# CPCEC -- http://cngsoft.no-ip.org/cpcec.htm #

	  ####  ######    ####  #######   ####   -------------------------
	 ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##  ##   #  ##  ##  CPCEC, plain text Amstrad
	##       ##  ## ##       ## #   ##       CPC emulator written in C
	##       #####  ##       ####   ##       as a postgraduate project
	##       ##     ##       ## #   ##       by Cesar Nicolas-Gonzalez
	 ##  ##  ##      ##  ##  ##   #  ##  ##  since 2018-12-01 till now
	  ####  ####      ####  #######   ####   -------------------------

## Foreword ##

CPCEC is an emulator of the family of home microcomputers Amstrad CPC (models
464, 664, 6128, Plus and GX4000) whose goal is to be loyal to the original
hardware and efficient in standard modern systems. Thus it brings a faithful
emulation of the Z80 microprocessor and it replicates the behavior of the CRTC
6845 and Gate Array video chips, the PSG AY-3-8912 sound chip, the remaining
circuits found in the original hardware, and the tape deck and floppy disc drive
that made possible loading and running software.

CPCEC includes several related projects. ZXSEC is an emulator of the Sinclair
Spectrum family (48K, 128K, +2/Plus2 and +3/Plus3) based on the components it
shared with the Amstrad CPC family: the Z80 microprocessor, the PSG AY-3-8912
sound chip, the tape system and the NEC765 disc drive controller; CSFEC is an
emulator of the Commodore 64 platform, similarly based on shared code; and MSXEC
is an emulator of the MSX family (1983 MSX, 1985 MSX2, 1988 MSX2+), also based
on shared code.

Software and documentation are provided "as is" with no warranty. The source
code of CPCEC and its binaries follow the GNU General Public License v3, as seen
in the file GPL.TXT within the package.

## Requirements and setup ##

The default build of CPCEC requires a Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system or
later, while the SDL2 build requires any operating system supported by the SDL2
library [http://www.libsdl.org/] from version 2.0.4 or higher. The minimal
hardware requirements are those fitting the operating system, and it's advised
that the main microprocessor runs at 400 MHz at least. Screen resolution in
pixels must be 800x600 at least. A sound card is optional, as well as equipping
a joystick. The mouse can emulate a lightgun to the user's choice.

The emulators span several files: the runnable binaries (by default CPCEC.EXE,
CSFEC.EXE, MSXEC.EXE, ZXSEC.EXE, RUNEC.EXE and XRFEC.EXE in Windows) and the
firmware files C1541.ROM, C64EN.ROM, CPC464.ROM, CPC664.ROM, CPC6128.ROM,
CPCADOS.ROM, CPCPLUS.ROM, MSX.ROM, MSX2.ROM, MSX2P.ROM, MSXDISK.ROM, MSXEC.SHA,
SPEC128K.ROM, SPEC-P-2.ROM, SPEC-P-3.ROM and SPECTRUM.ROM. All these files must
be copied in a single directory, ideally created to host the emulators.

The binaries can be compiled from the source files by following the instructions
in the next paragraphs. GCC 4.9.2, GCC 5.1.0, Pelles C 4.50.113, TCC 0.9.27 and
Clang 3.7.1 work correctly; GCC 4.7.1 makes severe mistakes in compilation and
can generate invalid binaries.

The Windows binaries can be compiled by GCC (or compatible) through the
following commands:

	windres cpcec.rc -Ocoff -ocpcec.res
	gcc -mwindows cpcec.res -O2 -xc cpcec.c -luser32 -lgdi32 -lwinmm
-lcomdlg32 -lshell32 -ocpcec.exe

	windres csfec.rc -Ocoff -ocsfec.res
	gcc -mwindows csfec.res -O2 -xc csfec.c -luser32 -lgdi32 -lwinmm
-lcomdlg32 -lshell32 -ocsfec.exe

	windres msxec.rc -Ocoff -omsxec.res
	gcc -mwindows msxec.res -O2 -xc msxec.c -luser32 -lgdi32 -lwinmm
-lcomdlg32 -lshell32 -omsxec.exe

	windres zxsec.rc -Ocoff -ozxsec.res
	gcc -mwindows zxsec.res -O2 -xc zxsec.c -luser32 -lgdi32 -lwinmm
-lcomdlg32 -lshell32 -ozxsec.exe

Optional DirectDraw support can be achieved by appending `-DDDRAW -lddraw` to
the `gcc ...` commands.

Pelles C and other visual compilers can define the whole project from the source
files CPCEC.C, CSFEC.C, MSXEC.EXE and ZXSEC.C and the resource files CPCEC.RC,
CSFEC.RC, MSXEC.RC and ZXSEC.RC, and guess the additional files on their own
(icons and header files) while the libraries required for the compiling
procedure (if the compiler doesn't recognize them on its own) are USER32, GDI32,
WINMM, COMDLG32 and SHELL32, all them from the Win32 SDK.

The binaries for operating systems supported by SDL2 need different commands.
Some systems may require an additional parameter `-DSDL2_DOUBLE_QUEUE` if the
sound becomes choppy due to the default buffer being too short.

	gcc -DSDL2 -O2 -xc cpcec.c -lSDL2 -ocpcec

	gcc -DSDL2 -O2 -xc csfec.c -lSDL2 -ocsfec

	gcc -DSDL2 -O2 -xc msxec.c -lSDL2 -omsxec

	gcc -DSDL2 -O2 -xc zxsec.c -lSDL2 -ozxsec

Besides, the filenames must be in lower case: the contents of the ZIP archive
may need to be extracted with "unzip -L cpcec-20XXXXXX.zip".

## Configuration and files ##

The behavior of CPCEC can be configured by specifying optional parameters in the
command line. It's convenient to keep the user's preferred parameters by
creating a link or shortcut to the emulator in the system menu and including
said parameters within the link. Options can be abridged in Unix style: for
example `-C -d -J` becomes `-CdJ`. In case of doubt, the parameter `-h` shows a
short help explaining the available options.

* -C0 : display the screen in black and white;
* -C1 : display the screen in dark colour;
* -C2 : display the screen in full colour (by default);
* -C3 : display the screen in light colour;
* -C4 : display the screen in levels of green;
* -c0 : set the scanline mode to full (by default);
* -c2 : set the scanline mode to average;
* -c4 : set the interlace mode to simple;
* -c6 : set the interlace mode to double;
* -c1, -c3, -c5, -c7 : set the scanline and interlace modes as in -c0...-c6,
plus interframe blending;
* -d : start the emulation with the debugger on (by default off);
* -g0, -g1, -g2, -g3, -g4 : set the CRTC type (by default 1);
* -h : short help;
* -j : enable emulation of joystick on keyboard (by default cursors and keys Z,
X and C);
* -J : disable the usage of a joystick plugged to the system;
* -K, -k0 : emulate 64K RAM only
* -k1 : emulate 128K RAM (by default);
* -k2 : emulate 192K RAM;
* -k3 : emulate 320K RAM;
* -k4 : emulate 576K RAM;
* -k5 : emulate 1088K RAM;
* -k6 : emulate 2112K RAM;
* -m0 : start emulation as an Amstrad CPC 464;
* -m1 : start emulation as an Amstrad CPC 664;
* -m2 : start emulation as an Amstrad CPC 6128, by default;
* -m3 : start emulation as an Amstrad Plus (Plus 464, Plus 6128 and GX4000 only
differ in the amount of RAM, the disc drive and the keyboard);
* -o : show onscreen indicators;
* -O : hide onscreen indicators (by default shown);
* -p : enable Playcity audio (by default disabled);
* -P : disable Playcity audio;
* -R : disable real time emulation (by default enabled);
* -S : disable sound (by default enabled if there's a sound card);
* -t : enable stereophony;
* -T : disable stereophony (by default enabled);
* -W : use the full screen rather than a window;
* -X : disable emulation of disc drives (by default enabled);
* -y : enable tape analysis;
* -Y : disable tape analysis (by default enabled; see below);
* -z : enable tape acceleration;
* -Z : disable tape acceleration (by default enabled);
* -! : disable video and audio hardware acceleration;
* -+ : force the windowed mode (instead of full screen) at 100% zoom;
* -$ : turn the normal menu (always visible) into a pop-up (right-click) on
Win32; turn the black-on-white user interface into white-on-black on SDL2.

It's also possible to add file names to the command line: the emulator will try
opening and running the specified files. Thanks to it CPCEC can be linked to the
file extensions CDT, CPR, CSW, DSK and SNA to automatically load said files.

The file types supported by the emulator are divided in four types:

* WAV, CSW and CDT: tape files, or more properly digital dumps of the contents
of a magnetic tape used to store and distribute data and software.
* DSK: disc files, virtual translations of the structure and contents of a
magnetic floppy disc able to contain data and software.
* SNA: "snapshots", integral copies of the state of an emulated system that make
possible resuming in a later time said state of emulation.
* ROM and CPR: firmwares and cartridges. The firmware contains the BIOS and the
BASIC interpreter; cartridges were used by the Amstrad Plus series.

Tape playback relies on two methods (enabled by default) to improve the user
experience by shortening a procedure that was originally very slow: a typical
programme on tape took five minutes to load. The first method (tape
acceleration) simply detects whether there's a tape in and the cassette motor is
active: in that case the emulator starts running at its maximum possible speed.
The second method (tape analysis) examines the current state of the Z80 and
detects whether it's trying to read the tape in a known way: in that case it
modifies its state to instantly generate the playback results instead of waiting
for the tape to raise the next signal.

Automatic loading of disc files tries detecting on its own the required booting
method. Because some discs had more than one possible booting point and the
emulator is in risk of choosing an unwanted one, the user can choose it on his
own by typing the command `RUN"FILENAME` (where FILENAME is the booting file,
that is often specified in the software instructions, or be simply DISC or DISK)
in the emulated system and pressing RETURN. In case of doubt, the command CAT
shows the list of files stored inside the disc.

## Functions ##

Once it's running, CPCEC shows the screen of the emulated system and obeys the
user's commands, that besides those belonging to said system (control and
alphanumeric keypresses, motions of the joystick, either real or emulated
through the keyboard) include a series of special function keys. In case of
doubt, key F1 shows a short index of these function keys.

