Apologies for the length of this page, but it makes for a nice diary :o)
2/12/97
Happy Christmas! This is the 1st update during advent, if you are feeling charitable, send me some cash, and I'll put it towards updating this page, by getting hold of some more emulators, 6502Em, Z80Em and many PD ones (see below), and also towards perhaps getting some more web space for all the emulators that are now available, to be downloadable centrally. This page is getting quite a big job to keep uptodate (as you'll see from this large update), and I'm very grateful to all those who provide information, ideas, and software for this site.
In the latest edition of Acorn User (Christmas 1997 issue 189) emulation gets a few mentions. In the news section on page 7, there is a mention of RISCafe being able to run the Java Spectrum emulator, see the spectrum page for details. The Arcade emulator, MAME also got a full-page review by Graham Nelson, on page 67 in the Game Show, with quite a bit of background arcade information and links to the emulator home page - quite a good overview. It was with mixed feelings that I read on page 53 in the Acorn World 97 review that, '...the best source of games at the moment is in the world of emulation...', although I'm proud to be supporting a much needed cause in the Acorn world, I can't help but feel that it shouldn't be so desperately needed!
Steve Robb has been spending some time trying to get the fastest performance of Frodo, the C64 emulator, 'so that games run at full framerate and full speed on the StrongARM, better than the 97% you get with some games in which the music slows down just *slightly* too much to start to become irritating', I'll bring your more details when I get them.
Apparently the new SMS/GG emulator, which is under development (first mentioned on this site on the 3rd November) is able to run at full speed on an ARM 7 (faster than the MasterGear port, which needs a StrongARM for full speed), but getting it to run full speed on anything less is unlikely. The emulator is still under development before a first public release, but has already fulfilled its original aim, to run Wonderboy III. It should be released fairly soon - a nice christmas present for Acorn Emulation scene perhaps? :o)
I've decided to set up a technical problems page, as I know of a few users who have contacted me about problems with emulators. Take a look, and see if you can shed any light on the subject, and please let me know if you manage to solve the problem, so I can publish the solution. Removed the list of generally helpful folk from the email page, as they're starting to get quite numerous, you know who you are, and I try and credit you on this news page. I've added a link to emulation.net, the best emulation page of the Apple, and although not very relevent, I want to support other non-PC platforms. Following a website horror story I read in Acorn User, I've added a bit more to my disclaimer.
Following a suggestion by Michael Koenig, I am currently trying to go through each emulator giving it a speed rating for different systems it is run on, saying whether it is; too slow, slow, perfect, fast, too fast, or will not run for technical reasons. If you can help with this testing, please email me, as I would love to hear from you!!
Martin Kaletsch reports that there is an Arthur OS emulator about, but that apparently it is hard to get working, and doesn't function on the RISC PC. See below, where it's mentioned in the ARM club listings, I'll be trying to follow this up soon.
Thanks to Michael Koenig for reporting that the Apple ][e Asimov site appears to be down, I'll update this link to point to the ftp site as soon as I find it. He also mentioned another great Apple][e site that I've added to the links.
Thanks also to Raphael Cohn for reporting the availability of the source code for a Vectrex emulator - take a look. The author seems willing to help port it, so it's just upto a brave Acorn programmer to attempt it.
Following an enquiry by Gareth Williams as to the existence of a Sinclair QL emulator for the acorn, I've collected some technical links about it, and added it to the wanted page. And no, I hadn't heard of this system before either, but there are already emulators for it on the PC and Mac platforms, and part of the source for one is available.
I've had a little dabble in PD libraries for any emulators that they have, and for my new page on the availability of emulators from sources other than the web , at the moment I'm looking at The Datafile, and APDL, if there are any others I should contact (via email as I'm broke) do tell me. You can take a look at the current PD library emulator page.
While taking a look at the ARM club
catalogue, I turned up some very interesting programs, that I'll be
taking a look at soon for mention on this site:
Z80tube - Z80 emulator
Arthur12 - Arthur 1.2 emulator <------ Danny Fagandini asked for this
a while ago
Woz - Apple IIe emulator <-------- probably not as good as digital jellyfish's
offering
WTCU - Apple IIe <> Arc files
X80Em - Spectrum emulator
MZXiface - MZX Multiface poke executor
PlusD - Spectrum -> Arch transfer
EmulateZ80 - Z80 emulator
PCMusic - Trackers with emulator
Psion3 - Psion3 emulator (PCEm needed) <-------- Looks interesting!
