Emulation Names - Part 18

Nobuaki Andou

Pasofami

Japanese Nobuaki Andou was another legendary emulator creator. He was one of the first console emulator creators in the world, having created the NES emulator, Pasofami, in 1993. It was an emulator with problems with sprites and sound quality, reproducing them in a MIDI version and was paid for. This created a problem, as the emulation scene was seen as something unprofitable. Some time later, because of this, the emulator was hacked and distributed publicly.

Pasofami and Super Pasofami Documentation

Perhaps this helped (we don't know) other emulators that appeared later. The truth is that after this, Nobuaki started to put malware in the executable to cause harm to the computers of non-Japanese people who accessed the emulator, who were the ones most suspected of the hacking. This only happened for a period of time. The emulator had versions for MS-DOS and FM Towns, the latter for a Japanese PC. Later, it had versions for Windows 3.1, 95 and 98.

The brand mascots: Paso-Kun and Fami-Chan

Website

Pasofami had some interesting features. It had a different ROM format, divided into two parts, most often in .PRG and .CHR formats. These were the first NES ROM formats created, later replaced by the .NES format of Marat Fayzullin's iNes emulator. Another interesting feature was that the songs could be saved in MID format, at the time when they were played in this way, and then played back in their original format as on the real console.

Apps: AVI Output Settings, Sound Volume Level Meter, NSF File (Nes Sound File) Automatic Creation, Cassette ROM Extraction/Cassette RAM Writing/Disk Reading, MP3 Output Settings and NSF Player

It also had its own cheat format, .XTM. From 2000 onwards, it began to add consoles, such as Gameboy and in 2001, Super Nintendo. In 2002, it began to support a game ripper called Chameleon, which was connected via USB. At first it only ripped NES games, but by 2003 it was ripping games from several consoles and portables from Sega, Nintendo, Bandai, SNK, NEC and even some MSX PCs.

Pasodisk and Chameleon USB

In 2002, there was also a system called Pasodisk, for ripping Famicom Disk System games. Between 1999 and 2000, there was a player for NSF files, which were original Nintendo sound files. In 2005, this player boomed and allowed NSF files to be saved in .WAV, .MP3 and .MID formats. In 2002, there was another player for playing non-NSF music and saving them in .WAV, .MP3 and .MID formats.

Super Pasofami

Another Nobuaki project was Super Pasofami, created in 1996 for the Super Nintendo, and developed from the NES Pasofami. It only had versions for Windows, and in mid-1996 it promised to run 50% of SNES games on a 386. Despite this, most of the games ran sped up and most likely without sound. The project ended in early 1997 and merged with the NES Pasofami in 2001. Nobuaki passed away in May 2018 from stomach cancer.

Janne Korpela

Janne Korpela was born in Järna, Överjärna, Sweden and lives in Södertälje, Stockholm, Sweden. He attended high school at Täljegymnasiet in Södertälje. His beginnings in emulation began in 1997. At the time, he created three emulators, for the arcade games Tutankhamun, Yer Ar Kung-Fu and Ikari Warriors. At the time, these games were not yet emulated. The first two games required emulation of the 6809 CPU, which did not yet exist, and Korpela created it in June of the same year. In August, his friend Anders Nilsson, also a Swede, asked for Korpela's 6809 processor for his arcade game Son Son.

Yie Ar Kung-Fu, Tutankham and Ikari Warriors

Webpages Emulators and NeoRage

After that, they began working as a duo. At this stage, Korpela also began to take care of Nilsson's emulator. Still in 1997, Korpela and Nilsson began working on a multi-emulator called Rage, which would emulate games from SNK, Capcom and Irem. They released it in early 1998. The project ran 21 games in total. A few months later, they changed the name of the project to NeoRage (Neo from Neo Geo), emulating only SNK games. The project ended up running 74 SNK games.

Rage and NeoRage

NeoRageX

Finally, in 1999, they changed their name once again to NeoRageX (the X, because it was released for Windows and had DirectX support), running 130 SNK games in the end. The project ended in 1999, but received several modifications and forks by third parties until 2009. Regarding his professional life, in 1997, he was at Congenial Data, a company that developed agile software. I believe Janne worked there with Microsoft SQL.

