Higan is a free and

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

emulator In computing, an emulator is Computer hardware, hardware or software that enables one computer system (called the ''host'') to behave like another computer system (called the ''guest''). An emulator typically enables the host system to run sof ...

for multiple

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can typically be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally ...

s, including the

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

. It was developed by Near. Originally called bsnes (which was later reused for a new emulator by the same developer), the emulator is notable for attempting to emulate the original hardware as accurately as possible through low-level, cycle-accurate emulation and for the associated historical preservation efforts of the Super NES platform.

Overview

Development of the emulator began with the name ''bsnes'' on October 14, 2004. The first version was released in May 2005 for Microsoft

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

. The early versions would require high-power hardware to run games in a consistent manner and therefore garnered controversy. Since then, it has been ported to

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

, and FreeBSD. Initially developed under a custom license, later releases were licensed under various versions of the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...

. On August 9, 2012, the project was renamed to higan, to better reflect its new nature as a multi-system emulator. The higan project has contributed significantly to the field of Super NES emulation, with a number of original achievements in its emulation, and in

reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...

developments such as the organization of funds, hardware, and expertise for decapping the Super NES's enhancement chips. Higan is able to run every commercial Super NES title ever released. It is the first emulator to have featured SPC7110 emulation, cycle-accurate SPC 700 emulation, cycle-accurate Super FX emulation, Super Game Boy emulation, and a dot-based instead of scanline-based renderer for the Game Boy Advance. It is the first multi-emulator of this breadth to achieve cycle-based emulation for every single component of every system. Forked versions of bsnes have provided emulation support for

Nintendo DS The is a foldable handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens worki ...

, XBAND, Super Famicom Box, Satellaview BS-X software, and tool-assisted speedruns.

higan products family

Higan has been forked and renamed over the years, and consists of three sub-projects. The current sub-projects are: *bsnes: A Super NES emulator with Super Game Boy support. *higan: A multi-system emulator that focuses on accuracy. Supported systems include the NES, Super NES, Game Boy (

Color Color (or colour in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though co ...

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, and to international markets that June. It was later released in mainland China in 2004, under the name iQue Game Boy Advanc ...

, SG-1000 and SC-3000,

Master System The is an 8-bit Third generation of video game consoles, third-generation home video game console manufactured and developed by Sega. It was originally a remodeled export version of the Sega Mark III, the third iteration of the SG-1000 series ...

Game Gear The is an 8-bit Fourth generation of video game consoles, fourth-generation handheld game console released by Sega on October 6, 1990 in Japan, in April 1991 throughout North America and Europe, and in 1992 in Australia. The Game Gear primarily ...

, Genesis, Sega CD, PC Engine ( SuperGrafx), MSX and MSX2, ColecoVision, WonderSwan (Color), and Neo Geo Pocket (

). *ares: A multi-system emulator that is a fork of higan, focusing on performance and adding experimental

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

and Nintendo 64 support in addition to the systems supported in higan.

Author

Higan was developed by American software engineer David Kirk Ginder, known as ''Near'' and formerly as ''byuu''. Near started out in the emulation scene as an amateur programmer, translating Japanese video-game ROM images in 1998, at the age of 14, and one year later developed a tool for displaying resized text font in games. After that, a ''patching assembler'' called "xkas" would follow, which streamlined the ROM-translation process. The development of bsnes was triggered by bugs during translation of Super Famicom game '' Der Langrisser'' that would only appear on the original hardware but not on 2004-era Super NES emulators; as such, the aim of bsnes was for accurate emulation. Near died in 2021.

Reception

In 2008, British Internet magazine '' Webuser'' recommended ''bsnes'' for "some fun old-school gaming". In 2009, Japanese game magazine ''GameLabo'' recommended it for "those seeking a realistic playing experience". In 2017, components of higan's

source code In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer. Since a computer, at base, only ...

were used to emulate the vintage

text-to-speech Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or Computer hardware, hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system conv ...

computer used by

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Stephen Hawking, after the original hardware began showing signs of wear. Hawking would continue using this emulator to converse with others until his death in 2018.

References

External links