Sintendo

Sintendo

Homepage	Homepage
Latest Version	0.10-pre2
Downloads	Plain Files Source code
Release Date	08/03/2001
Author	Jamin Vander Berg (aka Sin)
Based on	Snes9x Team (Snes9x)
Systems Emulated	Super Nintendo
Best Available Emulator For this system(s)?	No.
Active	No
Refresh Rate	50Hz / 60Hz

Sintendo was one of the earliest emulators for the Dreamcast console. It it a port of Snes9x by Jamin Vander Berg (aka Sin). It was made using the WinCE SDK. The newest version is Sintendo Beta v0.10 - Prerelease version 2 which was released on August 3, 2001. The Sintendo website is hosted by DCEmulation.com.

Sintendo doesn't support sound or saving games. Sin planned to include both in a future version of Sintendo but he never released it.

Here's some status information by Sin:

Memory allocation is working.
Port to dreamcast successfull. Little slow at the moment.
Features done are MOD emulation, Joystick Support and saving.
Little bit of sound and graphics done.

Old versions of Sintendo can be downloaded from the official site.

The official forums are still up, but hadn't had any activity since years. They can be found here but all previous posts have gone lost.

Activity

Below is a post from Sin that he made on 27th December 2002. It is one of last posts he made in his own forum. His last post there was on 22th January 2003 responding to someone who had replied to this message. He has never been active again in any Dreamcast forum. The original topic can be found here.

It has been a great deal of time since I have updated this website, reviewed the posts here, or even touched the code for Sintendo.

In recent ponderings, I have wondered if what I have done is worth working further forward towards. While I am deeply satisfied with how far everything has come (some may not agree, but I doubt they are programmers), I still never got it as far as I had hoped.

The Dreamcast is all but a dead system. Many of us still use ours, I pop a disc in and play from time to time, but all of the effort I've put into Sintendo in the past, while not wasted, may fall on deaf ears if I continue to pursue the project, so long after the consoles unfortunate demise.

Work, as always, is a burden on a creative programmer's time and imagination. I'll not use that as an excuse for anything. I still program from time to time, but its been quite a while since I've approached anything that compares with the scope of Sintendo.

Never before or since have I conceived a project with such determination to see it through to even as close a level of completion. Anyone who programs (and some who don't) should understand the year plus of plight that went into this project. I appreciate all of the support I have received over this time. I gratefully appreciate my host, dcemulation.com, for keeping this site up more than a year after a single update.

I am by no means saying that Sintendo is a dead project. I am not quitting, per se. I am only trying to tell all of you, what few dedicated followers I may have left, that I have not worked on it for quite some time, and can't necessarily forsee any time in the future when I will. I can not even promise that Sintendo *will* ever be worked on (by me at least), but I'd like to think that that's not the case.

I have been dedicated to games programming since the age of 15. Now, 25, I still work towards the same goal. Sintendo bore me priceless experience in the console programming market that I will take with me in the future. Where it will lead? I can't say for certain. I'd like to develop games for many years to come. Personally, and most importantly, I'd like to develop a game to completion. Perhaps we may some day see Sintendo on another console (although I currently own none to port it to). Time will tell.

Thank you all again for all the support I've received. I apologize for lack of adequete postings as well as lack of decisiveness.

Until another time,

Sin

Downloads

Interview

This is an interview with Sin, the creator of Sintendo. It was taken in late 2001 by Emulation-X of GeoShock, a popular emulation site in these days. GeoShock went offline in early 2006, so we have published this interview here.

Emulation-X: Why did you make Sintendo?

         Sin: I made Sintendo because I wanted to be able to play Super
         Nintendo games on my Dreamcast. I released Sintendo to the world   
         because I imagined other people would like to as well. There was 
         once a time when such a thing was only imaginable and I saw that   
         I *could* do it... I used Snes9x because it is portable, maybe   
         the development a lot easier The only other really useful SNES   
         emulator is ZSNES, which may be better in some ways, but is far  
         from portable. ZSNES is written primarily in x86 assembly,     
         everything written in that way must be re-written to work on the 
         Dreamcast. Snes9x was just a much more attractive option because    
         it's written in C.I have had to do very little re-writing of the   
         Snes9x code. I started most of my research on the forums of the  
         "warez" sites. Dcisos.com had a development forum The portable 
         version of Snes9x has a file called how2port.txt. Its like 
         following instructions, kind of It's quite a bit more complicated 
         than that.

Emulation-X: Who made the a big Impact with you while making Sintendo?

         Sin: I'd have to say Gary, the author of Snes9x had a huge
         impact on me.The fact that he responded to my email suprised me, 
         and while he hasn't given me any particular help... He has been 
         very supportive...as well as creating the thing in the first 
         place. Tubooboo has helped me solve a few of my most frustrating    
         problems. Tubooboo's presence on the scene was also a great    
         motivating force i wish a great deal of success to him with his 
         project.

Emulation-X: Tubooboo also has a Snes Emulator for the Dreamcast. Was this a race?

