MacScene's new sister site Archive.vg launched its public beta at the end of July. It's shooting to be the IMDb of video games, and has had some great feedback so far. The Archive.vg iPhone app was just released on the App Store (free!), with near-full access to the database—it's missing screenshots, but it has credits and contributors (which you won't find on the website just yet). The app also has collections, which you can expect on the site at a later date. On the Archive blog, two articles may be of special interest to MacScene regulars: An Emulator for the Rest of Us—How OpenEmu Changes Everything and The Perils, Challenges, and Uncertainty of Collecting and Preserving Video Games.

Dapplegrey, a DOSBox frontend, reached a major milestone sometime recently—version 3.0. I can't kind find any release notes, but it has a shiny new UI and organisational features—along with a new icon. Mountain Lion users take note that it's not signed for Gatekeeper. You can get it from the Classics for X website.

Classic adventure game interpreter ScummVM version 1.5.0 "Picnic Basket" has been released. This update adds support for 11 more titles, including Backyard Baseball 2003, Dreamweb, Blue Force, and Once Upon A Time: Little Red Riding Hood. Changes include "dramatically" improved MT-32 emulation and TrueType font support. See the Release Notes for more details. As always, you can download the latest release from the ScummVM downloads page.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including new versions of OpenMSX and Sheepshaver, a name change for gbpablog, and more.

After nearly a year without updates, PlayStation 2 emulator PCSX2 has received two new versions in a week. Version 0.9.6 was updated to perform better in OS X Lion. Then 0.9.7 Alpha was released a few days later. Zedr0n included side-by-side screenshot comparisons to showcase the visual improvements between 0.9.6 and 0.9.7. You can get it, and check out the screenshots, at the PCSX2 for Mac website. As with all alpha software, proceed with caution.

MacScene regular seanstar has released new software for the NES Power Glove—more than 20 years since the ill-fated contraption was mercilessly retired. NESGlovPhone lets you perform music in real-time, on an actual NES, using the Mattel Power Glove to interact with the NES sound chip. It offers a "reasonably intuitive musical interface" and multiple modes of interaction. So it turns out it wasn't an April Fools joke. If you have a working Power Glove, NES, and devcart, get your copy at the Psych Software website.

Apple II emulator Virtual ][ has hit version 7.0. The new update provides full OS X Mountain Lion compatibility, improves accuracy of high-resolution colors, modernises the appearance of the main window, added the Bulgarian character set, and added the option to save a memory dump of the virtual machine to a file. Get it from the Virtual ][ website.

Continue reading for more updates, including new versions of Micro64 (plus a video), SheepShaver, CrossOver Mac, Boxer, Stella, 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.

Classic Sierra adventure game Space Quest 2 has been remade by Infamous Adventures with 320x200 resolution, a 16-bit colour palette, and over 4000 lines of recorded dialogue, along with allowances for mouse-only control. Team VSB have also released a feature-length Space Quest sequel called Vohaul Strikes Back. The SQII remake is currently Windows only, although a Mac version should be coming soon. Vohaul Strikes Back is Windows only.

OpenEmulator now supports the 1977 Apple II. The latest update (1.0.2) to the module-based emulator supports early Apple II hardware with cycle-accurate video emulation and joystick/mouse support. OpenEmulator also supports the Apple I. See here for a feature list for the Apple II support, or head over to the OpenEmulator website for more information and a download link.

Atari 2600 VCS emulator Stella has been updated to version 3.5. Stella is now donationware. You can donate many things other than money—there's a list of suggestions provided on the Stella website. Changes include improvements to joystick management code, restructuring of the OpenGL code, and a new default snapshot directory, amongst many others. See the Stella news page for the full list. Hit up the official Stella site for a download link.

Continue reading for more emulator updates, including new Hatari, Mini vMac, Dapplegrey, Bochs, RPCEmu, and more.