--- uae/docs/README 2018/04/24 16:38:39 1.1 +++ uae/docs/README 2018/04/24 16:38:50 1.1.1.2 @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -This is version 0.6.4 of UAE, the Un*x Amiga Emulator. +This is version 0.6.8 of UAE, the Un*x Amiga Emulator. #include @@ -11,110 +11,94 @@ the last rule: It may be included on fre There are no warranties of any kind for this program. If you use this program, you do so at your own risk. The authors are not responsible for any damages that might result from using this program. +"Amiga" is a registered trademark of Commodore, Inc. Other trademarks +mentioned in this document are property of their owners. Overview ======== -UAE emulates the hardware of an A500 with 2MB chip and a variable amount of -fast memory. Up to 11.8MB RAM are supported. It works with all Kickstart ROM -versions, provided they are not compiled for the 68020. It supports some (one, -to be precise) ECS features apart from nearly all the functionality of an OCS -chipset. +An emulator is a program which enables you to run software for a machine +which has non-native hardware and a non-native operating system, on your +computer. UAE allows you to run most of the available Amiga software. It is a +software emulation, meaning that no extra or special hardware is needed to do +this. The hardware of an Amiga is emulated accurately, so that Amiga software +is tricked into thinking it is running on the real thing, with your computer's +display, keyboard, harddisk and mouse taking the parts of their emulated +counterparts. UAE was developed for Unixoid systems. Meanwhile, it has been ported to the -Mac, DOS, the BeBox, NextStep, the XFree86/OS2 environment and AA Amigas (it -can't quite run itself yet). The Mac and DOS versions are distributed with -binaries and a seperate README file that you should read after you have -finished this document. The other versions must be compiled from the source -code. - -What UAE does not (yet) emulate is software. To use UAE, you need a Kickstart -ROM image as well as any other software you want to run, e.g. a Workbench -disk. Both are copyrighted, and I can't include them. Don't ask me to send -them to you. -Since the PC floppy controller can't read Amiga disks (yes, that's a fact), -floppy access has to be emulated differently: Floppies are emulated by means -of disk files that contain a raw image of the floppy disk you want to emulate. -Read the section "tools" below for information how to create ROM images and -disk files. -You can also emulate a harddisk. UAE can mount native filesystems as -harddrives, so once you have booted it up, you can access all your files on -the harddisk. It is currently impossible to boot from the emulated harddisk. -I don't have a clue why. - -I am developing UAE using Linux. Only if you are running Linux can you be -reasonably sure that all versions of UAE will work for you. On other Unix -systems, you may encounter problems from time to time. I can make no -guarantees about the NextStep and BeBox versions, these are very recent ports -and will probably need some more time before they compile/run reliably. - -These are the requirements for getting the Unix version to run: - - X11, or SVGAlib if you are using Linux. - - an ANSI C compiler. GCC is _strongly_ recommended. - - Optionally, tcl7.4/tk4.0 - -Note: some Linux installations (usually Slackware) are broken. If you get -linker errors ("final link failed: bad value"), you need to upgrade the -binutils package that you can find on sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/GCC -Before installing anything from that directory, read the corresponding -release.* files. -You'll get better performance if you are using an ELF system. - -On Linux, 8MB are sufficient to run UAE, although startup will be much faster -if you have some additional memory. The DOS version also works with 8MB, but -startup is slow there too. I have not tried the other ports, it may well be -that other OS's are better at wasting memory. At least 16MB are recommended. +Mac, DOS, the BeBox, NextStep, the XFree86/OS2 environment and the Amigas (it +can run itself by now). You should have received several other files along +with this document with details on how to install and use the version for your +operating system. This section is just what it says: an overview. Please read _all_ of this -file, especially if you have problems. Please read also the file "FAQ" which -contains some Frequently Asked Questions (and even the answers!) +file, especially if you have problems. UAE has many, many features and +equally many configuration options. If you don't know about them, it's likely +that UAE doesn't work for you, or doesn't work as good as it could. + +Please read