A.C.E. 3

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ A.C.E. 3 / ACE CD 3.iso / files / docs / cbm64emd.lha / Commodore64Emulator.doc next >

Wrap

Text File | 1994-11-27 | 19.0 KB | 406 lines

>-------!-------!-------!-------!-------!-------!-------!-------!-----------R COMMODORE 64 EMULATOR Typed in by ???. Edited by PARASITE. LOADING To load THE 64 Emulator, simply insert the disk into drive 0 (the built in drive) and reboot your Amiga by pressing the CONTROL-AMIGA-AMIGA keys. The 64 Emulator cannot be run from the Workbench (by Icons) - you must reboot your machine to load the program. When loading The 64 Emulator, the program disk must be write protected (the small hole showing), and all disk activity must be complete. If the disk is not write protected, then you will be prompted to write protect the disk before the program will load. SERIAL INTERFACE CABLE The 64 Emulator is sold in three different configurations - without a serial interface, with a serial interface for the Amiga 1000 or with a serial interface for the Amiga 500 and the Amiga 2000. The Serial Interface is a cable that allows a Commodore 1541, 1571, 1581 or compatible disk drive to be connected to the parallel port on the back of the Amiga. With this interface, The 64 Emulator can access Commodore 64 peripherals that would not be otherwise compatible with the Amiga. The primary advantage of using a disk drive such as the 1541 is increased compatibility with 64 software and the ability to load copy-protected software. Be careful when connecting cables and peripherals to your Amiga. If cables are not plugged straight into the port, they can sometimes reset your Amiga. To attach your Serial Interface to your Amiga, connect the wide end of the cable to the parallel port on the back of the Amiga and the round end to the back of the disk drive. The difference between the Amiga 1000 interface cable and the Amiga 500/Amiga 2000 interface cable is the connector on the wide end of the interface. Once you have connected the Serial Interface you will have to set the system configuration to allow The 64 Emulator to access the serial devices. CONFIGURATION EDITOR The configuration editor allows you to customize The 64 Emulator to your particular hardware. To display the configuration editor, hold the CONTROL and press the HELP key when The 64 Emulator is loaded. A pop-up menu describing the current hardware setup will appear over the top of the 64 program that is currently running. To change any of the options, move the mouse pointer to the highlighted area containing the current settings and press the left mouse button. By repeatedly pressing the left mouse button, the program will cycle through all the possible settings for the selected option. To exit the Configuration Editor without saving the settings, click on any area outside of the Configuration Editor box. SAVING THE CONFIGURATION SETTINGS Once you have set all the options to correspond with your hardware, insert any AmigaDOS disk and click on SAVE CONFIG option. The current settings will be saved to the diskette and can be loaded by clicking on LOAD CONFIG with the correct disk in the drive. Saving settings on The 64 Emulator disk will change the defaults when you next load the program. After the settings are saved, you will be returned to the current 64 program. If the disk is write protected, the settings will not be saved and you will remain in the Configuration Editor. Simply write enable the disk, reinsert the disk, and click on SAVE CONFIG again. When saving configuration setting to the program disk you must remember to always write protect the disk after saving. Note that you can change the configuration without saving the new settings to disk. This allows you to change options for different programs without having to repeatedly save the configuration. THE CONFIGURATION OPTIONS DISK DRIVES The 64 Emulator allows you to access Amiga floppy disks, hard drives and RAM disk as well as Commodore 64 drives connected with the Serial Interface cable. Disk drives are accessed during 64 emulation by specifying a device number from 8 to 11 (up to four drives may be on-line at one time). Using the configuration editor you may assign each of the four drive numbers to any combination of Amiga and 64 drives. AMIGA DRIVES Valid Amiga drive names are: DF0:, DF1:, DF2:, DF3:, DH0:, DH1:, DH2:, DH3:, RAM:. DF refers to the floppy disk drives (DF0: is the built-in drive), DH refers to hard drives and RAM: refers to a temporary file that is created in the RAM of the Amiga (RAM: requires at least 1 Megabyte of memory). The 64 Emulator is also compatible with the Amiga 5-1/4" drive (Model 1020) only in the AmigaDOS format. It will