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Snes9x homepage: http://www.snes9x.com/

Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute Snes9x in both binary and source form, for non-commercial purposes, is hereby granted without fee, providing that this license information and copyright notice appear with all copies and any derived work.

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event shall the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

Snes9x is freeware for PERSONAL USE only. Commercial users should seek permission of the copyright holders first. Commercial use includes charging money for Snes9x or software derived from Snes9x.

The copyright holders request that bug fixes and improvements to the code should be forwarded to them so everyone can benefit from the modifications in future versions.

Super NES and Super Nintendo Entertainment System are trademarks of Nintendo Co., Limited and its subsidiary companies.

Snes9x homepage: http://www.snes9x.com/

Permission to use, copy, modify and distribute Snes9x in both binary and source form, for non-commercial purposes, is hereby granted without fee, providing that this license information and copyright notice appear with all copies and any derived work.

This software is provided 'as-is', without any express or implied warranty. In no event shall the authors be held liable for any damages arising from the use of this software.

Snes9x is freeware for PERSONAL USE only. Commercial users should seek permission of the copyright holders first. Commercial use includes charging money for Snes9x or software derived from Snes9x.

The copyright holders request that bug fixes and improvements to the code should be forwarded to them so everyone can benefit from the modifications in future versions.

Super NES and Super Nintendo Entertainment System are trademarks of Nintendo Co., Limited and its subsidiary companies.

Those two licences don't apply here.

It's the flashy, pop-culture references and glitzy, trendy looking artwork that give games replay value...

Huh? The game that I've found to have the most replay value is Civ2, hardly known for it's "glitzy trendy looking artwork". I've also found that DOSBox and Snes9x are two of the coolest pieces of software ever written. To each their own I guess.....

There are some 3D games that run on Linux.

I'm going to mention one that I play myself, Urban Terror (a semi-realistic shooter based on Quake 3).

Sure, it's a few years old. I don't care, it's still just as fun. Occasionally I'll even play some good old "regular" Quake 3.

To be perfectly honest, I don't run UrT or Q3 on Linux myself, I run Mac OS X. The point is, if I ever decided to switch away from Mac OS X to Ubuntu, almost all the games I have on my computer right now would run on Linux as well. Actually, let me go through my Applications folder right now:

• Bridge Construction Set -- yes, it runs on Linux
• DEFCON -- yup. That too.
• Kill Monty -- unfortunately, no. :-( (Then again, that doesn't run on Windows either.)
• Frets On Fire -- yup. It runs on Linux. And way better than on OS X too.
• OpenTTD -- yep. It runs on Linux too.
• IOQuake3 -- sure.
• SNES9x (and by extention, a collection of Super Nintendo games), sure, works on Linux
• Tetrinet Aqua does not run on Linux, but other (and better) Tetrinet clients do.
• The Ur-Quan Masters runs on Linux.
• Uplink runs on Linux.
• And finally, as discussed before, Urban Terror runs on Linux.

So, all the games I actually have on my hard drive and play would run on Linux if I decided to migrate. Except for Kill Monty. (But then again, that doesn't run on Windows either.)

The lack of games are not what's keeping me on Mac OS X on my machine.

Oh, and in response to your issue about not being able to flash because you'd need either Windows or DOS -- I give you FreeDOS.

If you wanna play SMK online, you could just install an emulator, like snes9x for example (assuming you're using Windows) and use its netplay feature.

snes9x

ZSNES is mainly in x86 Assembly so that it runs fast. SNES9x is written primarily in C++ with a few parts in Assembly that has been ported to a few different architectures.

I cant play Xenogears, Xenosaga, most Final Fantasies and a whole host of other games on my PC's.

Sure you can. (Well maybe not Xenosaga... yet)

Snes9x 1.43WIP
- Seta special chip emulation enhancements (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
- code tweaks to the ST010 (Nach, pagefault)
- Exhaust Heat 2 and regional ports are playable (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
Snes9x 1.42
- More work on Exhaust Heat 2 (MKendora, Overload, The Dumper)
Snes9x 1.40
- stubbed the ST010 chip in Exhaust Heat 2 (Overload, MKendora)

Snes9x 1.43WIP
- Seta special chip emulation enhancements (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
- code tweaks to the ST010 (Nach, pagefault)
- Exhaust Heat 2 and regional ports are playable (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
Snes9x 1.42
- More work on Exhaust Heat 2 (MKendora, Overload, The Dumper)
Snes9x 1.40
- stubbed the ST010 chip in Exhaust Heat 2 (Overload, MKendora)

Snes9x 1.43WIP
- Seta special chip emulation enhancements (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
- code tweaks to the ST010 (Nach, pagefault)
- Exhaust Heat 2 and regional ports are playable (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
Snes9x 1.42
- More work on Exhaust Heat 2 (MKendora, Overload, The Dumper)
Snes9x 1.40
- stubbed the ST010 chip in Exhaust Heat 2 (Overload, MKendora)