also the file "FAQ" which contains some Frequently Asked +Questions (and even the answers!) System-specific documents like "README.UNIX" +and "README.DOS" also exist, you should read the appropriate one, too. + +People have complained that the UAE documentation contains only "weird jargon". +Sorry about this. Despite what MessySoft and Tomato tell you, computer +programs aren't always easy to use. UAE does require some assistance from you, +and therefore you should at least understand a bit about computers. After all, +you are an Amiga fan, so you should know what a Workbench is, don't you think? -Installation -============ +Features +======== + +This version of UAE emulates: -To build UAE, first unpack it to an appropriate directory (e.g. /usr/src/uae -on a Linux system). After that, you will have to edit the file config.h to set -some configuration options. Then, you should give the command "configure". -This script will determine what type of system you are using. It will then -create an appropriate Makefile. Type "make" after that to build UAE. - -If you are running Linux, you can say "configure --without-x" as an -alternative. If you do this, UAE will be configured to use the SVGA library. -If you use SVGAlib, be warned that SVGAlib is not too stable and using it is -inherently a little dangerous, you might want to have a way to log in from a -remote terminal if things go horribly wrong. If you are very unfortunate, you -might lock up your machine otherwise. -Note that you must be root to run SVGAlib programs. Making UAE suid root is -_not_ a particularly good idea if you care about the security of your system. -If you have a BeBox, you should not run configure. Instead, compile UAE by -doing "make bebox". - -If you configure UAE for building the X11 version (which is the default if you -simply say "configure"), the configure script will try to find the program -"wish4.0" in the path. You can disable the UAE user-interface by passing the -"--disable-gui" option to configure. By default, the X11 version of UAE -tries to use a GUI written in Tcl. This requires Tk version 4.0. The SVGAlib -version uses a ncurses-based user interface. - -The compilation may take a while, especially for the cpu*.c files. There might -be some warnings, ignore these. It may also take a lot of memory. You should -have at least 8MB physical RAM to compile this, plus maybe 10MB swap and 9MB -filesystem space. - -After compilation, you'll need to install the ROM image. This must have a size -of exactly 512K (if you only have a 256K image of a 1.x Kickstart, that should -work, too) and should be an image of the addresses 0xF80000-0xFFFFFF on -your Amiga system. The file must be called kick.rom to be recognized. Please -read the next section on how to transfer files from your Amiga to your PC. - -You also need to install a disk image file. This must be called df0.adf (adf = -Amiga Disk File), and should be a raw image of the data on the floppy disk: -11x2x80 sectors == 901120 bytes. -Please try running UAE without a diskfile first. If everything went O.K., the -emulator should show the Kickstart logo (don't be too impatient, this will -take a while on slow machines). +- An Amiga 500 Computer, with 68000 or 68020 CPU (68020 includes 68881 FPU) +- OCS Graphics Chipset, plus big blits from the ECS Chipset +- Up to 2MB Chip RAM +- Up to 8MB Fast RAM +- Up to 1MB Slow RAM, for extended compatability with problem software +- 4 x 3.5" floppy disk drives (DF0:, DF1:, DF2: and DF3:) +- Hard-disk emulation +- Joystick support (with option of mapping joystick to numeric keypad) +- Mouse support +- Ability to run in various screen modes (for better display quality or + better speed) +- Full sound support, consisting of 4 x 8bit channels (mixed into one, so + output is mono for now). +- Beta parallel port support +- some other things which don't work well enough to mention them here... + + +Requirements (IMPORTANT! READ THIS!)/Limitations +================================================ + +Not emulated: +- Sprite collisions +- a MMU (part of 68030/040 CPUs except those that Commodore used). This means + you can't use virtual memory systems or real operating systems like Linux + or BSD. +- The AGA chipset (A4000/A1200). This chipset has enhanced capabilites for + up to 256 colors in all resolutions. +- Serial port emulation exists but doesn't work too well. + +Since the PC floppy controller can't read Amiga disks (yes, that's a fact), +floppy access has to be emulated differently: Floppies are emulated by means +of disk files that contain a raw image of the floppy disk you want to emulate. +A disk file is an image of the raw data on an Amiga floppy disk, it contains +901120 bytes (880K), which is