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VGB

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iNES

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The latest released version of iNES is 3.6!
On July 14 2011, I have published the initial version of iNES-Android. Please, give it a try and report any encountered problems in the discussion group.

Other improvements include further optimized 6502 CPU emulation, changes to video timing that has been somewhat broken since version 3.1, and (finally) fully working light gun emulation. Several deprecated command line options are gone while new ones have been added. I have also added emulation for VS System DIP switches and included VS System palette files.

The iNES-Symbian version has also gained faster 6502 emulation (especially for UIQ users who will now take full benefit of assembler-optimized core), optimized display routines, and extra configuration options for sound latency, frame skip, and frame sync.

The complete list of features and the list of new features and fixes can be found in the documentation. At the moment, you can get both iNES-Windows and iNES-MSDOS for a total of $19.99 (or lower if you use coupons). The iNES-Symbian is available for $14.99 or lower.

What is iNES?
iNES is a program that emulates Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and Famicom videogame consoles on your computer. It plays NES games on PCs, PocketPCs, Macs, Unix boxes, etc. The idea to write a NES emulator originated from Alex Krasivsky who found some Famicom programming information on the Net and wrote the initial code. At some point, Alex lost interest in the project, while I eventually rewrote the code, made it closely mimic the quirks of the original hardware, and expanded it to support many different cartridge types and hardware add-ons. At the time of iNES release in 1996, there was only one other NES emulator, Pasofami, written by a Japanese author and really difficult to use. iNES became the first NES emulator usable by a non-expert, and also the first emulator to use the .NES cartridge file format.

Unfortunately, releasing a playable emulator for such a popular console as NES has started a wave of piracy. At the time, I received emails from a few people warning me of such an outcome, but discarded them as unrealistic: after all, the Virtual GameBoy emulator did not cause too much of a ruckus. But iNES somehow was different, probably because so many people had fond memories of their first videogames. Looking back, I think that the rise in console gaming piracy was inevitable as computers became fast enough to emulate popular consoles from the past.

Over the years, I and other people all over the Net have found more details on how NES hardware works, either by experimentation or by looking at the old programming documents. The current version of iNES supports three dozen different cartridge types, loads software from Famicom Disk System disk images, and even runs VS System arcade games. You can also use GameGenie cheat codes and even program NES in BASIC with the FamilyBASIC keyboard emulation. For those who still develop their own software for the NES, there is a built-in debugger. If you just use iNES to play games, the game state saving feature lets you restart gameplay from any point in the game. Finally, if you like game tunes, save them to MIDI files with the soundtrack logging feature.

Licensing iNES
iNES is written in portable C language. It will run on any sufficiently fast computing device, be it a videogame console, a PDA, a cell phone, an MP3 or DVD player, or even a digital camera. If your company is considering the use of NES emulation in its products, you can license the iNES source code from me. I am also available for consulting work in the software emulation, embedded programming, and other fields. See my resume and contact me if interested.

Free Updates
Every registered user of iNES-Windows or iNES-Symbian is entitled to free lifetime updates by email, as long as I am developing the program. If you have already registered but have not yet received the latest version of iNES-Windows, please,send me email with your valid email and postal addresses for verification, and you will get one.

Playing Your Games With iNES
Neither iNES-Windows, nor iNES-Symbian, nor any other legal version of iNES contains any games, as they are copyrighted by the companies which produced them. You will have to find the cartridge images yourself, using Google or other search engines. I do suggest you buy the original cartridge for every image you are using, or use a copier on the cartridges you own.

At This Site

iNES Windows for all Windows versions iNES MSDOS included with iNES-Windows iNES Android for Android 2.2 (Froyo) and newer devices iNES Symbian for Nokia S60 3rd Edition (get trial version or see instructions) iNES Symbian for Sony Ericsson UIQ3 (get trial version or see instructions) iNES Linux for Ubuntu Linux and 16bpp or 32bpp X11 iNES Maemo for Nokia N800/N810 tablets (or install directly to device) iNES 3.0 FreeBSD (5.x-RELEASE) binaries for 80x86 iNES 3.0 Solaris binaries for SPARC iNES 3.0 Linux (RedHat) binaries for 80x86 iNES 0.7 SunOS binaries for SPARC iNES 0.7 AIX binaries for RS6000 iNES 1.0 OSF/1 binaries for DEC Alpha iNES 0.5 Linux binaries for 80x86 (A.OUT) NES/Famicom Hardware Information EMUTools, 6502 emulation core, etc. The Address Book (look up email addresses here)

iNES Ports
iNES Macintosh by John Stiles

Other Stuff
Cartridge copier for NES and other consoles by Pascal Felber Schematics of an old NES cartridge copier

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