Do to circumstances out of my control, I haven't added nearly as many roms as I would have like the last week. Have no fear, I will be uploading alot more sets shortly. They are ready to go just need a bit more time to get them uploaded and in the blog. Thanks to everyone that has stopped by. Be sure to tell a friend about the BEST place to grad rapidshare links for all your favorite rom sets.
-RetroEmu
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
Colecovision [FULL SET]
The ColecoVision is Coleco Industries' second generation home video game console and was released in August 1982. The ColecoVision offered arcade-quality graphics and gaming style, the ability to play Atari 2600 video games, and the means to expand the system's hardware. The ColecoVision was released with an initial catalog of 12 titles, with 10 additional titles on the way for 1982. All told, approximately 170 titles were released in the form of plug-in cartridges between 1982 and 1985.
Coleco licensed Nintendo's Donkey Kong as the official pack-in cartridge for all ColecoVision consoles, and this version of the game was well received as a near-arcade perfect port, helping to boost the console's popularity. By Christmas of 1982, Coleco had sold 500,000 units, largely on the strength of its bundled game. The ColecoVision's main competitor in the next generation console space was the arguably more advanced but less commercially successful Atari 5200.
The ColecoVision was distributed by CBS Electronics outside of the United States, and was branded the CBS ColecoVision.
Sales quickly passed one million in early 1983, before the video game crash of 1983. The ColecoVision was discontinued in the spring of 1984. Even with its late difficulties, the ColecoVision still sold more than six million units.
Coleco Adam Roms [FULL SET]
Coleco announced the Adam in June 1983 at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and executives predicted sales of 500,000 by Christmas 1983. From the time of the computer's introduction to the time of its shipment, the price increased, from USD $525 to $725.
The Adam is famous for an incident connected with its showing at the June, 1983 CES. To showcase the machine, Coleco decided to demonstrate a port of its ColecoVision conversion of Donkey Kong on the system. Nintendo was in the midst of negotiating a deal with Atari to license its Famicom for distribution outside of Japan, and the final signing would have been done at CES. Atari had exclusive rights to Donkey Kong for home computers (as Coleco had for game consoles), and when Atari saw that Coleco was showing Donkey Kong on a computer, its proposed deal with Nintendo was delayed. Coleco had to agree not to sell the Adam version of Donkey Kong. Ultimately it had no bearing on the Atari/Nintendo deal though, as Atari's CEO Ray Kassar was fired the next month and the proposal went nowhere, with Nintendo deciding to market its system on its own.
Cybiko [FULL SET]
Cybiko was a hand held computer designed for teenagers featuring its own two-way radio text messaging system. It had over 430 "official" freeware games and applications. Because of the text messaging system, it features a QWERTY Keyboard that was used with a stylus. An MP3 player add-on was made for the unit as well as a SmartMedia card reader. The company stopped manufacturing the units after two product versions and only a few years on the market, but because of the unique radio messaging hardware there is still a hobbyist community using Cybiko.
Cybikos can communicate with each other up to a maximum range of 300 metres (0.19 miles) (which can be boosted to 450 metres (0.26 miles) using a freeware program called UI Power). Several Cybikos can chat with each other in a wireless chatroom.
Dreamcast VMU [FULL SET]
The VMU, initialism of Visual Memory Unit (called VMS, Visual Memory System in Japan or Virtual Memory Unit), is a memory card peripheral for the Sega Dreamcast. While its most basic function is as a removable storage device the VMU may also serve as an auxiliary display during normal gameplay and, through use of additional software, act as a handheld game console. Console-like features of the VMU include a small black and white screen, speaker, directional pad, and four buttons. They were initially only available in white, but expanded to transparent Blue, Green, Black, and Red.
Several titles for the Dreamcast included mini-games that could be downloaded onto a VMU. The Sonic Adventure series, for instance, included the Chao Adventure mini-game. In the game players could transfer Chao eggs to the VMU and play to increase the stats of their hatched Chao, whereupon they could upload their improved Chao back into the Dreamcast game.
Dreamcast VMU
Mattel Intellivision [FULL SET]
The Memotech MTX500, MTX512 and RS128 were a series of Zilog Z80A processor-based home computers released by Memotech in 1983 and 1984. They were technically similar to MSX computers, but were not compatible.
The MTX500 had 32KB of RAM, the MTX512 had 64KB, and the RS128 had 128KB (a significant amount at that time).
Although the Z80A could only address a maximum of 64KB at a time, the RS128's extra memory was accessible via assembly language programming via the technique of page switching.
The computers featured an all-aluminum case and full size keyboard with real keys (unlike others of the same vintage such as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum). In addition to the standard (for the time) BASIC language interpreter, it included some interesting variations:
- A built-in assembler
- A forerunner of HyperCard called Noddy
- More sprites than the comparable equipment at the time
The computers also featured support for plug-in ROM cartridges (a little like the BBC Micro). The most popular of these was the ISO Pascal language which was much faster than interpreted BASIC.
