PCAEWin 2.6 Now Available

[Albert]

John Dullea has released version 2.6 of his PCAEWin Atari 2600 emulator. Here are some of the new features and improvements in this version:

 

http://pcae.vg-network.com/

[*]Added Kaillera net-play support

[*]Added ZIP file support

[*]Greatly improved sound emulation

[*]Many improvements to windowed zoom mode

[*]Added support for Spectravideo Compumate

[*]Added support for CommaVid RAM-cart

[*]Added an FPS counter

 

You can download the latest version and view a complete list of changes at the PC Atari Emulator Homepage.

[liquid_sky]

nice... now i gotta find someone to hook up with and try this multiplayer out.. school some newbies in freeway.

[Albert]

quote:

---

Originally posted by liquid_sky:

nice... now i gotta find someone to hook up with and try this multiplayer out.. school some newbies in freeway.

---

 

The networking does sound really nice. It's pretty damn cool that 25 years after the advent of the 2600 we can finally use the power of the Internet to play these games against people thousands of miles away. If you try it out, please let me know, because I'm not going to have time to play around with that aspect of PCAEWin for a few weeks.

 

I think we need to make a list of 2600 games that are best suited to this type of network play. I'll start the list (in no particular order):

 

- Combat

- Air Sea Battle

- Warlords

- Dodge 'Em

- Gunfight

- Indy 500

- Ice Hockey

- Mario Bros. (or Return to Mario Bros.)

- Space War

- Video Olympics

- Tennis

- Warring Worms

 

As you can see, I have a bias here for games that stress simultaneous two-player action.

 

..Al

[liquid_sky]

well.. im hoping to try it out here in a few.. waiting on party 2 to get it downloaded before we play video olympics.

[liquid_sky]

well...... I cant even get it running.. not multiplayer, but PCAE! Ive unzipped... bam, right when i open the exe it says i/o error 103. So i went and configured... al;l that good crap.. well now when i go to open a game.. i get a black screen.. NO MATTER WHAT. So I think hmm.. I went back to try to run PCAE 2.5 and same thing. I/O error 103. Ive totally deleted ANY history of PCAE.. unzip.. bam i/o error 103.

 

soo.. whens z26 gonna get multiplayer? Cuz I sure cant get this one up and running!

[Albert]

That's strange, I downloaded PCAEWin 2.6 and it ran just fine for me. I only ran a few games, but didn't see anything unusual. And I certainly didn't get any errors. I just unzipped the files into my existing PCAEWin directory (although I probably should have done a fresh install) and ran it.

 

I just looked in the documentation to see if there's anything about error codes, but unfortunately not. Maybe you could write John Dullea and describe the problem to him?

 

As for a multiplayer version of z26, I can't see that happening until a Windows version of z26 is released.

 

..Al

 

[ 03-17-2002: Message edited by: Albert ]

[israelg]

Well,

 

for the "Greatly improved sound emulation"

I get lots of clicks and ticks...

I have p1000 computer with sound blaster live

value card I did't get have this clicks with

the previus version ...

 

one last word two features that will make

this emulaion perfect:

 

1. vsync control to avoid the tearing effect

in side scrolling games ( grand prix )

2. scanlines render ( full, 25%, 50% )

 

but the sound problem must be fixed. I'm using the old version becauses those clicks

 

P.S

 

the stretcing effect is great !!!

 

bye

Israel Geron T.

[Albert]

quote:

---

Originally posted by liquid_sky:

I think im going to try to get it working just a little longer before I bother him with any emails. It might just be something really dumb that I didnt think of last night becasue I was kinda tired.

---

 

Have any luck with it yet?

 

..Al

[liquid_sky]

I got it working once after I hit Ctrl Alt Del.. ended the tasks of everything running including Explorer, then all that was left was the Pcae folder.. I ran and it worked just fine.. im now working on tracing down what, if anything, is running that is conflicting with Pcae.

 

By the way:

they need a key that will ctrl alt del all in 1 key.. make it in the spot of on eof the windows keys

[liquid_sky]

I think im going to try to get it working just a little longer before I bother him with any emails. It might just be something really dumb that I didnt think of last night becasue I was kinda tired.

