Shortly after releasing the first Pioneer LaserActive emulation for the Sega Pac, Roger aka Nemesis has just released support for the NEC PAC as well. The nightly beta build of Aries has implemented this functionality and the next official version will have it as well. Like with the Sega LA games, the NEC ones are also giant file sizes, up to 60GB. This is due to how the LD’s need to be ripped as uncompressed in order to access all concurrent streams (as discussed in the interview we did – See below). To try it yourself, you’ll need the BIOS, as well as the games. Roger has lots of into on his page, with more thoughts below:
Roger’s Page: https://techdocs.exodusemulator.com/Console/PioneerLaserActive/Software.html
Nightly Aries Build: https://github.com/ares-emulator/ares/releases/download/nightly/ares-windows-x64.zip
Main Aries Page: https://ares-emu.net/
This is a really awesome accomplishment and now marks the first time these NEC LaserActive games can be emulated. While not all will be “hidden gems”, I think seeing what these games can do with the context of the era’s technology makes it worthwhile from a preservation and history standpoint alone. The work isn’t done yet though, as we still need more copies of these games ripped. If you have rare LaserActive games, or even ones that are already ripped, but might need some improvement via stacking, join the Domesday86 or Ares Discord servers and have a chat there with people helping get it all done. Roger’s over there as “div_by_zero” as well.
…and if you’d like to hear the amazing story behind all this, check out an interview I did with Roger. Watch the video below, or just search your favorite app for “RetroRGB Nemesis”:
