Virtual 2600 README
===================

$Id$

Virtual 2600 is BETA software, please report any bugs.

Introduction
------------
Welcome to V2600, an Atari 2600 Emulator for UN*X/X, Linux/SVGAlib, Amiga 
and now DOS systems. I am currently handling the DOS port myself, but I hope
that Dan Boris will be able to take up the DOS side soon. I hate all those
ctrl-M's! 

You can now experience all the fun of old 2600 games on your high powered 
workstation. Thrill to the blocky graphics! Get headaches from the flicker! 
Wallow in nostalgia!

Using the Emulator
------------------
See the man page (v2600.1).

Why?
----
V2600 is the the result on my 3rd year university project. I aimed to preserve
old computer games that would otherwise be lost to the world. It has since 
grown ports on many systems.

Platforms
---------
I have tested V2600 on my home Linux system and on a Sparc 2 running 
SunOS 4.3. I also have successful reports on SGI Irix, DEC UNIX, DOS,
Amiga(distributed separately), and soon BeBox! 

Performance
-----------
The 2600 is notoriously difficult to emulate, especially in C. So I would 
recommend at least a Pentium level processor. The frame buffer speed also 
matters.

On my Pentium 100 I get 47fps on Pacman without sound, 30 with.

Note that enabling sound support slows down the emulation.
Better performance will probably come in later releases.
It also produces quite a bit of debugging output. Give the 

Known Bugs/Limitations
----------------------
SVGAlib version can lock up your machine. (In common with a lot of SVGAlib 
stuff!)

Not all games work. (Spy hunter looks nice though:)

Beware of the file selector, it doesn't always work.

Copyright
---------
Virtual 2600 is free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General 
Public License. See the file COPYING for details.

Credits
-------
A full list of contributors can be found in the file CREDITS. 

Alex Hornby 25.3.1997