Zaxnes 0.4.2

Independent project, not affiliated with Geod Studio or Nintendo. NES is a trademark of Nintendo.

A demo game included, and Zaxnes on Android.

FlappyZaxNes: a demo game, with its 3D profile and widescreen

Zaxnes now includes the demo of a simple game, FlappyZaxNes, with its own 3D profile and widescreen, so that you can get an idea of how the emulator works without having to unlock profiles in 3dSen.

• A NES game made for Zaxnes, after Flappy NES by filipemd (GPL-3.0): a city scrolling behind the pipes, music, and from the tenth pipe on, pipes that go up and down.
• At the first start, its ROM is put in your ROM folder and its profile in your profiles, tied together: pick FlappyZaxNes in the ROM list and play. Delete them and they stay deleted, until a new version of Zaxnes brings a new version of the game.
• Its widescreen is a hack pack like the other games' (the pipes' caps and the clouds shown in the margins); it is documented in rust/docs/hacks/flappyzaxnes/WIDESCREEN-HACK.md.

Android

• A first APK for Android tablets and handhelds (64-bit ARM, Android 7.0 or later), with the console interface: a gamepad, or a transparent touch pad (shown always, never, or only without a gamepad).
• Outside a game a finger scrolls the lists and taps the menus; in a game, with the camera unlocked, one finger turns the camera and two fingers zoom. The touch pad also has 2D/3D, recentre and a camera lock.
• The system keyboard types the RetroAchievements sign-in.
• Your files go in the app's own folder, Android/data/io.github.nixxou.zaxnes/files (roms, profiles, saves, states, movies): no permission is needed.

Console interface (handhelds, Android, F1 on the desktop)

• Advanced options: the settings of the desktop window's Video, Camera, Light and Emulation tabs, stepped with the pad.
• The ROM list's X hint reads "3D Profile"; choosing a profile keeps it for the ROM and goes back to the list, where A plays.
• On handhelds and Android the experimental Lua paths are on by default.

Downloads

The only game included is FlappyZaxNes, with its 3D profile. For any other game, bring your own ROMs; for 3D, a .3dn profile per game (if you own 3dSen, File > Import from 3dSen… copies the profiles of your installation). Without a profile, a game runs in 2D or with the default 3D geometry. See HOWTO-RUN.md for the command line.

Licences

GPL-3.0 (LICENSE). Part of the 3D conversion engine is adapted from 3DNes_Engine (Geod Studio, GPL-3.0). FlappyZaxNes is GPL-3.0, after Flappy NES by filipemd. RetroAchievements support uses rcheevos (MIT). Third-party libraries are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md, assets in ASSETS-LICENSES.md.

Zaxnes 0.4.1

Independent project, not affiliated with Geod Studio or Nintendo. NES is a trademark of Nintendo.

Widescreen fixes.

Ninja Gaiden III

• The enemies, lanterns and items the game places on the screen when the camera reaches them now wait in the margins, where they will appear, instead of popping in at the edge of the 4:3 picture.
• The desert of 2-1: the rock platforms no longer vanish from the margins and the sand no longer goes out of step with the screen.
• Past the ends of an area, where the game has nothing to show, the margins stay black, cut straight, instead of repeating its edge (boss rooms, ends of levels).
• Cut scenes no longer show their portrait and text a second time in the margins.
• New testing aids, off by default, in the USA and Japanese packs: Invincible, and Level select (Select during play goes on from the next checkpoint).

Super Mario Bros. 3

• The world map keeps its frame whole, with black margins.
• A piranha plant coming out of a pipe in the margins is hidden by the pipe, as on the screen.

All games

• In the widescreen margins, a sprite behind the background hides the sprites of lower priority there, as the NES does.
• The margin decoders read the nametables with the mirroring each row was drawn with (a game that switches it during the frame showed the wrong tiles in the margins).
• With Pause the 3D in 2D: the 2D view keeps its widescreen margins, and the colour beside the picture is the game's backdrop, not grey.

Downloads

No ROM and no game profile is included. Bring your own ROMs; for 3D, a .3dn profile per game (if you own 3dSen, File > Import from 3dSen… copies the profiles of your installation). Without a profile, a game runs in 2D or with the default 3D geometry. See HOWTO-RUN.md for the command line.

