z26 FAQ

What's new in version (2.13)?

• Converted MASM assembly code to NASM syntax, preparatory to the...
• ...Linux port! z26 can now be compiled for Windows, Linux, or just about any other x86 environment that supports a UNIX-like build environment with GCC. The Linux support is solid; preliminary testing has been done on FreeBSD and BeOS. There are a few Linux-specific command-line options, see the documentation.
• Improved documentation. We now have a PDF manual and a man page for Linux.
• Added ability to selectively disable graphical objects. This feature is mostly intended for developers.
• We now lock the audio device before filling the sound queue. This should prevent the long startup times that were plaguing some Windows users. It also should allow z26 to run correctly on multi-processor machines.
• Also we made the INTIM timer random at the emulator start again.  Berzerk should start with a different screen each time you play it now.
• Other than the audio device locking and the random INTIM timer, version 2.13 for Windows should behave identically to version 2.12.  If this isn't the case, please let us know.
• Thanks to Brian Watson, Eckhard Stolberg, and James Wilkinson for help with this version!
  

What's new in version (2.12)?

• Completely rewrote the controller handling code in C to allow easier addition of new features.
• Added -) and -( command line switches to select controller for left and right port. See README.TXT for details.
• Command line switches -i, -j, -k, -l, -w, and -y changed or lost their meaning, because they were superseded by -) and -(. See README.TXT for details.
• Upgraded the SDL DLL to version 1.2.7.
• Added support for "EF" type bankswitching, which will be used by Paul Slocum's upcomming Homestar Runner RPG game.
• Added support for the Stelladaptor, which lets you connect Atari joysticks, driving controllers and paddles to your PC's USB port.
• Added support for the three types of Atari Trak-Ball controllers, so that the Missile Command hacks can now be played.
• Added paddle emulation through the PC joystick, and made the keyboard emulate all four paddles at once with fixed keys.
• Added the -P command line switch to set the PC-joystick sensitivity and shift it's range in the paddle emulation.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with this version!
  

What's new in version (2.11)?

• A fix to the sound to allow Andy Mucho's pitsound.bin to play.
• TIA sound polynomials adapted to better match Adam Wozniak's descriptions.
• Added -R command line switch to synchronize game to sound card.  This helps games that use digital sound like quadrun and some recent demos. You may also get gameplay closer to the exact rate of a 2600 console with this option.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with this version!
  

What's new in version (2.10)?

• Changed the Extended Tigervision (-g11) bankswitch scheme to keep the last bank fixed. All ROM images that are bigger than 64K and not a multiple of 8448 now default to this scheme.
• The original Tigervision (-g4) bankswitch scheme now also supports up to 512K games but with $1800-$1FFF as the fixed bank. This allows compatibility with the Cuttle Cart for games up to 64K in size.
• Rom images that *are* a multiple of 8448, i.e. Supercharger games, are now supported in sizes up to 61 loads.
• Thanks to Andrew Davie for providing a 512K ROM for testing!
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with this version!

What's new in version (2.09)?

• Added support for some newly found UA prototypes.
• The 32K Tigervision bankswitch scheme (-g11) should now support ROMs up to 512K.
• Thanks to Andrew Davie for providing a 512K ROM for testing!
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with this version!

What's new in version (1.58)?

• Added support for some newly found UA prototypes.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with this version!

What's new in version (2.08)?

• Added support for USB and other Direct-X controllers. Support is automatic and you may use up to two controllers. They must be the first in your controller list that comes up under your Windows game controller setup.
• A new PAL palette based on a PAL screen capture provided by Oliver Achten.
• Screen capture to .bmp files supported so that you can capture screens of games that are running with the phosphorescent effect. Use the -B command line switch to enable .bmp captures.
• FE bankswitching is implemented as flat model again.
• Added Midnight Magic to the list of phosphorescent games.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with this version!

What's new in version (2.07)?

• Made mouse capture in windowed modes optional. It is controlled with the -MN command line switch. N=0 is off, N=1 is on. It is on by default.
• We now make a distinction between upper case and lower case letters in command line switches. There are now many more possibilities.
• Many more games automatically run with phosphorescence turned on when running in a window.

What's new in version (2.06)?

• Games running in windowed modes now grab the mouse and make the cursor disappear. So now games are as easy to control with the mouse in a window as they are when running full screen.
• Performance in windowed video modes has been improved and the size of the windows has been shrunk to fit the game, particularly in the narrow aspect ratios.
• A new aspect ratio has been added (-e2) which is closer to an authentic aspect ratio in the larger windowed modes (-v13 through -v18).
• Added a new phosphorescent effect that allows 30Hz blinking effects to appear without blinking. This allows games with 30Hz effects like Yars Revenge or Stellar Track to run in a window without the visual artifacts that normally occur when the display is not synchronized with the game. This effect is specified with the -fN command line switch. The parameter is the frame mixing coefficient (0 through 100) which specifies how much the bright pixel is favored over the dim pixel when mixing the value of two frames. The default is 77. If you specify a value greater than 100 or less than zero, the effect is disabled for games that are automatically recognized as needing this effect, like Yars Revenge.
• Some additional full screen modes have been added (-v20 through -v28) which have the same number of bits per pixel as the current desktop. This was done to allow the phosphorescent effect to run in full screen video modes.