RamDrv - Set up ramdisc under PC emulator
PCEmUtils - Three PC emulator utils
Trash80 - TRS80 emulator
Connector - Terminal emulator
ZAnsi - Terminal emulator
Arc100 - VT100 terminal emulator
Cambridge - Cambridge instruction set emulator
RO2-4all - RiscOS2 emulator for RO3 <----------- probably a little pointless
now.
And yes, it'll take me ages, and cost me a few bob to get them. Please
send donations! If there are any you particularly
want looking at, email me,
and I'll try and prioritise them. If you have any of these in your possesion
already, please email me, to save me some cash - with Christmas coming
up, there isn't much of it about :o)
BTW, I'm seriously considering placing the old news listings, that are currently scrolling down this (rather too large at 24Kb) page in a ZIP archive for users to download if they are interested, to save on your download time, and instead only display the latest news. Tell me what you think.
Wow, quite an update that - I hope you enjoy reading my hard work! :o)
27/11/97
Discovered the bITmASTER's ST sound emulation page which has the STSound emulator for the YM2149 Soundchip from the Atari ST, not especially useful for gameplaying or runnings software, but quite interesting anyway. Zoop's emulation camp has moved again, so the SMS ROMs are down for the moment, but I've updated the link anyway, should be back up again at a new site soon.
Have updated the link to Peter Teichman's page, so that it points to his page for Acorn software and the UAE emulator, otherwise you get left in page of German. Thought I aught to mention that the visitor counter was started in mid-August 1997, pretty good hit rate don't you think - about 1000 people a month! I've also added a nice little screenshot of BBC Elite, and a picture of the Sega icon.
Michael Koenig has expressed an interest in this page providing, 'technical data about the emulated computers (processor, ram, ...)', but we are both a little concerned that this might irritate some users, if you have a preference either way email me.
24/11/97
I've added several amiga software pages to the Amiga emulation page, thanks to Michael Koenig for telling me about them! I've also added a couple of Atari ST software links, for when the emulator is released (not for a few months yet by the looks of it). Added in a screen shot of the title screen of desert strike for the Amiga, taken from the PC version of UAE. Added a link to the Console Programming page, and NES tech repository, 1 very good technical pages!
Having finally bought a copy of Archimedes World, I've managed to add a couple of pages that I didn't already have. A C64 games ftp, and a mention of a commercial C64 emu. Another PC Engine ROM link. A new MAME ROM link. Thanks for those Matthew, although I wasn't impressed with the 1 which had moved, one which didn't exist anymore, and one which is in Spanish!!! Needless to say, they're not linked to on this site :o)
Sorry if you had any problems accessing the page at the weekend - I couldn't get it for most of Sunday, I think Geocities made a boo boo!
20/11/97
I feel I aught to apologise for Geocities' (the people who provide the space for this site) new promotional idea of GeoStitials and GeoPops, which is currently being tested. This means that when you access this page, you may get either a preloading page advertising geocities, or a separate window that pops up. I personally find this cheap, tacky, and very irritating, and hope that they will give up on the idea soon. If they don't, I will consider moving this site - for this reason, you should bookmark the Acorn Emulation Page at http://www.come.to/emulate. If in future I do decide to move this site, I will leave a forwarding page up, for a few weeks. Now to the fun stuff....
I've added links to some more technical docs, on the Vectrex and Atari 2600, and have also provided links to pages containing emulator source codes. Although this is not directly relevent to the Acorn scene, I am trying to provide an easy to reach, reservoir of information, for any Acorn programmer who fancies attempting writing an emulator. Personally, I think I may attempt the Atari 2600 when I've finished kidsbase. I've also been through every page on the site, and added a title to them - it took a while, but improves the aesthetics no end. I've used Text transmogrifier to create the nicely shaded coloured title, tell me what you think - if you don't like it I'll revert to the old one! I've altered the sonic sprite on the main page to the one from Sonic 2 on the Megadrive to reflect the new megadrive emulator. It looks better than the one from Sonic 1 on the SMS!
Gatch recently mentioned that there is a Turbo module being developed for the MAME emulator. For more details see the arcade page.
