unofficial comp.emulators.game-consoles FAQ
0 Preface
0.1 What's in this document?
0.2 Credits
This FAQ has been compiled, edited, and written by Athman Boukhaoua
<athmanb.ANTISPAM@iname.com>
with the help of
James <emustation.ANTISPAM@yahoo.com>
"Margrave" <margrave.ANTISPAM@mx2.redestb.es>
0.3 What does "unofficial" mean?
It means that isn't approved by the MIT RTFM team. I plan to make it official
some day, but that takes some time (about six months, to be exact) to get
through all the administrative stuff :-(
0.4 Where should I send comments, corrections and additions?
Please send them to emu_faq@indiana.edu
Your mail will be forwarded to all the people which are subscribed to the
EMU-FAQ mailing list.
To subscribe to this list, send an e-mail to majordomo@indiana.edu with the
body 'subscribe emu_faq my_address'. Replace my_address by your own e-mail
address like 'subscribe emu_faq rob_roy@demon.co.uk'
Any contributors will be credited in the FAQ.
0.5 Where to get this FAQ?
It is posted weekly on the newsgroup comp.emulators.game-consoles
It can also be found on the WWW at https://members.tripod.com/~emu_faq
A spanish (but outdated) translation by "Margrave" is available on the Web.
0.6 What do the ***s mean?
A question marked with ***s is one I don't know the answer to.
If you want to contribute to the FAQ, this is a good chance to see your name
in the credits.
1 Technical stuff
1.1 What is an emulator?
An emulator is a program which copies the behaviour of hardware. If the game
e.g. wants to command the game console to draw a sprite to the TV screen, the
emulator gets this command instead and puts the sprite instead on your VGA
monitor while letting the game know that everything went fine with the console
hardware. The same is true for sound and joypad routines.
Any emulator acts therefore as some kind of 'translator' between the worlds of
the game console (software) and the PC (hardware). BTW: An emulator which about
anyone has on his computer is your web-browser (If it does have JAVA support).
Your browser takes the JAVA code and translates it into
Windows 9x/X-Windows/Mac OS commands.
1.2 Uuhm, how does my Super Mario cartridge fit in my disk drive?
Games for console systems are usually stored on cartridges, which are
essentially ROM chips in a plastic package. These ROM chips contain all the
data (program code, graphics, sounds) that are needed to let the console run
the game. So, to run your cartridge based games on a PC, you need to copy the
data stored on the cartridge ROM chips to your harddisk. These byte per byte
copies of the in-cartridge memory are called "ROM Images" or shortly "ROMs".
1.2.1 What about other medias?
Normal CDs (from the PSX or the Sega CD) can just be put into your CD-ROM
drive since they are fully compatible with the PC CD-ROM format.
The
1.3 How can I make ROM Images from my cartridges?
You need a cartridge copier. This is a device which usually takes the game
cartridge and transmits its data over the parallel port (or some other link)
to your computer.
1.4 Are there any other ways of getting games onto my PC?
You can of course copy ROM Images just like any other file. A friend of yours
may have some which he can give to you on a ZIP disk or you may find them on
the Internet.
WARNING: Using games which you didn't copy from your own cartridges is illegal.
Playing a downloaded/copied game is even illegal if you have actually bought
the same game. Also, playing a ROM on an emulator is illegal if someone else is
playing on the console with the cartridge at the same time.
2 Questions frequently asked on the newsgroup
2.1 Is there any way to convert ZSNES savegames to SNES9x ones?
There are two different kinds of savegames for both of these emulators. First,
there are the savegames which are created by using the in-game save feature.
These savegames (*.srm) can be moved between both emulators with no problems at
all. However, not all games (like Contra 3) do have a saving feature.
Second, there are the savegames created by using the emulator specific
'snapshot' feature (e.g. by pressing the F2 key). These files use an emulator
specific format, so you can't use them on the other program.
2.2 How do I get my Sidewinder to work with DOS emus?
Go to Control Panel/Game Controllers. Click on the Sidewinder entry and press
delete. The Sidewinder gamepad should work now.
