¢ o=o=o=o=o=¢¢ Atari 8-Bit Emulators -- Part I¢¢ By Alan Sharkis¢ Editor, OHAUG Newsletter¢¢ Lately, some very strange questions¢ have been plaguing me. For example,¢ "If a weather forecast increases in¢ accuracy as the period for which¢ you're making it comes closer to the¢ time that you're writing it, then¢ isn't the best forecast made by¢ opening a window, sticking your head¢ out, and stating that it is NOW sunny¢ and hot?" Closely on the heels of¢ that one is the question, "If¢ imitation is the sincerest form of¢ flattery, can emulation be far¢ behind?"¢¢ Perhaps the second question isn't so¢ strange. If I were to carry on in¢ the comedic vein weakly suggested by¢ my first question, the second¢ question would beg a third. It would¢ go something like this: "If no Atari¢ emulator produced to date is perfect,¢ shouldn't we stick with our 8-bits?" ¢ That question opens several cans of¢ worms at once. Atari 8-bits are¢ unique on two levels. They are¢ unique among computers for the ways¢ in which they work; and, as similar¢ as they are to each other, they have¢ different personalities that vary¢ from model to model, and from¢ installed system to installed system. ¢ Sure, the task of emulating them on¢ the MS-DOS/Windows/Windows 95 or UNIX¢ or OS/2 or Macintosh or Amiga¢ platforms is daunting. People¢ writing and designing hardware and/or¢ software to emulate other 8-bit¢ computers have had greater success¢ than those working with Atari 8-bit¢ emulators, and they've achieved that¢ success a long time ago. Emulation¢ of one computer on another was first¢ made known to me when I was learning¢ COBOL on a Burroughs 6800 mainframe¢ running IBM 360 emulation. I won't¢ tell you how long ago that was. The¢ imperfections in the scheme were no¢ where near as apparent to me as the¢ imperfections we see in Atari 8-bit¢ emulators today. There are many¢ reasons for that, as there are many¢ reasons to emulate one computer on¢ another. I'll touch on both sets of¢ reasons in this series of articles.¢¢ We Classic Atarians are a finicky¢ bunch. We look for perfection, and¢ we want it yesterday. What we¢ sometimes lose sight of is the¢ process by which emulators are¢ developed. When the IBM 360 emulator¢ for the Burroughs was being designed,¢ it was designed by professionals, who¢ did it to earn profits for their¢ employer. They had, and took, lots¢ of time to do it. If a professor¢ hadn't mentioned the emulation to my¢ class, I, and many others in the¢ class, ignorant of the¢ "personalities" of the two¢ mainframes, would not have known the¢ difference. Atari 8-bit emulators,¢ with one exception, are not¢ commercial products. In the case of¢ that one exception, I'd have to¢ assume that it's not the author's¢ bread-and-butter product. For the¢ other developers, I'd have to assume¢ that although shareware donations are¢ nice, they aren't the main motivator¢ for development either. An¢ individual with some technical¢ expertise, a love for the Atari 8-bit¢ and a working knowledge of another¢ platform gets an idea of how an¢ emulator can be done. That¢ individual works a bit, and comes up¢ with something that has some¢ functionality and a fairly good user¢ interface, and releases the emulator. ¢ He knows that it isn't 100%¢ functional, and he hasn't had¢ tremendous blocks of time to do the¢ required beta testing. He hopes the¢ community will do the beta testing¢ for him. He also hopes that they¢ will suggest new and improved¢ features that he can incorporate in¢ the next version or a later one. In¢ the case of the Atari 8-bit, that's a¢ taller technical order than it has¢ been for most other 8-bit machines.¢¢ So, why develop emulators? Before¢ answering that question, we have to¢ create a couple of categories, which¢ will then be subdivided. Emulators¢ come in two flavors. There are total¢ machine emulators, in which the IBM-¢ compatible or Mac "becomes" the Atari¢ 8-bit. Its monitor displays Atari¢ screens, its sound system generates¢ Atari sounds, its keyboard and other¢ input devices emulate those of the¢ Atari, it loads Atari ROM images to¢ act as its operating system and BASIC¢ interpreter, and it loads Atari¢ ramdisk images to use as programs and¢ data. To date, all of these total¢ machine emulators have been done in¢ software for the Mac, for the Amiga,¢ for the ST, for MS-¢ DOS/Windows/Windows95, and, I¢ believe, for OS/2. The emulator that¢ runs on the ST does have one hardware¢ component, a cable that connects the¢ ST to an 8-bit disk drive. Some¢ people who work with these platforms¢ have given up their Ataris and are¢ nostalgic for them. They may want to¢ play a game just the way it was¢ played on their Atari computer. Some¢ people who work with laptops or¢ notebook computers recognize that¢ emulation gives them a way to carry¢ their Ataris around with them. One¢ person has such a love for TextPro as¢ a word processor program that he runs¢ it in emulation on his notebook,¢ forsaking all others! Some people¢ feel that emulation will perpetuate¢ the 8-bit community long after our¢ hardware can no longer be repaired or¢ replaced. Some, like this writer,¢ just marvel at the technological¢ achievement an emulator represents.¢¢ Peripheral emulators have different¢ purposes and a somewhat different¢ history. One of these has been¢ around longer than all but the ST¢ total machine emulator. Peripheral¢ emulators communicate with a working¢ Atari 8-bit. They serve as the disk¢ drives, ramdisk, modem and/or printer¢ interfaces for the Atari 8-bit. The¢ premise is that the other platform,¢ usually MS-DOS, has greater memory¢ and long-term storage facilities than¢ the Atari, and that the modems and¢ printers attached to it are more¢ advanced than those that the 8-bit¢ can utilize directly. There has to¢ be some sort of hardware interface¢ between the two machines, since Atari¢ SIO signals and voltages are¢ different from the ones used by the¢ IBM. However, the ramdisk images¢ produced by these peripheral¢ emulators are usable by total machine¢ emulators, so there's some¢ overlapping of function between total¢ machine emulators and peripheral¢ emulators. In addition, a large¢ number of utilities have been written¢ to convert among various types of¢ ramdisk image files. Peripheral¢ emulators have difficulty with¢ multitasking environments like¢ Windows and Windows 95.¢¢ In the next installment, I expect to¢ describe and quickly review some of¢ the total machine emulation schemes¢ that are out there. I have no access¢ to UNIX and Amiga, and my Mac access¢ is EXTREMELY limited (nonexistent, if¢ my friend doesn't come through!) ¢ Please bear in mind that the¢ emulation field is very dynamic, and¢ that a new, improved version will¢ likely hit the Internet just a¢ millisecond after I finish writing¢ that installment. I plan to do¢ peripheral emulators in the third¢ installment, since you're probably¢ already bored with my AC article on¢ SIO2PC. Finally, in the fourth¢ installment, I'm going to invite¢ praise and condemnation alike by¢ delving into some of the controversy¢ that emulation has generated vis-a-¢ vis the ability of some emulators to¢ store and run copy-protected¢ software.¢¢ o=o=o=o=o=¢¢