Snes9x 1.43WIP
- Seta special chip emulation enhancements (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
- code tweaks to the ST010 (Nach, pagefault)
- Exhaust Heat 2 and regional ports are playable (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
Snes9x 1.42
- More work on Exhaust Heat 2 (MKendora, Overload, The Dumper)
Snes9x 1.40
- stubbed the ST010 chip in Exhaust Heat 2 (Overload, MKendora)

Snes9x 1.43WIP
- Seta special chip emulation enhancements (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
- code tweaks to the ST010 (Nach, pagefault)
- Exhaust Heat 2 and regional ports are playable (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
Snes9x 1.42
- More work on Exhaust Heat 2 (MKendora, Overload, The Dumper)
Snes9x 1.40
- stubbed the ST010 chip in Exhaust Heat 2 (Overload, MKendora)

Snes9x 1.43WIP
- Seta special chip emulation enhancements (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
- code tweaks to the ST010 (Nach, pagefault)
- Exhaust Heat 2 and regional ports are playable (Feather, The Dumper, Overload, MKendora)
Snes9x 1.42
- More work on Exhaust Heat 2 (MKendora, Overload, The Dumper)
Snes9x 1.40
- stubbed the ST010 chip in Exhaust Heat 2 (Overload, MKendora)

I'll throw in a second vote for snes9x. As can be seen on their download page http://www.snes9x.com/downloads.asp they have ported snes9x to; Solaris, OpenBSD, Irix, N64, FreeBSD, AmigaOS, BeOS, RiscOS, SunOS, MS-DOS, HP-UX, MacOS, Linux and Windows.

It has a very easy to use and intuitive interface with all the options that one would expect from an emulator. It is stable and has played every single ROM I've thrown at it without a single problem. Whenever I set up a new USB thumbdrive with all my essential software, snes9x always goes on there.

I was always partial to SNES9X for some reason (perhaps it's the fact that they don't waste their time coding everything in assembly, as nobody should), and it's also open source. Whether it is GPL'd or not is just flamewar fodder -- most certainly the submitter's intention.

Buy some decent PC, download Snes9x, quickly peruse the source files to find the sync code and screw it up, compile, run and watch Mario jump through all the screens at mach 3.

How's that for overclocking uh? And if you're desperate to impress your friends (no doubt all over 35), buy one of these micro-mobos and stick it in a NES box as a clever disguise.

Besides, who can resist the wonders of Tetris Attack or Chrono Trigger?

Oddly enough, I'm better with a keyboard than a gamepad/arcade stick... Though I think I can blame marathon sessions of One Must Fall for setting the precedent there. MAME and SNES9x just honed the ability ^^;

snes9x works great, and there are many ports of it despite the name.

It appears right now the downloads page is unavailable though, but maybe some googling would locate it.

www.vimm.net also used to have a *LOT* of SNES and NES roms, but took the SNES down due to bandwidth limitations.

• How well does the emulation work? If there's any emulator for PC that emulates all the SNES games (or whichever kind) in existence, i've yet to hear about it.

• And does it have enough processing power to run the non-native code without any slowdown or such?

zsnes also has a linux port.
http://www.snes9x.com/
http://www.zsnes.com/

Snes9x is a great Super Nintendo emulator, and is open source. Although you'll have to find some roms, but they're out there.

Interesting point, but I really doubt that this is aimed at the general consumer. It's for Joe Linux, who prides himself on doing nifty tech things with Linux.

Okay, Tux Racer may not be the most amazing thing in the world, but it's fun for a couple hours.

Freeciv...why is freeciv bad? You don't like civilization? There are some differences, but aside from the fact that civ had more artists (and, IMHO, a worse interface) and is a bit easier to use, not huge difference in fun factor.

Lets consider some others:

zangband/ToME/angband/nethack/etc: These *are* a lot of fun. Diablo has much more simplistic, boring gameplay, and it took off all over. Most variants have a pretty simple text or 2d graphics based interface without music, but some are a bit more elaborate. Be a bit of a pain to play on the controller, yes...

Chromium BSU: flashy scrolling shooter. Could use the 3d hardware in the X-box.

Dunno if you can just use ordinary ol' x86 binaries (particularly considering RAM usage), but:

Quake 3 (use the 3d hardware). Not free.

Abuse: This was a *blast* when it came out -- I played it over and over. It's looking a little dated now, but it's still a good game. Free now -- thanks crack.com.

Pingus is apparently shaping up pretty well.

There's part of the amazing Exile series available for Linux. (shareware)

Maelstrom may be too "simple" for you, as it's only an astroids clone, but it was a very well known game on the Mac for a long time, and I still like it.

While I'm not a tremendous fan of Illwinter's Conquest of Elysium II, their Dominions: Priests, Prophets, and Pretenders is a non-flashy but very deep, very good strategy game. Shareware.

There's a DOS-style shooter from Mountain King Studios, Raptor. (shareware)

Finally, there are all the emulators and whatnot...take a look at GNUboy, TuxNES, snes9x, DGen/SDL,
FreeSCI, Sarien, Exult, XU4, ScummVM, Basilisk II, YAE and others.

