Atari ST Emulation FAQ

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A T A R I    S T   E M U L A T I O N   F A Q

Frequently Asked Questions list about Atari ST emulation on the PC
(currently GEMulator96, GEMulator Classic, PacifiST, STemu, STimul, and STonX)

Version 1.6 - 28 June 1997
Created and maintained by
Richard Karsmakers - cronos@worldaccess.nl
Robert Goodwin - rsg0910@iglou.comv DISCLAIMER
Although every possible care has been taken to ensure optimum accuracy of the information in this FAQ, etc. :-)


INITIAL PROCEEDINGS

WELCOME!

Atari ST emulation has been around for a while, yet all this time nobody ever got their noses down to the grindstone in order to create a means for users of emulator the likes of GEMulator, PacifiST, STonX, STonX and STimul to exchange hints and tips, in other words to conceive a basic document that contains information that ST emulation fans would no doubt value like life itself. Well, this is it. It started off as a GEMulator-only FAQ, but it almost logically evolved into a more broad-minded platform.

In case you are not familiar with the concept of FAQs, please read the next paragraph.


What the FAQ?! ("What is a FAQ?" for the more sensitive)

FAQ simply stands for "Frequently Asked Question", but it has come to indicate a text file full of information about a certain subject. And somewhere in the infinite nooks and crannies of the vastly obscure Internet you can find FAQs for just about anything at all: Sitcoms, rock groups, bomb-building, hallucinogenic substances, Amigas, Serbo-Croatian bonsai tree aficionados, you name it!

How and where to get updated FAQ versions

The idea for this FAQ came into existence somewhere around the end of 1996, at which instant its creators both started to collect the various messages pertaining to Atari ST emulation that made their way onto the various Atari Usenet groups, most particularly onto the group they quite regularly frequent, comp.sys.atari.st.

There will also be more or less frequent updates of this document, of course, which will be posted to comp.sys.atari.st and comp.emulators.misc. Of course the FAQ will also be put up on the Web. It can be found at the following locations: 

http://members.iglou.com/rsg0910/atstemu.faq.html
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/fujizone/files/stemufaq.zip

If you want to receive the current version of the FAQ in your email box every time a new one is released, just email to cronos@worldaccess.com with the subject line "Subscribe Atari ST Emulation FAQ".

How to help improving the FAQ

First of all, please distribute this FAQ to FTP sites, WWW sites, bulletin boards and whichever other places you deem fit. The word must get around so that this FAQ will quickly improve drastically. Right now it contains rather more questions than it does replies, which is a thing that must change.

Second, if you notice anything - anything AT ALL - that is either incorrect or incomplete, please feel free to fill in the gaps (possibly with source reference). Even typo reports are welcome. Most of all, however, we would appreciate your sending in solutions to the problems posed in this document, or submitting procedures that people would need to undertake to render compatible a program so far included in the 'no way' list. Also, we would simply like to know of programs you are using successfully that aren't yet mentioned in the lists of those that work, or ones you've tried but that don't.

You will notice that the STemu and, even more so, the STimul segments in particular are fairly skeletal. Please help us enlarge them.

Cheers!


Emulation URLs not mentioned elsewhere

Further down in this FAQ, information is given as to where to get all kinds of software specific to the respective emulators. This paragraph lists URLs and the like regarding either emulators that are not (yet) in this FAQ or general stuff that can be used for any emulator.

Do note that the mere fact that some of the below URLs might possibly give way to the illegal distribution of copyrighted software does not mean that the authors of this FAQ condone such an act.


For MagicPC: (German) 

    http://cip2.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de:8080/hyplan/lafreund/magicpc.html
    ftp://members.aol.com/ashftp/demomapc.exe (English)

For TOS2Win: 

    http://www.aixit.com/tos2win/info.htm

For other emulations go to Matthias Jaap homepage: 

    http://www.hh.schule.de/hhs/computer/english/emulator.htm

For a Teradesk Desktop Replacement: 

    ftp://ftp.cnam.fr/pub/Atari/Desktops/tdsk140a.lzh

For software: 

    ftp.cnam.fr
    ftp.archive.umich.edu (a very busy site!)
    gopher.archive.umich.edu (preferred)

For the TOS ROMs: 

    http://nana.nfinity.com/node99 or 206.101.78.248/node99 (slow!)
    http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/2425/Tos_roms.zip
    http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Pines/7550

Comp.emulators.misc FAQ (maintained by Adam Roach): 

    http://www.why.net/home/adam/cem/toc.html


Author information

Richard Karsmakers

A teacher of English since January 1997, some of you may recognise Richard from some things he's done on the Atari platform, which include the "Ultimate Virus Killer" and the disk magazine "ST News". Although he has in the mean time rounded off the latter, he has vowed to continue developing the former. This, together with his disinclination to convert hundreds of "Superbase" and "1st Word Plus" files to "Access" and "Word" respectively, is the main reason why he is now the owner of a PC set-up with Atari emulation.

He still writes for "Atari Computing" and the Maggie" disk magazine occasionally, and plans to set up a World Wide Web Multi Media Magazine called "WWW-MMM". Having a penchant for loud music, he also maintains the FAQ for the rock group Gwar.


Robert Goodwin

A deaf computer user since about 1978, Robert has used a number of the older platforms when they were released, and has nothing but respect for them. Though he has built his own 486 system, he still uses his STE and Mega STE, as well as a Sun 3/60 workstation. He's currently attempting to learn more C to write some sort of BBS program or somesuch. Give it time!

