The two big guns in Windows or Linux on Mac virtualisation released their yearly upgrades in the previous month. Parallels Desktop 9 includes support for Thunderbolt and FireWire devices, OS X’s PowerNap feature, the Mountain Lion Dictionary gesture, Windows 8.1, and more, all while boasting 40% better disk performance, 25% faster shutdowns, 20% faster suspending, and 3D graphics that’s 15% faster than in Parallels 8. You can buy/trial it and learn more at Parallels’ Desktop product site.

VMware Fusion 6, meanwhile, adds Dictation in Windows; support for up to 16 vCPUs, 8TB disks, and 64GB of RAM; a new user interface; improved Boot Camp support; multiple display support (in OS X Mavericks); Windows 8.1 support; and the usual host of performance improvements and minor feature additions. You can check out all its new features, and try it out, by visiting the VMware Fusion product page.

Nintendo Wii and Gamecube emulator Dolphin version 4.0 came out today. It’s the first stable release in nine months, bringing 2500 changes from Dolphin 3.5 — including a new look (and swanky new icon), beta support for the Wii official online multiplayer, Wii Balance Board and Gamecube Steering Wheel support, new audio emulation code, Fastmem support on OS X, an OpenGL video backend rewrite, and much more. You can get it from the Dolphin download page, while the announcement post is here.

After a long period (three years) without an official release, Sony PlayStation emulator PCSX-Reloaded has been updated to version 1.9.93 beta. People who’ve been using SpeedofMac/ConsoleEmu’s unofficial builds won’t notice much of a difference, but it’s a huge improvement over 1.9.92. See the release notes here for details.

Continue reading for additional updates, including new versions of Mednafen, Q-emuLator, zxsp, PPSSPP, and more.

My apologies about missing July’s roundup; I had a very busy month.

Nintendo 64 emulator Mupen64Plus has been updated to version 2.0. This release improves all the plugin modules, notably adding support for video window resizing and six new joysticks. It also fixes emulation issues with a number of games, including Donkey Kong 64 and Ocarina of Time. Check out the release notes here, then download via this page.

After two years without an update, Eric Shepherd aka SheppyWare’s Sweet16 Apple IIgs emulator has seen a major new release and a subsequent minor update. Version 3.0 drops support for PowerPC Macs, implements drag-and-drop support between the Mac and Apple IIgs Finder, adds a bunch of long-overdue features, fixes loads of issues, and improves everything else. Check out the release notes for both this and the 3.0.1 update at the Sweet16 website.

One year to the day after its previous release, Atari ST/STE/TT/Falcon emulator Hatari has been updated to version 1.7.0. This release adds an experimental MMU for the 68030 mode, improves accuracy in several areas, and makes a few other fixes. From a gaming perspective, 15 titles that previously had issues—including James Pond and Microprose Golf—should now work. The full release notes are included in the download (available here), while the quick-fire version is on the Hatari news page.

NekoLauncher Mednafen, a frontend/launcher for multi-system emulator Mednafen, has been updated to version 0.9.29. As has Mednafen itself, courtesy of idyll and Weedy Weed Smoker. For the uninitiated, Mednafen handles Game Boy Advance, Virtual Boy, Super Nintendo, and several other classic systems with aplomb, and it’s also an excellent choice for Mac folks looking to emulate PlayStation games. You can grab Mednafen with or without its frontend here, or pop over to Nekocan for just NekoLauncher Mednafen. And share your thoughts on the newly-minted MacScene forum thread.

Continue reading for more emulator news, including updates to Stella, Sheepshaver, and CocoaMSX, along with a couple of new additions to the scene.

There’s a new Nintendo 64 emulator on the block. I don’t know how Daedalus compares to Mupen64Plus or SixtyForce, as I couldn’t get it to run after compiling, but it looks to be under active development. You can grab the source from the Daedalus GitHub page. Let us know how it performs if you get it working.

ScummVM, an interpreter for dozens of classic point-and-click adventure games, has been updated to version 1.6.0. This release adds four new engines, which adds support for such titles as Eye of the Beholder and The Journeyman Project: Pegasus Prime. Other changes include improved support for Macintosh versions of a few games, an update to the Roland MT-32 emulation code, a grid chooser for save games, three new translations, and more. See the release notes for more details, and grab ScummVM from its downloads page.

Arcade emulator MAME reached version 0.149 a few days ago. As usual, this update includes a raft of fixes, additions, and tweaks. There’s a detailed change log if you want to see precisely what’s new. You can grab the source code from the MAMEdev site, or grab 32-bit or 64-bit Intel binaries from the SDLMAME site.

Almost-everything emulator MESS was also updated to version 0.149, with a similarly-exhaustive change log. You can grab its source code via either the MESS Wiki or MAMEdev site, and download binaries via the SDLMAME/SDLMESS site.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including test builds for CocoaMSX and Sheepshaver, a return from the dead for Fuse, and more.

Mac gaming classic Pathways into Darkness, a precursor to Bungie's more famous first-person series Marathon and Halo, has been ported to OS X. This is a faithful, loving, free port with full blessings from Bungie. Go get it to revisit a slice of Mac gaming history. (If you're so inclined, I wrote up my thoughts on this OS X release here.)

There’s a new MSX emulator on the scene. CocoaMSX is based on blueMSX, and offers what looks to be a pretty robust feature set. You can follow its development on Google+ or track (and download) it on the CocoaMSX Google Code page. Be sure to let us know how it stacks up to openMSX (which has now moved from svn to Git repository, I might add).