A considerable addition to any Memotech system was the hugely-expensive FDX system which added 5.25" floppy disk drives, Winchester hard disks and CP/M 2.2 operating system.
Unfortunately, although they were generally well-received, the computers were not a commercial success, and Memotech went into receivership in 1985.
The MTX512 did manage a minor cinematic appearance in the film Weird Science as the computer the two lead male characters use to hack into the Pentagon mainframe - however, it is highly unlikely that the impressive 3D graphics it was supposedly displaying were genuine.
Memotech MTX500 [FULL SET]
The Memotech MTX500, MTX512 and RS128 were a series of Zilog Z80A processor-based home computers released by Memotech in 1983 and 1984. They were technically similar to MSX computers, but were not compatible.
The MTX500 had 32KB of RAM, the MTX512 had 64KB, and the RS128 had 128KB (a significant amount at that time).
Although the Z80A could only address a maximum of 64KB at a time, the RS128's extra memory was accessible via assembly language programming via the technique of page switching.
The computers featured an all-aluminum case and full size keyboard with real keys (unlike others of the same vintage such as the Sinclair ZX Spectrum). In addition to the standard (for the time) BASIC language interpreter, it included some interesting variations:
- A built-in assembler
- A forerunner of HyperCard called Noddy
- More sprites than the comparable equipment at the time
The computers also featured support for plug-in ROM cartridges (a little like the BBC Micro). The most popular of these was the ISO Pascal language which was much faster than interpreted BASIC.
A considerable addition to any Memotech system was the hugely-expensive FDX system which added 5.25" floppy disk drives, Winchester hard disks and CP/M 2.2 operating system.
Unfortunately, although they were generally well-received, the computers were not a commercial success, and Memotech went into receivership in 1985.
The MTX512 did manage a minor cinematic appearance in the film Weird Science as the computer the two lead male characters use to hack into the Pentagon mainframe - however, it is highly unlikely that the impressive 3D graphics it was supposedly displaying were genuine.
Oric-1 [FULL SET]
With the success of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Tangerine's backers suggested a home computer and Tangerine formed Oric Products International Ltd to develop and release the Oric-1 in 1983. Based on a 1 MHz 6502A CPU, it came in 16 KB or 48 KB RAM [2] variants for £129 and £169 respectively, matching the models available for the popular ZX Spectrum and undercutting the price of the 48K Spectrum by a few pounds. Both Oric-1 versions had a 16 KB ROM containing the operating system and a modified BASIC interpreter.
The Oric-1 improved somewhat over the Spectrum with a chiclet keyboard design replacing the Spectrum's renowned "dead flesh" one. In addition the Oric had a true sound chip, the programmable GI 8912, and two graphical modes handled by a semi-custom ASIC (ULA) which also managed the interface between the processor and memory. The two modes were a LORES text only mode (though the character set could be redefined to produce graphics) with 28 rows of 40 characters and a HIRES mode with 200 rows of 240 pixels above three lines of text. Like the Spectrum, the Oric-1 suffered from attribute clash—albeit to a lesser degree in HIRES mode, when a single row of pixels could be coloured differently from the one below in contrast to the Spectrum, which applied foreground and background color in 8 x 8 pixel blocks. As it was meant for the home market, it had a built in television RF modulator as well as RGB output and was meant to work with a basic audio tape recorder to save and load data. Error-checking of recorded programs was bugged, frequently causing user-created programs to fail when loaded back in.
According to the Oric World website (see External links, below), about 160,000 Oric-1s were sold in the UK in 1983 with another 50,000 sold in France (where it was the top-selling machine that year). Although not the 350,000 predicted, it was enough for Oric International to be bought out by Edenspring and given £4m in funding.
Vectrex [FULL SE]
The Vectrex is an 8-bit video game console that was developed by Western Technologies/Smith Engineering. It was licensed and distributed first by General Consumer Electric (GCE), and then by Milton Bradley Company after their purchase of GCE. It was released in November 1982 at a retail price of $199. As the video game market declined and then crashed, the Vectrex exited the market in early 1984.
Unlike other video game consoles, which connected to televisions and rendered raster graphics, the Vectrex has an integrated vector monitor which displays vector graphics. The monochrome Vectrex uses screen overlays to give the illusion of color. At the time, many of the most popular arcade games used vector displays, and GCE was looking to set themselves apart from the pack by selling high-quality versions of games such as Space Wars and Armor Attack.
Vectrex comes with a built in game, the Asteroids-like Minestorm. Two peripherals were also available for the Vectrex, a light pen and a 3D imager.
