z26 for Windows (beta)

[Sharky]

z26 wouldnt have a LOAD/SAVE Snapshot option have they... ??

 

Just wondering cause i wanna complete Pitfall II and Double Dragon and they are just damn too hard.

[raindog]

I mentioned this on stella-list, but not here.... it actually works under Linux using Crossover Office, albeit without sound. Chances are it'll work under recent free Wine versions as well since Crossover doesn't have any kind of special DirectX code in it.

 

Something to tide us non-Windows developers over till a native version starts happening

 

Rob

[Trebor]

Things I would like to see in Z26 for Windows:

 

1) Full Screen Hardware Stretch; especially for 800x600 & 1024x768 modes.

 

2) Support for HotRod joystick. Gamepads just don't cut it for playing Atari 2600 games. A setup like this would be nice:

 

------------------------------------------------------------------

Player 1-

 

Up, Down, Left, Right = Num Pad

 

Fire = Right Ctrl & Right Alt (Either or both would be even better)!

 

 

Player 2-

 

Up, Down, Left, Right = R, F, D, G

 

Fire = A & S (Either or both would be even better)!

 

Select = 3

 

Reset = 4

 

Left Side (Player 1) difficulty switch (A/B) toggle = 1

 

Right Side (Player 2) difficulty switch (A/B) toggle = 2

----------------------------------------------------------------

 

The above would be perfect. If not possible, then the ability to remap all/most buttons/keys in the emulator.

 

3) A GUI. One that supports screenshots would be perfect, but anything that at least list all ROMS present.

 

4) Ability to have ROMS in any directory.

 

5) Ability to set max sound sample rate to 48000 (Instead of the usual 44100).

 

Regards,

Trebor

[Trebor]

In addition to my previous post of things I would like to see in Z26 for Windows, I have the following problem with version 2.04:

 

1) Regardless, of what the z26.cli file is set to, it always goes to the default display mode when I start up the emulator. My work around for this is to create a shortcut then go into shortcuts properties, and insert the video switch command (-v2). Doing this, the emulator will start up with the desired display mode.

 

2) Earlier I thought, while running the emulator, I can only change video modes (Alt N; N= A number) once 'on the fly'. After changing it once, the emulator doesn't respond to any other video change attempts. I was wrong. If I wait between 10-15 seconds, then I am able to jump to a different display mode.

 

3) Interesting point: The best looking video mode for my setup is Video Mode 2 (320x200), which really appears as an interlaced 640x400 video mode. At any rate, full screen hardware stretch would help many of the other video modes look fine as well (*Cough* *Cough* See Point 1 in my post of features I would like to see *Cough* *Cough*)

 

All above information and references is per the full screen mode.

 

Sound is FANTASTIC! Best in any Windows emulator for the Atari 2600.

 

Additional info (My setup):

 

Hardware:

P4 1.3 Ghz

640 MB 800MHz RDRAM

ATi Radeon 64 DRR w/VIVO = Similar to RADEON 7200 chipset

Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer

19" M991 Dell Monitor & Panasonic 27" D2710 via S-Video

 

Software:

Windows 2000 SP3

Direct X 8.1b

*Latest Drivers for all hardware*

 

Regards,

Trebor

 

P.S. Anyone running Windows 2000, who wants a fantastic Atari 2600 emulator experience now, should use Z26 1.57 with VDMS. Although once a couple of fixes/features are made to Z26 for Windows it really won't be necessary. For what it's worth my options for the DOS version are '-v0 -r117'. I used '117' as this is the closest to actual Atari 2600 speed (Tested side-by-side with an actual Atari 2600 running Pitfall - watch the clock :-)

 

P.S.S. Should've said this sooner.......THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Somebody *FINALLY* working on a fully functional Windows (NT kernal friendly :-) Atari 2600 emulator. (PCAE and Stella, good emulators, but have *major* sound issues and some interface problems).

[Eckhard Stolberg]

Thanks for all the comments so far. There are a couple of interesting suggestions in there, which we'll surely try to implement in z26. I'm glad that there aren't too many compatibility problems with the new version.

 

To answer some of the questions:

 

@Cupcakus:

Adding a GUI is one of our highest priorities at the moment. But we might start out with an 'official' frontend program for z26 first, since that would be a lot easier and faster to implement. However, for a programmer like you the command line interface hopefully is usefull too, since it allows you to easily test your games from an IDE that can call external programs.

