Mednafen, now with decent PC-FX emulation.

[Mednafen]

I've released Mednafen 0.8.1 sources and a binary package for Windows.  It has PC-FX emulation working reasonably well, with 2 games not working at all(Battle Heat and Tengai Makyu), and 2 game acting weird(Der Langrisser FX, and Zeroigar during time/score attack mode).

I think Mednafen's PC-FX emulation is slightly better in a few ways(and worse in others, at least ME-FX can run Battle Heat and Tengai Makyu -_-) to the currently released Magic Engine-FX, however...Mednafen requires a real PC-FX BIOS dump, and is also much more CPU intensive, and David Michel and I have been sharing information, so hopefully most of the icky bugs will be fixed for the next MagicEngine-FX release.

Mednafen does have a fairly extensive debugger, though it's not 100% complete...hopefully someone will find it helpful in translating Miraculum.


By the way, what ever happened to FXer?  It would be nice to see more PC-FX emulators, open source or not, whose authors I could exchange ideas with(the Xe author seems to be under an NDA).

[peperocket]

Thanks for your great emulator !

[FM-77]

Very cool, dppd.

[Keranu]

Excellent, more PC-FX support!

[Oli_lar]

excellent news! Downloading now, look forward to trying it out, of course I gotta get some PC-FX games, my PC-FX should be coming soon 

[Jammaniaclord]

I too wondered what happened with FXer. Any news?

[nat]

excellent news! Downloading now, look forward to trying it out, of course I gotta get some PC-FX games, my PC-FX should be coming soon 

If you've got a real FX, why bother with emulation?

[Necromancer]

I can't speak for Oli, but for me - convenience and save states.

[nat]

Save states are for losers.

And what's more convenient than relaxing on your couch or lazy boy in front of the big screen with your feet up, PC-FX controller in hand, surround sound blaring? Definitely not sitting hunched over and cramped up in front of the computer trying to play Chip Can Kick using I,J,L and M for direction and CTRL/ALT for I and II.

[Necromancer]

I suppose it depends on whether or not you have a comfortable desk chair, a decent sized monitor, a quality controller, and a first rate set of speakers for your computer.  Almost everything you mention can be done just as easily with an emulator as with real equipment.  Compatibility and accuracy are another story, as is the controller, but I don't find the PC-FX controller to be vastly superior to all other controllers anyway.  I also find it infinitely more convenient to play games via a laptop when on the road or flying, as few airlines provide big screens for console gaming during flights.

If it makes me a loser to use save states on long ass games that should allow saving to begin with, so be it.  I am not ashamed to use save states on some games (i.e. Alien Crush or Camp California) when I could just as easily pause the game until I was ready to play again.

[Pcenginefx]

I too wondered what happened with FXer. Any news?

The project went dead about July 2003.  Alberto (author of Virtual-E) said to me in a final message that due to lack of time and support that no more work would be done.  The other members of FXer at that time could no longer be reached so it pretty much died at that point. 

[nat]

If it makes me a loser to use save states on long ass games that should allow saving to begin with, so be it. 

How dare you take that comment seriously.

I suppose it depends on whether or not you have a comfortable desk chair, a decent sized monitor, a quality controller, and a first rate set of speakers for your computer.  Almost everything you mention can be done just as easily with an emulator as with real equipment.  Compatibility and accuracy are another story, as is the controller, but I don't find the PC-FX controller to be vastly superior to all other controllers anyway.  I also find it infinitely more convenient to play games via a laptop when on the road or flying, as few airlines provide big screens for console gaming during flights.

Seriously, though, who plays console games on an airplane? I might bring my GT with me when I fly to Hawaii next week, but that's the extent of it...

We'll have to agree to disagree here: part of the appeal of console gaming to me is immersing myself in the "experience" the console setup allows you. For me, playing console games is almost a ritualistic experience. There's something about playing console games on the home theatre, the feel you get, that just can't be duplicated via emulation. 

[Oli_lar]

I'd like to do both as I think encouraging emulation of the PC-FX will encourage more development, although yes there is something about playing the real thing. There is the convienience too as my console set up is always changing due to space - I would'nt have the PC-FX out all the time while my PC will be..

[nat]

I would'nt have the PC-FX out all the time

Blasphemy!

[Oli_lar]

Ever been to university?

Its like living in a box! Only console I have out permanently is my Coregrafx