What's new in version (2.05)?

• This is the first public release of the Windows version of z26.
• The assembly language emulator core is now pure 32-bit code.
• There are new windowed video modes.
• The GUI is gone for now. It will probably come back later.
• As far as we know, all games that used to run still run.
• Many smaller changes are discussed in readme.txt.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with this version, particularly with the video routines.

What's new in version (1.57)?

• Support for interlaced 2600 games. To turn on interlace mode there is a new interlace command line switch. To draw even lines first use -! or -!0. To draw odd lines first use -!1. I think -! is probably correct for the current games and demos. If the interlace command line switch is enabled, the emu automatically starts up in video mode 6. To see what the non-interlaced view looks like, just switch to another video mode. If you don't like to see flicker don't turn on the -e command line switch. If you like to see a more authentic flicker use the -e command line switch.
• Support for the Snow White proto.
• Thanks to Billy Eno for the first working interlaced demo. Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with the software support.

What's new in version (1.56)?

• Fixed problem with jumping video introduced in the previous release.  Interrupts are still left on in the timer code. That wasn't the problem.
• Thanks to Jason and Michael Dixon for help with this.

What's new in version (1.55)?

• New NTSC and PAL palettes.
• Support for using two axes of a mouse to emulate two paddles using the -m1xy command line switch, where x and y are the paddle numbers to emulate on the axis.
• Support for 32K F4 bankswitching without the superchip. This is now the default 32K bankswitch mode.
• New code for reading the PC hardware timer. Interrupts are not turned off as much. This helps sound quality on some systems.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with this release.

What's new in version (1.54)?

• Support for the Kid Vid games (Smurf Saves the Day and Berenstein Bears).  Press 1, 2, or 3 to select the corresponding tape.  F1 rewinds the tape.  In addition to the rom images, you need the wave files with the music in the same directory as z26. The files are named:  KVB1.WAV, KVB2.WAV, KVB3.WAV, KVS1.WAV, KVS2.WAV, KVS3.WAV,  and KVSHARED.WAV.  You may be able to find the wave files here:  http://www.atariage.com/2600/archives/KidVidAudio/ You can also play the games without the music, but it's much less fun.
• Randomized the INTIM value for Berzerk.
• Driving controllers can be enabled for each port separately.
• Changed order of palettes when using the palette switch key.
• Added direct support for some more of Thomas Jentsch's NTSC Rom hacks.
• Special thanks to Lee Krueger for making the Kid Vid music available, and thanks to Eckhard Stolberg and Thomas Jentzsch for the Kid Vid software support.

What's new in version (1.53)?

• Native support for the Lord of the Rings game.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for these updates.

What's new in version (1.52)?

• A minor adjustment to the handling of WSYNC.
• A display of the number of scanlines in the current frame when in video mode 9.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for these updates.

What's new in version (1.51)?

• Added support for the new Ewok Adventure cart.
• Fixed screen capture code that got broken in the last release.
• Did some fine tuning to the display for PAL games running without the -5 command line switch.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for these updates.

What's new in version (1.50)?

• Kinder gentler sound routines. Known to work better on some PCI audio cards and with audio built into some motherboards. Don't know if it is any better with XP though.
• A vertically squished video mode that displays alternate scanlines. You can turn it on with the -h command line switch and it works with the linear video modes (0 - 3). Although many games don't look good with it, it's the fastest video mode of all for games that look O.K.
• With that, we've used up all of the command line switch letters. So we probably won't be adding too many new features to the DOS version of z26. What a long strange trip it's been...

What's new in version (1.49)?

• A faster Pentium optimized routine for video modes 0-3. (Thomas Jentzsch)
• A sideways video mode for games like Merlin's Walls that can be used in video modes 0-3. This is enabled with the -z command line switch. (Eckhard Stolberg)
• You can now toggle through the NTSC, PAL, and SECAM palettes on the fly by pressing the "-" key. (Eckhard Stolberg)
• Some other improvements to PAL game detection and the CPU emulator. (Eckhard Stolberg)
• A more descriptive error message when z26 thinks you need a VGA. It turns out that on some Geforce 2 MX-200 and Geforce 2 MX-400 video cards, you need to set the program properties, by right-clicking on z26.exe from the Windows explorer to screen usage "full-screen", or else you get the error message. Thanks to James Bell for help figuring this out.

What's new in version (1.48)?

