PC Xformer Classic 3.60 - The Atari 130XE Emulator For MS-DOS Compatible PCs ============================================================================ January 1997. Distributed by: Emulators Inc. 14150 N.E. 20th Street Suite 302 Bellevue, WA 98007 U.S.A. phone: 206-236-0540 fax: 206-236-0257 email: emulators@msn.com Program and documentation Copyright (C) 1986-1997 by Darek Mihocka. This file updates the printed PC Xformer User Manual. Xformer Classic is now free! ---------------------------- As of this release, PC Xformer for MS-DOS is now know as "PC Xformer Classic". This is to distinguish it from the Windows version of PC Xformer, currently known as "Xformer 96". As with our Gemulator Classic emulator, we are no longer doing further development of the MS-DOS based emulators. Both Xformer Classic and Gemulator Classic are now free of charge (not public domain!). We still have a few copies of the printed PC Xformer manual, which contains all sort of additional reference information about the Atari 8-bit computer. Contact us if you need a copy of the manual. You are granted permission to give copies of Xformer Classic to others, provided that the files in this ZIP file are all included and not modified. You are not granted permission to disassemble or modify PC Xformer, or to distribute modified versions of the program. All our future development efforts are focused on the Windows versions of Gemulator and Xformer. If you wish to find out more or to upgrade to these Windows versions, browse our web page at http://www.emulators.com. Features of PC Xformer Classic 3.6 ---------------------------------- PC Xformer is the only complete Atari 8-bit emulator (for any computer) written in machine language. As such, it runs much faster and is more compatible than the various other Atari 8-bit emulators. Features of PC Xformer Classic 3.6 include: - 48K Atari 400/800 emulation - 64K Atari 800XL emulation - 130XE emulation with 256K of extended XE memory - built-in 6502 debugger - displays all ANTIC text and graphics modes, including GTIA modes - 256 color GTIA color palette - player missile graphics with collision detection - horizontal and vertical fine scrolling - display list interrupts, IRQ, and NMI interrupts - reads and writes to ST Xformer and SIO2PC generated disk images - reads MS-DOS files directly - switch Atari BASIC on/off with one keystroke - switch between Atari 400/800 and Atari 800XL emulation with one keystroke - joystick emulation using the keyboard's cursor keys - full speed emulation on any 486 or Pentium - normal and turbo speeds of emulation - the ability to change disk images on-the fly - 4 voices of sound (pure tones only), printer, and modem support - joystick and Gravis gamepad support - command line options to disable BASIC and set emulation modes If you running Windows 95 or Windows NT, consider upgrading to Xformer 96. You'll have the features above with an easy window based user interface which makes loading disk images and cartridge images much easier. Hardware requirements --------------------- PC Xformer Classic is a 32-bit MS-DOS program. It can only run on 32-bit processors such as the 386, 486, and Pentium. It cannot be used on 8-bit and 16-bit processors such as the 8088, 8086, and 286. A VGA or SuperVGA card is also required since CGA and EGA cards cannot display 256 colors. The brand of VGA card is not important. Any VGA card will work. You also need to be running MS-DOS or a DOS compatible operating system, such as the DOS prompt in Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT, or OS/2 Warp. Running PC Xformer Classic -------------------------- To run PC Xformer, simply type XFORMER at your MS-DOS command prompt. You will get an intro screen and at the bottom will be a list of special keyboard keys you need to know about. Press any key and within a few seconds you'll be running Atari BASIC. The most important keys to know about are: Shift+F5 - this exits back to MS-DOS F7 F8 F9 - the START SELECT and OPTION keys F10 - System Reset Shift+F10 - Toggle Atari BASIC on/off Shift+F12 - switch between Atari 800, Atari 800XL, and Atari 130XE modes. End - the Atari BREAK key ` - the Atari logo key (inverse key) Scrl Lock - toggle between normal speed and turbo speed Page Up and Page Down - move the screen up and down a pixel Use the F10 key to "system reset". Press F10 while holding the Shift key to toggle Atari Basic on or off. Remember, most machine language games prefer to not have BASIC present. In Atari 800XL mode you have access to the new graphics modes (GR.9 through GR.15), plus you can run the newer software designed for the 800XL. Switch back to Atari 400/800 mode to run older software, especially old games. The following options can be specified after the XFORMER command: -A Autostart (skip startup screen) -8 Boot up in Atari 800 mode (default is XL/XE mode) -N Boot up with Atari BASIC turned off (default is on) -T Activate turbo speed mode (default is normal speed mode) -J Activate joystick support -S Activate sound emulation -C1 Activate modem support on COM1 -C2 Activate modem support on COM2 -D Activate 6502 debugger -X Activate PC Xformer cable Speed ----- PC Xformer 3.6 has been specifically optimized for use on 486 and Pentium processors, making it absolutely the fastest 6502 emulator in the world. On a 90 Mhz Pentium, PC Xformer 3.6 runs about 10 times faster than a 130XE. Even on the slowest 486 it still runs faster than the real