NESticle, version x.xx |
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| Developer(s) | Bloodlust Software |
|---|---|
| Stable release | x.xx / August 18, 1998 |
| Development status | Discontinued |
| Operating system | MS-DOS, PC-DOS |
| Type | Emulator |
| License | Freeware |
| Website | bloodlust.zophar.net/NESticle/nes.html |
NESticle was a popular NES emulator for DOS, created by Sardu of Bloodlust Software. The name is a portmanteau of "NES" (the console it emulates) and "testicle".
NESticle offered its initial release as NESticle v0.2 on April 3, 1997. The program originally ran under DOS and Windows 95, offering few features and only supporting a handful of games. It was one of the first freeware NES emulators, and quickly became more popular than shareware rivals such as iNES. This was certainly due to the fact NESticle ran that much faster on the hardware of the day. Its speed can be attributed to the fact that the code was compiled with the Watcom C/C++ compiler. Within a few weeks the program had become considerably more robust, and could play the majority of then-available NES ROMs. It was a massive step forward in emulation, making NES emulation accessible to the mainstream computer user. Some emulator programmers complained that a side effect of Nesticle's success was that it made people expect that emulation for more advanced systems, like the SNES, be just as finished.
The source code for NESticle was stolen from Sardu's computer by a code cracker, named Donald Moore (also known as MindRape) of Damaged Cybernetics, who accessed its network shares with Samba[1] [2]. Because of the incident, Sardu decided to discontinue NESticle. August 1998 saw the final NESticle release, version x.xx, and support for the emulator was discontinued.
NESticle eventually became obsolete as other emulation projects continued to develop and improve. However, it was a major step in the evolution of console emulation, noted for the public introduction of save states, automatic frameskipping, in-game movies, netplay, and its speed, particularly on lower-end computers.
The current webpage for NESticle is hosted on Zophar's Domain.
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