• Screen capture now works in all video modes. If you hold down the = key, you get a fairly continuous stream of pcx files.
• New fast video modes. These are accessed with the -e (for Eckhard?) command line switch. This allows the Mode-X routines to do 32-bit accesses to the video card. On my computer this more than doubles the speed of the emulator when running in these modes. Unfortunately, they may not work on all video cards. The -e command line switch also enables tall and narrow 160 pixel video modes for modes 0, 1, 2, and 3. These are very fast modes, and they give your games a Vectrex like feel.
• Added support for a couple of new ROM images.
• Fixed a stack overflow bug in the GUI.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help with this version. I did not suspect that so much more speed could be had from the video system.

What's new in version (1.47)?

• Added support for Thwoker and a new version of Video Life.

What's new in version (1.46)?

• Improved emulation of undocumented TIA reads.
• Correct frame rate display on fast computers.
• Fixed scroll bar positioning in help screens.
• Added documentation on how to get z26 to work properly on motherboards with built in legacy sound support that sucks, like the ASUS A7M266.  The solution is to get a PCI sound card that works. ;-)

What's new in version (1.45)?

• New and improved SECAM palette.  Thanks to Christian Bogey for help with this.

What's new in version (1.44)?

• Support for the SECAM color palette via the -c2 command line switch.  I don't know if any available rom images use this palette, but we're ready!
• Minor fixes to trace mode.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for doing most of the work on this release.
  

What's new in version (1.43)?

• It is no longer possible to generate *impossible* joystick signals such as pressing left and right simultaneously. This prevents some games like Boing from acting weird when this happens.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for doing most of the work on this release.
  

What's new in version (1.42)?

• A slightly modified version of the Mindlink code. Movement is now limited to the range that is actually used by the games. To switch between the two paddles in Bionic Breakthrough game 8, press the TAB key.
• Fixed problem with playing Telepathy with a joystick.
• Fixed a problem with Pigs in Space which was introduced in version 1.36.
• Some minor adjustments to vertical positioning of some games.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for doing most of the work on this release.

What's new in version (1.41)?

• We now support the Compumate ROM. If you're into primitive cool programming environments this is the ultimate. It gives the 2600 a real version of BASIC, with a real typewriter style keyboard and a text display. Hopefully the ROM image and documentation shows up on the net soon. If they haven't already.
• Video Pinball now plays properly!!!!  The holy grail of 2600 emulation has finally been achieved. Yep, the ball actually bounces off the paddle now.  That such a simple game should have proved to be so difficult completely amazed me.
• The mindlink controller is now supported so the new Telepathy ROM and the old Mindlink game now play. It is supported as a paddle controller so you can use the mouse.
• Removed the automatic screen positioning code. It turns out that the cure was worse than the disease I think. So the newly released Yahtzee ROM no longer jitters. We still automatically switch to PAL mode when needed though.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for doing most of the work on this release.

What's new in version (1.40)?

• z26 is now Windows 9x long filename friendly! I didn't really believe it could be done in a DOS program, but Michael Walden Jr. came up with a very cool way to show a game's long filename in the title bar of the GUI.
• We have expanded the ROM capacity of the GUI from 693 to 2772 ROMs.
• We have tried to automatically recognize all of the various versions of ROMs that are commonly available. So now, the paddle controllers are automatically turned on for all 5 versions of Breakout. And so on...
• If you run into any ROMs that aren't automatically recognized correctly, please let me know. Thanks.
• Thanks to Michael Walden Jr. for help with this version.

What's new in version (1.39)?

• Starpath multiload support has been added. You must concatenate the .bin files similarly to other emulators to play multiloads. A command like this will do the trick:
  
      copy /b load1.bin+load2.bin+load3.bin+load4.bin mload.bin
  
  then run mload.bin in the emulator.
• Added a new Starpath bios that shows the vertical blue progress bars any time you load a Starpath game or go to the next load in a multiload game.
• Added support for the 6144 byte Starpath format so that the 6K version of Cubis that is floating around the net now plays.
• Changed super-chip detection scheme. If the RAM area has all $00 or $ff in it, z26 turns on super-chip support automatically. Now developers can work on super-chip games without having to use the -g<n> command line switch.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for the nice Starpath support and the new super-chip detection scheme.
• Added some features to trace mode so that real addresses are shown for indexed accesses. Thanks to Thomas Jentzsch for help with this.
• Fixed bug in the GUI to allow the complete maximum number of ROMs to be displayed (693). Thanks to Michael Walden Jr. for this fix.
• Fixed a small mouse related bug in the GUI.
• Re-vamped video support. Video mode 5 is now the default and the vertical position of games is now adjusted automatically. If you wish to turn off automatic positioning, simply press PgUp or PgDn to do positioning manually.
• PAL games are now detected automatically. A game is run for a few frames and if it is a PAL game (lots of scanlines), the video mode is automatically switched to a PAL mode (if you've enabled it with the -5 command line switch), and the PAL palette is turned on.
• Fixed what is hopefully the final Windows compatibility issue. Some rare system crashes that happened when exiting z26 no longer occur.

