V0.6 Of Atari800 Released


foft

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Just released a new version of my gp32 port of atari800.

The changes are as follows...

0.6
* Merged with atari800 v1.3.2 source
* Built various speeds
* Added builds with cycle exact emulation (slow but good... See picture)
* Fixed 130XE bank switching
* Added virtual keyboard (press L+R together)
* Fixed ATZ, DCM support
* Savestates are gzipped (slowish, no option to disable yet)
* PCX files are stored in the state dir, rather than root
* Savestate filename can be typed
* Savestate filename can be based on current menu or first disk
* Added extra chatboard keys
* Used proper libc port - wrote (another?) syscall.c in terms of gp sdk

Please let me know how you get on.

Thanks,

Mark
 
Brilliant.

I would like to just say thanks to you for your work on this excellent, much under rated emulator. The Atari was my first computer so it has a special place in my heart.

I will now go and download 0.6.

Thanks again.
 
Brilliant, Great Job, thanks! & cheers, etc !

This emulator is my default choice - Flip n Flop, H.E.R.O and Dropzone - :)

Iain
 
Howcome you need different FXEs to get different clock speeds? Most of the emulators let you select this from a menu.

Also what does the old one run at is it 133?
 
DaveC posted on Jul 26 2004 at 01:26 AM said:
Howcome you need different FXEs to get different clock speeds? Most of the emulators let you select this from a menu.

Also what does the old one run at is it 133?
I actually have a (disabled) clockspeed set menu in there. If you reset the clockspeed this messes up all the timers. I just need to go through and figure out how to fix all the timers first! If you want to try I can point you to the relevant bits.

The old one runs at 133MHz.

Mark
 
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WOW :) really great job Foft :) thanks alot for this marvellous emu :D
continue to work so well :)
 
I actually have a (disabled) clockspeed set menu in there. If you reset the clockspeed this messes up all the timers. I just need to go through and figure out how to fix all the timers first! If you want to try I can point you to the relevant bits.

The old one runs at 133MHz.

What is the problem with timers? Is it trying to find the correct multiplier? If so, (clockSpeed/40) is the multiplier for seconds. At 40MHz, every clock tick is 1 second.
 
Very sweet,
I actually just came around to installing the previous version of the atari 8bit emulator on my gp32 since I recently obtained some 5200 game files of my favourite 5200 games.
And now already I am pleased by a new version of this emulator. I am going to try out some 800xl programs/games on the newer version :D today!

Nice work!
 
weird, everytime i try tu run it, i just get the menu, and the GP freezes. I can´t move around in the menu, i can´t press A, B, Select, Start or whatsoever, it just doesn´t respond. I tried several fxe´s, from 133 to 166 (my GP usually hits 200). Is this a bug, or am I to stupid?
 
Cheers foft! Your Atari 800 emulator has always been somewhere at the top of my list for emus on GP32. Another great release, downloaded the A800132 version, works great. How well does the 96mhz version run?I might use that to save battery power.

Man, this brings back great memories, the Atari 800xl was my very first computer. Any others that started out with this?

@Horscht

Did you update the menu files? This has happened to me before so what i done is just downloaded the whole new package and delete the old packege (not games) and then chose the fxe version i wanted. Should work then. Hope this helps buddy.
 
Well, apearantly I accindentally coped over the OLD a800 folder that i got on my Laptop. I repalced it with the new one, and it works now.
 
foft posted on Jul 26 2004 at 05:35 AM said:
DaveC posted on Jul 26 2004 at 01:26 AM said:
Howcome you need different FXEs to get different clock speeds? Most of the emulators let you select this from a menu.

Also what does the old one run at is it 133?
I actually have a (disabled) clockspeed set menu in there. If you reset the clockspeed this messes up all the timers. I just need to go through and figure out how to fix all the timers first! If you want to try I can point you to the relevant bits.

The old one runs at 133MHz.

Mark
Does this also have a menu for the cycle exact and non exact modes as well as the clock speeds?

Also I may be dumb but what does cycle exact mode do? I have run the old emu (without that) and it seems to work great, I never had a problem. Do some games crash without cycle exact or something?
 
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DaveC posted on Jul 26 2004 at 05:45 PM said:
Does this also have a menu for the cycle exact and non exact modes as well as the clock speeds?

Also I may be dumb but what does cycle exact mode do? I have run the old emu (without that) and it seems to work great, I never had a problem. Do some games crash without cycle exact or something?
I'd quite like to put the cycle exact stuff in a menu. At present it is a define in the code in many places, so requires a rebuild...

The cycle exact mode allows some colour/graphics mode changes within a scanline. A few games use it, but I can't remember offhand. For an example try the following included demos with/without:
twaug.atr - on first demo volume bars on right hand side do not work
halle93a.atr - in visdom the plasma changes colour in middle (see picture on my website)
sweeta.dcm - Pictures of developers next to text work properly
bitter.atr - partyland scroll by changing background colour works

If you're playing games its best to use the normal version, unless you find something that doesn't work. Generally for games cycle exact will just look the same, but slower!

Mark
 
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generalnmx posted on Jul 26 2004 at 07:00 AM said:
What is the problem with timers? Is it trying to find the correct multiplier? If so, (clockSpeed/40) is the multiplier for seconds. At 40MHz, every clock tick is 1 second.
At whatever clock speed the sdk is initialised at the GpGetTickCount timer ticks every 1ms. If I change this then it may be scaled by (new_clock/old_clock), but I'm not sure what difference the dividers make etc.

I also want to check up on how I did the VBI stuff for screen double buffering, the sound callback from the sdk and the chatboard init stuff.

Mark
 
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foft posted on Jul 26 2004 at 08:36 PM said:
DaveC posted on Jul 26 2004 at 05:45 PM said:
Does this also have a menu for the cycle exact and non exact modes as well as the clock speeds?

Also I may be dumb but what does cycle exact mode do?  I have run the old emu (without that) and it seems to work great, I never had a problem.  Do some games crash without cycle exact or something?
I'd quite like to put the cycle exact stuff in a menu. At present it is a define in the code in many places, so requires a rebuild...

The cycle exact mode allows some colour/graphics mode changes within a scanline. A few games use it, but I can't remember offhand. For an example try the following included demos with/without:
twaug.atr - on first demo volume bars on right hand side do not work
halle93a.atr - in visdom the plasma changes colour in middle (see picture on my website)
sweeta.dcm - Pictures of developers next to text work properly
bitter.atr - partyland scroll by changing background colour works

If you're playing games its best to use the normal version, unless you find something that doesn't work. Generally for games cycle exact will just look the same, but slower!

Mark
Is the Atari computer difficult to emulate? I would think that the GP32 should be able to run A800 at FS/0 with full sound and cycle exact at 60 Mhz. I would think if you can run 16 bit Genesis and Turbo grafx at full speed the 8-bit 1 Mhz Atari would be fast at any mode. Are there some weird custom chips in there that make it slow? I know that the Atari computer was designed by the Amiga guys so maybe they put some of that funky stuff in the Atari 800 too.

It seems that much Atari stuff is hard to emulate. The Lynx, and the Atari 2600 are slow too.
 
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