Necromancer, Karateka, Drol, Kaboom, Pole Position, Star Raiders,
BallBlazer, Alternate Reality, Caverns of Mars, etc.
The demo has the full graphics emulation of the shareware version except for vertical fine scrolling. Other features such as sound, larger screen displays and full 800XL/130XE emulation are not active in this demo.
System requirements
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Two versions of Rainbow are provided; one for the PowerMac and one for 680x0 computers. It goes without saying that the PowerMac version is much faster and much more fun! However, faster '040 machines (33 Mhz+) also run at quite reasonable speeds. You should also have System 7 or later installed with Sound Manager 3.1 if you have a PowerMac.
What's inside?
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Inside the Rainbow folder, there should be the following items:-
• Rainbow Demo applications (one for PPC and another for 680x0 machines)
• Disk image containing 3 demos (Bounce, Robot and Swan)
• Read Me First text file (this one)
• Appendices text file
• Registration text file
• Unhex folder with the Unhex application
Atari ROM needed
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IMPORTANT: Before you can run Rainbow you will need an image of one of the following:-
• 400/800 10K Operating System ROM or
• 800XL/130XE 16K Operating System ROM and 8K BASIC ROM or
• 5200 2K monitor ROM.
Due to copyright restrictions, Atari ROM images are not included and you will have to transfer the ROM from your 8 bit machine to the Mac via an 850 Interface Module. See the 'Appendices' text file for details.
Let's go!
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If you have the 400/800 10K OS ROM file on your Mac, rename it as OP_SYSTEM.
If you have the 800XL/130XE 16K OS ROM file on your Mac, rename it as OP_SYSXL and the 8K BASIC ROM file as OP_BASIC.
If you have the 5200 2K monitor ROM file on your Mac, rename it as OP_5200.
Put these file(s) in the same folder as Rainbow.
Set your monitor to 256 colours.
Now launch Rainbow :^)
Rainbow looks for OP_SYSTEM first. If it's there, Rainbow enters 400/800 emulation mode. Otherwise it looks for OP_SYSXL. If it's there, 800XL (limited) mode is entered. Finally it will look for OP_5200 and if found, Rainbow impersonates the 5200 games console.
If you have more than one set of OS files, choose the emulation mode under the 'System' menu.
N.B. On this demo, 800XL emulation is 'limited', i.e. the 16K RAM under the ROM cannot be activated. This is also true for the 130XE mode which also has the extra 64K inactive. The full shareware version gives you complete 800XL and 130XE emulation.
Try out the demos!
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Insert the demo disk and re-boot (select 'Yes...' under 'Re-boot' menu), which is like switching your Atari off and on again. The mouse pointer changes into an orange Atari fuji logo which indicates that drive#1 is being accessed.
N.B. In 800XL/130XE mode be sure to keep 'OPTION' pressed on re-booting to disable the BASIC ROM else the demos may not run properly (see 'Keyboard' below).
This disk will present you with a menu of 3 demos to try out. Bounce and Robot have some nice music and sound effects which, sadly, you can't hear on the demo of Rainbow.
Check the 'Show FPS' item under the 'Extras' menu. This will give you real-time statistics on how well Rainbow is performing on your Mac. Adjust the frame rate in the 'TV' menu so that the CPU efficiency is just above 100%, i.e. normal 8bit speed. The 'fps' figure gives you the number of frames being generated every second. You can also force Rainbow to run no faster than 100%
if you have the '100% Speed' item checked (leave it off for maximum speed!).
After you've finished playing with the demos, select 'Re-Init' under the 'Re-boot' menu. This removes all cartridges and disks from the drives and boots up as though you'd just launched Rainbow.
BASIC and DOS
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If you're in 400/800 mode, try inserting a cartridge (under the 'System' menu), e.g. BASIC if you have the file. If successful, the system will automatically re-boot and present you with the READY prompt.
Say you want to now boot up BASIC with DOS. Insert a disk image with DOS into drive#1. Rainbow will recognise standard images as well as ATR ones in either single or enhanced densities (standard images are carbon copies of the floppy disk image; an ATR image is a standard image with a 16 byte header).
Now simply re-boot.
After a few moments, you will be back in the BASIC but this time DOS is present. To check, just type DOS and you will go into the DOS utility menu.
N.B. A quicker way to start up in BASIC with DOS booted is to first insert the disk image and then insert the cartridge.
Frame rate
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A real Atari 8-bit computer generates the playfield, player/missile graphics and updates Player/Missile collision registers every 60th of a second.
To make Rainbow run at an acceptable speed, you can alter the frequency with which this takes place under the 'TV' menu.
With the lesser frame rates, collision registers are updated less frequently and so occasionally your PacMan may pass through a ghost with no ill effect! Increase the frame rate to avoid this.
Some games like Jumpman, Caverns of Mars and Buried Bucks only work with the 'Every' frame rate setting.
Disk drive
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Disk drive#1 is available to load single density images. Single density images have 720 sectors at 128 bytes per sector ==> 92160 bytes in total. ATR images have a 16 byte header, i.e. 92176 bytes.
The full shareware version gives you 2 disk drives each capable of single and enhanced densities together with a feature to save images.
Keyboard
--------
In addition to the standard keyboard, some other important keys are
System Reset = SHIFT * (on keypad) or F12 or cmd 0
Option = SHIFT 'num lock' or F1 or cmd 1
Select = SHIFT = (on keypad) or F2 or cmd 2
Start = SHIFT / (on keypad) or F3 or cmd 3
Help = - (on keypad) or F4 or cmd 4 (XL only)
Pause = - (on keypad) or F4 or cmd 4 (5200 only)
Break = SHIFT esc
Caps/Lowr = alt
Atari Logo = . (on keypad) or ~
The Mac CAPS LOCK is not functional. A number of extra editing keys are included,
i.e. the cursor keys work and
Insert Char = ins/help
Delete Char = del
Clr screen = home / diag arrow pointing north-west.
Joystick
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Stick 0 (Player 1) is enabled. Use the keypad for this (UP=8;LEFT=4;RIGHT=6;DOWN=5) and FIRE is Control or 0 on keypad.
Powerbook users can use the L<>? keys for the joystick by checking this item under the 'Joy' menu. These keys are then NOT recognised as keystrokes. Uncheck the L<>? item to use these as keystrokes.
5200 emulation
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The 5200 is a curious machine with more or less the same hardware as a 400/800 computer. It has only 16K RAM but can accept 16 or 32K ROMs. The full size keyboard is gone and has a simple numeric keypad instead. Since the hardware chips are mapped to different areas in the 5200, standard 400/800 software is incompatible but 5200 games *can* be converted to run on the 400/800 with some programming know-how.
The monitor ROM is a tiny 2K OS which just sets up the 5200 for operation and draws the pretty rainbow fuji logo. You can insert either 16K or 32K 5200 ROM images in this mode. Once again, 400/800/800XL/130XE games will *not* work with the 5200 and vice versa.
The 5200 # and * keys are at Z and X. The top fire button is SHIFT, the lower fire is CTRL.
See 'Appendices' text file for more on the 5200 and how to get the 2K ROM.
Registration
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To register and get the full-feature packed version, check out the 'Registration' text file or see the website URL below!
This demo may be copied and freely circulated. However, all the files must be included and they must not be modified in any way.
