emulator posts

Play Contra, Super Mario Bros., Tetris, and more in Google Chrome

by Lee Mathews Sep 17th 2009

Yes, Google, you can proudly herald this one as a major victory for your browser in my books. If other Javascript benchmarks haven't been anything you could get excited about, maybe this one will do it. Ben Firshman's Javascript NES emulator runs best in Google Chrome.

Just head on over to his site (which will likely start bogging down today as this little baby inevitably moves from Reddit to Digg), pick a game, and get ready for some early 90s video gaming excitement.

One downside: you'll have to be cool with a similarly early 90s style screen (think original Gameboy). You'll only get a viewable area of about 256x240. If size isn't a major concern for you, here's a list of the games you can play:

Contra
Donkey Kong
Dr. Mario
Golf
Legend of Zelda
Lemmings
Mario Bros.
Pac Man
Super Mario Bros.
Tennis
Tetris
Tetris 2
Zelda II
Super Mario Bros. 3 (partially working)

JSNES works in other browsers, of course, but not quite as well. Firefox frame rates are generally reported to be about 1/10th or less those from Chrome. Safari (and most other Webkit browsers) should be up to the task.

[via Reddit]

Tags: emulator, games, google chrome, google-chrome, GoogleChrome, javascript, nintendo

Filed under: Developer, OS Updates, Windows Mobile

Windows Mobile 6.5 SDK released, emulators ready for download

by Brad Linder Jun 4th 2009

Want to play with Windows Mobile 6.5 before it's available on phones and don't feel like installing one of the hacked versions floating around the shadowy corners if the internet? No problem. Microsoft launched the Software Development Kit for Windows Mobile 6.5 today, and as part of that launch, the company released an emulator that essentially lets you run the mobile operating system in a virtual environment on a Windows PC.

The idea behind the emulator is that it gives developers the tools to create and test applications for deployment on Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. But since the emulator images are available for anyone to download, you can also use them to take the operating system for a test spin or see if the apps you're running on your Pocket PC 2002 device will run properly on a new phone.

Tags: emulator, windows-mobile-6.5, windows-mobile-6.5-sdk

Filed under: OS Updates, Palm, Mobile

Palm Pre and WebOS gets emulator for older PalmOS apps

by Brad Linder Apr 2nd 2009

Palm did an interesting thing with the upcoming Pre smartphone: The company scrapped its old operating system and started from scratch. The new webOS is prettier, easier to use, and more focused on modern apps like web browsers than PalmOS.

The problem is, there are more than 30,000 PalmOS apps already out there. And by building a new operating system from the ground up, Palm was kind of telling loyal fans of some of those programs not to bother upgrading until (or unless) the develoeprs of those apps issued updates. Because webOS wasn't going to run them.

But now Palm has announced that MotionApps is developing a program called "Classic" that will allow WebOS users to run older PalmOS apps. The software isn't part of the operating system, and customers will have to buy it separately. But it should be available for purchase as soon as the pre launches.

Because Classic is an emulator, older PalmOS programs won't be able to access the core webOS functions. I assume that means if you decide to that you prefer the classic contact application to the new one, you won't be able to use it to initiate phone calls.

PalmOS emulation company StyleTap has also said that it's considering developing a version of its software for webOS.

[via Uneasy Silence]

Tags: classic, emulation, emulator, motionapps, palmos, webos, webos-classic

Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters, Web

Wreck your team's afternoon with SNK League Bowling - Time Waster

by Lee Mathews Feb 12th 2009

There's no reason that you should be alone in your Time Waster-ing. If you're feeling social and want to bring your teammates down with you, head over to GetBack's arcade and go for 300 in SNK League Bowling.

Yep, it's the classic NeoGeo title done up for your browser. I still remember drooling over ads for the console and thinking that the NeoGeo was probably the best at home arcade system I'd ever see. Well, so much for that.

Still, League Bowling is a fun way to kill some time at work with your buddies.

Grab up to three friends and compete for bragging rights, or play on your own if you prefer. The controls are simple: position your bowler along the line using the arrow keys. Use the a key to set your aim and s for power. It's all about timing - stop the indicator at the wrong time, and your ball is headed straight for the gutter.