He's not about to give up his ST systems, though he'll test things out on a variety of ST emulators just to see if they'll run, and then abuse them from there.


Atari ST Emulation FAQ history 

1.0  - 1 March 1997
     - Initial compilation rounded off, GEMulator-only

1.5  - 11 May 1997
     - Second, improved version
     - STonX, PacifiST, STemu, and STimul added
     - Reformatted to 75 columns for more universal readability
     - Chapter division restructured, hopefully made more logical :-)

1.6  - 28 June 1997
     - Compatibility and incompatibility lists added to
     - STonX download URL altered
     - PacifiST and STemu status information updated


Thanks

Lots of thanks to the people on Usenet who have reacted positively to the idea of creating this FAQ - this one's for you! Quite a few people have reacted by submitting questions, sometimes even questions accompanied by an answer. Although we'll no doubt have forgotten a few people here, heartfelt 'cheers!' need to go out to Ben-John, Nicholas Bales, John Blackwell, Adrian Bridgett, Damien Burke, Will Fisher, Andrew Foster, Tony Greenwood, Anthony Jacques, William Jones, Matthieu Klein, Ken MacDonald, Miguel Reizinho, Helen Ross, Oliver Schildmann, Harry Sideras, Mark Slagell, Philip Taylor, Jeff Vincent and Manfred Vogelgesang.

GEMULATOR CLASSIC AND GEMULATOR96

GEMulator

GEMulator96 is a software Atari ST emulator for PCs, created by Darek Mihocka of Emulators, Inc. It emulates most of the ST systems released by Atari, the 520/1040ST, STfm, STf, STm, MegaST and MegaSTE. Darek Mihocka, in case the name rings a bell, used to be the main man of Branch Always Software and has made, among many utilities, the Atari screen speeder "Quick ST".

GEMulator Classic (current version 3.6) can only emulate the Atari ST. This product is freeware (yes, it's for free!) and works on MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and OS/2 Warp, requiring at least an 80386 processor running at 33 Mhz, with 2-4 Mb of internal RAM.

GEMulator96 (currently version 4.6 of January 1997) costs US$ 69.95 separate, US$ 99.95 with MagiC 2, US$ 119.95 with MagiC 4, US$ 149.95 with TOS 1.04 ROMs on an ISA card, and US$ 179.95 with TOS 2.06 ROMs on an ISA card. Users of MagicPC (a competing product) can upgrade to GEMulator96 for US$ 39.95. It runs on Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT, and requires at least an 80486 processor at 33 Mhz, with 6-8 Mb of internal RAM and a VGA monitor. It works on systems equipped with 386/486/Pentium or Pentium Pro.

Emulators, Inc. also offer to send you the latest GEMulator with MagiC 4 if you send them your old ST or (Mega) STE with disk drive and at least one (monochrome or colour) monitor. They'll even pay the shipping of GEMulator to you, the kind souls :-\

GEMulator97 is in the pipeline for the summer of 1997; this one should also support Atari TT emulation, Falcon, ST, STE and Atari 8 bit (yes, all in one package).


Where do I find the software?

Emulators Inc. can be reached via email at emulators@msn.com, which is also the address where additional questions about GEMulator may be asked. The regular (snailmail) address is: 

Emulators, Inc.
14150 NE 20th Street, Suite 302
Bellevue, WA 98007
U.S.A.
Phone 206-236-0540
Fax   206-236-0257

For GEMulator Classic and GEMulator96: 

    http://www.emulators.com (click on Downloads)

For the virtual drives: 

    http://home1.swipnet.se/~w-11410/js/gem96dem.zip
    (Just take the drives out of the zip file and stick them in your GEMulator directory)


How do I install it?

Darek Mihocka, of Emulators, Inc., has said before that a manual is in the making for the GEMulator Classic, but one has not surfaced yet. There is one on setting up the GEMulator96 (to be found on the Emulators, Inc. home page).


ling the GEMulator Classic

Create a directory anywhere on your hard drive. GEM is a good one, though you may want a different one. Place GEMUL8R.EXE, and MAGIC_PC.OS in your directory, as well as the .VHD and STHDBOOT.SEC files.

Create the GEMUL8R.INI file. You can use the one below. See 2.2.3 for a breakdown of what each line does.


rams 8
mono
quick
com1
disk c: cdrive.vhd
disk d: ddrive.vhd
disk e: edrive.vhd
disk f: fdrive.vhd
magic_pc.os


You may have seen somewhere that the .INI file has to go in the root. This is an error. The emulator is looking for it in the same directory it's in. If you want it in the root directory, then make it 'magic c:\magic_pc.os,' and it'll find it there. The nice thing about this sort of set-up is that you can have multiple operating systems and desktops. Run the GEMUL8R.EXE program. You should now be able to see the boot-up screen with the Atari logo, at which moment it'll start a memory check. This check can be bypassed by tapping any key on the keyboard. If all goes well, you will be at the desktop with 4 virtual drives C-F, and two floppy drives A and B.

You may also see that you cannot install the ROMs via the program, using the INSTALL command. This is for the plug-in card that Emulators Inc. sells. See their home page for more information. GEMulator will run without the ROM images if you have this card.

Installing GEMulator96

The Emulators Inc. Web page has instructions on doing this. However, there may be some minor errors or whatnot, so watch this space.