Licences

GPL-3.0 (LICENSE). Part of the 3D conversion engine is adapted from 3DNes_Engine (Geod Studio, GPL-3.0). RetroAchievements support uses rcheevos (MIT). Third-party libraries are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md, assets in ASSETS-LICENSES.md: everything shown or played is produced by the program's own code.

Zaxnes 0.4.0

Independent project, not affiliated with Geod Studio or Nintendo. NES is a trademark of Nintendo.

New

• Widescreen. Games made for it, or patched for it, draw past the 256 pixels of the NES picture, in 2D and in 3D. Built-in widescreen hacks for Zelda II, Mega Man 1 to 6, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden III, Adventure Island, Excitebike, Final Fantasy, Blaster Master, Metroid and Metal Force (Korea), each in a plain and an advanced mode (objects and enemies shown in the margins). The hacks are found by the ROM's signatures, so other builds (Europe, Japan) of these games are covered where a pack exists. A WideScreen & Hacks screen per game shows how well the ROM fits, part by part, and offers each hack's options (No slowdown, Invincible, level select where the game has one).
• RetroAchievements (softcore): sign in from the options, unlocks, challenges, progress and the list of a game's achievements, on the desktop and on handhelds.
• Console mode on the desktop (F1 or Home): the handheld interface with the mouse, the keyboard or a pad; the desktop now opens on its ROM list.
• Options per game over the global ones (render scale, shadows, palette, overscan, catch-up, Lua options...).
• NES colour palettes: the palettes of the main emulators (Mesen's by default, FCEUX, Nestopia, FirebrandX, Sony CXA, PVM...), for all games or per game.
• Remove sprite limit: Disabled / Always / Smart (default; Smart keeps the limit where a game relies on it, as Mesen does).
• Overscan per side, for NTSC and PAL games, per game, cut (Fit) or cropped (Resize).
• Movies: record, play back and annotate.
• Save states with a thumbnail, a state screen on handhelds, and saves, states and movies named after the ROM.
• Vulkan and DirectX 12 on the desktop (Graphics API option); OpenGL stays the default.
• The 2D view is always seen head on; turning the camera pulls it like a rubber band, then switches to 3D.
• Mapper 156 (Metal Force, Korea).

Faster

• Emulation core: about 12-16 % faster (sound and cartridge reads), the same to the cycle and the sample.
• Widescreen pictures composed three times faster; the 3D conversion of widescreen games back to its normal cost.
• Rendering: fewer GPU stalls on handheld GPUs (opaque surfaces without discard, palette converted once per frame), the same pictures.
• Handhelds: an Optimizations page in the options. New there: Pause the 3D in 2D and Catch-up: 3D of the shown frame only, both on by default on handhelds (no 3D work for frames nobody sees), and 3D at 30 fps (off by default).

Changed

• Handheld and console controls: L1 the widescreen, R1 the hacks, R3 rollback; L2 in the game list opens WideScreen & Hacks.

Downloads

No ROM and no game profile is included. Bring your own ROMs; for 3D, a .3dn profile per game (if you own 3dSen, File > Import from 3dSen… copies the profiles of your installation). Without a profile, a game runs in 2D or with the default 3D geometry. See HOWTO-RUN.md for the command line.

Licences

GPL-3.0 (LICENSE). Part of the 3D conversion engine is adapted from 3DNes_Engine (Geod Studio, GPL-3.0). RetroAchievements support uses rcheevos (MIT). Third-party libraries are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md, assets in ASSETS-LICENSES.md: everything shown or played is produced by the program's own code.

Zaxnes 0.3.0

Independent project, not affiliated with Geod Studio or Nintendo. NES is a trademark of Nintendo.

