News

ProgrammerFish has reported that the source code of 13 Atari 7800 games, two dev tools, and two (NTSC and PAL) copies of the OS have been "unofficially" released by Atari. These games include Robotron, Centipede, and several other hits from the 7800's hey-day.

Just follow this link and scroll down to download your very own copy of classic source code from the early 80's.

-sp out

A couple of days ago kat5200 was updated. It emulates the Atari 5200 and 8-bit line of computers on Windows or Linux. Also note that there's a new homepage for this emulator, but builds are still available at the Google Code page.

Here's what's new in kat5200 0.6.2:

• Fixed keypad button 1 not working at all
• Fixed Player 2 always using defaults stick configuration
• Fixed issue with Input Config where initially selected control was not saved
• Changed Player 2 default configuration (use 's' for down)
• Changed Default Sensitivity setting to 96 (Galaxian with digital input)
• Changed Windows version to use User's AppData directory to store files

Note:
When using the Windows installer, the user will be asked whether to overwrite their configuration. The Sensitivity and Player 2 default updates will not occur if the user keeps their current configuration. Please update your Input settings manually if you need these particular updates.

You can get the Windows and Linux builds from our kat5200 page.

After almost six months of inactivity, Mike Murphy has released an update to his Atari 7800 emulator for Windows, EMU7800.

Here's what's new in EMU7800 0.91:

• Updated: DirectX dependencies to SDK March 2009
• Added x86 and x64 specific builds

You can get both the x86 and x64 versions on our EMU7800 page.

As previously reported on Zophar's Domain and Tehskeen.com, raz0red has released version 0.2 of his Atari 7800 emulator for Wii, Wii7800. You may also want to check out Wii2600, WiiXL, and WiiHandy/SDL.

Here's what's new in Wii7800:

• Lightgun support
• High score cartridge support
• Increased accuracy of Maria cycle timing, games now run at close to their intended speed (One on One, Tower Toppler, Summer Games, KLAX, Karateka, etc.)
• Increased compatibility for PAL games (Ballblazer, Commando, and Food Fight now work)
• Audio now sounds as it should regardless of frequency (PAL games and custom frame rates)
• Timers now properly take into consideration cycles generated via Maria and during WSYNC
• Changes to ProSystem database format
• Maria cycles are now enabled by default (option 0x1 now disables Maria, the opposite of before)
• Ability to adjust the lightgun crosshair offset per game
• All games now have Maria cycles and WSYNC enabled in the ProSystem database (with the exception of MIA)
• Console switch defaults updated to work with the majority of games
• Additions to debug output (Maria vs. CPU cycles, timer info, etc.)
• Other games improved by various changes
• Kung Fu Master no longer has the lines in the upper left corner of display and the Fuji logo appears as it should (if using BIOS)
• Midnight Mutants has less graphical glitches
• Summer Games has less graphical glitches
• Plutos has slightly less graphical glitches
• Fixed save/restore state issue for games that use RIOT timers.

You can get it at our Wii7800 page.

About a week ago I did an interview with emulator author ZX-81 to kick off an all new "Interviews" section here on the site. The following is a quote from that interview, which I have now posted.

Recently, I caught up with one of the emulation and homebrew community's most dedicated coders. Ludovic Jacomme (aka ZX-81 or simply ZX for short) has ported dozens of emulators and other applications to the GP2X and PSP handhelds. If you own a PSP and you're into running homebrew applications and emulators, then you've likely heard of ZX or at least installed one of his programs.

To read more, check out our new interviews section by clicking "Interviews" in the horizontal menu under the site's logo or just go straight to the ZX-81 interview. More to come...

The Stella Team has updated the Stella Atari 2600 emulator to version 2.8.3. The Linux, Mac OSX and Windows ports are now posted. Other ports will be posted as they become available.

Only one change was listed in the changelog:

• Fixed OpenGL bug which caused an immediate program crash if the available OpenGL version was less than 2.0

Alert readers will notice that we missed the boat on Stella 2.8.2. It was released on June 23rd. We've been working on a new section for the site and didn't see it.

Here's what was new in Stella 2.8.2:

• Fixed OpenGL detection bug which could disable OpenGL support entirely if TV effects are not available (version < 2.0), when in fact only the effects should have been disabled.
• The '\' character can now be entered in UI text fields again. Related to this, strings containing '\' are now properly loaded and saved to various config files.

Stella 2.8.3 is available on our Stella page.

The Stella Team has updated their excellent multi-platform Atari 2600 emulator to version 2.8.1. The Linux, Mac OS X and Windows ports are now posted. Other ports will be posted as they become available.

