mirror of https://github.com/bsnes-emu/bsnes.git
298 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
298 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
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higan - "Now you're playing with fire!"
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=======================================
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higan is a multi-system emulator that began development on October 14th, 2004.
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It currently plays games for the following systems:
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* Nintendo Famicom (NES), Super Famicom (SNES)
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* Nintendo Game Boy, Game Boy Color + Game Boy Advance
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* Sega Master System, Game Gear + Mega Drive (Genesis)
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* NEC PC Engine (TurboGrafx) + SuperGrafx
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* Bandai WonderSwan + WonderSwan Color
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Supported Systems
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-----------------
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* FreeBSD 10+
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* Windows 7, 8, 10
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* Linux 3.2+
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* OS X 10.7 Lion or above
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You'll need a fast CPU, with clock speed being vastly more important.
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Dual-core is perfectly adequate, since higan doesn't make significant use
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of more than one core.
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For Intel, you're looking at a 3.5 GHz Haswell architecture or better,
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whilst AMD users will want a similarly specced Ryzen build.
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Controller Setup
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----------------
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First, you'll want to configure your controllers. Choose Settings -> Input and
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pick the system you'd like to configure. If you have two players, or a special
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game (eg. Mario Paint), you can pick the controller port and device here.
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To assign inputs, double click the name and press the stick or button on your
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controller. You can have multiple assignments, for example both keyboard and
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joypad. The Erase button clears the assignments for one input; Reset clears
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them all in one go.
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(Normally you only need to do this once. But because of how USB works,
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it's impossible to tell identical controllers apart. This means if you move
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one to another port, it counts as a new device, and you'll have to reassign
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the buttons or move it back.)
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Loading Games
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-------------
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After this you can go to Library -> Load ROM File and select a game. higan
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adds it to your library, and it should start immediately. (Game Boy Advance
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titles need one more step; please see the FAQ below.)
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To add games en masse, you can use Library -> Import ROM Files. This opens
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icarus, where you can choose a folder of ROMs, then select the ones you want
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to import.
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In both cases, if you choose a system under the Library submenus, all games
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added will show up in a file browser under the Emulation folder in your user
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profile. The path can be changed under Settings -> Advanced if desired.
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Controller Ports
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----------------
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If you're emulating a console, you need to plug the controllers in, since
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there's no connection by default.
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Usually this means selecting eg. Super Famicom -> Controller Port 1 -> Gamepad,
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for example. However, some games require other peripherals like the SNES Mouse.
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Troubleshooting & FAQ
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---------------------
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Q: What's the Library?
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A: higan loads folders containing all the files needed to run the game.
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Odds are you have PC games and music albums organised the same way.
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This does mean that to play the games, you have to import them first.
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If you're familiar with iTunes or Steam, you already know how this works!
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Q: Importing vs. loading? What's the difference?
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A: The "Library -> Load ROM File" menu is a shortcut. It adds the game to your
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library, then opens it without the manual import process.
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However, if you have lots of games to add at once, you'll want
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"Import ROM Files" instead.
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Q: Why's higan say I'm missing a file ("Game Boy Advance.sys/bios.rom")?
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A: This is the ROM for the startup screen you see when you switch on the
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Game Boy Advance. Games require it to run, but like other ROMs, it's
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copyrighted and therefore not provided with higan.
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Having acquired a copy, you'll have to drop it in the requested folder,
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then rename it to bios.rom.
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Q: Where are the games imported? Where did all my save files go?
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A: Check the path under Settings -> Advanced. On Windows it'll probably be
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something like C:\Users\<name>\Emulation, organised by system. The saves
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are typically named save.ram.
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Q: Where can I find the settings?
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A: There's a few possible locations for settings.bml.
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1) In the same folder as the higan executable.
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2) In the older location if you previously installed higan:
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C:\Users\<name>\AppData\Roaming\higan (Windows)
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/home/<name>/.config/higan (BSD, Linux)
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3) In the new location (created if the others aren't found):
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C:\Users\<name>\AppData\Local\higan (Windows)
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/home/<name>/.local/share/higan (BSD, Linux)
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/Users/<name>/Library/Application Support/higan (Mac)
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higan checks these in order, so you can make a portable install if you like.
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(macOS normally hides the Library folder. To open it, switch to Finder,
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hold the Option key and select Go -> Library from the menu.)
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Q: I set up my gamepads, but they don't work!
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A: Try configuring the ports found in the system menu (eg.
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Super Famicom -> Controller Port 1 -> Gamepad). Like a real console,
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fresh higan installs come without any controllers plugged in.
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Q: I upgraded higan, why do I get a black screen? What's "Ignore Manifests?"