Western Technologies/Smith Engineering briefly considered designing a handheld version of the device in 1988. However, the impending release of the Nintendo Game Boy made such a project too risky. In the mid-1990s, Smith Engineering released the duplication of the Vectrex system image and cartridges for non-commercial uses and has been pleased to see that it has still-thriving developer and user communities.
Atari 5200 [FULL SET]
The Atari 5200 SuperSystem, or simply the Atari 5200, is a video game console that was introduced in 1982 by Atari as a replacement for the famous Atari 2600. The 5200 was created to compete with the Mattel Intellivision, but wound up more directly competing with the ColecoVision shortly after its release. A number of design flaws had a serious impact on usability, and the system is generally considered a failure.
The 5200 was heavily based on Atari's existing 400/800 computers and the internal hardware was almost identical. However, a number of issues (aside from the lack of a keyboard) meant that software was not directly compatible between the two systems.
Atari 7800 [FULL SET]
The Atari 7800 is a video game console released by Atari in June 1986 (a test market release occurred two years earlier). The 7800 was designed to replace the unsuccessful Atari 5200 and re-establish Atari's market supremacy against Nintendo and Sega. With this system, Atari addressed all the shortcomings of the Atari 5200: it had simple digital joysticks; it was almost fully backward-compatible with the Atari 2600; and it was affordable (originally priced at US$140).
Atari 7800
SOL-20 [FULL SET]
Bob Marsh founded Processor Technology Corporation (a microcomputer company) in April 1975. Bob Marsh, Lee Felsenstein and Gordon French started designing the Sol-20 Terminal Computer in June 1975. The SOL-20 utilized the Intel 8080 8-bit microprocessor chip, running at 2 MHz. The SOL-20 consisted of a main motherboard (PCB) mounted at the bottom of the case, and a 5 slot S-100 bus card cage. The main PCB consisted of the CPU, memory, video display, I/O circuits. Inside the case included power supply, fan, and keyboard. The sides of case are solid oiled walnut wood, and blue painted steel. An external composite monitor screen was also needed. Processor Technology manufactured approximately 10,000 of their Sol-20 personal computers between 1977 and 1979. All Processor Technology products where available either assembled and tested, or as electronic kits. Processor Technology also sold software on Cassette tape. One side was CUTER format, and the other side was Kansas City standard format.
SOL-20
Acorn Electron [FULL SET]
The Acorn Electron was a budget version of the BBC Micro educational/home computer made by Acorn Computers Ltd. It had 32 kilobytes of RAM, and its ROM memory included BBC BASIC along with its operating system.
The Electron was able to save and load programs onto audio cassette via a supplied converter cable that plugged into the microphone socket of any tape recorder. It was capable of basic graphics, and could display onto either a television set or a "green screen" monitor.
At its peak, the Electron was the third best selling micro in the United Kingdom, and total lifetime game sales for the Electron exceeded those of the BBC Micro. There are at least 500 known games for the Electron and the true total is probably in the thousands.
The hardware of the BBC Micro was emulated by a single customized ULA chip designed by Acorn. It had feature limitations such as being unable to output more than one channel of sound where the BBC was capable of three-way polyphony and the inability to provide teletext mode. The machine architecture also imposed a substantial speed decrease on applications running from RAM, although ROM applications ran at the same speed
Texas Instruments Graphing Calculators [FULL SET]
A graphing calculator (also known as a graphic calculator or graphical calculator) typically refers to a class of handheld calculators that are capable of plotting graphs, solving simultaneous equations, and performing numerous other tasks with variables. Most popular graphing calculators are also programmable, allowing the user to create customized programs, typically for scientific/engineering and education applications. Due to their large displays intended for graphing, they can also accommodate several lines of text and calculations at a time. Some graphing calculators also have color displays, and others may even include 3D graphing. Mac OS X includes an advanced software graphic calculator known as Grapher.
Since graphing calculators are readily user-programmable, such calculators are also widely used for gaming purposes, with a sizable body of user-created game software on most popular platforms.
Atari Jaguar [FULL SET]
he Atari Jaguar is a video game console that was designed to compete with the Mega Drive/Genesis and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
The console was first released in selected U.S. cities in November 1993, and the rest of the country in early 1994. Although it was promoted as the first 64-bit gaming system, the Jaguar proved to be a commercial failure and prompted Atari to leave the home video game console market. Despite its commercial failure, the Jaguar has a large fan base that produces homebrew games, making the console a cult classic.
Atari Jaguar
Atari Lynx [FULL SET]
The Lynx was a handheld game console released by Atari in 1989. The Lynx holds the distinction of being the world's first handheld electronic game with a color LCD display. The system is also notable for its forward-looking features, advanced graphics, and ambidextrous layout. The Lynx was released in 1989, the same year as Nintendo's (monochromatic) Game Boy. However, the Lynx failed to achieve the sales numbers required to attract quality third party developers, and was eventually abandoned.
