Swithin

The last official VBA had some major slowdowns for Wintel systems. The continuations offer speedups and some bug-fixes. No$GBA is *much* faster than *any* version of VBA. It's also tiny. The down-side is that it isn't very customizable, and has some odd crashes. Best emu depends on your system. I've got 256MB of RAM, an Athlon XP 1800+, and a GeForce 3 - and VBA can't run smoothly. It just can't. If it *could*, however...

Could a mod please rename the first words of this thread? It's identically named to James thread, so whenever I see this as the "current" topic from the forums menu I get my hopes up... just adding a # or something in front of the text would do it.

Actually, they go up to one giga-BIT. Not that it's not enough... The most interesting thing with these is that you can play NES/SNES/Game Gear games on them with emus. [edit: Oh hey, they now make CF pass-through movie players. I was wondering if they'd ever make CF converters, but it looks like you can't actually play anything other than movies with the one they've got.]

Yes, Resident Evil is such a kids game. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Not to mention the site you'd have to visit to even *find* her "favorite video games list" to read. <sorry for double-posting, I'm just too lazy to re-edit my post with quote tags etc.>

Exactly. Who remembers RAPE?, the NGP emulator... basically, they used Pikachu as the program's icon (as in, click to launch program icon thing.) Well, they got a cease-and-desist. And that's the right application of such a thing. This girl just wrote the word "Zelda" and got sent a threatening letter. She certainly didn't use it in any commercial application, nor did she use any copyrighted material, nor did she associate Zelda with any sexual acts or activities, or even with a single explicit word. She just *referred* to a trademarked title in a forum in which you can't really *not* refer to a trademarked title, which as far as I can tell violates absolutely no sane IP laws anywhere (and if there are laws which could apply to her, I say we all violate them in protest on a daily basis.) I'm wondering if Nintendo is at all involved in this, or just their trigger-happy lawyers.

Umm, Ugenn... it's a cultural reference. Zelda is a cultural reference, Metroid is a cultural reference. If we're not allowed, on the whole, when asked who our favorite author is (for instance) to answer using his name *BECAUSE IT'S CONSIDERED INFRINGEMENT*, then someone's seriously confused about the "fair use" of nouns and verbs and spoken/written language in general. What if this wasn't a porn-site, but a games-reviewer? One who hadn't been given express permission to write a review? "Zelda sucks." <-- sued. This is not the defense of brand-image, this is the attempt to frighten someone into shutting up using the legal system as a threat. This is, basically, censorship.

Ah, but Yuri's got the slap-move. Btw, I'm not a Ramon user, but I don't have anything against the character. I just don't think he fits with Seth and Vanessa, who are gov't sponsored. He joined with them to get some fame, but now that's happened. It's time for him to strike off on his own and party-up with other glory-seekers, making room for another recruit.

I'm not sure if you're asking what fighters you're missing or what beat-em-ups you're missing. Since there are a gajillion beat-em-ups, I'll just point out a couple decent fighters.: Asura Blade (very, very pretty) Rabbit (not perfectly emulated, but fun enough.) Astra Super Stars (isn't emulated well yet, but it will be) Also, I know that MAME doesn't really *need* to overlap perfectly with the Neo, but any list of fighting games needs to mention Waku Waku 7.

I don't think the Ikari team is going anywhere. First off, they're too popular. Second, it makes sense for them story-wise to be in KoF. They've entered almost every year, making them just as much a mainstay as Iori (is he still the most popular character?), and now that Orochi power seems to be trading hands like a baseball card it makes no sense for them to choose this year to quit, in SNK-logic. Of course, they could still be involved with the story but unplayable... but their inclusion in MI, IMHO, cements their inclusion. MI was intended to bring in a new audience, and as you've mentioned all three were in - why bring new fans to *three* characters and then drop them all? Makes no sense. [edit: I also have great hope that many of the characters left out of 2k3 were left out for space and tag-balance reasons, and that teams like Vanessa-Seth-Someone-other-than-Ramon are re-included. A long time ago I made a "dream-roster" for KoF, in which Heavy D! was recruited to join Vanessa and Seth, just like Ramon was. I'm still holding out hope for this.]

