Emutastic v1.7.14

What's New

PlayStation 2

• Add your PS2 games — PS2 disc images (.iso, .chd, and multi-disc .m3u playlists) are now recognized when you add them to your library, so PlayStation 2 is ready to use from import through play.
• BIOS in the Systems tab — PlayStation 2 now appears under Preferences → System Files with the common BIOS dumps listed, and a game will prompt you if a BIOS is missing instead of failing silently.

Game Databases

• "Download All" button — the game-database list in Preferences → Cores/Extras now has a single Download All that pulls every disc database in one pass, instead of fetching them one at a time.
• More reliable downloads — databases fetched in-app now install correctly, improving automatic console and title detection for disc-based systems (Sega CD, Saturn, PlayStation, PlayStation 2, TurboGrafx-CD, 3DO, and CD-i) during import. If your auto-detection has been spotty, re-download the databases (or use the new Download All) to refresh them.
• PlayStation 2 database added — the PS2 disc database is now part of the downloadable set.

Emutastic v1.7.13

What's New

PlayStation 2

• PlayStation 2 support — Emutastic now plays PS2 games, powered by the LRPS2 (PCSX2) core. Your PS2 library appears under Sony, alongside PS1 and PSP. (A PS2 BIOS is required, the same as PS1 and Saturn.)
• Choice of renderers — Direct3D 11 is the default: rock-solid and accurate. There's also an optional experimental Vulkan (paraLLEl-GS) renderer. Direct3D 11 has a known limitation at very high internal resolutions — the framerate can't keep up — whereas the Vulkan renderer holds full speed and additionally avoids the brief shader-compilation stutter PS2 emulation is prone to.
• High-resolution rendering — render PS2 games well beyond their original resolution for a much sharper picture, adjustable on the fly from the in-game settings cog.
• Controller support — DualShock-style mapping out of the box, with the PS2 controller shown in Preferences.
• RetroAchievements — full achievement and leaderboard support for PS2 games.
• Core Options — every PS2 core setting is exposed in Preferences → Core Options for fine-tuning.

Emutastic v1.7.12

What's New

Nintendo 64

• Visual settings now follow the core. The in-game cog's Visuals menu adapts to whichever N64 core you're running — Parallel N64 shows its upscaling, and Mupen64Plus-Next shows internal resolution, anti-aliasing, and texture filtering. Switching cores no longer leaves you without graphics options.

Artwork

• Faster 2D box-art downloads on paid ScreenScraper accounts. Box-art fetching now uses your account's full thread allowance (up to 6) instead of downloading one at a time, matching how metadata and 3D art already worked.

What's Fixed

• Accurate FPS counter. The in-game readout now shows the framerate actually being displayed, not the emulator's internal rate — so on hardware that can't keep up with heavier cores you see the real number. When the core outruns your display, it notes the emulation rate too, so you can tell whether your CPU or your GPU is the limit.
• No more stutter on the first achievement of a session. Achievement badges are now downloaded in the background instead of on the render thread, so the unlock toast no longer causes a brief hitch the first time it appears.

Emutastic v1.7.11

What's New

RetroAchievements

• Just sign in — that's it. Connecting RetroAchievements no longer has a separate "enable" switch; entering your account under Preferences → Achievements is all that's needed, and achievements track automatically. (Previously you could be signed in but have achievements silently off because a second toggle was unchecked.)

What's Fixed

• System Files tab no longer lists file types it can't use — removed stale MT-32 ROM and SoundFont references.

Emutastic v1.7.10

What's New

Nintendo DS

• Visuals menu for DS games. The in-game cog now has a Visuals option for the Nintendo DS, matching the 3DS experience:

  • Internal Resolution (1x–4x) — renders 3D scenes at higher resolution for dramatically better clarity, especially on TVs and large displays.
  • Texture Scaling (xBrz) — smooths and sharpens game textures.

  Higher settings increase CPU usage, so if a game slows down, step back down a notch.

Emutastic v1.7.9

What's New

Nintendo DS

• Play touch-based games entirely on a controller. The right analog stick now moves an on-screen crosshair, and a new bindable Touch button (Preferences → Edit Controls → Nintendo DS, under "Touch Screen") presses it — so games that require tapping the touchscreen are fully playable without a mouse. Clicking the screen with the mouse still works as before.

In Game

• Controller hot-plug feedback. Connecting or disconnecting a controller during play now shows a status message with the device's actual name, right next to the FPS readout. The library's banner shows the same.

Interface

• Sharper power button in the in-game overlay — the old art rendered soft, especially on TVs and high-scale displays.

What's Fixed

• Fixed a long freeze shortly after launch. Warming the box-art cache spawned dozens of parallel image decoders that could lock the app for several seconds about 15 seconds after startup. It's now a single background worker — same warm cache, no freeze.
• Controller bindings that can't be resolved are now reported in controller-diag.log instead of being silently ignored, making "this button does nothing" problems diagnosable.
• Removed a duplicate "Controller connected" message that could race the named one in the library's status banner.

Emutastic v1.7.8

What's New

RetroAchievements

• Challenge and progress indicators in game. When a challenge achievement is active ("beat the boss without taking damage"), its badge now appears in the bottom-right corner until the attempt ends — and achievements with measured progress show a live pill in the top-right (e.g. 50/100) with the achievement's badge as you close in on the goal. Same presentation RetroArch users know.