thing. You don't always want super fast speed, so PC Xformer runs at two speeds: "normal speed" and "turbo speed". In normal speed mode, PC Xformer runs at the same speed as an Atari 130XE. Use this mode to run most video games. In turbo speed mode, PC Xformer runs as fast as your PC allows. The faster your PC, the faster PC Xformer runs. On a 386 processor, there is not much of a difference between normal speed or fast speed modes. On 486 and Pentium processors, fast mode is much quicker, up to 10 times faster than a 130XE. To switch between normal and fast modes, press the Scroll Lock (Scrl Lock) button on your PC's keyboard. When the Scroll Lock light is lit, you are in normal speed mode. When it is not lit, you are in fast mode. You can force PC Xformer to boot up in turbo speed mode by using the -T command line switch. Installing Disk Images and accessing MS-DOS files directly ---------------------------------------------------------- PC Xformer 3.6 uses the same 90K, 130K, and 180K disk images used by my older ST Xformer and PC Xformer 8-bit emulators, and it also supports reading and writing of SIO2PC generated disk images. If you specify virtual disk files and/or MS-DOS files after the XFORMER, those will be installed as Atari disk drives. For example, type: XFORMER DOS25.XFD to install DOS 2.5 as D1:. You can specify up to 8 disk image files, which will correspond to drive D1: through D8:. You can also specify individial MS-DOS files on the command line. They will magically appear to the emulator as disk images containing that file. When specifying disk images and other file names on the command line, you can use full path names. For example: XFORMER C:\ATARI\DOS25.XFD D:\BASIC\RAINBOW.BAS will load the DOS 2.5 disk image from the C:\ATARI directory and load a BASIC file as drive D2: from the D:\BASIC directory. This way you do not need to keep all your Atari 8-bit software in one directory. Using PC Xformer with Windows and OS/2 -------------------------------------- When using PC Xformer with a windowed operating system such as Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2 2.1, or OS/2 Warp, we recommend running it in full screen mode. This is because when in a window, the operating system has to spend extra time drawing the contents of the window and other windows on the desktop. Since emulators are speed critical, it is important that they run as fast as possible. To specifically run in a window, upgrade to Xformer 96, the Windows version of PC Xformer. The PC Xformer cable requires very exact timing to operate. If you find that the cable does not work in an MS-DOS prompt in Windows or OS/2, you may need to run directly from real mode MS-DOS (also known as MS-DOS Exclusive mode in Windows 95). To avoid having to type the -C -S and -J switches at the MS-DOS Prompt every time you run PC Xformer, not to mention typing in the names of the disk images, you can set up the Windows Program Manager with icons to launch PC Xformer in different configurations. For example, you might have a configuration where you always run with sound, joysticks, and modem support, and the disk image GAMES.ATR as drive D1:. What you can do is set up an icon in your program manager such that it runs PC Xformer in that configuration. What you do is click on the File menu and choose New. A dialog box will come up. Choose Program Item. Now another dialog box comes up asking you for a description of this item. For Description type in something like XFORMER CLASSIC GAMES. For Command Line, type in the full path of the PC Xformer 3.6 .EXE file. This will usually be C:\XFORMER\XFORMER.EXE, followed by the command like parameters you would have specified normally, such as C:\XFORMER\XFORMER.EXE -C2 -J -S -N -A GAMES.ATR. Under working directory, also type the name of the PC Xformer directory, which is usually be C:\XFORMER. Click OK. Now when click on the newly created icon, PC Xformer automatically runs with the correct settings and loads up the disk image. Repeat this procedure for each different configuration you plan to commonly run PC Xformer in. Use the -A command line switch to skip PC Xformer's startup screen. Using the printer ----------------- Printer support is automatic. You do not need to activate it in any way. Make sure that your printer is connected and is online when you run PC Xformer if you wish to use the printer. Text mode printing is supported on any PC printer. The Atari carriage return character 155 is translated into a DOS carriage return (13, 10) character. To list a Basic program to the printer, type LIST "P:" and to print a file out to the printer from Atari DOS, choose the COPY command and copy the file to the P: device. If you are using a laser printer which needs a form feed character to eject the current sheet of paper, type this from Basic: LPRINT CHR$(12) Patching the Atari OS --------------------- PC Xformer 3.6 comes with Atari Basic revision C, Atari OS revision B and Atari OS revision D built in. However, there are many patch programs available which allow you to make small changes to Basic or to the operating system, such as the various "XL translator" type program for running Atari 800 software on an XL or XE. If you wish to make patches to the built in Basic or OS code, modify the files ATARIBAS.ROM, ATARIOSB.ROM, and ATARIXL.ROM. These are the binary images of Atari Basic, OS rev B, and OS rev D respectively. Simply use a hex editor to modify these files as