What's new in version (1.38)?

• Paddle games can now be played with a mouse or a PC trackball.
• Trackball emulation which allows joystick games to be played with a mouse or PC trackball.
• Lightgun support via the mouse or PC trackball (Sentinel, Shooting Gallery).  Here is a diagnostic (guntest4.bin ) that Eckhard wrote that you can use to test this feature if you don't happen to have a lightgun ROM.
• Some mouse support in the GUI. You can point and click to launch a game.
• Canyon Bomber and Backgammon are now treated as paddle games.
• Support for Megaboy cart.
• Support for overriding the bankswitching scheme for ROM images that z26 doesn't support automatically. Use the -g<n> command line switch. 
• There are some new features of particular interest to game developers including a scanline counter (-n) and the ability to emulate the PAL color changes (-o) which occur when a PAL game has the wrong number of scanlines. 
• We also made some changes to, and added documentation for trace mode which can help developers debug their games. 
• Special thanks to Eckhard Stolberg. He wrote much of the code in this release. But he also shamed me into doing some of the work too. ;-)

What's new in version (1.37)?

• Support for MagiCard.
• Support for the booster grip so you can play Omega Race.
• Support for driving controllers so you can play Indy 500.
• Support for keyboard controllers so you can play A Game of Concentration, Alpha Beam with Ernie, BASIC programming, Big Birds Egg Catch, Brain Games, Codebreaker, Cookie Monster Munch, Grover's Music Maker, MagiCard, Oscar's Trash Race, and Star Raiders.
• For more information on the key assignments for using the new controller support, press F1 when in z26 to see the built in help file.
• Special thanks to Eckhard Stolberg. He has been a friend to the z26 project for a long time, and has written the code for the new controller support in this release.

What's new in version (1.36)?

• Added support for Save Mary.

What's new in version (1.35)?

• Some very minor changes to video mode code, but the main purpose of this release is to bring z26 into conformance with the terms and conditions of the GNU Public License (GPL). I should probably have done this back around version 0.88 when I included Ron Fries' TIAsound code, but unfortunately I  didn't actually read the license until a couple of days ago. Sorry.

What's new in version (1.34)?

• A fix to a minor problem that was introduced in version 1.33 that would cause some games to display in the wrong position or to display the wrong number of scanlines.

What's new in version (1.33)?

• An assortment of 50Hz video modes for use with PAL games. These modes are all 256 scanlines tall so even the tallest PAL games like aciddrop.bin and seamnstr.bin can be seen completely in a more or less normal size video mode. Unfortunately not all monitors can be used with these modes. Old fixed-frequency monitors have problems with them, but modern multi-frequency monitors that are capable of syncing at 50Hz are pretty common so I expect most people won't have problems with them. To enable these video modes to be used automatically whenever z26 is running a recognized PAL game, specify the -5 command line switch. z26 will then choose a 50Hz video mode that most closely approximates the 60Hz mode that you've selected with the -v<n> command line switch.

What's new in version (1.32)?

• Some minor things. But mostly, this is the first round of support for Starpath Supercharger games. There are still a few rough edges, and we only support single-load games.

What's new in version (1.31)?

• Various graphics improvements, mostly having to do with implementing some undocumented positioning properties of the 2600. Some of the most difficult to emulate 2600 games now run nicely. One of the most dramatic game improvements is gijoe.bin/actionmn.bin. The snake has eluded emulation for years. z26 gets it right. Other improved games include polepsn.bin, fatalrun.bin, koolaide.bin, snoopy.bin, solaris.bin (hyperspace now correct), mash.bin (trees now accurate), duckshot.bin, dolphin.bin/tubybird.bin (clouds move smoothly), moonptrl.bin, batlzone.bin, thundgrd.bin, and maybe others. At this point, there isn't much left to fix in the graphics area.
• Thanks to Eckhard Stolberg for help figuring out some of the puzzles in this release. Also for writing a special demo program that helped map out some of the 2600's undocumented positioning properties.

What's new in version (1.30)?

• Pitfall II now plays!
• Other minor adjustments to graphics and appearance of various games.
• Artificially stabilized traffic.bin. It's really supposed to jitter but I forced it to be steady.

What's new in version (1.29)?

• Improved game compatibility. The following games that either ran badly or didn't run at all now play fine: jamesbond.bin, moonswep.bin, lancelot.bin, wingwar.bin, skihunt.bin, ski_run.bin, lockchse.bin, blueprnt.bin, summerga.bin, winterga.bin, pandchse.bin, zoofun.bin, and aciddrop.bin. There may be others as well.
• Improved graphics accuracy, including the multi-sprite trick. This affects too many games to list, but galaxian.bin is probably the most famous game to require the multi-sprite trick.
• Added support for the Cosmic Ark effect. This gives cosmcark.bin and jrnyescp.bin a sparkling background.
• Improved support for PAL games, including a better palette, and better classification of PAL games.
• Added support for 32in1 games as separate ROM images. These are all classified as PAL games since the cart was originally released in Europe.
• Reclassified jediaren.bin (Jedi Arena) as a paddle game so it plays automatically. Just in time for the new Star Wars movie. :-) The other Star Wars games: swarcade.bin, dethstar.bin, and starempr.bin already play fine.