I thought I'd better mention that on the Acorn User CD 3, that comes with the December 197 edition, are several emulators. So if you want to save some download time, you can get UAE, CPC, C64, Gameboy & GBDK, Arcade (0.28.0 I think, and therefore outdated) and spectrum emulators all on one CD.
18/11/97
Another weekend has gone by, and I've spent far too much of it searching the web for emulation links! Whilst searching around using Altavista, I came across an Acorn Atari ST emulator, take a look at what I found out! Thanks also to Michael Koenig, for reporting it later.
Added 5 megadrive ROM links, for when the emulator comes out. Also added new gameboy and PC Engine ROM links, to Underground Cities. Added a link to the overall underground cities page. Added a link to another Amiga Disk image page. Added a link to a massive page of general emulation links. Added a link to Wayne Bagulley's Acorn Emulator page. Added a link to the spectrum image database. Added 2 links to BBC software archives. Added a link to the Source, general ROM page.
One of the best things I've added is a whole host of technical documents links, in the hope that it will provide an Acorn programmer with the information to attempt an emulator project. I've also created an email address book, a list of emulator authors, so that you can easily get in contact with them, if you should be on there, and you're not, email me.
Added links to several web rings:
Gameboy
Development Web Ring
Amiga WebRing
Oric WebRing
Phantasy
Star Webring, on the SMS/GG page.
Joined my CPC emulator page to the CPC webring.
The latest edition of Archimedes World, has a 3 page article on Emulation on Acorns, written by Matthew Bloch. Personally I think it's a bit of a naff review, as it didn't mention this page :o) It did have quite a few links though, which are (for the most part) already included on this site.
The December edition of Acorn User had a mention of MAME and Frodo on its PD pages (p16,17), nothing much to report on as all the info and more is on this site already, and the MAME article is already out of date!
Updating this page can be quite a thankless job, I tend to get a minimum of 30 visitors each day to this site, and upto 400 in a week, but only rarely get an email from any of them. If you appreciate this site, or have any views, news, things you'd like to see included, I'd be very glad to hear from you.
13/11/97
With the soon to be released RISCafe and Chockcino, we acorn users, could be about to see the fruits of the platform independent language java. The reason that this concerns emulation on the Acorn, is that we shall then be able to run emulators written in java, that were originally written on other platforms. The best example of this at the current time is a spectrum emulator, Jasper. More excitingly, there is also a java Atari ST emulator being developed, from STonX the emulator for the PC, which was originally written in C. I am doubtful about how fast the emulation will be, as it is written in java, but we shall have to wait and see!
Added a link to my coursework page, and updated the link to my homepage to the forwarding address http://www.come.to/david.sharp at the contact information section.
12/11/97
Thanks to Andreas Dehmel for informing me of the authorised whereabouts of Frodo, the C64 emulator. Also, his new email address, and Breadbox patch utility. I've also added links to a couple of emulator news pages for other platforms, in case you're interested.
There's also a link to Beercan's gameboy pub, as he houses a selection of colour tables designed for Virtual Gameboy on the PC, I suspect they may work with the Acorn emulator.
Thanks to the Acorn cybervillage for adding a link to this page. If you would like to exchange links, then please, email me.
7/11/97
Mark Rison is looking for a programmer to continue developing his CPC emulator, now that he has moved on to pastures new. Take a look!
Updated Beginners guide a little bit, added common abbreviations to it. Created Wanted page. Updated MAME frontend links. Added N64 technical docs to the links page. Added a links to my current programming project, Kidsbase, in order to generate some publicity. Also added a redirectable forwarding address for this page, you should bookmark this page as http://www.come.to/emulate in case for some reason this page is disrupted, and has to be moved elsewhere.
On the Oric emulator front, I have pre-assembled the files needed for the emulator, so that it is ready to run.
4/11/97
Corrected the link to Emulation camp now that they have relocated. This also means that they have been able to put their ROMs back up - lots of SMS ROMs. Corrected Yib's GG link to his forwarding link for when fortune city throw him off. Added screenshot to Apple][e emulator page, and digital jellyfish's email and smail addresses, as well as there web page. Thanks also go to Mark Rison for pointing out some errors in the information on my CPC page.
I've added some more information about the Megadrive emulator, though I don't want to release all the information just yet. When the news does break though, it'll be very exciting! Also another screenshot from a PC Megadrive emulator to whet your appetite for things to come.