Congenial Data AB

Synergenix and Polarbit

In the same year that the NeoRageX project ended, in 1999, Janne Korpela and Anders Nilsson created the company Synergenix Interactive, which created games for cell phones on the J2ME and Symbian systems. They also created their own game creation system, Mophun. At the company, Janne worked as an engine developer and Nilsson as technology director. In 2000, the company was purchased by Red Jade, and in 2001 the process was reversed and compared to Red Jade, returning to its original name.

V-Rally 2, Synergenix Rally and Carmageddon

Games released by the company include Sinergenix Rally (2002), V-Rally 2 (2003) and Carmageddon (2005). In February 2005, the company merged with Kayak Interactive, becoming a subsidiary of the brand. In March 2005, Janne and Nilsson, together with Anders Norlander (Synergenix architect) and Mitri Bautista-Wiberg (developer relations manager), created Polarbit, a company that creates 3D games for mobile and portable systems, using Fuse middleware technology, which creates intermediate software between the hardware and the game, for better graphics or sound, among other functions.

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 1, 2 and 3D

In this case, they use high-end middleware technology, which provides high-quality performance. Janne, who played the role of senior programmer, brought with him experience with Microsoft SQL, and with the PS3, Xbox and Xbox360 systems, adding to the project. The company has developed several original games, such as Iron Sight (2009), Armageddon Squadron (2009), Reckless Racing (2010), Wave Blazer (2010), ToonWarz (2010), and the franchises Ranging Thunder (2006) and Tank Riders (2011), among others.

Fifa 10 and Raging Thunder

Indy 500 Racing 3D

Games created for third parties include SSX: Out of Bounds (2005), Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (2008), Spore Origins (2008) and Toki Tori (2008), FIFA 10 (2009), Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 (2010) and Indy 500 Racing 3D (2010). The company has released games for a wide range of systems, including iPad, iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows Phone, NDS, Zeebo, J2ME, N-Gage, Gizmondo, PalmOS, Brew, BlackBerry, Baba, WebOS, as well as Windows and Macintosh.

Wave Blazer

Toon Warz

Tank Riders

Janne was responsible for the development of several games, including Wave Blazer (2010), ToonWarz (2010), and others. The last game released by the company was Tank Riders 3 (2016). A curiosity for Brazilian game fans. Polarbit entered into a partnership between 2009 and 2010 with the Zeebo handheld, from the Brazilian company of the same name. Interestingly, the company Zeebo, which handled the handheld's marketing and Brazilian games, had a partnership with Tectoy, a company famous for bringing the Mega Drive, Master System, SegaCD, Game Gear, Sega Saturn, and Sega Dreamcast to Brazil. In the partnership, Tectoy provided the manufacturing of the handheld and its distribution in Brazil. Tectoy fans who had the Zeebo played several games produced by Polarbit, such as Crash Bandicoot (Nitro Kart 3D), Armageddon Squadron, Iron Sight), Raging Thunder II, and Reckless Racing. In his personal life, Janne has been married to Anna Korpela since 1993, with whom he has two children, Emma Korpela and Alex Korpela.

Emulators:

Ikari Warriors Arcade Machine Emulator (1997), 6809 (1997), Tutankham Arcade Machine Emulator (1997), Yer Ar Kung-Fu Arcade Machine Emulator (1997), Rage (1998), NeoRage (1998), NeoRageX (1999)

Synergenix Interactive:

Morphun: Q*bert (2002), Xfinity (2002), Synergenix Rally (2002), V-Rally 2 (2003), Colin McRae Rally 04 (2004)

J2ME: Colin McRae Rally 04 (2004), Carmageddon (2005), Pixudoku (2005)

Symbian: Worms World Party (2006)

N-Gage: Worms World Party (2005)

Polarbit:

Symbian: Raging Thunder (2006), Global Race: Raging Thunder (2007), SSX: Out of Bounds (2008), Spore Origins (2009), Armageddon Squadron (2009), Iron Sight (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010)

Windows Mobile: Raging Thunder (2006), Spore Origins (2009)

PalmOS: Raging Thunder (2006)

iPhone: Raging Thunder (2008), Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (2008), Armageddon Squadron (2009), Iron Sight (2009), Krazy Kart Racing (2009), FIFA 10 (2009), Zeebo Family Pack (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010), Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 (2010), Long John Silver (2010), Cannonball (2010), 8ball (2010), Zap (2010), Score (2010), Dirtbike (2010), Formula 0.01 (2010), Reckless Getaway (2011), Tank Riders (2011), Penguin Palooza (2012), Cracking Sands Racing (2013), Rail Racing (2014), Tank Riders 2 (2014), Block Buster (2014), Tank Riders 3 (2016)

