Games Update Part 2: Commodore 64, Atari ST, MSX and Genesis

Last month we told you about the massive update we arranged for all the Amiga games. But even if the 16-bit Commodore computer is one of our favorites, we didn't forget about the rest. Continue reading to know what we did, because there is very promising news.

Scumm

We use ScummVM to create the packages for many classic point-and-click adventures. ScummVM 2.0 was out since a while, but some of our packages were still using version 1.9.

Finally, all the games, both Mac and Windows, have been updated (40 files in total). All aligned to ScummVM 2.0. You should not expect big changes, only better compatibility with some games.

Commodore 64

Man, this was the hardest one. We use VICE, the "Versatile Commodore Emulator," to create the C64 wrappers. GamesNostalgia hosts 30 games at the moment, including masterpieces such as Last Ninja, IK+, Ghostbusters and more. Unfortunately, all these packages were using different versions of VICE, so it was a pain to update them all. We are currently updating all the packages to VICE 3.2. It's not just to refresh the emulator, because during the update, we also check that the joystick is properly configured: some games require joystick in Port1, while other games require Port2. Also, to improve performance, for some games, we changed the format from TAP to D64.

Another improvement is that the new packages also support D81 and D71 formats; we will take advantage of this in the future. Finally, for two players games, we solved an annoying bug that was blocking the FIRE button of the second player.

At the moment of writing, of 57 packages, 38 are ready. The other 19 (mostly Mac versions) are in progress.

MSX

We only have 6 MSX games at the moment, including top titles like Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2. All the games wrappers have been updated with the new version of the emulator OpenMSX 0.15. We also simplified the creation process; therefore, you can expect more releases from now on.

Sega Megadrive/Genesis and Master System

Be prepared for a piece of good news here. Until now, we were not able to create Mac packages for Genesis (also known as Megadrive in Europe) or Master System games. Previous attempts always failed. This August we did some experiments with the Mednafen emulator, and it worked! We are now able to create both Windows and Mac wrappers.

Check Aladdin if you want to try it a Genesis game. Controllers are fully supported. Same story for the Master System. You can only play Road Rash for now, but more games will come.

Atari ST

Last but not least, the great rival of the Amiga, the glorious Atari ST. Same story: in 3 years of attempts, we were not able to create packages for Mac. But this summer, after some experiments, we made it! The only problem is some games don't start automatically, but that's a small price to pay.

Right now we only have five games, Carrier Command, for example, but you can be sure that some masterpieces like Dungeon Master are coming soon.

As always, feel free to leave a comment to let us know what you think. Happy retrogaming!

Btw, if you missed last month article regarding the Amiga games update, you can read it now.