Oh man, so many many bad moments to try to remember.... One of my favorites was done by someone else. There was a big lan CS thing going on in the university library. I got up to leave, and was chatting with a friend while watching the game over his shoulder on the way out. Anyway, this probably isn't uncommon, but it was the first and only time I've seen it: up in the frag list materializes a "headshot self". I don't know how he managed it, probably a grenade, but man that guy had to be embarassed. I take pride in my Soul Calibur Siegfried skills... so it sucks when I zone out and just block for 4-5 rounds, getting completely owned. Sometimes I'm on a berserker killing streak, and sometimes I just lose it... losing 5 straight matches without even performing an attack is just inexplicable. We all probably have horror stories of dying a step away from a save-point after a 6-hour levelling session, or being killed by splash damage or some kind of persistent damaging effect *after* killing a boss. My worst? Probably my 50 to -14 loss in a Quake 3 deathmatch. It's not that I didn't kill the guy a bunch of times - I did. It's just that he was so much better with the railgun he kept pushing me off the edge repeatedly. That match lasted a *really* long time... and I was 20-30 behind for like an hour. THAT was depressing.

I don't know. I didn't even read this thread. I was just giving the National Audubon definition since someone cried troll. Sorry if anyone felt personally targetted. I was just making the funny.

They are called morons. A sub species in the Homo sapiens. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Ah yes, homo imitatens irritatus, commonly known as 'mocking human'. They pick up rudimentary social behaviour through imitation, but lacking any sort of creativity outside flaming on message-boards and "your momma" humor, they quickly become a nuisance. I hear they fear rational thought, and quickly flee at the sign of being ignored.

This is a known issue. The dev version of Kawaks supports a bunch of romsets that aren't released to the public, they're just making the private rounds. Some have been found (leaked), but I don't know where to get them. Point is, the versions on the net aren't the same, so they won't work with the dev version (which itself was leaked during the whole "kof2k3 won't play" uproar.)

Actually, that whole "owned by Eolith" thing is all wrong. Most of the new characters were designed somewhere between 99 and 2000, so it's not like Eolith designed them (Vanessa was supposed to be playable in 99, and Seth and Ramon were right behind her. Don't remember who designed May Lee, but that's not the point anyway.) SNKP owns the IPs to *all* the characters (and games). If they've left someone out, it's because they don't want them in, and they can replace them at any given time should they choose.

No, KoF2k3 was in arcades in December, IIRC, but I'm not sure of it's general availability at the time. I remember that they did make a point to have it in arcades in 2003 though, although they only beat the deadline by 12 days or something.

I just want to make sure. I find it odd I haven't seen anyone else ask, really... it's getting to the end of October, and I haven't heard word one about KoF2k4. So far in 2004, we've had: KoF NW, KoF MI, KoF 94 ReBout, King of Fighters for cell-phones... but I haven't heard *anything* about KoF2k4. Anyone have any clue when we'll start hearing info about this? I mean, they can't push back release to 12/31 and call it KoF 2004 - first off, no-one will be playing it in 2004 if it doesn't come out soon! Thoughts? News? Anything?

Aw crap, I started this, I'm going to have to jump in. 1) The morality of hacking emulators is attached to our individual notions of respecting an author's rights and/or playing outside the rules. The primary reason not to hack an emulator is out of respect for its author, IMHO. Some people think hacking an emu is A-O-K because, in their minds, they're "improving" upon something already good. Goodness all around, yeehaw. Others (myself included) feel if the author doesn't want it done, and you like the emu enough to use it, then you should also respect the author's wishes - but, like a lot of people, I feel this protection ends when an author declares a project dead or effectively kills it of neglect. People will have an opinion on this based on their ingrained morality, this is such a fundamental topic (respecting someone else's clay while they're still playing with it) that I don't think you can argue anyone into or out of either camp. The ones who are for hacking emus are the ones who "improved" your clay-phoenix in pre-school. The ones who are against are the ones who let you make it yourself, even if they felt the beak was too "globby". Not something you can argue out of a person, really. 2) Where the hell did this debate pop out of again? I wasn't even talking about hacking Nebula, I was talking about brewing up a simple DLL or two for private use, and also requiring they be sent off to El Semi for approval / as an offering. Damn.