* F1: short help;
* F1+Control: emulator authorship;
* F2: record the emulation's current state into a snapshot;
* F2+Control: record again the last selected snapshot;
* F3: load and run a tape file, disc file, snapshot or cartridge;
* F3+Control: load again the last selected snapshot;
* F4: enable (or disable) sound emulation;
* F4+Control: enable (or disable) the keyboard-emulated joystick;
* F5: choose the emulated CPC firmware, that can be a ROM file, an INI file or a
CPR-formatted cartridge;
* F5+Shift: insert Dandanator cartridge; bear in mind that these cartridges are
internally different to the CPC firmwares and thus must be handled separately;
* F5+Control: reset the emulation;
* F5+Control+Shift: remove Dandanator cartridge;
* F6: enable (or disable) realtime emulation;
* F6+Control: raise the speed of the emulated Z80 from 4 MHz to 8, 12 and 16
MHz;
* F6+Control+Shift: lower its speed to 12, 8 and 4 MHz;
* F7: insert a disc file into the virtual disc drive A; notice that the access
mode is read-only unless the user explicitly enables read-write access on the
file selection dialog;
* F7+Shift: insert a disc file into the virtual disc drive B;
* F7+Control: remove the disc from the virtual disc drive A;
* F7+Control+Shift: remove the disc from the virtual disc drive B;
* F8: insert a tape file in the virtual tape deck;
* F8+Shift: start recording a new tape file;
* F8+Control: remove the tape from the virtual tape deck;
* F9: enable the debugger (see below);
* F9+Shift: show (or hide) the onscreen indicators;
* F9+Control: enable (or disable) tape acceleration;
* F9+Control+Shift: enable (or disable) tape analysis;
* F11: toggle the colour mode between monochrome, green and three levels of
colour of increasing brightness;
* F11+Shift: ditto in reverse, moving through decreasing brightness colour
levels;
* F11+Control: change the type of scanlines, from half scanlines to double
interlace;
* F11+Control+Shift: ditto in reverse, from double interlace to half scanlines;
* F12: record the content of the screen into a BMP file in the emulator's
directory;
* F12+Mays: record a video in the temporary format XRF (see below in "Videos");
* F12+Control: start recording (or stop) the sound into a WAV file;
* F12+Control+Shift: start recording (or stop) the sound into a YM file;
* Pause: stop (or resume) emulation;
* Alt+Return: maximize (or restore) the window. The menu becomes hidden when
maximizing the window with these keys.

SDL2-based versions are slightly different because they provide their own
graphical interface; the menu shows up when the user presses F10 on the keyboard
or right click on the mouse, and to change the disc file access mode the user
must press TAB within the file selection dialog shown by F7 or F7+Shift. The
user can handle the dialogs with the keyboard or the mouse: in the menus,
clicking on a menu item will select it, while in other dialogs an item is
selected by clicking on it (if it isn't visible the list will scroll to reveal
it) and accepted by clicking on it again. All dialogs can be left by clicking
the mouse while it lies outside the dialog.

Files BMP and WAV are the namesake standard files of image and sound. YM files
are dumps of the sound chip states, that because of their usage in other
platforms besides the Amstrad CPC (Spectrum 128, MSX, Atari ST...) can be
emulated and played back independently in third party programmes such as STSOUND
and AY-EMUL. Notice that the scanline mode (option that simulates several types
of screen) mirrors itself on the recordings as well as on the screen, and that
each mode has a different impact on the programme performance: the normal mode
consumes the most processing power, and the double interlace, the least.

INI files can be used to define a "profile", a set of extra ROMs to load on top
of the current firmware. Internally they're simple text files where each line
defines an attribute or a ROM:

* type = 0..3 : sets the firmware type (for example 0 stands for CPC464) as seen
in the command line parameters -m0..3;
* bank = 0..6 : sets the RAM size (for example 0 stands for 64K) as seen in the
parameters -k0..6;
* crtc = 0..4 : sets the CRTC type, as seen in the parameters -g0..4;
* fddc = 0..1 : sets whether the floppy disc drive controller is enabled (1) or
disabled (0);
* lowest=filename : sets the LOW ROM content; the ROM file must be located in
the same directory where the profile is;
* highXX=filename : sets the content of HIGH ROM slot XX, where XX is a
two-digit hexadecimal number: "00" is 0, "0A" is 10, "10" is 16, etc. for
example HIGH07=PARADOS.ROM would place PARADOS.ROM in slot 7.

The onscreen indicators show the state of the disc drives (track number, busy or
idle), the tape deck (busy or idle) and the joystick.

The following keys adjust the frameskip: the higher this parameter, the lower
the required processing power, but also the lower the visual smoothness. Ideally
it should keep its value to 0 unless 1.- the system lacks enough processing
power, or 2.- the user needs to speed the emulation up for a while.

* Num.+ : increases the value of frameskip, up to 25;
* Num.- : decreases the value of frameskip, down to 0;
* Num.* : sets the value of frameskip to the maximum, 25;
* Num./ : sets the value of frameskip to the minimum, 0.

The menu also includes several additional options (for example CRTC type and RAM
size) as well as actions such as flipping the sides of inserted discs, browsing
the contents of the current tape, and enabling several hardware extensions:
Dandanator cartridges, lightguns, Playcity and Digiblaster sound chips, etc.

CPCEC supports drag-and-drop. Dropped files will be automatically loaded (as F3
does) unless the Shift key is down; in this case they will be inserted as F7 and
F8 do.

ZIP and GZIP archives can be read by CPCEC (if there are more than one file
inside, a list will be shown so the user can choose the required file) but their
contents cannot be modified.

The mapping between the real keyboard and the emulated is straightforward
(alphanumeric table, control keys, numeric keypad, cursors...) with the only
particularities of DELETE for CLR and INSERT for COPY, as their functions are
equivalent but modern keyboards no longer place these keys within the
alphanumeric table.

## Debugger ##

The debugger is used to stop the emulation and examine its internal state. It
was originally based on a command line interface; it has since been updated into
a cursor-driven user interface divided into four panels: disassembly (top left),
registers (top right), memory dump (bottom left) and stack (bottom right). The
left half (read only) of the registers panel shows the hardware registers (Gate
Array, CRTC, etc.) while the right half (read-write) shows the Z80 registers
proper. The values shown on screen and the command parameters use hexadecimal
notation.

* Cursors, Page Up and Page Down move the cursor within the current panel;
* Tab (or Shift+Tab) move the cursor to the next (or previous) panel;
* Digits from 0 to 9 and letters from A to F modify the value under the cursor;
* Stop (".") creates or deletes a breakpoint in the current cursor location in
the disassembly;
* Comma (",") toggles the behavior of illegal opcode $EDFF, either as in normal
mode ("BREAK-") where it does nothing special or in development mode ("BREAK+")
where its a breakpoint;
* G ("go to") requests an address (in hexadecimal by default, in decimal if
preceded by ".") and moves the cursor to its location in the disassembly or the
memory dump;
* H ("help") shows a short help;
* I ("input") requests a filename and loads its contents onto memory starting
from the current location of the cursor;
* J ("jump to") sets the PC to the location under the cursor in the disassembly;
* L ("log") requests an 8-bit register (B, C, D, E, H, L, F or A) and sets a
special breakpoint in the current instruction under the cursor; from then on,
whenever that instruction takes place, the value of the 8-bit register will be
sent to a log file first chosen by the user;
	+ K closes the log file;
* M toggles the contents of the memory dump between what the Z80 can read (RAM
or ROM; the separator between hexadecimal and ASCII fields is `/`) and what it
can write (RAM only; the separator is `\`);
* O ("output") requests a length in bytes and a filename, and creates a file
with a memory dump starting from the current location of the cursor;
* P ("print") requests a length in bytes and a filename, and creates a file with
a disassembly (disassembly panel) or a hexa dump (memory dump panel) starting
from the current location of the cursor;
* Q ("IRQ") runs the emulation until reaching an interruption;
* R ("run to") runs the emulation until reaching the operation under the cursor
in the disassembly;
* S ("search") requests either an ASCII string (case insensitive) or a
hexadecimal string preceded by "$" (for example `SOS` becomes `$534F53`) and
searches the memory for it since the current location until the last valid
address. If it finds the string it moves the cursor next to it in either the
disassembly or the memory dump;
	+ N ("next") searches again the memory for the same string;
* T ("timer") resets the timer; its value increases as emulaton goes on;
* U ("return") resumes the emulation until reaching the current call's return
address;
* V ("view") changes the debugger appearance, toggling black or white colours
and thin or bold characters;
* W ("watch") toggles between the emulation debugger and the graphics viewer;
the cursors, Page Up/Down and key "G" browse the memory, Home and End shrink and
expand the graphics width, and Tab toggles between horizontal and vertical mode;
* X toggles the classic/Plus hardware information panel;
* Y requests a length in bytes and an 8-bit value, then fills the memory with
said value starting from the current location of the cursor;
* Z deletes all breakpoints;
* Space ("step into") runs exactly one operation and stops on the next
operation;
	+ Shift+Space runs operations during one whole scanline;
* Return ("step over") resumes the emulation until reaching the next operation.
It behaves differently from SPACE if the current instruction performs a call;
* Escape stops the debugger and resumes the emulation.

Usage of upper and lower case is unimportant; the debugger isn't case sensitive.

## Videos ##

Videos are recorded as XRF files, a middle step (low compression, low CPU usage)
previous to the generation of conventional video files.

The included tool XRFEC turns a XRF-type file into an AVI-type file. It works in
two different ways, one is exclusive of Windows, the other one is general.

When compiling the tool for Windows (it needs the system library AVIFIL32: "gcc
-lavifil32 -lvfw32 -xc xrfec.c -oxrfec.exe") and running it (the syntax is
"xrfec source.xrf target.avi ABCD") it will read the file "source.xrf" and
generate a file named "target.avi" with the help of the video codec ABCD, if
it's available. Running the tool without parameters shows the help and the list
of available codecs; running it without a target parameter prints the source
file's parameters. It's advised to install and use the codec ZMBV developed by
the DOSBOX project because it provides the best performance in pixellated
recordings like these.

In other systems XRFEC cannot directly use any codec, so the output is an AVI
file without any compression (image is RGB 24 bpp, sound is stereo PCM);
fortunately, it can generate it through the console by specifying "-" instead of
"target.avi" and feed a video encoding tool, for example FFMPEG: the command
line "xrfec source.xrf - | ffmpeg -i - target.avi" will delegate on FFMPEG the
task of encoding the AVI file. Read the documentation of FFMPEG on this matter.

