21:41 - G-NES Release - Jandar
Version 0.500 of G-NES has been released, and I've added it to our NES emulators section. This version is only available in Japanese apparently. There is an English version of the emulator, but the latest version available in English is slightly older, and is available from our NES emulators section and also from the G-NES homepage.

16:44 - New Version of Generator! - SirYoink
Generator, a Genesis emulator for the Macintosh, has been updated to version .18. Amongst the new features includes better sound. You can view a full list of the changes here.

13:04 - VisualBoy Release - Jandar
Version 1.4.10 of VisualBoy, a gameboy emulator for Windows, has been released, and it's available from our Gameboy emulators section. Here is the list of changes for this version:

• Fixed problem loading save games
• Window title changes when changing languages
• Simplified Chinese translation (thanks Eric)
• Finnish translation (thanks Hannu Pulli)
• translations halted for the moment so that I can work on VisualBoyAdvance (GameboyAdvance emulator)

14:15 - SGC Day - Jandar
Who knows what today is?

Today is a wonderful day of sorts. Today is a day to end all days. Today is an exciting day, a happy day, and a joyous day. Today is Wednesday, today is the 21st of March, today is a school day, and today is SGC's third birthday.Over three years we have undoubtably had our highs and our lows around here, one of which we seem to be in the midst of at the moment, but overall it has been an enjoyable and wonderful time, a thrilling and educational three years, and many more to come. So happy birthday SGC, or Apocalypse Emulation as it was named three years ago. I estimate that the actual time I put the site online was about 10 PM, although I really don't know. It was initially the result of a weekend without prior plans, an empty and expectedly uneventful weekend which turned out an emulation site. I must give credit where credit is due, the influence to create an emulation site was in many ways thanks to Zophar's Domain back in 1998. Three years later, glancing back, we have all changed. I have changed, the rest of the staff around here has changed, the name of the site has changed, other emulation sites have changed... All of our lives have changed over three years, but I hope that the dedication and the drive remains that has boosted this site from a tiny little web page to what I consider a relatively successful investment of time resulting of one of the primary hobbies of my life.Thank you to everybody who is still around, and thank you to everybody who has been around at any point in the past. Thank you for coming, we're glad to have you. We couldn't have done it without you.

11:54 - RockNES News - Jandar
The RockNES homepage has been updated with some news of its Windows port. Here's the good word:

• It seems the works on RockNESX will be resumed this week. Remember that Ale wants a major change/rewrite/improvement before porting the current DOS version. He would like to have made it some time ago... well, doing it nowadays, hence this (cough) big-ass (cough) delay.

22:02 - BNSF v2.2 Release - Tempest
BNSF, the NSF player by Fx3, the maker of RockNES, has been updated to version 2.2. Here's what's new in the latest release :

• Sound core from RockNES 1.830
• Many fixes in the player code
• Using newer Matt Conte´s 2A03 cpu emulator

Several different binaries of the program have been released, so go over to the RockNES Homepage to pick up the version that's right for your system.

18:03 - Sony Purchases CVGS - SirYoink
Although SGC doesn't normally cover the Playstation, I find this personally alarming enough to post. Sony has purchased all assets of Connectix Virtual Gamestation. Anyone who wants the emu should purchase a copy before the end of the month, when the transfer from Connectix to Sony will occur. It is unknown whether Sony will continue to sell or update the emulator, or if they purchased it with intent of discontinuing it. The official press release can be read here.

17:53 - The Tumbleweeds Clear! - Patrick Higgins
Hey there. I got some news straight from Stealth Translations!

• First off, the new script editor is none other than Kitsune Sniper! So now progress should speed up a bit for the Gulliver Boy translation.
• The SEKRIT PROJEKT is revealed! And its Silva Saga II: The Legend of Light and Darkness! Excellent, this game looks very cool but I guess the programmers over at SeTa company are crack addicts =/ Lets see if Bongo` can overcome the powers of crack addicted coders!

