Gamecube Emulator Released!

[j4y3m]

From ps2ownz.com

Thanks to Kraken for the NEWS in THIS (http://www.ps2ownz.com/forums/showthread.php?%20postid=66973\) Forum thread, it appears those looking to play GameCube games (yes, even some commercial ones) on their PC can now do so! The Dolphin (http://www.dolphin-emu.com/) team have released an experimental TEASER version of their emulator to the public. It runs quite a few games, but is pretty slow and unstable, and as they say, please keep in mind that this release is just a preview. There is currently no support for sound or .iSO files, however, .GCM files are supported (so just rename .iSO to .GCM to use them). Grab it attached below, and check out some screenshots of it in action HERE (http://www.dolphin-emu.com/screenshots.php)! :D
Busta-a-Move 3000 runs at full speed. :P Sorry if it has already been posted.

Here's some pretty impressive screens posted by nzignific on the emutalk.net forum.

http://iztok.org/depository/dolphin/micromachines1.JPG
http://iztok.org/depository/dolphin/micromachines2.JPG
http://iztok.org/depository/dolphin/micromachines3.JPG
http://iztok.org/depository/dolphin/micromachines4.JPG

[Dark Ride]

It's all over the emu sites and forums, that Doplhin has been released.There were many screenhots of Dolphin arround but no-one knew anything about the authors nor the exact features of the emulator.Now the secret is revealed.Three well known and expirienced guys (Ector,F|REs & Schibo) have made the emulator.Both ,F|REs & Schibo, worked on other big emulation projects too.F|REs worked on the two best N64 emulators (1964 & Project64),and Schibo is one of the two authors of 1964.

http://www.emulationgalaxy.co.yu/images/dolphin_out.jpg

It is very interesting that the emulator runs a bunch of commercial games,like Bust-A-Move 3000 which runs quite fast even on PCs with middle-rated harware.
Dolphin doesen't amulate sound in most of the games , except in Ikaruga.You can find many screenshots and comments about the amulator.

Here are some compatibility coments:

[Ace Golf] (GWGP)
- Does Nothing After Loading

[Animal Crossing] (GAFE)
- Loaded 'Nintendo' Screen...and then does nothing. But it's still running at a whopping 500fps...

[Bust-A-Move-3000] (G3SE)
- Works Well, but some glitches on selecting menu. Can't see if something is highlighted or not. 65-75 FPS, sometimes freezes.

[Capcom Vs. SNK2 EO] (GEOE)
- Flickers on load, fast on menu (120+ fps), but freeze after pushing Start

[Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles] (GCCJ)
- Does Nothing After Loading

[Hitman 2 - Silent Assassin] (GHME)
- unhandled mfsr-impl Error
- and Stopps after saying Licensed by Nintendo

[Hot Wheels World Race] (GHRE)
- Licensed by Nintendo
- Showed some Licensed copyright things and then freezes afterwards.

[Ikaruga] (GIKP)
- Beginning [movie] loads slow at around 4-5fps. Wait a little while and it'll ask for a memory card. Ignore it since it doesn't support it yet, push B to continue without saying. Killing some stuff will leave a block of squares on the screen lol, and freezes after some time of playing, even in the menu. Steaming Music Works.

[Puzzle Collection] (GPZJ)
- Showing the Character's? Information at around 15fps
- Showing a lot of White Screen at around 40-45fps
- If you see only white screen, choose wireframe mode to see the stuff, then deselect the wireframe in game. It's dark...
(-Dr.Mario-)
- All I see are yellow pills on Dr. Mario, and Yellow Virus...
(-Top Right Game-)
- Running at 10-15fps playing the 3D Mode
(-Yoshi's Cookies?, Bottom Left-)
- Intro Running at 80fps!
- Can't see The japanese text, only see those strange ASCII
- Menu around 50fps
- In Game 75-80fps

[Super Monkey Balls 2] (GM2P)
- Error after Presented by Sega

[Viewful Joe] (GVJP)
- Doesn't do anything...but keeps running and running, then stopped when I keep pushing buttons...

[Worms Blast] (GWBP)
- Does Nothing

[Zelda: The Wind Waker] (GZLE)
- Credits and Logo intro zoom by fast ie, Dolby Sound logo etc.. 200+ fps, the slow down when displaying The Legend of Zelda...4-5 fps.
- Selecting Yes/No on Memory Card does not appear to be highlighted.
- Selecting the name is highlighted, but very hard to see -^
- Game Intro, telling us the tablet thing, 100-120+ fps
- On the Outset Island...slowly moving towards the GIRL at 3-5fps...
- The Girl is a scary red thing.....so is the birdy...


The System Requirements
=========================================
GFX:  Radeon 9500+ series card recommended, but Geforce FX
      series also work. Expect severe graphics problems
      with lower cards.
CPU:  The fastest you can find.
RAM:  256MB or higher strongly recommended.
Audio: Any Windows/DirectX-compatible soundcard.


The Gamecube Information
=========================================
The main processor of the Gamecube is a PowerPC derivative
running at 485MHz with some additional SIMD instructions.
It is extremely time consuming to emulate and is the main
bottleneck of Dolphin.

The Gamecube "Art-X" graphics chip is probably the most
complex ever seen in a console, except maybe the NV20+ in
the XBox. Unlike the NV20 the Art-X is very different from
PC hardware, so it requires a lot of computer power to
emulate, and it may not be possible to support all features.
It can do some very weird stuff like having two alpha
compare operations that can in turn be xored, anded or
whatever, and has performance counters that are impossible
to emulate properly that may be used/abused for purposes
like occlusion culling, as has been seen already (the
weird boxes in Mario Sunshine). Coverage queries may
possibly be used on hardware that supports them to fake
this feature reasonably.

Also its texturing abilities are extremely advanced, right
up there with the XBox and in some areas even more
feature rich.

That is why Radeon 9500+ / Geforce FX is the minimum
specification for running Dolphin properly.

The Gamecube has 24 megs of fast RAM and 16 megs of slower
"ARAM", primarily used for audio but can also be used as a
temporary scratch space.

The Gamecube has a custom DSP for audio with an unknown
instruction set. It will be possible to HLE sound in many
games, those that use the AX library, but we are not sure
about the others yet. A simple type of streaming music
(used by a few games) has already been somewhat emulated.

[iMartin]

Wow...looks good. If this is true, and they keep working on it, it could turn out really well.

[Cygnuz-Y]

Damn i know there was going to be a working Gamecube emulator but i didnt expect it that fast!!!

[100%]

Fantastic - thanx

[cpt_azad]

kick ass :D B)

[asmithz]

Just downloaded it, can't wait to try it. (hmm where to get gmc's) ;)

[Dark Ride]

Try IRCspy.com (http://www.ircspy.com)

[fred devliegher]

Hmm.. buy a new video card , download the games only to look at a few broken menu's (at least until an improved version is released)

OR

Buy these games for 10-20$ secondhand and play them without bugs , glitches or slowdown?

Choices , choices...


*Yes , I am old-fashioned*

*Yes , I already play SNES-GBA-N64 games on my PC*