New

• Rewritten in Rust. Same emulator, same profiles, same Lua API, same pictures, now one small native program with no .NET runtime. The C# version (0.1.0, 0.2.0) is kept on the archive-dotnetversion branch.
• Linux x86_64 build (any distribution with glibc 2.31 or newer and SDL2).
• Handhelds through PortMaster (aarch64: Anbernic H700 devices such as the RG40XXV, on muOS, Knulli or ROCKNIX), with an interface made for the pad:
  • A/B are the NES A/B; X resets the camera; Y switches 2D/3D, held it shows the game in 2D from the front; L1/R1 zoom; R2 fast-forwards; L2 held keeps the camera angle and zoom, a short press puts them back.
  • In the game list, X assigns any profile to a ROM, the closest titles first; the choice is kept per ROM.
• Region from the ROM by default: a ROM whose header says PAL runs at 50 Hz.
• New options: Optimized Lua (faster profile scripts), Scripts in parallel with the drawing (Off / Auto / Always: the next frame's scripts run on another CPU core; needs Optimized Lua), Automatic resolution (the render scale follows the GPU time), Performance measures (frame profiler in the log, off by default).

Fixed

• Zelda II: the bed and other objects whose script reads the previous frame are no longer drawn out of place.

Downloads

No ROM and no game profile is included. Bring your own ROMs; for 3D, a .3dn profile per game (if you own 3dSen, File > Import from 3dSen… copies the profiles of your installation). Without a profile, a game runs in 2D or with the default 3D geometry. See HOWTO-RUN.md for the command line.

Licences

GPL-3.0 (LICENSE). Part of the 3D conversion engine is adapted from 3DNes_Engine (Geod Studio, GPL-3.0). Third-party libraries are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md, assets in ASSETS-LICENSES.md: everything shown or played is produced by the program's own code.

Zaxnes 0.2.0

Independent project, not affiliated with Geod Studio or Nintendo. NES is a trademark of Nintendo.

New

• Import from 3dSen. If you own 3dSen, File > Import from 3dSen… (or --import-3dsen <folder>) copies the game profiles from your installation into your Zaxnes profiles folder. Nothing is downloaded and no profile ships with Zaxnes.
• profiles folder next to Zaxnes.exe. Profiles placed there are always loaded, in portable mode or not. A file with the same name in your user profiles folder takes priority.
• English or French interface. English by default; switch in Options > Interface. The change applies immediately.

Improved

• Sharper shadows of thin details: status-bar text and other fine strokes are much more readable (4096 shadow map).
• Unlit faces are darker, closer to the expected look.
• Anti-aliasing and the resolution scale now really change the rendering.
• Starting in fullscreen no longer shows a black screen.
• Ctrl+C in the console no longer closes the emulator; the console is used only by --help, --list-profiles and --import-3dsen.

Removed

• The decorative CRT TV around the picture, and its third-party model.

Install

Unzip zaxnes-0.2.0-win-x64.zip anywhere and run Zaxnes.exe. Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, OpenGL 3.3. Bring your own ROMs; for 3D, a .3dn profile per game. See HOWTO-RUN.md for command-line options.

Licences

GPL-3.0 (LICENSE). Part of the 3D conversion engine is adapted from 3DNes_Engine (Geod Studio, GPL-3.0). Third-party libraries are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.

First public release of Zaxnes, a free (GPL-3.0) NES emulator that renders games in 3D.

Independent project, not affiliated with Geod Studio or Nintendo. NES is a trademark of Nintendo.

What it does

• Accurate NES emulation (CPU, PPU, APU, common mappers), written from public documentation.
• Real-time 2D-to-3D conversion of the picture: tiles and sprites become voxel objects, with depth layers, shadows and a free camera. Switch between 2D and 3D at any time.
• Reads 3D game profiles in the .3dn format, including Lua scripts.
• Classic emulator interface: menu bar, options window, keyboard and gamepad shortcuts, save states and rewind.
• Procedural skyboxes and an optional CRT TV around the picture.

What you need

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit, with an OpenGL 3.3 graphics card.
• Your own game ROMs. No ROM is included.
• For 3D, a game profile (.3dn) for each game. No commercial profile is included; without a profile, a game runs in 2D.

Install

Unzip zaxnes-0.1.0-win-x64.zip anywhere and run Zaxnes.exe. See HOWTO-RUN.md in the archive for command-line options.

Licences

The program is GPL-3.0 (LICENSE). Part of the 3D conversion engine is adapted from 3DNes_Engine (Geod Studio, GPL-3.0). Third-party libraries are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md. The CRT TV model is "Retro Crt Tv" by meipal, CC BY 4.0, shipped unmodified; see ASSETS-LICENSES.md.