Creating the GEMUL8R.INI file

This paragraph features a breakdown of what the individual lines in the GEMUL8R.INI file do.

rams 8 How much memory do you wish for your ST to have? Make sure you have enough RAM as well. A 4 Mb PC should use rams 4. Possibly, the amount of RAM you specify should be lower than what the PC actually has.

mono What kind of monitor? For now, the GEMulator Classic only uses either low or high resolution.

quick How fast do you want the emulation to be? Quick or Slow? ST speed or PC speed?

com1 What port is your modem on?

disk c: cdrive.vhd disk d: ddrive.vhd disk e: edrive.vhd disk f: fdrive.vhd The virtual hard drives. If you don't have them, the emulator will give you an error saying it can't find them, and all you'll have is access to the A: and B: drives. See above where to find them.

magic_pc.os This is your TOS ROM image. For now, most people are using 2.06. If your image is called TOS.IMG, rename this line to magic tos.img. It will run. Without this line or the .INI file, it will default to searching for the MAGIC_PC.OS file. Do note that no version of TOS 1.00 will work with GEMulator.

g Will allow you to go straight into the ST screen. This appears not to be needed when you use Windows 95. With some systems, you see, you'll just get a white screen and nothing will happen is you omit this 'g'.


No Way - What won't run on the GEMulator?

This segment features a list - as complete as we could make it - of various programs that do *not* work on the GEMulator. Individual games (just like Falcons-specific applications such as "Rainbow") are not mentioned, as they generally do not work. Exceptions may be found below, in 2.5.x.


Drawing & Art

  • Deluxe Paint (the mouse can't be moved)
  • Kandinsky
  • NeoChrome
  • Spectrum 512


DTP, Word Processing and Text Editor

No titles known yet.


MIDI and Sound

No titles known yet.


Programming Utilities

No titles known yet.


Spreadsheets & Databases

No titles known yet.


Communications

No titles known yet.


Disk Magazines

  • Maggie (probably caused by the music).


Various (including most Utilities)

  • Autoroute
  • Diamond Edge
  • FastCopy pro (appears to work fine if a bit slow, but the target disk has 0 bytes free and no folders)
  • Freedom (see chapter 5)
  • Kobold File Copier
  • LEDPanel (doesn't display anything)
  • Microtalk QWK Reader
  • ST Zip (it cant deflate anything; this is not much of a problem, though, as "Winzip.exe" can be assigned to be used, even from GEMulator, and this is much faster anyway)
  • Xboot (though it can be used to manually rename CPX, AUTO\.PRG and ACC files, it cannot handle its function key sets)


YES Way - This will run on the GEMulator!

This segment features a list - as complete as we could make it - of various programs that *do* work on the GEMulator. Where needed, hints are given on how to make programs work that may initially seem reluctant to function properly or efficiently.


Drawing & Art

  • Bitmap View 4
  • Canvas
  • Degas Elite
  • Graph 1.20 (produces graphics as GEM metafiles)
  • ImageCopy
  • Papyrus (though right mouse should be avoided, and printing allegedly runs into problems with NVDI, so print to a disk file and use a batch file on the Windows desktop with the contents "COPY /B %1 LPT1" to drag that file onto).


DTP, Word Processing and Text Editor

  • 1st Word Plus 3.20TT
  • Calamas 1.09n
  • Calamus SL
  • Everest
  • Pagestream
  • Papyrus (change printer output to "via TOS")
  • Protext
  • QED 3.97 (text editor)
  • Tempus (although it does give a "THIS APPLICATION CAN'T FIND THE FOLDER YOU TRIED TO ACCESS" error whenever it's exited - anyone know why, and how this can be solved?)


MIDI and Sound

No titles known yet.


Programming Utilities

  • DevPac ST (*the* standard assembler from HiSoft)
  • GfA Basic 3
  • GfA Basic 3 compiler (see 'problems', chapter 5, too)
  • Hisoft Basic 2
  • Hisoft Personal Pascal
  • Interface (resource file designer)


Spreadsheets & Databases

  • Data Manager ST
  • DB Master One
  • Superbase Professional


Communications

  • Flash


Disk Magazines

ST News Volume 7 Issue 2 and up (provided the music is configured 'off' in the "SETUP" file)

Various (including most Utilities)

  • Atomic 3.5 (packer)
  • Before Dawn (screensaver)
  • Dither 1.6 (produces dither patterns for GEMview)
  • Formula (equation editor)
  • GEMBench (by Ofir Gal) (CPU check doesn't work though)
  • GEMView (though printed output doesn't work)
  • Geneva
  • Hiscore Terminal Utility 1.0
  • Kivi QWK Reader
  • Knife ST (though it can't access hard disk sectors outside file mode)
  • Let 'Em Fly (dialog box enhancer)
  • LZH Shell 3.10
  • MagiC
  • Mega Depack
  • Memfile (but make sure it's in the root of C:)
  • Mosdos
  • Mutil (Michtron Disk Utility) (though it can't access hard disk sectors outside file mode)
  • NeoDesk 4
  • New Depack (Sinister Developments - use the ST version)
  • NVDI 2 & 4
  • Pack Ice 2.4 (packer)
  • P.A. Pack (packer)
  • Picswitch 7
  • Revenge Doc Displayer (but see chapter 5!)
  • Selectric (alternative file selector)
  • ST Guide
  • Sysinfo (by H.W.A.M. de Beer)
  • Ultimate Virus Killer
  • Whatis
  • Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged (Grandson of) 4.242 (swearing accessory)


Games

  • Don't Worry be Happy
  • Geneticopoly (AI Monopoly by Roy Stead)
  • Premium Mah Jong (use standard resolutions, though)


GEMulator problems...and how to solve them

This is one of the most important segments of the FAQ for GEMulator users - the part where practical problems are exposed and consequently - hopefully - tackled. It's divided in what is hopefully a practical structure.


