Logo thanks to arthurs@stad.dsl.nl

NESticle Shrine


It came when many of us were troubled, paying money for emulators that were less than decent, and we were beginning to really wonder what would happen to the future of NES emulation...

Thankfully, From out of nowhere, NESticle was born. It is the result of 2 weeks of boredom, as the author Sardu puts it. This emulator is FREEWARE, yes, FREEWARE, although many would be more than happy to donate money to this kind author!

Sure, it might be a funny name, named after the part of the male anatomy less talked about, and maybe that bloody stub of a hand makes ya wonder, but hey, the emulator is free and it is the best!

The future of NES emulation has been forever changed, it will never be the same again...

These are some screenshots of NESticle in action! (From x.xx)

Snake Rattle & VS Super Mario Bros.

Kid Niki and Splatterhouse

Twinbee 3 and Wrath of the Black Manta

Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!

Wizards & Warriors 1 and Megaman 3

Wizards & Warriors 2 :Ironsword

Wario Woods

The Immortal and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3


NESticle History


NESticle Version x.xx for DOS (08-18-98)

Version x.xx:
- press ~ to insert coin (vs games)
- Fixed Sidewinder support
- Changes/improvements in sound emulation
- GrIP support has been fixed for users who own Gravis GamePad Pros
- Changes in timing (check out Magician)


NESticle Version 0.43 for DOS (01-01-98)

Version 0.43:
- PMODE/W DOS extender
- Encapsulated nesticle.pal
- Delta Modulation channel (not PCM)
- Minor MMC1 fixes
- Mapper 19 support (Namcot)
- Complete rewrite of sound code
- Mapper 22/23 support (Konami VRC2)
- Native MS Sidewinder support
- Encapsulated gui.vol
- Fixed up some VESA code
- Manual frameskip (-frameskip)


NESticle Version 0.42 for DOS and Win95 (09-22-97)

Version 0.42:
- Support for MMC1 games greater than 512k (DW4)
Thanks to Matthew Richey
- Better LFN detection
- Fixed I-flag after interrupts
- Fixed pattern editor in 95 version


NESticle Version 0.41 for DOS and Win95 (09-10-97)

Version 0.41:
- '-nothrottle' command line option
- 6502 speedups
- Correct sprite priorities (SMB3/PO)
- Corrected trapbadops
- Fixed vram corruption on reset


NESticle Version 0.40 for DOS and Win95 (08-21-97)

Version 0.40:
- Scroll fix workarounds
- Fixed soft-resets
- Rom directory saved
- Automatic state backuping
- "Perfect" sound constant
- Partial grungy PCM channel (only a few games) disabled by default
- State display
- Mapper #6 mirroring fix
- Scanlines in mode 256x256
- 256x224 made more compatible
- Completely rewritten 6502 CPU core
- Added RDTSC and FPUcopy for pentiums
- Added support for MMC1 ROMs > 256k
- Speed throttle disabling
- Improved waitvsync
- GUI enhancement
- Fixed MMC1 glitch
- '-nomsgpopup' option added
- Default DOS res set to 320,200
- Changed DOS SB sound driver
- Fixed DOS hardware error handler bug
- Fixed crash bug with too long descriptions in rom patch files


NESticle Version 0.34 for DOS and Win95 (06-13-97)

Version 0.34:
- Fixed battery backed mem saving problem
- Wave output loggable under DOS
- VRAM bank switching implemented (mapper #6)
Thanks to Fanwen (yangfanw@ms4.hinet.net)
- DOS startup crash bug fixed (maybe?)


NESticle Version 0.33 for DOS and Win95 (06-11-97)

Version 0.33:
- Somewhat improved mapper #6, most games seem to be all ROM (ie no VROM)
- Some rendering optimizations
- Longer GG code descriptions
- Partial Punchout(#9) support, trainer-less ROM only
VROM switching and sprite priority still messed
- VROM switching in mapper #7
- Minor bug fixes
- OS/2 users must disable long filename support under DOS in order for it to run (ie -disablelfn)


NESticle Version 0.32 for DOS and Win95 (05-18-97)

