This is the start of a FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS document for the GYRUSS and TIMEPILOT emulators. It was last updated January 31, 1997. 1) GYRUSS does not run on my machine ... a) ... It complains about "can't find dos4gw.exe" You are using an old version of the emulator. The new version is bound with PMODE/W, and the dos extender is built in. Get the new version. (as of this writing, TP002, GY004) a) ... I just get a blank screen with a dot moving at the bottom b) ... I just get a grid and then the emulator resets There could be alot of reasons why it doesn't run. First and foremost, you could be using a 486 (or less). The current incarnations of the GYRUSS emulator do not support a 486 However, it has been made to work by disabling audio (-a 0) and using a high cpu cycle (-c 1024). Play with the c) ... I get no video, but I can hear the sounds This is probably because your video card or monitor does not support ModeQ (tweaked mode13, 256x256x256. Can you run the KONG emulator? If so, I'd like to know. Version 003 supports an alternate mode; If version 002 worked and Version 003 doesn't you can select the old mode with the '-q' flag. d) ... It crashes my machine! e) ... It crashes on exit! f) ... It crashes a second-time! A couple of people have reported problems with crashing under QEMM 8. I don't have QEMM 8, so I can't tell you if it's truly QEMM 8. However, I use EMM386 (or rather, since I don't run DOS--I run Win95--I use the built-in EMM386 with Win95. I have this from "MiD" on running gyruss with QEMM... > I found a way to boot with all your drivers, without > using QEMM. the first part here is obvious for > anybody who's used DOS for more than 20 seconds. > but the second part isn't quite so obvious. feel free > to add this to the Gyruss Emulator FAQ, as long as credit > is given: > QEMM and Gyruss Emulator don't get along. How do you fix > this? Boot clean. DOS 6.0 users, hit F5 at "Starting > MS-DOS...", Windows 95 users hit F8 and choose "Safe mode > command prompt only". > If you absolutley have to load the drivers out of your > AUTOEXEC.BAT/CONFIG.SYS (say, sound drivers), here's > something I dug out of the QEMM manual: > When booting up, hold down ALT. When the computer freezes, > hit ESC. QEMM will not load, and the computer will continue > booting. Nothing will load high, but the Gyruss Emulator is > DOS4GW, so memory schmemory! > I'm assuming the minimum RAM requirement is about 4 megs, > so as long as you have that installed, you're good to go. - MiD ( mrunner@kktv.com / http://rmi.net/~kaliste/ ) g) ... I can run it with -a 0, but if I don't use -a 0, it crashes You probably have an SB-PRO or an SB-AWE32. There is a problem with the SEAL audio library and these sound cards. There is a work-around in gy004, tp002: use the -b or -B switches to force the emulator to talk to your sound card as a sound-blaster-16 or classic sound-blaster. 2) GYRUSS (or TIME PILOT) doesn't .... a) ... let me move and fire at the same time! This is fixed in 003, and no, I wasn't using the BIOS to read the keyboard, I just had a bit of brain damage and left off some parenthesis in the read-the-keyboard routine. Time Pilot has never had this problem it has used the fixed keyboard code from the start. b) ... have the right colors! The colors for Gyruss are mostly correct. There are 16 color palettes for sprites, and 16 color palettes for text. The text palettes are 4 colors each and the sprite palettes are 16 colors each. color 0 on sprites isn't plotted. Time Pilot has 32 4-color palettes for tiles and SIXTY-FOUR 4-color palettes for the sprite graphics. The colors are buggered on it.. c) ... Support a joystick, but there's a menu option ... Gy004/TP002 both support joysticks. 3) GYRUSS/TIME PILOT can't find it's roms (or audio files) ... a) ... Because I can't find the ROMs on the net ... There are several archives of ROMs on the net. I cannot give out information about the ROMs. I own a real gyruss, that's where my ROMs came from. (that's my story, and I'm sticking with it!) b) ... It's looking for audio00.out in data\audio00.out, but I don't even have a data directory! You probably didn't use -d when you unpacked the archive. You can create a directory called 'data' and move *.out to that directory. 4) GYRUSS/TIME PILOT lost all of my settings ... It's possible that you just upgraded versions and I've changed the format of the settings file (tp.ram / gyruss.ram) Delete gyruss.ram / tp.ram and re-run the emulator. 5) GYRUSS is all in funky colors ... Make sure that the gychar.pal and gyspr.pal files are there. 6) I've read everything else, and it still doesn't work! Sorry. I'm making a good faith effort to fix bugs as they come up, but this is very alpha level software. Most of the problems that people seem to be having are related to sound cards (see above) and this is the SEAL library, something that is out of my control. 8) GYRUSS works great! a) ... What's next? I've got schematics for the Bally/Williams MCRII machine; I am working on an emulator for this hardware. Games that ran on this hardware include: TRON, TWO TIGERS, TAPPER, SPY HUNTER, DEMOLITION DERBY, and a whole passel of others. b) ... Who do I send money to? Noone. I'm not asking for money. If you are feeling really generous, you can send me arcade boards or manuals (SCHEMATICS ESPESCIALLY!), those will help me continue devloping further emulations. 7) How do I get a new release ... a) ... of this faq? b) ... of the emulator? Check my GYRUSS and TIME PILOT emulator home pages: http://www.fensende.com/Users/mcuddy/gyruss/ http://www.fensende.com/Users/mcuddy/timep/ I post any new revisions there. c) ... of the source? I will eventually put up the whole source tree for download. Currently, the virtual-z80 code is on the gyruss web page (vz80.zip) and the multiple-psg code is too (psg.zip). -- EOF --