14:50 - ... - Jandar
- Jandar makes a loud "BOO!" and leaps out from behind a tumbleweed..

18:45 - Audio Overload - SirYoink
A new version of Audio Overload has been released. Version 1.2 sports these spiffy new features

• Added the ability to adjust the output volume. Beware, however, that putting the volume up too high will cause distortion.
• The delay between switching songs when Continuous Play is switched on is now configurable.
• GYM files now end at the point specified in the Continuous Play options rather than playing their entire length regardless.
• Added support for playing Atari ST ".SNDH" files.
• Added support for playing Atari XL/XE ".SAP" files.
• Reworked the Preferences dialogs. Channels are now configured in a seperate window to the rest of the preferences.

You'll have to get it at http://www.bannister.org/software, because I can't seem to modify the utilities section at the moment.

20:53 - Spanish translation - Bokudono
Finally a new release in the dormant Spanish translation scene: Secret of Mana by Traducciones Magno.
The patch has been added to the Spanish translations archive.

17:13 - Enormous AGTP Update! - Tempest
We all knew it was coming, but none of us would have ever expected it to be THIS big O_O. Gideon Zhi's update is massive, and you should visit AGTP to get the full scoop. But I'll outline everything he said here, so read on. =)

• First and maybe most notably, Gideon Zhi has released a full English translation patch for Chaos World! This is a great RPG for Famicom, and if you haven't tried it, you don't know what you're missing! So get the patch here, or grab it from our English Translations Archive, and play it already! =)
• Ys IV:Mask of the Sun entered the beta testing phase last week, and is currently undergoing revisions and fixes before the final patch is released. Gideon is optimistic about this project, even though there still is much editing to be done, and states the end of the month as a reasonable release date. Be patient, Ys fans, your prayers will soon be answered!
• As for Super Robot Wars 3, it is practically done on the translation front, but still needs some work on the compressed battle name graphics. Bongo` should be helping Gideon with that, so rest assured that it will be done =). Also, he's put up 27 new screenshots of the actual game text ; go here to have a look.
• The Super Nazo Puyo 2 project is going very well ; thanks again to Bongo`, the font output is now 8x16. Gideon now has a kanji table for the game, and a great-looking font that Someone from Cherryroms made. He's also posted some new screenshots here, have a look at those too ^_^.
• Thanks to help from Ipkiss, the text in Phantasy Star Adventure has finally been located. It will be a pain for Gideon to dump since it's stored in such a godawful way, but it will get done!
• On top of all that, AGTP also has some new projects added to the roster. Namely, they are Bounty Sword, Chester Field, Jyutei Senki, Sylvan Tale, and both Yuu Yuu Hakusho games. How does he manage to do it all? Don't ask me O_o.
• Finally, Gideon Zhi promised us a few little Nifty Bonuses(tm), and here they are. He's added a section called My Music, which is an archive of all the MIDI files that play from his MIDI frame, most of which are his own creations, and he's added the Monstania SPC soundtrack in RAR format, assembled by KevinDOOM. You can find SPC Players right here, in our own SPC Utilities section.

Whew! I'm just about done with this update, but there's one thing more to be said... From all of us here at SGC, happy 2nd birthday, AGTP!

15:26 - Lots Of News - Patrick Higgins
Sorry for not updating these sooner, I've been really busy lately =/

• Tom (A.K.A. DDS) has translated the entire script for SD Gundam Gaiden Knight Gundam Story II: Knights of the Light! The translation was done very quickly cause DDS rules. So now Prez is inserting the script and making ASM modifications. Heres some preliminary screenshots released by Prez:

  

  

• F.H. has updated with news regarding the Alcahest translation. Akujin has finished translating the script! And now David Mullen is formatting it. This is very promising news and hopefully a release isn't too far off.
• Bongo` (A.K.A. Stealth) has updated his site; Gulliver Boy is in beta testing stages and should be done VERY soon. So keep your eyes on SGC for more as this project progresses.
• Magecraft Translations have released a 99% patch for RPG Maker 2 for the Super Famicom. There are only a few untranslated words remaining so the game is fully playable.
• D-Boy is looking for ASM assistance for his Ys Eternal project! Ys Eternal is the PC Remake of the original Ys game, so if you have some knowledge in x86 ASM and think you can help D-Boy out, do it! D-Boy also revealed his secret project to be "With You ~I Want To See~", a dating sim for the PC. He has dumped the entire script and is making great progress!