Version 0.32:
- v.32 will not netplay correctly with older versions
- Experimental mapper #5,#6,#8,#11 support
- Partial 100-crappy-games-in-1 mapper support (iNES mapper #15)
- Some MMC1 changes (RcProam 1)
- NES ROM header editor
- DOS GrIP support (see Input Devices)
- Windows->DOS clipboard pasting put in DOS (Shift-ins or Ctrl-V pastes)
- Record/play NES movies (*.nsm)
- Some DOS SB driver changes (fixes?) for single cycle DMA (DSP 2.00)
- Some DirectSound tweaking, better sound (maybe) at the expense of higher latency
- Interactive joystick calibration/button remapping (see Input devices)
- Game Genie codes and general ROM patching (see Rom Patching)
- Should gracefully exit (hopefully) if NESticle runs out of memory. 8MB under DOS is highly recommended
- Scrapped the binary config file 'NESticle.cfg' and opted for a completely text based config file (see Command line options)
- Detects mouse driver now instead of using it blindly (DOS)
- Additional ModeX modes, 256x240 and 256x256 (DOS)
- Menu options accessed using ALT now (ie, ALT-l loads a rom) Did this to resolve ambiguities with edit controls, keyb input, and menu
- Log wave output now writes .WAV files (95 only)
- Added '-sndblksize' command line option.
- Some directory and longfilename stuff fixed
- Some key changes (unified pause/resume with alt-p and reset with alt-r)
- Labelled window buttons


NESticle Version 0.31 for DOS and Win95 (05-06-97)

Version 0.31:
- Some changes in Netplay, default ports changed to reflect this. v.31 will not netplay correctly with older versions
- Big resynching problem fixed when a reset occurs in netplay
- Spacebar key does nothing now, ESC hides gui and maximizes game window
- Some iNES Mapper #7 support added (Wizards & Warriors 1/2) The mirroring isn't quite right, but at least they run for now. Ensure that their headers contain the # of 16k banks, NOT 32k
- Finally, long fucking file names under DOS (MSDOS 7.x under 95) If they cause problems, disable with '-disablelfn'
- Log wave output feature added (Win95 only) Written to a signed 16-bit mono RAW file (no header)
- Uses asynchronous functions to resolve local host (no more hanging under win95 w/o being connected to internet)
- Calibrate button actually calibrates the joystick (who would have thought) Center it then push the button...calibrate under win95 with the control panel
- BRK instruction fixed (DW1 works again)
- Louder triangle wave (normalized sound constant as well)
- Seperate dirs for different file types (see command line options)
- "Read only" roms now load
- Longer default VBlank interval (fixes many games)
- Reverted to using DOS4GW, apparently some people were having problems with the PMODE/W extender so DOS4GW was put back in. If you liked PMODE/W better you can always download it and bind it to the EXE


NESticle Version 0.30 for DOS and Win95 (04-30-97)

Version 0.3:
- PPU mem address wrapped around now
- Sound settings dialog added (soundconstants fixed)
- GUS support
- Pattern editor
- Resorted to multi-threading under 95 to compensate for DirectSound being such a living pile of shit (still not fixed totally)
- Fixed sprite clippings
- Triangle wave channel fixed
- Noise channel implemented
- Enter/Tab work when GUI disabled or game window has input focus
- Cycle timings fixed
- Hitflag/Split screen improved
- PCX snapshots saved to 'snap??.pcx'
- Netplay TCP/IP or IPX (Win95 only)
- 'sndconstant' command line option added
- 'swapbut' command line option replaced by 'remapbut'
- Ctrl/Alt now mappable to keyboard input devices
- Default keys for keyboard #1 are B/A=Ctrl/Alt
- Command line now read from 'default.w95' and 'default.dos'
- Dumb bug in MMC1 fixed (Zelda 2 works)
- IRQ's for MMC3 fixed
- DOS4GW replaced by PMODE/W (its a little faster and its a lot smaller) If it causes problems, DOS4GW can still be used (run "dos4gw nesticle") If you get a "Unable to allocate framebuffer selector" error, use DOS4GW.


NESticle Version 0.21 for DOS and Win95 (04-04-97)

Version 0.21:
- You can change directories now when you load roms.
- Sound cards under DOS that do not support auto-initialized DMA transfer have been fixed, i hope.
- Now uses a secondary sound buffer for mixing as opposed to using the primary one (under Win95 DirectSound). This should make it more compatible. Also is using a timer callback to update the buffer, should eliminate some static. DirectSound is atrocious.
- 'swapbut' command line option added. Swaps the A&B; joystick buttons
- 'palfile' command line option added. Now you can use multiple-palettes.
- The new palette was thankfully provided by Loopy (loopy@itsnet.com).


NESticle Version 0.2 for DOS and Win95 (04-03-97)

Version 0.2:
- Initial release


Thanks To Sardu for making such a great emulator, be sure to visit the NESticle Home Page. Bloodlust rocks forever!!!

Mail Bloodlust Software at: bldlust@maelstrom.net. (NO commercial ROM requests please)

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