## ZXSEC ##

ZXSEC is an emulator of the Sinclair Spectrum family (48K, 128K, +2/Plus2 and
+3/Plus3) based on the components it shared with the Amstrad CPC family: the Z80
microprocessor, the PSG AY-3-8912 sound chip, the tape system and the NEC765
disc drive controller. It also optionally emulates several add-ons: the Spectrum
Dandanator extension, the Beta128 disc interface, the Pentagon 128 board, the
64-colour ULAplus video chip and the AY-Melodik 48K and Covox $FB sound chips.

It spans the files ZXSEC.EXE, SPECTRUM.ROM, SPEC128K.ROM, SPEC-P-2.ROM and
SPEC-P-3.ROM, and otherwise runs the same as CPCEC, with several differences:

* option -mX chooses one out of four possible models: -m0 (48K), -m1 (128K), -m2
(+2) or -m3 (+3);
* option -K enables the Spectrum 16K memory mode (disabled by default) if the
chosen model is Spectrum 48K;
* option -X disables the disc drive if the chosen model is Spectrum +3, that
thus becomes a +2A instead; same outcome can happen on runtime by disabling
"Settings: Disc drive" and selecting the firmware SPEC-P-3.ROM;
* options -p and -P enable and disable the Pentagon timings; they can be toggled
within the emulator with Shift+F6, too;
* Control+Shift+F8 starts (or stops) the cassette motor, because the CPC
hardware includes a built-in tape control, while the Spectrum hardware lacks it;
* SHIFT emulates the CAPS key, CONTROL emulates SYMBOL, cursors emulate
CAPS+5/6/7/8, SHIFT LOCK emulates CAPS+2 (CAPS LOCK), TAB emulates CAPS+1 (EDIT)
and ESCAPE emulates CAPS+SPACE (BREAK);
* joystick options apply to the Sinclair 2 interface by default; the menu and
the options -g0, -g1, -g2, g3 and -g4 allow choosing the type of joystick.

ZXSEC can show Gigascreen effects, for example the Spectrum 128 demo "Mescaline
Synesthesia" (2009 DeMarche) through the interlace and blending options in the
Video menu; the non-interlaced non-blending modes will flicker.

## CSFEC ##

CSFEC is an emulator of the Commodore 64 system (PAL model) based on the general
framework of CPCEC and ZXSEC. It can read PRG programme files, TAP and T64 tape
images and CRT cartridges, and it optionally supports one extra SID chip at port
$D420 or $DE00, or two extra chips at ports $D420 and $D440 or $DE00 and $DF00.

It spans the files CSFEC.EXE, C64EN.ROM and C1541.ROM, and runs like CPCEC and
ZXSEC, with some few differences:

* no option -mX as just one model is emulated at the moment;
* extended memory is available (-k0..-k6, ranging from 64K to 2112K) but the
user must choose between GeoRAM and REU modes (they're mutually incompatible)
with -g or -G in the command line, or within the menu;
* firmware files (such as the included C64EN.ROM) are 20K files where the first
8K are the KERNAL ROM, the next 8K are the BASIC ROM, and the final 4K are the
CHAR ROM.
* ESCAPE emulates the RUN/STOP key, TAB emulates CONTROL, CAPS LOCK emulates
CONTROL+SHIFT, CONTROL emulates the C= key, INSERT emulates the POUND key,
DELETE emulates ARROW UP, HOME emulates CLR/HOME, END emulates RESTORE and the
numeric keypad emulates the F1-F8 function keys; notice that CSFEC automatically
takes care of the dual SHIFT keypresses generated by some keys, for example
CURSOR UP = CURSOR DOWN + SHIFT;
* joystick options apply to the C64 joystick port #2 by default; the menu allows
choosing the joystick port #1 instead.

CSFEC can play the sampled sound from titles such as "Stormlord" if the option
"Play SID 4th voice" is on, following the impact of the SID chip type in real
machines on sample playback.

## MSXEC ##

MSXEC is an emulator of the MSX family (and more exactly the 1983 MSX, 1985 MSX2
and 1988 MSX2+ models) also based on the general framework of CPCEC and its
siblings. It supports tapes (WAV, CSW, TSX and CAS formats), discs (DSK format;
internally MSXEC emulates a Western Digital-like disc controller) and cartridges
with configurable mappers and static RAM.

It spans the files MSXEC.EXE, MSXEC.SHA, MSX.ROM, MSX2.ROM, MSX2P.ROM and
MSXDISK.ROM and runs like CPCEC, ZXSEC and CSFEC. Again, there are several
differences:

* option -mX chooses one out of three possible models: -m0 (1983 MSX), -m1 (1985
MSX2) or -m2 (1988 MSX2+);
* extended memory is available (-k0..-k6, ranging from 64K to 2048K), with the
only particularity being the two 64K modes: one without a RAM mapper (-k0,
compatible with several pre-MSX2 games) and another one with a mapper (-k1) as
expected in MSX2 machines;
* standard firmware files are either 32K long (1983 MSX: 16K BIOS and 16K BASIC
glued together), 48K (1985 MSX2: the same 32K from 1983 MSX, plus 16K SUB) or
80K (1988 MSX2+: the same 48K from 1985 MSX2, plus 32K KANJI);
* the C-BIOS firmwares are supported, albeit with a slightly different format:
48K for 1983 MSX (16K BIOS + 16K BASIC + 16K LOGO) and 64K for 1985 MSX2 and
1988 MSX2+ (16K BIOS + 16K BASIC + 16K LOGO + 16K SUB);
* INSERT, DELETE and HOME emulate their namesake keys, END emulates the STOP
key, PAGE UP emulates CODE, PAGE DOWN emulates GRAPH and the numeric keypad
emulates the F1-F5 function keys (1-5) and SELECT (6).
* Japanese input extensions JIS 128/256K are supported, MSXEC will automatically
load a file named MSXJIS1.ROM (128K) or MSXJIS2.ROM (256K) if it shares path
with the emulator;
* the MSX-MUSIC interface is supported; MSXEC will automatically load a file
named MSXMUSIC.ROM (16K) if it shares path with the emulator; if said file is
missing, the OPLL support will rely on a dummy ROM without BASIC functions;
* primary and secondary slots are predefined: in all models PSLOT 0 stores BIOS
and BASIC (plus LOGO in C-BIOS firmwares), PSLOT 1 is the primary cartridge slot
(cartridges can be up to 4096K long) and PSLOT 2 is the disc drive controller,
effectively keeping the secondary cartridge slot to itself. In the 1983 MSX
model PSLOT 3 is the RAM; in other models PSLOT 3 is divided in four secondary
slots, namely SSLOT 0 (unused), SSLOT 1 (the 1985 MSX2 SUB ROM, plus KANJI ROM
in the 1988 MSX2+ model), SSLOT 2 (RAM) and SSLOT 3 (MSX-MUSIC, when enabled);
* a list of cartridge SHA-1 signatures and their corresponding mappers is stored
in a file named MSXEC.SHA; MSXEC uses it to automatically select mappers for
known cartridges.

MSXEC can show hi-res video modes, such as in the MSX2+ demo "Interlacing Demo"
(1989 Cracxy Crew) through the interlace options in the Video menu, as in ZXSEC.

## RUNEC ##

RUNEC is a simple tool that takes a file as a parameter and launches the most
fitting emulator. In some cases the file extension is sufficient to tell the
file formats apart, but there are emulators that share file extensions (for
example SNA is common to CPCEC and ZXSEC) so RUNEC examines the contents of the
file to make an educated guess. Non-filename parameters will be passed to the
emulator: for example, "runec gameover.szx -d" will feed the Spectrum snapshot
"gameover.szx" to ZXSEC and launch in debug mode (parameter "-d").

## Acknowledgements ##

This emulator owes its existence to a series of people and societies that are
listed as follows:

* The firmware files included in the package are Amstrad's properties, who
allows the emulation of their old computer systems and supports the distribution
of their firmwares as long as their authorship and contents are respected, and
whom I wholeheartedly thank for the creation of those magnificent computers and
the good will towards their emulation.
* This emulator was my final project for the Computer Engineering postdegree at
the Distance-Learning National University (Universidad Nacional de Enseñanza a
Distancia, UNED), a project directed by professor José Manuel Díaz Martínez and
ultimately awarded a 100% and the right to a honorable mention.
* The documentation about the system comes from cpcwiki.eu, cpc-power.com,
cpcrulez.fr and quasar.cpcscene.net.
* The alpha tests were handled by Denis Lechevalier.

## Appendix: test cases ##

The following list states the one hundred titles that made the bulk of the
emulator tests during its development. Several titles span more than one test
(for example "Donkey Kong" is both a protected tape and a middle case of
multiple image modes at once); they're mentioned in the first type of test.

Diagnostics:

* Z80 Instruction Exerciser ZEXALL (2004 public domain)
* PLUSTEST (2002 Richard Wilson)

Simple cases:

* Sultan's Maze / Laberinto del Sultán (1984 Gem Software / Amsoft)
* Oh Mummy (1984 Gem Software / Amsoft)
* Roland on the Ropes / Fred (1984 Indescomp / Amsoft)
* Roland in the Caves / La Pulga (1984 Indescomp / Amsoft)

Tape files:

* Unprotected:
	+ Roland in Time (1984 Gem Software / Amsoft)
	+ Manic Miner (1985 Software Projects / Amsoft)
	+ Jet Set Willy (1985 Software Projects / Amsoft)
	+ Knight Lore (1985 Ultimate)
	+ Alien 8 (1986 Ultimate)
* Simple protections:
	+ Technician Ted (1985 Hewson)
	+ Abu Simbel Profanation (1986 Dinamic)
	+ Deflektor (1987 Costa Panayi / Gremlin Graphics)
	+ Desperado (1987 Topo Soft)
	+ Humphrey (1988 Made in Spain / Zigurat)
* Middle protections:
	+ Donkey Kong (1986 Arcana / Ocean)
	+ MASK (1987 Gremlin Graphics)
	+ Operation Wolf (1988 Imagine)
	+ Rainbow Islands (1989 Graftgold / Ocean)
* Complex protections:
	+ Rasputin (1985 Paul Hibbard / Firebird)
	+ Spiky Harold (1985 A.Rogers / Firebird)
	+ Druid (1986 Firebird)
	+ Split Personalities (1986 Domark)
	+ Last Mission (1986 Opera Soft)
	+ Marmalade (1987 MBC Informatique)
	+ Gonzzálezz (1989 Opera Soft)
	+ Twinworld (1990 Ubi Soft)

Strange cases:

* Z80:
	+ Sabre Wulf (1985 Ultimate)
	+ Bigfoot (1989 Codemasters)
* PIO:
	+ Nodes of Yesod (1986 Odin)
	+ Prehistorik (1991 Titus)
	+ Antiriad / Sacred Armour of Antiriad (1987 Palace Software)
* Ports:
	+ Skweek (1989 Loriciels)
	+ Night Shift (1990 Lucasarts)
	+ Hero Quest (1991 Gremlin Graphics)

Middle cases:

* Multiple image modes or colour palettes at once:
	+ Sorcery (1985 Gang of Five / Virgin Games)
	+ Kong Strikes Back (1985 Ocean)
	+ Crafton & Xunk (1986 Ere Software)
	+ Elite (1986 Bell and Braben / Firebird)
	+ Amaurote (1987 Binary Design / Mastertronic)
	+ Feud (1987 Binary Design / Mastertronic)
	+ Gauntlet (1987 Gremlin Graphics)
	+ Renegade (1987 Arcana / Imagine)
* Fast smooth hardware scroll:
	+ TLL / Tornado Low Level (1985 Vortex Software)
	+ Thing on a Spring (1986 Gremlin Graphics)
	+ Ghosts'n Goblins (1986 Elite)
	+ Prohibition (1987 Infogrames)
* Screen bigger than usual (overscan):
	+ Arkanoid (1987 Probe / Imagine)
	+ Arkanoid 2: Revenge of Doh (1988 Imagine)
* Hardware double buffer:
	+ Sol Negro (1988 Opera Soft)
	+ Mutan Zone (1988 Opera Soft)
	+ Rescate Atlántida (1989 Creep Soft / Dinamic)
	+ AMC / Astro Marine Corps (1989 Creep Soft / Dinamic)
* Sampled sound:
	+ Enigma de Aceps (1986 ACE Software)
	+ Dragon Ninja (1988 Imagine)
	+ Robocop (1988 Ocean)

Disc files:

* CP/M 2.2 (1984 Digital Research / Amstrad)
* CP/M Plus (1985 Digital Research / Amstrad)
* Abadía del Crimen (1987 Opera Soft)
* Corsarios (1990 Opera Soft)
* Ghostbusters 2 (1989 Software Studios / Activision)
* SWIV (1991 Storm / Sales Curve)
* Addams Family / La familia Addams (1991 Ocean)
* 5KB Demo 3 (1999 Duncan + LBB)

Advanced cases:

* Mission Genocide (1987 Paul Shirley / Firebird)
* Warhawk (1987 Proteus / Firebird)
* Dynamic Duo (1988 Probe / Firebird)
* Rastan (1988 Probe / Imagine)
* Skateball (1988 Ubi Soft)
* Turrican (1990 Probe / Rainbow Arts)

Amstrad Plus:

* Arnold 5 Diagnostic Rom Version 1.3 (1990 Amstrad)
* Burnin' Rubber (1990 Ocean)
* Navy Seals (1990 Ocean)
* Copter 271 (1991 Loriciel)
* Fire 'n Forget 2 (1990 Titus)
* Dick Tracy (1991 Titus)
* No Exit (1990 Coktel Vision)
* Robocop 2 (1990 Ocean)
* Switchblade (1990 Gremlin Graphics)
* World of Sports (1990 Epyx)
* 1st Plus Demo (1991 GPA)
* Eerie Forest (2017 Logon System)

Very advanced cases:

* Turrican 2 (1991 Enigma Variations / Rainbow Arts)
* Facehugger Megademo (1991 Face Hugger)
* Zap't'Balls (1992 Amstrad CPC International)
* Super Cauldron (1992 Titus)
* Prodatron Megademo (1992 Prodatron)
* Prehistorik 2 (1993 Titus)
* Voyage '93 (1993 BENG)
* Overflow 5 Previews (1994 Overflow)
* Big'O Full'O Dem'O (1998 Arkos)
* Byte '98 (1999 Mortel & Overlanders)
* École Buissonière (2000 Overlanders)
* DTC (2006 Arkos)
* Orion Prime (2009 Cargosoft)
* Edge Grinder (2011 Cosine & Format War)
* Batman Returns (2011 Batman Group)
* Bloc Us (2011 Benediction)
* Super Edge Grinder (2012 Cosine & Format War)
* R-Type 128 (2012 Easter Egg)
* Still Rising (2013 Vanity)
* Yet Another Plasma! (2012 Logon System)
* Breaking Baud (2015 CRTC & 3LN)
* Megablasters: Escape from Castle in the Clouds (2015 Project Argon)
* Imperial Mahjong (2016 Cargosoft)
* Logon's Run (2017 Logon System)
* Wunderbar (2017 Arkos & Benediction)
* Isometrikum (2018 Vanity)
* Still Scrolling (2018 Music2Eye & Praline)
* PhX (2018 Condense)