Thanks to The Whirlpool for all these updates ;)

21:53 - RockNES wa baka! - SirYoink
The Mac version of that busy little NES emu, RockNES, has been updated to version 1.820. Here's a list of what's new, as cut 'n pasted from bannister.org:

• Fixed the bug (introduced in v1.810) that caused the key configuration to be reset to the default keys every time you ran the emulator.
• Most of mapper #5 (MMC5) code has been rewritten, fixing some games.
• Added MMC5 RAM saving/loading (size is always 65536 bytes)
• Some changes for ANSI compatibility, plus cosmetic changes and minor fixes.

18:53 - VisualBoy Release - Jandar
A new version of VisualBoy, a Gameboy emulator for Windows, has been released, and I've added it to our Gameboy emulators section. The latest version of the emulator is version 1.4.9, and is available along with a Direct-X 7 version. Thanks to EmuHQ for the news, and the circuits lab here at school for providing the computer terminal from which I could do this update =)

8:33 - RockNES Release - Jandar
Yet another RockNES release. This emulator has been a busy little guy lately. The latest version is 1.830, and it's available from our NES emulators section. Also, Fx3 says that this will probably be the last release for the 1.8 cycle, in other words the next thing we see will be a 1.9. Here's what's new in this release:

• Fixed name garbage when saving files;
• Fixed RAM, WRAM, VROM and CPU registers dumping;
• Added PRG data dumping when no VROM is present (due the request);
• vsync on/off switch was disabled, oops;
• Documentation revised.

1:34 - All Your Dragonball Are Belong to US - SirYoink
Myself and my unholy army of the night have released version .90 of the SNES english translation of Dragon Ball Z: Suppaa Saiya-jin Densetsu. This new release features a translated intro courtesy of DarkForce. Check out the Klepto Software website for more info on what's new.

14:51 - RockNES release am GOOOOAL! - SirYoink
A new version of RockNES is out for the Mac. Version 1.810 has the following new features:

• Rebuilt most of startup sequence, tons of problems were fixed;
• Fixed memory corruption, FDS driver and NES reset;
• Fixed a memory problem in the PPU reset (fixing gfx garbage);
• Fixed HBlank timing for mappers (broken from previous version);
• Fixed mappers #40, #42, #43, #69, #90 (broken from previous version);
• Fixed mapper #67 (Fantasy Zone 2 works fine);
• Fixed ROM mapping on $6000-$7FFF memory space;
• Accurate emulation of sprite #0 hits, improving the compatibility. (Note that frameskipping gains far less speed now than in previous releases).
• Tweaked the NES timing, fixing a couple of games;
• Fixed savestate (rsx) code;
• Fixed a problem setting monochrome mode;
• Fixed a stupid sprite clipping bug;
• Updated 2A03 CPU core (november/2000);
• A lot of others fixes and cosmetic changes.

1:11 - Snes9x 1.37 released - Neil Stevens
Joy of joys.. another Snes9x source release has been made, Version 1.37c. The changelog is too long to list here, but is whether to download this new version really in question? Linux binaries for i386 libc6 and PPC are also out.

22:43 - SnesEdit 0.95.008 - Tempest
The good folks over at The Official SnesEdit Site have released version 0.95.008 of their SNES editing utility, SnesEdit. SnesEdit is a utility that is mainly designed to help translators translate games from English to their own language. The editor seems to be quite advanced and capable, so take a look if you're into the foreign translations scene. Oh, just check it out anyways =).

Thanks to neo_bonifa_z for the email.

