FCEUX is a solid NES emulator, and today I found out that it builds pretty well on OS X. (It requires X11 or Xquartz.) I'll be posting the latest builds, but it's pretty easy to get up and running using Homebrew:

1. Install Homebrew (requires you to install the OS X developer tools)
2. Run the following in Terminal:

   brew install http://xannode.com/fceux.rb

For MacPorts or Fink, I think you only need SDL and libz. I couldn't get the latest release to build, but the latest SVN worked fine.

Double-clicking the fceux binary worked for me, and you can package it by throwing it in FCEUX.app/Contents/MacOS (you'll need to make these folders).

I just thought I'd spread the word! It's not Mac-native like Macifom, but it's another option for NES emulation on the Mac.

Just curious, is there anything fceux does that other NES emulators on the Mac don't?

I'm kind of wondering this myself, as NEStopia seems to be king of the hill in terms of accuracy (but obviously not speed depending on your system specs).

I've used FCEUX in the past to play game replays. I always wanted to make it run full screen on the desktop so I could have live desktops of video game replays. Actually played with the code a bit a few years ago, but never got anywhere.

MetalDragon wrote:


I haven't used NES emulators much since Final Fantasy I & II came out for iOS, so I'm not positive.

Like Niemann said, making and playing game replays is a pretty cool feature. FCEUX has out-of-the-box netplay, full screen mode, and gamepad support (Richard Bannister's Nestopia requires his shareware emulator enhancer for these). It's got Game Genie support, too.

I haven't tested most of these features to see if they're working; I was mostly pleased that another emulator works for OS X.

So there is no good reason to use fceux instead of macifom besides replay?

For you, maybe not. FCEUX has support for custom resolutions and texture smoothing, which some people might like. At the end of the day, though, they both play NES games, so use whichever suits you.

What do you mean by "texture smoothing"? Do you mean video filters? Because last time I checked, the NES wasn't capable of 3D graphics.

Well, you got me there! I just mean that it can smooth the graphics so they appear less pixellated.

On a side note, Super Glove Ball was pretty close to 3D graphics, and pretty close to awesome, too. I wonder if any emulators with the Power Glove--that would be very cool.

Squirrel wrote:


That would be OpenGL mode. OGL can do custom filters, bi/tri-linear filtering, MSAA, FSAA, funky TV modes (like those used in RB's emulators with EE enabled).

I actually prefer no smoothing, but simple nearest neighbor scaling because I like authentic graphics (and text is crisp and clear). That and blurring gives me a headache to end all headaches.

Has anyone compared FCEUX with MacFCEU, which is also a port of FCE Ultra?

I believe that MacFCEU is for people running the Mac OS classic environment. I sure couldn't get the binaries to work, and I haven't put any effort into getting the source compiled. I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else did, though!

The System Requirements from the readme:
"MacFCEU 0.7a2 requires:
System 7.1 or later (7.5+ recommended)
An MC68040/MC68LC040 processor or greater
—— a 266MHz+ computer is necessary for real time performance;
333MHz+ for full, smooth performance, working speed features
2700KB of RAM (Largest Unused Block), preset to 3300KB/3000KB
—— Zip’d carts will require double the loading memory.
2MB of hard drive space
Sound playback requires Sound Manager 3.0+ (built in to Mac OS 7.5+)"

What the heck is with those requirements? The 68040 only went up to 40 MHz.
The PowerPC 601 went up to 120 MHz, so that wouldn't work either.
The PowerPC 603 went up to 300 MHz; that would get you "real time performance".
The PowerPC 604 went up to 350 MHz; finally getting that "full, smooth performance".

The more you know...

I've started compiling the latest builds of FCEUX. They require X11/XQuartz, and you can find them at consoleemu.com/emulator/fceux. The app bundle should include all the required dependencies, so it should work out of the box. Let me know if something's not working, and I'll do what I can to fix it!