I'm also investigating the possibility of a megadrive dynamic recompiler for the Acorn, the original is being written as a 3rd year university project for a unix/X system, but the programmer, James Ponder, has been involved with Acorns before, and it may be possible for him to port it to the Acorn. This is a bit of a long shot, but we'll have to wait and see.
There may not be another update to this page for a couple of days now, as I must get some real work done!:o) Never fear though, there should be an update by next weekend with all the latest news, and hopefully a screenshot of the PCEngine emulator in action.
3/11/97 part ii
Confirmation of Paul Clifford's development of a brand new PCEngine emulator,written entirely in ARM code for a pretty hefty speed increase over VPCE.
MAME 0.29.1 now available (2nd update in as many days!), keep up the good work Gareth. There is a bugfix in this version that some uses were experiencing with long filenames.
I am pleased to announce yet another new emulator for the acorn. There is a new RISC OS specific Sega Master System and Game Gear emulator in development, which hopefully will bring SMS/GG emulation to the rest of us non RISC PC owners :o) This could well become the definitive SMS/GG emulator, replacing Gareth Moore's port of Marat Fayzullin's MasterGear. More details as I get them, hopefully soon!
Added details, and link about Mark Rison's CPC emulator. Added link to the full Gameboy development kit page. I've added links to 2 of my other Acorn orientated pages, take a look, they're well worth a visit! I should also have some more details to release about the Megadrive emulator in the coming days!
3/11/97
Confirmation of the development of a Megadrive emulator for the Acorn!
MAME version 0.29.0 now available, 24 more games added.
Added information about PC Emulators, screenshot and links to PC card suppliers. Added BBC related links. Added Miskin's Gameboy emulator utility software. More details about other Spectrum emulators, particularly WSS's offering, as well as a screenshot. More details about the BBC emulators, and the patch to allow 65Host to run on the RISC PC. Added the Official MAME page link. Investigating details about commercial emulator for the C64.
2/11/97
MAME version 0.29.0 should be released in the next day or two, I'll have the most recent version on this page as soon as it becomes available from Gareth S. Long's page.
Possible major developments on VPCE and Gameboy emulators are being investigated. More news soon.
Have added information and screenshot for the Oric emulator, also some links to Oric software pages.
Whoopsie - had a PC engine, version of Afterburner, screen shot on the MAME page, now corrected and a real MAME screen shot added. Various typos have been cleared up when spotted. Well, I'm trying to be a perfectionist.
You'll be pleased to know, that there are rumours of a Megadrive/Genesis emulator already in development for the Acorn!!
Quote from comp.sys.acorn.games:
'There was a rumour that Acorn's Concord NC will play SNES games on its
SA, amongst NES and sega games (probably not saturn). If the Concord can
run these games, it is very likely that Risc OS will be able to. There
may be more details at Acorn World.' - Jonathan Pretty, [email protected]
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~marcom/galileo/
Me personally, I'm a little sceptical!
By the way, the last update to this page was on 30/10/97, but by Windoze 95 clock was malfunctioning - surprise!
31/10/97
First version of the updated Acorn Emulation Page is uploaded at some ridiculously early hour - apologies about unfinished pages, but I think there is enough here already to give you a taster of what I'm trying to achieve.
I am trying to launch a NES emulator project for the Acorn. The basic idea is to port Marat Fayzullin's iNES over, following successful ports of it to several other platforms. Seeing as Gareth Moore, managed to port MasterGear from him, this seems initially promising. Would a kind C programmer, consider porting iNES to the Acorn, take a look at Marat Fayzullin's page on the subject. Get back to me, and I'll help in any way I can.
Gareth S. Long (aka Gatch), porter of Acorn MAME, appears to be working on some new emulator that may be previewed at AW 97 - more details as soon as I can get them. (If he wants to make it public that is?)
Peter Teichman, porter of Unix Amiga Emulator, is apparently working on a Z80 CP/M emulator.
Rumours abound on comp.sys.acorn.games, following a thread I started about this page, about SNES and Genesis emulators for the Acorn, personally I don't believe it! Also the usual b*ll*cks about N64 and PS emulators.
28/10/97
Work commences on the (soon to be) revamped Acorn Emulation Page.
Before this, the emulation page was firstly distributing just the SMS and Gameboy emulators since early 1997, and then was one long page of small snippets of emulator information about the acorn, which has grown to the site you see today.