XL-it! Atari 8bit Emulator Version 0.20 User's manual (c) 1996/97 by Markus Gietzen --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: * Introduction * Copyright * Installation * Starting the emulator * User-interface * Keyboard * Monitor * The Author * F.A.Q. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction XL-it! emulates Atari 800, 800XL and 130XE homecomputer. It is developed with Watcom C/C++ and needs at least a 386 CPU. The emulator is optimized for the use with Pentium processors. Parts of the emulation are written in 386 protected-mode assembly (the whole 6502-emulation and parts of the Antic-emulation). The main goal of the emulator is the ability to run most of the existing software for Atari 8-bit home-computers. Therefore I try to increase the compatibility first and then I try to increase the speed and the comfort of XL-it!. Please note that an emulator can never be like the original. It's just an attempt to make it possible to use your favourite Atari software on your PC. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright * XL-it! is (c) 1996/97 by Markus Gietzen. * Pokey-Emulator is (c) 1996/97 by Ron Fries * XL-it! is free as long as it is not used in any commercial matter. This also includes all attempts to include XL-it! in CD-collections that are sold ! You need my written permission first ! * Donations are very welcomed! * I still have the right to forbid the usage of the emulator at any time. I am not responsible for any damage caused by XL-it! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Installation Before you can start with the emulator you must get the ROMs of an Atari. These ROMs can be found in an archive called "xf25.zip" which is another emulator. You can find that archive on the XL-it! homepage (see chapter "The Author"). Please place these ROMS in the same directory as the emulator is placed. o XL-ROM: atarixl.rom (16384 Bytes) o BASIC-ROM: ataribas.rom (8192 Bytes) o OLD-ROM: atariosb.rom (10240 Bytes) Sorry for this inconvenience but I am not sure who owns the rights for these ROMs and therefore I do not include them. * Sound All you have to do is to set the "BLASTER" environement in your "autoexec.bat". Please refer to the documentation of your soundcard for more details. Attention: If you have an older Soundblaster or compatible card that doesn't support autoreload-DMA, then you have to use "-oldsb". Of course it's also possible to use the user-interface for that. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Starting the emulator The executable file is called "atari.exe". It is a 32-bit DOS-executable that runs under plain DOS, Windows 95, Windows NT and OS/2. For maximal performance (above all if you use sound) I suggest that you use plain DOS! This means that you get a very slow emulation if you use Windows 95 and sound-support. By starting "atari.exe" without any option you will be prompted by the user-interface. This user-interface is intended to be used instead of the command-line options. This means that using any command-line option disables the user-interface at start-up (it still works within the emulator [F8]). Therefore you can still use your favourite emulator-launch utility. Anyway, I don't think that you need to stick around with the command-line options anymore. The user-interface is much more convienient and it saves your setup on exit. Commandline Options: -nobasic Disables BASIC -nosound Disables SOUND -nopatch Disables all OS-patches -joyswap Emulate joystick in port 2 -cart fnameLoad 8k or 16k cartridge-image -oldmode Atari 800 emulation -modex 320x240 resolution -german German keyboard-layout -lock50 50Hz lock (PAL) -lock60 60Hz lock (NTSC) -frame x Displays every x.frame -oldsb Needed for older Soundcards -hd dir Use H: to access directory -artifact Enable color-artifacting --------------------------------------------------------------------------- User-interface options * Menu: System o Emulator Starts the emulation. You can leave the emulation by pressing F8. o About Copyright o DOS-Shell Enter the DOS-Shell. With "exit" you can exit this mode. o Exit Exits XL-it! * Menu: Devices o Diskdrives You can insert disk-images into the virtual DD-diskdrives of XL-it! .XFD and .ATR images (single, enhanced and double density) are supported. The drives are called D1: through D8: on the Atari. o Harddrives This powerfull feature of XL-it! allows you to access directories of your PC. This means that you can access the selected directories with H1: through H8: o Insert ROM XL-it! supports 8k and 16k ROM cartridges. If you have an image of such a cartridge you can load it here (this only works on start-up; not while the emulator is running). o Eject ROM Removes the ROM that you inserted. * Menu: Setup o Environement This menu is only available at start-up. It defines the general behaviour of XL-it!. Options are: + Sound Selects whether sound should be emulated or not. + Old soundblaster Check this mark if you have an older soundcard (see Installation). + XE-Emulation If this mark is checked you have an 130XE with 128kB RAM. Of course this only works as long as you don't invoke Atari 800 emulation. + 800er Emulation Enables the emulation of an Atari800. This disables the emulation of the MMU and loads another OS-ROM. This is needed for older Atari software. + Basic-cart. Enables/Disables the BASIC-cartridge. As a matter of fact you have to disable BASIC for nearly every game. This is a common problem for Atari-beginners ! + Patch OS XL-it! patches the OS to support high-speed disk I/O, access to your PC-directories and other things. This may lead to problems and therefore you can disable that here. Anyway: you'll lose many feature if you disable OS-patching. + Swap-Joysticks This option is only available if you don't have a PC-Joystick connected. It means that the joystick is no longer emulated in Port 1 but in Port 2 because there are a few games that need that (mostly C64 ports). If you have a PC-joystick connected it's always in Port 1 and Port 2 is emulated (keyboard). + Deutsche Tastatur This enables the German keyboard-layout. o Video&Speed + Framerate 1-10 If you have a slower PC then it's most likely that XL-it! runs slower than a real Atari. To archive more speed you can skip frames. A side-effect is that the collision-detection may fail in a few games. Hint:Even if XL-it! runs fast enough try to use this function if you use utilities (e.g. Assembler, BASIC etc.). You'll like the speed ! + 320x240 resolution The standard low-resolution of your VGA-card is 320x200 pixels. The Atari 8bit can display more than 200 lines on the screen. If you run into a program that lacks parts of the screen enable this option. Due to the nature of the 320x240 video-mode this slows XL-it! down. + Color-Artifacting This feature is introduced by v0.19. Have you ever wondered why you saw colors in games like Loderunner or Ultima ? The answer is color-artifacting. This technique makes use of the lower resolution of NTSC-TVs (On Pal-TVs [like mine] this doesn't look as good as on NTSC-TVs). Anyway this feature tries to simulate this behaviour. It's in an early stage though. + 50 Hz speed-lock, 60 Hz speed-lock If XL-it! runs too fast on your system then you can lock the speed at 50 Hz (PAL) or 60Hz (NTSC). This probably only works good if your system is about 15-20 frames faster than a real Atari. o Calibrate Joysticks XL-it! supports a PC-joystick. Unluckily the programming of support for a PC-joystick is a nightmare. In fact it's pretty easy but the hard part are all those different joysticks out there. Therefore it...
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