not read Commodore 64 disks directly on an Amiga 1020 drive. A Commodore 64 compatible drive (such as the 1541) and Readysoft Serial Interface Cable are required to read Commodore 64 disks directly. If you have chosen an Amiga drive, you may then select whether or not to emulate a 1541. Click on the prompt to the right of the drive selection to toggle between Standard Amiga and 1541 Emulation. If 1541 Emulation is selected, a file called C1541 will be created on the disk in the specified drive when you issue the format command from the 64 (see Disk Commands section). This file holds the same amount of storage as would a standard 1541 disk and will respond in almost exactly the same manner as a 1541 disk drive. If the 1541 Emulation option is not selected, the drive will be less compatible with some 64 software but you will have the full storage capacity of the Amiga disks and be able to access files that are stored in standard AmigaDOS format. When the disk is not emulating a 1541, there are only two file types, PRG and DIR. All program (PRG), sequential (SEQ) and user (USR) will be displayed as program (PRG) files while Amiga sub-directories are displayed as DIR. Relative files are not supported when Standard Amiga is selected. To access an Amiga drive subdirectory, you must assign an unused device name to the name of the directory you want to access in your startup-sequence. For example, if you want to access DF0:C64Programs as a sub-directory, you can enter ASSIGN:DF3: DF0:C64Programs in your Startup-Sequence. This allows Df3: to access the sub-directory on your DF0: disk. Note that DF3: may be replaced with any unused device name, including DF0-3, DH0-3 and RAM:. COMMODORE 64 DRIVES Commodore 64 disk drives (with the Serial Interface) may be used by selecting C64 as the drive type. You may also access a Commodore 64 disk drive by device number other than the number it is set to in the disk drive's hardware. All Commodore disk drives default is to device number 8. If you want to use an Amiga drive as device 8 and the Commodore drive as device 9 (even though it is hardware device 8), you could set the device 9 prompt in the configuration settings to C64 and the device type prompt (beside it) to Serial Cable 8. This would tell The 64 Emulator that whenever an access is made to device 9 to translate it to use device 8 on the serial bus. To access any drives when using The 64 Emulator, you must specify the appropriate device number (8 to 11) it is assigned to when issuing disk drive commands. It is therefore possible to have (for example) a Commodore 64 drive as device 8, Amiga floppy drive 0 as device 9, an Amiga hard drive as device 10 and a RAM disk as device 11. PRINTERS Printers are selected in much the same manner as disk drives. There are two device numbers (4 and 5) assigned to printers during 64 emulation. Through the use of the Configuration Editor, you can assign each of the two devices to one of three printer types: Amiga parallel, Amiga RS232 or Commodore 64. AMIGA PARALLEL PRINTERS. Amiga parallel printers are connected to the parallel port on the back of the Amiga. To select this type of printer, set the printer type to PAR:. AMIGA SERIAL (RS232) PRINTERS Amiga serial printers are connected to the serial port on the back of the Amiga. To select this type of printer, set the printer type to SER:. COMMODORE 64 SERIAL PRINTERS Commodore 64 serial printers are connected to the parallel port of the Amiga using the Serial Interface cable (or alternately connected to the 64 disk drive which is in turn connected to the parallel port of the Amiga with the Serial Interface cable). MODEMS The 64 Emulator supports any standard Amiga modem connected to the serial port. The 64 Emulator will not work with any Commodore 64 modems designed to plug into the Commodore user port because the user port is not present on the Amiga. PORT CONFLICTS As several of the peripherals mentioned above require the same Amiga port, a potential conflict arises if two such devices are required to be on-line simultaneously. The two possible conflicts are between ReadySoft's Serial Interface and an Amiga parallel printer and between a modem and an Amiga Serial (RS232) printer. If such a case arises, a prompt will appear asking you to connect the device that the 64 requires. Once the device is connected, click the left mouse button to continue or if you don't want to use the requested device, press the right mouse button to cancel the prompt. The 64 Emulator remembers which device is currently connected and will only request a change if a required peripheral is not connected to the Amiga. MOUSE/JOYSTICK PORTS The Amiga has two control (joystick) ports which can be configured