sixtyforce | News

NEWS

sixtyforce 0.9.1 has been released.

This version fixes a bug that could cause sixtyforce to unexpectedly quit on Intel machines.

sixtyforce 0.9.0 has been released.

- Lots of bug fixes and improvements to the core emulation. Many things run now that did not before and even more things just plain run better. Here's a short list of games that now run properly: Zelda: Majora's Mask, Star Fox, Banjo Kazooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Turok 2, Turok 3 and more. (These are not all playable due to graphics issues.)
- You can now enable autosaving when loading a freeze state. (This will copy any saved game from the freeze state to your autosave.)
- Fixed some bugs in the dsp emulation to improve sound.
- Fixed a bug that could cause sixtyforce to freeze on launch.
- Fixed a bug that caused some USB devices to crash sixtyforce on launch. (For ex: Some Wacom tablets.)
- Changed the default keyboard settings to map better to MacBook keyboards.
- Fixed the default settings for Xbox and Xbox 360 controllers.

In the past few releases compatibility has grown my leaps and bounds and this version goes much farther. Not everything is playable yet, but even so there's plenty more you can play!

Enjoy the new version!

A new version of sixtyforce is going to be out shortly. I spent the past couple weeks working on fixing bugs in the emulation and compatibility is going to be much higher. A lot of things are now running that weren't before and a lot of other things run better. Good stuff all around!

For those that are curious what's going on under the hood, I've put up a new tech page to post technical details to go along with the updates here.

sixtyforce 0.9.0b1 has been released.

- A new high quality audio option to process audio with full low-level emulation on Intel machines. (This feature has been ported over and upgraded from the PowerPC version.)
- Zelda now shows indoor backgrounds correctly on Intel machines.
- Diddy Kong Racing will now save games properly.
- Mario Kart with no longer crash after the 4th Race.
- Other minor bug fixes throughout the application.

The new high quality audio option is a full low-level emulator for the dsp that processes sound. That's why it took a while! You can turn it on in the 'Preferences'.

While it won't fix every single problem with sound (skipping is next on the hit list) it greatly increases sound compatibility because it should work in any game and improves the quality because it produces sound that exactly matches the original. (Minor bugs in this beta release aside!)

In short: A number of games that didn't have sound before work fine with the new audio processing. (For ex: Paper Mario.) A number of games that had sound, now sound much better. (In particular reverb effects in games like Zelda.)

It is significantly slower than the audio plugin sound, but it's more than fast enough on my 1.83GHz Mac Book Pro and sounds much better!

Sound skipping is the first project for the next release, and hopefully will be the last of mucking about trying to work magic in real time.

Enjoy the new version!

sixtyforce 0.8.5 has been released. It is hands down, the best release in years.

While it is nowhere near perfect, compatibility is at its highest ever and sixtyforce has become the first (and only) Nintendo 64 emulator to dynamically recompile to both PowerPC and Intel.

This version includes lots of changes, but most importantly game freezing and autosaving are back and better than ever. This is also the first release that runs as well on Intel machines as it does on PowerPC. In fact, it runs better.

WIth the Intel conversion complete, the plan for future versions is to go back to the basics: higher compatibilty and better emulation.

sixtyforce 0.8.5 beta 3 has been released.

The good: This version fixes a lot of problems on Intel machines. It's very playable! If you've been waiting for a good Intel version of sixtyforce, you should check it out.

The bad: Saving games is disabled in this version because it's horribly broken. Compatibility for the Intel version still isn't quite on par with the PowerPC version. (But it's much closer now!)

A final release of 0.8.5 isn't too far away. Stay tuned!

Most of the email I get is to ask me about an Intel version of sixtyforce.

Unfortunatey sixtyforce is literally an Intel conversion worst-case scenerio. Every part of the application that does any emulating was designed and written completely around the PowerPC. Basically the entire thing had to be rewritten.

Rewriting takes time.

Before I could even rewrite sixtyforce I had to learn x86 assembly language. Then I had to learn enough about MacOS X on x86 so that I could generate code at runtime. Finally I could sit down to rewrite the several hundred thousand lines of code that are sixtyforce.

This is now 95% done.

Rather than wait until I had something perfect, I'm releasing a Universal Preview version meant to whet your appetite. On Intel machines it will run a single game (Super Mario 64) nearly perfectly (albeit without sound).

Enjoy.

It's Gerrit's birthday! To celebate, check out this beta release of the upcoming sixtyforce 0.8.5.

sixtyforce 0.8.0 is the current version.

New since 0.7.5 --

- Added emulation of memory packs to handle game saving!
- Added support for Immersion based force feedback controllers. (Mac OS X 10.2.3 or later.)
- Added axis dead zones for analog controllers to fix over-sensitivity.

Bug fixes since 0.7.5 --

- Fixed a bug that made F-Zero X unplayable. (The graphics are no longer completely distorted.)
- Fixed a bug that could cause crashes after loading a freeze state.
- Fixed a number of crashes related to controller and keyboard support.
- Fixed a problem that could cause sixtyforce to not launch on older systems.