ParaJVE : Parabellum's Java Vectrex Emulator   

Official Home of ParaJVE ... A travel through the programming of a freeware Vectrex emulator in java!

Saturday, November 01, 2008  

Release 0.6.0 is available

The announced release is finally ready, and can be downloaded on the official download site - try to clear your browser's cache if you cannot see this latest version... ;)

Please note that I hadn't had the time to build the Linux, nor Mac OS X packages yet ; only the Windows package is available at the time being. I'll make my best to upload the builds for the missing platforms in the next few days.

The major changes since version 0.5.0 have already been described in the previous posts, but here is an extract of the release notes history section:

  • Added several command line switches & parameters to ease offline invocation & integration in third-party launchers.

  • Fixed some errors in the 6809 CPU emulation core (flag V incorrectly computed by INC/DEC instructions)

  • Added VecVoice emulation, as well as a vecvoice aware game (Verzerk).

  • Added Lightpen emulation, and included the Lightpen enabled games (Animaction, Art Master, Melory Master, Engine Analyzer).

  • Implemented support for cartridge's onboard RAM (For Animaction).

  • Introduced automatic peripheral selection for games that have special requirements (lightpen, vecvoice).

  • Fixed a major frame timing problem when T2 was used by the program for something else than the standard use (frame timing).

  • Tweaked the rendering algorithm to reduce flicker in special cases (when frames are not T2-driven, like when Spike speaks for instance).

  • Updated the third-party native libraries (JOGL and JInput).

  • Written a basic User Guide documentation.

As you can see, this release also includes for the first time a basic User Guide (you can also access it online). It's a first draft of the guide ; if there are topics you'd like to see covered in a next version, feel free to tell me about it!

Have fun! :)
 

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9 Comments:

  • Nice job!!!
    For me I never had the light pen so its really nice to be able to play the lightpen programs on the PC with a mouse.
    VectrexMad!
    www.vectrex.co.uk

    By Blogger VectrexMad!, at 11/02/2008 1:22 AM  

  • Thanks! :)

    I have never tested the light pen either, so I can only hope the result is close enough to the real thing.
    I mean, the light pen emulation seems to lose track of the beam quite often, I'm not sure whether it's the same with the real hardware...

    By Blogger Parabellum, at 11/03/2008 11:45 AM  

  • "At last" a REAL Vectrex emulator.

    Thank you for a very polished emulator, which is very easy to use with no messing or fuss at all.

    Absolutely superb…

    Olds-kool gamer

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/03/2008 8:24 PM  

  • Thank you for your support!

    By Blogger Parabellum, at 11/04/2008 11:29 PM  

  • Hello!

    Thanks for excellent emulator ParaJVE.
    Very interesting and unusual games, and at last the emulator working
    Under Windows.
    Whether you plan to issue new releases of the emulator?
    Very much I hope, that support of such games as will be added:

    3D Crazy Coaster
    3D MineStorm
    3D Narrow Escape

    And also I hope, that the mistake in game Clean Sweep will be corrected

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11/11/2008 8:42 AM  

  • Hi,

    I haven't genuinely looked at the 3D goggles emulation yet, so I can't tell when these "3D" games will be supported.

    As for the problems brought to light by Clean Sweep, I'll have to work seriously on that soon since I noticed that some other games are also suffering from it (Animaction, Pitchers Duel, Moon Lander, ...)

    By Blogger Parabellum, at 11/21/2008 9:50 AM  

  • Hello All! I just found this emulator after joining the Facebook Group for Vectrex Lovers. I posted the link to this emulator site there as well (find it here http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=2251167380&view=user#/group.php?gid=2251167380 . I was a Vectrex owner back in the 80's and had just about everything that came out for it. Sadly I sold it because I needed the money, I even had a 2nd unit as a backup and sold the whole lot for like $500 bucks. I really wish I still had it. At any rate, now with this emulator I really don't need to have it, my fix is cured. Thanks so much for a job well done!

    By Blogger NCSchoon, at 1/12/2009 12:31 AM  

  • Found a cool icon but don't know how to use it for .bat file...

    http://www.iconarchive.com/download/ico/iconfactory/copland-5/Vectrex.ico

    Any ideas?

    By Blogger NCSchoon, at 1/12/2009 12:38 AM  

  • Ok, figured it out. Create a shortcut for the .bat file then right click shortcut and change icon in properties. Looks pretty cool. Enjoy!

    By Blogger NCSchoon, at 1/12/2009 12:40 AM  

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