N-Gage: Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (2008), Spore Origins (2009)

Zeebo: Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (2009), Armageddon Squadron (2010), Iron Sight (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010), Reckless Racing (2010)

Android: Raging Thunder (2009), Armageddon Squadron (2009), Iron Sight (2009), Zeebo Family Pack (2010), FIFA 10 (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010), Long John Silver (2010), Cannonball (2010), 8ball (2010), Zap (2010), Score (2010), Dirtbike (2010), Reckless Racing (2010), Formula 0.01 (2010), Chess: Battle of the Elements (2011), Toki Tori (2011), Krazy Kart Racing (2011), Tank Riders (2012), Penguin Palooza (2012), Cracking Sands Racing (2013), Reckless Getaway (2013), Rail Racing (2014), Tank Riders 2 (2014), Block Buster (2014), Tank Riders 3 (2016)

Bada: Raging Thunder II (2010), Armageddon Squadron (2011), Iron Sight (2011), Zeebo Family Pack (2011)

iPad: Zeebo Family Pack (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010), Long John Silver (2010), 8ball (2010), Zap (2010), Score (2010), Dirtbike (2010), Formula 0.01 (2010), Chess : Battle of the Elements (2011), Reckless Getaway (2011), Tank Riders (2011), Penguin Palooza (2012), Cracking Sands Racing (2013), Rail Racing (2014), Tank Riders 2 (2014), Block Buster (2014), Tank Riders 3 (2016)

webOS: FIFA 10 (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010)

Macintosh: Raging Thunder II (2011), Reckless Racing (2011), Tank Riders (2011)

BlackBerry: Chess: Battle of the Elements (2011), Tank Riders (2011)

Browser: Tank Riders (2013)

Anders Nilsson

NeoRageX

Anders Nilsson, of Swedish origin, started emulation in 1997 with his emulator of the arcade game Son Son. At the time, he asked Janne Korpela for help to use her 6809 processor, created for his emulators, in the emulation of Son Son.

SonSon Emulator and Ikari Warriors Emulator

It was around this time that they began working together, and Korpela even began to take care of Nilsson's emulator. Also in 1997, they developed Rage, released the following year, to run Capcom, Irem and SNK games, later changing its name to NeoRage and emulating only SNK games. This was still in 1998. Finally, in 1999, it changed its name once again to NeoRageX, now in a Windows environment, ending its activities in the same year. The three projects had, consecutively, 21, 74 and 130 emulated games. The last updates on the site occurred until mid-2000.

NeoRage

About his professional life, together with Janne Korpela, he created the company Synergenix Interactive in 1999, a creator of mobile games for the J2ME and Symbian systems. Anders worked as the company's chief technology officer (CTO). Since early 1998, Anders, Korpela and third parties have been developing the game creation system, Mophun (a combination of More and Fun), launched in late 2002.

Mophun (Game Engine), Xfinity and V-Rally 2 (Games)

For this system, Synergenix developed some games, all of which were only available on Sony Ericsson T300, T310 and T610 devices. Among the titles released by the company are Xfinity (2002), Synergenix Rally 2 (2002), V-Rally 2 (2003) and Colin McRae Rally 04 (2004) for the Mophun system, as well as the port of Q*bert (2002), also for the system in question. For Symbian, they released Golf Pro Contest (2005), for J2ME, Carmageddon (2005) and Pixudoku (2005), and for N-Gage they ported Worms World Party (2005).

SSX: Out of Bounds

In early 2005, together with Janne and other members, they left Synergenix and created Polarbit. At Polarbit, Anders also acts as CTO, in addition to being responsible for the company's social, marketing and product communications, talking about launches and giving interviews. Anders brought to the company his experience with business strategy and partnerships, as well as experience with creating content for blogs and creating start-ups.

Spore Origins, Armageddon Squadron, Reckless Racing and Toki Tori

Polarbit also developed games, but in 3D, and for mobile and portable systems, such as smartphones and gaming laptops. These include iPad, iPhone, Android, Symbian, Windows Phone, NDS, Zeebo, J2ME, N-Gage, Gizmondo, PalmOS, Brew, BlackBerry, Baba, WebOS, as well as Windows and Macintosh systems. The games were created using Fuse high-end middleware technology, which brought high performance to the final product, with changes in sound, image, and others.