Cloud Sync

• Keep a PC's saves separate. A new toggle in Preferences → Backups — Make this PC unique — gives this PC its own cloud repository. Its saves and game library back up to the cloud but stay unique to that machine: they won't appear on your other PCs, and other PCs can't overwrite them. Leave it off to keep today's behavior, where saves and your library follow you between machines.

Library

• Show in Explorer for screenshots. Right-click any screenshot in the Screenshots tab to jump straight to the file.

Diagnostics

• Cloud sync now has its own log. Sync activity (uploads, downloads, conflicts, cleanup) is written to Logs\cloudsync.log, including syncs run from Preferences that previously weren't captured anywhere.
• Every log file is now documented. A new Log Files wiki page explains what each log records, why it exists, and its size cap — no log can grow past a few megabytes.

What's Fixed

Cloud Sync

• Syncing no longer re-uploads saves that haven't changed. Files written by a download were timestamped as locally modified, so the next sync pushed every one of them back up — a no-change sync now correctly reports 0 up, 0 down. (The first sync or two after updating may still transfer files while things settle; it's quiet from then on.)
• The library database now syncs properly between two machines. Each machine tracks whether its own database changed since its last sync: your changes upload, the other machine's changes download, and an unchanged database transfers nothing — instead of re-uploading on every sync.

General

• The UI freeze log now enforces its size cap on every write, so an unusually long session can no longer grow it unchecked.

Emutastic v1.7.7

What's New

Library

• Search result count — the toolbar now shows a live result count next to the search box while you type, so you can see at a glance how many games match.
• Smarter sidebar navigation — clicking a console in the sidebar now always returns you to the Library tab. Previously, navigating from the Save States, Screenshots, or Achievements tab could leave the wrong content on screen and quietly point the search box at the wrong tab.

Cores

• PicoDrive is now a recommended core for Sega systems in the core downloader.

What's Fixed

Search

• Games imported mid-session are now searchable immediately. Searching from All Games, Favorites, or Recently Played could miss games that were imported or had their titles updated since the app started — they wouldn't appear in results until a restart.
• Switching views no longer collides with an active search. Navigating to another console while a search was still settling could briefly replace the new view with stale search results.
• A single unreadable title can no longer break search. A corrupt character in one game's metadata previously caused searches to silently return nothing.

Cloud Sync

• Turning save encryption on or off now cleans up after itself. Previously, toggling encryption left the old copies of your saves behind in the sync repository, which could restore outdated saves onto a fresh install if the setting was ever switched back. Sync now keeps exactly one copy of each file and removes the stale ones automatically.
• Fixed an upload that could be silently dropped when the same save was queued twice in quick succession.

General

• Manual downloads are more reliable on slow connections — the metadata lookup timeout was raised from 10 to 30 seconds.

Emutastic v1.7.6

What's New

• Downloadable video shaders — A large collection of community shaders — CRT screens, scanlines, LCD grids, NTSC signals, sharp scalers, handheld looks and more — can now be downloaded from Preferences → Cores/Extras → Video Shaders (nothing ships bundled). Once installed, open the in-game cog → Shader to pick one from a searchable, scrollable list; your choice applies live and is remembered per game. The original built-in filters and None are still there. Works on 2D systems such as SNES, Genesis, Game Boy, arcade, and Neo Geo.
• Arcade & Neo Geo bezels — Frame your arcade and Neo Geo games with cabinet artwork from The Bezel Project, filling the space on either side of the screen instead of leaving it black. Turn it on in Preferences → Cores/Extras → Arcade / Neo Geo Bezels: each game's bezel downloads the first time you launch it, or choose Download all to fetch them all up front for offline play. Bezels appear automatically once enabled and can be toggled per game from the in-game cog menu.

Emutastic v1.7.5

What's New

• Per-game notes — Keep notes on any game (passwords, where you left off, strategies) in a built-in editor with line numbers, find, and word-wrap/monospace toggles. Open notes from the library right-click menu, a game's detail card, or the in-game overlay. Notes autosave as you type and sync across PCs through your cloud backup.
• Game manuals — Download original game manuals and read them in a built-in PDF viewer with zoom, search, and page thumbnails. The viewer reopens on your last-read page and zoom, and can be pulled up in-game from the overlay without closing your game. Manuals come from ScreenScraper and require a ScreenScraper login.
• Apply ROM hacks — Patch a game with an IPS, BPS, or UPS ROM hack right from the library (right-click a game → Apply ROM Hack). The patched game becomes its own library entry with its own saves, while your original ROM stays untouched — no second copy needed. Supported on cartridge systems including SNES, GBA, Game Boy / Game Boy Color, NES, Genesis, and Nintendo 64. BPS and UPS patches are checked against your ROM, so a wrong or mismatched copy is caught before it loads.
• Customizable achievement toasts — Restyle the achievement-unlock pop-up from Preferences → Achievements: choose a shape (card, pill, rounded, sharp, or custom), set a gradient, solid, or image background with adjustable opacity, and fine-tune the colors, fonts, border, and drop shadow.
• Pinnable, roll-up tool windows — The notes and manual windows float free, can be pinned on top, and roll up to just their title bar — handy on a single monitor when you want a manual beside the game.

What's Fixed

• GameCube internal resolution — GameCube now renders at 4× internal resolution by default, and the low 1×/2× options (which could render incorrectly on some setups) have been removed.
• Theme editor persistence — Edits to the built-in themes now persist across restarts.