## Version log ##

- 20190314 -- first public release.
- 20190317 -- second public release. Fixed Win32 joystick bugs: JoyGetPos
returns ZERO on OK, not on ERROR.
- 20190318 -- third public release. By default the window shows a menu; new
option -+ hides it.
- 20190325 -- fourth public release. Onscreen indicators (hide them with -O);
fixed bugs in ZXSEC that slowed emulation down when the frameskip wasn't zero,
and another bug in audio recording on WAV files.
- 20190331 -- fifth public release. Tapes can be browsed, either by file
position (WAV and CSW) or by block (CDT, TZX and TAP).
- 20190404 -- sixth public release. Fixed a Z80 emulation bug in IRQ logic.
Configuration (computer model and file paths) is kept across sessions in a INI
file.
- 20190408 -- seventh public release. Fixed a bug in the YM3 file recording,
another one in the ZXSEC internal timings, and one more in the debugger commands
with optional parameters.
- 20190419 -- eighth public release. Added options for image and sound
interpolation; tape automatically rewinds itself when it reaches the end (à la
FUSE); fixed a bug in TZX files that store 0 instead of 8 in the "used bits"
field, another bug in CUSTOM INFO blocks in TZX files, and another one when
ZXSEC loads a 48K SNA file in Plus3 mode (users should manually switch to a safe
model beforehand anyway). INI files now remember the names of the last used
files.
- 20190430 -- ninth public release. Softer B/W Spectrum palette; fixed bug in
FDC sector size calculation if GAP datas are stored (Loriciels' discs); added
simple memory contention to ZXSEC ("Amaurote", "Black Lamp", "Puzznic", "Sly
Spy", "Zub"...).
- 20190524 -- tenth public release. Added support for CDT/TZX file blocks 0x24
and 0x25 (loop start and ending) (cfr. BATMAN.TZX), fixed bugs in the handling
of weak sectors in DSK files (cfr. "Titus Classiques"), YM file recording is
reentrant, fixed a bug in INI files with empty fields and added the option
`autorewind <0|1>` to rewind (or remove) a tape when playback reaches the end.
- 20190526 -- minor patch fixing a bug in autorun mode: opening menus and
switching windows cancelled the automatic keyboard.
- 20190731 -- eleventh public release. Added a new UI-based debugger (typing
commands is no longer needed) and support for ZIP archive reading based on
PUFF.C from the ZLIB project, upgraded GCC to 5.1.0 and removed all `inline`
tags (they did more harm than good), and generally reworked all internals to
make them OS-independent. Several details improved as well: the file selector
fixes a bug in Win10 (and in some cases in Win7), "browse tape" dialog shows the
file name, Spectrum Plus3 automatically becomes Plus2A to load tapes, `auto
rewind` shows up in Edit menu and fixes bugs in CSW files, and sound emulation
has improved, for example "Terminus" on CPC plays sound and "Agent X II" on
Spectrum is no longer noisy.
- 20190809 -- minor patch restoring the "silent" discarding (i.e. without error
codes) of write operations in read-only discs and allowing the automatic booting
of IBM-formatted discs.
- 20190817 -- minor patch fixing a crash when booting tapes right when the
automatic frameskip kicks in.
- 20190831 -- minor patch fixing several bugs (booting two-sided discs with FLIP
SIDE option on, recording snapshots or tapes after loading a snapshot or tape
from a ZIP archive), improving several details (loading snapshots with memory
compression, emulating up to 576K RAM) and redefining the menus (Edit is divided
into Edit and Settings, Image and Sound become Video and Audio, new video filter
functions...) and the command line: "-+" now limits the zoom to integer values;
"-!" inherits the option of hiding the menu.
- 20191003 -- twelfth public release. Precise (albeit not perfect yet) memory
contention and ULA noise ("snow") on Spectrum: "48K Timing Tests" passes all
tests but 36 and 37, and "128K Timing Tests" fails on just six tests. "Mask 3:
Venom Strikes Back" draws the attribute and border effects on their precise
locations on all platforms (48K, 128K/Plus2, Plus3) and Software Creations'
"Black Lamp", "LED Storm" and "Sly Spy" behave well on 128K machines.
Improvements in the debugger: fixed disassembly panel invalid cursor locations,
added optional tall characters, avoided debug+pause clashing, new key M toggles
memory dump ROM+RAM and RAM-only modes. Improved ZIP handling (ZIP archives are
no longer locked, files within archives are filtered by extension), user
interface fixes.
- 20191004 -- minor patch making the debugger options set with V and M stick
between sessions.
- 20191117 -- thirteenth public release. More precise emulation of type 1 CRTC
(by default instead of 0) in CPCEC ("From Scratch", "Pinball Dreams"...) and 48K
memory contention in ZXSEC ("Starion", "Black Lamp"...). CPCEC also allows
choosing the length of the V-hold signal (for example "Thunder Blade" needs a
short signal) and whether horizontal sync must be flexible ("Batman Returns",
"Pinball Dreams"...) or not ("CPC 30th Anniversary Megademo", "PhX").
Unfortunately, some demos that worked well in past versions now suffer problems
that cannot be solved by selecting another CRTC. Removed third joystick button
in CPCEC, no real joystick ever included it. The ZXSEC joystick is Sinclair 2 by
default.
- 20191130 -- minor patch fixing a bug when running CPCEC and ZXSEC on a screen
shorter than 600 px, another one when recording a WAV file, and another one in
the port logic of CPCEC ("Knight Rider", OUT &0088,&88 must not reach the Gate
Array, but "Hero Quest", OUT &00C0,&C0 must reach it). The CRTC types 0 and 2
have improved ("Face Hugger Ultimate Megademo: Tantrum", "5KB Megademo 3",
"Power System Megademo: Glooms"...) but cannot handle "Pinball Dreams" yet,
unlike CRTC types 3 and 4, that together with CRTC1 support this game now.
- 20191227 -- fourteenth public release. Visual improvements: the green screen
palette is closer to the original, the vertical filters ("Y-Masking") are
compatible with the interlaced modes, mixing X-Masking and Y-Masking together
shows a checkered pattern. Internal improvements: the new traits of the CRTC
registers 3 and 9 and the delays between the Gate Array, the Z80 and the CRTC
finally emulate "Pinball Dreams" as a whole for all the CRTC types and solve the
problems in several demos ("Scroll Factory", "Still Rising", parts of "The
Demo"...) and games ("Action Fighter", "Storm Warrior", "Usagi Yojimbo"),
although some titles still need particular CRTCs ("PhX" CRTC0, "Onescreen
Colonies" CRTC1, etc.) to work correctly.
- 20191231 -- minor patch fixing a bug in the FDC (bit 6 of SENSE DRIVE STATUS
must react when the user changes discs: "Fugitif") and a regression in CRTC0
(detect REG6<REG4 rather than REG6<=REG4: "5KB Megademo 3: Nayad"). Happy new
year 2020!
- 20200101 -- minor patch fixing a regression in CRTC0 caused by the previous
patch ("Scroll Factory", intro of "Pinball Dreams", "Overflow Preview: Part 1")
and improving its heuristics ("Overflow Preview: Part 3").
- 20200229 -- fifteenth public release. Added support for Amstrad Plus hardware:
extended colours, soft scrolling, hardware sprites, programmable raster
interruptions, DMA channels, ROM cartridges, etc. Added fifty more tape schemes
to speed up the reading of bytes and even whole blocks. Improvements in the disc
drive emulation: new discs (by default the DATA format shared by CPC and
Spectrum Plus3) can be created on the fly, emulation of protected games from
Design Design ("2112 AD"), The Edge ("Palitron"), Titus ("Prehistorik" and
"Moktar/Titus the Fox"), bugfixes (READ ID: "5KB Demo 3", "Daley Thompson's
Olympic Challenge" and "Turbo Copy III"; FORMAT TRACK converts old-style MV -
CPC discs into new-style EXTENDED ones, and cleans up useless data at the end of
the disc). CPCEC honours the RAM size (up to 576K) and CRTC type stated by a
snapshot ("Postscript" demo) and so does ZXSEC, that can read Z80 snapshots now
and allows 48K SNA files to be either strict (the original format) or relaxed:
128K headers on 48K data. Control-F2 avoids accidental recording of snapshots
after a reset. Fixed a bug that happened when combining Y-Masking and Half
Scanlines. Extended ZIP archive support to handle pipeline-generated (i.e. the
final headers are the right ones) archives. Sources are distributed together
with the binaries instead of being delivered upon demand.
- 20200307 -- minor patch avoiding a hang in globbing(), improving snapshot
compatibility (WinAPE and ACE employ slightly different CPC+ blocks) and
removing several useless details. The optional firmware packages now include the
corresponding cartridges.
- 20200314 -- first anniversary! minor patch fixing issues in the Plus demos
"CRTC3" and "Eerie Forest" for Amstrad Plus.
- 20200331 -- minor patch providing further fixes for Plus demos "CRTC3" and
"Synergy 4" (top left sprites disappear after few seconds, though) and adding
the command Shift+Space (skip scanline) to the debugger.
- 20200404 -- minor patch fixing the DMA handler (all commands but LOAD can be
combined together) and removing several "kludges" for Plus but the one for
"Black Sabbath": thanks to Norecess464 for locating the bug. Also, -C now
becomes -C0..4.
- 20200406 -- minor patch adding partially multiplexed Plus sprite rendering:
"Synergy 4" recovers its top left sprites.
- 20200418 -- minor patch with improvements in the interrupt counter (it starts
with the first HSYNC fall after the VSYNC rise -"Onescreen Colonies"- unless on
Plus where it can start when the VSYNC rise happens together with the HSYNC
fall: "Black Sabbath"), the hardware ports (PIO port A returns zero when reading
it in write mode unless on Plus where it returns 255 -"Tire au Flan"-, PIO port
B must set VSYNC in the middle of the screen when the CRTC requests it -"Chany
Dream End Megademo"- and the Gate Array's 0-191 byte range requires a more rigid
port logic -"Overflow Preview 3"-) and the debugger: disassembly parameters are
vertically aligned and the hardware information panel is aligned to the ASCII
memory dump. Fixed a bug in the ZIP archive header seeker, too.
- 20200420 -- minor patch fixing the HSYNC signals' black stripes from "Chany
Dream End Megademo" on CRTC1, "Onescreen Colonies" on CRTC0, etc., as well as
the value of MEMPTR (=WZ) in JR cc,$RR and DJNZ $RR and the logic of BIT
n,r,(IX+$XX): the error rates of ZXSEC in the 2012 RAXOFT tests are Z80FULL
10/152, Z80CCF 70/152 and Z80MEMPTR 4/152.
- 20200430 -- sixteenth public release. Now you can compile CPCEC and ZXSEC with
SDL2 (featuring its own graphical user interface) for multiple operating systems
through the option -DSDL_MAIN_HANDLED; the precompiled files CPCEC.ELF and
ZXSEC.ELF for 32bit GNU/Linux are included, too. New support for extended ROM
profiles through INI files enumerating up to 257 16K ROM blocks. Further Z80
tweaks: the new error rates of ZXSEC in the 2012 RAXOFT tests are 8/152 Z80FULL,
5/152 Z80CCF and 0/152 Z80MEMPTR.
- 20200503 -- minor patch improving the behavior of the Z80 operations INI, IND,
INIR, INDR, OUTI, OUTD, OTIR and OTIR: the 2012 RAXOFT tests (Z80CCF, Z80FULL
and Z80MEMPTR) score zero errors. Slightly more precise automatic frameskip.
- 20200505 -- minor patch focused on the SDL2 toolkit: fixed a bug when
confirming overwriting files, and improved file browsing across directories by
pointing by default to the previous directory.
- 20200509 -- minor patch improving the synchronisation between Z80 and video on
ZXSEC: the ULA48 test already worked before, but ULA128 had problems; now both
work well. Added the option -W (use the full screen rather than a window) and
improved the SDL2 handling of bigger windows.
- 20200603 -- seventeenth public release. Added stereo sound. Fixed a bug in the
CPC PIO (the read-only mode of port A allowed writing), another bug in the tape
analysis (CPCEC: the algorithm for TITUS caused trouble in "The Blues Brothers";
ZXSEC: Speedlock5 didn't recognize the heading noise; both systems add patches