Well... Andy became 'that guy' who was always there, with little to no character development other than repeatedly turning down Mai(!). The whole "American Ninja" thing is out of style anyway, Galford being a stand-up exception to the rule (well, and Chipp, but he's not from SNK, and besides, he's actually got a personality.) The recent SNK ninja types have been getting more and more exotic. I don't see any reason for SNK to go back to plain ol' vanilla Andy. However, that's no reason to give up on the character - just infuse some fresh ideas into his personality, and make him more fun to use. I mean, the guy's been totally overshadowed by his own disciple - time for an upgrade. I guess the problem is that he's so set in his image that any changes they make will invariably make him more like Chipp. Seriously. SNK can't cut his hair - too much like Chipp. They can't modernize his outfit, too much like Chipp. They can't speed up his play - too much like Chipp. They can't give him invisibility, etc etc. And if they put him in more 'casual' clothes, then he looks a bit like a blonde Guy. So what's the answer? Give him his own freaking personality finally! His own distinctive moves, special abilities, etc... but then again, there are too few people who care anymore to really warrant this. Oh well, we'll see if he's ever revived. ps - Joe is perhaps my very least favorite KoF character, competing with Chang. Chang and Choi should be changed to Smart Chang and Cool Choi somehow. The only thing that would make me interested in playing Joe was if somehow they made Undead Joe, or if they let his hair down, gave him a bunch of sinister tattoos, and cut off one of his arms.

Well, I'm glad people didn't flame me. First off, about the "El Semi cares / El Semi doesn't care" thing: I don't think he'd care too much. This isn't something that changes the scope of Nebula, technically it doesn't change anything in the code, and it doesn't support newer releases in any way. As we all know, flickering shadows is something he feels need to be dealt with in neo-emulation, otherwise he wouldn't include the automatic-transparencies features release-after-release. He even includes artificial-transparency support in the form of blend files. The only thing is that neither work well with flickering shadows. It's not like this is something Nebula doesn't do already: it doesn't even toe the line, it's just a graphical option. He includes tons, many of which he probably doesn't ever personally use. This is just one that hasn't gotten in yet, and someone else doing it just saves him the work. Second, someone wrote a massive cheat file for X-Men: COTA. He liked the effects so much he's hosting it on his site. I know there's a big difference between writing a cheat (for which he has written a program for which he gives open support) and using his proprietary plug-in system... but the behaviour there suggests that he appreciates other people working with Nebula and changing the experience. In fact, that cheat substantially alters the gameplay of COTA, so it's not like he's striving only for "arcade-perfect" emulation. He's being *very* inclusive with what Nebula can do, he simply hasn't gotten around to this. Third, I'm not suggesting a hacked version of Nebula or anything, nor am I suggesting some emu-scene-wide release of this thing. I would suggest, if someone does this, to share it around on a relatively private level, so that we can check it out and enjoy it, but also to send it *immediately* to El Semi. I'm sure he'd appreciate the gesture - and if not, it would end there. I know someone mentioned that if I propose this I should be able to help out, and that I should probably answer that first, but I don't want anyone thinking I don't respect El Semi. For me that comes first, I have a great deal of respect for people who release their hard work for free. That said, I still think this is a good idea, and that it can be done and still be damn respectful (and even helpful) to El Semi. Dooz, El Semi has done an awesome job. I get where you're coming from, but there's a big reason I can't just view Nebula in a moral vacuum here. It's not heart-surgery, or the most important thing in the world, but I'm very grateful to El Semi for doing what he's done. You just can't look at it like that until he stops officially supporting Nebula dude. Xeon, El Semi didn't make Nebula open-source I assume mostly so that it isn't abused by rom-kiddiez wanting to play all the newest games. I don't think he'd be too pissed at someone writing a plug-in, though. Darkmage, you're probably right that Raz could do it, but I really just don't want to bother him. He didn't make the program, I can't ask him to support it. If he were my buddy or something, I *would* drop it in in some conversation, because it's probably not a big deal to him, but out of the blue would probably be rude. Agozer - you're completely right, but I just don't have the technical skills. If someone wanted a story or a doctoral thesis or something edited, I'd jump right in to help. I'm not trying to mooch here, this is just something I can't do on my own. On the other hand, I am trying to get the ball rolling, and if something needs getting done that I can do related to this, I wouldn't turn it down. Emsley, I'm not sure if that means you're working on something else right now or taking a look at this. I'm glad you can code, though. If you are trying it out, let me know if there's anything I can do to help out. Oh, and guys, if I seem too interested in this... well, it is an emulation forum, and at the moment this is basically the one thing left on my emulation wishlist.

