All articles tagged with #emulation
Nintendo filed seven DMCA anti-circumvention notices with GitHub in a single day, wiping out more than 400 Switch emulator repositories—including suyu, Yuzu forks, and Skyline—by arguing the emulators decrypt game ROMs without authorization. GitHub removed many repos, though forks often resurface, underscoring the ongoing tension around Switch emulation and enforcement.
Once a home-computer titan with the C64 and Amiga, Commodore has survived through a tangled history of ownership changes and licensing disputes (Escom, Gateway, Tulip Computers, Acer) before being revived in 2025 by YouTuber Christian Simpson as Commodore International. The fresh revival leans on nostalgia and future tech, delivering FPGA-based products like the C64 Ultimate and planning a social-media-blocking Callback phone, signaling a renewed but legally complex era for the Commodore and Amiga brands.
The article argues classic games feel and look better on CRT TVs because CRTs render motion with scanlines and handle low, interlaced 240p/480i content without the deinterlacing lag and artifacts that plague modern displays. Games were designed for non-native CRT resolutions, and phosphor-based rendering plus dithering preserve visuals that LCDs/OLEDs often wash out. While CRTs are bulky and hard to maintain, modern emulators with CRT filters or dedicated scalers (e.g., RetroTink 4K) offer practical ways to reproduce the look without owning a CRT.
Two Nintendo DS emulators, WatermelonDS and SeedlessDS, released simultaneous updates: WatermelonDS 0.7.0—an upstream MelonDS fork—adds dual-screen support on modern hardware, external displays, OpenGL/Vulkan renderers, and a major UI refresh with updated ROM lists and RetroAchievements integration; SeedlessDS 1.0.0-beta1 targets low-power handhelds with a DraStic-based Android frontend, a Kotlin/Jetpack Compose UI, RetroAchievements support, save states with screenshots, quick save/load, cheats, and revamped controls and settings, plus a roadmap hinting at a Linux version for devices like the RG35XX SP.
Ayaneo’s Konkr Pocket Advance is an Android handheld focused on Game Boy Advance-style emulation, featuring a 3.5-inch 960x640 display, USB-C, microSD, Wi‑Fi/Bluetooth, a 3.5mm jack, and L2/R2 triggers for PS1/N64 layouts, with Navy Blue and Coral Orange options; it won’t play physical cartridges, relying on emulation like the Pocket Micro, and no release date or price has been announced.
Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack adds Super Mario Sunshine to Switch 2’s GameCube Classics on August 13 as an emulated port with upscaled visuals and save states, completing the home-console 3D Mario lineup on Switch 2 after Sunshine’s 2020 Super Mario 3D All-Stars delisting; Zero Racers and D-Hopper join Virtual Boy Classics on August 4, and the NSO + Expansion Pack costs $50/year.
The first four original Xbox games added to the PC Backward Compatibility library—Blinx: The Time Sweeper, Conker: Live & Reloaded, Fuzion Frenzy, and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge—received emulation updates that fix a display-scaling bug that capped the resolution, address lighting issues in Conker, and improve overall emulation; however, frame pacing and some judder remain, with more patches promised for these titles and others.
Fans have released non-trivial HD texture packs by The128ReBits to remaster The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Return of the King on GameCube via Dolphin, delivering texture-by-texture upgrades to environments, characters, and UI while preserving the original art style. Installation requires GameCube PAL ROMs and placing the extracted GLOS69 (The Two Towers) or GKLS69 (The Return of the King) folders into Dolphin's Textures folder, renaming as needed for regional IDs. Note that The Two Towers never had a PC release, while The Return of the King did in 2003, so the packs are best experienced on the GameCube version with these textures. The article includes before/after comparison videos.
Dataminers have revealed that Microsoft’s Xbox Backward Compatibility on PC isn’t a general emulator, but an Xbox 360 emulator (Xefu) running inside the PC port, enabling several Xbox 360 titles—and some original Xbox games—to run with varying degrees of success, signaling that more 360-era games could come to PC beyond the current four original Xbox releases.
Dataminers uncovered references to XeO3, an Xbox 360 emulator powering Microsoft's PC Xbox Backward Compatibility, suggesting future Xbox 360 titles could join the PC library, after four original Xbox games currently run on PC using the same Xe03-based tech as the newer consoles.
Windows Central reports that four original Xbox games launching on Windows PC are being run through an Xbox 360 emulator layer, effectively making them Xbox 360 titles on PC. This reveals a deeper emulation stack behind the PC back-compat effort and suggests a faster path to bringing more 360-era games to PC, with potential implications for Game Pass and game preservation. There is no official roadmap yet, but insiders hint at big, long-term plans.
PS5 emulation is gaining momentum as KytyPS5 can boot the PS5 version of GTA V to its menus and run some early 3D titles like Quake 2, Pac-Man World, and Powerwash Simulator. While not yet playable, the developers say the focus is on boot reliability and compatibility to reach full retail-game performance, reflecting growing progress among KytyPS5, SharpEmu, RPCSX and others amid Sony’s push toward digital media and the lack of a GTA 6 PC port.
Lenovo has pulled its G02 handheld, a Game Boy-like emulation device pre-loaded with dozens of copyrighted Nintendo and Sega ROMs, from sale worldwide after a controversy and mixed messaging; the company said the G02 was a China-only regional license product, not part of its official global portfolio, and it was briefly rebranded as the Sunyao G02 before being discontinued.
Not a physical museum, The Virtual OS Museum is a personal collection of about 1,700 installations across 600+ operating systems on 250+ platforms that you can download and run via emulation on your PC; curated largely by Andrew Warkentin, it traces computing history from 1948’s Manchester Baby to early Android, with many obscure OSes and DOS variants. Most images include only the OS and basic tools, making CTSS software hard to find; the full archive is 127GB (Lite ~14GB).
Retro Recap rounds up the week’s classic‑gaming headlines: OmniDrive’s firmware enables legal Blu‑ray ripping of Wii, GameCube, and Xbox discs on PC; Lenovo investigates why its G02 handheld ships with preloaded ROMs via third‑party sellers; Colin Porch discusses the 37‑year journey to complete Head Over Heels’ sequel Return to Blacktooth; a fan upgrade revitalizes Gradius Advance; a former Sega executive offers a sharp critique of Yuji Naka; plus reviews of the Anbernic RG Rotate and Princess Crown.