2.3 How can I save game music to MIDI files?
Most (especially the older) game consoles use a rather weird way to store their
music. Instead of simply storing the keys and instrument mappings (like MIDI
does), games do integrate their music into the games code in a non-standardized
way, making it almost impossible to read their music except by emulating the
whole system. However, a couple of emulators support dumping the music to a
file during play.
SNEMUL supports dumping the currently played song to a *.MOD file. This can
then be played e.g. by WinAMP
ZSNES supports dumping the currently played song to a *.SMC file. This file can
be played by their tool SPCPLAY or by WinAMP through the plugin SPCAmp
You can get both these programs at http://www.zsnes.com
*** Anyone know something about SND2MID?
2.3.3 Genesis/Mega Drive
*** I heard something about KGen being able to do MIDI dumps?
2.4 Legality
2.4.1 Are emulators illegal?
No. There are two court decisions that support this:
- The Atari vs. Coleco case back in 1982. Atari tried to convince the judge
that every emulator is the intellectual property of the producer of the
emulated hardware since it must be considered a 'derived work'. But...
they failed!
- The NMPA vs. Diamond case in 1998. This case showed that a device must not be
illegal even if it would be used 99-percentedly for illegal purposes.
2.4.2 Is it legal to use ROMs if I delete them after 24 hours?
No, this 24 hours rule simply doesn't exist. Period!
The only way to legally play copyrighted games is if you wait for the copyright
to expire, which happens 75 years after the software was written.
This means you'll be able to play PONG legally in the year 2052 ;-)
2.4.3 Is it legal to download ROMs if you have the original cartridge?
No. You only have the right to keep a backup from exactly the program that you
own. It doesn't matter if the ROM you download is identical to your cartridge.
2.4.4 Is it legal to download ROMs and keep them in storage without using them?
No, downloading ROM images means copying them, which is illegal unless you own
the copyright or have a license from the copyright holder.
2.4.5 Is it legal to put up a ROM website?
No. The only one who has the right to distribute software is the copyright
holder. Even if all the people who download ROMs from your web-page have the
corresponding cartridge, you are still acting unlawfully.
But there are two exceptions to this rule:
- The copyright holder gave you the right to distribute his software by either
making it public domain (e.g. some Atari 2600 games) or by licensing you as
a distributor.
- You are reselling=giving the game away. This means that you must destroy the
original cartridge and delete all ROM Images on your computer (and of course
on your website) after the first one has successfully downloaded the ROM.
2.5 How do I find files on the WWW?
I suggest using either http://www.altavista.com
or http://www.metacrawler.com
Yahoo doesn't work very well since it is rather a moderated link-list than a
real search engine. And the Yahoo people are VERY careful not to let anything
even slightly controversial appear on their site.
2.6 Is it possible to emulate the Dreamcast/PSX 2/Dolphin?
The Dreamcast is quite easy to emulate since most of its components are
"off the shelf" and heavily documented. Still don't expect anything even
remotely useable in the 2nd millenium (yes, I mean 'till 2001). Getting the
games into the PC may however be quite difficult since the Dreamcast uses a
quite weird CD-Format to keep software pirates from burning copies. This also
makes it impossible to read Dreamcast CDs on normal CD-ROM/DVD drives.
The same is true for both the PSX 2 and the Nintendo Dolphin.
Also, the PSX 2 and the Dolphin are mostly hot air by now. There isn't much
knowledge about which parts are going to be in these consoles, so it's hard to
speculate how easy it will be to emulate them on a PC.
2.7 What is the best emulator for system XYZ?
I don't like giving marks. Numbers or single words aren't what i call a good
rating of someones work. The most used emulators are reviewed in small article
further down the FAQ. Read the articles, look which features you'd like to
have and download the emulator you like the most.
