RipTen Videogame Blog » emulator

Turn Your PC Into a Golden Age of Console Gaming Time Machine

Michael Futter — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:00:33 +0000

You didn’t sell all your Genesis and Super Nintendo cartridges at a garage sale did you? You did?! What were you thinking? Well, go hunt those customers down and steal your games back- the Retrode 2 is on the way. This little magic wonder connects to your PC (or Mac or Linux box, but probably not your Commodore 64), allowing you to plug in your 16-bit cartridges and system controllers, two from each system, for an authentic console Golden Age experience.

What’s that you say? You’ve already “acquired” some games from a “friend?” You’ve been playing them already?

You can still take advantage of the Retrode 2′s built-in emulator and gamepad support to play those games the way they were intended, just on your PC instead of a tiny TV in your parents’ house. Regardless of which method you use, the Retrode 2 box serves as a driverless emulator that works on any operating system. Not that we encourage that type of thing here at RipTen.

You’ll be able to pick up the tiny black box this month for the reasonable price of $89.99 from Everdrive in Germany and Stone Age Gamer in the United States.

Finally, you’ll be able to answer the greatest question of them all, “Which 16-bit X-Men game was the best?”

Hint: it wasn’t Arcade’s Revenge

Emulation: Breathing New Life Into Old Games?

Brandon Fenty — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:10:27 +0000

I recently found out that I can play PSX games on my Droid phone. That was a good day. It was also a day that my productivity plummeted. I found a lot of the same games I played as a kid, and got hours of nostalgic enjoyment from it.

With the growing power of cell phones, it’s no surprise that emulation is getting more popular. The ability to put several great games from childhood in your pocket and carry them everywhere has obvious appeal. The legality of the practice is questionable, but owners of the original games feel justified in owning a more portable copy of their game. Just to be clear: I’m NOT talking about piracy here, that’s a different issue. But being able to replay old N64 titles while waiting in line or on long car trips means I have time to play them again. I don’t have to dust off my N64 (truth be told, I’m not even sure I could find it in the attic).

The Ultimate Gaming Platform?

Legally, emulation is questionable. According to new DMCA revisions:

Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that have become obsolete and which require the original media or hardware as a condition of access. A format shall be considered obsolete if the machine or system necessary to render perceptible a work stored in that format is no longer manufactured or is no longer reasonably available in the commercial marketplace.

What that means, in essence, is that it is no longer illegal to emulate games for systems that are no longer commercially available. Last time I checked, it’s pretty hard to come by an original SNES, so I’m pretty sure that’s covered by the addendum.

Want to get started with emulation on a mobile phone? Check out this article on how to get started with a PSX emulator!

How to Emulate PSX on an Android Phone

Brandon Fenty — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:12:43 +0000

Have a high-end Android phone, and want to relive your glory days on Playstation? If you’ve got a phone like the Droid X, Incredible, or Droid 2, you can play PSX roms pretty well on the go. It takes a little setup to get going, and lucky for you, Ripten is here to help.

Here’s a list of everything you’ll need to get started:

An Android phone (obvious, yeah, I know)
PSX4Droid ($5.99 in the Android Market, but totally worth it)
PSX Bios file (Search scph1001.bin on Google)
PSX Roms (Not going to tell you where to get these. Legally, you need to own the actual game to be able to do this).

First, download and install PSX4Droid from the Market, then plug your phone into your computer and set it to mount SD Card as USB Storage. Copy the scph1001.bin file to the SD Card, as well as any ROMs you have ready to go (ROMs must be in .bin or .iso format, if they’re .ecm we’ll have more on that later). Now unplug your phone from the computer and let it load the SD Card again. Open up PSX4Droid on the phone, and then hit the menu key. Go to Settings > PSX BIOS file, and select the scph1001.bin file on the SD Card that we copied earlier. Now the app will prompt you for a PSX Rom, locate it on the card and it should boot! (Note: not all ROMs will work correctly, for an updated compatibility list check here)

If you’ve got ROMs, but they’re in the .ecm format, you’ll need to do an extra step to get them working. You’ll need some special software that can be downloaded here. Just unzip the file into a folder somewhere you’ll be able to find it (like your desktop), then drag and drop the data.bin.ecm file that you’ve downloaded onto the unecm.exe file. This will open a command prompt window that will unzip the ecm file, and give you a usable .bin!

Of course, the developer has also created some other great emulators such as SNESoid, NESoid, and GENSoid to emulate other consoles. They all have free trials, so you can check them out before buying. I’d recommend supporting the developer, so he can finish N64oid(currently in the works) as well. If you have an Android-based phone and like gaming on the go, definitely check out these options.

Have any questions? Comments? Want to know how I really feel about the iPhone? Feel free to email me at bfenty@gmail.com!!

Firefox 3 + FireNES = Nintendo Games (At Work)

Chad Lakkis — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:55:04 +0000

Many of us are still test driving the new Firefox 3 release by browsing the internet for cool shit, but what the latest Mozilla creation is really craving is some old school NES gaming action. Here’s how to give it what it wants.

While we do not advise nor condone the playing of videogames through your browser while at work, we completely understand why some misguided individuals may want to do so — because being stuck at work without any videogames sucks.

HOW TO PLAY NINTENDO GAMES IN FIREFOX 3

1) Get Firefox 3 (if you haven’t already you should be smacked)

2) Download the FireNES plugin.

3) Install FireNES and restart Firefox 3.

3b) You may get a pop up asking you if you want to disable or uninstall FireNES when Firefox 3 restarts. Do not do any of those things, simply close that pop up.

4) Click on Tools and scroll all the way down to “FireNES”. Select FireNES and a sidebar should pop up on the left side of your browser. This bar will feature a shit ton of classic Nintendo games.

5) To play the game of your choice, simply double click on it in the list.

5b) If the game does not load, you may need to install the latest version of Java which only takes a few seconds to install.

6) For instructions on which keys to press, right click on the title and select “options” from the pop up menu, then tab over to the “controls” tab.

7) Prepare to use the key combination of “Alt + Tab” to prevent getting caught playing videogames in your browser at work. Be smart, and there is no reason that this can’t remain our little secret.

Source: Was shot to protect the innocent.

Early Pre-Beta Video of “SNES4iPhone” Emulator in Action

Chad Lakkis — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:24:03 +0000

Want to play some old school SNES games on your fancy-shmancy Apple iPhone? Well, if you don’t mind pinching and sliding your fingers across a smooth glass surface in order to do so, then you may be in luck. Have at the video after the jump.

[youtube width="425" height="335"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tjNkcJ4au8[/youtube]

Source: ZodTTD.com [via Gizmodo]

Playstation Emulator Now on iPhone (With Video Demonstration)

Patrick Steen — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 01:35:12 +0000

After reporting the revelation that Playstation 1 games could now be played on PSP’s via remote play, they can now be played on Apple’s iPhone, though the touch-screen controls could take some time getting used to.

The emulator is unofficial, but after being under an intensive beta it is now fit for the public on both the iPhone and the iPod Touch. At version 1, psx4iphone already sports impressive controls, a good compatibility rate and save states.

The software is on Installer.app (unofficial website for iPhone software) and can also be downloaded for manual installation here.

For more information please visit the creators of the emulator at ZodTTD and watch this following video demonstration:
[youtube width="425" height="335"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp5U4N_tJ9g[/youtube]