4 ms·

The Story of NESticle, the Ambitious Emulator That Redefined Retro Gaming

137 points by sanimal 9y ago

rlv-dan 9y ago
The most unique feature of NESticle was probably the menu option "Pentium Crash". Clicking on it froze your computer. I know that first hand :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_F00F_bug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_F00F_bug The author of NESticle sure had a weird sense of humor, which is probably why it is such a loved application!Besides the ability to relive your childhood by playing pirated roms :-)
- rejschaap 9y ago
  > The author of NESticle sure had a weird sense of humor The name of the emulator is a good indication of that.
  - bringtheaction 9y ago
    And the icon.
sayhello 9y ago
NESticle was a fantastic emulator; it really upped the ante as far as user experience went. It was fast, had way more capabilities and configurability than others. The UI was polished and dripping with personality. At the time, while I had dabbled in making small BASIC programs and hex editing games to bypass copy protection, I didn’t know it would even be possible to emulate a whole computer system, and to do it with such aplomb. It inspired me to delve deeper in the scene and probably played a role in me to take an interest in software development as a vocation.
- rlv-dan 9y ago
  > The UI was polished and dripping with personality. Later came Genecyst from the same developer, which dripped with blood. Literally :-)
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
shasheene 9y ago
It would be really cool to read interview with the authors of other great emulators of the era too. My personal favorite was NO$GMB ("nocash gameboy"), which was written in x86 assembly for DOS and allowed a 33MHz 486DX to emulate a Gameboy Color at multiples of full speed. Just the interface gives me waves of nostalgia :) The author, Martin Korth is suprisingly still very active in the emulation scene [1], and still lives the life of a starving artist. Interesting guy and great programmer/reverse engineer. [1] http://problemkaputt.de http://problemkaputt.de
- ubertaco 9y ago
  Oh wow, that takes me back. The section for NO$GMB even says: The Windows version is for Windows 95/98/NT/2000, it requires a rather fast computer (at least 66MHz suggested), it is including a typical windows user interface (new in this version), and it is probably easier to install, and more compatible to newer windows versions.
- torso 9y ago
  I wrote the Game Lad emulator more than a decade ago. NO$GMB was kind of the biggest rival in emulation accuracy. Eventually I reached a point where there were games that worked in Game Lad and not in NO$GMB and vice versa. Great times. Edit: Just checked. Last version released on 2001-10-05.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
dfxm12 9y ago
It focused on usability over accuracy, which turned out to be a bit of a breakthrough for emulation of the time... His work was eventually superseded by emulators that took advantage of the fact that the end user was probably using something better than a 486-processor. I remember Zophar.net giving a little blurb about an emulator's speed or accuracy. Having such a bad computer at the time, that was NOT using something better than a 486, I appreciated this. My computer couldn't run many contemporary PC games, but it could emulate Mike Tyson's Punch Out just fine.
OedipusRex 9y ago
I knew Don "MindRape" Moore personally, he passed away pretty recently but he was a big influence in my life as I got into computers. Crazy cool dude, gave himself a "snake tongue" with a pair of scissors by himself!
- tbyehl 9y ago
  I was weirded out by the Donnie quotes. He'd been gone a year when the article was published but the way they were presented you'd think they were freshly sourced. He was a great guy and brilliant co-worker. Sorely missed.

137 points by sanimal 9y ago

The most unique feature of NESticle was probably the menu option "Pentium Crash". Clicking on it froze your computer. I know that first hand :-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_F00F_bug https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentium_F00F_bug The author of NESticle sure had a weird sense of humor, which is probably why it is such a loved application!Besides the ability to relive your childhood by playing pirated roms :-)

rejschaap 9y ago
> The author of NESticle sure had a weird sense of humor The name of the emulator is a good indication of that.
- bringtheaction 9y ago
  And the icon.

sayhello 9y ago

NESticle was a fantastic emulator; it really upped the ante as far as user experience went. It was fast, had way more capabilities and configurability than others. The UI was polished and dripping with personality. At the time, while I had dabbled in making small BASIC programs and hex editing games to bypass copy protection, I didn’t know it would even be possible to emulate a whole computer system, and to do it with such aplomb. It inspired me to delve deeper in the scene and probably played a role in me to take an interest in software development as a vocation.

rlv-dan 9y ago
> The UI was polished and dripping with personality. Later came Genecyst from the same developer, which dripped with blood. Literally :-)

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

shasheene 9y ago

It would be really cool to read interview with the authors of other great emulators of the era too. My personal favorite was NO$GMB ("nocash gameboy"), which was written in x86 assembly for DOS and allowed a 33MHz 486DX to emulate a Gameboy Color at multiples of full speed. Just the interface gives me waves of nostalgia :) The author, Martin Korth is suprisingly still very active in the emulation scene [1], and still lives the life of a starving artist. Interesting guy and great programmer/reverse engineer. [1] http://problemkaputt.de http://problemkaputt.de

ubertaco 9y ago
Oh wow, that takes me back. The section for NO$GMB even says: The Windows version is for Windows 95/98/NT/2000, it requires a rather fast computer (at least 66MHz suggested), it is including a typical windows user interface (new in this version), and it is probably easier to install, and more compatible to newer windows versions.
torso 9y ago
I wrote the Game Lad emulator more than a decade ago. NO$GMB was kind of the biggest rival in emulation accuracy. Eventually I reached a point where there were games that worked in Game Lad and not in NO$GMB and vice versa. Great times. Edit: Just checked. Last version released on 2001-10-05.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

dfxm12 9y ago

It focused on usability over accuracy, which turned out to be a bit of a breakthrough for emulation of the time... His work was eventually superseded by emulators that took advantage of the fact that the end user was probably using something better than a 486-processor. I remember Zophar.net giving a little blurb about an emulator's speed or accuracy. Having such a bad computer at the time, that was NOT using something better than a 486, I appreciated this. My computer couldn't run many contemporary PC games, but it could emulate Mike Tyson's Punch Out just fine.

OedipusRex 9y ago

I knew Don "MindRape" Moore personally, he passed away pretty recently but he was a big influence in my life as I got into computers. Crazy cool dude, gave himself a "snake tongue" with a pair of scissors by himself!

tbyehl 9y ago
I was weirded out by the Donnie quotes. He'd been gone a year when the article was published but the way they were presented you'd think they were freshly sourced. He was a great guy and brilliant co-worker. Sorely missed.