Changes to V2.1 (03/21/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Changed RsrvMem. Added handling of ALL traps. Sometimes traps are used to restore stack and register contents saved on the exception frame. MicroSoft likes to do this to prevent the original stack and register contents from being different when you exit (I think that is the lazy way of doing things). This is why when you exit some MicroSoft programs, the emulation would crash. * Added MAC & IBM 1.44mb floppy support. This *requires* Commodore's HD floppy (Chinon 357A drive guts). SYBIL can not be used to read or write high density format. High density floppys are recognized automatically. Please note that it is not possible to format a low density disk format on a high density floppy (another MAC thing). So, you can not make a high density floppy a 720K IBM disk without covering the high density 'detect' hole (opposite the write protect hole). * Added IBM 720K floppy support. DOSInit, AccessPC, DOSMounter, and Apple File Exchange have been with tested and work as they should. You can use ANY Amiga drive for IBM 720K disks. If you want to allow the formatting of 720K disks, you need to hold down either SHIFT key while inserting a disk. If you do not hold down one of the SHIFT keys, then the disk will only be able to be formatted with 800K MAC/AMAX/EMPLANT format. Please note that you MUST be running a program that has the ability of formatting in MS-DOS (IBM) format, such as Apple File Exchange, AccessPC, DOSMounter, etc. The MAC has no way of formatting or using IBM 720 or 1.44HD disks directly without some support program(s). * Changed reading. ALL formats use FULL track reading (full track writing is being worked on now). This means that ALL formats can read properly in 16+ colors. * The floppy disk routines average 4-5 times faster than before. This is accomplished by FULL track reading, improved encoding & decoding, improved sector caching, and general optimization of code. * Fixed floppy formatting problem that required a floppy to be formatted twice before it was usable....no, you all were not going crazy. :-) * Fixed Format & Verify return error messages. I walked on D0 with one of the SYBIL.LIBRARY routines called after formatting or verifying an entire disk. Formatting and Verifying ALWAYS returned success. * Removed ability to format IBM disks by holding down the SHIFT key on a format. Since the MAC can not read or write IBM disks, it made no sense to allow 720K MAC formatted disks that would not work on an IBM machine. Disks formatted in IBM format were in fact IBM disk format with MAC DOS on them. Pretty useless. * Added experimental iconify routine. Ok, you asked for it, so you got it. Once the emulation has started, you can click in the upper left corner of the window (one behind the info window) on the 'close window' gadget. This will iconify the window to a small window on the WorkBench. * NOTE * Currently, there is no way to expand it back to the full size window when the emulation is running. If you 'SHUTDOWN' on the MAC, the window will expand back to full size. ** NOTE ** OS1.3 users! Due to our extensive use of the Amiga's operating system (and our need for speed), this will be the *last* version of the MAC II/x/cx emulation software that will work under OS1.3. From here on out, we *will* be calling OS2.x specific routines. A4000/A1200 systems will also be using OS3.x specific calls. ************************************************************************** Changes to V2.0 (02/19/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Changed RsrvMem. Moved multi-tasking handling routines into FAST memory resulting in a speed up of up to 20%! RsrvMem also corrects 68040 problems. *NOTE* Please put this as the *very first* item in your S:STARTUP-SEQUENCE. It *must* be run before 'setpatch'. SETPATCH *must* be used if you have a 68040 processor or the MAC will crash. * Fixed 68040 problems with MAC II emulation setup menus. * Miscellaneous cleanup and fixes. * Fixed a few cosmetic problems and renamed the 'SyQuest' program to 'MAC_HDSetup'. Fixed 68040 problems as well. * A4000 owners rejoice! You will now have the ability to run a true 640x480 de-interlaced display in your choice of 2,4,16, or 256 colors! Please note that this video driver steals a full megabyte of memory (this *is* reflected properly in the MEMORY menu). * Added 68040 specific video drivers, one with standard chunky conversion, and one with a lookup table. (V2.4 & 2.5 respectively) * NOTE TO 68040 OWNERS -- A real MAC with a 68040 (Quadras, etc.) require the use of System 7.0.1 or higher for proper operation. Although you can use any System version available with our emulator and the 68040 (that is one up on Apple), we highly recommend that you use System 7.0.1 or 7.1.0 as these systems have custom routines that bypass the necessity of certain FPU emulations by the 68040 handling routines. ************************************************************************** Changes to V1.9A (02/01/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Disabled SOUND. We were experimenting with the sound routines, and since they could cause random lockups, they should have been disabled... ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.9: (02/01/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Added SCSI device support. Enabled the EMPLANT SCSI interface so that SCSI devices can be plugged directly into the SCSI port and used. ALL known SCSI devices (hard drives, SyQuest drives, hand scanners, etc.) appear to work just fine. MAKE SURE THAT THE DEVICE IS SET FOR 'POLLED READS AND WRITES'!! BLIND READS AND WRITES COULD FAIL, DEPENDING ON HOW THE SCSI DRIVER WORKS. "DataWare" (hard drive setup software) works just fine. The SCSI enable/disable control can be found by selecting the MASS STORAGE menu option. * Added CLI input for MAC II. You can now type MAC ? and see the version and the switches (only 1 currently) that are available. The '-s' switch will skip the menu selections and immediately launch the emulator using the existing config file found in the S: directory. You will have to use RUN or RUNBACK to launch the program as it does NOT detach itself. * Changed SYBIL.library! The routines now used for reading MAC disks with SYBIL are incredibly intelligent. You can now have the calibration way off and the unit will adjust itself automatically...no more tweaking the pot for those stubborn MAC disks! ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.8: (01/27/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed problem with System 7.x locking up when either the installer or the System was loaded. This problem only existed with EMPLANT boards not having the serial option. * Added new Hard/SoftKickMMU programs that fix problems with PP&S 040's (including Zeus). ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.7: (01/18/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed a few problems with the DEVICE selection requestors. * Fixed (once again) 32 bit color quickdraw for the A3000s. The System gadget would often times end up corrupted. * A3000 owners rejoice! We have fixed the memory selection so that 4 or 8 megs of 32 bit memory can use the memory for the MAC system! Although not fixing the "32 bit clean" problem that plagues the MAC II/x/cx computers, it does solve the low memory problems found with most A3000s. 6 meg A3000s (4 fast/2 chip) will be able to use about 3 megs of 32 bit memory with emulation. 10 meg A3000s (8 fast/2 chip) will be able to use about 5 megs of 32 bit memory with the emulation. With either system, the amount of memory you can use will vary depending on how much memory the Amiga is using, how badly fragmented the memory is, and what type of auto-config boards are plugged into the machine. * Added command line parse routine to HardKickMMU and SoftKickMMU. There is a single argument of '-q' to not call DisplayBeep() (flash the screen) when the program is run. (You're welcome Scott!) * Fixed a few problems with the file requestor not cleaning up the window during some functions and the random crashing when doing really weird things that only the Germans would do...hahah (Sorry Albert, just had to throw that in) Changes to AmigaVideo2.2/2.3: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed problem with formatting disks. With the introduction of the new keyboard routines, we broke the format routine. Basically, everytime a format was attempted, it was attempted in MAC format, which for the time being has been disabled. Formatting controls still remain the same: AMAX format - Hold down the CONTROL key before format starts. IBM format - Hold down the SHIFT key before format starts (not used yet). MAC format - Hold down both SHIFT & CONTROL keys before format starts (not used yet). EMPLANT format requires no keys to be pressed and is the default format. - NOTE - You can release a key after the formatting has started. You can NOT format under 16 color mode with any format except EMPLANT format. * AmigaVideo 2.3 uses a 256K lookup table for the Chunky to Planar conversion routines. Although this pencils out to be a 27% faster conversion, however, due to DMA contention, this is only about a 7% increase in speed with non-AGA machines. Remember, although this file is apparently smaller in size, it will remove 256K of available memory that could be used for the emulation. * Support for new memory mapping for the A3000 with 4 or 8 megs of fast memory. _Must_ be used with v1.7 or later software! * Write protected ROM image for SuperKickStart machines. * Added parsing for people like Scott Shambarger who run OS3.0 and have two hour audio samples for the screen flash. :-) Arguments: SoftKickMMU -q (-q is the only argument, this means QUIET - no flash) HardKickMMU -q (ditto) Please note - Until the next