Hottest 6/Hottest 6 (1996)(PDSoft)[!].iso/software/emulators/macjoy_1.1/macjoy.doc

Text File | 1978-11-24 | 6KB | 139 lines

          MacJoy V1.0 - 1995 by Francesco Doro ([e-mail])

Question:
  What is this?

Answer:
  This is mainly a joystick support for the Macintosh emulators Shape
Shifter and Emplant (probably also A-Max IV but I couldn't test it).  Since
there are a lot of Mac games that work well with these emulators, you may
want to play them using your usual Amiga joystick.
  It seems that joysticks are not very popular in the Mac world so all
games have keyboard support; if you do something that translate joystick
movements to key pressures the trick is done.
  MacJoy does exactly this:  remap each Amiga-joystick movement to a key
pressure; you can assign a key to each function of it so now you have a
programmable joystick.
  MacJoy has been tested on A500, A1200 and A4000/040; on my A4000 I
tested MacJoy with both ShapeShifter and Emplant and other Amiga programs;
I have not found a situation it doesn't work well.


Question:
  Which Amiga configuration does it require?

Answer:
  Any Amiga with Workbench 2.0 or better.  Mac emulators may (do) require
more specific configuration.


Question:
  How does it work?

Answer:
  It's a commodity, it works in background receiving events from the
gameport device and translating them to IDCMP_RAWKEY events; then these are
sent to the input device, and finally to the active application.  If this
application is a Macintosh emulator running Marathon, you will have a nice
time...


Question:
  What about the installation?

Answer:
  Simply drag it where you want in your workbench; a nice place is
WBStartup since it's a commodity, but better you read below first.


Question:
  How do I use it?

Answer:
  First of all, if you want to have a configurable joystick you must launch
it from workbench.  MacJoy read his configuration from the ToolTypes stored
in his icon; only if launched from workbench it will read these parameters.
If launched from shell it will use a default configuration.  If you
absolutely need to launch it from a shell or a script use 'Run >NIL:...'.
  Now the hard part, the configuration:  select MacJoy's icon and open it
with the 'info' of workbench icon menu.  You will see these six tooltypes:
FIRE1, FIRE2, RIGHT, LEFT, DOWN, UP.  These are the usual and intuitive
functions of an Amiga joystick; if your joy has only one fire-button ignore
the FIRE2 tooltype.  Each tooltype is followed by a '=' and a *decimal*
number that represents the *rawkey* code of the key that will be assigned
to that function.  Be careful:  the rawkey code does NOT correspond to the
ascii value of the character produced by that key.  In the MacJoy's archive
you should have found an iff picture that will help you to write the
correct code for each key.  MacJoy doesn't say nothing if you give him
wrong parameters but it will ensure not to send to input device impossible
codes.
  MacJoy's default configuration is:  the four directions assigned to the
cursor keys, first fire button to the space key and the the second to the
right 'alt' key.  MacJoy will use this configuration if launched from shell
or without tooltypes.
  Most mac games can be configured to use your preferred keys so you can
configure them according to the default MacJoy configuration or to the
configuration you have made.  If this is not possible you can change the
tooltypes of MacJoy but remember:  MacJoy is a commodity and does not have
a graphic interface so you have first to remove it from memory with the
Commodity Exchange or by re-launching it and after you can launch it again
with the modified tooltypes.  You can do this while the emulation is
running, this is not a problem in a multitasking environment.
  Like every commodity MacJoy may be placed in the WBStartup drawer but be
careful:  when active it makes joystick-keyboard conversion for the
*active* application (but NOT for all tasks running) even if it's not a Mac
emulator.  This probably makes it useful also for other applications or
even for some Amiga games that don't support joystick, but you must know
that moving joystick while MacJoy is active means pressing some keys of the
keyboard (anyway it is NOT possible to reset Amiga with joystick).
Probably the best is launching MacJoy before starting emulator or even
before starting to play Mac games; at any moment you can go back to
workbench and launch or remove MacJoy without quitting the emulator or the
game you are playing.  Anyway if you don't move joystick MacJoy does
absolutely nothing and doesn't take cpu time.
  If your gameport has special hardware connected like dongles or network
hardware (?), better not use MacJoy.


Question:
  Ok, have you any credits to give?

Answer:
  YES!!! READ THIS:

  ********************************************************************
  * MacJoy is based on the code of JoyRide V1.0, by Brian Koetting;  *
  * he, very kindly, gave me the permission to use part of his code. *
  ********************************************************************

  Tnx also to all emulators programmers.


Question:
  And the copyright?

Answer:
  Well, the part of code ripped from JoyRide remains copyright by Brian
Koetting (see the archive JoyRide.lha on Aminet).  My part is free...


Question:
  What if I find a bug or I want to suggest improvements?

Answer:
  My e-mail address is [e-mail]; if you find bugs try to explain the
problem and I will try to fix it.  Don't ask improvements, ask emulators
programmers to give real joystick support.  If MacJoy does what he says
and it doesn't crash your Amiga, he does his job; enjoy it.  Stop.


The Last Question:
  Ahem...  do you speak english?

Answer:
  No I don't, but believe me, I can write and speak italian very well.

:-)