Just over a year since the last release, Nintendo DS emulator DeSmuME has hit version 0.9.9. This build introduces a new JIT CPU core, which the devs say “yields some impressive speedups,” and specifically improves the OS X port with a ton of new options and enhancements. There’s also a bunch of bug fixes across the entire emulator. Get it from the official DeSmuME website.

Gaming-focused Amiga emulator FS-UAE has moved to fs-uae.net, and it’s been updated to version 2.2.2. Changes since March are mostly bugfixes and improvements to existing features. You can see lists here (2.2.1) and here (2.2.2). As always, head over to the FS-UAE website for more information and a download link.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including new versions of two PSP emulators, long-overdue updates to ARAnyM and Bochs, and more.

Apologies for the break in service. We should be back to roundups every 4-5 weeks from here on out. We could always do with volunteers to help carry the weight, though.

Atari 2600 emulator Stella hit version 3.8 in February, with major changes to the sound system and ZIP archive handling. 3.8.1 followed at the beginning of March, with a few bugfixes and support for TIA RSYNC writes. See the Stella news page for more details. As always, you can get a download link here.

After taking more than nine years to reach its first stable release, ResidualVM has already popped out another one. Version 0.1.1 fixes around 20 bugs in the engine code and a dozen in Grim Fandango’s game data. Get it from the ResidualVM downloads page.

Sega Saturn emulator Yabause got its first update in 14 months near the end of January. Version 0.9.12 (link to announcement post) includes major updates to both the software and OpenGL renderers, adds ISO support to the OS X port, and adds the debug interface to the Qt port. Grab it from the Yabause download page.

Four years to the day after its last release, Sega Master System, Game Gear, SG-1000, ColecoVision, and NES (those last two are newly-added) emulator CrabEmu has been updated to version 0.2.0. You’ll have to download it for the full (and lengthy) changelog, but there’s been extensive work done on the GUI and Master System core.

Continue reading for more emulator updates from the past two months, including new versions of FS-UAE, XRoar, DBGL, VirtualBox (of course), and more.

Boxer, a DOSBox-powered DOS emulator, has been updated to version 1.3. The release notes list taking screenshots and fast-forwarding games among the new features, with heaps of bugfixes and improvements to input handling and gameboxes. Get it from the official Boxer website.

Multi-system emulator Mednafen has been updated to version 0.9.22-WIP, while Jazzin's launcher app NekoLauncher Mednafen received an update (0.9.22 Build 21) to fix a crash bug. Mednafen's new version includes improvements to and L3 and R3 button simulation in the PlayStation emulation, improved Sega Genesis/Mega Drive YM2612 emulation, and broken compatibility with 0.9.21-WIP Genesis/Mega Drive save states. See the NekoLauncher site for more details, and download it at the Mednafen forums.

Amiga emulator FS-UAE has been updated to version 1.2.1, fixing a crash that occurred when saving states with mounted directories. See the FS-UAE website to learn more about this games-focused emulator.

Continue reading for updates to JPCSP, Mini vMac, XRoar, Stella, VirtualBox, and more.

Bizhawk, a multi-system emulator with built-in TAS recording capabilities, has been ported to the Mac. It eschews an OS X-native UI in favor of a wrapper that keeps the features from the Windows version. There are no plans for a Mac-native UI in the future, unfortunately. See the MacScene discussion thread for more details, or download Bizhawk via the TASVideos forums.

Nintendo DS emulator DeSmuME version 0.9.8 has finally been released. Chief among changes is a new Cocoa front-end, which seems to improve the responsiveness. This update also provides a "host of compatibility fixes"—loads of graphical and core bugfixes. Get it from the DeSmuME website.

The developers of ResidualVM issued a call-out for playtesters on April 15 for an upcoming 0.1.0 release. ResidualVM is a sister project to ScummVM that currently supports Grim Fandango to a point of completeability. Details for the playtesting can be found here, while you can learn more about the project at the ResidualVM website.

Angelo Salese has stepped down as MAME project lead because of "real life issues and concerns." Miodrag Milanovic is now in charge.

Continue reading for more emulator news and updates, including new versions of FS-UAE, PCSX-Reloaded, Mini vMac, and more.

CrossOver Games is no more. Codeweavers has rebranded and merged its two "Windows apps on a Mac" products, CrossOver Pro and CrossOver Games, into CrossOver XI. The new version comes with a huge change log, with key updates including Wine 1.4, an improved registration method, RAR file support, support for several .Net components, and a host of Microsoft Office improvements. You can learn more about CrossOver XI on the Codeweavers website.

FS-UAE, an Amiga emulator focused heavily on games, has received several updates since its initial release on February 4 this year. FS-UAE is built on the WinUAE code base, and can be fully controlled with a gamepad. The most recent update (0.9.10) adds experimental net play support. Check out the official FS-UAE website for more details, and a download link.

Nintendo 64 emulator Mupen64Plus received its first official update in more than 13 months a few days ago. Version 1.99.5 updates the audio plugin, input-SDL plugin, video plugin, RSP plugin, core emulator, and Consule-UI front-end for Mupen64Plus 2.0 API versioning; adds support for the Nintendo 64 real-time clock; allows 8-bit PNG images to be loaded for hi-res textures; and fixes many bugs. The full list is on the Mupen64Plus ReleasePage. You can download the emulator from the project's Google Code downloads page.

Boxer, a DOSBox-based DOS emulator, has been updated to version 1.2.2. This version adds the ability to paste text into the DOS prompt, makes improvements to keyboard input, changes the default games folder location to ~/DOS Games, and fixes several bugs. See here for the full list of changes and a download link.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including new JPCSP, Gambatte, Virtual ][, GSport, QEMU, and more.