What's new in version (1.28)?

• Quadrun Speaks!! We've implemented the 2600 digital voice which is used in some rare 2600 games, the most famous of which is probably Quadrun (quadrun.bin). This technique is also used by opensesm.bin as well as raftridr.bin, which plays a musical ditty with the digital voice when the reset button is pressed.

What's new in version (1.27)?

• A minor fix to the new graphics engine. I'd forgotten to update the playfield color midway through a scanline if the ball was enabled but the playfield wasn't. This fixes atlantis.bin, starfox.bin, and maybe some others.

What's new in version (1.26)?

A new graphics engine.  There are improvements in the following areas:

• Object wrapping.  Objects, like the mountains in the background of choprcmd.bin, now scroll smoothly off the screen.
• HMOVE blanks are now done accurately.  These are those horizontal lines on the left side of the screen.  It makes some games like mspacman.bin less pleasant to look at, but this is how a real 2600 looks.
• Improved handling of graphics registers.  You can now read the title screen to things like espial.bin and picnic.bin.
• Partial support for weird HMOVE.  This fixes a couple of games like earthdie.bin.  Information on this originally came from Bradford Mott.
• More speed.  Demonatk.bin now runs at 194 FPS on my Cyrix PR-166 compared to 132 FPS in version 1.25.  John Dullea's hand_tia.asm was helpful here.
• Video mode 7 is now stable and playable on my machine, thanks to the fast graphics.  Even on a fast Celeron (337 Mhz), version 1.25 typically had image tearing in this mode.

What's new in version (1.25)?

• Fixes an obscure problem under Windows 98 that sometimes caused the system to become "unresponsive" if z26 was launched from a shortcut that had been dragged onto the taskbar and converted into a button.
• An icon. (So you can drag a shortcut onto the taskbar...)

What's new in version (1.24)?

• More fiddling with frame sync. At this point it works about as well under Win98 as it did under Win95. In fact in some ways it's a little better. I can play an audio CD in the background while playing z26 with very little frame-skipping. This wasn't possible before. I don't know if this is a Win98 thing or a z26 thing though.

What's new in version (1.23)?

• Yet another new frame synchronizer. This one works better with Windows 98. Some other minor adjustments as well.

What's new in version (1.22)?

• z26 now comes up with a list of ROMs to choose from if you type z26 with no parameters. In addition to being able to navigate the list in the usual way, with arrow keys and Home/End, you can type the first few characters of the ROM that you want to run and the cursor will position itself on the first ROM that matches the characters that you've typed. The currently matched character is highlighted. To run a random ROM, hit the backslash key.

What's new in version (1.21)?

• You no longer need to type in the .bin extension for ROM filenames.
• z26 is now a little bit configurable. If you type z26 followed by some command line switches, but you don't include a filename, z26 will remember the command line switches as defaults. These defaults can still be overridden with a command line that includes a filename.
• The help screen that you get by typing z26 alone on a command line now has multiple pages. It comes up in graphics mode too. Thanks to Chris Pile for the line drawing code.
• A rare bug that occasionally caused graphics to be messed up at startup may have been fixed.

What's new in version (1.20)?

• A number of minor adjustments, mostly having to do with graphics of  specific games. Probably the most interesting fix is the positioning of objects in Ms. Pacman and Yars' Revenge. Things no longer jump around near the left border in Ms. Pacman, and the rainbow thingy is now correctly positioned in Yars' Revenge. Thanks to Bradford Mott and Eckhard Stolberg for helpful information about object positioning.

What's new in version (1.19)?

• New frame synchronizer.  Should fix weirdness of last couple of versions. (I hope.)   We look at the VGA vsync pulse now, but with a timeout, so we can run the frame even if the pulse is missed.  This helps to keep the game running smoothly if the operating system decides to steal processor time at the critical moment.
• No longer have to press shift key to get into mode 8.  (It got to be a hassle.)

What's new in version (1.18)?

• Fixed problem with games running too fast when you first start the game up.  This problem was caused by the new frame synchronization code in version 1.17.

What's new in version (1.17)?