to shorten the initial delays), another one in the loading of CPC snapshots (a
snapshot saved on Plus hardware without the "CPC+" block showed a completely
black palette), another one in the Z80 debugger (the command 'P' could generate
an infinite disassembly), another one on tape handling (reading a WAV file must
use >128 as reference instead of >=128) and some problems in Win32 (the screen
stopped updating after pausing, switching windows in and out) and SDL2 (boot
message errors weren't shown; the filename sorting algorithm was slow).
- 20200606 -- minor patch with surround sound: the user can set the channel
separation to 0% (mono), 50% (surround) or 100% (stereo).
- 20200616 -- minor patch adding several tape analyses and removing the patch
that shortened the initial delays (it caused problems). Several changes in SDL2
(fewer warnings, disc drive cache in Win32) and in the Z80 debugger (more
content: 256 bytes of memory dump and 32 bytes of stack).
- 20200622 -- minor patch reducing memory footprint (extra ROM memory is only
allocated if the user loads a "profile"), rendering SYNC signals as black rather
than as the current border, and fixing the 3D cylinders part of "PhX" on CRTC1;
the "ball worms" and the final scroller stay bad on CRTC3 and CRTC4, though.
- 20201010 -- eighteenth public release. Fully rewritten CRTC logic, with an
internal event system that extends demo compatibility (for example "Chapelle
Sixteen", "Madness Demo" and "S&KOH" for CRTC1) and a fully multiplexed Plus
sprite renderer. More disc protections (ERE, UBI) are supported, WRITE DELETED
DATA updates the corresponding flag in the sector table. New Dandanator support,
read-only ("Sword of Ianna"). Preliminary Playcity support, limited to the two
extra PSG and the NMI trigger. New video recording based on an intermediary
format XRF, and including a tool allowing to convert it into AVI files.
Improvements in the SDL2 interface, with a bigger font (12px rather than 8px)
and vertical alignment in menu keyboard shortcuts. Added new debugging functions
(looking at graphics in memory with key "W", trapping the opcode $EDFF as a
breakpoint, etc.) and moved breakpoints from "T" to "." . Removed CPCEC.ELF and
ZXSEC.ELF as they're bound to a single OS (Linux Mint 18 32bit) and the user
must compile the binaries anyway. Moved the configuration files in non-Windows
systems from CPCEC.INI and ZXSEC.INI to .cpcecrc and .zxsecrc as customary on
Unix. Tweaks for CLANG compatibility.
- 20201012 -- minor patch adding mouse support to the user interface for SDL2.
- 20201020 -- minor patch fixing a bug in the Dandanator support (the "LD
(IY+n),A/B/C" operations must work with any "n" value, instead of just 0: thanks
to Spirax for the report) and another one in the CRTC (counter HCC is 8 bits
long: "Camembert Meeting 4 Demo" stops showing a line of garbage between the top
and the middle panels), adding SDL2_DOUBLE_QUEUE as an optional SDL2 compilation
flag (some systems need an audio buffer longer than the default 8 frames) and
using a different pixel pattern when both X-Masking and Y-Masking are enabled.
- 20201022 -- minor patch adding mouse wheel support to the SDL2 user interface
and an option to set whether disc write conflicts in CPCEC and ZXSEC are strict
(they raise errors) or relaxed (they do nothing).
- 20201024 -- minor patch solving a problem in the SDL_WINDOWEVENT_EXPOSED
event, inverting the black/white bits in ZXSEC's graphics viewer and pointing
CPCEC's viewer at RAM rather than ROM.
- 20201028 -- minor patch improving Issue-2 emulation on Spectrum 48K: "Abu
Simbel Profanation" and "Rasputin 48K" work on 48K Issue 2 and fail on the other
models, as expected.
- 20201111 -- minor patch adding mouse tracking to the SDL2 interface and making
XRF file recording less memory-consuming.
- 20201122 -- minor patch fixing a crash when using the SDL2 interface to save a
file in the root path, and enabling automatic SDL2 detection on compile time.
- 20201124 -- minor patch adding AMSDOS header detection to ROM profile loading,
following an idea from Sid.
- 20201130 -- minor patch further extending ROM profile loading with four new
fields: "type", "bank", "crtc" and "fddc".
- 20201212 -- nineteenth public release. The Windows version can use DirectDraw
instead of GDI, and the SDL2 version uses Textures instead of Surfaces:
performance rises when hardware acceleration is available. Just in case,
however, command line parameter `-!` and the menu option "Video: Software
render" can be used to disable the hardware acceleration in systems where it's
missing or performs worse than pure software. CPC bugfix: PSG handles register
14 separately, as expected by "Gremlins (v1)". Spectrum bugfix: 128K ghost ports
are properly emulated, the demo "Tiratok" plays music at last. New debug command
"Y": fill memory with byte. XRF lists the available codecs on Windows when
launched without parameters.
- 20201215 -- minor patch fixing snapshot loading on Spectrum Plus3 and
extending the ULA's "snow" behavior ("Vectron") and scope ("Narco Police",
"Robocop 3"). The SDL2 UI appends an ellipsis to filenames that are too long to
fit within the dialogs.
- 20201220 -- minor patch removing the obsolete console-based debugger from the
sources and making the Playcity option stick between sessions. "Software render"
is now "Acceleration", as the former was counterintuitive.
- 20210105 -- minor patch fixing a bug in video recording (it turned 44KHz
stereo into 88KHz mono) and tape playback (16 and 24 bit WAV files were
improperly supported), extending the joystick support to handle directional
controls (thanks to Pelrun for the Win32 and SDL2 code) and letting the
Dandanator emulation modify the cartridge (configuration, savestates...) if the
user allows it.
- 20210107 -- minor patch fixing a bug in the ASIC's screen split trigger (SSSL
must be checked when HSYNC rises, rather than when HDISP rises) and a glitch in
the Win32 joystick support, and making the Playcity CTC more responsive.
- 20210114 -- minor patch improving Playcity stereo autodetection ("Alcon 2020"
uses the left chip only), adding ROM simulation to Dandanator cartridges ("CPC
Soccer") and fixing a bug in Z80 instruction CPI introduced in version 20210105
(RAXOFT tests) and another one in the CRTC1 VSYNC length ("Pheelone").
- 20210115 -- minor patch fixing a bug in the CPC PIO: "Inertie" sends a value
to port A, then reads the same value back instead of receiving a PSG register or
keyboard bits.
- 20210127 -- minor patch fixing bugs in the Spectrum timing ("LD (IX+n1),n2"
and Z80_PRAE_SEND: thanks to Azesmbog for the FPGA test report) and the CPC tape
analysis (conflict between Mikrogen and Hi-Tec).
- 20210129 -- minor patch fixing a bug in the CPC PIO ("Super Cars" had stopped
working in version 20210115) and improving CRTC1 compatibility (first part of
"Ecstasy Demo").
- 20210219 -- minor patch adding a new option, "Video: Blend scanlines" that
handles Gigascreen effects (Spectrum demos "Mescaline Synesthesia" and
"Tiratok", CPC demos "Batman Forever" and "Mad Leprechaun") and changing the
sound synchronisation in SDL2. The AY chip noise generator is now a LFSR. SNA
files saved from Spectrum Plus3 set bit 4 of byte 0x0C01E to state that the
snapshot requires a Plus3 (Easter egg "Hello There I'm a +3"). The CPC debugger
adds an information panel (key 'X') for Dandanator status, and its graphics
viewer can show MODE 2 images.
- 20210418 -- twentieth public release. Pixel and scanline filters are now
saturation-based (colour aberration, desaturation) rather than luminosity-based
(horizontal blur, shading). Fixed bug in XRF-to-AVI recording: VFW32 operations
always assumed 16-bit stereo. The film recording options "High resolution" and
"High framerate" now stick between sessions, and the first one also applies to
BMP screenshots. Added support for block types 0x19 and 0x4B in CDT/TZX tape
files, as well as the new disc option "Read-only as default" so the user can
choose whether discs are by default read-only or read-write, and this option
stacks together with the already extant "Strict disc writes". Added new option
"Flip joystick buttons" to CPCEC so users can swap the value of the two CPC
joystick buttons, as suggested by SB1903. PSG emulation now catches overflows,
regardless of whether they're programming errors (music distortion in "Thing on
a Spring") or done on purpose (pipe sound effect in "Thing Bounces Back"). Fixed
bug in ZXSEC's Plus3 memory contention ("Firefly" disc release) and improved the
beeper (oversampling: Utz's "Quattropic"). ZXSEC snapshot handling is now more
strict or flexible (changing models as often or as seldom as possible) depending
on the option "Strict SNA files".
- 20210428 -- minor patch fixing bugs in several tape fastloaders and in the
firmware INI handler (spaces must be trimmed on both sides of each string), and
adding inverse video 8-bit characters to the debugger's memory dump.
- 20210522 -- minor patch fixing bugs in the ASIC (modifying the SSCR has an
immediate impact; SSSL is checked when HCC==R1 rather than when HCC==R0;
reported by NoRecess), the PSG (register 15 is valid, even if the hardware
doesn't use it: the Plus demo "Phat" plays its music properly now), the Z80 (EI
always delays the next IRQ, no matter the previous state of the interrupt enable
flag, and OUTI sends the OUT signal during its last microsecond rather than
during the second-to-last; "KKB First" demo needed both fixes to run correctly;
reported by Hicks) and the FDC (errors imply delays that must be emulated: the
original protected disc of "Bad Cat" accidentally relies on this; reported by
Dlfrsilver). The debugger accepts very simple expressions (additions and
substractions) when entering 16-bit values (address of "Go To", length of
"Output"...) and the integer zoom allows 50% steps rather than 100% because the
default size is technically 200% rather than 100%.
- 20210524 -- minor patch fixing bugs in film recording: field size errors on
64-bit machines, improper AVI header sound sample size on 8-bit output (both
reported by Cpcitor), and accumulated dirt between multiple recordings within
the same session. XRF also shows the length of the output file.
- 20210526 -- minor patch aligning the X-Masking video effect to the right
instead of the left. The debugger expressions accept three new operators: &
(AND), | (OR) and ^ (XOR). XRF shows the output file's accurate byte length
rather than just the megabytes, and running it without a target parameter prints
the source video parameters and the expected size.
- 20210609 -- minor patch adding lightgun emulation for CPC (Trojan, Gunstick
and Westphaser on joystick port) and Spectrum (Gunstick on Sinclair 1 and
Kempston ports), recreating a CRTC0 quirk (when R6==0 a single scanline is
shown, rather than none as in other CRTC types) and improving the choice of the
filler colour when half scanlines are on. The SDL2 version now handles mouse
clicks when the button is up to improve consistency with other user interfaces.
Tape acceleration options stick between sessions.
- 20210624 -- minor patch adding Spectrum Dandanator support, and making both
emulators able to load Dandanator cartridges from the command line and the key
F3. Several heuristics ensure that the cartridges match the current system.
- 20210626 -- minor patch fixing several format errors ("%i" in place of "%d" or
"%u" and so on), a bug in the CRTC (3D cylinders part of "PhX" on CRTC3) and
another one in the Spectrum Dandanator ("LD (DE),A" trap). Slightly safer
snapshot block loading on both CPCEC and ZXSEC.
- 20210730 -- minor patch adding mouse support to the debugger and fixing bugs
in the ASIC (modifying register 9 tests whether the new value is equal or lower
than its counter, horizontal splitting doesn't draw garbage or retrigger IRQs:
final scroller of "PhX") and the CRTC: reading the wrong port no longer returns
the right value (secret part of "École Buissonière") and HSYNC events are
filtered more carefully ("Chany Dream Demo 5", "Madness Demo", "Sub Hunter"...)