[+johnnywc]

Does anybody know how to use the Kaillera net play support? I click on the icon to bring up the network dialog box but I'm not sure how to proceed. My buddy and I want to play - does one of us need to be a server? I don't see the distinction unfortunately. Can anyone give me a step-by-step on how two players on different machines could use this feature to play, let's say, Combat head to head?

 

Thank you very much.

[liquid_sky]

Its a little hazy to me as well..

 

From the manual:

Clicking on the network play button on the main toolbar will open up the Kaillera connection screen. From here you must enter a unique name that represents your client (e.g. jdpcae). Those with whom you wish to play must also do the same on their computers. Then, as a group, you all have to join the SAME Kaillera server from the server list. If you are running your own server (e.g. on a LAN), you can click the “Enter IP” button to enter the LAN IP of the local Kaillera server. Once that is done, you all must agree on who will start the game. Kaillera games work by having one person “create” a net-play game and having all others join that game. One of you creates the game and chooses the game that is to be played. The others will see that game show up on their active games list and merely have to choose to join it. ALL PLAYERS IN QUESTION MUST ALREADY HAVE THE GAME THEY WISH TO PLAY. Neither the emulator nor the Kaillera client distribute a game to players who don’t have it, so they must all be legal owners of their respective games. (Actually Kaillera handles all of the game setup mechanics; the emulator itself does no more than supply a textual list of games the “creator” has available). Once all players have joined the game, they can start the net-play game. This instructs all players’ emulators to begin running their respective copies of the game, and Kaillera keeps them all synchronized. Play takes place as normal, with a player able to quit by pressing Esc to stop emulation. Players can completely exit the Kaillera net-play interface by closing the Kaillera pop-up windows after stopping emulation and “leaving” the net-play game. For more information you should visit the official Kaillera homepage, which as of this writing is http://www.kaillera.com.

 

So I think you both must log onto the main server then meet up from there. Maybe in the next release, there will be support for good ol TCP/IP.

[Mindfield]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Israel Geron T.:

Well,

 

for the "Greatly improved sound emulation"

I get lots of clicks and ticks...

I have p1000 computer with sound blaster live

value card I did't get have this clicks with

the previus version ...

 

one last word two features that will make

this emulaion perfect:

 

1. vsync control to avoid the tearing effect

in side scrolling games ( grand prix )

2. scanlines render ( full, 25%, 50% )

 

but the sound problem must be fixed. I'm using the old version becauses those clicks

 

P.S

 

the stretcing effect is great !!!

 

bye

Israel Geron T.

---

 

 

Unfortunately that's one of the evils of using an SBLive card with DirectSound. It can't be fixed. Your only hope is to upgrade to an Audigy or something. (I plan to. :-)

[+johnnywc]

Well, I played my first network Atari 2600 game today with my old co-worker. We played a game of bowling using the new PCAE and I must say it worked pretty well. My ping wasn't that good, so the response was a little choppy, but worked well with the turn-based game.

 

We wanted to try combat, but it kept saying 'waiting for players'. Anyone have success with this one?

 

Thanks,

[Dan Iacovelli]

I have tried three times to get it working

and it kept crashing on me.

it gave me an index out bounds error.

any thoughts

Dan Iacovelli

[jetset]

Nope....Sorry....it doesn't work right.

The emulation is ok, but as with versions in the past, the controller(s) do not work. The only games I could get working were using the mouse (Kaboom, etc....) and even that was quirky.

 

But the colors and sounds are good......

[i_am_timmy]

Nope....Sorry....it doesn't work right.

The emulation is ok,  but as with versions in the past,  the controller(s) do not work.  The only games I could get working were using the mouse (Kaboom,  etc....)  and even that was quirky.    

 

But the colors and sounds are good......

 

The controller(s) DO work. I don't know why so many people have trouble getting controllers to work with this emulator. I agree that the interface to set up controllers is somewhat counter-intuitive, but they DO work. I have 2 Gravis Gamepad Pros (USB) and they work perfectly.