| This page was updated on: Sunday, January 02, 2000 |
Retrocade
The Ultimate Arcade Game Emulator
The authors of Retrocade are, well..... they are a little weird. I'll let them tell their own story........
Retrocade began development in the Stone Ages, when computers were still in their infancy. It was a slow and arduous process, as there were really only 5 letters in the alphabet (which provided a very limited command set) and the keyboards didn't work terribly well. There were only two video games in existence (titled "Grog Chase Lion" and "Lion Chase Grog"), so there wasn't much of a market for the emulator anyway. The ancient programmers soon got tired of fighting with the computer, so they started fighting with a saber-tooth tiger instead. Unfortunately, they lost the fight. Retrocade was soon forgotten about and was buried in the back of a cave.
Screen captures of Retrocade emulating
Battlezone, Boot Hill, Discs of Tron, and Space Invaders Pt. II
Note the use of graphic overlays for these games!
Click on images to enlarge
After a few millenium passed, archaeologists discovered the remains of Retrocade as they were excavating an unusual group of skeletons -- a group of Stone Age people and a saber-tooth tiger. Not realizing what a major discovery it was, they put Retrocade into an old moldy trunk and shipped it off to a museum, where it was put on display with the label of "Ancient Hominid Stone Thingy". A chance visit to the museum by Neil Bradley brought about the true identity of the remains... and Retrocade was reborn.
Screen capture of Retrocade emulating Spy Hunter
Note the graphic overlay on the left for the weapons!!
As computer technology had advanced to a usable state during the years since development first began on Retrocade, new development continued forward at a much accelerated rate. A team of the best programmers from around the world was assembled to work on it, and it was finally completed after many, many hours of hard work. Retrocade is finally available for download by the general public.
Retrocade is a high-performance arcade emulation program that emulates a large number of classic arcade games from the late 1970's and the 1980's. It allows the user to play the actual, original arcade games on a home computer. These are not conversions, simulations, or adaptations. The games that Retrocade supports are the real deal.
Retrocade offers advanced emulation performance by utilizing 100% assembly language CPU emulators in both the DOS and Windows 32-bit versions, as well as highly optimized display code (supports linear frame buffer access via VESA 2.0). Full sound support is offered as well both through sound-chip emulation and the use of high-quality (16-bit @ 44.1 KHz) samples and sample-playing techniques (real-time mixing of samples with other samples as well as emulated sound).
System requirements for DOS version:
System requirements for Windows 95/98/NT version:
Currently unreleased -- Under development
Go to the Retrocade homepage
This emulator can be downloaded directly from it's
homepage.
NOTE: In order to run this emulator, you must have the emulator itself, and a copy of the ROM's from the original system. The emulator itself is Freeware. The ROM's are copyrighted by the programmer or the manufacturer. You are only legally entitled to do so if you own the actual game, or a PCB/ROM Cartridge from the game that you are emulating. If you decide to download ROM's to test out an emulator, you must delete the ROM's within 24 hours unless you own the equipment mentioned above.
ROM's may be found at many sites, including EMUCLASSICS.