******************************************************************************* ColEmWin 97 2.00c A ColecoVision Emulator for Windows 95 and NT 4.0 Copyright (C) 1996, 1997 Neal Danner (neald@geocities.com) All rights reserved. The ColEmWin Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/8640/ColEmWin.html ColecoVision (tm) is a trademark of Coleco. DirectX(tm) is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. TMS9918A emulation based on original work by Marat Fayzullin. All other product names mentioned here-in are either registered trademarks or copyrighted by their respective holders. ******************************************************************************* ColEmWin 97 is a non-profit emulator created for those individuals who were and still are fans of the Coleco gaming era who wish to play their ColecoVision games under Windows 95 and NT 4.0. For more information on the ColecoVision and it's history check out these web sites. The ColecoVision FAQ: http://www.infinet.com/~ngsippel/cv/cv-faq.html Norman G. Sippel's ColecoVision Homepage: http://www.infinet.com/~ngsippel/cv.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Features in ColEmWin 97 2.00c ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- o Full emulation of the ColecoVision game console hardware including: o The primary and secondary hand controllers o Sound o TMS9918A video emulation uses Microsoft's DirectX API for sprite handling and screen refresh. Support for all color depths. o Play full-screen or Windowed. o Custom keyboard/joystick mappings of the ColecoVision hand controller emulation. o Both manual and automatic pausing of the emulation o A bunch of ColecoVision hardware emulation settings to control pretty much every aspect of the ColecoVision emulation core. o Multithreaded so that Z80 CPU emulation runs on one thread while Video/Input are ran from the primary thread. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version history ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2.00 - First public release of ColEmWin 97 2.00a - Fixed joystick mapping bug 2.00b - Fixed Multithreading problem 2.00c - Fixed bug in TMS9918A emulation; 16bpp, 24bpp, and 32bpp color depths now function properly. No more "illegal operation" message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Features to be incorporated into future versions ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- o Saving/restoring of game progress o Rework SN76489 sound emulation to improve sound quality on some sound cards. o Tweak debugger UI code and enable it in release version of ColEmWin. o Add hardware emulation status window (for all emulation components). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Minimum system configuration: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 486-DX100/Pentium 75 or faster running Windows 95/NT4.0 with the DirectX binaries installed. 8MB ram (16MB for NT4.0) VLB video card Note: The DirectX binaries can be downloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/directx ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended system configuration: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pentium 100Mhz or faster running Windows 95/NT4.0 with the DirectX binaries installed. 16MB ram PCI based video card Joystick Note: The DirectX binaries can be downloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/directx ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Supported platforms ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ColEmWin has been tested on the following platforms (with DirectX installed): o Windows 95 o Windows NT 4.0 o Memphis (Windows 98!) NOTE: ColEmWin 97 does not support Windows 3.x or Windows NT 3.x. A version of ColEmWin is available for Windows 3.x and Windows NT 3.x on the ColEmWin 97 homepage (see top of this file for web address). The Windows 3.x/NT 3.x version does not support joysticks or sound. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for trying ColEmWin 97. After putting over 600 hours into ColEm 97, I hope you get as much enjoyment playing your ColecoVision games on it as I did developing it. I started the development of a ColecoVision emulator in December of 1995 and after around 400 hours of work all I had left to finish was emulating the Texas Instruments TMS9918A video chip. I had put writing the TMS9918A emulation core off until last as I couldn't locate any documentation/specification information on the chip. Texas Instruments was unable to help me as they would never answer my e-mail nor return my voice calls. Oh well, help came along in Febuary 1996 when Marat Fayzullin released his ColecoVision emulator, named "ColEm". After Marat posted his source code on his web site, I downloaded it and proceeded to develop my TMS9918A emulation code based on his original TMS9918A emulation work. So, as a courtesy to Marat Fayzullin for providing me with enough example code to emulate the TMS9918A, I named my emulator after his and called it "ColEmWin". Thanks again Marat. =) Additional contributions to this documentation are always welcome. Please mail additional information, opinions, and/or comments to: Neal Danner neald@geocities.com Enjoy!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Where to find ColEmWin Updates ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The latest version as well as all previous versions of ColEmWin can be found at The ColEmWin Homepage: http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/8640/ColEmWin.html The latest version of ColEm for Unix/X, Macintosh, MSDOS, and OS/2 can be found at Marat Fayzullin's ColEm Homepage: http://www.freeflight.com/fms/ColEm *********************************************************************** PLEASE NOTE: No catridge ROM images are included with ColEm due to the fact that most of the ColecoVision games are still in copyright by their respective holders. *********************************************************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- File(s) included in COLEM97.ZIP ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COLEMWIN.EXE - ColEmWin 97 executable COLEMWIN.TXT - This file (your reading it!) =) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Common Questions and Answers ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Q) Where can I get the COLECO.ROM file that the emulator requires? A) Why, you can get it right from your ColecoVision game console with a screw driver and a ROM reader. Due to copyright issues the ROM image cannot be distributed with ColEm 97. The LEGAL way for you to obtain a copy of it is to dump the one in your ColecoVision system, making you a legal holder of the ROM image for which you can use with ColEm. As one would expect, there are numerous sites on the Internet where you can download a copy of the ColecoVision system ROM. I will list them here for your reference only. I am not involved with nor do I endorse or otherwise support any of these sites. Coleco Corner: http://www.pce.net/anthony/colcorner/ PLEASE DO NOT send me e-mail asking for a copy of the COLECO.ROM! Q1) I have successfully obtained the ColecoVision's ROM (COLECO.ROM), now where can I get some cartridge ROM images to use the emulator with? A1) The cartridge ROM images are still under copyright by their respective holders. Copying cartridges ROMs is illegal unless you actual own the corresponding ColecoVision catridge. There are numerous sites on the Internet where you can download copies of ColecoVision game ROMs. I will list them here for your reference only. I am not involved with nor do I endorse or otherwise support any of these sites. Coleco Corner: http://www.pce.net/anthony/colcorner/ PLEASE DO NOT send me e-mail asking for game ROM images! Q2) When I try and run COLEMWIN.EXE, Windows just tosses up a dialog box with an error message dealing with DDRAW.DLL or DSOUND.DLL. A2) Make sure that you have installed the DirectX binaries. Again these are availabe at http://www.microsoft.com/directx. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you have any questions that aren't answered above? Send your question(s) to Neal Danner at neald@geocities.com. Special thanks to: Marat Fayzullin (for his TMS9918A emulation source) Marcel De Kogel (for roller controller emulation code) Robin Danner (my wife, for putting up with me those 600+ hours!) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------