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1994-11-10
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PC Xformer 2.5 - The Atari 800XL Emulator For MS-DOS Compatible PCs
===================================================================
November 10, 1994.
Branch Always Software
14150 N.E. 20th Street
Suite 302
Bellevue, WA 98007
U.S.A.
Program by Darek Mihocka. Many thanks to Danny Miller and Bob Woolley for
their beta testing and technical help, to Greg Tibbets for the many Rana
drives, to Jan Gray for sharing cool programming tricks, to Bill Kendrick
for writing the very cool manual for 3.0, and to Nick Kennedy for developing
the SIO2PC cable which makes life so much easier.
Copy this program!
------------------
PC Xformer 2.5 is a free emulator for MS-DOS users who wish to run their old
Atari 400/800 and Atari 800XL software on their PCs. The file XF25.ZIP may be
freely redistributed under the condition that the contents of the ZIP file are
not modified in any way, and that no fee is charged for the software other than
reasonable long distance and online charges for downloads.
These files must be present in the XF25.ZIP archive:
XF25.EXE - an MS-DOS program that is the PC Xformer 2.5 emulator
XF25.DOC - this documentation file
DOS25.XFD - ST Xformer disk image containing Atari DOS 2.5 files
MYDOS45.ATR - SIO2PC disk image containing MyDOS 4.5 files
ATARIOSB.ROM - Atari 800 operating system
ATARIXL.ROM - Atari 800XL operating system
ATARIBAS.ROM - Atari Basic
DEMOS1.XFD - disk image containing Atari 800XL BASIC demos
DEMOS2.XFD - disk image containing Atari 800XL machine language demos
Quick Start
-----------
If you have previously used PC Xformer 2.0, then using 2.5 is exactly the same!
The only new key you have to learn is F12, describled below. Otherwise,
everything will work as before, only better!
To just quickly run PC Xformer 2.5, type XF25 from the DOS prompt. The familiar
blue and white Atari Basic screen will appear with the READY prompt. Type in a
small Basic program and you'll see it's just like an Atari 400/800 or 800XL!
Use the F12 key on the PC's keyboard to switch between Atari 800XL mode and
Atari 800 mode. The current mode is displayed at the bottom of the screen.
Use the F10 key to "system reset". Press F10 while holding the Shift key to
toggle Atari Basic on or off.
In Atari 800XL mode you have access to the new graphics modes (GR.9 through
GR.15), plus you can run the newer software designed for the 800XL. Switch
back to Atari 800 mode to run older software.
Press F5 to exit back to the DOS prompt. Then read the rest of this document!
Hardware requirements
---------------------
PC Xformer 2.5 is a 16-bit MS-DOS application. It is designed to run on most
PCs with minimum hardware requirements. It requires only a 286 compatible CPU,
so it is compatible with all 286, 386, 486 and Pentium based PC, as well as any
PC that can emulate the 286. For example, the Mac running SoftAT, the PowerMac
running SoftWindows, and any Windows NT based RISC machine.
PC Xformer 2.5 also requires a VGA compatible display, and about 300K of RAM.
Installing Disks
----------------
PC Xformer 2.5 uses the same 90K, 130K, and 180K disk images used by our
older ST Xformer 8-bit emulator, and it also supports reading and writing
to SIO2PC generated disk images.
If you don't know what SIO2PC is, call your Atari dealer and ask. It's a
cool cable that you connect between your real Atari 800 computer and your
PC which allows you to blast over all of your 8-bit disks to your PC and
store them as disk images (the 90K, 130K, or 180K data files).
If you specify virtual disk files and/or MS-DOS files after the XF25, those
will be installed as Atari disk drives. For example, type:
XF25 DOS25.XFD DEMOS1.XFD
to boot up DOS 2.5 from D1: and then access demo files from D2:. Using the
same example, once you are in Atari Basic type:
RUN"D2:ATARI800.BAS"
to run a demo program. Or type DOS to go to the DOS 2.5 file manager.
