The Emulator Zone News

Cemu 1.15.20 released December 10, 2019 by GHDpro

A new public version of the Wii U emulator Cemu has been released. Here are the changes in version 1.15.20:

• general: Fixed a bug where Cemu would not be able to read the CPU mode setting from game profiles created with 1.15.19 or earlier
  
• general: Fixed fullscreen menu option
  
• general: Fixed an issue where Cemu failed to read some files from mlc if the configured path didn't end with a backslash
  
• general: Fixed mlc path not being immediately updated when selecting a new one in the settings
  
• general: Selecting Spanish console language should now work
  
• general: Fixed vertex cache accuracy setting always reverting to default
  
• general: Restored compatibility with Cemuhook
  
• general: Added -a / --account command line parameter to select account
  
• general: Fixed menu bar being always visible when using the -f command line parameter (#212)
  
• general: Fixed a bug where the wrong account would be selected when using the menu account selection
  
• general: All writes to log.txt now happen asynchronously and don't block the CPU thread anymore
  
• general: Migrated all remaining configuration values from settings.bin to settings.xml
  
• general: Fixed a bug where refreshing the game list would reset renamed game titles (#208)
  
• RPL: Added proper support for RPL unloading (#24)
  Fixes crashes in games that dynamically swap out RPLs (e.g. Mario Party 10)
  
• AX: Fixed a bug where AXQuit() would not properly reset the emulated audio driver
  This resolves a crash in Need for Speed Most Wanted U (v32), other games might be affected too

You can download the new version from the Cemu page.

Super NES games launch for Nintendo Switch Online September 6, 2019 by GHDpro

I guess this also qualifies as emulation news, as how else would you think Nintendo would enable you to play NES and as of today, Super NES games on the Nintendo Switch. Last year Nintendo launched Nintendo Switch Online with the NES app which allowed you to play a select number of NES games on the Switch. New games have been added every month since then.

Now a year later a Super NES app has been added with an excellent selection of games. Included are the likes of Super Mario World (1 & 2), Super Mario Kart, F-Zero, Starfox and the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. In my personal opinion the Super NES games are much more exciting than the NES ones, as the Super Nintendo games have aged a little better.

Both the NES and Super NES app are free downloads for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. For the full list of games and more information, see the the Nintendo Switch Online section of Nintendo.com

bsnes 0.109 released September 6, 2019 by GHDpro

A new version of the Super Nintendo emulator bsnes has been released. The author (byuu) has been very busy this summer, so the list of changes in version 0.109 is huge::

• greatly improved macOS support, fixing all obvious bugs and adding fullscreen support
  
• added libretro target [Themaister, rtretiakov]
  
• much smarter automatic HD mode 7 perspective correction support [DerKoun]
  
• added CPU and SA-1 overclocking support
  
• added fast forward speed limiting
  
• added a new "hotfixes" option to fix critical (deadlocking) bugs that also occur on real hardware (eg for Dirt Racer)
  
• added options to emulate bugs in ZSNES and older Snes9X releases to increase compatibility
  
• added dialog for IPS patching to choose whether they were made for headered or unheadered ROMs
  
• lowered volume during fast forwarding and rewinding to reduce audio distortion
  
• added option to mute sound during fast forwarding and rewinding
  
• added an option to deinterlace all SNES games by rendering at 480p (almost no speed hit; highly recommended)
  
• added multi-monitor support to Windows, Linux, and BSD
  
• improved pause and frame advance support
  
• improved mosaic emulation for the fast PPU
  
• added entropy (randomness) settings; default to no randomness for movie recording (guarantees consistent playback)
  
• improved MLT_REQ Super Game Boy emulation; fixes Killer Instinct to default to player 1 instead of player 2 [endrift]
  
• added option to disable video dimming during pausing (useful for screenshots with window decorations)
  
• redesigned the settings and tools windows to use lists instead of tabs
  
• redesigned the input and hotkey settings windows to be easier to use and with clearer naming + icons
  
• added option to make hotkeys combinatorial (eg Ctrl+F) instead of separate (eg F11 or Gamepad L-shoulder)
  
