• SBSND SoundBlaster code fixed for low end soundblasters.
• Drum emulation improved (volume, more drums, pitch) Sounds very good!
• If you use SBSND, press O for an visual waveform, and again to see the 'drum' chip's registers (debug info for me)
• Waveform sounds are now clipped (no static when loud sounds are played)

• Drums - but they are not truly emulated, kick/snare/hihat are just hacked in. I left them in for 0.50 just because I happen to like them (I don't want e-mails saying they don't sound right - I don't expect them to!)
• New SoundBlaster code (SBSND) rewritten by yours truly
• SAVE and LOAD functions:
• Virtual arcade machine never loses power (ram is saved and loaded before/after play)
• Save (F5) and load states (F7). Use F8 to toggle save slot.
• MOVIE recording:
• SPEECH and THEME MUSIC are now back in. Also, it's now clear that the ROM set is incomplete, which is why only 1/3 of the speech is played. The ROM set is being updated (not by me).
• DTCFG.TXT has been replaced by DTMNT.INI
• Some command line options for commonly used functions:
• MAME's new ym2151 code, thanks guys!

• Added support for DirectDraw full-screen mode (big performance increase - now runs full speed or better on my P133)
• Replaced Windows menus and dialogs with an 'on-screen-display' type interface. Invoke it with the [TAB] key.
• Fixed the inter-cpu communications (unfortunately the game still won't coin-up. Keep using FREEPLAY mode for now. Also, for some reason, the coin switches only work with romset 1, so currently the emulator will only work with that set.)

• Uses Neil Corlett's Starscream 68000 CPU core (100% assembly)
• Uses Neil Bradley's m6502 6502 CPU core (100% assembly)
• Transluscent marbles
• Transluscent alphanumerics layer
• Native Windows© 95/NT

Thanks to Dave's Classics for the news!

• A bit more user-friendly (e.g. autodetects which rom set you have)
• Fire flicker effect is now an option
• Fixed a bug in hicolor PCX saving (Allegro's fault, not mine!)

Yesterday SYS2064 broke another barrier: 100.000 page hits!!! Christopher Atkins was the lucky visitor and again I thank him and everybody else who visits SYS2064 for the continued support and for the encouraging mails I get. As told yesterday, there will be some changes over the next weeks so stay tuned for things to come! :))

• Some games was frezing the first time you started it with 0.2c but that should be eliminated now.
• Savestate bugfix again ;), unfortunally it can make your old state files useless with this version.
• Sidewinder player two bug-fix.
• Character bug-fix in some games.
• Super Sidekicks protection fix (thanks to whom discovered it).
• Fatal Fury 2 protection fix (thanks to whom discovered it).
• We have start to use PMODEW instead of DOS4GW
• Support for Art Of Fighting 3.
• Support for Blazing Star.
• Support for Samurai Shodown 4.
• Support for xxxxxxxxx ;).
• Support for xxxxxxxxx ;).
• And MS2(hate to do this:(. Because of the hacking lamers).

• Switched to MZ80 engine by Neil Bradley (much faster)
• GUI colours and rom/ziprom/screenshot paths are now configurable in raine.cfg
• Experimental soundfx in Terra Force, Armed Formation
• Rainbow Islands (original) playable using Jumping Islands c-chip hacks
• Rainbow Islands (extra) partially-playable using Jumping Islands c-chip hacks
• Added Eagle 'smoothing engine' by Dirk Stevens
• YM2203 music in Jumping Islands (need second YM2203 for sound fx)
• Samples in WWF SuperStars
• 10 SaveSlots per game, use F3 to switch slot
• Started a simple 'Action Replay' type cheat system (no cheat finder yet)
• Added more dipswitches and also a rom version modifier for Taito roms. Among other things, you can play Puzzle Bobble 2 and Twin Qix with all new gfx using the version modifier.
• The 'brown' boxes are automatically disabled in Puzzle Bobble 2 and 3 now.
• Average FPS option (F11 twice)
• Defualt screenmode is mode-x now, because every other version of SDD seems to be buggy with Allegro! But you should switch to a vesa3/vbeaf mode if you can...

• Gigapower bug fix. (Varoius old games didnt like our gigapower support).
• Support for Realbout 2.