 

@Nukey Shay:

The framerate already is variable. Currently it is set according to the length of the fame that a game is generating. Overwriting the frame rate is currently possible with the -r command line switch and will be possible from the integrated GUI too. But the limiting factor here is the rendering of the display. As long as this is still happening, the possible speedup in Video Chess might not be that great, depending on the speed of your computer.

 

A debugger is something that we've been wanting for a long time ourselves. Most of the the nessessary hookups are already there in the trace log function. But in the DOS version we didn't have enough room, and for the Windows version we don't have any text I/O code yet. But since we need that for the GUI too, hopefully we will be able to add a debugger after we are done with the GUI.

 

@Victoria:

We don't have a save state function in z26 yet. It's a good suggestion though. But since we aren't fully done with porting the code to Windows,

and the internal structure of the emulator still changes a bit all the time, we'll probably put it in the lower part of our to-do list.

 

@raindog:

Except for the message boxes there isn't any Windows specific code in z26. So if a Linux user who knows how to link MASM code and the SDL library with GCC wants to try compiling z26 under x86 Linux, please feel free to do so.

 

@Trebor:

I'm glad that some of your problems have already cleared up. z26 tries to read the z26.cli file from the current directory (the one where you are typing the command line from). That is also where it will save the z26.cli file too, if you start z26 without a ROM name. Does saving z26.cli in the current directory work on your system?

 

Unfortunately mode switching seems to be a little slow on some operating systems. I'm not sure if we can do much about it, as this is a function in the video library that we are using. Also note that you now must release the number key and the ALT key before you can switch to a new mode, while in the DOS version you could keep the ALT key pressed. BTW, can you switch into windowed mode with ALT-Enter?

 

That video mode problem is really stange. We have an interlaced 640x400 mode in z26, but that is mode 5, not mode 2. SDL tries to find a suitable mode, if the one you requested isn't supported by your video card. So if your Radeon card doesn't have a 320x200x256 mode anymore, then it could be possible that you get something different. 640x400 interlaced seem a bit strange though. How do the other video modes come out for you? And how are the windowed modes working for you? In these we aren't asking for a special colour depth. This makes things a bit slower, but increases chances that a fitting mode is found.

 

 

Thanks, Eckhard Stolberg

[Sharky]

@Victoria:

We don't have a save state function in z26 yet. It's a good suggestion though. But since we aren't fully done with porting the code to Windows,

and the internal structure of the emulator still changes a bit all the time, we'll probably put it in the lower part of our to-do list.

 

Well im happy its planned for the future because we can find put some of those old Atari 2600's mystery games to rest.

 

But other than that. Z26 is virtually plays and looks like the real thing!...

Even the sound emulation is near pefect!

 

Im gonna hook my PC to a real Television set and play Atari 2600 Games with Z26 and it would almost surely feel 100% like the real thing!

 

Expect ill be using the keyboard.

[ZylonBane]

This is a really low-priority request, but it would be nice--

 

The ability to record game audio directly to a WAV file. I recently tried recording some game music using DOS Z26, and the result was... not pretty.

 

The ability to make an AVI would be nice too, though likely much more complex. I was impressed that Atari800Win Plus had this option.

[IceCold]

Eckhard Stolberg - what about my suggestion, being able to play online. Is that not planned at all, or will we see that feature in a few months?

[Thomas Jentzsch]

I'm sure moving to a modern platform will open a huge amount of possibilites. And AFAIK John and Eckhard by now, I'm sure we will see constant improvements and extensions of z26Win during the next months and years. Just give them some time or offer your help.

[Eckhard Stolberg]

Eckhard Stolberg - what about my suggestion, being able to play online.  Is that not planned at all, or will we see that feature in a few months?

 

Actually we don't plan anything in z26. We just add those features that we want to use ourselves when we want to use them. All the things suggested in this thread so far are very interesting and none of them seems outright impossible. I'm sure we'll eventually experiment with all of them. But since z26 is a spare time project, we can only handle things one at a time. So if John and I ever feel the need to find out who is the better Combat player, then online playing might come soon. Otherwise it might stay on our to-do list until you or someone else gets so impatient that he decides to implement this feature himself.

