09-08-98 Ver 2.4 - large update, some beta features * A request: I am looking for an image of the 8-bit Epyx game "Hellfire Warrior". I'm not sure if it was available for the Atari, but it was for the Apple][. I own this game, but only have the TRS-80 disk image. If you can help, please e-mail rich@cstone.net * Big feature: support for save states (also known as "snapshots"). You must have ZLIB working (the DLL supplied with Atari800Win must be in the path) to use this. Saved states saves _everything_ about your Atari itself, the entire contents of memory, where you are in a program, etc. A save state does NOT save your display, input, or sound settings. When you load a state save, the Atari will be paused on a black screen. Hit F9 to start the saved state. Saved state file sizes will vary based on the machine type and what it was doing / had loaded. Use the File menu to access the Load/Save state features. There are two types of save: normal and verbose. Verbose is ONLY necessary if you have patched ROMS that somebody else wouldn't have. Verbose saves are larger. Save states should be considered a somewhat beta feature. Changes might affect the format as other Atari800 ports adopt it, making the current format obselete. Keep in mind that even if you snapshot a program it may still want to access the disk later; and save states do NOT save disks. If you know a program accesses the disk, you will have to keep the disk handy with your save state to resume later. Save state are machine independent; they will be useable on other ports of Atari800. * Machine language routines here and there; small speed difference. I spent considerable time rewriting some large sections in assembly, and found there was little speed increase in them even when heavily optimized.I'll continue investigating asm for things like Antic though. * Atari crashes are much less dramatic now, as you don't have to exit Atari800Win. The screen will simply go black, you then have the opportunity to change settings, and there is a new Atari/Restart menu option to fire the machine up again (Ctrl-F5 will also work). * Added 512x384 mode. Should help those on slow machines without 320 modes. Shows full overscan and on most cards has that "scanline" feel. * Completely rewrote the keyboard handler, many changes include: - A few layout changes; see README.TXT - Insert/Delete work correctly (char normally, line when shifted) - Clear character now on the Windows Home key - Option/Select/Start can be held down in combinations,fixes some demos - When holding a regular key, pressing then releasing a second key will have no effect (the first key will stay held). - Hold down a regular key, hold down a second. Release the first key. The Atari will register the second key as being held down after exactly 1 frame of no keys. - F1-F4 exist only for XL, returns no keyboard code for other machines. - Help returns no code for non XL/XE machine - With CTRL + SHIFT held, the following keys do NOT work on purpose: J K L ; + * Z X C V B F1 F2 F3 F4 and HELP In many cases the new behavior my seem more limiting than before; but it is now highly accurate compared to the real hardware. Many hours in testing with a real XE back this up. Since there is considerable new code there may be an errant key here or there; please e-mail me if you find keyboard oddities (or if you find things fixed!) * Keyboard templates option added (Options/Keyboard.. menu). This is a complicated feature for expert users, consult the README for details. Do not mess with it if you don't understand the purpose. Briefly, It allows you to remap almost the entire keyboard to anything you wish to define. Helpful for games that use whacked out directional keys like the Ultima series or if you want to exactly duplicate the Atari layout. * Keyboard joystick reworked. Now handles combination keys (numpad4 + numpad8 = diagonal up/right). Ignores your Windows key delay/repeat settings and works right off the keystroke (instant feedback). * Checkbox for "use AGP memory", which controls whether a surface is allocated as "local video memory" in Ddraw terms. This is basically for DDraw windowed modes, and could be faster, musch slower, or no change on any particular card - you'll just have to try it and compare. * Fixed a problem with small graphics selector dialog used in 320 modes. * All full screen modes clear their backgrounds. * Bolder, more