The story of Nesticle and early emulation

[BigusSchmuck]

Been a while since I posted a good article, but if you got 15-20 minutes its a long one.

vice.com/.../the-story-of-nesticle-the-ambitious-emulator-that-redefined-retro-gaming

The Story of NESticle, the Ambitious Emulator That Redefined Retro Gaming


The product of a talented programmer who designed a hit shareware game while he was still in high school, NESticle was so good that everyone looked past the fact its name was basically a dick joke.

Backup Link

[Gredler]

Nesticle is how I got into making art for games. I loved using the sprite hacking tools to do sprite hacks on roms. Those were the golden years

[esteban]

Damn, it's been a long time since I've used Nesticle.

[ClodBusted]

I remember Nesticle was able to run very smooth on my old 133 MHz Pentium machine. What a great emulator for that time, even though it did not let me enjoy Castlevania III. I used Nesticle's savestates for getting through the Mega Man games.

Thanks for sharing that link

[esteban]

So, I never knew about any of the drama surrounding the development of Nesticle.

However, it was interesting to find out that Addis went on to help develop the XaviX console after he stopped working on Nesticle.

[xcrement5x]

Yeah, this is a really cool article.  Thanks for sharing.  I remember using it all the time when I was younger and I agree with the authors assertion that emulation really helped reopen the doors on the enjoyment of older games.

[bob]

Best part of the whole article is this...

Another game Addis worked on while at Electronic Arts was a boxing game for the GameCube called Fight Night Round 2. He isn't directly credited for his work on the game, however. Instead, his role with the game involves an unlockable version of Super Punch-Out that's included on the tiny disc.

Had no idea.

[seieienbu]

I found out about emulation from a guy in my history class in high school.  I thiiiink it was just before the end of the spring semester in 97.  I borrowed a single floppy with the emulator and a few roms on it and played arkanoid to completion that afternoon.  For who knows what reason the rom I used wouldn't ever game over.  I just always had 3 lives left. 

Anyway, I had a P133 in my old Win95 computer and it ran everything I through at it with no problems whatsoever.  I spent many an hour looking for rom websites finding a few here and there.  I know that I eventually played CV3 and don't remember it not being emulated correctly.  Good times.

[wilykat]

Damn I remember when I tried that and it ran like shit because 386 didn't have the horsepower to emulate NES CPU and PPU. Setting up the sound was a bitch back then, having to know address and IRQ to use it correctly and having to use correct sound driver (Soundblaster or something)

[ClodBusted]

I know that I eventually played CV3 and don't remember it not being emulated correctly.  Good times.

From what I remember, it ran fine up to the first vertical scrolling section, where the tileset suddenly turned into garbage on the screen.

[seieienbu]

From what I remember, it ran fine up to the first vertical scrolling section, where the tileset suddenly turned into garbage on the screen.

Was that ever fixed or are my memories betraying me?  I vividly recall beating CV3 at some point using Nesticle.

[BigusSchmuck]

I also remember using INES around the same time (weird ass sound emulation). I thought Nesticle got way more compatible as time went on. Could have sworn they had fixed the Castlevania 3 thing. Anyway, this would be a great documentary on the early years of emulation.

[ClodBusted]

Was that ever fixed or are my memories betraying me?  I vividly recall beating CV3 at some point using Nesticle.

I have no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if it hadn't been fixed when development of Nesticle stopped. Could have been due to the custom chips in the cartridge no being correctly emulated.

Nesticle was one of the few emulators which was able to play the slightly corrupted Super Mario Bros. ROM file that was widely distributed on the web back in the day. Newer and more accurate emulators won't do that.

[Gentlegamer]

NESticle can still be enjoyed today via emuception.

[Opethian]

before nesticle I used to use pasofami winG  loved how it had midi emulation for sound lol.