--- uae/docs/README 2018/04/24 16:58:01 1.1.1.16 +++ uae/docs/README 2018/04/24 17:06:59 1.1.1.21 @@ -1,8 +1,7 @@ -This is version 0.8.16 of UAE, the Un*x Amiga Emulator. +This is version 0.8.21 of UAE, the UAE Amiga Emulator. -Versions numbered 0.8.x are beta versions, to be used for development only. -If you are only a user of UAE, you are better off using the latest 0.7.x -version or waiting for 0.9.0. +Versions numbered 0.8.x are considered beta versions, but they generally +tend to work better than the last "stable" release 0.7. License @@ -29,10 +28,10 @@ display, keyboard, harddisk and mouse ta counterparts. UAE was developed for Unixoid systems. Meanwhile, it has been ported to the -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. +Mac, DOS, Windows, 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. UAE has many, many features and @@ -156,13 +155,20 @@ autoconfig=bool [default=yes] kbd_lang=lang [default=us] Set the keyboard language. Currently, the following values can be used: "us" for U.S. keyboard (default), "se" for swedish, "fr" for french, "it" for - italian, "es" for spanish, or "de" for german keyboard. + italian, "es" for spanish, "dk" for danish, or "de" for german keyboard. This setting only affects the X11 version. floppy0=file [default=df0.adf] Try to use the specified file as diskfile for drive 0 instead of df0.adf. The options floppy1, floppy2, and floppy3 also exist. kickstart_rom_file=file [default=kick.rom] Use the specified file instead of kick.rom as Kickstart image. + You can also use an 8k sized A1000 boot ROM. The emulator will detect it + by its small size and behave like an A1000. +kickstart_key_file=file [default=none] + For some strange licensing reasons, Cloanto had to encrypt the ROM images + they ship with the Amiga Forever package. This option lets you select the + key file; this is only necessary if you are using one of the ROMs from + Amiga Forever. joyport0=mode [default=mouse] Specify how to emulate joystick port 0. You can use "mouse", "joy0", or "joy1" to use the corresponding input devices of your machine, or you can @@ -178,19 +184,23 @@ joyport0=mode [default=mouse] will stay enabled until you hit the autofire toggle again. joyport1=mode [default=joy0] Like joyport0, but for the Amiga's joystick port 1. -use_gui=bool [default=yes] - Show a user-interface that enables changing these options at run-time. -32bit_blits=bool [default=no] - If enabled, the blitter emulation will use 32 bit operations where that - seems profitable (note that this will cause bus errors on most RISC - machines) +use_gui=state [default=yes] + If enabled, show a user-interface that enables changing these options at + run-time. Possible settings are "no", "yes" and "nowait". If "nowait" is + used, the GUI will be shown at program startup, but the emulator will also + start immediately without waiting for the user to change any of the + settings. immediate_blits=bool [default=no] If enabled, all blits will finish immediately, which can be nice for speed, but may cause incompatibilities. collision_level=level [default=sprites] - This can have a value of "sprites" or "full". If set to "full", the emulator - will compute collisions between sprites and the background. This is slow, and - used only rarely, so it's turned off by default. + This can have a value of "none", "sprites", "playfields", or "full". If + set to "sprites", the emulator will only compute collisions between sprites. + If set to "playfields", it will additionally compute collisions between + sprites and the background. This is much slower and used only rarely. When + "full" level is selected, collisions of the background with itself are also + computed. This is also used very rarely, and makes the emulator even slower. + Using "sprites" or "none" will almost always be enough. cpu_speed=speed [default=4] This can have a value of "real", "max", or an integer between 1 and 20. "real" will try to give the CPU emulation exactly as many cycles, relative @@ -294,7 +304,7 @@ gfx_height=n [default=300] gfx_lores=bool [default=no] Enable this option if you use a very small window width (320 to 400 pixels) to shrink the display horizontally. -gfx_linemode=type [default=none] +gfx_linemode=type [default=scanlines] The type can be none (every line is drawn once), "double" (every line is drawn twice), and "scanlines" (every line is drawn once, but the image is stretched vertically by inserting a black line every other line to simulate @@ -581,10 +591,32 @@ After that is complete, reboot, and you modes from the ScreenModes program. +Saving and restoring snapshots +============================== + +From version 0.8.17 onwards, the emulator has the capability to save the +current state of the emulation into a "snapshot" file that can be restored +later on. This functionality is available through the GUI on some ports. +It is mainly useful for computer games that either have no save game +feature, or whose save game feature does not work on UAE (often, games try +to save in a non-standard disk format, this can be tricky to emulate). + +There are several restrictions that apply to the save state feature: + + - It is at the moment experimental. It is not guaranteed that the + emulator can correctly restore every snapshot. It is not guaranteed + that future versions of the emulator will be able to restore snapshots + saved by this version. + - The state of the harddisk emulation cannot be saved. This makes it + essentially useless for applications, but remember it's designed for + games. Be careful with games that have been installed to the harddisk. + - Neither ROM contents nor floppy disk contents are saved right now. + + UAE SCSI device =============== -To enable SCSI support, use --enable-scsi-device when running configure. +To enable SCSI support, use --enable-scsi-device when running configure. The emulator provides a uaescsi.device. This device only supports direct SCSI, which is sufficient to run applications like MakeCD. The device does not support reading or writing with the normal Exec commands, @@ -719,6 +751,11 @@ generally faster than UAE. The Fellow h http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Peaks/5244/ +The homepage of the Disk2FDI project, which allows you to read Amiga floppies +if you have two PC drives, is + + http://fast.emuunlim.com/disk2fdi/ + Thanks & Acknowledgements ========================= @@ -747,10 +784,10 @@ Special thanks to: world... - Jens Schönfeld, inventor of the Catweasel controller, donated one controller card. - - Jürgen Beck, maintainer of the Amiga emulation web site "Back to the - Roots" (http://back2roots.emuunlim.com) and everyone else who spends - time writing to software companies asking for permission to distribute - old Amiga games. + - Jürgen Beck and Ralf Steines, maintainers of the Amiga emulation web + site "Back to the Roots" (http://www.back2roots.org) and everyone else + who spends time writing to software companies asking for permission to + distribute old Amiga games. - all the software companies who allow distribution of their Amiga games on sites like "Back to the Roots". @@ -862,13 +899,9 @@ try to help people who have questions, b 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. -If I get 3MB of screen shots or a core dump ("it doesn't work, it generates -this file"), I'm very likely to get extremely angry, I might complain to your -sysadmin, and you might lose your account. Think twice. - -I'm also going to be extremely annoyed if you send email in HTML format. -Fight this disease! +is big (>= 50K), ask me before or put it somewhere in Webspace. This +university mail account has a limit on how big my mailbox can get before it +risks getting deleted without warning, and I don't enjoy that happening. 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