ambitious icons, less filling but taste great. Any icon artists out there? * Machine type and speed shown in window title (status bar in full screen) * Finally remembered to add keyboard click. You will notice a slight delay between the keystroke and sound, can't be helped at present. * Fixed a display bug that had crept in when in windowed mode with the display partially off the desktop * If you exit while running full speed, the next time you launch sound will be (correctly) disabled until you switch back to normal speed * Pause shows paused text on Atari screen (for full screen modes) * Fixed crash bug that sometimes occurred changing artifacting modes. 08-03-98 Ver 2.3 * DCM files (an older semi-compressed disk format) can now be converted to ATR directly from within Atari800Win. This is under the File menu. You can select a single or multiple DCM files to start, and then will be asked the destination directory to save the ATR files. * DCM files can be loaded as regular disk images, but they will be read- only since they are in compressed form. Use the DCM->ATR menu option to create an ATR that you can then open read/write. * ATR/XFD files can be compressed with gzip and read directly as disks in compressed form (they also will be read only). The extension used must be ".atr.gz", ".xfd.gz", "atz" or "xfd" for the file to be recognized (I highly prefer .atr.gz and .xfd.gz). ZLIB is used to manage the decompression code, and the DLL is now included with Atari800Win. You can use any recent zlib.dll however; as long as it is in the path somewhere, it will be found. If zlib is not present Atari800win will still load, but won't decompress files. Atari800Win will NOT read ATR/XFDs compressed with ZIP programs (yet). Temporary files created when compressed disks are read are placed in the Windows TMP directory and automatically removed when no longer needed. PLEASE NOTE THAT COMPRESSED FILES ARE DECOMPRESSED BEFORE BEING READ. IF YOU COMPRESS A MEGADISK, IT'S GOING TO TAKE A LONG TIME TO LOAD AND WILL USE UP THE ORIGINAL DISK SPACE ON YOUR HARD DRIVE IN THE TMP DIRECTORY. * Changed graphics dialogs to reflect the apparently common mistake of not de-selecting windowed modes for full screen. The current system is about as intuitive as you can get and still have all the selections available. * Added 1024x768 DirectDraw mode. This is mostly for people with LCD screens that cannot actually switch resolutions. It also (on a fast machine) is slightly better than 800x600 because the Atari screen is more "zoomed in". However it is quite slow, since it is 3X expanded instead of 2X. * Windows not redrawing the desktop when quitting is fixed. * Fixed a problem that could cause the Atari to not reboot on cartridge changes (which was the cause of a few lockups in 5200 mode) * Various prompts (dialogs, messageboxes) were changed to give more helpful hints & directions. * Fixed a SHIFT handling bug where it could be lost as a key but kept as a state (if that's not confusing enough). This fixes a bunch of demos. * Added "Allow ROM Patches" to Hardware dialog. When switched off this automatically disables SIO Patching, and also disables various patches to the machine ROMs (notably HATABS) which might prevent a small number of programs from running * Added no tearing for DDRAW blits option to Graphics dialogs. You can try checking this if you are getting tearing; it could slow things down a lot though, especially if you are running the Atari full speed. * Added CTIA color lookup table to artifacting modes for older games that depended on this color set (CTIA is an older version of the graphics chip that became GTIA in later Ataris) * Mode 2 artifacting is now implemented from the common code base. You might find this a little disconcerting, as it will make your DOS screen fuzzy or artifacted. Try just turning artifacting off when using DOS and then back on for games etc. 07-12-98 Ver 2.2 - 5200 fixes, disk indicators, source code release 06-28-98 Ver 2.1 - Artifacting, emulation fixes 06-21-98 Ver 2.0 - Bugfixes from beta 05-03-98 Ver 1.9 - beta 2, merged code, mmsystem sound, timing fixes 03-21-98 Ver 1.9 - beta release, code base Atari800 0.9.0 09-16-97 Ver 1.4 - Sound updates, recording, DirectInput changes 08-26-97 Ver 1.3 - Small crash patch 08-24-97 Ver 1.2 - Sound 08-13-97 Ver 1.1 - Bug fixes 08-08-97 Ver 1.0 - first public release.