Software compatibility

FREEDOM

Q: "Freedom" appears not to work properly. When you try to save a file with it and the original file already exists, it will merely update the date and time stamp of the original file, but not change its actual contents.

A: Save under a different filename, then exit, delete the old file, and rename the new. Strange, but that's the best workaround for now.

GENEVA

Q: When installing "Geneva" via its own installation program, one of its vitally important files, GEM.CNF, is always 0 bytes in size. "Geneva" always needs the specifications in this file when, for example, you want to have "NeoDesk" used as default 'shell'.

A: Create a text file such as the one displayed below (edit it to your own specifications): 

# GEM.CNF: written by INSTALL.PRG
#
setenv ACCPATH=C:\
setenv PATH=.,C:\GENEVA
setenv ACCEXT=ACC,ACX
setenv GEMEXT=PRG,APP,GTP,EXE
setenv TOSEXT=TOS,TTP
setenv SHOWHELP=C:\GENEVA\HELP\GNVAHELP
# setenv TOSRUN=C:\GENEVA\GNVA_TOS.PRG
# Other commands:
#   run          Runs a program with parameters
#   runsleep     Runs program, puts it to sleep
shell C:\NEODESK4\NEODESK.EXE            Runs program as the shell
#
# end of GEM.CNF


GFA BASIC (COMPILER)

Q: When you use "MENU.PRG" to compile a program, you specify "FILE.GFA" but, for some or other reason, the actual compiling module attempts to access the file "FILE.GFA.GFA"; it autonomously puts an additional (and superfluous) extension behind the file, causing it not to be found.

A: This can be solved by having two identical copies of "FILE.GFA", with the second called "FILE" (right, with no extension). Now manually drag "FILE" onto "GFA_BCOM.PRG". The file "FILE.GFA" will be accessed and compiled, resulting in a "FILE.O" file. Now start "MENU.PRG" and act as usual (F2, F10 is what I usually so, then select "FILE.GFA"). The compiling process will give an error (file not found), but that's no problem and the linking process will access "FILE.O". One "but": You cannot specify the compiler options from "MENU.PRG" anymore, so include them in your source file.

REVENGE DOC DISPLAYER

Q: "Revenge Doc Displayer" refuses to be installed properly as "default" application for applications not yet assigned to other files.

A: There seems to be no other solution than to edit the NEWDESK.INF file and add lines similar to the following (include your own RDD3.PRG path): 

#G 03 04 200 C:\ATARI\UTILITY\RDD\RDD3.PRG@ *.TXT@ @
#G 03 04 200 C:\ATARI\UTILITY\RDD\RDD3.PRG@ *.ASC@ @
#G 03 04 200 C:\ATARI\UTILITY\RDD\RDD3.PRG@ *.ME@ @
#G 03 04 200 C:\ATARI\UTILITY\RDD\RDD3.PRG@ *.1ST@ @

STOS

Q: Why don't some compiled STOS programs work? This could have something to do with the TOS version (I'm using 2.06), because a similar problem appeared in real life on the ST a few years ago, but even with the later versions of STOS the mouse/keyboard don't respond...

A: It should be noted that, with the latest version of the STOS compiler, everything should work fine, and the mouse will work too.

XBOOT

Q: "Xboot" cannot read and save its default 'sets', it cannot find its own C:\XBOOT\" path.

A: The solution may be to start using Virtual disk files. Is there a solution for regular (non-Virtual) disk mode?

Programming under GEMulator

END OF FILE RECOGNITION

Q: In "GfA Basic", the EOF(#x) command doesn't find the end of a file. A: There is no true solution for this one. If the program that needs to read (for example) a configuration file using EOF(#x) still has its source code available, you could change the WHILE NOT EOF(#x)...WEND loop to a DO...LOOP where you exit the loop if an empty line is read (with LINE INPUT). So you have to make sure you add an empty line or two at the end of, in this case, the configuration file. A: A better workaround: 

Function EOF(Channel%)
  Return (LOC(#Channel%)>=LOF(#Channel%))
Endfunc

So instead of WHILE NOT EOF(#x) you can write WHILE NOT @EOF(x).

JOYSTICK EMULATION

Q: Can joysticks be emulated? A: ?

WRITE-PROTECTED DISKS

Q: There is a perfect way to check the write-protect status of a floppy disk on *any* Atari system (Falcon, TT, ST, whatever), achieved by the following piece of code ("GfA Basic"): 

  FUNCTION wrpr(crd%)           !crd% contains 0 - drive A or 1 - drive B
    SDPOKE &H43E,-1             !Floppy operations off
    ~XBIOS(29,NOT (2*(crd%+1))) !Select drive
    SDPOKE &HFF8606,&H80        !FDC-status register select
    buf%=DPEEK(&HFF8604)        !FDC-status register read
    ~XBIOS(30,2*(crd%+1))       !Deselect drive
    SDPOKE &H43E,0
    buf%=(buf% AND 64)/64       !Isolate WP-bit
    RETURN buf%
  ENDFUNC

Predictably, due to the direct access on addresses FFFF8604 and FFFF8606, this doesn't work on the GEMulator. How can this be solved? A: ?