release of the MAC II/x/cx emulator, we highly recommend that you do NOT attempt to boot a MAC or AMAX formatted floppy while in 16 color mode....you will most likely see a system crash! Also, do NOT attempt to write data to even an EMPLANT formatted floppy while in 16 color mode. We have seen that DMA contention (especially on slower machines) is so severe that the floppys do not function properly with the existing driver while in 16 color mode. 2 & 4 color modes have no problems with any format. HARD DRIVE USERS -- DON'T WORRY ABOUT 16 COLOR MODE, IT ONLY AFFECTS FLOPPYS! :-) ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.6: (01/16/93) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Fixed System7.0/7.1 to function properly. The ADB routines were changed in System 7.x and the Mac was waiting on interrupts to happen that never did. * Fixed 32 bit color quickdraw for all Systems. A3000 owners can now use the 32 bit color quickdraw INIT file in their System folder. * Fixed CPU identification. Previously, we just told the Mac that it was a MAC IIx (because they have six NuBus slots compared to the Mac IIcx's three slots) with a 68030 CPU. There is a potential problem with some Mac software calling 68030 only routines if you had a 68020, or worse yet, calling 68030 cache routines if you had a 68040. * Fixed problem using MacBinary ROM images. Yes, I goofed. I did correctly identify the ROM image as MacBinary, however, since MacBinary files contain a header (128 bytes long) I simply forgot to add 128 to the start of the ROM position. So, when the failsafe routines looked at the ROM, they reported that the ROM image was unusable...I guess those routines work just fine. :-) * Completely rewrote the DEVICE interface. A more reasonable/easier approach to selecting devices was necessary. I think that this is the answer! The LEFT window shows the devices that can be used with emulation. The RIGHT window shows the devices that you have selected (so far) to use with the emulation. The LEFT list of devices is sorted alphabetically. The RIGHT list of devices is in the order that you selected them. This is the order that the Mac will attempt to boot them in. For example, if you have six devices selected, two of which are bootable, whichever of the two bootable devices appears in the list first will be booted from; even if the two devices are last two in the list. Non bootable devices are things those that do not have a Mac System/Finder on them, including unformatted devices. * Rewrite of nearly all code. This was necessary in preparation for the Mac IIsi/ci list. The way the software is written, by simply supplying a list of patch locations, all of the existing patch routines for the Mac II/x/cx emulation can be used to patch the Mac IIsi/ci ROMs. There really is not much difference between the different Macs in the Mac family. * Renamed emulation program from "EMPLANT" to "MAC II". (Yes, we are gearing up for the other emulation modules, so we had to start calling them by their proper names) * Reduced custom screen colors from eight to four. This saves CHIP memory and speeds things up. * Added ability to change the video refresh rate while the emulation is running. Added ability to "Power OFF" the Mac while it is running (in case the Mac side crashes or you are too lazy to do a shutdown). I also made the emulation memory usage information a seperate window. This seemed to confuse a lot of people that were not interested in this information. * Fixed slow mouse problem. The previous video drivers had a problem with moving in the positive (RIGHT/DOWN) direction. If you moved the mouse really, really slow, the mouse pointer (called a 'cursor' in the Mac world) never moved at all. An error was found in the routine that converted Amiga mouse hardware data into the data the Mac uses. * Fixed random lockup problems when switching color modes. We found out that Intuition does not like the OpenScreen() and OpenWindow() functions to be called from within interrupt code, so, we now use signals. * Completely rewrote the keyboard handling routines. We now use the Mac's window to send IDCMP RAWKEY messages. We convert these to the key codes needed by the Mac. * Optimized Chunky-to-Planar conversion routines. The 16 color mode gets faster every time! We got another 13.3% increase in speed. * No longer holds off interrupts. The last version of RsrvMem held off ALL softints and level 2 interrupts. This resulted in some really strange things happening. Under OS1.3, things like MOD players, Imploder, or any other program that used interrupt driven music would play at about 1/10th the normal speed. Also, uploading with a terminal program would give you about 1/10th of the normal transfer speed (or worse). 2400 baud transfers were averaging 23 CPS, while 14400 baud transfers would almost reach 80 CPS. ** NOTE ** With the release of this new version, you *must* be using an AmigaVideo driver v2.0 or higher. ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.2: (11/23/92) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Memory now allocated as contiguous memory to minimize fragmentation. * User interface completely re-written to allow memory selection from any block (type) of memory. * Moved video refresh gadget to the Video Options window. * Fixed problem with configuration. You no longer have to save the configuration, exit and restart to use changed settings. * Fixed AmigaVideo v1.2-->now v1.4. Major oversight=bitplane pointer locations were fixed, and if the OS used oddly spaced bitplanes, the colors went bananas and often crashed the system. * Fixed ReStart option. Now does proper screen closing. We forgot to clear out the fake SWIM and ASC buffers. * Fixed ShutDown option. Totally re-wrote the startup and shutdown procedures, thus curing the wild crashes often experienced. * Fixed problem with high memory (A3000 owners should be happy now). :-) Memory is mirror'd allowing high memory to be used like low mapped memory. * Added caching to EMPLANT floppy format. Substantial difference in speed, especially when in heavy DMA contention. * Fixed interrupt locking problem caused by task switching into an interrupt. * Added NOCLICK option to floppys and turned off "euro-hacker" Power LED flashing when reading sectors (by popular demand). * Fixed floppy selection problem when exiting the floppy menu and returning. * Added version strings to all programs (OS2.x/3.x $VER: style). * Fixed EMPLANT.library routines for determining what kinds of chips are installed on the EMPLANT hardware. * Fixed DUMP256K to use expansion.library located EMPLANT hardware. * Added MAC compatible RS422-->RS232 hardware handshake schematic (IFF pic file) for those of you wanting RTS/CTS ability. * Added complete "walk through" help file on release disk. * Cleaned up code, removed some debugging LED flashing. Hey! If you're really bored, hold down the joystick button when starting the emulation (hold it until the boot screen appears). Now that the system is completely stable, we are going back to look at the hard drive again. We re-wrote a lot of the code because of the errors that we encountered. It appears that the problems really were caused by the interrupts locking up the system, and perhaps signalling problems (all have been corrected). Hang in there people! We are going as fast as we can... ************************************************************************** Changes to v1.1: (11/01/92) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- * The SCSI has been disabled due to unknown random crashing that results in total catastrophe (read as _corrupted hard drive_). * Sound is not available currently. * Apple File Exchange does not function (reads/writes AMAX format instead of IBM...argh!) * Added ability to read & write AMAX formatted disks. * MAC writing has been disabled, reading is fine. * Reselected keys for various functions- * Screen Front to Back: ALT * (keypad) Screen Back to Front: ALT / (keypad) * Format EMPLANT: Default (no key press) Format AMAX: Hold CTRL until format begins Format IBM: Hold SHIFT until format begins Format MAC: Hold CTRL & SHIFT until format begins * ROM Dump temporarily moved to seperate program (saves file as RAM:testfile). Supports 256K ROM SIMM. DIPS not supported...next version. :-) * Added disk Eject/Insert Sprites- (Number of Disk Sprite represents the MAC drive number) X = Eject this disk (The disk can now be safely ejected) ? = Re-Insert the disk. (You must have ejected the disk w/o the MAC telling you to do so) * Changed format/verify routines to allow screen refreshes. * Screen refresh speed enhanced (15% speedup). * Removed AE HD drive auto-eject (will be back next version). Included is a file called "utils". This is a file compressed in .LHA format. Decompress this file to either RAM or your hard drive. The file will be over 800K. Now, use the "Converter" program and convert from FILE to EMPLANT (or AMAX if you like). The disk created will contain a file called ROM INFO, which is used to dump ROMs on a real MAC. You will need an Apple System disk in either AMAX, MAC (if you have SYBIL), or EMPLANT format. Systems 6.02, 6.04, 6.05, 6.07, & 7.0 (if you have a hard drive) will work. These systems can be obtained from MAC dealers as well as public forums such as GEnie, BIX, and FTP sites. Added empser.device to release disk. This is the highspeed Amiga serial device driver using the EMPLANT's hardware (if you have the serial option). ************************************************************************** Release v1.0: (10/06/92) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, here's hoping it works on ALL systems! Please leave comments/questions/criticisms/flames/etc. on our support BBS: (602) 453-9767 24hrs v.32bis+/v.32bis/v.42bis 2400-19200 true connect. Jim Drew * Joe Fenton