There are a host of Loki ports that you can't get any more except used. Lots of good stuff from LGames, though I'm not as big a fan of their stuff as some other people are.

Finally, text-based but really, really sophisticated, good, and almost all of them free, there are text-based interactive fiction (Try Tower of Babel before giving up on this...first one I ever beat without cheating, and it's *soooooo* good). The Interactive Fiction Archive has games and players.

Finally, many good games can be played through WINE -- Starcraft, Fallout, Max Payne, Half Life...

These are just some of the games that I enjoy under Linux. There are lots more (admittedly, some of lower quality) available at the SDL Games Page and the Linux Games Tome.

Linux games usually take a bit more (okay, often a lot :-) ) more effort to set up properly. But they're often very customizable, you can actually have an impact on the game design ("This game needs feature X"), and you don't have to leave the comfortable environs of Linux. And the environment is getting better, not worse.

"with the sole reservation that they can't run Final Fantasy any more"

Let them have reservations no more! Just plop down a couple bucks for the Playstation version and download epsxe. FF7,8 and 9 all run like a dream on my Gentoo box (Tactics runs very well with some weird map oddities, but doesn't bother me). Need to play the SNES versions? They run picture perfect on ZSNES or SNES9x which both have excellent Linux ports and it's trivial to find the roms for FF2 - 6. NES emulators for Linux can get you the first one. After all, the PC versions of FF are just ports. :)

So does a PC. Not to mention some o t h e r s

(I'm different guy from parent post, but my system is about same: PPro180@233+GF2MX-PCI)
Thank you very much, but my Snes9x runs _very_ well. And most of the other games I _want_ to play. Most notably myst/civ2/monkey islands/Indyjones&atlantis..
I don't think it's written anywhere that you gotta have universes fastest system to have fun. I sure do have fun.

I'm sorry about the way you feel about this.
You seem really convinced that XWindows sucks ass. I personally have never suffered from any lacklust performance of XFree86. au contraire, Xfree86 has always been _fast_ for me. In all ways. I can also add that I use 'the evil option' (read: windows) on daily basis. Their performance is very comparable.

For example snes9x works for me under X at same speed as in Windows. in windows it runs with OpenGL acceleration, in XFree86 it runs without acceleration at all (using 'nv' driver). Speed is roughly the same (not max, however).
I really don't understand your comment about XW's bad performance over network. I use it for running pan over network (10bT), and performance has been very, very nice. I have also ran netscape & opera over ssh link (10bT again) and they performed very well.

Please do give some real examples where Xfree86's performance is inadeguate.

I discovered this over the weekend playing Chronotrigger on the Snex9x emulator. There's a feature called "Search for new cheat codes" that lets you view the game memory at different addresses. Some of the things I tried would be to search for a chunk of memory with a value set to X, where X was the number of gold pieces I had. Then update it to 1000000, and bingo, my character was rich. Pretty neat stuff, although not quite as fun as just playing the game.

Then what the hell is it? An emulator?

Bochs is an emulator. TuxNES is an emulator. DGen is an emulator. SNES9x is an emulator. Transmeta's Crusoe uses Code Morphing, which is an emulator. But WINE is not an emulator but "an implementation of the Windows 3.x and Win32 APIs on top of X and Unix. Think of Wine as a Windows compatibility layer" for FreeBSD, Linux, and Solaris. It's also a complete Windows application server that uses thin clients called X11 terminals.

LINUX IS NOT READY FOR GAMES, not yet. Name a game that you can just install and start playing without touching any config files.

Once you have the Allegro library installed from source tarball (./configure; make depend; make; su -c make install), you can run any free Allegro game such as freepuzzlearena, TOD, or scores of others. There are also emulators to run other platforms' games (such as TuxNES and SNES9x).

x86 PC doesn't mean a damned thing games wise unless it's x86 running a Win-32 derivative.

An x86-based machine can dual-boot between Wintendo (that's all it's good for) and a Real OS such as *BSD or GNU/Linux. PowerPC-based machines cannot dual-boot to Wintendo.

Linux people know the workarounds. Casual user does not.

By "casual user" do you mean the sheeple[?] who inhabit AOL? In that case, give them GNU/Linux, X, GNOME, an SNES emulator, and a pirated game library, and they'll be happy.

BULLSHIT!!!!

I am sick of hearing all this bullshit. This is not productive. If you want to do something that is actually helpful, get the source code to TrueReality and do something productive with it.

Let's get this working instead.

The mips emulator, i/o, etc is all done; There are only a few things left to do:

1. Finish the COP0 paging support

2. Fix the last half-dozen or so RCP instructions.

3. Perform the memory initialization that the N64 boot code does.

I really don't think that TrueReality is that far from working once these few things are completed.

Let's get this working instead.

The mips emulator, i/o, etc is all done; There are only a few things left to do:

1. Finish the COP0 paging support

2. Fix the last half-dozen or so RCP instructions.

3. Perform the memory initialization that the N64 boot code does.

I really don't think that TrueReality is that far from working once these few things are completed.