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Turnbull China Bikeride - Disc 2.iso
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ACORNUSERS
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EMULATOR
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COLEM
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!ColEm
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1998-08-26
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******* ColEm *******
The Portable ColecoVision Emulator
version 1.0
by Marat Fayzullin
Acorn Port by David McEwen
Port Version : 1.02 (26/8/98)
New In This Version
-------------------
- Uses version 1.0 source
- This provides the following new features :
* Standardized Z80 emulation.
* Standardized PSG emulation.
* Soundtrack saved into .SND files.
* Screen refresh done line-by-line.
* Sprites are refreshed line-by-line.
* Limit on sprites per line introduced.
* General cleanup of the source code.
- SOUND!!!
- Assembler plotting routines (for 256 colours modes)
- Choice of BIOS Roms
- Frame locking
Introduction
------------
This is a port of Marat's Coleco emulator. This has improved emulation over the
old version and compatibility seems much higher.
OK so it emulates a Coleco, but what is one of these machines. It is an old
videogame console not in the leagues of the Playstation here I'm afraid, however
it does have some rather neat games... such as Zaxxon.
Note for users of old machines
------------------------------
The best way of using it is to increase the Uperiod and decrease the Iperiod in the
options window. Please note that for older machines A5000... the screen mode will
always be 320 by 256. This will be Mode 13 in 256 colours or Mode 9 in 16.
The reasons for this are speed and guaranteeing the user has the right mode.
I am not saying this will be fast on old machines that would need a radical recoding
of the internal CPU emulation which I am not ready to do - I don't have that much
time!!!
How do I use it ?
-----------------
Easy - just download a game from the internet there are various good sites around
and few companies actually care what happens with these roms since they are in
many cases over 10 years old and noone is really going to buy them in this day
and age. One of the best sites is Daves Arcade Classics, great for MAME roms as well.
Once you have some ROMS you can run them by setting the filetype to Coleco and
double clicking or dragging the game to the Coleco icon. This loads the ROM.
To start the actual emulation click Select on the icon and away you go.
It is fairly intuitive to use...
The keys during emulation are :
Cursor keys control movement
[SPACE] - Fire1 button
[LALT] - Fire2 button
[0]-[9] - Digit buttons
[-] - # button
[=] - . button
[ESC] - Pause emulation (also: [F12]) (Click on icon to restart)
[F5] - Reset Emulation (can also be accessed via menu)
[CAPSLOCK] switches between joypads
In the near future they will be conigurable in the front end.
The frontend allows you to alter various variables that will affect the
speed of the game - the Uperiod and Iperiod values. Uperiod is the number of
interrupts per screen update and the Iperiod is the internal interrupt period.
In simple terms to speed up the emulator either increase Uperiod, decrease
Iperiod or both. To slow it down decrease Uperiod, increase Iperiod or both.
There are several resolution choices available. The first 4 are simple resolutions
no scaling is implemented. The last 2 are full screen modes and these are exactly
what they say. The slow version is slow because it plots 4 times the number of pixels.
The fast version is just y doubled. The MDF file included provides definitions for
the modes on an AKF60 monitor. They are : 512 by 384 and 256 by 384 modes if you
wish to define your own.
The pause function mean that when you press Escape or F12 the emulation isn't killed
instead it is paused so that it can be continued from that point by clicking on the
icon. If you wish to reset the emulation either press F5 while in the emulator or
click on Reset in the menu.
Now you can select which BIOS Rom image you want :
Normal, No delay and different font
The choice is yours!!
Note that to use the new bios on the same rom the rom has to be reloaded... as everything needs to be reset internally.
Also sound can be toggled on and off - the sound is not perfect, there is a definite
problem with tones, noises are fine in the main.
For those with StrongARMs there is a frame locking option, which forces update to
50fps regardless of the refresh rate of the mode it is running in!!
A future release should hopefully be running in a window... I will try and optimise as
much of the code as I can!! This may also mean that it becomes more playable on older
machines, but please do not expect miracles.
*FAQ*
-----
Why are my Roms images not working ?
-------------------
Try downloading them again. If there is still no joy. Send the image to
Marat and see if he can find a reason.
Where's the sound ?
-------------------
It's here!! Not brilliant, but at least it can be turned off.
Do I need a special screen mode ?
---------------------------------
Nope the emulator runs happily in a 320 by 256 mode as the screen fits nicely.
The full screen modes require specially defined modes... a Mode Definition File
is included. It runs in either 16 or 256 colours - it just depends on your taste!
Will you get it to run in the desktop ?
---------------------------------------
This will be coming shortly, hopefully with sound!
Will you be porting any other emulators ?
-----------------------------------------
Yes!!
!Fmsx is being updated.
!XNes should be available by the time you read this.
PC Dragon and Vice are two of the others I am working on.
Just do not mention vMac to me... (well not atm)
By the time I release this into the public there may be some more of my emulator
ports available... (you never know ;-) )
Copyright and Disclaimer
------------------------
This emulator is copyright Marat Fayzullin 1994-6, and the Acorn-specific
components are copyright David McEwen 1998. You may not attempt to pass off
any part of this work as your own, although you may distribute it freely as
long as you supply the complete archive (that is, all the files supplied to
you).
This software is supplied "as is". I make no claims about the reliability or
suitability for any purpose of this emulator, and any use of it is undertaken
at your own risk. No responsibility is taken for any failure of the software,
or for any loss or damage caused directly or indirectly by the software.
Whilst I will endeavour to help you if you have problems with this emulator,
no such support is guaranteed.
In the above "This emulator" refers to everything supplied within this
archive, which is specifically the !Colem application and all the files
contained within it, and also the documentation files (including the one you
are reading now).
COMMENTS
--------
Any comments about the emulator as such should go to Marat Fayzullin :
email : fms@komkon.org
Website : http://www.komkon.org/fms
Any comments about the Acorn specific parts and please no inane emails giving
me ways of making money etc... just useful constructive stuff please
email : david@lizjay.demon.co.uk (Home)
davidm@argonaut.com (Work)
Website : http://www.lizjay.demon.co.uk/david
Thanks
------
Richard Hallas for the redesigned !Colem icon and resources file.
Gareth Moore for providing help on returning to the desktop mode.
Peter Teichman for help with DataVox...
Marat Fayzullin for writing this emulator and providing help!!