• NOTE: Windows users will have to reset their options or manually move their config folder in this release, since the location of the config files has changed.
• Fixed OpenGL issue for some Windows users whereby the OpenGL TV effects weren't available, even if the available version of OpenGL was sufficient. Related to this, the OpenGL version found by Stella is now reported in the TV effects dialog.
• Added fallback to software rendering when OpenGL rendering has been requested, but for whatever reason fails to initialize.
• Added native support for 4in1, 8in1 and 32in1 multicart bankswitching schemes. When using these schemes, the 'Reload ROM' action (by default, Control-r) will switch between each game in the ROM.
• Added bankswitch support for ROMs smaller than 2K in size. These will be treated as 2K ROMs natively, without having to manually 'pad' them to 2048 bytes.
• Added preliminary suppport for autodetection of X07 bankswitching.
• Tweaked PAL autodetection; it was marking some PAL ROMs as NTSC.
• Changed default location for Stella config files in Windows to the users' APPDATA folder (for XP and Vista, this is '~/Application Data/Stella'). The '~' symbol now represents the users PROFILE/home directory, matching its usage in Linux and OSX. The ability to override this with 'basedir.txt' is still available, but not advised.
• Changed '-exitlauncher' commandline argument to '-uselauncher'. This works as before except the launcher is never used at all if the option is set to false.
• Fixed crash when launching Stella from the commandline and giving a directory name instead of a rom filename.

You can get it from our Stella page.

MESS, the Multiple Emulator Super System, was updated to version 0.132. Many new system drivers are supported including Jaguar CD, but many of these new drivers are not yet working. Many system drivers were also updated or changed. This time there were no user interface or Imgtool changes. To see a full list of changes in this new version, read the first comment to this post.

If you want to give MESS 0.131 a try then go here.

ClrMamePro (an auditing tool for MAME ROMs) has been updated to version 3.127. This release contains a handful of bug fixes, mainly for external packer usage.

Here's what's new in ClrMamePro 3.127:

• misc: showing compress/decompress information in progress window
• fixed: external packer delete operations fail when deleting more than 1 file with spaces in its name
• fixed: sometimes wrong fix name messages are shown for files with romsize=0
• fixed: dir2dat initially scans subfolders even when subfolder option is disabled which can take some time
• fixed: 7z sdk returns a not initialized pointer value instead of a crc=0 for a size 0 file
• fixed: falsely allow rebuilder drag’n drop while showing rebuilder stats
• fixed: an empty rebuilder destination folder is initially shown in scanner’s drag’n drop options (instead of 1st rompath).

You can get it from the ClrMamePro Homepage.

The Stella Team has updated their excellent multi-platform Atari 2600 emulator to version 2.8. The Linux, Mac OSX and Windows ports are now posted. Other ports will be posted as they become available.

Here's what's new in Stella 2.8:

• Added CRT simulation effects as described in the AtariAge posting CRT emulation for Stella. For now, this requires OpenGL 2.0 or greater with support for GLSL (GL Shading Language). This code will be expanded on and optimized in future releases.
• Adding editing of extended RAM in the debugger RAM UI. The RAM 'spreadsheet' now shows the entire address space of RAM in the system, in 128 byte increments. The first bank shown is zero-page, with the others following in consecutive order. The UI takes care of read vs. write port differences, so you don't have to worry about the offsets. For now, all SuperChip based ROMs (EFSC, F4SC, F6SC, F8SC) as well as 3E, CV, E7 and FASC are supported.
• All ROMs which include SC extended RAM will now have memory erased if you attempt to read from the write port. Related to this, entering/exiting the debugger will no longer erase the extended RAM.
• Patching of ROM for bankswitch types 0840, SB, UA and X07 is now implemented, but hasn't been extensively tested.
• Visual improvements to the CPU register UI in the debugger; the SP/A/X/Y registers now have separate decimal and binary views.
• Tweaked paddle control so that all positions are reachable in game 4 of Activision Casino in both NTSC and PAL versions.
• SuperCharger/AR ROMs now start with a random value in the CPU accumulator. This should fix issues with Dragonstomper always starting in exactly the same state.
• Auto-detection for '3F' bankswitching improved; several ROMs previously detected as 'F8' now work correctly.
• Updated internal ROM properties database to ROM-Hunter version 5 (thanks go to RomHunter for his tireless research in this area).
• Added '-exitlauncher' commandline argument and associated UI item, to specify what happens when you exit a ROM. Normally, exiting a ROM brings up the ROM launcher, but this can be disabled for those using an external frontend (in which case exiting a ROM also exits from Stella).
• Re-added '-fastscbios' commandline argument, and added an associated UI item. When enabled, the SuperCharger load bars are now completely removed (and not just sped up as in previous releases).
• The '-listrominfo' commandline argument now shows all ROM information built in to the internal database, taking into account any information in 'personal' stella.pro files.

