New Version Of Xroar Dragon Emulator

[sixxie]

I've put up a new version of XRoar (previously GPRoar, but I decided changing the name just for the GP32 version was silly if I was going to develop them as a single codebase), the Dragon 32/64 emulator. Version 0.7-pre1 (pre1 because the source code tarball isn't nearly as tidy as it should be) features improved emulation (most games now work) and disk support (one drive only so far, and you have to call your virtual disks 'test.vdk'). If you want to use disks, you'll need not only the Dragon's ROM, but an image of one of the DOS ROMs too. Append the DOS ROM (usually 8192 bytes) to the Dragon ROM (16384 bytes) to form one 24K file to use as your dragon.rom.

XRoar web site

GP32 binary

Some virtual disks (not my site).

 

[woogal]

It's excellent to see you back again Sixxie . After your sudden disappearance last year I thought we'd seen the last of the gproar updates. Now hopefully I won't have to hack the code to get the controls in leggit working (I've only been planning to do it for 6 months)

 

[sixxie]

Ooh no, not abandoned it, just really really lazy

Finding another GP32 coder in the flat above me prompted me out of my sloth

As for Leggit!, I've just tested it, and keyboard layout 2 seems to work nicely.

 

[mexicancousin85]

What is Dragon? Is it a kind of system? I have never heard of it. Also I must ask the annoying question where can I get roms to be played on this mysterious emulator? :unsure:

 

[sixxie]

What is Dragon? Is it a kind of system? I have never heard of it. Also I must ask the annoying question where can I get roms to be played on this mysterious emulator? :unsure:

Just another old 8-bit system from the 80s - it was a clone of the Tandy CoCo 2, but had more memory, a nicer keyboard, parallel printer port, that sort of thing. Quite a lot of games from the one work on the other, but the keyboard layout was different, which can be annoying. XRoar has the code in it to support both, but adding UI options to switch modes is yet to be done

I think www.chuckie-egg.org have a copy of the BASIC ROM, although finding the DOS ROM will be trickier (and you'd need that to use the virtual disks on the site linked above). Finding cassette games shouldn't be too hard though. Lots of people have given permission for their software to be distributed ferfree.

 

[WhizzBang]

Good to see this isn't dead. Can you remind me how to load a game? I can only seem to load the first .cas file in my list. I type 'cloadm' and then press start and select my manic miner .cas file and then press the B button and it resets.

Also, what would you recommend as good Dragon games? I had a Spectrum myself, so I currently just have a few Dragon games on my SMC that were also released for the Spectrum. What was the Dragons 'killer app'?

 

[woogal]

Type cloadm (or sometimes just cload if the game has a basic boot loader), then press enter on the virtual keyboard. This will bring up the selector and you can then choose your .cas file.

As for games, I used to waste many an hour on Lunar Rover Patrol and Mr Dig when I was younger, and thanks to xroar I can waste many more hours again . Lunar Rover Patrol may seem a bit boring at first, but stick with it 'cos there's something strangely addictive about it.