Miscellaneous

Any GEMulator-related problems that didn't fit in either of the two previous categories will be addressed in this paragraph.

AUTO FOLDER ON DRIVE A:

Q: How do you boot programs from an AUTO folder on drive A?
A: Set the 'Boot disk' option to drive A (RTFM!).

INSTALLING GEMULATOR96 WITHOUT TOS ROM CARD

Q: One beautiful day, my GEMulator96 TOS ROM card was suddenly no longer recognised by the software. It said 'GEMulator not running'. Don't know what caused it; I certainly did no fumbling around and added/removed no hardware or anything. I took the ISA card out and inserted it again, but no show. Took the ROM chips out and inserted them again. The TOS ROMs are simply no longer recognised, the 'find TOS' option finds absolutely zilch.

A: I wouldn't know how to solve this. Maybe you should sell the ROM TOS chips and simply throw away the TOS card, use the GEMulator with TOS on disk.

Q: OK, all you guys talk about using GEMulator with TOS on disk. Apparently you should have a file called 'magic_pc.os' in the root directory of partition C. This does not work. Also, you guys mention altering the INI file, but that isn't even a simple ASCII file with me!

A: Ah! That's the GEMulator *demo* that you found everybody talking about. The real thing, the registered version of GEMulator96 you appear to own, has no ASCII INI file and looks for the file 'magicpc.os' in the root of C:. Yes, simply leave off the '_' between 'magic' and 'pc' and off you go.

I/O PROBLEMS ON GEMULATOR CLASSIC

Q: I have several problems with I/O on GEMulator Classic: - Serial port: there is no DTR signal. Cannot talk the to modem unless I have first sent "at&d0" (ignore DTR, for USR Sportster 14.4 external) from outside GEMulator before entering Atari mode. But even then it goes unresponsive after connect. - Parallel port: errant characters are sent to the printer for no reason I can think of. Every now and then the laser printer spits out a page with a single capital "E" in the upper left corner. - Floppy: media change is seldom recognised. I have to reboot when changing floppies. A: Regarding the media change, you can tap ESC when changing floppies and it should recognise the media change.

MS-DOS VS. ATARI-FORMAT DISKS

Q: I cannot read all Atari disks on the PC. A: MS-DOS and Windows are very picky when it comes to being able to read disks. Even though Atari systems use a disk format that is largely compatible with PCs, MS-DOS and Windows require very specific values to be present in a disk's bootsector. Together with GEMulator you should get a program by the name of MOSDOS.PRG. This Atari program will transform Atari-formatted disks into ones that MS-DOS and Windows can read. Do note that this does not work with non-standard Atari format (such as 10 sectors per track 'FAT' disks, hyper-formatted disks, etc.).

PRINTING

Q: When I print, the printer stops before the printer buffer is fully flushed. I have to start another print job to finish my first job. I'm using GEMulator 4.15 on a P133 running Win95. I've tried default, Fast BIOS Printing, and FPPRINT (or whatever it's called) with the same results. I'm trying to print to a Canon BJ-200. I had no such problems using GEMulator 3.x on my old 486 DX2/66.

A: Is it possible that you may need to send the EOF character, that is, a CTRL-Z, for it to actually start printing?

SOUND

Q: On GEMulator Classic, with sound emulation on, the first key press starts a continuous high-pitched tone, not too loud, from both channels (Soundblaster clone, Forte 16). On GEMulator96, there is a constantly repeated sound, as if the volume is turned on and off a few times per second. XBIOS 32 sound is garbled (Soundblaster clone OptiMAD). Setting the blaster environmental variable doesn't help.

A: ?

III: PACIFIST

PacifiST

PacifiST is a software Atari ST emulator for PCs, created by Fréderic Gidouin. It works best under DOS, but also runs smoothly from Windows 3.11 or Windows 95. Minimum configuration is a 100 Mhz 486, and a Soundblaster- compatible soundcard if you want to hear something. PacifiST emulates the basic ST system released by Atari. PacifiST, amazingly, is FREEWARE, meaning it's for free, although Fréderic would like to occasional (and much deserved!) donation as most of his time goes into the programming and developing of this package. The biggest advantages of PacifiST are that it can run quite a few ST demos and games. Also, it can use both big image files *and* regular PC mass storage media simultaneously, where GEMulator can only have one or the other.

The current version is 0.44 (May 29 1997). Fréderic claims the next version will be an important leap pertaining compatibility and capability.


Where do I find the software?

The programmer, Fréderic Gidouin, can be reached at email address frederic.gidouin@hol.fr, or via the snailmail address below. 

Frederic Gidouin
9, Allee du Chevrefeuille
F-29280 Plouzane
FRANCE

Official PacifiST home pages: 

    http://wwwperso.hol.fr/~gidouin/pacifist.html
    http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/6875/pacifist.html

Other PacifiST resources: 

    http://ireland.iol.ie/~ajankows/st/pacifist.html
    http://oasis.slcc.edu/~pitchja
    http://www.jetman.demon.co.uk/st/index.html
    http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/bfozard/pacifist.htm

A variety of PacifiST utilities can be found around the Web, too.

