. an archaic crossroads site .
founded April, 1996
accesses since March 1, 1998

Contained here is our 'morgue', so to speak, of past updates. Some links may work, some may not. The purpose of providing you with this history of releases is purely for your entertainment (and so that you can bet your friends money that certain emulators are really that old).

. return to news page .
1999 . january . february . march . april . may .

1998 . january . february . march . april . may . june . july . august . september . october . november . december .

1997 . november . december .



APRIL 26, 1999

Macintosh
¤ Basilisk II v0.5 released! (AmigaOS / BeOS)
  • prefs.cpp/PrefsRemoveItem(): deleting the last item now works
  • uae_cpu/memory.cpp: changed "uae_u8 REGPARAM2 *func()" to "uae_u8 *REGPARAM2 func()"
  • Unix/ether_unix.cpp: implemented
  • Unix/Linux/NetDriver: created
  • Unix/video_x.cpp: added support for 32 bit screens, cleaned up VisualInfo code
  • BeOS/ether_beos.cpp: cleaned up the code
  • BeOS/video_beos.cpp: full screen video mode and color depth can now be set via prefs("scr/")

¤ Basilisk II 04/27/99 released! (Win9x/NT)

  • Removed the need for ws2_32.dll (caused problems under Win95). Only ntoh* and hton* style conversion functions were needed. Now using own conversion functions. The source code does not yet reflect this change.


APRIL 25, 1999

Articles
¤ Rebuttal added to FF III Translation article thanks to Alex W. Jackson

Commodore 64
¤ Directory 64 v0.1 added thanks to Vitor Martins-Augusto (Win9x)

Nintendo
¤ LoopyNES description updated thanks to Alex W. Jackson

Utilities
¤ MSVBVM50.DLL added!


APRIL 24, 1999

Amiga
¤ Fellow 'blurb' changed thanks to Brett Eden! (MS-DOS)

Apple II
¤ Bernie II Downloads removed by request. (BeOS / MacOS)

Features
¤ Gustavo Geodert's bio updated!

ROMs
¤ Eva Pong added thanks to Jedediah! (Gameboy)
¤ Censor Demo added thanks to Leon Sukhanov! (Genesis)

ROM Hacks
¤ Super Castlevania 2 v0.9 added thanks to Jim Wahl! (Nintendo)


APRIL 23, 1999

IBM-PC
¤ DOSEmu Homepage link fixed thanks to root!

Nintendo
¤ NEStra v0.61 added thanks to Rafael K. K.! (Unix)


APRIL 22, 1999

Atari 2600 / Commodore 64
¤ Atari Action Pack page added!
¤ Atari Action Pack Plug-in Hack added! (MacOS)
¤ z26 v1.28 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Quadrun Speaks!! We've implemented the 2600 digital voice which is used in some rare 2600 games, the most famous of which is probably Quadrun (quadrun.bin). This technique is also used by opensesm.bin as well as raftridr.bin, which plays a musical ditty with the digital voice when the reset button is pressed.

Atari 5200
¤ System BIOS added!
¤ WACKE v1.50 added! (MacOS)
¤ WACKE Disk Converter added! (MacOS)

Amiga
¤ UAE HD Image Creator v1.0 added! (MacOS)

Arcade
¤ Raine Easter Egg Starter v1.0 added! (MS-DOS)

Atari ST
¤ Echo v0.6 added! (MS-DOS)
¤ PowerST v0.2 added! (MacOS)
¤ Section Reformatted!
¤ System BIOS added!
¤ TOSBOX v1.08 added! (MS-DOS)
¤ WinSTon v0.2 added! (Win9x)

Bulletin
EmuStars launched! ***
Watch out for the emulation paparazzi! A new site has been created by BioHazard that spotlights the 50 most important people in emulation. Currently, BioHazard is gathering his information. His site is added to the Archaic Ruins site list.

Site List
¤ Broken Links removed!
¤ Atari 2600 ROM Image and Emulator Page added! **
¤ Atari Adventures added! ****
¤ Astrophy's Geo-Genie Code Page added! ***
¤ Bubble Bobble Altar added! **
¤ Emulation Nation **
¤ FPS Benchmarking Site added! ****
¤ Geo Genie added! ***
¤ John Kotch's Atari 2600 RETROspective added! ***
¤ Square Translations added! **
¤ Universal Videogame List added! *****

APRIL 21, 1999

GameBoy
¤ DBOY v0.49 released! (MS-DOS)
Well here it is, another version of DBOY for everyone to play with!! Have fun emu-fans for this is a showstopper!! ...whatever...