Emulator Websites, NeoRage, Polarbit and Synergenix

Among the successful games, we have the franchises Ranging Thunder, Tank Riders, Fifa, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart, Indy 500, among others, among original and third-party franchises. The company's last work was in 2016, with the third and final game in the series Rank Riders 3.

Emulators:

SonSon Arcade Machine Emulator (1997), Rage (1998), NeoRage (1998), NeoRageX (1999)

Synergenix Interactive:

Morphun: Q*bert (2002), Xfinity (2002), Synergenix Rally (2002), V-Rally 2 (2003), Colin McRae Rally 04 (2004)

J2ME: Colin McRae Rally 04 (2004), Carmageddon (2005), Pixudoku (2005)

Symbian: Worms World Party (2006)

N-Gage: Worms World Party (2005)

Polarbit:

Symbian: Raging Thunder (2006), Global Race: Raging Thunder (2007), SSX: Out of Bounds (2008), Spore Origins (2009), Armageddon Squadron (2009), Iron Sight (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010)

Windows Mobile: Raging Thunder (2006), Spore Origins (2009)

PalmOS: Raging Thunder (2006)

iPhone: Raging Thunder (2008), Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (2008), Armageddon Squadron (2009), Iron Sight (2009), Krazy Kart Racing (2009), FIFA 10 (2009), Zeebo Family Pack (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010), Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2 (2010), Long John Silver (2010), Cannonball (2010), 8ball (2010), Zap (2010), Score (2010), Dirtbike (2010), Formula 0.01 (2010), Reckless Getaway (2011), Tank Riders (2011), Penguin Palooza (2012), Cracking Sands Racing (2013), Rail Racing (2014), Tank Riders 2 (2014), Block Buster (2014), Tank Riders 3 (2016)

N-Gage: Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (2008), Spore Origins (2009)

Zeebo: Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D (2009), Armageddon Squadron (2010), Iron Sight (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010), Reckless Racing (2010)

Android: Raging Thunder (2009), Armageddon Squadron (2009), Iron Sight (2009), Zeebo Family Pack (2010), FIFA 10 (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010), Long John Silver (2010), Cannonball (2010), 8ball (2010), Zap (2010), Score (2010), Dirtbike (2010), Reckless Racing (2010), Formula 0.01 (2010), Chess: Battle of the Elements (2011), Toki Tori (2011), Krazy Kart Racing (2011), Tank Riders (2012), Penguin Palooza (2012), Cracking Sands Racing (2013), Reckless Getaway (2013), Rail Racing (2014), Tank Riders 2 (2014), Block Buster (2014), Tank Riders 3 (2016)

Bada: Raging Thunder II (2010), Armageddon Squadron (2011), Iron Sight (2011), Zeebo Family Pack (2011)

iPad: Zeebo Family Pack (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010), Long John Silver (2010), 8ball (2010), Zap (2010), Score (2010), Dirtbike (2010), Formula 0.01 (2010), Chess : Battle of the Elements (2011), Reckless Getaway (2011), Tank Riders (2011), Penguin Palooza (2012), Cracking Sands Racing (2013), Rail Racing (2014), Tank Riders 2 (2014), Block Buster (2014), Tank Riders 3 (2016)

webOS: FIFA 10 (2010), Raging Thunder II (2010)

Macintosh: Raging Thunder II (2011), Reckless Racing (2011), Tank Riders (2011)

BlackBerry: Chess: Battle of the Elements (2011), Tank Riders (2011)

Browser: Tank Riders (2013)

Galtor

ePSXe

Galtor, originally from Madrid, Spain, got into emulation through Carlos Lozano, Calb, who met him around 1999 at Carlos III University. In 2000, they were bored creating drivers for MAME, but found it too boring, so they decided to create an emulator. Galtor wanted an N64 emulator, while Calb wanted a PSX emulator.

ePSXe Credits and Documentation

In a single day, Calb created the first version of the PSX ePSXe, and began the history of one of the greatest PSX emulators. Galtor initially took charge of the emulator's graphics development, the GPU, later being taken over by Pete Bernet. He then began programming the GTE coprocessor and the MDEC decoder engine.

ePSXe Website

He is also responsible for updating the project's website and creating the project's logo. Since the project is headed by two Spaniards, a readme file has always been released in their languages. Another partner in the project was the Canadian _demo_, who had made history with the creation of the SNES emulator, ZSNES. The ePSXe website began to be hosted on the ZSNES website in 2000 and gained its own website in 2001. The trio remained together until 2016, when the project was discontinued.