v1.6

Sections

Introduction Downloading Final Burn Installing Final Burn Installing Games Setting Up Final Burn Playing A Game Screenshots

Introduction

Final Burn is one of the best emulators to hit the scene and when I say hit, that is an understatement. This emulator came out unannounced and blew nearly all other emulators away, lilterally for the fact that it ran AFTERBURNER! For those who don't know what Afterburner is, it is a pseudo 3D shoot-em-up based on the Tomcat fighter plane. If you ever saw it in the arcades it had a cabinet that you sat in and as you played the game the cabinet would rotate with the plane that you controlled (actually you can see the cabinet in the arcade scene in Terminator 2). As later versions on Final Burn came out Dave, the author added Thunderblade, Rail Chase, Outrun, Galaxy Force 2 and my personal favourite of all time POWERDRIFT! Final Burn was also the first emulator to run Capcom Play System 2 arcade games (a major event in emulation for all you newbies). Final Burn is updated very infrequently at the moment as most Sega System16 & 24 development is being done by the Mame developers. Top

Downloading Final Burn

You can get Final Burn from its homepage here. Top

Installing Final Burn

To install Final Burn you will need a copy of Winzip. All you have to do is to open the zipfile, press the extract button and type C:\FinalBurn into to the path area of the window that opens. Once you have extracted the file you need to create the directory for the roms. The simplest way to do this if you are not sure is to open your My Computer icon, open your C: drive, then open the Final Burn folder. Right click your mouse button in a clear area of the new window and select the New, then the Folder option. A new folder will appear and will be highlighted. Just type in roms and press enter and its done! Heres a look at what the folder should look like... cfg - For game config files Roms - For roms state - For saved game states. Another good idea is to create a shortcut on your desktop by simply right clicking over the Final Burn icon and selecting Send To and then desktop in the menu that appears. Top

Installing Games

Try a search engine like Google with the keywords Final Burn Roms to get the best results. All you need to do to install roms is to extract the zipped rom to the C:\FinalBurn\Roms directory. If you are unsure how to do this try the basics tutorial. Top

Setting Up Final Burn

Open Final Burn by clicking its icon and you will see the opening screen like this On the menu you can see some buttons. Load Loads a game Input Changes the control settings. Fullscreen Make the game run using the whole screen. Scanlines Emulates the low resolution display on an arcade monitor Stretch Stretches the graphics to fill the window / screen Triple Buffer Makes the graphics run smoother (If you card supports it!) Sound Codes Enables / Disables Sound Effects (may need game resettting if re-enabled) Music Codes Enables / Disables Music (may need game resettting if re-enabled) Save/Load State Saves / Loads your current games position. Trainer Starts Final Burns cheat system. To change the keys press the Input button. The best way to control the games is by joystick. However, for everyone who doesn't have one, the Keyboard(Auto-Centering) simulates the analog control on a joystick. (Very useful for Powerdrift). Heres a quick look at the Final Burn "ini" file. Some of the settings mirror the ones on the GUI and there are a few useful additions. // Final Burn v0.517 Config File // Video -------------------------------- // If set to one, automatically select the best video mode (ignoring below) VidAuto 1 // The display mode to use for fullscreen nVidWidth 640 nVidHeight 480 nVidDepth 16 (Sets the fullscreen size and colour depth) // Specify the refresh rate - doesn't work at all on my machine though :( nVidRefresh 0 (Lets you specify the screen refresh rate of the full screen) // If non-zero, allow stretching of the image to any size bDtoStretch 1 (Stretches the fullscreen display to fill any resolution) // If non-zero, try to use a triple buffer in fullscreen bDtoTripleBuffer 0 (Uses a triple buffered screen to smooth out graphics) // If non-zero, draw scanlines to simulate a low-res monitor bVidScanlines 0 // If non-zero, draw odd scanlines inbetween too at 50% intensity bVidScanHalf 1 // If non-zero, delay odd scanlines by one frame (reduces flicker) bVidScanDelay 1 // Buffering method: -1=Autodetect best memory, 0=force video memory, 1=force system memory nUseSysMemory -1 // Sound -------------------------------- // The sample rate nDSoundSamRate 22050 // Number of frames in sound buffer (= sound lag) nDSoundSegCount 6 // If non-zero, filter the sound output to add more bass bAppBassFilter 0 // Which sound codes to pass nBurnSoundChoice 3 // Other -------------------------------- // The path to search for rom zips. (Should end with a backslash) szAppRomPath roms\ // If non-zero, load and save all ram (the state). bDrvSaveAll 0 // If non-zero, read input for every frame even if the graphics is // frame-skipping (controls could be more responsive, but emu could be slower). bReadInputEveryFrame 1 Top

Playing A Game

To load a game just click on the Load button and a second window will appear like this Double click on a game you want to play and it will load. Hopefully you should be seeing a screen like this... . Now the game has loaded you need to know some keys. General Keys 5 Insert coin 1 Start button Joystick 1 mode Joystick 1 X / Y Axis Up/Down/Left/Right Button 1 Vulcan gun/Accelerate Button 2 Missile /Change Gear Joystick 1 Throttle Throttle (If you dont have a throttle use the keys below) Keyboard mode (Sega Games) Cursor Keys Up/Down/Left/Right S Vulcan gun/Accelerate D Missile /Change Gear A Throttle up Z Throttle down F After Burners Keyboard Mode (Capcom Play System 2 Games) Cursor Keys Up/Down/Left/Right Z Fire 1 (Low Kick) X Fire 2 (Mid Kick) C Fire 3 (High Kick) A Fire 4 (Low Punch) S Fire 5 (Mid Punch) D Fire 6 (High Punch) Other Keys G Slow F2 Diagnostic Button (not in After Burner due to nasty sprite flickering) F3 Service Button (used in Galaxy Force diagnostic mode) Escape Toggle Options Panel Alt-P Pause/Unpause Alt-O Advance One frame (while paused) Alt-I Increase speed (toggle on/off) Shift Increase speed (only while pressed) For joystick input, make sure that your joystick is installed correctly under Windows, and make sure it is joystick 1. Top

Screenshots

Here's some more games running... Top

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