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

[IceCold]

Actually we don't plan anything in z26. We just add those features that we want to use ourselves when we want to use them.    All the things suggested in this thread so far are very interesting and none of them seems outright impossible. I'm sure we'll eventually experiment with all of them. But since z26 is a spare time project, we can only handle things one at a time. So if John and I ever feel the need to find out who is the better Combat player, then online playing might come soon. Otherwise it might stay on our to-do list until you or someone else gets so impatient that he decides to implement this feature himself.    

 

 

Ciao, Eckhard Stolberg

 

Oh, that actually sounds like a pretty cool way to make an emulator. It would probably get boring if it was all planned out.

 

I just hope you guys get an itch to play Warlords or Combat, or Air-sea battle, or any other 2 player game!

 

And I don't think I'll be implementing the feature myself any time soon, I have no coding experience at all

 

I must say though, the emulator is great as it is! To all the people who made it, Good job!!!

[israelg]

Well I am very happy with this release, now I can move from win98 to

2000/XP

 

two things that are missing with this release:

 

1. vSync support ( tearing effect in side scrolling games )

2. gamepads support ... ( I don't like playing with the keyboard )

 

well Z26 force me to stay with win 98, if the windows version will be as

good as the dos version I will have to bye bye to windows 98...... :-)

 

Israel Geron T.

[israelg]

just use the -r command line...

[NE146]

Well I am very happy with this release, now I can move from win98 to

2000/XP well Z26 force me to stay with win 98, if the windows version will be as good as the dos version I will have to bye bye to windows 98...... :-)

 

Israel Geron T.

 

hmmm.. member #14, post #30. You're quite the lurker

 

But yeah, loss of Z26 was one of the biggest blows (believe it or not) when I finally ditched my 5 year old win98 install and started fresh on XP. I haven't regretted it one bit (once I tweaked it to my liking)... but I still missed Z26. Thankfully now it works great!

[david.winter]

I found the Windows version much more accurate.

 

I tried a PROTO version of Sorcerer's Apprentice which I have,

and could now find the differences with the release. It's mostly

in the audio (music, sound effects, etc).

 

Thanks guys. I'll continue checking my other protos, as I also

have a Gravitar and RS Football which differ from the release.

[Sharky]

The ability to make an AVI would be nice too, though likely much more complex. I was impressed that Atari800Win Plus had this option.

 

And do you know how much Hard Drive Space its takes !

I tried it and 350MB was gone within 5 seconds !

[ZylonBane]

Then you should have picked a more efficient codec. But still, it can't have come as a surprise to you that video files are big.

 

BTW, have you ever considered using Thief's Victoria as your avatar?

[Sharky]

Then you should have picked a more efficient codec. But still, it can't have come as a surprise to you that video files are big.

 

I wouldnt know anything about selecting a Codec or w/e. All I do know is that AtariwinPlus saves your recordings full-on uncompressed.

 

It isnt good.

[raindog]

@raindog:

Except for the message boxes there isn't any Windows specific code in z26. So if a Linux user who knows how to link MASM code and the SDL library with GCC wants to try compiling z26 under x86 Linux, please feel free to do so.  

 

I haven't touched MASM but I've sure built a lot of SDL apps, so I'll be giving this a try sooner or later. But I was just amazed to see a really good 2600 emulator on my screen for the first time since fdisking the ol' windows drive

 

Rob

[ZylonBane]

I wouldnt know anything about selecting a Codec or w/e. All I do know is that AtariwinPlus saves your recordings full-on uncompressed.

Only because you told it to. It does ask.

[ZylonBane]

Frell. Double-post and no Delete button to be seen...

[Sharky]

One thing I love about Z26 that Stella doesnt have is the abilty to press ALT & ENTER and you can play your Atari 2600 Games in a little Windows.

 

Thats good sometimes because you can talk in this forum and play your favourite games at the same time.

[mos6507]

A debugger is something that we've been wanting for a long time ourselves. Most of the the nessessary hookups are already there in the trace log function. But in the DOS version we didn't have enough room, and for the Windows version we don't have any text I/O code yet. But since we need that for the GUI too, hopefully we will be able to add a debugger after we are done with the GUI.

 

I personally am anxious to see this!

 

If you do it, try to make it so you can load in a DASM source listing and use that as you scroll through the disassembly rather than the raw ML.

 

Imagine being able to step-debug through your own fully-commented sourcecode!