AssiST: 

    http://www.iol.ie/~ajankows/st/pacifist.html

PaCiLOAD: 

    http://www.labyrinth.net.au/~contact/paciload.zip

MSAtoST: 

    http://www.jetman.demon.co.uk/st/index.html

IMGBUILD: 

    http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/6878/download.html or
    http://wwwperso.hol.fr/~gidouin/download.html


Installing PacifiST

Place everything in its own directory, and modify the entries as described below in the PACIFIST.INI file, then run the PACIFIST.EXE file.


The PACIFIST.INI file

This file sometimes changes as Frederic puts more changes in Pacifist and makes it run better. This will attempt to keep up in some way with the latest revisions as possible. Read the PACIFIST.DOC for more info. 


; PaCifiST v0.xx INI file
; New directives are commented

[video]

refreshrate = 1
(Every how many frames do you want the screen to be refreshed? 1 is normal, unless your system gets jerky screens, then increase the number.)

monochrome = no
(Do you want a monochrome screen? Yes for color, no for mono.) 

fastvideo=yes
(Do you have a slow video card?)

[system]

pcdrive = no            ;REALLY NOT RECOMMENDED. sorry to insist...
(Read the comment. It's not done yet.)

sensitivity = 4         ;Mouse sensitivity (not with build-driver).
internalmouse = no
mousecom=1
(At what COM port is your mouse located?)

joystick=yes
(Are you using a joystick?)

serial=no

autorun=no
(Do you want to go directly from the display monitor to the program?)

ramsize=2
(How much memory do you wish to have? The DOC file contains info on how to do this. An 8 meg machine can easily handle a RAM size of 6, while those machines at 16 megs can do 12-14 megs.)

Sound=yes
(Sound or no sound, that is the question.)

volume=255

( How loud do you want it? 0-255 is the limit, though your soundcard setups can be changed. If it's coming out of a stereo or speakers, use that) 

samples=yes
(Play ST sound samples?)

image=c:\pacifist\disk.st
(This is your disk image, your drive A:. Unless pcdrive=yes above, which it shouldn't be due to some bugs, it'll actually read the floppy. You can have a second line like this - with a different path specification, of course - for drive B)

mount=c:\pacifist\stfiles
(Your own hard drive image, actually a directory. Change it to where your directory is located. You can place files in there if you wish merely by copying them there. This is *not* a virtual disk, like 'image' above)

tos = d:\motorola\tos\tos100.rom        ;Of course, you must edit this line
tosbase= 0xfc0000                     ;to indicate YOUR Tos file location.
;tos = d:\motorola\tos\tos162.rom
;tosbase= 0xe00000
tos = d:\motorola\tos\tos206.rom
tosbase= 0xe00000
(These above don't need much explanation. They're the TOS ROMs. Keep the tosbase address the same, do not change at all. You can change the path name to the ROM images.)

[debug]

logfile=c:\pacifist\st.log
trapirq = none
logirq = none

No Way - What won't run on PacifiST?

This segment features a list - as complete as we could make it - of various programs that do *not* work on PacifiST. Individual games (just like Falcons- specific applications such as "Rainbow") are not mentioned, as they generally do not work. Exceptions may be found below, in 3.5.x. Some titles may be in here although they work when you try them; this is then probably caused by people not have tried both screen modes (so please contact us soon and tell us in which screen mode it works for you).


Drawing & Art

  • Photochrome
  • Speed of Light


DTP, Word Processing and Text Editor

No titles known yet.


MIDI and Sound

No titles known yet.


Programming Utilities

  • Personal Pascal
  • STOS Compiler


Spreadsheets & Databases

No titles known yet.


Communications

No titles known yet.


Disk Magazines

No titles known yet.


Various (including most Utilities)

No titles known yet.


YES Way - This will run on PacifiST!

This segment features a list - as complete as we could make it - of various programs that *do* work on PacifiST. Where needed, hints are given on how to make programs work that may initially seem reluctant to function properly or efficiently. Where necessary, information will be given about which screen mode to use.


Drawing & Art

  • Canvas
  • Cyberpaint 2
  • Imagecopy 4
  • PicSwitch 0.7
  • Prism Paint


DTP, Word Processing and Text Editor

  • 1st Word Plus (provided it is run from a virtual disk, and any docs are on a virtual disk too!)
  • Everest
  • Protext
  • Tempus (the file selector even works better than the TOS one - see 3.6.0)


MIDI and Sound

No titles known yet.


Programming Utilities

  • Devpac ST 3
  • GfA Basic (but it's full of trouble unless you limit yourself to use on/from virtual disks)
  • HiSoft Basic 2
  • STOS Basic (from virtual disk image only)


Spreadsheets & Databases

  • Superbase Professional


Communications

The following titles, unless specified otherwise, have been tested OFF line, not ON line.

  • Antmail
  • Cab 1.5
  • Newsie
  • Stik

Disk Magazines

  • Maggie 22 (as disk image)
  • ST+ Diskmag, every issue so far (as disk image)
  • STOSSER diskmag, every issue so far (as disk image)


Various (including most Utilities)

  • Fastcopy Pro (check disk, etc. works fine)
  • K-Rhyme
  • K-Roget
  • Mega Depack
  • NeoDesk 3 (autorun seems impossible though?)
  • NVDI 2.11
  • Pack Ice 2.4
  • Revenge Doc Displayer
  • Ultimate Virus Killer (can even check images for viruses)
  • What Is
  • XControl Panel


Games

Don't Worry be Happy


PacifiST Problems...and how to solve them

This is one of the most important segments of the FAQ for PacifiST users - the part where practical problems are exposed and consequently - hopefully - tackled. It's divided in what is hopefully a practical structure.