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A: higan looks at a file called "manifest.bml" to get the information needed
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to run each game. However, the format has changed over time, making older
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manifests incompatible with newer higan releases.
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If you tick "Settings -> Advanced -> Ignore Manifests," you might find this
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resolves the problem. This can be useful for developers and testers.
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However, it breaks a few titles that require manifests to work!
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Should you find yourself in this situation, consider removing manifest.bml.
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(By default, no manifests are created; higan looks at the files in the
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game folder, and with the help of a database, tries to regenerate the
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correct one each time you load the game.)
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Q: I have "Ignore Manifests" ticked, but the game won't run?
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A: A few games have especially quirky setups that require manifests for
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the time being, so you'll need to untick this option:
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* Far East of Eden: Tengai Makyou Zero (English translation only)
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* Campus Challenge '92
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* PowerFest '94
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Q: Why's the audio lag, stutter, distort, or sound robotic?
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A: If you have an Atom, certain Celeron models, or an older AMD processor
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(or even an especially old Intel such as a Core 2 Duo)... then these aren't
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fast enough, sorry. :(
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Try going into the Settings -> Advanced menu, then pick a different audio
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driver and restart higan. WASAPI can be fussy on some devices.
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Select Settings -> Audio and experiment with the latency. Larger values
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should be more reliable, with the downside of laggier game controls.
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Occasionally software that hooks into the system or other apps, for example
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mouse settings panels, can cause lag and other problems.
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Because higan is CPU-intensive and single-threaded, it can interact badly
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with video capture which is yet another burden on the system. If you're
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trying to stream or broadcast, and you have Windows 7, consider disabling
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DWM. Also, look up how to configure hardware encoding (eg. QuickSync).
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Q: Can I get smoother video?
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A: Try Settings -> Video -> Exclusive mode, then switch to fullscreen. This
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currently requires the Direct3D video driver under Settings -> Advanced
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in order to work.
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(Exclusive fullscreen is pretty experimental at the moment.
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There are cases where it fails badly, so save your work!)
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Exclusive mode will normally yield what's known as "tearing." If this
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bothers you, there's an alternative... albeit one with serious gotchas,
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which is why it's hidden away.
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Close higan, then open up settings.bml and look for the following:
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Video
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Driver:Direct3D
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Synchronize:false
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...
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Change false to true, save the file, then start higan and untick
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Settings -> Synchronize Audio.
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Keep in mind that this setting can and will reduce sound quality, as GPUs
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and sound cards in modern PCs generally are not synchronised with each
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other. The second big consideration is that your refresh rate needs to
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match the game.
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PAL and NTSC titles run at 50 Hz and 60 Hz, respectively. This applies to
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all console systems. Of the handhelds: Game Boy, Game Boy Color and
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Game Boy Advance run at 60 Hz, while WonderSwan runs at 75 Hz.
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This means you'll need a monitor that supports these frequencies, set to
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the appropriate display mode. Not all of them do. If your refresh rate
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doesn't match, games will run at the wrong speed.
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Online Resources
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----------------
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Official homepage:
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https://byuu.org/emulation/higan
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Unofficial forum:
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https://helmet.kafuka.org/bboard/
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Unoffical source code repository + documentation:
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https://gitlab.com/higan/higan
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https://higan.readthedocs.io
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Info on game folders and firmware:
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https://byuu.org/emulation/higan/game-paks
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https://byuu.org/emulation/higan/firmware
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Donations:
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https://patreon.com/byuu
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Commercial use:
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https://byuu.org/emulation/higan/licensing
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Credits
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-------
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Original author:
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byuu
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We'd like to acknowledge many invaluable contributions made to higan
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by the following individuals:
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Andreas Naive Hendricks266 Overload
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Ange Albertini hex_usr p4plus2
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anomie jchadwick quequotion
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AWJ Jonas Quinn RedDwarf
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Bisqwit kode54 Richard Bannister
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blargg krom Ryphecha
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Łukasz Krawczyk Lioncash segher
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Cydrak Lord Nightmare Sintendo
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Danish lowkey SuperMikeMan
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DMV27 MerryMage tetsuo55
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Dr. Decapitator Matthew Callis TmEE
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endrift mightymo TRAC
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Fatbag Nach wareya
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FitzRoy ncbncb zones
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gekkio neviksti
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GIGO OV2
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It's been a long, wild ride... apologies to anyone we've missed!
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For more information, please see:
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https://board.byuu.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1631&p=41575#p41575
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License
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-------
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higan is provided under the GNU General Public License, version 3.
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However, certain libraries may be used under the more permissive ISC license.
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Please see LICENSE.txt for details.
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