the standard capacity of an Amiga disk. + +To actually run the program, you'll need to install the ROM image from your +Amiga. You can't run UAE if you don't have this image. It is not included +because it is copyrighted software. Don't ask me to send you one. I won't. +If you don't have an Amiga and still want to use UAE, you'll have to buy an +Amiga or at least the system software (ROM + Workbench) first. +The Kickstart image can have a size of either 256K or 512K. It must be named +"kick.rom" by default. + +Read the section "tools" below for information how to create ROM images and +disk files. If you don't have a Kickstart file, you may still be able to boot some games and demos. The emulator includes some primitive bootstrap code that will try @@ -123,24 +107,31 @@ bootblock only uses the one or two Kicks the "replacement Kickstart", your program will boot. Don't expect too much, though. -If you are a daring person, you can edit custom.c before compiling and enable -the "EMULATE_AGA" define. UAE will then try to emulate some AGA features. I'd -like to hear feedback as to how well it works (expect it not to work at all -for a start). +You'll also need some other software to run - why else would you want to +emulate an Amiga? There are several ways to make the software accessible to +UAE, either with disk image files or with a harddisk emulation.You should make +an image of your Amiga's Workbench disk and install it as "df0.adf" (adf = +Amiga Disk File) when you use UAE for the first time. More about how to create +these files in the chapter "Transferring software" Invoking UAE ============ -After building the program, you should have an executable called "uae". You -can simply execute it, but you can also optionally give it one of the following +First, read the system-specific documents for information how to set up UAE. +You should have an executable program called "uae". You can simply execute it, +but you can also optionally give it one of the following parameters: General options: -h : Give help on the options. + -A n : Set emulator accuracy to n. The default is n = 2, which means the + emulator will try to be as accurate as possible. This no longer + does much in this version, and I'll probably remove it. -f n : Sets the frame rate to 1/n. Only every nth screen will be drawn. -a : Add no expansion devices. This will disable fastmem and harddisk emulation, but some extremely badly-written games may need this. + (Kickstart 1.2 apparently needs it, too) -l lang : Set the keyboard language. Currently, the following values can be used for lang: "us" for U.S. keyboard (default), "se" for swedish, "fr" for french, "it" for italian or "de" for german keyboard. @@ -152,11 +143,17 @@ General options: for action games, but may be useful for other games. -x : General-purpose option. For the X version, it makes the X cursor visible (recommended). For the SVGAlib version, it turns off - linear framebuffer support (sometimes, with -d 4, SVGAlib is - faster without linear framebuffer). + linear framebuffer support. -o : Allow UAE to overwrite ~/.uaerc with the selected options. This is - only used by the text-based GUI in the SVGAlib and DOS versions. + only used by the text-based user interface in the SVGAlib and DOS + versions. -G : Disable the user interface (if present). + -n specs: Set blitter emulation. specs is a string of characters. If it + contains a "3", the blitter will use 32 bit operations where that + seems profitable (note that this will cause bus errors on most + RISC machines). If you specify "i", all blits will finish + immediately, which can be nice for speed. To enable both options, + say "-n 3i" Emulating external devices (harddisk, printer, serial port): -M VOLUME:path @@ -198,20 +195,48 @@ Debugging options: recommended. Display options: - -d mode : Select a graphical resolution for UAE to run in. -H mode : Select a color mode to use. - -C : Correct the aspect. Normally, graphics will be only half as high - as they should be, this option draws every line twice to correct - this. It makes the emulation slower, though. - Proper emulation of interlace mode is impossible without this - option. - -Resolutions: 0 (320x200); 1 (320x240); 2 (320x400); 3 (640x480); - 4 (800x600). + -O specs: Select a display mode, see below how the specs parameter is + interpreted. Color modes: 0 (256 colors, default); 1 (32768 colors); 2 (65536 colors) 3 (256 colors, with dithering to improve color quality) 4 (16 colors, dithered); 5 (16 million colors) +About the "-O" display specs. These consist of the width and height of the +mode, plus optional modifiers. One valid option to pass to UAE would be +"-O 640:300:" which means use a display 640 pixels wide and 300 pixels