unless the user prefers the old behavior ("Hard H-Hold" option). Several menu
items have been relocated to set hardware traits and emulation options apart.
CPCEC saves compressed memory blocks within snapshots unless "Strict SNA files"
is enabled.
- 20210831 -- minor patch adding performance improvements to TZX/CDT playback
and emulation of the Turbo Sound musical extension for ZXSEC, and removing the
"Hard H-Hold" option from CPCEC, now useless thanks to further CRTC tweaks and
the incipient emulation of the LA-7800 chip. The Windows version fixes a bug in
joystick allocation, the SDL2 version understands UTF-8 filesystems and its user
interface is a little more agile, and both versions can open GZIP archives and
fix bugs in temporary file handling and YM file logging. CPCEC got a new icon.
- 20210909 -- minor patch fixing bugs in the video render logic of ZXSEC,
effectively ensuring that the multicolour effects seen in the tests ULA48,
ULA128, FPGA48 and FPGA128 and the games made with the Nirvana engine
("Dreamwalker", "Multidude", "Stormfinch", "Sunbucket"...) show properly, and
adding new audio extensions for CPCEC (Digiblaster audio) and ZXSEC (Covox $FB
DAC) plus preliminary emulation of Pentagon 128 timings and (if the TRDOS.ROM
file is available) the Beta128 disc drive and its TRD and SCL files.
- 20210930 -- minor patch fixing several bugs in the Z80 (ZXSEC now passes new
Spectrum tests such as 48KNEC, EIHALT, IRCONT, BBG48 and BBG128, thanks to
Azesmbog, Dunny, Woody and ZJoyKiLer), a glitch in the CRTC (the HSYNC filter
required by "Onescreen Colonies" and "Scroll Factory" was harming "Paradise
Megademo part 2" and others) and another one in the AY chip ("Stormbringer" for
CPC needs more leeway than "Terminus"), improving the autorun logic and tape
speedup of both CPCEC and ZXSEC, and adding the 64-colour ULAplus extension for
Spectrum, as well as the ability to read SP and SZX snapshots.
- 20211004 -- minor patch fixing a bug in ZXSEC, the Z80 snapshot loader wasn't
checking properly the integrity of 48K compressed blocks.
- 20211105 -- minor patch adding PZX file support to ZXSEC and reorganising the
tape handling code (the TZX1 blocks JUMP, CALL and RETURN from are properly
handled), improving the Pentagon video logic ("Across the Edge" and "Rage" show
their pixel-precise border effects), making the CPCEC option "Strict SNA files"
write V2 snapshots when enabled, and simplifying the $EDA0-$EDBB Z80 opcode
block. Experimental compile-time options include saving SZX snapshots
(compressed or not) from ZXSEC and reading Kansas City blocks from CDT and TZX
files.
- 20211111 -- minor patch fixing a bug in TZX playback that made all tapes after
the first one lose the first item in the first block, adding basic DMA-PIO
contention to the CPC Plus ASIC and improving the Spectrum floating bus: the
tests HALT2INT (48K) and FLOATSPY (48K and 128K) work properly now.
- 20211119 -- minor patch adding a new entry in the Audio menu ("Audio
acceleration") to set whether the audio buffer length is short (lower latency)
or long (more compatible). The Plus ASIC DMA-PIO contention is a little more
precise. Tapes for Spectrum avoid several unwanted coincidences ("Advanced
Soccer Simulator" and "Banger Racer", found by Raúl). The help screens are a
little more explicit, the WAV file output is always lil-endian even if the
system is big-endian, the pixel filter and the scanline blend are faster, and
the SDL2 user interface becomes white-on-black with the parameter `-$`.
- 20211130 -- minor patch adding a global speed option (for example "Settings:
2x realtime speed" makes the emulation run at twice the base speed) and
relocating the Z80 speed option ("CPU clock") to the "Machine" submenu; it also
fixes bugs in tapes (the starting pause in CDT/TZX files no longer worked) and
the user interface (drag-and-drop had stopped handling ZIP archives: reported by
Raúl). New Spectrum 16K option, both in the command line (`-K`, no longer used
to disable the AY chip) and the menu. Experimental support for BRKS blocks
(breakpoint tables) when saving and loading CPC snapshot files; to ease deleting
the breakpoints they they're no longer required, key Z can delete them all at
once from any panel in the debugger, instead of only from the disassembly panel.
- 20211217 -- twenty-first public release. Important changes in video emulation:
all parts of the 2021 rerelease of "Amazing Megademo" work on all CRTCs in
CPCEC, thanks to Longshot's new monumental handbook "Amstrad CPC CRTC
Compendium", and titles that check the floating bus through ULA-contended ports
such as "A Yankee in Iraq" run properly in ZXSEC, even on Plus3. The AY chip has
been rewritten to ensure that Playcity (CPC) and Turbosound (Spectrum) share the
exact clock with the main audio chips (6-channel music on Pentagon is no longer
off-key), and stereo channels are more flexible now, switching between the
default ABC stereo setup and the ACB setup of AY-Melodik; audio oversampling now
relies on system clock ticks instead of output samples. Minor fixes in the FDC
logic (protected rereleases of "Arkanoid 2" and "Renegade" expect the disc to
keep moving while the SENSE INTERRUPT STATUS command takes place), the ZIP
archive reader (hidden files must stay invisible) and the WAV and AVI file
handling (proper 2-byte alignment must be performed in the extremely rare cases
where the length of a block is odd). V-hold options in CPCEC have been merged
into one (disabling "Standard V-hold" extends the vertical sync both up and
down), and the paired options PlayCity/Digiblaster (CPCEC) and Turbosound/Covox
$FD (ZXSEC) are mutually exclusive.
- 20211231 -- minor patch adding printer emulation: the user selects a file that
will store the data sent to the CPC's 7-bit line printer and the Spectrum's ZX
Printer (48K), the serial 8-bit line printer (128K and Plus2), and the parallel
8-bit line printer (Plus3). The printer port of the Plus3 happens to be the
floating bus too, leading to changes in the video and floating bus logic. ZXSEC
can save uncompressed SZX snapshots now, although SNA stays the default format.
Following research by Hoglet67 and tests by Ped7g, the Z80 block operations
LDIR, LDDR, CPIR, CPDR, INIR, INDR, OTIR and OTDR show special temporary flags
if an interruption arises before the end of the block. New commandline options
`-o`, `-t`, `-y` and `-z` that provide the opposite behaviors of `-O`, `-T`,
`-Y` and `-Z`. Happy new year 2022!
- 20220104 -- minor patch improving the interruption flags of
INIR/INDR/OTIR/OTDR (following new tests from Ped7g) and the timings of
LDI/LDD/LDIR/LDDR on CPC (the eighth and ninth tests of Roudoudou's SPLIT.CPR
pass at last) and fixing a bug in the CRTC1 logic (nonzero R5 in Chany and
Grees' NPS cracktros: reported by Norecess464) and another one in the Spectrum
interrupt counters (accepting an IRQ stops its counter on Pentagon: reported by
Azesmbog). Configurable CMOS/NMOS Z80 style in ZXSEC.
- 20220108 -- minor patch fixing bugs in the ZX Dandanator (the demo "Possible"
accidentally triggers the RESET command even without cartridges) and the
Pentagon IRQ (it's short yet continuous rather than long and stoppable,
following new tests from Azesmbog). Video filters are more CRT-like (suggested
by Md0) and lightgun logic is linked to their triggers to avoid false positives.
- 20220303 -- twenty-second public release. Major internal changes in the
debugger: most of it is now part of the general library, only the Z80-specific
features stay in the Z80 module. Toggling the debugger's illegal opcode behavior
is now done with the key "," (comma); its old key "Q" now runs until the next
interruption. The debugger styles (keys "V" and "Shift+V") now include a
translucent mode where the emulated screen is visible through the debugger text.
Minor optimisations in the video renderer (merge vertical position and frameskip
tests), the AY chip (fewer calculations) and the Z80 emulation (reduced banking
in operations that read and write the same address). Small tweaks in CPCEC
("Octopus Pocus" for CRTC0 works well at last), ZXSEC (SZX snapshots are now the
default choice, SNA format is now secondary), the FDC ("READ ID" must fail when
using the wrong density: noticed by Roudoudou), the audio extensions (now
Playcity and Digiblaster can be enabled at once, as well as Turbosound and Covox
$FB) and the video filters (weakening image contrast rather than saturation).
- 20220307 -- minor patch fixing a bug in the "half scanlines" mode and several
omissions in the debuggers.
- 20220412 -- twenty-third public release. CSFEC is a new Commodore 64 emulator:
it passes several tests from the PC64 suite (CPUTIMING, CPUPORT and the entire
MOS 6510 opcode set) but fails others (IRQ, NMI and all CIA tests); it supports
up to two extra SID chips (either $D420 and $D440 or $DE00 and $DF00) but the
VIC-II emulation is incomplete (no badline handling, no sprite contention); it
can load PRG files and play T64 and TAP tape images, but it doesn't emulate the
C1541 disc drive yet and thus cannot handle D64 disc images at all. New virtual
joystick interface: the user can redefine the keys that simulate the virtual
joystick instead of sticking to the keys Z and X and the cursors. Fixed a bug in
the Z80 (the internal timings of `OUT (n),A` were wrong) and the LA-7800's
horizontal synchronisation (both reported by Hicks): the CPC demo "Onescreen
Colonies #2" behaves properly. Tape analysis can detect musical loaders: tape
acceleration will be temporarily disabled so songs play normally.
- 20220531 -- minor patch adding a new power-up boost option (enabled by
default) that tells the emulators to trap boot procedures and speed them up.
Printing a disassembly now includes the source bytes, ensuring that the binary
can be always rebuilt even if the disassembly is ambiguous. The Z80 operations
RETN and RETI are now identical; telling them apart is up to the NMI-issuing
hardware. The Plus ASIC SSSL function is now 32K-compatible, as required by the
intro "Simply the Bests". Simpler ZX ULA memory contention model: the timing
buffer is now 128K long instead of 256K. The VIC-II chip is more accurate:
slowdowns caused by badlines and sprite fetching are emulated (Extend's
"Fellas", "HVSC 10 Years" intro...), effectively enabling badline manipulation
(Archmage's "Data Zombies", Focus' "Ms. Pac Man", Excess' "Funny Rasters"...),
DMA-delay horizontal scrolling ("Creatures", Tempest's "Rewind"...) and sprite
stretching (Oxyron's "20 Years"). The default palette is now Community-Colors
instead of Colodore. The CIA chips are more accurate too (TRSI's "4Krawall") but
they don't pass the PC64 test suite yet. The internal SID filter is now
partially emulated; the user can manually disable it. Minor optimisations
through "likely/unlikely" branching hints.
- 20220615 -- minor patch fixing several glitches: the Win32 binaries use
timeBeginPeriod and timeEndPeriod because of recent changes in Win10; the
emulators ensure that 'frame_pos_y' and 'video_pos_y' match properly; the Z80
module handles dummy IX/IY opcodes without the unreliable macros Z80_BEWARE and
Z80_REWIND; the VIC-II chip avoids retriggering sprites ("Gothik", Booze
Design's "Sprite Invaders") and clips them properly if they sit on screen edges
(Singular's "Smooth and Wonders"). The filter of the SID chip is now more
detailed, and its third voice's oscillator returns more realistic values:
"Mazemania" no longer hangs at the beginning of a level. CSFEC can load extra
colour palettes from VPL files, either old style "RR GG BB D" or new "RR GG BB".
- 20220707 -- minor patch replacing the old option "Zoom by integer" with a new
submenu "Window" with options that set the size of the window, ranging from 100%
to 300%, that also stick between sessions (suggested by Xyphoe), and turning the
options "Pixel filter" and "Blend scanlines" into "X-blending", "Y-blending" and
"Frame blending", that respectively blur the image horizontally, vertically and
