Enthusiasts of classic emulators will be glad to hear that homebrew developer Patrik Rak is back with an update to his Sinclair ZX Spectrum (previous update here). Sporting new options such as toggling between grayscale and color graphics as well as adding a safer shutdown mode. The changelog can be found, as usual, in the full article.


Download: ZXDS 0.8.0 beta 1

Ever wondered how the game consoles of old handled like? The homebrew scene is your ticket to finding out, and in this Nintendo DS homebrew update, we get a second chance to put the Sinclair ZX Spectrum through its paces. Say hello to Nintendo DS homebrew developer Patrik Rak and his own foray into the scene, ZXDS. Find out more in the full article.



Download: ZXDS 0.7.0 beta 1

  

Last year, 10tacle studios announced that they would be releasing Boulder Dash for the PSP and DS. For the guys unfamiliar with the game, Boulder Dash was originally created in the 80s for the Apple II, MSX, ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, and Atari 400/800 home computers.

The game puts players behind the controls of Rockford, whose job is to dig through caves collecting gems and diamonds while avoiding hostile creatures and falling rocks. Fast forward to today, we we have received new details for this upcoming game, which has been renamed Boulder Dash-Rocks!:

• Completely revamped in-game graphics
• Release date moved to the fourth quarter 2007.
• The game will feature tools to help the players on their diamond-collecting, such as bombs and laser guns - the latter can be loaded with different types of ammo.
• Each laser ammo has a different characteristic: some have the ability to freeze enemies, while others pull objects towards the player.
• Five game modes: Single-player, Multi-player, and three other TBA game modes.
• Unique game modes for the PSP and DS (TBA).  

Just keep posted as 10tacle reveals more details on this upcoming game in the near future

CraigT has just released v0.2a for his much-celebrated ZX Spectrum homebrew emu for the DS called SpeccyDS. And as promised, this version packs in tons of fixes and additions to ensure that SpeccyDS will run much smoother on your handhelds.

We know most of you guys have been waiting for this release for quite some time now, so we won't keep you at bay any longer. Here's the full list of stuff that's changed in v0.2a...

• Upgraded to libfat, which includes the DLDI driver.
• Fixed .z80 loading routine. More .Z80 snapshots will now be accepted.
• Fixed flag behaviour in DAA instruction to fix problems in Head over Heels.
• Fixed HALT instruction (again!) to fix crash in Starquake.
• Implemented a few undocumented instructions.
• Optomised display routines.
• Hooked up X and Y buttons.
• Corrected Sinclair 1 and 2 joystick assignments.
  

And as usual, we highly suggest you check out the all-important readme for more necessary info you might want (or need) to know before you go tinkering with your handhelds. Got that? Good. Then go on and...

Download: [SpeccyDS v0.2a]

CraigT has some news about his Sinclair ZX Spectrum homebrew emulator for DS known as SpeccyDS. And it looks like the next update is going to be a big one. In the upcoming version SpeccyDS, the G6 driver has been merged into the FAT driver although it is completely untested.

CraigT also started redesigning the GUI code in a more OO-friendly manner and implemented a few undocumented Z80 op-codes (around the EDxx range). Whatever that means.

But the best future change of all will be the 128k emulation. "Don’t get too excited at the moment since Ii’ve only been reading up on what is required, but from what I can see it should be quite straight forward to modify the code to emulate a 128k Spectrum," says CraigT. Okay, so 128K support may not make it to the next update but knowing CraigT, it won't be long till he rolls out that version.

The Amstrad CPC (Color Personal Computer) was a series of 8-bit home computers from the 80s and early 90s. The Amstrad CPC was designed for head-on competition with the Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum systems. The CPC came in four configurations:

• 464 (Tape deck, 64 KB RAM, square-edged keyboard)
• 472 (Tape deck, 72K RAM)
• 664 (3" Floppy disk drive, 64K RAM)
  
• 6128 (3" Floppy disk drive, 128K RAM, more PC-like keyboard)

Why are we telling you this? Because we came across a CPC 6128 emulator for Nintendo DS called CrocoDS Alpha v0.1a by My Ketchup Is Dead. Okay, we're not sure about the developer's name. Our "French" tongue is limited to four-letter words.

CrocoDS Alpha v0.1a allows the loading of files SNA and DSK in the root of the GBA cartridge (use of the LIBFAT of picodriveds) while pressing the Select button. Pressing R starts again the emulator. Pressing  L switches between the emulation joystick and keypad. The developer is working to replace "the core Z80 out of C by a version asm (I think of directing myself towards the bookshop DrZ80 Reesy to create for MAME), to add the support of the zippées images." The bitmap of the keyboard is temporary.

This is where our limited French comes to an end.

Download: [CrocoDS Alpha v0.1a]

If you're one of the rare people who either still have or even remember the ZX Spectrum computer by Sinclair Research Ltd, then you might be able to relive your 80s days and hack it out on your handheld with SpeccyDS.