There are a few cases where the best and the second best emulator are so close
together that it's impossible tell which one is the best and which one the
second (ZSNES vs. SNES9x and bleem vs. PSEmu are the two most prominent examples)
2.8 I downloaded the best emulator for some system but game XYZ still doesn't work.
No emulator is 100% perfect. If a game doesn't work try it first on other (yes,
even so called worse) emulators. If it still doesn't work look on the Internet
if the game is eventually non-emulated due to some weird chip in the cartridge
or some strange protection scheme on the CD. If you don't find any of these
reports try to redump/redownload the game. Sometimes this will fix it. Also try
different settings in the emulator (sound on/off, joystick on/off, different
video modes etc.) looking on the Internet for a particular setting to get the
game to work would help.
3 What you don't want to post on comp.emulators.game-consoles
3.1 "It doesn't work. Help me!"
This is actually a good type of message and there are quite a lot of people
who like to help out newbies having technical problems with an emulator.
But please try to be more specific. Include everything in your post which
might be useful for us to solve your problem. Sometimes, the process of
wording out your request may even help yourself getting the solution.
Also note that the newsgroup isn't the place to ask technical questions about
commercial emulators (e.g. bleem!). Send them to _their_ tech support. You
have paid for this emulator and it's your right to get help from them. The
newsgroup is there to provide free (somtimes a bit unreliable :-) technical
support for those authors who share our 'software should be free' attitude.
3.2 "Mail me lots of romz"
I can give you an answer right here: Fuck off!
1. This is neither a warez nor a binaries group, if you want ROMs off the
Usenet, go to news://news.yourISP.com/alt.binaries , for the WWW,
try http://www.altavista.com
2. Do you really think there's anyone on this world who is going to waste
his bandwith on a lamer who's simply too lazy to use a search engine
3.3 "Where can I find N64 romz?"
Public domain ROMs can be found at http://www.dextrose.com
Don't ask for pirated ROMs since comp.emulators.game-consoles is a newsgroup
to talk about technical and social aspects of emulation and not about pirating
games. There are plenty of other Newsgroups/WWW-Sites/IRC networks where you
can get all kind of warez.
3.4 "Where can I find PSX romz?"
There _are_ PSX CD-ROM dumps (called ISOs) available on the hardcore warez
scene. Since their size is often between 300 and 600 megabytes, they simply
aren't downloadable by the majority of the Internet users. And even if you
have a highspeed (and highspeed doesn't mean cable modems, i am talking about
T1+) connection the price for the bandwidth/chance of being caught/power for
your computer/not published future games because of software developer money loss
would probably still be higher than the 30$ most PSX games cost nowadays. So
forget about warezing PSX games and go buy them in the stores (Yes, even in
Wal-Mart)
3.5 "Where can I find Dreamcast romz?"
There is no real (= non-fake) dump of a Dreamcast game. Even if they'd exist
they would be even bigger than PSX games so most people can simply forget to
download them.
4 Where can I get an emulator for System XYZ
Note that this list isn't complete. A more complete list can be found at
http://www.emuhq.com/
4.1 Nintendo
The best NES emulator. Supports most games and does have all the features which
makes an emulator nice to use. It is rather slow but that doesn't matter much
given the age of the system.
http://www.emucamp.com/rocknes/
This is a multiple system emulator just like MAME. It's listed here because
of its very high compatibility. Just like MAME, it should be considered as
"the lowest common denominator" type emulator. This means, if you can use
anything else, use it, but always keep MESS as the last resort. In some 10 years
MESS might be the only NES emulator still working.
Available for DOS, Mac OS, Solaris and more
http://mess.emuverse.com/
An NES emulator with a lot of features but a rather low compatibility.
http://net.dormc.nccu.edu.tw/~fanwen/index_e.htm
The early bird of the NES emulators. Mediocre compatibility and not all too
good sound. Still worth a try if RockNES or FWNES don't work.
http://www.maelstrom.net/callus/
The best gameboy emulator, nearly perfectly compatible and with a lot of
features (Color GB support, Integrated Debugger/Disassembler etc.).
http://www.work.de/nocash/
A gameboy emulator for Windows. Highly compatible with Color GB and
(although very limited) Pocket Printer support. Lacks sound compatibility
though.