You can get it from our Stella page.

Thomas Richter has released a new version of his 8-bit Atari emulator. Atari++ has a huge list of features and supports the Atari 800, Atari 400, the 800XL and 600XL, the 65XE and 130XE and the Atari 5200 Game Console.

Here's what's new in Atari++ 1.56:

• Fixed parsing the preferences. No longer gets stuck if one of the modules failes initialization.
• Fixed error handling in the full module - could crash.
• Fixed initialization of the FMS. The previous version wasn't able to to run the DUP if the DOSINI vector was populated.
• Fixed memory reservation of the emulated 850 interface.
• Fixed complation issue on latest g++ compilers.

You can get it from our Atari++ page.

raz0red has released a new emulator called Wii7800, It's a port of Greg Stanton's ProSystem Emulator to the Nintendo Wii. raz0red has also written ports of Stella, Handy/SDL, and Atari800 for the Wii console. You can check them out at our Wii2600, WiiHandy/SDL, and WiiXL pages.

Here's what's in this first release:

• Snapshot support, including auto-load/auto-save
• Optional loading of 7800 BIOS
• Support for ProSystem emulator database
• Detects and configures controls for one and two button 7800 games
• Controls support for Wiimote/Nunchuk/Classic/Gamecube controllers
• Analog controls support
• Dual analog support for Gamecube/Classic controllers (Robotron)

We've set up a page for Wii7800 as well, enjoy.

So far we've avoided news that isn't directly related to content already added to the site. The plan is to expand the news coverage as the site expands to cover other consoles, but we do have some emulators posted that run on the Nintendo Wii and that's a good enough reason to post this very interesting Wii homebrew related news. The guys over at HackMii have released the Twilight Hack source code. If you find this as interesting as I do, then feel fee to download it and poke around in the code.

You can find it here.

In the last few days we've added three pages to our site's Atari Lynx section, bringing the total to 19.

The new pages are:

• Handy PSP
• Handy-X
• LynXBox

Also, I discovered today that the download for PocketAtari was corrupt. It was fixed today. Our apologies to anyone who attempted to download it in the last few days. That's all for now, but we're working everyday to improve and add to the site so check back often.

ClrMamePro, the ROM auditing tool has been updated to version 3.126b. Only a few changes were made in this release.

Here's what's new in ClrMamePro 3.126b:

• misc: updated 1G1R algorithm according to No Intro Team's new requirements active regions now filter sets in 1G1R mode
• misc: don't allow backup & download folders as rompath subfolders anymore
• misc: updated to some newer 7z sdk routines (fixing accessing files >=4GB) however block based unpack is still not enabled
• misc: new datfiles are sorted by full path name and not by description
• misc: changed and added some no profile/no data messages
• misc: got rid of some short foldernames
• fixed: crash when printing results for sets without roms

You can get it from the ClrMamePro Homepage.

As anyone who tried to access the site yesterday already knows, we've been uploading new content! In total, 58 new emulators have been added to the site, with downloads. This brings our collection of Atari emulators to 108, with a whole new section (based on the Atari ST) in the works for a future release.

Here's a break down of where all the new emulator pages are:

• added 20 Atari 2600 emulators, bringing the total to 41
• added 18 Atari 5200/8-bit emulators, bringing the total to 34
• added 5 Atari 7800 emulators, bringing the total to 9
• added 4 Atari Jaguar emulators, bringing the total to 8
• added 11 Atari Lynx emulators, bringing the total to 16

Some new features and enhancements have also been added to the site. These include:

• screenshots and author descriptions are 99% complete
• added ability to sort emus according to operating system/platform
• added ability to sort emus by the license they were released under
• added ability to sort emus by community voted star rating (1-5 stars)
• added License and Source to the emulator tables for each system
• added the first vote to each page (so all emulators will have a rating)
• added a short review of each emulator (first comment on each emulator page)
• 9 questions/answers were added to the FAQ (many answers still need work)
• new Staff page added to give props to our staff and various others

Many other improvements have also been made to the underlying source code that makes up the site. Most notably, the site should run faster. Please notify us of any bugs, errors, or mistakes you come across and we'll fix them right away. Enjoy.

The Stella homepage was recently updated. The best part about the new site design? The frames are gone. Here's a quote from the site's news page:

Major website update using newer technologies (PHP and CSS). Updated many dead links, and added a new 'Homebrew Developers' section. Special thanks go to Andrew Kator (http://www.katorlegaz.com) for providing the PHP/CSS code.

This will no doubt break some of the links we have here on this site, but we'll get that taken care of later today. Also note that the Stella Team has recently switched their codebase to Subversion.