SpeccyDS is still in early development, but that doesn't mean that it's going slow in progress. In fact, since its previous release, CraigT has improved a lot of things in his homebrew ZX Spectrum emulator. Right now, there still a couple of games which aren't supported, but he's been able to make some compatible already (more on that below).

How does it work? Simple: the touchpad is used as the keyboard with the top screen as the "computer monitor".

Here's the change log:

• Fixed ARM7/ARM9 synchronisation to prevent sound corruption
• Altered ADD IX,SP and ADD IY,SP instructions to fix crash in Bubble Bobble
• Altered ROM protection to fix crashes in Megabucks and others
• Altered HALT instruction to fix crashes in Chaos, Critical Mass and others
• Corrected S flag behaviour in BIT instructions to fix Sabre Wulf
• Added button support to the file browser. Files can now be selected using the d-pad and A buttons
• Added auto scrolling to the file browser. Display can now be scrolled by holding down the buttons
• File names are now displayed in the correct case in the file browser
• Added .Z80 loading support
• Added .Z80 saving support
• Implemented REIN fat library to increase hardware compatibilityArkanoid
• Games which are now compatible which weren't in previous version:
  
• Asterix and the Magic Cauldron
• Bubble Bobble
• Chaos (Some graphical corruption remains)
• Critical Mass
• MegaBucks
• Sabre Wulf (Fixed rhino behaviour)
• Uridium
• Zynaps

Download: [SpeccyDS v0.2]

The Nintendo Wii is being packaged with a squeaky clean image, in the sense that it's family-friendly and its games would cater to the wants of every member. But video gaming, just like real life, isn't all bright and sunshiny or nice and sweet - and that's where the game Sadness enters the picture.

Too bad that its developer, Nibris, has not been divulging more details about it. But to compensate for the lack of info to this hauntingly mysterious title for the Wii, the Polish game developer opened up about another game that they're brewing for the Nintendo DS and the Wii.

The new game they're developing is called Double Pang. From the title itself, you may already have an idea that this is not as dark and disturbing as Sadness. What is it all about? Well, the game is actually a new version of Pang (or Buster Bros. in the U.S.A), it is a one or two player arcade game which is the brainchild of Mitchell Corporations. It first saw the light of mass production in 1989 and was produced for various home systems such as ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari ST among many others.

Basically, the goal of the game is for you to go through 16 countries with each of 'em having three levels. What you do is destroy a series of balloons using a harpoon gun. When you have eliminated the Helium-filled thingamajigs, they will progressively divide into two wherein the smallest bubbles will go kaput when shot. Power-ups such as vulcan missile, free time clock, and double harpoon are present in the game.

Nibris is planning on unveiling the DS version on April 2007, while the Wii version is planned to come out on September. And basing from our last report, this game would be released earlier than Sadness (Q4 2007 or Q1 2008) and Raid Over the River (Wii release Q3 2008, DS release Q2-Q3 2007). Let's hope that Nibris keeps their word this time around and for goodness sake, talk about how Sadness is shaping up!

Here's some juicy update on SpeccyDS, CraigT's Sinclair ZX Spectrum Emulator for DS.

According to CraigT, the problems in the CPU core has been what's keeping him busy the last few weeks. He reports that he has done 5-10 bug fixes, which have prevented the games from running earlier. And now, those games that were bugged by bugs are perfectly working like clockwork: Robocop, Chase HQ, Three Weeks in Paradise, Batman, Exolon, Bombjack and Dan Dare.

Still appearing to be problematic, though, are Chaos, Starquake, Sabre Wolf and Megabucks for various reasons - from having the wrong AI feel to crashing in game/menu. CraigT will be tinkering with this emulator a little bit more to perfection over the next few days.

Also getting the developer's attention now is the thought on emulating the sound. According to him, "I’ve already solved how to regularly store the sound data from the CPU, but I’ve only briefly looked at how to convert this into a format that the DS will process.  It looks like i’ve got some more reading ahead of me."

Well, here's hoping he gets those extra readings done, so he can finally finish this program. But kudos, still, for doing a pretty neat job so far.

Talk about old school gaming! DSpec is now in Private Beta mode with Beta v0.2. As soon as the developers are done, there will be a public release and the world can enjoy the newer, better ZX Spectrum emulator (we first wrote about the DSpec project last year).

For those of you who are young whippersnappers, the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was a home computer back from the early 1980's. It was marketed in the UK by Sinclair Research. It was called the Spectrum because it had a color display. Yes, that was a big deal back then.

"Private Beta" means that a select group of people are testing the game. No, there is no version available for download. Just be patient. Beta testing takes time.

Meanwhile, the old preview release is available. You might already have downloaded it from us. It's the same one from September 2005, but you are free to to grab it still in case you're interested. Have fun!

Download: [DSpec - Spectrum Emulator]