http://www.emuunlim.com/hgb/
A very fast emulator with very good compatibility. Supports Super FX and
DSP1. Only available as a DOS version because of the extensive use of
assembly language.
http://www.zsnes.com/
A fast emulator with excellent compatibility. Supports Super FX and
DSP1 and is available in versions for a lot of different systems. Has the best
graphics quality since it can use your 3dFX card to scale and filter the SNES-
screen.
http://www.snes9x.com/
A good alternative emulator whose unchallenged best feature is the ability to
dump SNES music to MOD files.
http://www.multimania.com/cassiop/index.html
By now the best N64 emulator. It runs Mario 64, Mario Kart 64 and Zelda 64
almost perfectly and a lot of other games so that they are playable. After the
emulator project
After the emulator project had been discontinued, their web-page was taken down
immediately due to Nintendo (through IDSA) threatening their ISP with a law-suit
but has since returned. You can also find it on some general emulation sites.
http://www.emuunlim.com/UltraHLE
Available for Windows, UNIX and MacOS, this one runs several commercial games but
has some compatibility problems with PC Hardware. As the Windows version uses
DirectX for 3D display, owners of any 3D-Accelerator may use it.
http://www.emuhq.com/truereality/
Runs many demos perfectly and quite a few games playable to nearly perfectly.
Very fast due to dynamic recompilation.
Use it with those games UltraHLE isn't able to run.
http://www.emuunlim.com/nemu64
4.2.1 Master System
*** Don't know much about this emu
http://www.komkon.org/fms/MG/
This is a multiple system emulator just like MAME. It's listed here because
of its very high compatibility. Just like MAME, it should be considered as
"the lowest common denominator" type emulator. This means, if you can use
anything else, use it, but always keep MESS as the last resort. In some 10 years
MESS might be the only Master Gear emulator still working.
Available for DOS, Mac OS, Solaris and more
http://internetter.com/titan/mess/
4.2.2 Genesis/Mega Drive
The best Genesis emulator. The newer versions tend to have compatibility problems
which older versions didn't have. Download both KGen 98 and an older version
(e.g. v0.34b) and try a game first with KGen 98 and then with the older one.
http://www.emulnews.com/kml-empire/index1.htm
*** Don't know much about this emu
http://www.maelstrom.net/callus/
Probably the most advanced Saturn emulator available but still does not
run any games/demos yet.
http://www.emuunlim.com/A-Saturn
Nothing works yet, but looks promising if you're really interested in the
Saturn ("Saturn, is this some kind of a candy ?!").
http://emu.simplenet.com/semu/
4.3.1 Atari 2600
Almost perfectly compatible emulator.
Available for DOS, 32bit Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Free BSD, OS/2 and more
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~bwmott/2600/
4.3.2.1 Virtual Game Station
A Commercial PSX emulator. Only available for Macintosh because it's
essentially a tool for maccies to cope with the shortage of games developed
or at least ported for Macintosh.
But rumors tell that a Windows version is in the works (Hey! They need to
make some money after all :-)
http://www.connectix.com
Another commercial PSX emulator. Runs more games than Virtual Game Station.
A crippled demo (no sound, no mem-cards, ten minute time limit) is available
for download.
http://www.bleem.com
The best freeware PSX emulator. Better than Bleem in both performance and
compatibility, this was a major hope for the Playstation emulation fans.
Even though it has been discontinued, its support for OpenGL, DirectX and
Glide and its excellenct Sound capabilities make it still one of the best
PSX emulators available
http://www.psemu.com/
Very good emulator with some sound problems.
http://home5.swipnet.se/~w-50884
4.3.4 PC Engine/TurboGrafx16
A shareware PCE emulator that is probably the best in terms of compatibility
and such.
http://joyce.eng.yale.edu/~bt/turbo/emu/
One of the best PCE emulators available with good compatibility.
Available in both DOS and Windows versions.
http://www.hu6280.com/
*** Don't know much about this emu
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Way/3340/vpce.html
5 Last updated
Thursday, 23. of September 1999