Read Only Memo

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The future of the past

How will the Analogue 3D, the new Steam Machine and Steam Frame, and the SuperStation One impact the hobby of emulation?

Newsletter Featured

Vagrant Story decompiled: A lone fan is dutifully working towards the remaster Matsuno's masterpiece deserves, one line of code at a time

Plus: An interview with the creator of legendary emulator ZSNES and a healthy dose of patch notes.

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Just in time for Halloween: Aeon Genesis returns with Screaming Mad George's pinball nightmare

Veteran hacker Gideon Zhi talks ParanoiaScape. Plus: We check back in with Playdate emulator CrankBoy.

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After 2 decades of tinkering, MAME finally cracks the Hyper Neo Geo 64

How MAME devs finally got sound working for the 3D arcade system. Plus: PC Engine LaserActive support gets fast-tracked.

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Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and the Nintendo DS's anime game treasure trove

Plus: a 486 in your wallet, a PS1 roguelike and an MSX RPG classic.

Newsletter Featured

"This is the first:" The 16 year odyssey of "time, money, wrong turns and frustration" it took to finally emulate the Pioneer LaserActive

In April 2009, a Sega fan decided to look into emulating the Mega LD, a quirky and little-known hybrid of Genesis and LaserDisc. This week he finished the job.

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How the makers of CrankBoy finally cracked 60 fps Game Boy emulation on the Playdate

Plus: A fantastic anime series' DS tie-in gets an English translation.

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ROM returns: Striking gold in El Dorado

Also this issue: a plus-sized portion of patch notes and an utterly unkown PS2 horror game, back online.

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Stop reading this and go play a brilliant emulated tour of the Mac's UI

Like Digital Eclipse's docugames, Marcin Wichary's "Frame of preference" is pioneering how to use emulation to tell a story.

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In the shadow of the Switch 2's launch, Switch 1 emulation lives on

Plus: How's that GameCube emulation on the new console, anyway?

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One rotten fan can spoil a community, but only if we let them

Thoughts on the BS emulator developers deal with every day, and what we can do about it.

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Interview: 15 years after the servers shut down, FromSoft's singular mech game Chromehounds is back online

The PvP mech battler is finally playable online in Xbox 360 emulator Xenia, and I talked to the modder making it happen.

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Dinosaur Planet Recompiled is the perfect game to kick off a new era of N64 archaeology

You can now play an unreleased N64 game on your PC at 4K and that rules. Plus: a new Sega Saturn emulator and a Puyo Puyo roguelike!?

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Inside the long-awaited fan translation of Sega Saturn masterpiece Sakura Wars 2

Sakura Wars translation crew: Interviewed. Plus this issue, Princess Crown for the Saturn, 120 fps GameCube games(!?) and more.

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The big Gundam game emulation special

Walking Gundam encyclopedia Tom Aznable takes us on a tour of 4 underrated Gundam greats from the '90s and 2000s.

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N64 Recompilation is about to have a big 2025

Get ready for N64 Recompiled to make its grand re-debut with mod support and more game ports on the way. Plus: a once-lost Mega Man Legends spin-off, saved and translated.

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So Nintendo's really gonna just keep on DMCAing Switch emulator forks, huh?

Plus: PS3 emulation on Android makes impressive progress and two cult classics get English translations.

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Democratizing retro(arch) shaders for emulators and beyond

Meet ShaderGlass, the new king of convenient post-processing. Plus, a new benchmark for static recompilation and some very nice hot air balloons.

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What 'RT' and 'HDR' have to do with fixing obscure graphical issues in 20-year-old PS2 games

A deep dive into some very specific PCSX2 improvements, plus news on the MiSTer's Sega Saturn core and a dash of Kamen Rider.

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SegaNet for 2025: Dreamcast emulator Flycast introduces a new way to play online

Also this issue: Truly playable Bloodborne in ShadPS4 (and clearing up the confusion on that 60 fps patch DMCA).

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The fan translation extravaganza: Tales of Rebirth, Team Innocent and 6 more games you can now play in English

Including a re-translation of SNES classic Illusion of Gaia and a Saturn Bomberman. Plus, the MiSTer's getting a 3DO core and a new Taki Udon FPGA console.

video games

I'm giving away a boxed copy of Front Mission to celebrate 2,100 subscribers

Everyone subscribed to Read Only Memo on Saturday, January 4th 2025 will be entered to win.

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The Before Crisis crisis: How hackers are rebuilding the lost Final Fantasy VII mobile game piece by tiny piece

Plus RPCS3 turning a Raspberry Pi 5 into a PSP-esque PS3, a new feature for the Sega Saturn MiSTer core, and some fan translations due in 2025.

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Turns out a lot of stuff happened 20 & 30 years ago: the accidental anniversary issue

Celebrating milestones for the Sega Saturn, Nintendo DS and... Detective Conan?

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The budget MiSTER Pi is back, and this time Taki Udon has a whole team behind him

Plus, we're bringing the emulation scene to Bluesky.