Hey all. I'm still all antsy about this subject, and I've written El Semi twice (spread over a couple of years) to no reply. Basically, I feel Nebula is the premiere neo-emulator for the following reasons: Neo-CD support, spot-on emulation, higher maximum-resolution than Kawaks, and finally HQ2X filtering. Yes, Kawaks and FBA do some things better than good old Neb, but neither do neo-cd and Kawaks doesn't do HQ2X (I don't know from personal experience, but I'm guessing FBA can.) Here's the problem: Nebula doesn't do frame-blend properly. It has the "smart" frame-blend, supposedly meant to handle blinking transparencies, but this just causes horrendous tearing around the feet on character-shadows (and in some situations, makes some sprites have holes as if they were shot by the inviso-shotgun, such as Kagami in LB2, not to mention leaving phantom-pixels all over the place when characters jump into a high-contrast 'sky' background <K' in particular>...) Anyway, Nebula supports full frame-blend, but only to the exclusion of all other graphics filters. Which kinda takes away the point of 'graphical improvement'. Anyway, I'm not sure if El Semi has a problem with people exploiting his plug-in system, but I really doubt it. If anyone knows differently, please feel free to flame me or simply delete this topic. The general gist is this: for the betterment of Nebula, it would be useful for someone who has the time/experience to create plug-in versions of the basic filters with full frame-blend included. This does nothing to alter the basic Nebula code in any way, nor does it add any features or support for any games that El Semi disapproves of. In fact, if done, the plug-ins should be sent straight to El Semi, and if he likes the idea he can put them up on his site and have a nifty new feature for his emu without having to do the hard work. The problem is this: I have no idea how to do this. That's pretty much why I call it a 'challenge'. Why would anyone care enough to do this after just reading me rant about it for a page? I have no idea. The reason I would do it if I could is simple: this would give Nebula all the advantages I perceive all other emulators have over it, basically making it the obvious choice for neo-emulation. Anyway, if this is impossible, then call me an idiot... but I don't think it is impossible. I'm sure if someone took a look in Nebula's plug-in directory, a particularly talented individual could figure out how to make it work. Also note I have no 'bounty' to offer for this. I can't afford to buy and ship baked goods / mooks / cash / whatever. It's just a good idea, IMHO.

Actually, that's called The United Federation of Planets, and it doesn't exist. Supposedly, you have to pay an entry fee (in the form of deeds or faith, depending on religion or creed) to get into heaven. Look at it this way: life is already free. Didn't pay to be born, didn't work to earn a world full of hot chicks (or guys, or linux-based servers, whatever you're into,) we've done absolutely nothing to be handed such a rich history and artistic legacy that the human race has, and in modern times all of these things are pretty much available for free. Not a bad deal. The failing is when people's anger or sadness grows greater than their curiosity or passions... note that this is an unnatural state for a human being. If you're feeling down, it'll pass. And as I said to someone else recently, when in serious doubt, get laid. That should clear everything up.

It's not lame, it's just seemingly overpriced. 70 bucks? I'd buy these for 20, I really probably would, just to watch the whole set once it would probably be worth it. I find good matches more exciting than most television, so why not? But 70 bucks? That's more than the whole new Star Wars DVD set, that's almost two copies of RotK Extended edition. No thanks, I've got priorities.

The DC pad is perfect for Soulcal, piss poor for most 2D fighting games. On the other hand, the PS pad is very good for things like racing games, and a little bit better for *some* fighting games, but... if a pad doesn't have six face buttons, it's never going to be good enough for 2D fighters - which is why we have third-party pads (for instance, you can find new-in-box Stormchasers for around $10 at many stores). Anyway, if you like arcade sticks, there are many good options for both systems. I don't think you can really compare the two systems based on their default controllers... you can, however, compare the support given for different control-systems like wheels, flight-sticks, etc. DC has the Virtual On dual-sticks (which no-one has, come on, admit it) whereas PS2 has many driving games, more gun-shooters, etc. I don't think the keyboard titles deserve too much mention except that you can use that PS2-with-embedded-keyboard pad on your pc with an adapter, which is kinda cool.

Oh, Ok. Whoops. I'm not the biggest Karnov's Revenge or Gowcaiser fan, but I can see how it's fun just to play around. Sorry for assuming.

By 'failing to understand', do you mean this quote? As I mentioned, MAME is specifically giving me an error message talking about 1 file in particular, and only that one file. There is no other file that it mentions, all versions of pgm-bios are in place, and this affects all pgm titles. [edit:] btw, this problem didn't used to affect MAME at all. Everything was fine until a hd-crash, total system re-install. Everything else works spot on, just like it should.