The History of Multi-Console Emulators - Part 3

Xe (2004)

Xe

The Xe emulator was born in 2004 with the proposal of being a multi-emulator, running consoles and portables. Created by Jimmy, its first version was released in November 2004 for Linux, already featuring the SG-1000, NES, Master System, PC Engine, Turbo Grafx 16, Mega Drive, SNES, Neo Geo, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Wonder Swan and Wonder Swan Color systems. In the following versions, new consoles were added, such as PC Engine CD and Turbo Grafx 16 CD on 03/05, Sega CD on 05/05, Neo Geo CD on 08/05, Super Grafx on 09/05, Famicom Disk System on 07/06, CPS Changer on 11/06, FM Towns Marty on 04/08, and PC-FX and Game Boy Advance on 08/08. The Windows version will only be released on May 1st. Initially, the Windows version cost $35, with a free demo version. In mid-2006, a free full version of Windows was also released.

Xe (Interface)

There were versions for other systems, such as PowerPC 64 on 10/07 and Linux 64 bits on 12/07. The project had help from important people, such as the MAME and MESS groups with information about various chips, as well as Charles MacDonald, for obtaining information about the PC-Engine and Sega Master System/Game Gear and Mega Drive systems, since he had developed emulators for the consoles in question. Its latest version was released in April 2009. The project emulated 24 systems in total. In July 2009, Jimmy had proposed adding N64 emulation to the project, even releasing screenshots of this evolution, but this never came to fruition.

Mednafen (2005)

Mednafen (MedLaunch)

Mednafen was created in August 2005 as an NES emulator called Nintencer by Ryphecha. It was a system that ran on a simple CPU and without special video features. Three versions of the emulator were released in August, until Ryphecha decided to turn it into a multi-emulator, releasing its first version in September under the name Mednafen, which stands for My Emulator Doesn't Need A Frickin' Excellent Name. Creative, huh? LOL. At least it's original. :p With that, he gathered a team to help him, called the Mednafen Team. Its first version was released for Windows and Linux. Upon its release, it already emulated the Atari Lynx, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, NES, Famicom Disk System, PC Engine, Turbo Grafx 16, Super Grafx, and PC-FX systems. The emulator's proposal is very similar to that of MESS, being a multi-emulator for consoles and portable devices and working via the command line. It is made in SDL, meaning it can run on any operating system, and has all the standard features of a good emulator, such as screensaver, save state, multiple joypad configuration, among others. Another difference is the graphics execution via OpenGL, which are plug-ins/APIs that simulate graphics hardware for each system according to the standard video hardware/software of each user. At this time, emulators are already starting to use OpenGL even on consoles where sound chips can be easily emulated, bringing substantial improvements to the graphics with the simulation.

MedAdvCFG

Mednaffe

NekoLauncher Mednafen

Ice cold

The addition of emulators to Mednafen are as follows: In 2005 GB, GBC and GBA by VisualBoy Advance, NES by iNes and FCE Ultra (which their NES emulator had already been inspired by), Atari Lynx by Handy, and PC Engine and the other NEC FX with original emulation. In 2007, WonderSwan and WonderSwan Color based on Cygne were added, and Master System and Game Gear based on SMS Plus. In 2009 we have the Mega Drive based on Genesis Plus, with sound from Gens, and Genesis Plus code for GameCube/Wii (the Genesis Plus GX). In 2010 the Virtual Boy was included with original emulation, and SNES emulated by BSNES. In 2011 they developed their own emulator for PSX, which was ported in 2016 to RetroArch as Beetle-PSX. In 2012, they began emulating the PC Engine CD based on the Japanese PC2E emulator. And in 2016 they emulated the Sega Saturn through the MedSat emulator, developed exclusively for the multi-emulator by Paul Met, which also has its own GUI for the console.

MedGui Reborn

QMednafen and Mednafen GUI

JMednafen

MFE

Speaking of GUI/Interfaces, the emulator has been released for a wide range of systems, such as Windows, as MedGui Reborn in June 2009, Mednaffe in August 2010 (also having a version for Linux), Mednafen GUI in November 2010, QMednafen in June 2014, MedAdvCFG in June 2016 and MedLaunch in October 2016. For Linux, as Gelide in December 2008, Zednafen in July 2011 and Mednafen Front End (MFE) in November 2011. For MacOS X, as NekoLauncher Mednafen in September 2016. And for Java, as JMednafen in August 2008. Mednafen's last update was in April 2021. The emulator also runs on Free, Net and Open BSD systems, and Risc OS, in addition to consoles. PS3 and Nintendo Wii. The emulator was also forked as Mednafen Re-Recording in April 2009. This is a version for recording videos in the emulator, a type of fork common with other emulators. Its latest version was released in July 2009.

Bee (2009)

Bee

Bee (Interface)

Bee was an emulator built by The Beehive group starting in 2007. Its first release was in June 2009 for Windows, Linux and MacOS X. It supported the second and third generation Atari 2600, ColecoVision, SG-1000 and Master System systems, all with the same Zilog Z80 microprocessor, with the exception of the Atari which used the Motorola 6502, all already very well documented and emulated at the time. It was not public domain, nor open source and had an emulation precision that required having a good PC at the time to run it.

 

Bee (Atari 2600)

Bee (ColecoVision)

Bee (SG-1000)

Bee (Master System)

Regarding its interface, it was one of the most complete multi-system emulators of the time, providing a summary of each console with images of them, control configuration, with the skin of the controls of each console, save state, video filters, OpenGL acceleration, 3D configuration, fullscreen, various window resolutions, buffer configuration, volume and sound sample rates, loading zip files, selection of video output between PAL, NTSC and SECAM, as well as video recording and snapshot, among others. Its latest version was released in March 2011.