Tags: bowling, emulator, flash-game, multiplayer, neogeo

Filed under: Fun, Games, Mozilla, Browsers

FireNES Adds Tons-O-Nintendo Fun to Firefox - Time Waster

by Lee Mathews Aug 18th 2008

If you didn't notice from reading my last massive time waster, I love classic gaming. I'm also a Firefox user, and always on the hunt for good addons like the rest of you. Thank god for FireNES, an awesome addon for Firefox that gives you ready access to a massive repository of NES games.

After you install it, customize your toolbar and add the FireNES button to give yourself one-click access to the sidebar. The full ROMs list is massive, The toplist contains the 100-or-so most played titles, and you can add any game to your list of favorites with a simple right click.

Best of all, you don't have to hunt down ROMs on horibly cluttered, scam-laden websites. Awesome.

The only possible downside to all this: habla usted español? The developer's page is Spanish only - not a big deal, the install link is easy to find and you can always run it through your favorite translation app.

Tags: addon, emulator, emulators, extension, firefox, games, gaming, nintendo, roms

Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Windows Mobile, Microsoft, Freeware, Mobile Minute

Microsoft Device Emulator lets you run Windows Mobile 6 on your PC

by Brad Linder Mar 2nd 2008

If you've been hanging onto a Windows Mobile phone or PDA you bought 4 years ago because it still does the job, odds are you haven't been able to install cool new programs like the Iris or NetFront web Browsers, MSN Direct, or the Last.fm player for Windows Mobile. But how can you know if it's worth buying a newer device that runs Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6? Why not take the newer operating systems for a test drive using Microsoft Device Emulator?

Just so you know, installing Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6 in an emulator is easy. Getting it to interact with your desktop so you can copy and install files takes a bit more work. And you'll need a fairly fast computer to run the emulator. On our system it ate up to 340MB of RAM and used a fair bit of CPU cycles.

Tags: emulator, microsoft-device-emulator, virtualization, windows-mobile-5.0, windows-mobile-6

Filed under: OS Updates, Palm, Mobile Minute

Run PalmOS apps on a Nokia internet tablet

by Brad Linder Nov 13th 2007

Have a Nokia N770/N800/N810 Internet Tablet? Do you keep staring at it's tiny web-surfing screen wishing it could run some of the same applications you used to love on your old Palm Pilot? Now you can.

Last week we mentioned the fact that ACCESS is getting closer to releasing its Linux-based operating system for Palm devices. In order to ensure backward compatibility with older PalmOS applications, ACCESS designed a PalmOS Garnet emulation layer. And since it runs on Linux, and Nokia's tablets run on Linux, it was apparently pretty easy to port the PalmOS emulator over to the Nokia Internet Tablet platform.

The Garnet emulator doesn't replace Nokia's user interface, but runs on top of it as a launchable program. Once it's up and running you can access basic Palm apps like the calendar and contacts, and install third party software by hotsyncing with your computer over a network connection. The emulator also uses Palm's Graffiti handwriting recognition.

The folks over at TabletBlog have put together a quick video demonstration, which you can check out after the jump.

[via Engadget]

Tags: emulator, Garnet, Internet-Tablet, Nokia, Nokia-N770, Nokia-N800, Nokia-N810, PalmOS

Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Windows Mobile, Palm

ScummVM 0.10.0 released

by Brad Linder Jun 25th 2007

ScummVM has hit its first double digit (but still beta) release. ScummVM started out as a game engine capable of running old LucasArts games built for the Scumm engine. Over the last few years, it's transformed over the years into a cross-platform system for running dozens of classic video games, including some early Sierra Adventure games.

Version 0.10.0 is available for OS X, Linux, Windows, Windows mobile, the Nintendo DS, and a bunch of other operating systems/platforms. Updates include:

Support for Future Wars
Support for Gobliins 2
Support for Gobliins 3
Support for Ween: The Prophecy
Support for Bargon Attack
Support for Nippon Safes
Support for Sierra AGI games including the early Kings Quest, Police Quest, and Space Quest titles

There are also under the hood tweaks and bug fixes which should mean improved speed and reliability, particularly on the mobile versions for Nintendo DS, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Palm systems.

