The History of Multi-Console Emulators - Part 2

BSNES / Higan / Ares (2004)

BSNES

BSNES (Interface)

BSNES was released in October 2004 for Windows by Byuu/Near. In October 2005, it was ported to MacOS X by Richard Bannister and maintained until May 2021. What sets this emulator apart from others is its precision in emulation, which requires more robust machines to run it. It also has 100% game compatibility. Another difference is the execution of games from the MSU-1 chip, a virtual chip for modified Super Nintendo ROMs created by Byuu himself, and developed between 2000 and 2007, which allows the reading of a large flow of information with 4 Gb of storage, in addition to CD-quality music, and full-motion videos. Practically a Sega CD version of the Super Nintendo. Some everdrivers can emulate this chip and make these modified games run on the console itself. By August 2006, it was already supporting the SA-1, Super FX, SPC7110, DSP-3, DSP-4, ST-010, ST-011 and ST-018 chips, as well as the Super Game Boy, Sufami Turbo and Satellaview peripherals. In parallel, in 2010, it developed a fundraising campaign to unpack SNES cartridge coprocessors to extract their firmware (hardware instructions), and thus made BSNES the first emulator to have 100% compatibility with games. An interesting fact: The code of the sound emulator it developed for BSNES, the NEC uPD7720, was used by the late Stephen Hawkins' team to produce a more portable version of the voice program it used. Returning to BSNES, in January 2011, 64-bit versions began to be released. In October 2011, it began supporting the Game Boy and NES. After that, they added support for GBC in November 2011, GBA in April 2012 and NDS in August 2012.

Higan

Higan (Interface)

In January 2013, the emulator changed its name to Higan, with the last version as BSNES released in August 2012. This version comes without support for NDS, maintaining all other BSNES systems. Over time, several systems were included. Among them, WonderSwan and WonderSwan Color in April 2016, Master System, Game Gear, Mega Drive and PC Engine in January 2017, SuperGrafx in June 2017 and Pocket Challenge V2 in April 2018. In May 2018, the idea of ​​resurrecting the original BNES project arose, which recovered it from the 2009 stage when it only ran SNES. The team began to call itself BSNES Team. From then on, BSNES also began to support Lior Halphon's emulator, Sameboy, which is known as the most accurate in emulating GB and GBC.

Higan v115

Higan v115 (Interface)

The new BSNES project has parts of an experimental emulation project by Byuu called csnes. Within this new BSNES, a way to improve video rendering is also being developed. This allowed programmer DerKoun to change the pixel quality, managing to increase the resolution of a game from 256x240 to 3840x2160, thus transforming the games into HD. This gave rise to the BSNES fork, called BSNES-HD, created in May 2019 for Windows and MacOS, and in June for Linux. At the same time, Byuu and the Higan Team continue to develop Higan. Some members work on the team for both emulators, such as Screwtapello. In 2019 onwards, Higan has new additions, such as FDS in November 2019 and ColecoVision, SG-1000, SC-3000, MSX, MSX2, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Sega CD and SwanCrystal in December 2019. Also in December, it modifies its front-end, leaving the selection of consoles and portables at the bottom of it.

Higan (GBA)

Higan (SNES)

In February 2020, Byuu was released, a fork of Higan, with the intention of adding other systems, such as PSX and N64, which cannot be run on Higan, due to its continuous cycle emulation model. It came with the proposal of having the precision of Higan and the ease of use of BSNES. The emulators were the same, with the exception of SC-3000 and SwanCrystal, which were exclusive to Higan. Byuu was updated until March 2020. Also in March, BSNES and Higan had their last update made by Byuu, being taken care of from then on by the BSNES Team and Higan Team. This latest version of Higan also comes with ports for MacOS, Linux and FreeBSD.

Ares

Ares (Interface)

Still in March, he started his newest project, Ares, named after the character from the game Lunar: The Silver Star, being a continuation of the work of the Byuu project, and automatically a direct continuation of Higan. The main purpose of the project was to emulate PC Engine CD and Nintendo 64. In May, he actually announced the project. From March to June, Ares had four releases only as source code. It was released in June, with support for PC Engine CD. The project was launched until July 2020, having been developed privately from August 2020 onwards. In February 2021, he released new versions of the emulator again, and from this version onwards with support for PSX. He released versions until May 2021. On June 27, 2021, Near was found dead in his home, a victim of suicide. Since 2020, he had been suffering harassment on the internet and this began to make him sick until it culminated in this tragedy. The latest versions of their emulators released were March 2020 for BSNES and Higan and May 2021 for Ares. From October 2020 to October 2021, an update of BSNES was created, called BSNES Nightly. But it was not updated by Byuu, but by the project team, the BSNES Team. The same happened with Higan, with updates from November 2020 to August 2021, called Higan Nightly, and updated by the Higan Team. When both versions are released, versions are released for Windows, MacOS, and Ubuntu.

Ares (NES)

Ares (32X)

After his death, Ares returns in July 2021, with Screwtapello in charge, who was part of the current BSNES and Higan teams. He did not leave his name in the credits, but rather the Ares Team. The project becomes the continuation of Byuu's legacy. This July version comes with the executable named Lucia, we don't know for sure why. Maybe some tribute to Byuu with the name of a character or important person in her life (just my speculation). The name Lucia returns in other versions. Sometimes in the name of the executable, sometimes in the title of the emulator. In February 2021, the emulator begins supporting the PSX. In July 2021, it begins supporting the Nintendo 64 (thanks to the ParaLLEl-RDP graphics renderer by The Mainster from the RetroArch project), 32X, Neo Geo MVS and AES. The curious fact about The Mainster is that his RetroArch emulator was inspired by Byuu's BSNES. He also left a note on his website LibRetro.com about his colleague's death. The addition of his ported graphics renderer specially for N64 emulation on Ares, which is the continuation of Byuu's work and legacy, carries a lot of meaning. For me, it is a thank you and fulfillment of one of Byuu's last wishes, which was to emulate this console.

Ares (PSX)

Ares (WonderSwan)

In July, Englishman Luke Usher joined the project and became a permanent member in August, replacing Screwtapello. Screwtapello left the project permanently in September. In November, American Stephanie Gawroriski joined the team. In March 2022, the project gained its own website. In June 2022, versions for MacOS also began to be released. Ares is still being developed to this day. BSNES influenced the creation of the RetroArch emulator in 2010. Later, several ports for the multi-emulator inspired by the BSNES core emerged, such as Beetle BSNES in 2012 (a port of Mednafen's BSNES) and BSNES2014 in 2013. In 2010, BSNES became part of the Mednafen multi-emulator. In 2012, it was time to integrate the BizHawk multi-emulator. The first versions of BSNES used in these multi-emulators were 0.58 on Mednafen and 0.87 on BizHawk. There was also a fork of Higan made by Rex-USR around June 2017 called nSide. And about Byuu or Near, he was also known in the emuscene for having translated the game Dragon Quest V from Japanese to English in 2001. He has been in the emulation scene helping to program Super Nintendo emulators since 1997.