high, +with no modifiers (nothing after the second ":"). You may specify the +following modifiers: + l: Tell UAE to omit drawing every second pixel horizontally (for "lores" + modes). Example: "-O 320:200:l" + x: Tell UAE to try to fit the image horizontally into the displayed + window. For example, if you have a mode that is 640 pixels wide, and the + displayed image is also 640 pixels wide, the picture may still be + partially invisible because it is displayed too wide to the left or to + the right. With the "x" modifier, UAE tries to prevent this. + You can also specify a capital "X", in that case, UAE tries to be + extremely clever when doing this. + y: The same thing in green, for fitting the image vertically into the + window. (Y also exists) + d: Draw every line twice. This allows interlace mode to be emulated nicely, + but of course you also need a display that is twice as high + c: Correct the aspect. This will omit certain lines of the display to make + it fit better into the screen. + +Whew. You'll probably have to experiment a little to get a feeling for it. +To make things easier, here are mode specs that are equivalent to the old +"-d" and "-C" options, which are obsolete now. +-d 0: Lores, 320x200, X centered: "-O 320:200:lx" +-d 1: Lores, 320x240, X centered: "-O 320:240:lx" +-d 2: Lores, 320x400, X centered: "-O 320:400:lx" +-d 3: Hires, 640x300, X centered: "-O 640:300:x" +-d 4: 800x300, centering not needed: "-O 800:300:" +-d 3 -C: "-O 640:600:xd" +-d 4 -C: "-O 800:600:d" +(This table is accurate for the X11 version of UAE 0.6.6 and below. Other +versions, e.g. SVGAlib and DOS behave differently, which was one of the +reasons to get rid of the old method of specifying display modes.) + UAE may choose to ignore and/or refuse some combinations of these two parameters. Some of these modes may also fail to work on your system. @@ -220,8 +245,6 @@ directory. Simply create ~/.uaerc and pu non-Unix systems, the file is called uae.rc and should be located in the current directory. -If you use SVGAlib, the only way to leave the program is pressing F12. - Choosing color and screen modes =============================== @@ -237,9 +260,6 @@ satisfying speed. Note that the ditherin 256 colors with dithering look better than 256 colors without, remember that UAE will be slower in that mode. -The low-resolution (320x???) modes should help some of the proud owners of new -P6 systems with a broken chipset and an exciting PCI performance of 4MB/s :-) - The recommended resolution is 800x600. In the lower resolution modes, some overscan pictures the Amiga tries to display may not fit entirely on the screen, others may be off-center and some graphical effects may look weird. @@ -249,9 +269,6 @@ For best results, use 800x600 with at le Harddisk emulation ================== -!! Careful: All of this has been rewritten for this version. There may be -bugs, please report any strange events. - Using diskfiles is awkward. There are two ways how you can use larger amounts of data with UAE. UAE can emulate more than one harddisk at one time, the volumes will be named UAE0:, UAE1:, etc. UAE will boot from UAE0: if no @@ -261,8 +278,9 @@ a) Harddisk files. You can create a (unformatted) harddisk file with dd if=/dev/zero of=hardfile bs=512 count=16384 - -Currently, the size is fixed (8MB). + +That will create an 8MB file. Other sizes ought to work, too, as long as they +are powers of two. The harddisk file is accessed by a resident ROM module that is built into the emulator, called "hardfile.device". If it is present, this is always the first @@ -292,6 +310,9 @@ format command: format drive uae0: name Mister_Willwink +The emulated Amiga usually crashes after the format command. I don't know +exactly why. + b) Access native filesystems from the emulator. This has some major advantages: @@ -302,43 +323,51 @@ This has some major advantages: However, it currently does not work on some ports. -If you specify the -M or -m command line arguments, you can use files on your -Unix filesystem from the emulator. If you start UAE with +If you specify the -M or -m command line arguments, you your native filesystem +from the emulator. If you start UAE with uae -m sound:/usr/amiga/modules - + you can access all the files in /usr/amiga/modules by reading from the AmigaDOS volume "SOUND:". (DOS users: try "uae -m dh0:C:\" to mount your drive C:\ as DH0:) -If you want to execute files, they need to have the x permission bit set. -That can be done in Unix by "chmod +x file" or in AmigaDOS with -"protect file rwed". You can mount up to 20 devices by giving this option multiple times. Tools / Transferring files ========================== -To transfer any software between an Amiga and another