AUTO FOLDER

Q: I've got an AUTO folder in the root directory of mounted partition C:, but still it doesn't work. Why?

A: Create a disk image for drive A with an AUTO folder on it, throwing in all stuff you need. You can change the drive A path once PacifiST is running with 2 or 3 keystrokes.

ITEM SELECTOR

Q: The item selector of TOS 2.06 cannot select another drive by means of the shortcut buttons. How come?

A: ?

SUNDOG

Q: I've got PacifiST running great, but roughly every 20-30 minutes it freezes up. The monitor goes all red and nothing in the game I am playing ("Sundog") will work. I can still return to the emulator, but no command seems to help (e.g. F1 screen toggle, etc.). Some background info: I am running PacifiST on a 486/25 with 3 megs of RAM. I am using TOS version 1.0, 2.6 didn't seem to take too well.

A: Could this just be a "Sundog" incompatibility? Copy protection or such?

GFA BASIC

Q: I get really weird errors in "GfA Basic" source code when in the interpreter, and similarly when I run compiled programs.

A: File I/O goes wrong with GfA Basic unless you run from virtual disks.

THAT'S WRITE

Q: I use pacifist 0.44 and programs like That's Write. I constantly face the problem that I cannot select documents from folders within a given program. I will get the following message instead: "this folder does not exist...". I am still able to read the list of documents included in that folder but will not be able to load any document. To load a document I have to leave That's Write and I have to drag the document on the image of That's Write on the desktop. I face similar problems with fonts I cannot load within That's Write. Some fonts do not appear inside their font folders when looked for within That's Write program. Does somebody have a solution for that problem?

A: There seems to be a small bug with Hard Drive emulation and folders. Try making a BIG floppy disk image (like 4Mb), and run your critical software from there. Most HD problems can be resolved that way, even if it is not the most 'elegant' solution. I believe the author is working on the problem.

Programming under PacifiST

No entries yet.


Miscellaneous

Any PacifiST-related problems that didn't fit in either of the two previous categories will be addressed in this paragraph.

DATE & TIME STAMP

Q: When you copy files from virtual disks to an actual PC partition, the date and time stamp is all wrong. How come? A: This is a bug in PacifiST. Fréderic is aware of it since 0.43.

KEYBOARD MAPPING

Q: In gemul8r classic some of the keys on the keyboard are not mapped properly. For example Shift+2, which should give the @ symbol gives the " symbol. I also have a problem with one of the slashes (forward or backward, I can't remember). Does anyone have a list of the keyboard mapping? A: Doesn't this vary per TOS version and per TOS language?

VBE 2.0

Q: To be able to let some games and demos run, you need something called VBE 2.0. Where can it find it? A: VBE 2.0 is a standard of programming video cards and is much faster than the older VBE 1.1. Some video cards have VBE 1.1 on board, but if they don't then you can install a VBE 2.0 emulator, which is the thing meant here. There are specific versions for specific video cards, but there's also a popular one called "UniVBE" (a.k.a. "Display Doctor") by SciTech (http://www.scitechsoft.com/). This works on most (?) video cards. It comes free with some commercial games and is shareware. The file to look for is sdd53.exe.


III: STONX

STonX

STonX is an Atari emulator for UNIX written by Marinos Yannikos, currently at version 0.6.5. It's been ported to a DOS environment by Dirk Jansen. An official port for Windows 95 is underway, supporting such features as DirectX and DirectSound. Expect a new, vastly improved version soon. There is a rumour floating around that someone is writing an Atari ST Emulator in Java, based on STonX. We'll keep you posted.


Where do I find the software?

Its author, Marinos Yannikos, can be reached at the following email address: nino@complang.tuwien.ac.at.

Official STonX website: 

    http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/nino/stonx.html4.2

Place everything in its own directory, for example \STONX\. It will go looking for a TOS image file called TOS.IMG. Run the STONX.EXE file, and go from there. Adding a /? will have it come up with a listing of commands. Below is this listing of commands; 


 usage: STONX.EXE []
 =
 -q                        Be Quiet
 -size x             (NYI)
 -disk :          Load diskfile  as Drive :
 -fs :       Map  to Drive :
 -colo[u]r|-mono           Set `monitor type'
 -usec                  Set  microsecond interval timer
 -vbl                   Set  * usec VBL interval
 -timer-c               Set  * usec Timer C interval
 -refresh               Set  * VBL refresh interval
 -para               Use  as the parallel port device
 -serial             Use  as the serial port device
 -kmap               Load the Keyboard mappings from
 -noaudio                  Disable Audio driver
 -noshm                    Disable XShm extension
 -chunky                   Use `chunky' update mode
 -warmboot                 Attempt to simulate a warm-boot
 -private                  Use private colormap (speeds -color up)
 -cconws                   Redirect GEMDOS Cconws() function to terminal
 -vdi                      Use xlib-VDI


Example: 

G:\STONX\STONX.EXE -disk a:Disk -color -usec 10000 -vbl 10 -refresh 2   -timer-c 1

...will use `Disk' for drive A:, boot in colour mode, and run Timer C at 100Hz, VBLs at 10Hz, and refresh with 5Hz, if your system allows interval timers with 10 ms timer intervals (see setitimer(2)). 

