home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Loadstar 224
/
224.d81
/
t.e3
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
2022-08-26
|
9KB
|
325 lines
u
A B O U T E M U L A T O R S I I I
by Professor Dredd
aka Ken Kill, Jr
EMULATOR SPEED
Hit ALT-O to enter the "Options"
menu. Here notice the "Speed"
function. You can use the "Speed"
function to adjust the speed of the
emulated machine anywhere from 10% to
1000% that of a real C-64. If you're
viewing the C-64 screen, you can
toggle between 100% and 500% using
ALT-F3.
The actual speed you attain
depends on the speed of your PC as
well as your PC's operating system.
DOS runs faster than Windows, so if
you're comfortable with the command
prompt you can get the best
performance by booting your PC into
DOS and executing CCS64.
Typically, you can expect 500% on
most Pentium PCs. I'm pretty sure my
Pentium 133 tops out between 300% and
400%. It definitely doesn't get any
faster beyond 400%. There are other
adjustments you can make to optimize
the speed of the emulator for your
machine. Read the CCS Manual for
details.
CCS64 has two LARGE advantages in
speed as compared to hardware
accelerators (e.g. the CMD SuperCPU or
the Rossmoller TurboProcess) for the
real C-64. These advantages are
compatibility and effective speed.
Running CCS64 at 1000% gives a 10
Megahertz CPU speed (assuming your PC
is powerful enough.) This clock speed
is not only applied to the 6510
microprocessor, but also to the rest
of the system buss. That means a timer
countdown on a CIA will run 10 times
faster at 1000%. That means interrupt
driven music is accelerated right
along with the CPU (but screen updates
to the virtual VIC-II are a different
issue all together.) This is in
contrast to a hardware accelerator
which only accelerates the CPU and its
RAM/ROM.
Compatibility is better with CCS64
than with the SuperCPU and Rossmoller
TurboProcess because the accelerators
do NOT use a 6510 CPU. The 6510 is
rated to operate only up to 2Mhz and
they aren't in production anymore
anyway. For this reason, accelerators
use the 65816 CPU.
The 65816 is a 6502-compaitble
CPU, with enhanced features and an
extended instruction set. It is also
capable of running at the high speeds
desireable from an accelerator. The
compatibility problems between 65816
and 6510 usually arise from the
extended instruction set. This is NOT
A FLAW of the 65816, but is due to
poor programming practices on the part
of C-64 developers (e.g. undocumented
or illegal opcodes.)
Technical minded people desiring
more information about these
compaitbility issues (and other
acceleration issues) will want to read
the SuperCPU documents at:
http://www.cmdweb.com/cbm/supercpu/
Now try loading an image of "PACMAN"
or "FROGGER" and hit ALT-F3. Are we
having fun yet? ;)
EUROPEAN C-64 PROGRAMS
C-64s were produced in European
countries in large numbers. While
these C-64s function almost
identically to American C-64s, there
are a couple of small differences in
low-level timing signals.
European television signals are
called PAL and American signals are
called NTSC. NTSC uses a 60hz signal
and PAL uses 50hz. The C-64 KERNAL
automatically initializes the VIC-II
for one or the other on power-up.
The problem arises when fancy
graphics routines use the number of
displayable screen lines (known as
rasters) as a constant. Since the
frequencies of the two video standards
are different, there are a different
number of displayable screen lines on
PAL and NTSC C-64s. This can cause all
kinds of havok in an otherwise well
planned display.
Most programs written for PAL
C-64s work just fine on NTSC machines.
Some have trashy graphics displays due
to incorrect raster counts. A small
few won't run at all because the
timing of the entire program is based
on the raster counting routines.
The only fix for these problems on
a real C-64 is to rewrite the portions
of the program containing the raster
counting routines. With CCS64, you
have the option of choosing to emulate
a PAL machine instead of an NTSC C-64.
To do this, hit ALT-O to enter the
"Options" menu and select the "System"
function.