computer, you'll need -either a tool like CrossDOS or MessyFS on the Amiga that lets you read and -write PC formatted disks, or a serial null-modem cable. CrossDOS is part of -the newer Amiga operating systems; MessyFS is free software and can probably -be found on some old Fish disk. To transfer data over a null-modem cable it is -useful to use some sort of terminal software on both ends. I can't explain -here in every detail how to use terminal programs or CrossDOS. Please read the -appropriate documentation. Note: If you use a tool to read/write PC-formatted -disks on the Amiga, remember that most Amiga drives handle only DD disks, so -don't try to use HD floppies. +As you should know by now, you need to transfer files between your Amiga and +the machine you run UAE on. There are several ways how to do this. + +- Using a null modem cable, and a terminal package running on each machine, + you can transfer the file(s) via Zmodem upload/download. 68000 equipped + Amigas can normally attain around 3000cps through the null modem cable, + using the standard Commodore serial.device. However, by using the device + replacement BaudBandit.device, anything up to 5500cps can be attained. + BaudBandit can be obtained from Aminet. A second alternative is to use + the BASIC program adfi.bas (included with UAE) to transfer a file from the + Amiga to the PC via the null modem cable. + +- If you're using CrossDOS on your Amiga, you can compress the disk or + kickstart image using LhA or similar PC compatible archiver and copy it to + a 720KB floppy disk. You can now take the disk over to the PC, copy the + compressed file to the UAE directory and uncompress it. + If you don't have CrossDOS on the Amiga, there is a similar freeware tool + called Msh, which can be found on Aminet or on Fish disk 382 or 327. + +In either case, you ought to read the documentation for the programs that +you use for the transfer. These programs can't be explained here. -In the "amiga" subdirectory you'll find two small Amiga programs that you can -use to transfer software from the Amiga to the PC. These are called transrom +In the "amiga" subdirectory you'll find two small Amiga programs that will +help you to generate the necessary image files. These are called transrom and transdisk. Copy them to your Amiga and make them executable (by typing -"protect transrom rwed" and "protect transdisk rwed" in the Amiga shell +"protect transrom rwed" and "protect transdisk rwed" in the Amiga shell window). transrom will dump the contents of your Kickstart ROM, and transdisk will dump an image of a floppy in one of the drives. Both programs write to the -standard output, so you'll want to redirect that. Do +standard output (read: the screen), so you'll want to redirect that. Do transrom >ram:kick.rom @@ -347,12 +376,18 @@ to create a file called "kick.rom" in th transdisk >ram:df0.adf to create a file called "df0.adf" in the RAM disk. These files are pretty -big, 524288 bytes for the ROM image and 901120 bytes for a disk image. +big, 262144 or 524288 bytes for the ROM image and 901120 bytes for a disk +image. transdisk understands the following arguments: -d device unit: Use this device instead of DF0: - -s n: Begin transfer at track n (default: 0) - -e n: End transfer at track n (default: 79) + -s n: Begin transfer at track n (default: 0) + -e n: End transfer at track n (default: 79) + -w file: don't read from the floppy, instead write the contents + of "file" to the floppy + -h: Treat the disk as high-density disk. HD images aren't + supported by UAE yet, though. Note that the resulting + file will be twice as big. So, to transfer the disk in drive DF1:, you'd give the command: @@ -373,51 +408,26 @@ transferring the next one with transdisk If you have all the files on your PC, you can do the following under Unix: cat df0_1.adf df0_2.adf df0_3.adf df0_4.adf >df0.adf or, under DOS: - COPY /B df0_1.adf df0_2.adf df0_3.adf df0_4.adf df0.adf + COPY /B df0_1.adf+df0_2.adf+df0_3.adf+df0_4.adf df0.adf I've been told there are the following tools for the Mac to join binaries: "ChunkJoiner 2.1.2" found under Info-Mac's directory or "JoinFiles 1.0.1" under Info-Mac's . The current transdisk can only read the standard AmigaDOS format. This means that most games that rely on some form of copy-protection cannot be -transferred. However, there are disks that are formatted in the normal 880K -format that transdisk can read, but don't have a filesystem ("NDOS" disks -in the Workbench). These will be transferred correctly. - -There's an easy way to use a null-modem cable without terminal software if -you use Linux. You can do - - transdisk >SER: - -on the Amiga to copy the data directly to the serial port. Before that, do - - cat /dev/ttyS1 >df0.adf - -on your Linux box to receive the data (it may be ttyS0 on your system, or -another number, depending on which serial port you are using). When the Amiga -is done transferring, hit ^C on the PC to interrupt the cat program. To make -this work, you need to use the same settings for the serial port on both -sides. This is done with the Preferences program on the Amiga (this is split -into several programs from Kickstart 2.0 upwards, you'll find a program called -"serial" in the Prefs directory of your Workbench disk). On the Linux side, -use the stty program. "man stty" will give you the manpage describing how to -use it. -To be on the safe side, set the speed to a low value (2400 baud). Turn off -Xon/Xoff, but enable RTS/CTS. -I use the following command myself: - - stty 19200 parenb -cstopb cread clocal crtscts -istrip -inlcr -icrnl -opost - -onlcr -parodd -isig -icanon -iexten raw cs8 = 2.0.7 and version 2.5k of the mount program, you can do - mount df0.adf /mnt -t affs -o loop -You'll need to enable support for the Amiga filesystem and the loop device -when configuring and compiling the kernel. +emulator if you want to transfer files from FFS disks. - The UAE_CONTROL program ======================= @@ -448,25 +453,11 @@ with Kick 2.0 and upwards. Copy these tw use for harddisk emulation. They should be self-explanatory. -Printing -======== - -With the "-p cmd" option, you can specify a command that will be run when the -emulator detects that the Amiga accesses the parallel port. Usually, you will -want to say "-p lpr" to pass the output over to lpd. It's unclear how this -will work on non-Unix systems, DOS users can try "-p LPT1:" or something like -this. -For best results, select the PostScript driver in the Amiga Preferences. This -is only available in newer Kickstarts. Printing is not going to work with -another printer driver. -None of this is guaranteed to work yet, and I have not tried any of this yet. - - Quick overview of the debugger commands ======================================= -If you use the X11 version, you can press ^C at any time to enter the built-in -MC68000 debugger. +Some (window-system based) ports of UAE have a built-in debugger. You can +press ^C at any time to enter this debugger. Each debugger command consists of a single letter and occasionally some parameters. @@ -480,40 +471,16 @@ z: Step through one i f
: Step forward until PC ==
q: Quit the emulator. You don't want to use this command. -(^C has no effect if UAE is compiled for SVGAlib - use F12 to exit) - - -Input devices -============= - -Mouse, keyboard and joystick can be used in a straightforward way. A couple of -keyboard languages are supported with the "-l" commandline option. If you have -a different keyboard, patches to make UAE work with it are appreciated. -The X version of the emulator will try to keep the Amiga mouse pointer at the -same location as the X mouse pointer. You can turn off this mode if it does -not work with your program by pressing F12. This is needed (for example) for -Lemmings and the Magnetic Scrolls adventures, which don't use sprite 0 as a -mouse pointer. Other versions (SVGAlib, DOS, possibly others) do not have this -problem. -If you use Linux and have the joystick driver kernel module, "configure" -should automatically enable support for it. UAE calibrates the joystick -automatically. Turn it a few times on startup to get the calibration done. - Sound ===== -If you define LINUX_SOUND in config.h, the emulator will use /dev/dsp to -output sound. You can pass parameters like frequency or number of bits to use -on the commandline; if you don't specify any, sane defaults will be used. If -graphics output is enabled while sound is output, the emulator will be much -too slow on most systems. The sound will not be continuous. Therefore, a hack -to turn off screen updates is provided: Press ScrollLock to disable graphics, -press it again to enable them (note: for X, you'll have to press it twice each -time). -The LINUX_SOUND_SLOW_MACHINE option will steal cycles from the CPU emulator. -The relative CPU speed will be reduced somewhat if this option is set. This may -lead to incompatibilities. +If your version of UAE supports sound, you can pass parameters like frequency +or number of bits to use on the commandline; if you don't specify any, sane +defaults will be used. If graphics output is enabled while sound is output, +the emulator will be much too slow on most systems. The sound will not be +continuous. Therefore, a hack to turn off screen updates is provided: Press +ScrollLock to disable graphics, press it again to enable them. The quality of the emulation depends on the setting of the "-S" commandline option. With "-S 3", all