dynamically. Several improvements in the VIC-II (sprite crunching: Carrion &
Crest's "Heraklion", Arise's "Merswiny"; line crunching: Samar's "Ukiyo") and
the SID (ports 27 and 28: second chip detection in "To Norah", sound effects of
"Cloud Kingdoms"; wave shapes: song of "HVSC 10 Years"; filter based on the
Chamberlin algorithm). The command line parameter `-c0..-c7` is now `-c0..c9`
and includes the fifth mode, average scanlines.
- 20220806 -- minor patch fixing glitches in the VIC-II (the ending of
"Creatures II" requires precise sprite priority), the CIA (the protection of
"Druid 2" modifies and freezes the day-of-time clock, but "Island of
Dr.Destructo" expects said clock to stay active after modifying it), the SID
6581 (Maniacs of Noise's "Echofied" scans channel 3 to generate a sampled echo),
the C64 idle bus (the protection of "Barry McGuigan's Boxing" checks the
$DE00-$DFFF area: reported by Neville) and the Z80 and MOS 6510 disassemblers.
ZXSEC can save Dandanator information in SZX snapshots thanks to a new block
type, "DNTR". The YM file generation is now in a new file, `cpcec-ym.h`. The
SDL2 audio buffer is now the library's choice (suggested by Kawe). The keyboard
shortcuts Alt+Up and Alt+Down zoom the window up and down. Enabling both
X-masking and Y-masking shows a new dot matrix. Minor optimisations in XRF film
logic.
- 20240224 -- twenty-fourth public release. MSXEC is a new MSX emulator
supporting the first three generations (1983 MSX, 1985 MSX2 and 1988 MSX2+),
their Western Digital-based disc drives and some few additional devices (such as
the Konami SCC-051649 sound chip and the JIS 128/256K external ROMs) although
the emulation is less developed in some fields than others (VDP timings are
inaccurate: Logon System's intro "IO" shows artifacts in the 3D scrollers and
the final screen; the MSX-MUSIC interface is minimal, barely able to play
notes). Fixed bugs in the Z80 (such as bad inner timings in EX HL,(SP) and EX
IX,(SP) detected by Kio's "Z80 Test Programm"), the CRTC (VSYNC loss in the
dancing bobs of "PhX" on CRTC4, misaligned HSYNC in Longshot's RV.BAS), the ULA
("snow" in 128K models can leak from different banks than VRAM), the VIC-II
("Super Stock Car" switched the video display off when it shouldn't) and the SID
(L-Man's "Amazing Discoveries" failed to play samples; "Mazemania" got weak
random values from ports 27 and 28). Added 1088K and 2112K RAM modes to CPCEC
(the first version of "Still the One" needed 1024K to run) and REU/GeoRAM RAM
extensions (up to 512K) to CSFEC. Code cleanup in several modules, turning
repeated paragraphs into several "goto" pointing to a single paragraph and
merging several lists into a single table. Streamlined video and audio filters,
the former removing the "Half scanlines" video mode and adding two new options:
"Microwave static" that adds randomised noise to the image and "Narrow
X-Blending" that softens the effect of the X-blending option. CSFEC now has an
explicit "Play tape" option instead of autoplay: some titles rely on the user
pressing PLAY and STOP on the tape deck ("Super Space Invaders"). Snapshots in
CSFEC and MSXEC are optionally compressed with a quick implementation of
Emmanuel Marty's LZSA2 method. The user can set whether the screenshots are BMP
(default) or QOI files. Removed the Spanish documentation due to lack of
readers.
- 20240328 -- minor patch adding RUNEC, a file helper that takes a file as a
parameter and launches the emulator that can read it, and fixing many warnings
caused by questionable programming styles. The SDL2 version fixes double
keypresses when redefining the joystick keys while debugging, as well as a crash
when compiling the emulators with small window sizes. The common CDT/TZX/PZX
player performs sanity checks on blocks $19 and $2B. The Z80 module relies on a
new macro, Z80_DUMB to perform dummy reads. CPU clock options are no longer
based on 1x, 2x, 3x and 4x, but on 1x, 2x, 4x and 8x. Autorunning a tape
disables disc drives only when rebooting the system, instead of disabling the
drives until a reset. CSFEC fixes two bugs in the VIC-II (reading register 26
must always set the top four bits: "HVSC 20 Years"; writing register 17 with the
same old value must not remove the border: "Paradroid") and another one in the
snapshot loader (pending CIA2 events were sent to CIA1) when loading snapshots.
MSXEC now reads the file MSXEC.SHA as text instead of binary (reported by
CPCbegin). ZXSEC can save Z80 snapshots (version 3), compression is optional.
The package includes two new files, CSFEC-3B.VPL for CSFEC and MSXEC-3B.VPL for
MSXEC; users can edit them to implement new colour palettes.
- 20240414 -- minor patch fixing unexpected bugs in systems where "unsigned
char" is the default setting (reported by CPCbegin on his Raspberry Pi 400),
some of them big (for example, 48K cartridge mapping was completely wrong in
MSXEC), some of them small (for example, pressing LEFT in the debug screen when
the cursor was on the left edge of the register panel would wrap it to the
right, instead of staying still as it does when pressing RIGHT on the right
edge). The extended AY chip and Z80 interfaces got reworked to allow finer
control of audio clocks and memory-mapped I/O, respectively. MSXEC fixes bugs in
the MSX cartridge mappers (for example Konami 8K cartridges react to the whole
$6000-$BFFF area rather than just to $6000, $8000 and $A000) and the V9938 (the
"flash" bit is ignored when the active VRAM page is below the 32K boundary, as
in the water scenes of "Maze of Galious" for MSX2), emulates the DAC in
"Konami's Synthesizer" and allows patching the current virtual cartridge through
IPS files.
- 20240422 -- minor patch fixing bugs in the UTF-8 logic (string length, BOM
header in text files) and the MSX2 V9938 (register 9 must set the screen
geometry at once: "La Abadia del Crimen MSX2"), and modifying the combined
X-masking and Y-masking dot matrix.
- 20240505 -- minor patch adding functions I ("input") and O ("output") to the
debugger's graphics viewer: they behave like their hexa dump counterparts, and
combined with key M, can be used to load and save VDP memory on MSXEC. Further
"char->BYTE/INT8" cleanup: CSFEC was mute in "unsigned char" systems because the
SID channel flags never fell below zero. Fixed bugs in the MSX VDP (running MSX2
hardware, setting ink 0 to any colour but black, then switching to MSX1 hardware
wouldn't reset ink 0 to black) and the CPC FDC (the delays that could skip
sectors in "Bad Cat" were harming "Strike Force Harrier"). Replaced the buggy
MSX 2.1 firmware with a clean 2.0 version: "La Abadía del Crimen MSX2" now runs
out of the box. Moved more boilerplate code from the emulators to the shared
runtime, whose INFLATE and DEFLATE functions now reuse more code. The XRF tool
is now called XRFEC for the sake of consistency: XRF is the format and XRFEC is
the tool.
- 20240830 -- minor patch with many small additions and bugfixes. All emulators
now simulate the gradual signal loss of their DAC devices (either built-in, like
the 48K beeper in ZXSEC and the 4th SID voice in CSFEC, or optional, such as the
Digiblaster in CPCEC and Konami's Synthesizer in MSXEC) and thus soften and
cancel the noise from softwares that don't restore the DACs to their neutral
state. MSXEC and CSFEC support up to 2 MB of extended RAM, and MSXEC can read
4-MB cartridges, f.e. the special release of "King's Valley" with sampled music
and speech. Rapidly flipping the 128K video page in ZXSEC now fetches all the
attributes from the right bank, f.e. one of the final effects in "Elysium
State". The C64 SID chip in CSFEC is no longer internally stereo; instead, a
single-SID setup optionally simulates stereo with a delay between the left and
right sides. The shared runtime between Win32 and SDL2 versions unifies the
general synchronisation logic instead of letting each version handle it
independently; the versions simply provide wrappers for video, audio and timer
logic. Defining the macro VIDEO_BORDERLESS on compile time will enable the
reduced window modes (640x400 pixels for CPCEC, 512x384 for ZXSEC, etc) that
were already built-in but required editing the headers by hand. "Fine
Giga/X-blend" extends the old option "Fine X-blending" to interframe blending;
it sets whether the emulator does the traditional two-step Gigascreen
composition or a more general motion blur. The onscreen status now includes an
audio oscilloscope. Alt+Right and Alt+Left respectively speed the emulation up
and down. XRF2, a new video compression mode hopefully improving on the old
XRF1, is now generated by the emulators; XRFEC can read both the old XRF1 and
the new XRF2. The emulators can record PNG screenshots, although the QOI format
stays optionally available on compile time. RUNEC can recognize 8K MSX
cartridges.
- 20240909 -- minor patch reworking the keyboard, joystick and autorun logic to
be more similar across machines (and rejecting simultaneous UP-DOWN and
LEFT-RIGHT motions when the joystick is virtual and mapped on the keyboard),
extending the "Chromatrons effect" option in ZXSEC (introduced in the previous
patch) to support the slightly different brightness of some attributes (f.e.
"Bright Miner" and "NOP 1995") fixing a bug in CSFEC (the 4th SID voice wasn't
falling to zero when sound played without changing the mixer) and turning the
artificially stereo chips from MSXEC (PSG, Konami SCC and Yamaha OPLL) into
their real mono selves: stereo in MSXEC is now surround-like as in CSFEC.
- 20241216 -- minor patch fixing a bug in command-line parameters combined with
autorun files: the former could override the later even when the files came last
(reported by Cpcitor). Further tweaks in the sound logic and sources to enable
compiling the emulators with mono sound, and to improve the audio synchro.
Optional surround stereo is available in CPCEC, CSFEC (when there's more than
one SID chip) and ZXSEC. X-masking and Y-masking changed again, trying to grow
closer to light-and-dark pixel analog screen patterns. X-blending adjusts itself
to the machine's video mode, f.e. it will perform simpler pixel blur
calculations in CPCEC when MODE 2 isn't selected.
- 20241224 -- minor patch fixing a bug where the disc file handler in all emus
would not fall back to read-only modes when inserting read-only files in
non-read-only modes (reported by Dlfrsilver). Removed the "microwave static"
mode, it never looked right; instead, the user can now independently set whether
Gigascreen and X-blending are fine or coarse.
- 20250321 -- minor patch fixing the sRGB calculations (Gigascreen would
"darken" images in motion because it assumed Gamma 2.0 instead of 2.2), several
colour palettes (CPCEC: OLD+PLUS; ZXSEC: ULA+ULAPLUS; MSXEC: V9938) and a bug in
the scarcely used GZIP writer. MSXEC now supports 8-MB cartridges and new
cartridge headers ("ROM_ASC8", "ROM_AS16", "ROM_KON4", "ROM_KON5", "ROM_NEO8",
"ROM_NE16", "ASCII16X") and patches a bug in the V9958 YAE video render.
- 20250420 -- minor patch fixing a bug in MXSEC (the NEO8 cartridge type) and
tweaking the sRGB calculations again. The redundant combination "X-masking mode
+ X-blending + Fine X-blending" (the current X-masking clashes with fine
X-blending) now simulates a softer X-masking without any blending.
- 20250427 -- minor patch limiting all secondary slot logic to the primary slot
3 in MSXEC: primary slots 1 and 2 never carry any secondary logic, and primary
slot 0 carried secondary logic in very few MSX2+ models.
- 20260117 -- minor patch resetting the PSG port 7 to 63 instead of 255 in CPCEC
("Pang", "Robocop 2" and "Sonic GX" assumed the second joystick was always on:
reported by Xenon) and fixing a bug in the SCL file parser in ZXSEC (reported by
Megachur).
- 20260131 -- minor patch fixing the behavior of the Y-blending and Gigascreen
filters whenever hi-res graphics (MODE 2 in CPCEC, 512 px modes in MSXEC) shared
screen with lo-res, and tweaked the behavior of the MODE 2 pixel shift in the
Plus ASIC so the non-MODE 2 pixels are handled as lo-res.