to allow the use of a joystick, the Amiga mouse or a light pen. The ports must be set for the peripheral that is currently in the port (joystick, mouse, or light pen). Otherwise input cannot correctly be read. JOYSTICKS Many 64 programs require that a joystick be in a specific port (1 or 2). If a program appears not to be reading the joystick, first make sure the desired port is set to read joysticks and if this is the case, try setting the opposite port to read joysticks and connecting the joystick to the other port. MOUSE The 64 Emulator allows you to select how the Amiga mouse is to be interpreted by the 64: as a 1350, as a 1351 or as paddles. The default setting for the Amiga mouse is Paddles. LIGHT PEN When using a light pen with The 64 Emulator, it must be plugged into Port 1. You must set the configuration for Port 1 to Joystick. 1764 RAM EXPANDER The 1764 RAM expander is a device that allows 256K of RAM to be added to a Commodore 64. If your Amiga contains at least 1 Megabyte of memory, the configuration editor will allow The 64 Emulator to simulate this device. By setting the option to ON, 256K of the Amiga's memory will be set aside to be accessed as if a 1764 cartridge was connected. MONOCHROME MODE The 64 Emulator spends a significant amount of time creating Amiga video image from the screens that the 64 specifies. This process is complicated by the variety of methods of generating color that are available on the 64. When the Monochrome mode is enabled, all text and high resolution images are adisplayed with only two colors - green and black, just like a monochrome monitor. For programs that are very screen intensive but where color is not essential, using the monochrome mode gives a noticeable speed increase. BORDER Due to hardware limitations of the Amiga, generating a border around the entire screen would greatly slow down The 64 Emulator. As an alternative, The 64 Emulator allows you to select a border at the top and bottom of the screen. The speed will not increase if the border is turned off, but it may make the screen more attractive with some programs. ALTERNATE CHARACTER SET The Amiga displays a higher resolution than the Commodore 64. This option allows The 64 Emulator to use an alternate character set whose letters are clearer than the standard 64 character set. To select the alternate character set, change this option to ON. Click the option again to turn it off. BASIC COMMANDS The 64 Emulator allows all Commodore 64 BASIC commands: ABS, AND, ASC, ATN, CHR$, CLOSE, CLR, CMD, CONT, COS, DATA, DEF, DIM, END, EXP, FN, FOR, FRE, GET, GET#, GOSUB, GOTO, IF, INPUT, INPUT#, INT, LEFT#, LEN, LET, LIST, LOAD, LOG, MID$, NEW, NEXT, NOT, ON, OPEN, OR, PEEK, POKE, POS, PRINT, PRINT#, READ, REM, RESTORE, RETURN, RIGHT$, RND, RUN, SAVE, SGN, SIN, SPC, SQR, STATUS, STEP, STOP, STR$, SYS, TAB, TAN, THEN, TI, TI$, TO, USR, VAL, VERIFY, WAIT. This guide is not intended to be a reference for the above BASIC commands. A number of good books are available that outline how to use these commands. THE KEYBOARD As the Commodore 64 keyboard and the Amiga keyboard contain several different keys, The 64 Emulator changes the functions of several Amiga keys to correspond to keys that are required by the 64. The following table outlines the major changes: AMIGA KEYS PERFORMS FUNCTION OF: ESC RUN/STOP DEL RESTORE TAB CONTROL Left AMIGA COMMODORE Key F10 HOME Shift F10 CLR BACKSPACE DEL Shift BACKSPACE INST There are three Commodore 64 keys that perform no function unless pressed with another key, these are SHIFT, CONTROL and COMMODORE. SHIFT is used to access capital letters, graphic symbols and punctuation. CONTROL is used with the 0-9 keys to change colors and many programs use CONTROL with a letter to represent different functions. The COMMODORE key is used with the 0-9 keys to change color and with letters to generate alternate graphic symbols. The SHIFT and COMMODORE keys when held down together will toggle the screen between upper case/lower case and upper case/graphics. The RUN/STOP key (ESC on the Amiga) is used to stop execution of BASIC programs and loading files. If holding RUN/STOP does not stop the program, hold RUN/STOP while pressing the RESTORE (DEL on the Amiga) and BASIC should stop. If this fails, pressing CONTROL, LEFT-ALT, and HELP simultaneously should reset the 64 to BASIC, clearing the current program (as if the emulator had just been loaded). If this doesn't stop the program, you will have to reload The 64 Emulator. TRANSFER SOFTWARE To make the transfer of software from 5-1/4" disks to 3-1/2" disks easier, ReadySoft Inc. has included a transfer program on The 64 Emulator program disk. To load the transfer program, type: LOAD"TRANSFER",10 <RETURN> RUN <RETURN> If you have changed your device number, replace the 10 in the loading command with the device number of the drive containing The 64 Emulator program disk. This drive must be set to Amiga Standard in the configuration editor so that the drive can read the transfer software. The transfer software allows you to select which drive contains the disk you want to copy from (the source disk), and which drive contains the disk you want to transfer to (the destination disk). Note that you must format the destination disk first (if it has not already been formatted) from the WorkBench or CLI before loading The 64 Emulator. By default, the source device is set to 8 which will copy from the Commodore 64 serial disk drive, and the destination is set to 10 which will copy to the built-in Amiga 3-1/2" disk drive in Amiga Standard format. If you need to change the source device number press S, and if you need to change the destination device number, press D. Now select whether you want to make an exact copy of the disk or copy individual files by pressing E or F. If you select E, the copy will be more compatible with the 1541, but will be slower than Amiga Standard when being accessed, and uses only 1/5 of the disk space available. The Amiga drive must be in the 1541 Emulation mode when making an exact copy. The copying will begin immediately. If you select F, you may copy using 1541 Emulation or preferably Amiga Standard on the 3-1/2" drive, which will increase speed and allow for all of the available disk space to be used. You will be asked for a directory pattern (you may simply hit RETURN on this option). The default pattern of * will display the entire directory of the source disk when RETURN is pressed. To select a file to be copied, move the cursor to the file name and press the RETURN key (a Y will appear beside the name). Repeat this procedure until all the files that you want copied have a Y beside them. To begin the copy, press the F1 key. If the software you want to transfer is copy-protected, the transfer software may not copy it to 3-1/2" disk format. LIMITATIONS Due to the nature of The 64 Emulator, some programs will run between two and five times slower than the Commodore 64, others will run at full speed. This slow-down will not be noticeable on all programs. Games that allow you to change the speed of play should be set at maximum speed to compensate. Due to hardware limitations on the Amiga, sprites may, from time to time, flicker or change color. This is most noticeable when many sprites are close to each other. Most protected software requires the Serial Interface and a 1541 disk drive to load the program. This is due to the copy-protection employed by various companies. Even with a Serial Interface cable, some software may not load with The 64 emulator if fast loaders are used as part of the protection. The 64 Emulator requires complete control of the Amiga hardware, and as such, multitasking is not allowed during the emulation. COMMON PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS PROBLEM SOLUTION Joysticks do not operate properly. Check configuration setting. Disk drives cannot be accessed. Check configuration setting. Characters appear on screen for no Change configuration for apparent reason. port with mouse to Paddles. Commodore 64 program won't load. Give the program a few minutes to load, and if nothing happens, the program may not be compatible. Commodore 64 program won't load Program may be copy- from Amiga disk when transfered. protected. Configuration won't save to disk. Check write protect tab. GEOS When loading GEOS, all device settings in the Configuration Editor are automatically set to C64 SERIAL devices. GEOS cannot be used with drives other than Commodore 1541 and 1571 serial disk drives. SERIAL CABLE INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE A500/A2000 AMIGA COMPUTERS This cable will allow use of a 1541 or 1571 disk drive with the Amiga 500 or Amiga 2000. PARTS LIST 1 - 6 Pin Din Plug (Male) 1 - DB25 Connector (Male) 4'-0" - Cable, 4 conductor, shielded WIRING INSTRUCTIONS DIN PLUG DB25 CONNECTOR Pin 1 - not used ------- Pin 2 to Pin 20 Pin 3 to Pin 5 Pin 4 to Pin 6 Pin 5 to Pin 7 Pin 6 - not used ------- Internal wiring on the DB25 connector: Pin 6 to Pin 8 Pin 7 to Pin 9 Note: The above cable has been tested and does function. CONNECTING THE CABLE 1. Turn power off to the computer. 2. Connect DB25 end of cable to the parallel port of the Amiga. 3. Connect Din plug end of cable to 1541 or 1571 disk drive. NOTE TO AMIGA 1000 USERS The wiring of the connectors will be the same, except you must purchase a connector that matches the parallel port on your Amiga.