you wish. PC Xformer 3.5 will look for these files at run time, and if they are present will use them instead of the built in Basic or OS. Of course, you must be familiar with machine language and the Atari operating system to make such changes. If you are not, simply leave the ROM files as they are. Reset ----- Sometimes pressing just F10 to do a System Reset may cause the current program to hang, instead of reset. If this happens, press Shift and F10 to cause a toggle of Basic. This does a "cold boot". Press Shift+F10 again to toggle Basic back to the way you had it. Sample files ------------ We have included a number of freely available Atari 8-bit programs. All the files are in PC Xformer disk image format (.XFD files) or in SIO2PC disk image format (.ATR files). The file DOS25.XFD is a single density Atari DOS 2.5 boot disk. The file MYDOS45D.XFD is a double density MyDOS 4.5 boot disk. Either file can be duplicated to create "new" disk image files, single or double density. Remember to turn off Basic when running most machine language programs (usually files with a COM OBJ or BIN extension). Otherwise they will not run correctly. Files with a BAS extension are of course Atari Basic files and need to be loaded using the LOAD or ENTER commands in Atari Basic. The file XFORMER3.PRG is ST Xformer 3.0, the Atari ST version of Xformer. This file is only usable on an Atari ST or STE computer. The same .XFD disk image files used by PC Xformer can also be used by ST Xformer. Transfering Atari files to your PC ---------------------------------- Downloading files from the Internet or from a CD-ROM is fine, but you probably want to copy your own Atari 8-bit disks to your PC. These are your options: - use the Xformer cable - use the SIO2PC cable - use a null modem cable or two modems - read it on a 5.25" disk drive - have someone else do it The easiest way is to use the Xformer Cable, a cable that we developed in 1988 for use with ST Xformer and which can also be used with PC Xformer. The Xformer cable, which can be built using about $5 of Radio Shack parts, allows any Atari 8-bit disk drive or printer to be plugged in directly to a PC or Atari ST computer via the Centronics parallel port. Read below for more information. Other options: The SIO2PC cable has been around for 5 years and is fairly well known in the Atari 8-bit community. Contact your local Atari dealer, your user group, download files #5281 and #6414 from the Atari 8-bit roundtable on GEnie, or best yet, contact Nick Kennedy directly at 501-967-3843 or write to him at: Nick Kennedy 300 South Vancouver St. Russellville, AR 72801 Another way to transfer files directly to your PC is to use one of several utilities that attempts to read Atari 5.25" disks on your PC's 5.25" disk drive (if you still have one). These utilities are not 100% reliable but they do work for some people. There is one other very common way to transfer a file between any two computers, and that is to use a null modem cable or two modems. Run modem software on both your Atari and your PC and transfer each file one by one over to the PC. Then load it into PC Xformer by specifying it on the command line as drive D2: through D7:. Finally, you can have your Atari disks transfered from Atari 8-bit 5.25" floppy disks to IBM PC 3.5" floppy disks for a small fee by contacting Rob Satonica at: Creative Software Systems 7775 Scottdale Rd. Berrien Springs, MI 49103 phone: (616) 473-3904 Disk transfers with the Xformer cable ------------------------------------- The file QTU.PRG is the Quick Transfer Utility for the Atari ST, for use with the Xformer cable. QTU transfers entire disks from an Atari 8-bit disk drive to the Atari ST and allows you to save the disk as a disk image file (.XFD file). To achieve the same functionality with PC Xformer and a Xformer cable, first create a "blank" disk image file by duplicating either the single density DOS25.XFD file or the double density MYDOS45D.XFD file. You can do this in MS-DOS by typing: copy dos25.xfd newdisk.xfd where newdisk.xfd is whatever name you want to give it, for example, if you are transferring a disk full of games, call it games1.xfd. The run PC Xformer using this new disk image as drive D1: and connect your Atari 8-bit drive (via the Xformer cable) as D2:. You would type something like: xformer -X games1.xfd D2: Atari DOS will boot from the games1.xfd disk image. At that point do a disk copy from D2: to D1. This will transfer the entire contents of your floppy disk in the 8-bit drive to the disk image games1.xfd. Bugs ---- If you encounter any problems with PC Xformer that you feel are a problem, please phone or mail us and let us know about the problem. Do not assume that somebody else has told us about the same problem. Be sure to include a description of your PC (version of DOS or Windows, the amount of RAM, the processor, etc.) the modem/joystick/sound settings, and a description of what you were doing to create the problem. If possible, send along a copy of the disk image file containing the program that causes the problem, or, if the problem can easily be re-created from Atari Basic, a Basic program listing that re-creates the problem. The latest version of Xformer Classic can always be download from our Internet web page at http://www.emulators.com. Even though we're not doing full time development on Xformer Classic, we'll certainly still fix bugs as they pop up. - Darek Mihocka, President of Emulators Inc.