• Video mode 8 -- intense scanline mode.  This mode is not universal. You need a good quality, multi-frequency monitor that can refresh at 120Hz, and even then your results may vary. It's a real 320x240 mode that uses the VGA hardware to get the monitor to display the scanlines. It refreshes at twice the normal rate and therefore (at least on my monitor) produces a brighter image. Games run at the normal 60Hz however. On my monitor (ADI-5G), this mode displays full-size by default, but I like to adjust it so that the image is smaller and the scan lines are closer together. When I do that, I get a bright and realistic simulation of a TV screen. You must press shift-8 rather than just an 8 to go into this mode from the keyboard.
• Modified the frame synchronizer to accommodate mode 8.
• Modes 4,5 and 8 now do page-flipping to smooth out the animation.
• Changed the way the -s command line option works:
  -s0 prints out diagnostic messages.
  -s1 forces the PC speaker to be used.
  -s2 forces the Soundblaster to run at 15700 Hz.
• Made a minor palette adjustment.

What's new in version (1.16)?

• Improved compatibility of VGA code for tall modes.  Fixed problems with ATI Rage and Riva 128 chipsets.  Maybe others as well.

What's new in version (1.15)?

Added automatic paddle support for a few more games and better support for
tall games including:

• Video mode 4. 320x240 Mode-X.
• Video mode 5. This is the new default mode for tall games. It's 320x240 with an adjusted aspect ratio to match mode 3, the default mode for short games. Around 50 or 60 games now start up in this mode by default.
• Video mode 6. A much requested 320x240 scanline mode. It's really a 320x480 video mode using alternate scanlines to make it look like a TV screen.
• Video mode 7. This is a 320x480 mode that displays every single line of a game so you can see everything.
• Video modes are now switchable during game play using the keyboard. Press the number key on the keyboard (not the keypad) corresponding to the desired video mode to switch to.
• All of these new modes run at 60 Hz to give correct play speed and they should run on just about any VGA card or monitor.

What's new in version (1.14)?

• More intense NTSC (normal) colors.
• Added support for PAL colors.
• Added support for paddle games with keyboard or joystick.  Please see readme.txt for more information.

What's new in version (1.13)?

• Fixed column blanking. (broken in 1.12)
• Fixed icehocky. (broken in 1.10)

What's new in version (1.12)?

• No more jitter! As far as I know, there are no games that jitter inappropriately. This is due to further improvements to RIOT timer emulation, as well as improvements to VSYNC and VBLANK emulation.
• Added ability to scroll the vertical position of most games with <PgUp> and <PgDn> keys. <Home> returns to default position.
• Got some missing graphics to show up. Like espial's scoreboard as well as the scoreboard and logo in some of the Mystique games.  This is due to improved VBLANK emulation.

What's new in version (1.11)?

• Better emulation of RIOT timer and WSYNC register.
• Some games are more stable like brickick.bin, dishastr.bin, gopher.bin, and rocnrope.bin.
• Some games jitter like they're supposed to like crosfrce.bin and tetris26.bin.

What's new in version (1.10)?

• Fixed weird missile bug in Yars' Revenge.
• Adjusted VGA synchronization for a more stable display.

What's new in version (1.09)?

• New games including:  califgms.bin, and ofthwall.bin.
• Support for Activision FE cartridge format.  This gives us:  decathln.bin and robotank.bin..
• Support for Atari 32K format.  This gives us fatalrun.bin.
• Support for M-Network 16K format.  This gives us he_man.bin, bnj.bin, and burgtime.bin.  z26 automatically sets player 1 difficulty to hard when playing he_man.bin so that the game starts up.

What's new in version (1.08)?

• New games including:  stargate.bin (8K), defendr2.bin (8K), beamride.bin, radarlok.bin, sprfootb.bin, and humancan.bin (AKA human_cb.bin).
• Support for Parker Brothers cartridge format.  This gives us:  dethstar.bin, gyruss.bin, sprcobra.bin, tutank.bin, popeye.bin, swarcade.bin, qbrtqube.bin, frogger2.bin, montzrev.bin, docastle.bin, and toothpro.bin.
• Support for TigerVision cartridge format.  This gives us riverp.bin and polaris.bin.  Other TigerVision games jitter.  I'll look into that later...
• Improved games include:  oystr29.bin, spcinvad.bin, spaceinv.bin, and congbong.bin.
• We now have variable game speed with the -r command line switch (see readme.txt).   This is to provide an alternate speed control method for those systems that the default monitor synchronization doesn't work, and also to allow game play at other frame rates. I think some games were designed to run at 50 frames per second instead of the usual 60.

What's new in version (1.07)?

• This version has new timer code. It should fix the problem some folks have been having with z26 running too fast. If you are still having that problem with this version please let me know.

What's new in version (1.06)?

• Elegant new design for CPU emulator.
• All opcode handlers are macro generated.
• Instruction timing now blended into address calculation.
• Optimized decimal arithmetic and ARR routines a bit.
• Adjusted timing of some TIA writes.
• Improved games: 
  digdug.bin and fantcvoy.bin -- Better graphics.  
  nghtmare.bin and reactor.bin -- Stable.

What's new in version (1.05)?

• Further improvement to the CPU emulation.
• More games now play better...
  amidar.bin -- No longer crashes.
  starempr.bin (Empire Strikes Back) -- Plays.  
  And probably others as well.

What's new in version (1.04)?

