Hi folks,
please find the "Easter Release" of the portable Atari emulator, Atari++, on its usual webspace at
http://www.xl-project.com/
Besides many minor bug fixes, the major news for this release is support for the ATX file format, namely the emulator now includes emulation of disk timing, duplicate, missing or erraneous disk sectors and so on. It also includes support for "stuck" Player/Missile shift registers, a new type of break point, better control of the monitor window in Win, plus many many modifications of Os++, the built-in operating system. The most notable changes are that FMS++, the built-in DOS, finally allows to mix the directory modes with any regular file access modes - which fixes a series of long-standing bugs in all Atari DOSes I have seen so far, including 2.0S, 2.5, Os A/+ and probably many others. Dos 3 might be a notable exception here. Here is the change list:
- The binary file loader automatically generated when inserting a COM or EXE
into the disk drive and booting from it is now much shorter and requires a
lot less RAM. It requires now, however, an additional ESCape code and hence
emulator support. This will now also load binary files that require RAM from
0x800 and up.
- This release adds support for ATX files and includes an emulation of the
disk drive timing, handling of bad and duplicate sectors and a more precise
emulation of the SIO timing.
- An additional type of watch point was added: The default watch point now
only reacts on memory writes, whereas the new watch point continues to react
on reads and writes.
- Experimented a lot with the timing of the GTIA Prior writing and found that
the currently implemented logic is actually very close to the real system,
additional delay cycles make results only worse, not better. Thus, leaving it
as it is right now.
- The SDL StringGadget now reacts on Ctrl+Backspace and Ctrl+Delete and erases
its contents on this keyboard command.
- Added emulation for "stuck" Player/Missile shift registers when switching
from 4x or 2x expansion to the size register "2" value, which is almost, but
not quite 1x expansion.
- The built-in Os blocks NMIs now early in the reset cycle and by that tries
to work around bad display lists left over by buggy programs.
- Minor modification in the built-in FMS (Dos 2.++): CONFIG.SYS can now change
the position of the FMS buffers by poking into DiskBufferBase $710,$711 and
relocate them.
- Minor modification of the short VBI: GPrior, ColBK and Col1 are now only
reloaded if the graphics mode really requires it. This applies to fine
scrolling text modes, and the text window modes with the GTIA modes (modes
9+64,10+64 and 11+64). This fixes compatibility issues with Atari Tennis and
some Lucasfilms intros.
- Minor modifications in the FMS: Rename with wildcard was broken, and the FMS
no longer tries to load non-valid VTOCs. Invalid VTOCs are now reported as
error 178.
- The DUP COPY command avoids now trying to overwrite BASIC program memory
or other user memory protected correctly by setting APPMEMHI. Some cartridges
do not set this Os pointer correctly, though. Mac/65 does not. The new DUP
command NEW will erase user memory and make it available for COPY.
- Fixed a long standing bug of all Dos 2.XX compatible FMS'es: Directory
reading mode did not cooperate with any other operations that would access
the directory, and would invalidate the directory access channel. This is
no longer the case now. Additionally, reading the directory sets now the
EOF warning flag (Y = 3) correctly right before the EOF.
- The STATUS command, as specified by DOS 2.0S and DOS 2.5, was actually
quite unuseful as it required a file specification which was never supplied
by BASIC. The new implementation returns the status of the last CIO command
on the same channel if the channel is open, allowing BASIC for example to
access the near-EOF warning return code.
Happy Easter!
Thomas
please find the "Easter Release" of the portable Atari emulator, Atari++, on its usual webspace at
http://www.xl-project.com/
Besides many minor bug fixes, the major news for this release is support for the ATX file format, namely the emulator now includes emulation of disk timing, duplicate, missing or erraneous disk sectors and so on. It also includes support for "stuck" Player/Missile shift registers, a new type of break point, better control of the monitor window in Win, plus many many modifications of Os++, the built-in operating system. The most notable changes are that FMS++, the built-in DOS, finally allows to mix the directory modes with any regular file access modes - which fixes a series of long-standing bugs in all Atari DOSes I have seen so far, including 2.0S, 2.5, Os A/+ and probably many others. Dos 3 might be a notable exception here. Here is the change list:
- The binary file loader automatically generated when inserting a COM or EXE
into the disk drive and booting from it is now much shorter and requires a
lot less RAM. It requires now, however, an additional ESCape code and hence
emulator support. This will now also load binary files that require RAM from
0x800 and up.
- This release adds support for ATX files and includes an emulation of the
disk drive timing, handling of bad and duplicate sectors and a more precise
emulation of the SIO timing.
- An additional type of watch point was added: The default watch point now
only reacts on memory writes, whereas the new watch point continues to react
on reads and writes.
- Experimented a lot with the timing of the GTIA Prior writing and found that
the currently implemented logic is actually very close to the real system,
additional delay cycles make results only worse, not better. Thus, leaving it
as it is right now.
- The SDL StringGadget now reacts on Ctrl+Backspace and Ctrl+Delete and erases
its contents on this keyboard command.
- Added emulation for "stuck" Player/Missile shift registers when switching
from 4x or 2x expansion to the size register "2" value, which is almost, but
not quite 1x expansion.
- The built-in Os blocks NMIs now early in the reset cycle and by that tries
to work around bad display lists left over by buggy programs.
- Minor modification in the built-in FMS (Dos 2.++): CONFIG.SYS can now change
the position of the FMS buffers by poking into DiskBufferBase $710,$711 and
relocate them.
- Minor modification of the short VBI: GPrior, ColBK and Col1 are now only
reloaded if the graphics mode really requires it. This applies to fine
scrolling text modes, and the text window modes with the GTIA modes (modes
9+64,10+64 and 11+64). This fixes compatibility issues with Atari Tennis and
some Lucasfilms intros.
- Minor modifications in the FMS: Rename with wildcard was broken, and the FMS
no longer tries to load non-valid VTOCs. Invalid VTOCs are now reported as
error 178.
- The DUP COPY command avoids now trying to overwrite BASIC program memory
or other user memory protected correctly by setting APPMEMHI. Some cartridges
do not set this Os pointer correctly, though. Mac/65 does not. The new DUP
command NEW will erase user memory and make it available for COPY.
- Fixed a long standing bug of all Dos 2.XX compatible FMS'es: Directory
reading mode did not cooperate with any other operations that would access
the directory, and would invalidate the directory access channel. This is
no longer the case now. Additionally, reading the directory sets now the
EOF warning flag (Y = 3) correctly right before the EOF.
- The STATUS command, as specified by DOS 2.0S and DOS 2.5, was actually
quite unuseful as it required a file specification which was never supplied
by BASIC. The new implementation returns the status of the last CIO command
on the same channel if the channel is open, allowing BASIC for example to
access the near-EOF warning return code.
Happy Easter!
Thomas