ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ V9t9: TI Emulator! v6.0 Documentation (c) 1995 Edward Swartz ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ CONTACT.TXT ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ NOTE: TI Emulators v4.0 and v5.01 are no longer supported. Any orders or questions for them will be returned and ignored, respectively. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ³ QUESTIONS/COMMENTS ABOUT THE PROGRAM ³ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ I recommend you contact me if you find any bugs in the program that aren't listed in PROBLEMS.TXT or BUGS.TXT. I know that most users simply assume that a bug is a "feature" and will eventually disappear, but I honestly do not find out about most bugs unless someone tells me. (There was a review of TI Emulator! v5.01 in Micropendium, and I was distressed to see the author refer to problems with "incomplete emulation", when the problems were indeed bugs I hadn't been told about.) Some preliminary information: This program started out as a purely personal project three years ago. After I showed it to some friends and rewrote it in assembly, I was goaded to unleash it on the Internet. This I did. Since then, I've received much praise, many bug reports, and lots of suggestions. Unfortunately, some people don't understand what my purpose for writing this program is. My intent is to have this program emulate a TI-99/4A computer, along with its memory expansion, disk drive, speech synthesis, joystick, and RS232/PIO units. Beyond that I cannot emulate much more, since I do not own -- or intend to purchase -- the extra hardware and learn about it. A base 99/4A system with the listed peripherals is all I ever intend to emulate. One of the main reasons for not supporting more post-99/4A peripherals is the goal of keeping the size of emulator under 128k (small => fast). It's now about 100k. If you're having few problems but are noticing a lack of features, make sure they're not in this list because I'll ignore them: þ "Will you make a Myarc Geneve emulator?" Nope. This computer is NOT a 99/4A, and is simply too complex for me to tackle. þ "What about the 80-column modes and higher resolutions of newer 99/4A graphics cards?" Nope again. This wasn't a standard 99/4A peripheral. Also, it's nice to stay in one PC graphics mode. þ "Can you emulate the 128k/512k/64meg memory expansion cards?" Don't have any of those either. Also, there is no single standard for these, and I'd have to learn too many protocols to make it worth it. Standard 99/4A programs know nothing about such cards. þ "Make it support Gravis!!! I want Gravis!!!" Not yet, until I get such a card. It WOULD make the sound very easy to implement. þ "...P-Code card?..." No. I don't have it. þ "I know another programmer... howzabout you and him/her get together and develop..." Uh, no. I'm pretty selfish about this project. Also, the thing that you're asking me to develop is probably on this list already. :) þ "Will you make it so it can read 99/4A disks in an IBM drive?" Well, hmm. I've studied up on this. It turns out that the 99/4A disk controller uses the "FM", or single-density, format to store data. Documentation for IBM drives, however, only covers "MFM", or double- density. Apparently they think that anyone cares about single-density anymore. I intend to dig up the information and have V9t9 support 99/4A disks in a PC drive sometime in the future. (If you have such information, in the way of direct FDC commands, please contact me!) This emulation may be limited to a system of copying the 99/4A disk into a disk image, and then copying it back to the disk later. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ³ SOMEONE ALTERED THE ARCHIVE!!! ³ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ If you read DISTRIB.TXT and found that your archive isn't the vision I had when I originally released it, please tell me, especially if it includes any TI ROM files. I have a legal obligation not to let unauthorized ROMs be distributed, especially in an archive that appears to have been created by me. The previous versions of the emulator (which included illegal ROMs, by the way -- delete them if you obtained one of those versions) have been undergoing quite creative changes unknown to me, which both goes against my wishes and makes me appear to have made them. Although there are no laws about "the purity of fairware archives", I'd appreciate the archive not being changed around beyond the changes mentioned in DISTRIB.TXT. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ ³ HOW TO CONTACT ME ³ ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ I'd prefer that you send comments/questions/bug reports/fraud reports to one of my e-mail addresses: edswartz@io.com (preferred account) swartze@ralph.txswu.edu (college address) (Disclaimer: This project has nothing to do with Southwestern University. If only academic institutions were this thought- provoking...) Please tell me what version of V9t9 you're using so I can give you an accurate reply (this is v6.0). And PLEASE refer to the emulator as "V9t9", so I don't mistake you for a TI Emulator v4.0 or v5.01 user. Note that I will not wholeheartedly support archives older than four months. (See DISTRIB.TXT.) Feel free to use casual language with me. I'm 20 and supposedly in the prime of life. Call me Edward, Ed, Eddie, Eddo, whatever; anything but Ralph. Please don't use my home address to send questions about the emulator. E-mail is infinitely preferable, and it won't take two months to get a reply. ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