• Support for World Heroes 2 Jet.
• Art of Fighting 2 & Power Spikes 2 bug-fix.
• Div. other game related fixes.
• Sidewinder bug-fix.
• Sidewinder L & R button support.
• Gravis GPP support fixed.
• Save state-fix (make sure to wait for titlescreen in every game before loading state).
• Keyboard (UP/SHIFT) bug-fix.

• Dipswitch settings
• Hotkey support
• Remappable buttons on sidewinder(untested)
• Native zip support(only 8.3 names)
• Highscore savings in all games
• Save/load state in all games (F5=SaveState)(F9=LoadState)

New games:

• KOF 96
• Samurai Shodown 3
• Waku Waku 7
• Street Hoop
• Spinn Master
• Twinkle Star Sprites
• Magical Drop 3
• Real Bout Fatal Fury Special
• Fatal Fury 3
• Double Dragon
• Shock Troopers
• Quest of Jongmaster

Improvments on old games:

• Flickering sprite bugfix(Thanks Allard)
• Puzzle Depon fully playable(Thanks Allard)
• Word Heroes 1&2 playable
• King of monsters 2 playable
• Pulstar fully playable

• Vulcan Venture sprite<->background priorities fixed
• Cured a bug in Vulcan Venture which caused noisy SB sound fx
• Terra Cresta's second fire button can now be redefined
• Terra Cresta's performance improved for slow machines
• Benchtest facility added
• Save game feature added

• New screen shots of King Of Fighters '96 on homepage
• Samurai Showdown 3 - works
• Street Hoop - works
• Magical Drop 3 - works
• King of monsters 2 - works
• Expect more screenshots soon...

• The Gray Area - a great NES ressource site!
• SHMUPS - Shoot'Em Ups galore!
• Official 'Siedler von Catan' homepage - simply the best game ever made :) They added a PC version of 'Siedler von Catan' free to download lately. Get it!
• Carter USM - the best band in the world!

• Got the new Z80 working (MZ80 - many thanks to Neil Bradley) Big speed increase (about 80% faster with 16000hz sound)
• Proper shadows (in hicolor modes they look better than 8-bit)
• gamma correction option if your monitor is dark (in dtcfg.txt)
• So-called 'trippy sprite'(!) option - displays all frames of sprite animation (hit T to activate)
• ym2151_amp variable in dtcfg.txt (higher values = louder music as long as it doesn't overflow; default is 18)
• alter_pitch varible (dtcfg.txt)
• Finally sorted out dip switches (dtcfg.txt) (try dip_switch2 0xe2 for the damn hard version!)

I follow the emulation 'scene' since 1995 and I saw many great emulation sites come and go in these past years (most notably Node99 and Atmospherical Heights). In 1997 I decided to create my own site and so SYS2064 was born on August, 4th 1997 with the simple goal to build a showcase for all of those wonderful arcade emulators that make it possible to see and play some of the best games in history again. I never thought that arcade emulation would become that popular and that there were so many different arcade games from the past emulated right now. Maintaining SYS2064 has been a pleasure in the last year and hopefully will be in the next couple of years!!! :-))

The second anniversary is a smaller one: I moved SYS2064 to Classicgaming.Com one month ago and I am very pleased with that move. The number of daily visitors is now more than twice as much as before and a rom section was added. Expect improvements and lots of updates in the next weeks and be sure to come back and bring your friends :))

I'd like to thank all of you who visit SYS2064, Cam of (the gone but not forgotten) FreePlay, Fragmaster of CG, the cool guys at Ping.De for their support in the first months (Idle!, Rossi), Alfredo, Banki, Fritze, Phan, Stickes and Wokik for support and of course thanks to all emulator authors out there for their magnificent work!

One last thing to everybody reading: please always remember: "FOR FUN - NOT FOR STATUS!"

"The two YM3438 FM sound chips used by System 18 games had been succesfully emulated, thanks to Tatsuyuki Satoh, Hiromitsu Shioya and Kathleen Garcia. The PCM sound chip marked by 'ASSP 5C68A' also works. No external sound sample files will be needed for supporting the emulated system18 sounds."
[System18 games currently supported are: 'Alien Storm', 'Moon Walker' and 'Shadow Dancer']

• World Heroes 1 & 2 works perfectly
• Puzzle de Pon now also works 100%
• Gfx-glitches (blinking sprites) fixed in Metalslug and Puzzle Bobble

• BUBBLE MEMORIES (F3-System; playable; dumped by araCORN)
• Puzzle Bobble 3 (F3-System; playable; dumped by araCORN)
• Optimized Sprites and fixed sprite flicker on F3-System games.
• Partial idle 68020 skipping hacks for F3-System games.
• Some more Dipswitches mapped/commented.
• SnesPad (via LPT1) support (untested), thanks to Karl Stenerud for the code.
• Mapped Foot Pedals on Space Gun.
• Sound in Snow Bros (z80 hw info from Mike Coates).
• Fixed WrestleFest sound bug in pure dos.