• Improved CPU emulation based in part on 6510core.c by Ettore Perazzoli (ettore@comm2000.it). In particular, decimal arithmetic works much better now, and we support all of the CPU's undocumented instructions. 6510core.c is part of the VICE Commodore 64 emulator.
• Many games now play better...
  airaidrs.bin -- It's now much easier to take off and fly.
  choprcmd.bin -- Gun now fires correctly in both directions.
  demonatk.bin -- Now plays fifth level and beyond.
  enduro.bin -- Odometer now works correctly.
  startrek.bin -- Plays !
  venture.bin -- Graphics no longer messed up inside upper-left room.

  And more...

What's new in version (1.03)?

• Fixed crash if you don't have a Sound Blaster.  This problem was introduced in version 1.02.  (How DO these things happen???)
• Slightly faster sound interrupt handler and sound generation.
• Joystick controls can be swapped between players.  This allows the joystick to be used on games like raiders.bin which use the *wrong* joystick.  Keyboard controls are swapped too.  Specify the -j2 command line switch.
• Anyone had any luck running z26 under Windows98?  Please let me know.  Tell me about your video card, your sound card, and which release candidate of Windows98 you're running.  Thanks!!

What's new in version (1.02)?

• Fixed a problem that caused sound to be distorted on some systems when z26 was launched from a Windows 95 DOS box.  Thanks to Brad Thomas for working with me on this!
• Pausing game turns off sound (again).

What's new in version (1.01)?

• Sound generation is now interrupt driven.  It's faster and the sound buffer is smaller.  Now 64 bytes per interrupt.
• Frame synchronization has been improved, especially on slower machines where the image is more stable.  It appears that this also fixes the *Millenium Bug* -- the sporadic lockups that occured especially on Matrox Millenium cards.  I suspect that other cards may have had this problem as well.  Thanks to David Gray for working with me on this one!
• Non-linear palette, which is generally brighter.
• More precise frame timer (-f<n>).

What's new in version (1.00)?

• For one thing, it looks like I've run out of version numbers less than one!
• Fixed a couple of sound bugs that cropped up in the assembly language translation.   One in digital signal processing, another in the drivers for cards that have version 3.xx DSP.  We now turn on the hardware low-pass filter like we used to.
• Reassigned the keyboard to be compatible with the V-Stick , and we now support 2 player joystick games from the keyboard (and the V-Stick).  You can find the key assignments in the help screen or readme.txt.  The main thing you'll notice if you're used to playing from the keyboard is that the player 0 fire button is now the CTRL key.  Sorry about that.  But it also fixes an obscure bug that shows up when the space bar is used as a fire button.  You can now move diagonally and fire at the same time!  This was previously not possible, at least not in all 4 diagonal directions.

What's new in version (0.99)?

• Rewrote Ron Fries' TIASound library in assembly language.
• Rewrote all the other "C" code in assembly language.
• We are now 100% pure assembly language again! :-)
• Fixed some bugs in the command line processor. An illegal command line switch no longer runs the previous game (!)

What's new in version (0.98)?

• *Full Metal* sound drivers (pure assembly language).  Thanks again Chris!

What's new in version (0.97)?

• More games are showing signs of working. I've added support for the following offbeat cartridge formats: Atari Super Chip (some 16K images), and CBS Ram Plus (12K images).
• Fixed a problem in sound drivers introduced in 0.96 (oops!).

What's new in version (0.96)?

• All known DOS box lockup problems have been fixed :-) Please let me know if you find more.
• Fixed sound-related DOS box lockup on emulator startup that happened when Windows 95 wasn't finished playing a sound when the emulator was started. z26 now waits for Windows 95 to finish before initializing the Sound Blaster.
• Fixed rare sound-related DOS box lockup on emulator finish. Thanks to Ummagumma and Len Shikowitz for working with me on this, and thanks to Chris Pile for some interesting conversations on *paranoid* Sound Blaster programming. I used some code from his Asteroids emulator to help pull this one off.
• Vertical sync code now falls back to old code automatically if a timeout occurs. This avoids a lockup if the delay introduced in version 0.95 proves to be insufficient.
• Sound is now properly turned off when a game is paused on all supported sound cards.

What's new in version (0.95)?

• Fixed the blinking line in the upper left corner of the screen that showed up in 0.94 when z26 was run with the -r (full speed) command line switch.
• Fixed joystick games that previously didn't work with a joystick. These include: airlock.bin, alien.bin, circatri.bin, circus.bin, circus-j.bin, enduro.bin, supferar.bin, and supferri.bin.
• Made some progress with game jitter.
• Made progress with a (fortunately rather rare) problem that causes z26 to sometimes lock up at startup under Windows 95. This fix has to do with initialization of the vertical synchronization code. I've added an additional delay to give Windows 95 more time to complete it's animation of the switch to full screen mode when graphics mode is turned on before timing the vertical non-display interval and reprogramming the VGA registers. If you still experience a lockup at startup, you can try one of the following.
  