Machine language programs (typically files ending with .OBJ or .COM) should
be run with Basic disabled by pressing Shift+F10 to reboot without Basic.
Features
--------
Many of the limitations of our old ST Xformer emulator and other clone Atari
emulators have been eliminated in PC Xformer. PC Xformer is written mostly
in machine language and takes full advantage of the PC hardware.
Features common to both PC Xformer 2.5 and PC Xformer 3.0 include:
- 48K Atari 400/800 emulation
- 64K Atari 800XL emulation with "RAM under ROM" memory
- allows user installable patches to the OS and BASIC
- displays all ANTIC text and graphics modes, including GTIA modes
- 256 color GTIA color palette
- displays player missile graphics (no collision detection)
- horizontal and vertical fine scrolling
- supports display list interrupts, IRQ, and NMI interrupts
- reads and writes to ST Xformer and SIO2PC generated disk images
- reads MS-DOS files directly from within Atari DOS
- switch Atari BASIC on/off with one keystroke
- switch between Atari 400/800 and Atari 800XL emulation with one keystroke
- joystick emulation using the keyboard cursor keys
- full speed emulation on a 386/33 or faster
- slow and fast modes of emulation to take advantage of fast PCs
- compatible with all VGA cards
In addition, PC Xformer 3.0 adds features including these:
- 130XE emulation with 256K of extended XE memory
- player missile graphics with full collision detection
- on-the-fly disk image swapping
- 4 voices of sound, printer, and modem support
- real joystick support
- 386 optimized code for faster speed
- over 1 megabyte of sample Atari 8-bit programs
- over 40 pages of 8-bit Atari reference documentation
Below is a list of processors and the approximate speed of emulation relative
to an Atari 800:
- 286/16 - 0.3
- 386SX/20 - 0.5
- 386DX/33 - 1.0
- 486DX/33 - 2.0
- 486DX2/66 - 4.0
- Pentium/90 - 8.0
486 and Pentium users can use the slow/fast option to slow down the emulator
to normal Atari 800 speed or let it run as fast as possible.
Upgrading to PC Xformer 3.0
---------------------------
PC Xformer 3.0 can be ordered for $29.95 U.S. directly from Branch Always
Software at the address above, or from these and other fine Atari dealers:
ACN (Holland and Germany) phone: +31 23351100 fax: +31 23361444
B & C Computervisions (U.S.A.) phone: 408-986-9960 fax: 408-986-9968
FaST Club (U.K.) phone: +44 602445250 fax: +44 602445305
Mid Cities Computers (U.S.A.) phone: 310-867-0626 fax: 310-920-8933
Ordosoft (France) phone: +33 47547942 fax: +33 47513726
Paragon Computers (Australia) phone: +61 92213216 fax: +61 93258251
Rising Star Computers (U.S.A.) phone: 800-252-2787 fax: 513-254-7970
Toad Computers (U.S.A.) phone: 800-448-TOAD fax: 410-544-1329
The keyboard, cursor keys, and joystick emulation
-------------------------------------------------
All letter and number keys function as on the 800XL keyboard. Punctuation
keys will give the characters shown on the PC keyboard, not the characters
that appear on the Atari keyboard. i.e. Shift+2 gives the @ character, not ".
If you are used to using the Atari keyboard and want keys to work as they
do on the Atari keyboard, keep in mind that PC keyboards come in every style
and layout and so it is impossible to do that. Simply spend a few minutes
looking at they keys as you type and you will get used to your particular
PC's keyboard layout.
F1 F2 F3 F4 function as cursor keys (up, down, left, right), similar to the
four function keys on a 1200XL.
F5 exits back to DOS. Remember this when you want to exit PC Xformer!!
F6 is the HELP key.
F7 is the START key.
F8 is the SELECT key.
F9 is the OPTION key.
F10 is RESET. Press Shift+F10 to reset and toggle Basic on or of