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basicNES v1.5 [debug level 2]
Source Code Release
Explanation By Don Jarrett
Code by Don Jarrett & David T. Finch, Copyright (C) 1996-2003 
http://home.att.net/~r.jarrett/bNES.html
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03.08.03 - WHOOPS! Small source update. Fixed palette mirroring.

*WHEW!*

That's about all I can really say. It seems like I'd been working on this project
since the day I got my first IBM-PC, a Pentium 75(woohoo!) made by Packard Bell.
I got VB3.0 only a few weeks later, and days before that had discovered the emulation
scene through tremendous sites like Node99 and Archaic Ruins. 1996 was a great
time for me, I was still enjoying success in middle school, and I didn't know the
hell that high school was yet. That would all change by the time I had a working
NES emulator in VB, but that's a different story.

Being only 13 at the time, I was enthralled by emulators like VSMC and Pasofami. 
They could play NES and SNES games on my computer! And since I had the ROM hookup
at the time, I was able to play my favorite old games any time I wanted to! I had 
to get in on this action!

I started basicNES in VB3 a short time later, after many conversations with one
Typhoon_Z(a.k.a. Chris Hickman), who was the admin(i guess) of AR. What a great guy
Chris was, he helped me whenever I seemed to need it, and he even let me test his
Rygar editor before it was out! He was one of the truly great guys on #snesemu/#emu.

I suggested to TZ one night that I wanted to write my own NES emulator to go against
Marat Fayzullin's iNES(which was and still is $35). TZ said(IIRC), that it would be cool, 
and asked what language I wanted to code it in, I said VB, and he supported me on this(this 
was 1996 remember, VB not even near being a language that could support *good* emulation). 
Help me as he did, I never was able to come up with anything even resembling a NES emulator.

Time passed, I discovered a nice little 6502 emulator written in C which ran at an alright
speed. I decided if I ever wanted a NES emulator in VB, this is where I should start, and 
I began converting the 6502 emulator from it's C source to the VB source that is still 
available for free today. There were about 8 releases of that code, and with the last one
a person named Tobias Strmstedt e-mailed me and told me he was going to fix it up and
write a Centipede emulator with it. Only days later, TS sent me his code, a nice little 
emulator he called SloMo. My, it was slow, but it did the job, and after he decided not to
work on it anymore I took it and added a few games. 

Anyway, I got back to my original intentions, to write an NES emu. BWeirdMaN helped an amazing
amount with graphics(which I still have barely any grasp of). By 1998/99, I had my goal done. 
My emulator finally ran the (in)famous cart.nes!!! I was enthralled, and decided I needed to 
push it further. I think the first official release was in 1999, according to my counter it was 
around April 2nd.

But the basicNES road didn't end there. Versions kept on coming. In 2000/2001 I put out
the basicNES 2000 emulator. Then a man named David Finch picked up the open-sourced code
and optimized it to death! By the time he was done, basicNES was a playable! After that
I added movies, save states, and so forth. basicNES and it's source became immensely popular.
Which is not always for the better. I discovered 2 rip-offs of my code. It hurt that people
wanted to do that. So I closed the source of basicNES.

Versions kept coming at a slower and slower rate. At present, there has only been 1 release
in the past year. Which is why I bring you the basicNES v1.5 [debug level 1] code. I am not
in the frame of mind to keep developing basicNES. To me, it is as complete as it will ever 
get. I still love all the code I wrote for it, but it just doesn't entertain me to work on it
anymore. I'm sure this code will draw more rip-offs and hacks and all that than any other version
before, but I'm counting on everyone who downloads it to help me and David out by not letting
hacks and all that happen. Send me an E-Mail before and I'll more than likely approve of your
revision. 

Which brings me right back around to the beginning. I sure do have a lot of people to thank. I'll
start with Typhoon_Z. Without him, I never would've discovered the drive to write such a program.
All the folks who frequented #emu back in those days, including but not limited to: Conjurer, VegaC,
Y0SHi, BWeirdMaN, Berzerker, FaR|a|WaY, opivy10, they all helped in some way. squared0t, who has 
helped me with so much, and has been such a great friend on and off the net. SeWrSuRfR, who did 
the same. The folks of #n(letters ommited), such as The Quietust, Kevin Horton, and TNSe, who provided
me with so much information and coding help on the NES, and in general, and their great friendships. 
Wormil and PolestaR I can't forget either, and ice^storm of course. CricketNE, who was/is such a great friend.
MindRape and Noah^ for their great friendships. R0y, rabies, buzzgirl for their support and friendship,
although not so much with basicNES. 

Big thanks to the man, David Finch for all his help making basicNES a good if not great emulator
for the NES! Thanks for all your help and support!

Well, the time sure has gone by, but I think that's the end of my history/thank yous. I want to thank
you, the user, for, well, using this emulator. I hope you have as much fun with this source code as I
have! Remember, do not rip off this code. I will know.

Hope you enjoy the history. If you are in one of the aforementioned thank you's, please drop me an
e-mail! Otherwise, you can reach me on IRC as geniusGZA.

Peace and good luck,
Don Jarrett
d.jarrett@att.net
http://home.att.net/~r.jarrett/bNES.html [basicNES Homepage]
http://home.att.net/~r.jarrett/crixIRC.html [CrixIRC 2003 Homepage][Please support!]
http://home.att.net/~r.jarrett/vbGBE.html [vbGBE Homepage]
http://home.att.net/~r.jarrett/milliEmu.html [milliEmu Homepage]
http://home.att.net/~r.jarrett/prod.html [M6502 Homepage]

_EOF_ 31.07.03