If you have ever wanted to play Metroid Prime in stereoscopic 3D, now is your chance. The Dolphin development team released the long-awaited 5.0 update to its excellent GameCube and Wii emulator.
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The new 5.0 update brings about a ton of new fixes. The most notable fix was making Dolphin perform a lot faster. According to the Dolphin 5.0 blog post, each version of Dolphin would sacrifice cool features for accuracy, which would also hinder performance. It was more important for games to perform as they were originally intended than to enable cheats. Well, with 5.0, not only is it the fastest Dolphin yet, a lot of those cool extras that could only be done on an emulator should be working.
There are a lot of graphical improvements as well. Depth matrix shader accuracy has been improved, which allowed textures in the distance to have depth and look more accurate when approaching. Other texture glitches, that had given games like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker a stuttery effect, were also addressed. With improvements in depth emulation, certain objects that were obscured by other objects aren’t so much an issue anymore, and objects in the distance look sharper.
Games that required time, like The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask now are much more playable. Also, because GameCube and Wii were part of the standard definition generation, games that took advantage of progressive scan now run more smoothly.
Now there is proper system emulation as well, meaning that you can boot Dolphin to look as if you’re turning on your Wii. If someone wants, they can truly make an awesome HD Wii under their television. Another big improvement has been more accurate sound emulation. Previous versions of Dolphin would either have choppy music or sound latency. That’s not the case anymore. 5.0 sounds much more like a console experience. It works especially well with games that require frame-accurate button presses like Guitar Hero or Super Smash Bros. Melee.
As Dolphin continued through its years of development, there were some games that notoriously did not work correctly. Some thought that emulating “zfreeze” would be impossible. But the Dolphin development team muscled through and games like Mario Power Tennis and Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3: Rebel Strike now work.
There are a slew of other fixes, but for competitive gamers, the increased Netplay performance is a godsend. Netplay is the ability to play local multiplayer games online. For the Super Smash Bros. Melee competitive scene, this is very important. Because the GameCube had very limited network access, the only way to play Melee was at a friend’s house. As the Melee scene continues to grow in popularity, Netplay will be the way many hone their skills.
Dolphin 5.0 is available to download now for free.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.