18:15 - Swedish translation news - Scotcher
A new group joined the scene. They're called Otakuforce. Now what does this mean? That there will be another swedish translation of Final Fantasy 6? Unfortunately, yes... anyway... The Translators released a translation of North & South. And Just4fun, the norwegian translation group, got some swedish members and they're currently translating Pokémon Puzzle Challange.

14:38 - Gens Windows Release - Jandar
The Windows port of Gens has been updated to version 0.95. It's available now from our Genesis emulators section. Here's what's new:

• 4 players partially supported (actually just Yuyu Hakusho Battle and Street Racer are supported).
• 3/6 buttons genesis pad selectable.
• Rom format (SMD/BIN) detection modified.
• Fixed the accidently broken PAL bit in VDP status flag.
• Now SPACE caractere is a separator between code and description in .PAT file (stupid bug, sorry).
• Z80 V-INT timing modified.
• V-Counter modified.
• PSG sound fixed in some games like After Burner 2 (thanks Dave ;)
• DMA timings again modified.
• 68000 cycles timing modified (68000 is now overclocked of 1,3 Khz instead of underclocked of 14,3 Khz in NTSC mode).
• Once again, i've modified Z80 cycles timing, now voices are like the original genesis (crappy) but sound in some game are fixed (voices in Zombies)
• Fixed a bug in VDP control decoding (added accidently).
• Country detection fixed for (F) region (these games are NTSC and not PAL).
• Added a sub-menu for rom history.

14:24 - RockNES Release - Jandar
Version 1.820 of RockNES has been released, and I've added it to our NES emulators section. Here's what's new in this version:

• Most of mapper #5 (MMC5) code has been rewritten, fixing some games;
• Added MMC5 RAM saving/loading (size is always 65536 bytes);
• Fixed NESticle state loading (STA files -- mappers 0,1,2,3 and 4 only);
• Removed that FDS warning at startup (now displayed on FDS loading);
• Some changes for ANSI compatibility, plus cosmetic changes and minor fixes.

8:47 - State of the SGC - Jandar
It's certainly been a bit of an emulation wasteland around here lately. I think a lot of us have been insanely busy, and those who have discovered a trace of free time have had very little emulation related news to report about. There are, however, a couple of things going on, or at least going through my head, that I feel are pertinent to the site.

• One idea that I have based SGC upon from the time it was first formed was that emulation should be used ethically, that it should be related as little to piracy as possible. And yes, if you play any copyrighted video game on an emulator it is considered to be piracy, that is something we cannot escape. However, I have always worked to keep next-generation emulators off of SGC and focus stricted on emulators for systems that you can no longer pick up easily in the store. The intent may be good, though the method isn't perfect, but I still maintain that SGC will not maintain next-generation emulators. However, as Tempest brought up resently to myself and the rest of the staff, the definition of a "next-generation" emulator changes over time. When we first started this site we avoided the Sega Saturn, the Nintendo 64, the Playstation, etc.. as they were the newest systems of the time, and the ones that you would find sitting on the store shelves. However, this definition has become rusty over time. The Sega Saturn has been obviously replaced by the Sega Dreamcast, and the Playstation is rapidly becoming obsolete under the Playstation 2. Therefore, I agree that we should probably attempt to move our way forward through the ages here at SGC. My personal focus has always been the NES and SNES consoles, but the focus of the site probably needs to shift slightly to include the Sega Saturn, and at some point in the near future, the Sony Playstation. As time goes on, and systems fall to the wayside, we will pick up emulators for those systems. We need to continue to move forward while still maintaining our principle of avoiding next-generation systems.
• In other news, SGC has been around since March 21st of 1998. That means our 3rd birthday will be coming up in only 20 days. To be honest with you, my plans for that day are currently sketchy, but I have some ideas as to what our third birthday could entail. But just know that the day is coming, and we are aware of it =)
• The layout is a bit boring after all this time. I think that maybe I ought to spruce it up. We'll see.
• ilyanof

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