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31st December, 2007 This was a great year for handhelds simulation and this is the last post in 2007! I wish this news makes someone happy, I'm releasing a brand new simulator and four updates to previously released ones. The new game comes from the extremely rare and sought after "Tooth-Sporty Time & Fun" series by VTech. The other games all feature bug-fixes to the "hiscore save" routine, which wrongly stored data into the Windows Registry. One of the games has improved graphics, making the LCD screen look much more realistic! New releases: - Tennis Menace (VTech, Tooth-Sporty Time & Fun) S4/1.00
(Standard 4, final) Jump to the downloads page to get all the game archives, the source codes and the latest MADrigal CD Collection ver. 46. I wish you a happy new year! Stay tuned because I'm releasing more games next week! 24th December, 2007 Here's my small Christmas gift to you: a brand new simulator of a game from VTech's "Explorer Time & Fun" series: - Defendo (VTech, Explorer Time & Fun) S4/1.00 (Standard 4, final) I wish you a very happy Christmas. Jump to the downloads page to get the game archive, the source code and the latest MADrigal CD Collection ver. 45. 17th December, 2007 New release today: my 44th simulator is a clone of the one released last week, though having different graphics and being more popular back in the old days: - Monkey (VTech, Time & Fun) S4/1.00 (Standard 4, final) The game executable, the source code and the new MADrigal CD Collection ver. 44 are available on the popuolar downloads page. Stay tuned and get ready for the forthcoming Christmas release! 10th December, 2007 As announced last week, I'm releasing the simulator for a very nice game: - Pirate (VTech, Time & Fun) S4/1.00 (Standard 4, final) The gameplay is plain and action turns fast, hypnotic and addictive very quickly! Get the game, the source code and the new MADrigal CD Collection ver. 43 (now including 43 games) from the usual downloads page. Stay tuned and get ready for a new release next week. 3rd December, 2007 I'm finally releasing the other game by VTech, with the same gameplay as Fire by Nintendo: - Condor (VTech, Time & Fun) S4/1.00 (Standard 4, final) The game shares the same source code with Pancake and Roller Coaster, also by VTech, with just graphics change and sprites layout. Get the simulator, the source code and the latest MADrigal CD Collection ver. 42 from the downloads area. Stay tuned because I'm about to release a new simulator: Pirate (VTech, Time & Fun) - almost done with it! 26th November, 2007 I'm releasing a new simulator of a game, sharing the same source code with the previously released Roller Coaster simulator: - Pancake (VTech, Time & Fun) S4/1.00 (Standard 4, final) The game is exactly the same though featuring completely different graphics and number of sprites! Reusing the same CPU's in more games was very common in the 80's: it was a way to save money and offer games with different settings, in an attempt to satisfy as many buyers as possible: kids, girls, boyscouts, etc. Get the game, the source code and the new MADrigal CD Collection ver. 41 from the popular downloads page. I'll soon release the simulator for the last game sharing this same CPU, that's Condor (VTech, Time & Fun). 19th November, 2007 Here's my very way to celebrate eight years of LCD simulations. I'm releasing a brand new simulator, making a total of 40 games! The game I chose is very sought-after by collectors. It's a VTech game from the obscure "Explorer Time & Fun" series with game, compass and tiny torchlight (that's also simulated!). It's the perfect game for boyscouts! The gameplay looks much like that of "Fire" by Nintendo. New game is: - Roller Coaster (VTech, Explorer Time & Fun) S4/1.00 (Standard 4, final) Get the game archive, the source code and the new MADrigal CD Collection ver. 40 from the usual downloads area. Stay tuned and get ready for the forthcoming simulator of yet another popular VTech game (scheduled for next monday)! 12th November, 2007 Here I am with my newest simulator. This time it's a very nice handheld from VTech's Time & Fun series. It's my 39th release: - Sleep Walker (VTech, Time & Fun) S4/1.00 (Standard 4, final) In addition, I updated three simulators, two of which are a sort of "final revision" to my new "Standard 4". They newly included features make them fully compatible with MAME-based arcade cabinets with graphics user interface (Maximus Arcade and GameEx, for example). The other simulator update is an important one, that's the long-awaited instructions manual browser - thanks to mr. Akio Osakada for providing the precious scans! Updated games are: - Parachute (Nintendo, Game & Watch Wide Screen) S4/1.01