• restructured the settings menu to be more intuitive
  
• fixed path selection dialog from sometimes appearing offscreen
  
• added wildcard search support to the file loading window
  
• fixed the --fullscreen command-line option
  
• redesigned the thread scheduler to allow enhanced compatibility with SA-1 and SuperFX overclocking
  
• fixed the pseudo-hires blur emulation support with the accuracy PPU
  
• removed template integer classes from the fast PPU to make the code more portable
  
• removed icarus from bsnes and merged the heuristics directly into bsnes itself
  
• ~5% speedup by optimizing CPU memory accesses and the PPU counters
  
• fixed an out-of-bounds memory access in the DSP core [Sour]
  
• enhanced the snow effect with depth-of-field and alpha blending support
  
• double-clicking a cheat finder result will now add the new cheat code directly
  
• added "[HLE]" indicator to the title bar when coprocessor HLE is being used
  
• simplified game titles with multi-carts (eg omit "Super Game Boy +" in SGB mode)
  
• the emulator now pauses on Windows when navigating the menus
  
• added SNES support for decoding Game Genie and Pro Action Replay codes
  
• added Game Boy support for decoding Game Genie and Game Shark codes
  
• added many more tooltips to explain GUI functionality
  
• minor speedups to SuperFX and Cx4 emulation (via object locality)
  
• simplified the mode 7 rendering code for the accurate PPU
  
• suppress Alt+F4 while in fullscreen mode
  
• fixed every reported regression caused by the speed optimizations I've been adding recently

You can download the new version from the bsnes page.

RPCS3 AMA on /r/pcgaming September 3, 2019 by GHDpro

A few days ago the team behind the PS3 emulator RPCS3 held an "AMA" (ask me anything) on the PC Gaming section of Reddit. While the AMA has ended, it the thread still gives an interesting inside look behind the scenes of this emulator. Here is the link to the AMA thread: We are team RPCS3 - the PlayStation...sk us anything!

Cemu 1.15.13c released September 3, 2019 by GHDpro

A new public version of the Wii U emulator Cemu has been released. Here are the changes in version 1.15.13c:

• general: Fixed GamePad view using the wrong resolution when opened before a game is launched
  
• general: Fixed mouse cursor disappearing when interacting only with the GamePad window in fullscreen (#172)
  
• general: Dropped support for legacy v1 graphic packs
  
• general: Screenshot hotkey changed to F12
  
• debugger: Added LR to register view
  
• CPU: Fixed overflow check in SUBFEO instruction. With this change Adventures of Pip no longer crashes on boot. Other Unity based games might be affected as well.
  
• CPU: Fixed implementation of MULLWO. Full Blast no longer crashes with save game (#117).
  
• nlibcurl: Fixed a delayed crash that could occur when games used curl_multi_fdset()
  
• GX2: Fixed hermite filter not scaling with window size

You can download the new version from the Cemu page.

bsnes 0.108 released September 3, 2019 by GHDpro

A new version of the Super Nintendo emulator bsnes has been released. Here are the major changes in version 0.108 according to the author:

This release brings in a 25% speed increase, optional frameskipping during fast forward (allowing an additional 33% max frame rate), official HD mode 7 support, SameBoy integration for 60% faster and more accurate Super Game Boy emulation, software filter support (snes_ntsc, HQ2x, Eagle, scanlines, etc), the return of mightymo's integrated cheat code database, cheat search support, movie recording and playback support, rewind support, cubic audio interpolation, 7-zip decompression support, ExLoROM board mapping support, adaptive sync support for OpenGL, and greatly improved macOS support. And if that's not enough, there's also true pixel-perfect ZSNES snow effect emulation ... seriously!

You can download the new version from the bsnes page. On this page you'll also find two new download links: the link for Nightly builds (with as-of-yet unreleased features) and the HD-mod, which improves graphics of "mode 7" games like F-Zero and Mario Kart. One of the Nightly builds (about SNES CPU overclocking) was featured in this Ars Technica article, while the HD-mod of bsnes was featured in an older Ars Technica article.