Site List
¤ U-Konami added! ***


APRIL 20, 1999

Amiga
¤ WinUAE v0.8.8r3 released! (Win9x)
  • FIXED: Bug in new DX_FillRect() function, which affected DX_Blit().
  • FIXED: Bug in MIDI speed-detection. Bars'n'Pipes works now!
  • FIXED: Bug in MIDI setup
  • I never set the MIDI output volume.
  • FIXED: Auto-detect of VPOSW register changes has been cleaned up (from Toni)
  • FIXED: Only serial-ports that exist on the PC will show up in the GUI
  • no more hardcoded COM1
  • COM4.

Atari 2600
¤ Stella v1.1 Press Release! (AmigaOS)
"April 19, 1999 - Believe it or not, I'm still planning on updating this beast. Why the long wait? My problem is, I have just recently upgraded to an 060, so I use OxyPatcher for the best performance. Why is this a problem? Enforcer no longer works. The Stella 1.1 source has a memory leak in it somewhere that causes Amiga Stella to crash on exit. Also, the upgrade to Stella 1.1 source does not provide any significant speed increase. Plus, my daughter, Rebecca Anne Stroup, was born on February 4, and I'm also moving soon. So I have a pile of excuses for not upgrading Amiga Stella. But I do plan on an upgrade in the near future, hopefully around June. It will use Stella 1.1.1 sources, and have a nifty GUI. It should have sound support, graphics card support, real Atari paddle support, and will hopefully not crash the system. I will follow this with a WarpUp version. And I will absolutely provide an AmigaNG version when the AmigaNG is available to me."

Bulletin
¤ Staff Members Signing Off
Well, I have been trying to get ahold of certain members of our staff who do not update. I have come to this conclusion, they no longer have time or care to help out. Michael Leiu has mailed me saying he no longer has time to update AR. I wish him the best of luck on his future projects, he was a great member before I even worked here and it's sad to see him go. As far as Psikic and agreas, I don't know. agreas's e-mail address don't work and Psikic's website is gone, you tell me. So they have been removed also. Michael Harris is coming back to the site soon so I am leaving him up there hopefully this team will come together and create some good things for AR here. I wish to send my thanks out to the former members wherever they may have went off to.

¤ Staff Members Signing Off
Funny... I had the same thought today - I'll add Micheal Lieu back after he updates :) - for now, I've provided some spooky pictures of our staff!


APRIL 19, 1999

Apple ][GS
¤ Bernie ][ the Rescue v2.0.2 added! (MacOS)
¤ Sweet16 v0.9 added! (BeOS)

Arcade
¤ Raine v0.20 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Added 16 playable games: '101 games release'
  • Added a vsync autodetect option, which will only vsync when a game uses a direct mapper and the palette is really changed.
  • Busy mouse sprite, from _iceball_.
  • Added a better savegame format. Loading of the old format is fully supported.
  • Made some visual improvements to the gui and made active window draggable, added game count information to game select window.
  • Zooming in H-System games and sprite fixes.
  • Fixed a sprite chain problem in WWF Superstars.
  • Added sound pause for hardware ym3812 emulation (thx cgfm for adlib info).
  • Zooming in B-System games and sprite fixes.
  • Fixed several memory leaks, with some nice debugging routines from Mirko Buffoni :).
  • Zooming in F2-System games and sprite fixes.
  • Sprite Zooming in F3-System games and fixes.
  • Fixed a bug when expanding directory names to full path.
  • Changed to Allegro 3.11 (joystick bug fixes, and a new joystick supported: Wingman Warrior).
  • Improved the 'mapped' colour mappers so they look always correct without vsync.
  • Added Legend of Makaj dipswitches from Udirnel.
  • Added cheats.txt: secrets and cheat modes for the supported games.
  • YM3812 frequency is now supported for hardware emulation. Thanks to Carl/DSC and JH.
  • Added keyboard leds for most taito games.
  • Removed debug numbers from Mega Blast screen (oops).
  • Fixed Cybattler and 64th Street missing sound (oops).
  • Fixed background gfx in Rodland 'secret' levels.
  • Changed the way bankswitching is handled in Z80 emulation for extra speed.
  • Changed MZ80 memory interface to be more like Starscream's.
  • Lots of gfx emulation merged (no speed loss, and in most cases a speed increase and improved accuracy).
  • Action Replay search added to gui.
  • rdtsc timer, more accurate timing, no more dropping to 59fps in Win9x-dosbox :).
  • Lots of small game fixes, changes, and other stuff.
  • Sound added on Toki
Changes from Hiromitsu Shioya:
  • M6295 improvements.
  • Multiple MSM5205 support.
Changes from others:
  • Taito Board List much improved by Vixen.
  • Additional Nichibutsu sound frequency fixes by Jim Hernandez.