(Standard 4, MAME cabinets compatible) All the games are available for download on the usual page. 15th October, 2007 As announced two weeks ago, I'm releasing my 38th handheld simulator. This time, for the first time in my life, I'm also releasing the full source code in "Delphi 6" format. The game is a milestone in portable gaming: - Parachute (Nintendo, Game & Watch Wide Screen) S4/1.00 (Standard 4, final) + source code Get both files from the downloads page. 1st October, 2007 In January 2003 I started coding a new simulator from scratch. It took me a long time to decide it was time to get back to practising my favourite hobby seriously! :-) The first step in this "rebirth" was a very easy job for me since it's nothing but a "remake" of a previously released simulator, with just different graphics and a few optimizations: Nintendo's "panorama" version of Mickey Mouse shares the same gameplay as Donkey Kong Circus. Hence, the two simulators share the same source code with just a few minor changes. But the real news is that the new game is released under a new "standard", which I call Standard 4: it features extremely realistic 8-bit colour sprites in the LCD screen; the graphics of the handheld game is clean and has fully animated buttons; the instructions manual browser is embedded in the game executable; the compiler was upgraded to Delphi 6; the game routines were highly optimized. So, here's my release #37: - Mickey Mouse (Nintendo, Game & Watch Panorama Screen) S4/1.00 (Standard 4, final) Get the game and the new MADrigal CD Collection ver. 37, featuring all the released games with a simple graphics interface, from the downloads page. I'm now about to complete a new simulator for a top-wanted game: Parachute (Nintendo, Game & Watch Wide Screen), so stay tuned! PS: don't miss to visit my other site, CreatiVEmu, to discover my latest product: the CreatiVision Multicart in limited collectors edition! 17th September, 2007 I'm updating two simulators today: Donkey Angler, now featuring a full English manual browser (kindly provided by Simon Herman), and Hippo Teeth, now featuring a picture of the real handheld box in the splash-screen and the usual changes to audio drivers, graphics, etc. The new files are: - Donkey Angler (Gakken, LCD Card Game) S3/1.04 (Standard
3, manual added) Get both games from the downloads page. Next update is scheduled on 1st October. I'm about to complete a simulator for one of the rarest games ever: Mickey Mouse (Nintendo, Game & Watch Panorama Screen). Stay tuned! 3rd September, 2007 It took me 4 years and a half to decide it was time to release the complete version of the much requested Galaxy II/Astro Wars Simulator. I originally released it as a "public beta" last year. The missing routines (that's the simulation of "Phase 4" of the game) weren't quite hard to programme and required major changes to the previous source code Well the wait is over and the game is being released now. It's dedicated to Shawn Muller, who's the donator of the tabletop game, and to all the fans of the game, who sent me several emails asking me to complete it! So here it is: - Galaxy II (Epoch) / Astro Wars (Grandstand) S3/1.00 (Standard 3, final) Get it from the usual downloads page and... have fun! 27th August, 2007 I have been hunting the instructions manual of Tom & Jerry Popper for six years now. Finally, the quest is over - thanks to my friend Rik Morgan who sent me the precious scans! Also, as soon as I have read the manual, I found out that the simulator
didn't include all the features of the original game, as it was supposed
to. In addition, the game shared the same unaccuracies with its "clone",
that's Donkey Angler - which uses the same CPU as the Tom & Jerry
game. I'm also updating Grab Man, now featuring a picture of the original game box in the splash-screen. Here's the list of new files: - Donkey Angler (Gakken, LCD Card Game) S3/1.03 (Standard 3,
minor fixes) Get the new files from the downloads page. 6th August, 2007 I finally decided to update Tron and Motor Cross simulators by adding a long-time missing feature: good quality sound effects of the bikes engine. In fact, in the previous versions of both simulators, I included a routine to play the engines noise through the PC internal speaker. The routine had compatibility issues with Windows 2000 and newer operating systems, so I had to remove it, making the games silent. I recently found a way to include the sound effect in the games again, that's by using WAV samples of the original handheld games and specific additional routines. I just updated the games and they work great! I'm updating two more games, to which I added pictures of the original boxes. Here's what's new today: - Tron (Tomytronic) S3/1.02 (Standard 3, XP-compatible sound update)- Motor Cross (unknown manufacturer) S3/2.04 (Standard 3, XP-compatible sound update) - Monkey Jump (VTech, Arcade Time & Fun series) S3/1.02 (Standard 3, minor graphics update) - Caccia al Ladro - Heathcliff & Sonja (VTech) S3/1.01 (Standard 3, minor graphics update) I'm also updating the MADrigal Simulators CD Collection, the single archive including my 36 simulators with user interface, now featuring the newly released simulators. Get all files from the downloads page. 19th July, 2007 Kindest Jori Piippola from Finland reported a peculiar bug in my simulator of the Mario's Bombs Away game: 2-bit transparent BMP images, which are used extensively in the simulator, were rendered erroneously on certain recent video cards. As a consequence, a few sprites weren't rendered at all (fully transparent). I investigated and found out that the same bug occurred in other games too, which I immediately fixed. This is the list of updates: - Donkey Kong Circus (Nintendo, Game & Watch Panorama Screen)
S3/1.05 (Standard 3, minor graphics fixes) Get them from the downloads page. 12th January, 2007 After seven years of free hosting on the Retrogames servers, I finally decided to move this website (and all my other websites) to my own web domain: madrigaldesign.it. I updated all the pages, links, cross-references, etc. in order to make them compatible with the new environment. I hope you like the new features. I also decided to update the MADrigal Simulators CD Collection
interface, which I first released in 2004. Get the file from the downloads page! » News archive |
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