Altirra, a new and up coming Atari 8-bit emulator has been updated to version 1.1. Many new features were added in this second release and many bugs from the previous 1.0 release were addressed.

Here's the new features in Altirra 1.1:

• CPU: Added an option to disable illegal opcode support.
• Disk: Added .XFD support.
• Disk: Added rudimentary hard disk (H:) support.
• UI: Added exception handler to write crash information.
• UI: F8 now also breaks into the debugger.
• UI: Fixed some window activation issues in the docking system.
• UI: Display is now locked to correct aspect ratio.
• UI: Dockable panes are now based on percentage rather than absolute width.
• UI: Changed location of Registry key to work around antivirus false positives.
• Cartridge: Added support for cartridge images that have headers.
• Cartridge: Added support for MaxFlash 128K and 1M cartridge formats.
• Debugger: F5/F8/F9/F10/Shift+F10 now work.
• Debugger: Frames are now double-clickable in the call stack window.
• Debugger: F10 now works in the console command line.
• Debugger: Added history window.
• HLE: Rewrote HLE kernel mode to be based off the LLE kernel for better compatibility.

Here's all the bug fixes in Altirra 1.1:

• Simulator: Init and run vectors are now implemented properly -- fixes New Year's Miracle demo.
• Simulator: $FFFF optional headers in executables no longer produce load errors.
• Kernel: DRKMSK was not set -- fixes missing status bar in The Last Word.
• Debugger: The start of instruction PC is now reported instead of the CPU raw internal PC.
• Debugger: Fixed infinite loop when viewing disassembly beyond $FFFF.
• Debugger: Disassembly view edit window now works.
• Debugger: Fixed a cycle being lost by the CPU on each step or breakpoint hit.
• Debugger: Console window now scrolls to bottom when updating.
• UI: Implemented some Ctrl+Key combinations.
• UI: Fixed jittering problems in full-screen mode.
• UI: Fixed some focus problems when docking and undocking panes.
• UI: Full-screen mode no longer shows window borders when using GDI or DirectDraw for display.
• UI: Removed horizontal and vertical blank regions from display window.
• UI: Caps Lock now works.
• UI: Mouse pointer is now hidden in full-screen mode.
• Disk: Improved disk emulation compatibility with SpartaDOS X.
• Disk: Fixed corruption of first byte on sector writes.
• Pokey: Added missing channel 2+4 high pass filter.
• Pokey: Fixed off-by-one in 1.79MHz 16-bit timing that screwed up some demos using 4-bit polynomial beats.
• Pokey: Pot scanning is now implemented.
• GTIA: Color mixing with PRIOR D0-D3=0 now works.
• GTIA: Fixed incorrect luminance for background in 16 color mode.
• GTIA: Fixed player/playfield priorities in 9 color mode.
• GTIA: Fifth player now mixes in PF3 color properly in 16 color/luma modes.
• GTIA: Color registers no longer have four luma bits.
• GTIA: ANTIC modes other than 2, 3, and F now work with GTIA modes.
• GTIA: Implemented psuedo-mode-E caused by resetting the GTIA mode mid-scanline.
• GTIA: Collisions now register in 9 color mode.
• GTIA: Implemented one color clock shift in 9 color mode.
• GTIA: Changing HSCROL in the middle of a mode line now works.
• ANTIC: Corrected WSYNC, DLI, and VBI timing.
• CPU: Fixed instruction timing for read-modify-write opcodes using abs,X addressing.

You can get it from our Altirra page.

Games Industry has reported that Atari has decided to pull out of E3 next month, opting to attend rather than exhibit. This comes after last week's announcement that the company will not release "Ghostbusters: The Video Game" in the UK and Europe. Apparently, the title will be released exclusively by Sony and only for a limited time.

"Atari has made the proactive decision to attend but not exhibit at this year's E3 event," said a spokesperson for the company.

"Although we feel E3 benefits the entire games business, we are very focused around other selling and marketing initiatives for our upcoming Ghostbusters, Champions Online and other to be announced titles."

You may read the full article here.

Earlier this month MESS, the Multiple Emulator Super System, was updated to version 0.131. Many new system drivers are supported including seven new Atari machines, but many of these new drivers are not yet working. Many system drivers were also updated or changed. This time there were no user interface or Imgtool changes, but a new tool was added by Miodrag Milanovic for cassette to wav conversion, called castool.  To see a full list of changes in this new version, read the first comment to this post. I've moved it there to reduce clutter on the main homepage.

We do not currently host a section for multi-system emulators and frankly it's a low priority at this time due to the upcoming Atari update and the Nintendo roll out that will come after, but if you want to give MESS 0.131 a try then go here.