Today, as with many older consoles, there is still a small group of devoted fans, creating and selling games for the system. In 2000, an emulator called Handy was released to play Lynx games on PCs.
Acorn Archimedes [FULL SET]
The Acorn Archimedes was Acorn Computers Ltd's first general purpose home computer based on their own 32-bit ARM RISC CPU. The name is also commonly used to describe computers which were based on the same architecture, even where Acorn did not include 'Archimedes' in the official name.
The first models were released in June 1987, as the 300 and 400 series. The 400 series included 4 expansion slots (although a 2 slot backplane could be added to the 300 series as an official upgrade, and third parties produced their own 4 slot backplanes) and an ST506 controller for an internal hard drive. Both models included the Arthur OS (later called RISC OS), BBC BASIC and an emulator for Acorn's earlier BBC Micro, and were mounted in two-part cases with a small central unit, monitor on top, and a separate keyboard and three-button mouse. All models featured onboard 8 channel stereo sound and were capable of displaying 256 colours on screen.
Acorn Archimedes
Sega Game Gear [FULL SET]
The Sega Game Gear is a handheld game console which was Sega's response to Nintendo's Game Boy. It was the third commercially available color handheld console, after the Atari Lynx and the Turbo Express.
Work began on the console in 1989 under the codename "Project Mercury", following Sega's policy at the time of codenaming their systems after planets. The system was released in Japan on October 6, 1990, North America, Europe and Brazil in 1991,[1] and Australia in 1992. The launch price was US$150. Sega dropped support for the Game Gear in early 1997.
Nintendo Virtual Boy [FULL SET]
Nintendo's Virtual Boy (also known as the VR-32 during development) was the first portable game console capable of displaying "true 3D graphics." Most video games are forced to use monocular cues to achieve the illusion of three dimensions on a two-dimensional screen, but the Virtual Boy was able to create a more accurate illusion of depth through an effect known as parallax. In a manner similar to using a head-mounted display, the user places their face inside a pair of rubber goggles on the front of the machine, and then an eyeglass-style projector allows viewing of the monochromatic (in this case, red) image. It was released on July 21, 1995 in Japan and August 14, 1995 in North America and at a price of around US$180. It met with a lukewarm reception that was unaffected by continued price drops. Nintendo discontinued it the following year.
Nintendo Virtual Boy
Atari 2600 [FULL SET]
The Atari 2600, released in October 1977, is the video game console credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in. The first game console to use this format was the Fairchild Channel F. However, it was the Atari 2600 that made the plug-in concept popular among the game-playing public. Originally known as the Atari VCS—for "Video Computer System"—the machine's name was changed to "Atari 2600" (from the unit's Atari part number, CX2600) in 1982, after the release of the more advanced Atari 5200. The Atari 2600 was wildly successful, and during the 1980s, "Atari" was a synonym for this model in mainstream media. The 2600 was typically bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a cartridge game—initially Combat and subsequently Pac-Man.Atari 2600
Sega Master System [FULL SET]
The Sega Master System or SMS for short (1986 - 2000), is an 8-bit cartridge-based video game console that was manufactured by Sega. Its original Japanese incarnation was the SG-1000 Mark III. In the European market, this console launched Sega onto a competitive level comparable to Nintendo, due to its wider availability, but failed to put a dent in the North American and Japanese markets. The Master System was released as a direct competitor to the NES/Famicom. Despite its shaky performance in the major territories, it has enjoyed over a decade of life in smaller markets, especially Brazil.
The later Sega Game Gear is effectively a hand-held Master System, with a few enhancements.
Neo Geo Pocket [FULL SET]
The Neo Geo Pocket was SNK's first hand held video game system, released in Japan in late 1998. However lower than expected sales resulted in its discontinuation in 1999, and was immediately succeeded by the Neo Geo Pocket Color. The system only had a retail release within the Japan and Hong Kong market.
Though the system enjoyed only a short life, there were some significant games released on the system such as Samurai Shodown, and King of Fighters R-1. The entire Neo Geo Pocket game library included: Melan Chan's Growth Diary, Puzzle Link, Pocket Tennis, Neo Cup 98, Neo Cup 98 plus, King of Fighters, Samurai Shodown, Master of Syougi, Neo Cherry Master, Baseball Stars.
The Neo Geo Pocket is mostly forward compatible, meaning it can play the majority of the newer color games. There are, however, notable exceptions such as Sonic the Hedgehog Pocket Adventure and SNK vs. Capcom: Match Of The Millennium. The newer Neo Geo Pocket Color is fully backward compatible and can play all games released for the Neo Geo Pocket.
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