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SilkyGS Port Pack (ClassicsGS volume)

Year2026
PublisherLucas Scharenbroich (silky-gs)
DevelopersLucas Scharenbroich (IIGS ports); Nintendo, Konami, Tengen, Bumbershoot Software, Evan C. Wright (originals)
ControlKeyboard, Joystick, SNES MAX
Other RequirementsGS/OS. 8 MB ProDOS data volume, not bootable: mount it next to a System 6 boot disk (or stream it from a CoGS card) and launch each game from its folder in the Finder.
System 6 CompatibleYes
Hard Drive InstallableIt is a hard drive image
Release StatusFree download (the ports, Apache-2.0 source); the games themselves are copyright their original publishers

About

The SilkyGS port pack is Lucas Scharenbroich's collection of NES games running natively on the Apple IIGS, released on 24 October 2026 as v0.0.1 and updated to v0.0.2 on 26 October. Eleven games: Super Mario Bros., Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros., Ice Climber, Excitebike, The Legend of Zelda and Contra from the NES library, the unlicensed Tengen Tetris, and two NES homebrews, Lights Out and Hunt the Wumpus. Each has its own page here; this page is the 8 MB ClassicsGS volume that holds all of them, one folder per game with the program, a README and an icon.

silky-gs is not an emulator. Each game's 6502 code is disassembled, converted to Merlin32 source and patched by hand to run on the 65816; the runtime takes the place of the NES hardware, catching the PPU and APU register writes, drawing to Super Hi-Res with compiled tiles and sprites, and playing the pulse, triangle and noise channels on the Ensoniq. The 60 Hz vertical blank is the scheduler: each VBL starts the next NES frame, the game yields where it would have waited for the NES's NMI, and the rest of the time goes to drawing. NROM games and MMC1 (Zelda) are supported. Scharenbroich describes the code as an unbroken lineage back to 1998 that began using AI tools in 2026, with heavy use of Opus 5.5 over the two months before the release.

Default keys are the arrows, Apple for A, Option for B, Return for Start and Tab for Select; W A S D, Control and Shift for player 2. ? opens the configuration screen, R resets, Q quits, and each game saves its settings in a .prefs file beside itself. The volume is a data disk, so mount it next to a GS/OS boot disk and double-click a game in the Finder. The eleven single-game 800K disks are on the release page and on each game's page here.

Version 0.0.2 (26 October 2026) fixes keyboard input on real hardware. In 0.0.1 the button keys could interfere with the arrows and, on some machines, lock the computer up. Buttons can now be remapped on keyboard and joystick, Contra's palettes were corrected, a missing line in the Super Mario Bros. ROM code was restored, and the interrupt handlers were reworked so the CDAs open without a crash. The downloads here are the 0.0.2 images.

What is on this volume 12 folders, 11 title pages

A data volume, not bootable. Mount it next to a GS/OS boot disk, open the folder and double-click the program.

Folder and programTitle pageNotes
SuperMarioGS
run SuperMarioGS
Super Mario Bros. GS
BalloonFgtGS
run BalloonFgtGS
Balloon Fight GS
DonkeyKongGS
run DonkeyKongGS
Donkey Kong GS
MarioBrosGS
run MarioBrosGS
Mario Bros. GS
IceClimberGS
run IceClimberGS
Ice Climber GS
ExciteBikeGS
run ExciteBikeGS
Excitebike GS
LightsOutGS
run LightsOutGS
Lights Out GS
WumpusGS
run WumpusGS
Hunt the Wumpus GS
TetrisGS
run TetrisGS
Tetris GS (Tengen)
ZeldaGS
run ZeldaGS
The Legend of Zelda GS
ContraGS
run ContraGS
Contra GS
IconsIconsFinder icons for the eleven programs

Downloads

Screenshots

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Cover art