Atari 2600
¤ Stella v1.1.1 added! (Win9x)
¤ Stella v0.7 added! (AmigaOS)
¤ z26 v1.27 added! (MS-DOS)

Atari 5200
¤ ACE C++ Source Code added! (AmigaOS)
¤ Atari800 v0.9.9a added! (Atari ST)
¤ Atari800Win v2.5 added! (Win9x)
¤ PC Xformer Classic fixed! (MS-DOS)

Master System/Game Gear/SG-1000/SC-3000
¤ Meka v0.12 released! (MS-DOS)
  • Added preliminary voice emulation.
  • Added joystick and video drivers entry in the configuration file (you can now use four-buttons joypads, VESA modes, etc..).
  • Fixed PSG/FM volumes.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Battery RAM to be saved in certain cases.
  • Fixed a BIOS bug when no ROM was loaded in Japanese mode.
  • IAdded an option to disable background refresh (for GFX ripping).
  • Fixed virtual long filename duplicates creation.
  • Changed default IPeriod to 228 and updated the list.
  • Fixed Shining Force 2.
  • Added new entrys into checksum and compatibily lists.
  • Improved double dump detection, via a tolerance system.
  • Some minor optimizations.

Translations
¤ Translations Section updated!
Added Final Fantasy 3 v1.01, Sanrio Carnival v1.1, and have given the Magic Knight Rayearth translation the AREC Award. Feel free to send me translation news and information. Other small fixes have been made to the translations page not worth mentioning. Oh, Amalgam and Hyrule Knight thanks big time!


APRIL 17, 1999

Lynx
¤ Handy v0.60 released! (Win9x)
  • Load/Save game support, new .LSS format files.
  • New faster CPU core. (5-7% faster)
  • New memory access handlers. (1-2% faster)
  • A number of timer/UART related fixes.
  • Gates of Zenodocon no longer hangs.
  • T_TRIS.O now works!!!!! (Means a lot to me, as I broke it at V0.20 and couldn't figure why)
  • Much lower memory requirements. (Uses 12MB less than before)
  • Lynx defaults to AC adaptor plugged in, no more power downs.
  • Collision detection improved. (Still not perfect)
  • Support for headerless development cartridges. (Needs howard.o)
  • Numerous other smaller fixes.


APRIL 16, 1999

Bulletin
¤ New bleem! release!
Just after I put up the bleem! page up I noticed a new demo was released yesterday. So if you downloaded that copy earlier please download the new version. Note: You can tell if you have the old version by reading the text file included in the zip file. If it says April 6, 1999 near the top you have the old one. The new version has no date included.

Nintendo
¤ LoopyNES Beta 4/15/99 released! (MS-DOS)
  • more PPU fixes
  • SNSS (Standard NES Save State) support updated

Site Maintainence
¤ bleem! page added!
I added the bleem! demo to our archives today and created a page for it just because no one else ever did it. That and I really needed something to keep me busy with today :)


APRIL 15, 1999

Amiga
¤ WinUAE v0.8.8r2 released! (Win9x)
  • FIXED: Bizarre error with hardfiles, config-files, kickstart ROMs, and other areas. Some places in the code were fopen() a file, and never releasing the file-handle for later use.
  • FIXED: I *think* I've found the bug which was causing slow-downs on Cyrix processors.
  • FIXED: Serial-port set to "none" always produced "COM1".
  • FIXED: Command-line now accepts the old "-config=blah.uae" format, so that Amiga Forever users can just drop in the new WinUAE.exe and still use their MenuBox to start. This also gave us a smaller executable!
  • FIXED: 24-bit display-mode support should work again.
  • FIXED: FPS display updates quicker when toggling between PAL and NTSC, since it now averages just the last 128 frames.
  • FIXED: LED display in full-screen was corrupting Picasso screens, and would sometimes overwrite the Amiga graphics. LED display is now only available in full-screen Amiga screens (not Picasso screens), and only when the resolution is at least 800x600.
  • FIXED: Bug with PAL/NTSC control through VPOS register of custom-chips.
  • FIXED: HTML links in the About panel of the GUI are now up-to-date.
  • FIXED: Source-archive is now up-to-date, and includes a proper VisualC++ 6.0 project for doing debug-builds.
  • ADDED: Automatic MIDI output for Amiga software, such that when they select the MIDI baudrate, the serial-port output support stops sending bytes to a COM-port, and redirects outgoing MIDI bytes to the default Windows MIDI-out device. NOTE: This is output-only for now.
  • ADDED: Picasso96 speed-increase for modes greater than 256 colours.
  • ADDED: More diagnostics for serious problems.
  • ADDED: Settings in Misc panel of GUI for controlling WinUAE's behaviour when minimized. User can now decrease the CPU usage of WinUAE when it is minimized. User can now disable sound in WinUAE when it is minimized.
  • CHANGED: Resolution selection under the Display panel in the GUI has changed so that the resolution drop-down list is available when you've got full-screen selected for Amiga screens, and is greyed-out when in windowed mode.
  • CHANGED: Back to old-style DirectDraw support, which makes no use of the DirectDraw2 or DirectSurface2 COM interfaces. Some users were complaining that all versions since WinUAE 0.8.6 R5 have fail machines.
  • CHANGED: Even SMALLER executable now!

