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Mac Magazin/MacEasy 24
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Mac Magazin and MacEasy Magazine CD - Issue 24.iso
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Utilities
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Un*x Amiga Emulator v0.6.0
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ReadMe's
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FAQ
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1996-06-14
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137 lines
Some Frequently Asked Questions. Please read this carefully if you have
problems.
Q: Will there be a Windows version?
A: I'll never write a non-commercial program for DOS/Windows again. I hate
having to reboot after mistakes.
I included the DOS port because a) a DOS version can achieve similar
speeds as the Linux/SVGA version b) it didn't messify too much of the code,
and c) more people told me they would port it to DOS and I wanted to save
them the effort. I don't think a Windows port will fit in as cleanly as the
DOS port, nor do I think it can be efficient. If you want, you can try to
prove me wrong, but I will be very reluctant to include Windows code. The
same goes for code to support a bazillion soundcards for DOS, or similar
nightmares.
Q: Is it possible to read Amiga disks with a PC?
A: Ask that in comp.emulators.misc :-) The answer is: NO! Unless you invent
and build some extra hardware yourself, which no one appears to have done
yet.
Q: Couldn't I attach an Amiga floppy drive to the PC somehow, and use that to
read Amiga disks?
A: You can attach Amiga (low-density) drives to the PC, because they are
completely identical to PC drives. This won't help you, because the problem
is not the drive, but the PC floppy controller. You have to live with it.
Q: The linker says "final link failed: Bad value"
A: Please upgrade your Linux installation with the latest files that you find
on sunsite.unc.edu:pub/Linux/GCC, but read the release_* files carefully
before you install anything. It seems that a linker bug causes this
problem. The package you need is binutils-2.6.0.2 or better.
Q: What about sound emulation in the DOS version?
A: I won't do it. Maybe someone else has the time. Get a real OS.
Q: How can I change diskfiles?
A: Read the "Installation" section in the README to find out what you need to
use the X GUI.
Q: The "configure" script does not find Tcl/Tk, but I have it installed!
A: The script checks for an executable called "wish4.0". There is currently
no better test. Unfortunately, this executable is not always present,
even though Tk 4.0 is installed. If that is the case, find the "wish"
executable, go into the directory where you found it and type
"ln -s wish wish4.0" (provided you have write rights in that directory,
i.e. you are super-user). Then go back to the UAE directory, remove the
file config.cache and rerun "configure". That should do the trick.
Q: Is it possible to read Amiga harddisks with a PC?
A: Yes. Linux 2.0 has an Amiga filesystem that can reportedly read Amiga
OFS/FFS harddisks. You can in theory also mount .adf diskfiles, but I've
had problems when I last tried that. YMMV.
Q: When UAE starts up, it says "Illegal instruction: 4e7b". Why?
A: That's normal, it's just the Kickstart CPU type test.
Q: When UAE starts up, it says "Illegal instruction: 00f8" (many times). Why?
A: That's because your Kickstart ROM was compiled for the 68020.
Q: When UAE loads <insert your favourite game> it says "Non-standard sync".
A: Your favourite game is copy-protected. There are ways to transfer such
disks, but it's complicated and I won't help you because it would be much
too time-consuming to figure out all sorts of copy-protection schemes.
I hope there will be a general solution some day, but for now you're
unlucky.
Q: While it compiles, it says "xxx illegals generated" or "16 mismatches".
Is this a problem?
A: No. I can use this information to tell whether there is a problem, and
there isn't.
Q: Why is there a blank area on the left side of the screen?
A: The Amiga can display graphics there, but usually doesn't because this
would disable some sprites. The area is only used by some overscan demos.
Normal screens are off-center. I'm not going to do anything about that.
If you can't stand it, you can try to use 320x200 resolution, which will
attempt to center the screen. This is near impossible to get right for
every program. If your screen doesn't fit in 320x200, use 800x600.
Q: Benchmark program <insert your favourite benchmark> gives weird results.
A: Amiga programs run by the emulator think the Amiga timers can be used to
measure real time. But in UAE, they only measure "emulation time". Sysinfo,
for example, gives the same results on all machines. So don't run
benchmarks to test the emulator speed.
Q: Wasn't this called the Unusable Amiga Emulator?
A: Yes. But no one thought the name was very fitting anymore, though. It was
only really appropriate for v0.1, which couldn't even boot.
Q: Sometimes, after UAE exits, there is no autorepeat for the keys!
A: Do "xset r on" (happens only in X, apparently mainly on Solaris boxes.
Dunno why.).
Q: Would it be possible to speed it up by emulating the CPU native on, say,
a 68k Mac?
A: I doubt it. UAE needs to be able to interrupt the CPU emulation anytime to
perform tasks necessary for emulating the hardware.
Q: Wouldn't it be better to translate MC68000 code to x86 assembly?
A: Yes. It would also be slightly more difficult.
Q: Emulating all the hardware is a bad idea. Why don't you just emulate the
OS? After all, that's what makes the Amiga the Amiga.
A: Short answer: I disagree.
Long answer: The OS is half of what makes the Amiga the Amiga. It is a very
nice OS, and there are some features that I miss in any other OS, but it is
also severely lacking in terms of (for example) memory protection and
filesystem performance.
The other thing that made the Amiga special back in the 1980s is the custom
chip architecture. If you look into old (1985) computer magazines, you will
find that the capabilites of the Amiga OS are only mentioned as a side
note, because people were not aware that it was revolutionary for a home
computer. They were aware, though, that the Amiga could display 4096 colors
at the same time and that it had a blitter and a copper that could do all
sorts of stuff, like bouncing balls for instance. And I think it was the
superiority of the hardware that made the Amiga a success.
I see UAE as a program that is similar to C64 emulators: it allows you to
run some old games and other programs that you can't replace with better
equivalents on the PC. As such, it can already be used to run non-action
games (like Monkey Island or Bard's Tale) at a satisfactory speed. Faster
CPUs will eventually make it possible to run action games, just like faster
CPUs have made it possible to emulate a C64 at full speed on a PC. UAE is
not (primarily) meant for the Amiga PowerUser who is running high quality
applications on his A4000 with a 68060 board, but for people like me who
switched from an A500 to the PC a few years ago because they wanted to make
money by developing software.
Besides, emulating an OS is far more difficult IMHO. Especially if the
platform you are emulating it on is completely different than the platform
that is being emulated. You'd have to mess with endianness conversions and
other nightmares. The AmigaOS wasn't designed with portability in mind
either.
Q: How can I transfer non-DOS disks that are used by many demos?
A: With transdisk. The fact that they are unreadable by AmigaDOS does not
mean they are unreadble by transdisk. Only copy-protected disks can't be
transferred that way.