uBee512 3.1.0 released

[Robert]

Microbee emulator

 

22 April 2009 - SJK

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uBee512 v3.1.0

 

New for this release:

* Added an early OSD GUI system that can be enhanced over future releases. The GUI provides a resizeable buffered console dialogue. OSD dialogues can be dragged and minimised, background emulation continues and the keys input focus can be switched between emulation or OSD in the normal way.

* Added replacement OSD reset and exit dialogues. The new dialogues no longer requires the display to switch resolutions and are now consistent between different system builds.

* Added an OSD console where all output text can be directed (see --output). The OSD console also allows user input to execute options as the emulator is running.

* Added MD5 support for use in 'roms.alias' and 'disks.alias' files.

* Added EMUKEY+C hot key to enter a 'stdout' version of the OSD console. This halts the emulator whilst in this mode and allows pasting input which the OSD console is currently unable to do.

* Added options support while the emulator is running. Most of the options available in start-up mode are supported. Some of these can be used to permit media, tape, printer, serial, etc. to be changed.

* Added MD5 code to check ROMs. This is used to apply patches for some known bad ROMs and to optionally fix some Y2K related display issues in 256TC boot ROMs.

* Added check for a known bad 256TC v1.20 ROM (very damaged, no patching).

* Added optional administration sections 'global-start-runmode' and 'global-end-runmode' for configuration files when in run mode.

* Added --verbose option to switch on additional emulator reporting.

* Added --tapei-det option to set an optional input level detection value for input from WAV files.

* Added --osd option to configure OSD operation.

* Added --prefix option to specify the installation path prefix on Unix systems. This allows installations contained on portable media to be used.

* Added --account option to specify an alternative uBee512 account location.

* Added --hwflashr option to set the video hardware flashing rate to 20, 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280 or 2560 milliseconds.

* Added --hardware option to disable emulation of various hardware.

* Added --century option to change century dates where appropriate.

* Vertical sync frequency is now calculated from current CRTC 6545 values.

* Added --a-close, --b-close, --c-close, and --d-close options to close disk drives that have an open image/disk.

* Added --print-close and --printa-close options to close open printer files.

* Added --tapei-close and --tapeo-close options to close open input and output wav files used by the tape port.

* Added --coms-close option to close open serial communications ports.

* Added --options-warn to issue a warning or produce an error when an option is encountered that is not supported in run mode.

* Added --keystd-mod option for setting standard keyboard behaviour flags.

* Added --runsecs option to set number of seconds to run before exiting.

* Added --output option to set text output devices.

* Added --mon-bgi-b, --mon-bgi-g, --mon-bgi-r, --mon-fgi-b, --mon-fgi-g and --mon-fgi-r options to set dual intensity monochrome RGB values. See changes below.

* Added colour, amber, green, black, white, and user to the single character --monitor option parameters of c,a,g,b,w and u.

* Added 'clear' argument to --regs option.

* Added UBEE_USERHOME local variable containing the user's home path on Unices, or the directory containing the executable on Windows systems.

* Added Windows OSVERSIONINFOEX dwMajorVersion and dwMinorVersion members as variables UBEE_SYS_MAJOR_VAL and UBEE_SYS_MINOR_VAL to mingw build.

* Added defining of internal variables depending on build options. If LibDsk is compiled in UBEE_LIBDSK=1 and if OPENGL is compiled in UBEE_OPENGL=1.

* Added generic RPM and Slackware binary tgz distribution packages.

* Added a portable Windows/Unix distribution package. Can be run from a flash drive on Unices (including live CDs) and Windows machines.

 

Changes:

* The 'roms.alias' and 'disks.alias' files now supports optional MD5 entries. The 'roms.alias' file is preconfigured for ROMs for all models where ROMs are available. A 'roms.md5' and 'disks.md5' file in the emulator directory is used for matching MD5s to a file name.

* Changed start up to not report additional information unless requested with the the new --verbose option.

* The dual intensity monochrome (--hint) has now been replaced by a --dint option. This feature had been incorrectly emulated. The new method also includes changes to the ubee512rc.sample file. Obsolete options --mon-fgl-x have been removed and will be ignored. A message will be reported if any of these are used.

* Removed --mon-fgl-b, --mon-fgl-g and --mon-fgl-r options as these are now obsolete. A special error message will be reported if any of these are used. Use the new --mon-bgi-x and --mon-fgi-x options shown above.

* Removed the --psec option. Sector probing is always used now. Using this option reports a message.

* Changed the cursor blinking modes to use the correct blink rate.

* Changed the way video hardware flashing works, now also emulates early Premium (main board v3) flash method. The --hwflash option now takes 'off', 'on', 'v3' and 'v4' as arguments.

* Added code to handle CTRL+SHIFT+KEY combinations. This is enabled by default (use --keystd-mod to disable) and prevents the shift/invert action for these keys when emulating standard keys (6545). This is required by some systems for extended function keys to work.

* Changed create_account() function to install libdskrc to the 'share' directory on Unix systems and create a '.libdskrc' link to it from the user's home account making the Unix layout the same as Windows.

* Changed --config option to no longer cause the emulator to terminate if the specified file does not exist. A message will be output and no configuration file will be used.

* Changed -f, --fullscreen and -t, --turbo options to now have support for optional on/off arguments.

* Added a customised getopt.c source as suppression of messages direct to stderr and repeated calls to getopt_long() was required.

* Changed standard PC and PC85 models to default to monochrome.

* Constant used for the vertical blanking period has changed from 12/100 to 10/100 of the VSYNC period.

* Changes to the debugging section makes the display more responsive and allows emulator commands to now work without delay while debugging.

* Makefile is now much improved and uses more conventional methods.

* Added conditional build compilation options for OpenGL, LibDsk, debugging and 'MZ80 C' to sources and Makefile.

* Changes to ubee512rc file for the [arcade1] entry for the file name.

* Changed --tapevol option to now use a percentage value.

 

Fixed:

* Fixed the disk write protection when a write protected disk is attempted to be written to. The OS system will no longer hang and should report an error message.

* Fixed a problem with the internal DSK disk image handler as could not access mixed 512x10 and 1024x5 formatted tracks correctly.

* Fixed debug option parameters for step and trace.

* Fixed sound volume set option(s), was unable to set any level.

* Fixed command line to report errors correctly on Windows build.

* Fixed a display refresh problem introduced in v3.0.0/1 when running standard ROM models, monochrome mode and Telcom versions 1.1 or 1.2. The top display line was incorrect, see vdu_colcont_w() function notes.

* Fixed a display refresh problem introduced in v2.8.0. This problem was noticeable in Telcom v3 on PJB system disk and some other applications.

* Fixes to stop OpenGL functions being called when using SDL video mode affecting the status line.

* Fixed FDC head positioning commands (type-I) to be acted upon even if no disk/image. This needed to be fixed to allow disk/image changing to work with options now supported while emulator is running.

* Fixed modio.keytc reporting in keytc_r() function.

* Fixed patches for bad telcom 3.21 ROMs. Now passes ROM checks for ROM A, ROM B, and Telcom.

* Fixed GUI status for the current printer status.

* Fixed swap_endian() function, was just returning the same value.

* Fixed games.ini.sample section for froger-j.bee game.

>> Get it HERE.