by Marat Fayzullin

News | Manual | Downloads | Screenshots

News

The Latest Version of ColEm is 5.3

The latest version, published on September 7 2020, improves scaling and special effects framework. The new ColEm-Windows has better support for multiple displays and optimizes scaling for large screens and windows. I have also added separate options for linear image scaling, loading palette (.PAL) and cheat (.CHT) files.

Starting with version 5.0, ColEm has complete Coleco Adam emulation, with keyboard, disk, and tape drives. Both .DSK and .DDP file types are now supported. There are multiple new menu and command line options for working with disks and tapes.

Recent ColEm releases also added support for 2kB SRAM found in the Lord Of The Dungeon game, Super Game Module (SGM) emulation, AY8910 PSG, 24c08 and 24c256 EEPROM emulation, and other modern features important to the homebrew community.

The latest Android version can be downloaded from Google Play. If you like it, you can also download the deluxe version with more features. Please, give it a try and report any encountered problems in the discussion group.

ColEm supports both standard and SuperAction controllers, including the spinners (controlled with mouse movement). I have also started adding Coleco Adam emulation but it is not finished yet. Please see the documentation for the full list of changes and additions.

What is ColEm?

While developing fMSX, I got a request to take a look at the ColecoVision videogame console. The request contained a short document on the ColecoVision internals, from which I found that ColecoVision was not much different from MSX. Thus, I got to work and in a short while made a ColecoVision emulator, later known as ColEm.

From the very beginning, ColEm has been an open rather than commercial project, so its sources are freely available for those who would like to learn from them. Thus, you can use ColEm sources for free, as long as your project is not commercial and you are making a clear reference to me, Marat Fayzullin, as the author. Please note that while ColEm source code is open, it is not available under GPL license terms.

Due to its simplicity, ColEm has been ported to many platforms and used as a study case by those who would like to write an emulator. If you find a bug, have an idea on the further ColEm improvement, or would like to port ColEm to a new platform, please, let me know.

Licensing ColEm

ColEm is written in portable C language and will work on any sufficiently fast computing platform, be it a computer, a videogame console, a PDA, a cell phone, a DVD or MP3 player, or even a digital camera. If your company considers using ColecoVision emulation in its products, you can license the ColEm source code from me. I am also available for consulting work in the software emulation, embedded programming, and other fields. See my resume and contact me if interested.

Downloads

Screenshots



Built-in Debugger



Network Play Feature



Video Hustler



Lady Bug



Galaxians



River Raid (with scanlines)

News | Manual | Downloads | Screenshots