HOW TO PLAY HES FILES
HES players
For an exhaustive list of PC Engine music resources, please visit the Vice (Vorc Internet Chiptune Encyclopedia). Be aware that most players are unfortunately not compatible with the NEZplug extended playlist format adopted by Kaminarimon.
Also note that in Winamp, you simply load the playlist by selecting the M3U file. But in some players like kbMP or foobar2000, the M3U playlist is automatically loaded when you select the HES file. If you try to manually load the M3U file itself in those players, playback will not work properly.
For a carefree listening experience, we strongly recommend NEZplug+ for Winamp.
NEZplug+ plugin for Winamp and kbMP, by Takashi Satō. NEZplug+ is based on the original NEZplug by Takashi Mamiya, which supports many chiptune formats such as HES, NSF, GBS, KSS, AY... The noise channel volume is too loud, but overall the sound emulation is very good. The original NEZplug has some bugs (autofading doesn't work and some PCM samples are silent), but most of those have been fixed in NEZplug+.
in_he2 plugin for Winamp, by Cisc. in_he2 is an older HES plugin which offers a decent alternative to NEZplug+. It hasn't been updated since December 2000 and doesn't have as many features, but it still does the job. A couple of HES rips that don't work with NEZplug+ will play correctly with in_he2. This plugin was the first to introduce support for playlists, on which the NEZplug extended playlist format is based. The main difference between the in_he2 "old-style" and NEZplug "new-style" playlist formats is that the old-style format cannot play more than two loops.
Another NEZplug plugin for foobar2000 0.8, by Takashi Satō. Another NEZplug is essentially NEZplug+ for foobar2000. This plugin supports the extended playlist format, but there are some limitations. The loop count is determined by the plugin settings, regardless of the loops actually specified in the playlist. Moreover, the tunes are sorted by their subsong index, not by their playlist order.
foo_gep plugin for foobar2000 0.9, by Kode54. foo_gep is based on the Game Music Emu library by Shay Green, which supports many chiptune formats such as HES, NSF, GBS, KSS, AY... This plugin supports fairly well the extended playlist format; the tunes are correctly sorted by their playlist order. Unfortunately, the loops specified in the playlist are ignored and the player forces the default length that you configured in the plugin settings.
Audio Overload, by Richard Bannister (no playlist support). Audio Overload is based on the Game Music Emu library by Shay Green, which supports many chiptune formats such as HES, NSF, GBS, KSS, AY...
Game Music Box, by Shay Green (no playlist support). Game Music Box is based on Shay's own Game Music Emu library, which supports many chiptune formats such as HES, NSF, GBS, KSS, AY... Ironically, his player hasn't been updated in a while and doesn't currently allow HES playback. If you're a MacOS 9 user, try contacting Shay to get further support.
Geronto plugin for AmiNetRadio, by Mahendra Tallur (no playlist support; PPC plugin for MorphOS only, not compatible with AmigaOS). Geronto is based on the Game Music Emu library by Shay Green, which supports many chiptune formats such as HES, NSF, GBS, KSS, AY...
Emulators
Many PC Engine emulators can load HES rips as if they were standard ROMs (you might need to rename them with the PCE extension). The screen remains blank, but you can skip tracks with buttons I and II. Playlists are obviously not supported.
▪ Magic Engine, by David Michel.
▪ Mednafen, by Sarah.
▪ Ootake, by Kitao Nakamura.
▪ PC2E, by Ki (discontinued, superseded by Ootake).
▪ Yame, by Kappa (discontinued).