[Pioner Balloon, Jackal/Top Gunner, Contra/Gryzor, Solomon's Key, Round-Up, Tehkan World Cup, Tee'd Off (preliminary), Vindicators, Space Tactics, Polaris, The Main Event, Devastators (not working), Dark Seal / Gate of Doom, Golden Star, The Glob, Ninja Kid 2, Bagman (Original), Kicker, Tempest (version 2 and 3), Gladiator (Japan), Zoo Keeper (alternate), Mikie (US/Japan), Moon Cresta (bootleg on Galaxian hardware), Pengo (encrypted version)]

and all of the rom mergings were done. Read the "what's new" and the "merged" text file please! I will add the roms later today.

• Vulcan Venture / Salamander / Commando sound improved
• Terra Cresta colours + sound fixed
• Joystick button mapping fixed
• Galaxian background noise no longer affected by frame skips
• Sound Blaster mixer settings now correctly retained
• Windows keyboards now supported
• Fire logo now drawn correctly in VGA mode
• Fixed a bug in SVGA monitor mode

• Non pentium bug-fix.
• Small animation bug-fix
• Small zoom bug-fix
• Super Spy is playable again
• Puzzle de Pon & King Of Monster2 are also back but they are not really playable
• Sidewinder Y-button = A+B and Z-button = C+D

• Much faster zooming routines (Operation Thunderbolt/Space Gun).
• Idle 68000 skipping in virtually all games (gives speed increase).
• Removed UAE 68000 engine (all 68000 games are Starscream'ed now).
• Inserted UAE 68020 engine (Taito F3-System).
• Inserted Marat Z80 engine (For Op Wolf bootleg c-chip, I'll use a faster one soon).
• Early Sound (adpcm samples only) for WrestleFest, Double Dragon 3, Zero Zone.
• Mouse support (Op Wolf, Op Thunderbolt, Space Gun).
• Joystick support (hopefully it works...).
• Dipswitch support for some games (early, but seems ok).
• Simple Save/Load support (F2/F4), Toggle FPS (F11).
• Auto frame skipping, scanlines hack, less ugly gui.
• Compiled with Allegro WIP beta, this adds vesa3 and vbe/af drivers for screen selection.
• Added Following games:
  • Space Gun (dumped by malcor; playable; Dual 68000)
  • Ninja Warriors (dumped by malcor; playable; Dual 68000)
  • Double Dragon 3 (dumped by Thierry Lescott; playable)
  • Operation Wolf (dumped by NAZ!; playable)
  • Operation Wolf bootleg (dumped by Thierry Lescott; bootleg; playable)
  • Elevator Action 2 (dumped by 'PowerJaw'; playable but messy)
  • Twin Qix (dumped by 'PowerJaw'; playable but messy)
  • Puzzle Bobble 2 (dumped by araCORN; playable but messy)
• Other various cleanups/optimizations not worth mentioning (all games are faster)

• New ROMs supported: Aurail, Alex Kidd : The Lost Stars, Fantasy Zone, Flash Point (bootleg) and Major League (not playable)
• Some fixes on older games (Shinobi, Alien Syndrome, ...)
• DirectX port!
• Log YM2151 option.
• Now using the latest version of T.Satoh’s YM2151 Emulator
• 16-bit sound output (optional)
• Lots more...
• Windows-Explorer-integration (you can either double-click a .GCS-file), Command-line (e.g. SYSTEM16DX.EXE AURAIL.GCS)

• Much lower memory requirements.
• Full background animations.
• Zoomed object clipping bug-fix.
• Language/System selection.
• Native Sidewinder & Gravis Gamepad Pro (not tested) support.
• Vesa bug-fix. More compatible.
• Faded scanlines. Choose between 25%, 50% and 100% (same as double). This is a very slow operation so its not recomended on slow machines.