         Sin: The fact that he started it, however, spurred a great 
         deal of competitiveness in me that was probably the direct cause
         of Sintendo being released on time there was probably an unspoken 
         race between us. the race ended when Marcus won, by a half a day 
         I released my emulator later that day, and then an improved 
         version the next. It has sound and saving, two great feats,but I  
         understand that the sound slows down the emulation somewhat and 
         speed in controlled by a frameskip, which takes away some of the  
         smoothness from the games.

EMULATION-X: When did you get involved in Emulation?

         Sin: I don't know when really maybe around Nesticle.It ran
         on our P100 at good speed, it was fun to play all those old games 
         even my mom loved it. Then emulators started coming out that 
         emulated the SNES following in a loose sense of the term. 
         I've used a lot of them,I've even considered doing SNES emulation
         myself. I had a few ideas but never the time to research all the 
         ins and outs the SNES is a very complicated machine.I used to 
         imagine that compiling a SNES cartridge into machine code would 
         speed emulation a great deal...and it probably would...it is     
         unfortunately not very practical .

EMULATION-X: Besides making Sintendo (Snes for DC) are there any other Emulators that you might want to port in the future to the Dreamcast?

          Sin: I don't have any intention on porting another emulator
          to the DC.Though SNES emulation on the PS2 would be very     
          cool...and certainly be less problematic that my orignal port I   
          haven't exactly decided yet. I am a games programmer at heart. I  
          love RPGs in specific and I can't play one without analysing it a   
          great deal I've been programming rudementary RPGs since I first    
          started programming and it is perhaps the reason I began programming in the first place. 
          So I guess there's a good chance that may be my next route

Emulation-X: What other Emus do you use besides Snes9x?

          Sin: I kind of like Pokemon, so sometimes I use the no$gb  
          emulator, or whatever on the PC version you can run more than one 
          gameboy...which makes trading useful, and I programmed a small app
          that switches the save files arround so I can play more than one 
          save... and if I click one check box, I can trade without actually     
          losing the pokemon I traded (i.e. Copy a Pokemon)

EMULATION-X: What is your View on Utopia boot disk (DC-warez) and the hole shut down of the DC news web sites?

           Sin: The boot disk is a good thing, and I don't believe it is   
           really illegal. News sites are news sites, and Sega has no right 
           toshut them down for providing information regardless of the nature of that information

EMULATION-X: Has Sega or Nintendo never tried to contact you ?

           Sin: No, but I have considered contacting them. 
           Perhaps obtain a license for Sintendo... or get a job :) 
           or licensing for future projects like the aforementioned RPG 
           its an option i am looking into I'd imagine the people that use 
           it for emulation will be using it for some time to come

Emulation-X: What do you think about the Dreamcast Now?

          Sin: As a consumer system, it's closed to dead. No one really wants 
          to spend any money on it any more the games have been released  
          (illegally) for free.

EMULATION-X: Do you think that Emulation and Warez kills a system?

          Sin: Yes and no. Warez killed a lot of profits Sega and its   
           developers could have made. But then all those kids bought tons 
           of accessories because they had extra money. Emulation is a program 
           I don't think in and of itself emulation and emulators for the    
           Dreamcast could kill the system But then, it's kindof like cheating
           at a game... You played it for a while and you're bored... so you  
           want something new... So you cheat to make it more exciting... 
           eventually (maybe sooner, maybe later) thats gets old too... 
           but the game was already old in the first place if you catch my   
           analogy, but I know I'll stick pick up my Dreamcast for years to 
           come and play some old SNES games .

EMULATION-X: Where did the name Sintendo come from?

            Sin: spankthemonkey, my web designer, thought of it.

EMULATION-X: Do you plan on improving on Sintendo anytime soon?

            Sin: I'm still improving Sintendo almost every day there's  
            a lot that still has to be done speed is an issue, no one wants 
            to play a game (at least not for a great deal of time) if 
            it's slow, saving should be implemented soon and I really want  
            to be able to hear the music for ChronoTrigger while I'm  
            playing. There are a few details that were left out from my first 
            release I am covering those bases (and maybe throwing in a few  
            extras) and I'll release in under a week.

EMULATION-X: What type of ideas might you add to the Menu system?

            Sin: An in-game menu has already been done (but still a   
            little buggy) I have to fix it so it shows the last file and so 
            it doesn't crash if you don't have enough files then I may add the 
            ability to browse folders, both to improve the organization, and   
            to add to the maximum number of ROMs per CD.

EMULATION-X: Right now the maximum is 128?

             Sin: Well, technically 127 :) but yes..... 
             with folders, each folder will be able to have up to 128 files 
             so the number of ROMs possible is nearly infinite (up to the 
             storage capacity of a CD) other than that, I'm trying to add
             a small speed increase.

EMULATION-X: Thank you Sin for taking the time to answer all of My Questions, I really hope that anyone that reads this can understand what dedication you have and that this is only your hobby and you don't get paid to do this.

             Sin: Well, thank you for taking the time to interview little 
             old me :) I hope Everyone will enjoy emulation on the Dreamcast :)

Activity

Downloads

Interview

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