Apple ][
¤ Section Revamped!


APRIL 14, 1999

Amiga
¤ Several updates:

Fixes
¤ Download Select Menus FIXED!
File download select menus should now work on all browsers compatible with HTML v3.0! I apologize for the inconvenience.

GameBoy
¤ D-BOY v0.48b released! Download
As usual, I have lamer proofed the files and they are about a day late but hey I'm not perfect. I'm actually quite lazy.


APRIL 13, 1999

Translations
¤ Translations Section updated!
After Jay beat me with a rusty barbed wire whip for three hours, I finally caved in and decided to do an update. It's not that I mind getting beaten with a whip every once in awhile. I just have other things to do. I changed the format a bit so it is hopefully easier to read. I also added some patches. So, now I can get back to my life and everyone is happy. Even the gorilla, and I do mean you... Now go visit Troma Entertainment and find out what real movies are like. Good day.


APRIL 12, 1999

Bulletin
¤ I'm back...
Well, after working on getting this shitty 14.4 modem to work on a Plug and Play OS which it was not designed for, I finally got somewhere. Today I got my temporary stuff set up so I can partially return to updating AR. Also, you may notice my name "Roni" has been removed from the page and my real name put in its place. That is because I'm looking into getting a job at a computer company and I would like to have my real name attached to the things I do on the internet. Expect me to begin doing my job again and getting these staff members back into line here. I think I'll start right now :)

¤ Page Fixes!
I've replaced the 2600, 800/5200, and Amiga sections with update pages that are compatible in both Internet Explorer v4.0 and Netscape v3.0+. As said before, Archaic Ruins is best viewed with Internet Explorer, however, I do not recommend installing it for what it does to Windows -- but that's besides the point. A few more pages were converted.

Master System and more
¤ MEKA v0.11 added and page created! - Download
Well I made an attempt to create a page for MEKA with Chris's new design, I don't have a whole lot I can add to it right now because I was using this as a learning experience to get familiar with the new design.
  • Fixed sound crashing.
  • Improved FM sound emulation.
  • Mapped start/pause button on joystick (button 3).
  • Fixed Orguss (SG-1000).
  • Fixed Power Strike (SMS).


APRIL 6, 1999

Bulletin
¤ New Layout Comments
While it may seem odd that Archaic Ruins is best viewed through Internet Explorer v4.0, it's very true. Finally, after installing Win95 (to replace Win98 suprisingly enough), I've had luck with installing Netscape. To my horror, Netscape does not handle text fields in the same way that Internet Explorer does. This can be seen on the UltraHLE page and across the Atari and Amiga sections. I will look for a way to remedy this.

Nintendo 64
¤ UltraHLE v1.0 readded! (Win9x) - Download
¤ UltraHLE INI v1.0.14 added! - Download
We removed this due to the scandal, however, due to my belief that UltraHLE is under no threat by Nintedo, we have readded it to our archives.


APRIL 4, 1999
HAPPY EASTER!
Bulletin
¤ A Little Update...
Well, I'm sitting at my parents house in between waiting to eat and such so I figured I'd do an update. Since some cool things have come out in the last two days. It will be about another week or two until I get a modem to access the internet from my home. So until then I won't be around. Too many things keep happening for me to keep up with right now, Bleem! came out, EmuNEWS shut down, and just all these changes keep happening. I can't wait to get back into it. :)

Master System / Game Gear / SG1000 / SC3000
¤ MEKA v0.10 Beta released! (MS-DOS) - Download
I think I owe it to Zoop to post news about Meka coming out here. Since I did beta test it a while back and I'm also a member of his staff (even though I don't have time to update there right now :). I figured it's the least I could do for him. This is honestly one of the best looking emulators out there and when I have more time I think it may get an Editor's Choice Award here at AR. If I would have had more time I would have helped out for Zoop more but I didn't have the time but I'm glad to see he's getter farther. BTW, if the sound is the same as when I tried it out months ago, you'd be better off keeping it disabled :)

Nintendo
¤ RockNES v0.81a released! (MS-DOS) - Download
Here's what's new from the last two releases. Apparently, there were some problems with hard drives and sound. So pick this one up and save you computer from its untimely death :)

  • Just redownload it.
  • Removed the new soundcard detection code (*can* destroy your HD!!!);
  • Fixed Mapper #69 mirroring;
  • F.A.Q. updated.

Archaic Ruins is not connected or affiliated with any mentioned company in any way. Companies and all products pertaining to that company are trademarks of that company. Graphic design exclusively for Archaic Ruins by aquis. For information concerning Archaic Ruins, please contact Chris Hickman.

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