Emutastic for Linux 0.8.7

A reliability tweak for Neo Geo + RetroAchievements. RetroAchievements already works
for Neo Geo in Emutastic — nothing was broken, and your games and saves are untouched.
This just updates the way Neo Geo cartridge files are fingerprinted so they keep matching
RetroAchievements' database no matter how the file was produced.

What's Changed

• More robust RetroAchievements matching for Neo Geo carts. RetroAchievements
  identifies a game by fingerprinting its file. Neo Geo .neo cartridges start with a
  4 KB header that can differ between conversion tools — same game, different header —
  which could keep a cart from lining up with RetroAchievements' database. Emutastic now
  skips that header and fingerprints only the cartridge's ROM data, the same way
  RetroAchievements does, so a given Neo Geo game identifies and unlocks its achievements
  regardless of how its .neo file was made.

Install

Tarball and .deb on the releases page,
or on Arch via the AUR: yay -S emutastic-bin. Existing installs update in-app
from Preferences → About.

Emutastic for Linux 0.8.6

Your memory cards now sync. Cloud sync used to back up only battery saves (SRAM)
and your library — now it also covers the memory cards and save trees that disc and
handheld systems write, so progress on GameCube, Dreamcast, PSP, 3DS, DS, Saturn, PS2
and PS1 follows you between machines.

What's New

• Memory cards and save trees back up to the cloud. Previously only frontend
  battery saves (.srm) and the library database synced — so console-managed saves
  silently never backed up. Now the saves that cores write themselves are covered too:
  GameCube and Dreamcast memory cards, PSP/3DS/DS save data, PS2 and PS1 memory cards,
  Saturn backup RAM, and arcade NVRAM. Cards are compressed before upload, and emulator
  caches, shader caches and save-states are deliberately left out.
• Saves are ready before you play. A full sync now runs in the background at
  startup and right after you sign in, so your latest saves are already on disk by the
  time a game launches — with a brief "Syncing saves…" indicator while it runs. On a
  fresh machine, signing in pulls everything down.

Improvements

• Saves are organized per console. Battery saves and memory cards now live in a
  per-system folder instead of one shared directory, so the saves folder stays tidy and
  each system's data is self-contained. Existing saves are moved into place
  automatically the first time you launch this version — nothing to do by hand.

Install

Tarball and .deb on the releases page,
or on Arch via the AUR: yay -S emutastic-bin. Existing installs update in-app
from Preferences → About.

Emutastic for Linux 0.8.5

PlayStation 2 arrives. Import your PS2 games and play them, hardware-accelerated,
with adjustable internal resolution — plus a clearer BIOS setup flow and fixes across
import and controller input.

What's New

• PlayStation 2 is here (PCSX2). Import .iso/.chd/.bin/.m3u and play.
  Rendered through the OpenGL hardware path, with Internal Resolution and
  Texture Filtering adjustable live from the in-game cog → Visuals. Box art and
  metadata scrape automatically, RetroAchievements identify and unlock, and the
  DualShock 2 is mapped out of the box. Grab the core from Preferences → Cores.
• PS2 needs a BIOS. PlayStation 2 now appears in Preferences → System Files with
  the common known-good dumps listed — drop a valid BIOS into the PS2 BIOS folder (or
  next to your ROMs) and it's detected automatically.

What's Fixed

• A missing BIOS now tells you so. Launching a game that needs a BIOS you don't
  have shows a clear "BIOS required" dialog pointing you to System Files, instead of
  failing silently or with a cryptic core error. Applies to every system that needs a
  BIOS (PS2, PS1, Saturn, Sega CD, and more).
• Controller input on more cores. Some emulator cores read the whole controller in
  a single combined poll rather than button-by-button; those reads weren't being
  answered, so input didn't register at all. Now handled — affected cores respond to
  the pad correctly.
• DAT downloads from redump.org work. Redump serves its DAT databases zipped; they
  are now unwrapped on download, fixing a silent failure where the saved file couldn't
  be read for ROM identification.

Improvements

• Cleaner BIOS panel. Preferences → System Files now groups BIOS files in a
  two-level layout (manufacturer → console → files), each with its own present/missing
  badge, so multi-console sections read clearly at a glance.
• Download All for DAT files. A single button fetches every reference DAT in turn,
  with per-system progress.

Install

Tarball and .deb on the releases page,
or on Arch via the AUR: yay -S emutastic-bin. Existing installs update in-app
from Preferences → About.

Emutastic for Linux 0.8.3

A controls-and-PSP release: PSP now runs properly under Wayland, control remaps take effect immediately, and Vectrex and PlayStation input work.

What's Fixed

• PSP (PPSSPP) now runs under Wayland. On some setups the PSP game window never appeared — you'd hear audio but see nothing — and when it did show, it ran rough with crackling sound. PSP now opens its window reliably, holds a steady 60fps, and plays clean audio.
• Vectrex movement works. The joystick directions weren't being applied, so nothing moved — with either a d-pad or the analog stick. Vectrex now responds to both the d-pad and the left analog stick (plus the 1/2/3/4 buttons, which already worked).
• PlayStation d-pad works. PS1 defaulted to an analog pad that left the d-pad dead, making some games (e.g. Symphony of the Night) uncontrollable. PS1 now uses the digital pad by default, so the d-pad works.

Improvements

• Control remaps apply immediately. Editing a console's controls while a game is running now takes effect right away, instead of only the next time you launch the game. (On a console you hadn't mapped yet, that delay looked like the controls "weren't saving.")

Install

Tarball and .deb on the releases page, or on Arch via the AUR: yay -S emutastic-bin. Existing installs update in-app from Preferences → About.