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Wzonka-Lad

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Wzonka-Lad
Original author(s)Ville Helin
Initial release1996; 29 years ago (1996)[1]
Stable release
v1.03 GPL[1] / 3 January 2004; 21 years ago (2004-01-03)[1]
Written in68020 assembler
PlatformAmiga
LicenseGPL V2
Websitewww.villehelin.com/wzonka-lad.html

Wzonka-Lad is a Nintendo Game Boy emulator for the Amiga series of home computers.[2]

History

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Wzonka-Lad was written by Ville Helin[2] in 68020 assembler.[3] Development began in 1996 and continued through 1999.[1] The project was started because existing Game Boy emulators for Amiga, such as Virtual Game Boy (VGB), which was written in C, ran too slowly on Amiga hardware. Helin wrote Wzonka-Lad in assembly language to improve performance.[2]

Wzonka-Lad was originally released as shareware, with registration required to unlock audio support. In August 2003, it was re-licensed as free software under the GNU General Public License, and the source code was made publicly available.[4][5]

Features

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Wzonka-Lad is written entirely in assembly language, offering a graphical user interface and a range of features despite its low-level implementation.[1] The emulator requires at least a Motorola 68020 processor and provides several options to vary game speed and colors.[6] It supports graphics and sound cards via CyberGraphX and AHI,[3] and can run on the Amiga Workbench.[7]

Performance and Compatibility

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Compared to other Amiga Game Boy emulators, early versions of Wzonka-Lad (such as 0.64) were slower but more compatible than AmigaGameBoy, and faster than Unix ports like VGB.[6] Later versions, such as 0.99, achieved playable speeds for most games on systems with a 68030 50 MHz processor or higher.[3] Wzonka-Lad was recognized as the leading Amiga Game Boy emulator by the early 2000s, though VGB still had a slight edge in compatibility.[7] The emulator offers several executables, including "Full," "Fast," and "Warp" versions. The "Fast" version uses simplified Z80 emulation for better speed, while "Warp" reduces interrupt processing for maximum performance. The "Full" version is the slowest but most compatible.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Wzonka-Lad - Yet Another Gameboy Emulator for Amiga Computers". www.villehelin.com. Retrieved 20 May 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Compton, Jason (January 23, 1997). "Emulation Rambler, Gameboy? No way! Yes way! (VGB and WzonkaLad)". Amiga Report International Online Magazine. Vol. 5, no. 1. Archived from the original on December 28, 2014. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c Němec, Luboš (January 1999). "GameBoy aneb pidihry na Amize, Wzonka-Lad 0.99.12". Amiga Review (in Czech). No. 40. Atlantida Publishing. p. 19. ISSN 1211-1465. Archived from the original on May 29, 2016. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  4. ^ "Wzonka-Lad News". 2003-08-11. Archived from the original on 2005-02-27.
  5. ^ "Wzonka-Lad-Source unter GPL veröffentlicht" (in German). Amiga-News.de. August 15, 2003. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  6. ^ a b Goodwin, Simon (July 1997). "Emulators Part 10: Console Emulation, GameBoy". Amiga Format. No. 99. Future Publishing. pp. 27–28. ISSN 0957-4867. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  7. ^ a b c Goodwin, Simon (April 1998). "Amiga Format Emulation Series - Part 18: EmuLaTests". Amiga Format. No. 109. Future Publishing. ISSN 0957-4867. Retrieved 20 April 2025.
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