Remember, most of these games are still protected by copyrights, and it's only legal to play them if you own the original disks. A few adventure games have been released for free, and can be downloaded from the ScummVM downloads page.

[via AximSite]

Tags: classic games, ClassicGames, emulator, lucasarts, scumm, scummvm

Filed under: Games, Windows Mobile

Updated Playstation emulator for Windows Mobile

by Brad Linder Dec 26th 2006

Another holiday has come and gone, and you've discovered nobody loves you enough to buy you an $800 video game console. But if you've got a Playstation Portable or a Windows Mobile devices (particularly a Dell Axim X50v or X51v), there's good news on the video game front.

Engadget's reporting that hackers have figured out a way to make the Playstation emulator for PSPs more useful. Now you can play pretty much any Playstation ISO on a PSP, and not just the titles you can download from Sony's online store.

In other news, FPSCE, a Playstation emulator for Windows Mobile devices has been updated to include support for Windows Mobile 5.0. The latest version is also optimized to take advantage of the Intel 2700g graphics accelerator in Dell Axim X50v and X51v models.

Tags: emulator, fpsce, psp, psx, video game, VideoGame

Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Freeware, Time-Wasters

vNES: Nintendo in your browser - Today's Time Waster

by Jordan Running Oct 9th 2006

Got a hankerin' for some classic 8-bit gaming? Want to play right now? Look no further than vNES, a fantastic site of questionable legality that lets you play any of almost 400 classic Nintendo games in your browser, for free. As you may have already guessed, vNES is a basic Java-powered NES emulator, and it has games for every taste, including a few dozen Japanese titles, some funky unreleased and prototype games, and even a "Games That Aren't Fun At All" category. It has most of the classics, and more are being added every day. It works great without any noticeable slowdowns or glitches in most games, but beware: vNES can be a bit of a memory hog. Bookmark vNES while you still can, as I doubt Nintendo's IP lawyers are going to be as happy about it as I am, especially once they start selling these classic games for the Wii.

[Via Lifehacker]

Tags: 8-bit, classic, emulator, free, java, nes, nintendo, retro, video games, VideoGames, vnes

Filed under: Business, Developer, OS Updates, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Productivity, Commercial, Open Source

An introduction to virtualization

by Victor Agreda, Jr. May 15th 2006

I've been having to use VirtualPC (among others) for virtualization for ages, so running an OS inside another OS is pretty old hat for me. But for a lot of folks, the new virtualization tools have really, finally arrived. Let's face it, hardware has finally gotten to a point where doing this kind of stuff isn't nearly as painful as it used to be. I'm not saying it's great, but at least we're moving beyond the point of "which runs faster than a box turtle." Rick Cook has an excellent article at informit.com on hypervisors, from what it does to what it needs and how you can use it. Rick breaks down the major offerings, and talks about what's lacking. This stuff is finally breaking loose, and for a future Intel-based Mac owner, I couldn't be happier.

Tags: emulation, emulator, hypervisor, virtual machine, VirtualMachine, virtualpc, vmware

Filed under: Fun, Games, Utilities, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Freeware

DOSBox for old school DOS emulation

by Jason Clarke Apr 5th 2006

While everyone knows that DOS programs can be run in any version of Windows in the command prompt, if you've ever tried to play a classic DOS game on your modern system you may have been disappointed.

If you're really intent on getting that classic version of Out of this World (Another World for our European friends) from 1991 working on your Windows XP box (or Mac OS X, Linux or even BeOS machine), check out DOSBox.

DOSBox can emulate 286 & 386 processors in realmode and protected mode, handles extended memory managers like XMS and EMS, emulates a myriad of graphics subsystems including Tandy/Hercules/CGA/EGA/VGA/VESA graphics, and of course the obligatory SoundBlaster emulation.

Tags: cross platform, CrossPlatform, dos, DOS emulation, DOS Gaming, DOSBox, DosEmulation, DosGaming, emulation, emulator, tandy, tuaw

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With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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