  A. Start the game from the DOS prompt in a DOS box that is already full screen. (Press Alt-Enter to switch a windowed DOS box to full screen mode.)

  B. Try the -r1 switch. This causes the old, pre 0.90 synchronization code to be used. This also seems to be needed on some laptops. I'm hoping to make the switch to the old synchronization code automatic in some future release.

  C. Try the -q switch. This turns off sound. I'll be addressing the possible sound-related lockup in a future release :)

  D. (Last Resort) Reboot your system in MS-DOS mode.

What's new in version (0.94)?

• A new default video mode (mode 3). This video mode is just like the old default mode (mode 2) but it displays 4 additional scan lines for a total of 204.
• Adjusted the vertical position of some tall games for better appearance.
• Fixed a flicker problem. This actually happened in 0.93 but I forgot to mention it.
• Restored 0.92 sound and joystick code.

What's new in version (0.93)?

• A palette adjustment.
• Slightly more responsive joystick code.
• Removed some experimental graphics code.
• Smaller faster sound drivers.
• Added a 1 second startup delay to allow monitors to synchronize to the new video mode before starting. This makes it more likely that you'll see the first frame of the game.

What's new in version (0.92)?

• PC joystick support. If you have a PC joystick, z26 will use it to emulate the Atari joystick. Calibration is not required. Just make sure the PC joystick is centered when you start the emulator. This code is somewhat experimental. Let me know if you have any problems. Please see the readme.txt for more information.
• 60Hz video mode 2 is now the default video mode.

What's new in version (0.91)?

• Correct play speed at last! Now you can use new 60Hz video modes courtesy of Jim Leonard (Trixter / Hornet). Please see the readme.txt for more information. And be sure to check out Trixter's PC Demoscene page for many interesting "demos" that explore the limits of what's possible on a PC.

What's new in version (0.90)?

• Added support for mid-line collision detection. This fixes Freeway and Oystron among others.
• Added support for multiple missiles. This fixes Missile Command :-) and improves the appearance of many games, including Oystron.
• Restored Paul Robson's original decimal arithmetic routines.
• Added support for some of the 6502's more popular undocumented instructions (SAX, RLA, RRA, ISB and SLO).
• You may also notice some slightly smoother graphics due to some new VGA synchronization code.

What's new in version (0.89)?

• Added digital signal processing to the sound. See the readme.txt for more details.
• Adjusted pitch of sound.

What's new in version (0.88)?

• Sound Blaster support using the Ron Fries TiaSound library. See the readme.txt file for more information on this.
• -q command line switch (quiet).
• -f<n> command line switch. Runs emulator for <n> frames and displays timing results.

What's new in version (0.87)?

• This is the fastest version of z26 so far. I expect that it will run full speed on just about any Pentium class platform with a reasonable video subsystem. This includes the AMD 5x86. Here are some frame rates for z26 running Yar's Revenge using the -r command line switch for maximum speed.

Cyrix 6x86 PR-166	150 fps
AMD 5x86 160Mhz	107 fps
486 DLC-40	14 fps
386 DX-33	6.5 fps

What's new in version (0.86)?

• Improved playfield drawing. (Vidcube looks better)
• Better vertical positioning.
• More speed.

What's new in version (0.85)?

• Another more games work better release. Mostly having to do with a rework of vertical synchronization.

What's new in version (0.84)?

• More games work better. (Seaquest, Tetris26, Space Invaders, and others...)

What's new in version (0.83)?

• Improved appearance for many games, especially the Activision ones.

What's new in version (0.82)?

• PCX screen capture by Ronnie Greene ( ender@abts.net ). Press the "=" key to get a PCX file with a screen image in it.
• A new palette.

What's new in version (0.81)?

• Changed fire button from ALT key to SPACE. This allows switching from full-screen display to windowed display under Windows 95 without firing a missile. This is done by pressing ALT-ENTER.
• Added F9 to switch to black and white and F10 to switch to color on the fly. This is for games like Starmaster that require it.
• Added pause game (by pressing p) and resume game (by pressing ENTER).
• Added command line switch -r to allow game to play as fast as possible on slow machines. With this option, z26 doesn't wait for the VGA retrace between frames.
• The "difficulty" command line options now seem to work. Games come up "easy." For hard use the -0 (zero) command line switch.
• The left hand gun now shows up in Atlantis.
• Added help screen if you type z26 on the command line with no filename.

What's new in version (0.80)?

• This is the first public release of z26.  Aug. 28, 1997.

What are the terms and conditions for distributing z26?

z26 is released subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPL).  Please see the license (or COPYING.TXT included with the executable) for more information.

Does z26 come with any warranty?

NO.

BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/OR REDISTRIBUTE THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

How do you operate z26?

Please see the README.TXT included with the executable.  

Copyright (c) 1997-2004 by John Saeger