Using this technique, you now have
access to some of the coolest demos
ever made for any computer!
COMPATIBILITY
CCS64 comes closer to a real C-64
than any other emulator I've tried. It
makes me wish I knew PC programming so
I could take it apart and see how it
works ;'D
Overall, you'll find that most
things work exactly the same on CCS as
they do on a real C-64, or very close.
Sometimes when things aren't working
the way you expect you need to
remember there's an extra level
between you and the C-64 now that just
stays invisible most of the time. The
instance described below is a good
example of this.
Can't save your game? Hit
ALT-SHIFT-8 to enter the "1541 Status
Device 8" menu. Select the "Create
Empty .D64" function and enter a PC
filename for the new, empty image.
While you're here, make sure "Write
Protect Status" is set to "Off". Now
hit ALT-8 and insert the "disk" you
just created. ESCape back to the C-64
screen and try the program's save
function again.
You MIGHT run across a few
programs that don't seem to work on
CCS64 (I am aware of only one.) In
these cases there are a few
adjustments you can make to provide a
slightly more accurate emulation. If
you're having problems with a program,
try some of these.
If you have a cartridge image
inserted, try DISABLING cargridge
emulation at the ALT-C menu. If
there is a compatibility problem
between this cart and the program
on CCS64, it probably exists on the
real C-64 too.
From the main menu (F10), highlight
"1541 Device 8" and press F2 to see
the "1541 Status Device 8" menu.
You can also reach this menu with
ALT-SHIFT-8. Highlight the
"Emulation Mode" function and
select the "Normal" setting. This
mode provides the most accurate
1541 emulation available under
CCS64.
In the ALT-O Options menu, try
selecting a PAL system
configuration. Most PAL/NTSC
incompatibilities merely result in
a trashy C-64 screen display. Some
programs (mostly demos) MUST have
the PAL timing to run at all.
In the "Options" menu, make sure the
"ROM Set" function is set to
"Original". The "Original" ROM's
distributed with CCS64 are
duplicates of the ROM's included in
real C-64's. AFAIK, there may be a
few small changes in these ROM
images to accommodate the emulator.
Then again, maybe not? Still, the
"stock" ROM's are the most
compatible ones.
In any case, if an image won't
work on CCS64, it may not work on a
real C-64 either. Try the program on a
real C-64 by converting the image to a
real 1514 floppy disk. Tools to do
this are available at:
http://www.fairlight.to/
EMULATOR TOOLS
Here are a few utilities to help
you get the most from your emulator.
Most of the best emulator tools are
available at:
http://www.fairlight.to/
The Star Commander 0.81 by Joe
Forster/STA
PC program for creating and
manipulating C-64 image files.
http://sta.c64.org/sc.html
64Copy 3.4 beta 1 by Peter Schepers
A C64 archive file converter, which
handles T64, D64, X64, P/S/R/U00,
LNX, Zipcode, Binary and more.
Other functions include a
disassembler and text/hex editor.
TargetD64 0.3 by Karlheinz Langguth
Briefly described above, TargetD64
makes opening C-64 images a cinch.
It will unpack image files from
.ZIP and .Z64 and other archives.
It automatically starts CCS64 and
passes the image file to it where
it will be RUN as a C-64 program.
You can pass archived images to
TargetD64 from the DOS command
line, Windows context menu
(right-click), or using Windows
drag-n-drop.
http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com
/quadra/251/targetd64.html
GameBase 1.3b by James Burrows
A database of info about C-64 games
and SID's, it also acts as a
front-end for playing them.
http://www.gamebase64.com/default.htm
OTHER EMULATOR LINKS
V.I.C.E.
http://www.cs.cmu
.edu/%7Edsladic/vice/vice.html
This is another very powerful
Commodore emulator which is still
current. It also lets you emulate
PET/CBM series, VIC-20 and C-128
computers!
Commodore Wire
http://homepa