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volume 1, issue 24

Today in loonygames:

New!! The Archives have been cleaned up, fead links fixed, and printable versions restored! Also, don't miss the new comments on the front page!

Livin' With The Sims: theAntiELVIS explores the wild and wacky world that is Will Wright's The Sims, asking the inevitable quesiton, "is The Sims the first step toward a virtual life where everyone is Swedish?"

Pixel Obscura: Josh Vasquez on Omikron: The Nomad Soul.

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User Friendly: Updated daily!

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Comparing the Greats: loonyboi compares Mario 64 to Metal Gear Solid to Xenogears. You have to read it to understand. :)

Emulator 64: Part one of loonyboi's look at N64 emulation.

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From the Mouth of Madness:
More Emulators!

By Jason "loonyboi" Bergman

What's new this week in loonygames? As our loony editor.

oy oh boy is emulation a hot topic all of a sudden. In the last two weeks UltraHLE was released, Connectix was sued by Sony over their PlayStation emulator (since then, their attemps to stop retail shipments have proven unsuccessful) and believe me...things are just getting started.

Why do I say that? Well...if you've been keeping an ear to the emulation scene (and who isn't these days, anyway?) then you've no doubt noticed a few disturbing trends.

First off, there are the UltraHLE hackers. You have to wonder about the motivations behind these guys...there are a number of people out there who are attempting to reverse-engineer UltraHLE to figure out how it ticks, and more disturbingly perhaps, to improve on it. You'd think all this energy would be better spent attempting to create their own emulator, but apparently not.

Already i've heard reports of a hacked UltraHLE source file floating around (no, I won't tell you where to get it...aside from any objections I have to that, I honestly don't know!) and there was even a fake "patch" file that was released that just deleted folders on unsuspecting people's hard drives. Suppose you get what you deserve there, huh?

Last week's 'rant on UltraHLE proved incredibly popular, much to my suprise. It seems that just about everyone and their brother has some opinion on the subject. I even heard from a few developers who said they'd love to get their hands on it for development purposes...interesting, huh? It raises the issue of just when we can expect someone to create an original game for an N64 emulator (and there are several new ones in the works).

But also, the controversy over UltraHLE and Connectix has drawn (somewhat unwanted) attention to emulation as a whole. Are emulators really a way to preserve classic games, or are they just another way for people to steal software?

I'm going to have to go with the first one there...I honestly do believe that emulators have a place in the software industry, and I'll tell you why in a bit.

Before I get to that, though, I do want to slap up a few more Mario 64 screenshots, since I got so many requests for them. It turns out that a lot of people are using them as desktop images, which I think totally rules...I'm doing it myself. :)

So here's six more images...I encluded a few from my favorite level (the sunken ship) which is just too damn beautiful for words. Of course, it's impossible to navigate with a keyboard. :)

Enjoy, and i'll see you on the next page, okay? (A special thanks goes out to Webdog master Richard Smith for the .sav file with the stars I needed to open this level)

(Continued on next page)

Credits: From the Mouth of Madness logo illustrated by and is © 1999 Dan Zalkus. From the Mouth of Madness is © 1999 Jason Bergman. All other content is © 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited, you naughty boy, you.