Zinc
- OS: Windows 98 & XP, Linux
- Cost: Freeware
- Re-mappable keys: Yes
- Monitor orientation(s): Depends on the Game
- Unique games emulated: 51 games
- Emulated System(s): PSX-based arcade hardware
- Additional Requirements: BIOS Roms, Game Roms
- Homepage: Emuhype
What is Zinc?
ZiNc is an emulator for arcade video games based on Sony PlayStation hardware. This includes systems from Capcom, Taito, Konami, Tecmo, and Namco, among others. These games are also supported in MAME, but ZiNc can frequently run them faster and with graphics and sound enhancements (therefore not a full emulator, see also simulators).
R.Belmont, one of the authors of Zinc, says: "ZiNC is intended for people too cheap to buy a machine that runs MAME well. If you own a cabinet, you have that kind of money." [1]
How to install to my frontend?
Zinc uses command lines very similar to mame. Unfortunately, rather than using the rom name to launch a game, you use the rom number (the number as in the order the game was released for zinc).
The command line to run zinc looks something like this:
zinc.exe gamenumber --use-config-file=cfgfilename.cfg --use-render-config-file=rendercfgfilename.cfg [--options]
Notice the odd, double-dashed command line options and the game number rather than a romname. Because of this it can be somewhat difficult to run zinc on some frontends, even if they support custom command line strings. There are Wrappers for zinc available, which will make it possible to launch in nearly any frontend.
How to remap the controls?
The controls can be hard to configure to get it working on a arcadecab.
Howard_Casto of the BYOAC community has developed a utility program to aid in configuring controls for Zinc easier.
This utility can be downloaded from http://www.oscarcontrols.com/lazarus/files/zincconfig1.5.zip.