For the Linux/Unix version, follow the instructions in the documentation file that came with it.


No Way - What won't run on STonX?

This segment features a list - as complete as we could make it - of various programs that do *not* work on STonX. Individual games (just like Falcons- specific applications such as "Rainbow") are not mentioned, as they generally do not work. Exceptions may be found below, in 4.5.x.


Drawing & Art

No titles known yet.


DTP, Word Processing and Text Editor

No titles known yet.


MIDI and Sound

No titles known yet.


Programming Utilities

No titles known yet.


Spreadsheets & Databases

No titles known yet.


Communications

No titles known yet.


Disk Magazines

No titles known yet.


Various (including most Utilities)

No titles known yet.


YES Way - This will run on STonX!

This segment features a list - as complete as we could make it - of various programs that *do* work on STonX. Where needed, hints are given on how to make programs work that may initially seem reluctant to function properly or efficiently.


Drawing & Art

  • Bitmap View 4
  • Imagecopy
  • Kandinsky
  • Papyrus


DTP, Word Processing and Text Editor

No titles known yet.


MIDI and Sound

No titles known yet.


Programming Utilities

No titles known yet.


Spreadsheets & Databases

No titles known yet.


Communications

No titles known yet.


Disk Magazines

No titles known yet.


Various (including most Utilities)

  • Formula (equation editor)
  • GEMBench (CPU check doesn't work though)
  • GEMView
  • Memfile (gets confused, but pressing both SHIFT keys will make sure it's fine)
  • NVDI


Games

No titles known yet.


STonX Problems...and how to solve them

This is one of the most important segments of the FAQ for STonX users - he part where practical problems are exposed and consequently - hopefully - tackled. It's divided in what is hopefully a practical structure.


Software Compatibility

No entries yet.


Programming under STonX

No entries yet.


Miscellaneous

Any STonX-related problems that didn't fit in either of the two previous categories will be addressed in this paragraph.


IV: STEMU

STemu

STemu is a somewhat limited ST emulator written by Jochen Frank, uk9a@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de, that emulates a bare-bones ST. It emulates an Atari STE on an MS-DOS/PC machine with an 80486 processor or better. It emulates the 68000 CPU, the standard Atari graphics resolutions, the floppy disk drive, the mouse, the keyboard and the printer port. Games don't work, as the MFP timer chip has not yet been fully implemented. It is to be doubted if ever it will, as Jochen has decided (June 1997) to stop developing it and simply make the source files available.


Where do I find the software?

 http://shaw.iol.ie/~ajankows/st/stemu02.zip


Installing STemu

STemu requires that you create a directory containing all the files that come in the archive, that is, stemu.exe, dos4gw.exe, and tos.img. The only TOS that seems to run well under STemu is 1.62.

The emulator requires quite a bit of memory, so refer to the readme file included in the archive to see how to give it some virtual memory.

To run the emulator, you will either want the monochrome or the colour version. Use either; 

  stemu M    for the monochrome version
  stemu C    for the colour version

Note that it requires the M or C to be in uppercase letters, and will not work with lowercase letters.


No Way - What won't run on STemu

This segment features a list - as complete as we could make it - of various programs that do *not* work on STemu. Individual games (just like Falcons- specific applications such as "Rainbow") are not mentioned, as they generally do not work. Exceptions may be found below, in 5.5.x.


Drawing & Art

No titles known yet.


DTP, Word Processing and Text Editor

No titles known yet.


MIDI and Sound

No titles known yet.


Programming Utilities

No titles known yet.


Spreadsheets & Databases

No titles known yet.


Communications

No titles known yet.


Disk Magazines

No titles known yet.


Various (including most Utilities)

No titles known yet.


YES Way - This will run on STemu

This segment features a list - as complete as we could make it - of various programs that *do* work on STemu. Where needed, hints are given on how to make programs work that may initially seem reluctant to function properly or efficiently.


Drawing & Art

No titles known yet.


DTP, Word Processing and Text Editor

No titles known yet.


MIDI and Sound

No titles known yet.


Programming Utilities

No titles known yet.


Spreadsheets & Databases

No titles known yet.


Communications

No titles known yet.


Disk Magazines

No titles known yet.


Various (including most Utilities)

No titles known yet.


Games

As mentioned in the above description, it will not run any games at the moment, due to the Timer C of the MFP not yet being implemented.

STemu Problems...and how to solve them

This is one of the most important segments of the FAQ for STemu users - the part where practical problems are exposed and consequently - hopefully - tackled. It's divided in what is hopefully a practical structure.


Software Compatibility

No entries yet.


Programming under STemu

No entries yet.


Miscellaneous

Any STonX-related problems that didn't fit in either of the two previous categories will be addressed in this paragraph.

V: STIMUL

STimul

STimul is another ST emulator currently in development, though there's no release date as of yet. It is being written by Sebastien Brochet.

Where do I find the software?

Sebastien's email address is tenabiss@micronet.fr. A FAQ of his emulation package (no actual software yet) can be found at the following URL: 

http://www.micronet.fr/~tenabiss/anglais/coemu_an.html

EOF

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