of the sound hardware is emulated; and some programs @@ -522,52 +489,32 @@ option. With "-S 3", all of the sound ha of the sound hardware, but doesn't actually output sound. "-S 0" completely turns off sound. -On other Unix systems, the AF sound system may be available. You can configure -UAE to use this, too, by changing some paths in the Makefile (I can't answer -any questions about this, I never saw/used it). +Pointers +======== -Speed -===== +There are a few sites in the Internet that contain helpful information about +UAE. + +The new "official" UAE page is located at + +http://www.schokola.de/~stepan/uae + +thanks to Stefan Reinauer who is now maintaining it. + +There, you will find links to other UAE pages. One which is especially useful +is the "UAE Discussion Board" set up by Gustavo Goedert, the address is + +http://tinos.pucrs.br/~ggoedert/uaeboard.html -The Most Frequently Asked Question is: "Just how fast is it?", and this is -also the most difficult one to answer. The easy way to answer is "It depends", -but I'll try to do better. All timings I give here were measured on my -machine, a P90 (using SVGAlib, with all the x86 assembly options turned on). -The MC68000 emulation is more than twice as fast as a real A500. I measured -this by letting PowerPacker try to compress itself (it already was compressed). -It took UAE about 6 minutes, my A500 took about 15. If you set the frame rate -to a high value (i.e. leaving out many frames), the graphics speed does not -matter and you get about twice the speed of an A500. If you enable the smart -update method in config.h, and if it works for your program (it works for -almost all programs using the Workbench) you also get about the same speed at -full frame rate. -For games and demos, the CPU speed does not matter, but the average frame time -is important. UAE can calculate this automatically. The SVGAlib version gives -the number when you exit the emulator, to obtain the value with the X version -you need to interrupt it and type "c" in the debugger. A real A500 has a -constant frame time of 20ms (50 Hz). -If you have a game/demo that has lots of blitter activity, many copper/sprite -effects, dual playfields and scrolling, no one can help you. Fortunately, this -case is extremely rare. Normal games that have a number of blitter objects, -scrolling and maybe some sprites run at 1/3-1/4 the speed of an A500 in the -worst case, some run at 1/2 the speed. Lowering the frame rate helps -enormously here, and at 1/5 frame rate, about everything runs somewhere -between 50% and 100% the speed of an A500. -This still isn't the full story (I bet you start to see why the question is -hard to answer). A real A500 without fast memory gets slowed down to about -half its speed in Hires 16 color mode. More bitplanes also slow UAE down, but -not quite as much, so it can be several times faster than an A500 in that -mode. - - -Bugs / Unimplemented features -============================= - -The sprite emulation is incomplete and buggy. Sprite collisions are not -implemented yet. The serial port emulation doesn't seem to be useful yet. -Apart from that, UAE can do everything a real A500 can do (and more), but -there may still be one or two buglets that make some programs fail. +Not quite as good as a newsgroup due to braindamaged reader software +(Ratscope), but still a blessing. + +I post announcements of new versions of UAE to the newsgroup +comp.emulators.misc. From time to time, I also upload new versions to the ftp +server sunsite.unc.edu. You will find them either in pub/Linux/Incoming or in +pub/Linux/system/Emulators. There are many sunsite mirrors throughout the +world, you should be able to find one near you. Thanks & Acknowledgements @@ -587,71 +534,14 @@ Special thanks to: documentation - Fabio Ciucci gets the "Best bug reports" award for his help with the blitter line emulation and other problem areas. + - Michael C. Battilana of Cloanto Software, for being so kind to send me two + CD-ROMs with lots of Amiga software. -Ports -===== - -Apart from the "main" Unix version, several ports of UAE are ready/being -developed. - -Gustavo Goedert has ported UAE to DOS using the -DJGPP port of GCC. The binary is available on several ftp sites as well as on -my Web site. - -Ernesto Corvi has ported UAE to the Apple -Macintosh. He tells me it is available on Info-Mac, and that every Mac user -should know where that is. A link to the archive containing both PPC and 68k -binaries is on my Web page. (info-mac is mirrored by -sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de) - -Christian Bauer has ported UAE to the -BeBox. - -Ian Stephenson has ported UAE to NextStep. - -Olaf 'Olsen' Barthel has ported UAE to the Amiga. This -port requires the AA chipset as well as Kickstart 3.0 or higher. CyberGraphX -is supported. Please read the file "amiga.c" for information. To compile it, -you need SAS/C and the 3.0 includes (they probably come with the compiler). - -Krister Bergman has ported UAE to the XFree86/OS2 -environment. This port can be obtained from Krister's WWW page: - - -Since I generally don't have the possibility to test or improve these ports, -it is a good idea to contact their respective authors if you have questions. +Authors/Maintainers +=================== - -Pointers -======== - -There are a few sites in the Internet that contain helpful information about -UAE. - -I have set up a WEB page for UAE. You will find interim versions, Linux -binaries, diskfiles with Amiga software and other interesting stuff there. -The address is - -http://www-users.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/~crux/uae.html - -There, you will find links to other UAE pages. I'll add these links to this -document in the next version, but I don't have them here right now. - -I post announcements of new versions of UAE to the newsgroup -comp.emulators.misc. From time to time, I also upload new versions to the ftp -server sunsite.unc.edu. You will find them either in pub/Linux/Incoming or in -pub/Linux/system/Emulators. There are many sunsite mirrors throughout the -world, you should be able to find one near you. - - -The author's address -==================== - -Before you contact me with a problem that you have, make sure you have read -_all_ of the above. Please read also the file "FAQ", which conains a lot of -helpful information. In the future, I will probably no longer respond to -questions that are already answered by any of these files. +My address is: crux@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de @@ -664,16 +554,60 @@ Germany Email is more likely to be answered, and will definitely be answered much faster. Please avoid phonecalls if you can. + +The following people have ported UAE to different platforms; you should +direct system-specific questions to them: + +DOS port: + Gustavo Goedert + Available: http://tinos.pucrs.br/~ggoedert/dosuae.html + +Mac port: + Ernesto Corvi + Available: info-mac ("every Mac user knows where that is"). A link to the + archive containing both PPC and 68k binaries is on my Web page. (info-mac + is mirrored by sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de) + +BeBox port: + Christian Bauer + Available: The main UAE web page (use the Unix sources) + +NextStep port: + Ian Stephenson + Available: The main UAE web page (use the Unix sources) + +Amiga port: + Originally: Olaf 'Olsen' Barthel + Currently: Samuel Devulder + Available: Not quite sure yet. Paul Liss' Web page has binaries. + +XFree86/OS2 port: + Krister Bergman + Available: + +Since I generally don't have the possibility to test or improve these ports, +it is a good idea to contact their respective authors if you have questions. + + +Before you email... +=================== + +Before you contact me with a problem that you have, make sure you have read +_all_ of the above. Please read also the file "FAQ", which contains a lot of +helpful informationm, and the README file for your specific system. + I can't answer _every_ question. If you have trouble understanding this README, either because you don't speak English very well or because you have -no clue at all about computers, please try to find someone near you who does -understand this file and who can translate/explain it for you. I simply can't -explain (for example) how to use terminal programs or CrossDOS because I don't -use either, and it would be much too time-consuming anyway. This file and the -file FAQ contains about every piece of information I can give you. I try to -help people who have questions, but sometimes it takes too much time. - -Please don't ask for Kickstart ROM files. +no clue at all about computers, please try to find some friend of yours who +does understand this file and who can translate/explain it for you. I simply +can't explain (for example) how to use terminal programs or CrossDOS because +I don't use either, and it would be much too time-consuming anyway. This file +and the file FAQ contains about every piece of information I can give you. I +try to help people who have questions, but sometimes it takes too much time. + +Please don't ask for Kickstart ROM files or other copyrighted software. Don't +_send_ me stuff like this either. If you want to send me something else which +is big (>= 50K), ask me before or put it somewhere in Webspace. Oh, and another thing: If I promise to do things (like implement new features), and forget about them, pester me. That happens occasionally, it's