edu:8000/sms/

Commodore 64

This is the Acorn RISC OS port of Frodo and FrodoSC, the C64 emulator. System requirements are RISC OS 3, enough RAM for a 1376kB wimpslot and a lot of processing power. StrongARM needed for 100% emulation speed with sound (Frodo), StrongARM desperately needed for FrodoSC. Minimum spec A5000 (Frodo: 20-40% speed). Source code available from the Frodo homepage at http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/FRMain.html
Frodo (240Kb) ZIP archive

Sinclair ZX Spectrum

This is the MZX spectrum emulator ported for the Acorn. Again unable to test this so far, any reports welcome. Apparently there is some sort of simple bug fix needed for this to work, details are available here.
MZX (86Kb) Spark archive
MZX bug fix
There is also another Spectrum emulator available, which I believe is shareware, take a look.
Speccy ZIP (?Kb) archive
This spectrum convertor may come in handy to convert between different formats of Spectrum image files.
SpConv (?Kb) Zip archive
Warm Silence Software have produced a commercial spectrum emulator, you can download a demo of it or get more information concerning it from there pages.

Commodore Amiga

Through the early 90s rumours were heard about this fabled software, that would allow the tormented Acorn users to play the games their amiga-owning friends were playing. The amiga has died out, but Acorn are still going strong, and finally we can play those games. This is a port of the Unix Amiga Emulator (UAE).
UAE (562Kb) ZIP archive
If you are having difficulties find any software for this emulator, you can try this page:
Werner ZSolts

Amstrad CPC

Thanks go to Adam Hay for informing me that this emulator works at a reasonable speed, even on his A3010 with 2Mb of RAM. More information and loads of games is available from here.
CPC emulator (293Kb)

Apple][e

Virtu is a recently released emulator from Digital Jellyfish design, that emulates an 128K Apple //e computer. It can run Apple ROMs or disk images, and was distributed widely on the October 1997 Acorn User cover disk. This emulator comes with a built in Raster Blaster pinball game, as the functionality of the emulator is reduced by having a partially disabled ROM image provided for copyright reasons, you should obtain the standard image you should download it below.
Virtu emulator (110Kb) ZIP archive
Enhanced Apple][e ROM image
Apple ][ emulator resources guide
or you can try the following news groups:
comp.emulators.apple2
comp.sys.apple2

IBM PC

The IBM compatible computer has been emulated by the software Acorn PC Emulator now for several years, reaching version 1.7 which was capable of displaying VGA graphics emulating an 80286 processor. There is also a hardware card, produced by AlephOne that enables you to emulate faster chips, upto 586. Another software emulator did become available called FasterPC, which was slightly faster than the Acorn PC Emulator but at the cost of versatility and graphics capability. Unfortunately there are no shareware or freeware PC emulators.

BBC and other early Acorns

The 65Host and 65Tube emulators are provided for free with your computer, but Warm Silence Software(WSS) have developed there own commercial (and apparently better) emulators for the early acorn computers, such as the BBC B, Master Compact and the Acorn Electron. For loads of BBC software, and all the BBC information you could possibly need, you should try the BBC lives page.

PC Engine

The virtual PC engine emulator, ported by Paul Clifford, untested so any reports welcome! For more technical information see his pages.
VPCE (30Kb)
PC Engine images

MAME

The ARM Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator, ported to the Acorn. Common on the PC format, and I believe can play Sega Master System Games through this emulator, though you should really try the other sega emulator! I know very little about this emulator, and information would be appreciated.
MAME roms
X-man's MAME emulator front end
Chas's MAME emulator front end (ZIP 29Kb)
Yet another MAME front end, take your pick!

Links:

Gareth Moore's Acorn Emulation page
Massage - Sega Master System and Game Gear emulator, for the PC
I'll add more links as they become available, all will be to sites housing emulators, emulator information or ROM images.

© 1997 [email protected] Please contribute any information you may have.

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