Archie      Version 0.5 (12 June 1999)
by Chris-O 
chris-o@geocities.com
www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/campus/5427/



What it is?
-----------

Archie is an Acorn Archimedes emulator for DOS.

It is freeware and it is not to be distributed with OS
ROMs and it is not to be modified or sold.



Getting Started
---------------

Unzip archie.zip with the -d option to create the necessary
files and subdirectories.

You should have the following files & directories:

	'Archie.exe'  - The emulator
	'Readme.txt'  - This file
	'Cmos.nvr'    - Cmos ram file
  'Diskimg0.adf'- Demo disk image 0
	'Diskimg1.adf'- Demo disk image 1
  'Makedisk.bas'- Basic program to run on your old
                  Archimedes to create disk images of
                  your software
  'Makeimg.bat' - Dos batch file to build a disk image
                  on PC from data created by Makedisk.bas
	'Dos4gw.exe'  - Available elsewhere

  'Disks'       - directory to store your disk images



You will also need to save the roms from your Archimedes into
four 512k files named IC24.ROM, IC25.ROM, IC26.ROM and IC27.ROM.
They need to be in the same directory as Archie.exe (see following
section on transferring roms)


Syntax:

  ARCHIE  [/b] [/f] [/p]


The /b switch will turn the left-alt key into the middle mouse button for
people without a three-button mouse or a windows-95 keyboard with the mouse
menu key (next to right control)

The /f switch tells Archie not to bother waiting if an OSByte 19
is issued (wait for vsync) - recommended to make some games/demos
run faster.

The /p switch will simulate a power on reset (cold boot), which is not
done by default.


When the emulator is running:

  Shift PrintScreen - will save the current screen to file archieXX.bmp 
  F11               - will 'swap' the diskimage in drive 0 between
                      diskimg0.adf and diskimg1.adf (when drive not active)
  Ctrl End          - will quit the emulator

  Mouse pointer key (next to right-ctrl) simulates middle mouse button.
  If you have a three button mouse, the middle button should be configured
  to produce a DOS middle button click.  If you do not have the mouse pointer
  key or a three button mouse you should use the /b switch when starting
  Archie.


Been a while since you used the old machine?

By default Archie will start at the supervisor * prompt.
To get into the GUI type *desktop
To make the emulator start up in the GUI:
	for ROS3 type *configure language 10 
	for ROS2 type *configure language 4



Transferring Roms
-----------------

To transfer the roms from your Archimedes with RiscOS 3:

1) format a 720k dos disk on your pc by typing format a: /f:720
   from a dos prompt.

2) put the disk in your Archimedes and from a command line type

   *save :0.ic24/rom 3800000 3880000
   *dismount

3) remove the disk and MOVE the file to the Archie directory on your PC

4) repeat steps 2 & 3 for the following commands

   *save :0.ic25/rom 3880000 3900000

   *save :0.ic26/rom 3900000 3980000

   *save :0.ic27/rom 3980000 3A00000


For RiscOS 2, as PC floppies are not directly supported by the OS, you will need
to use a pc disk read/writer.

Roms are copyrighted by Acorn, and are therefore under no circumstances
to be distributed with this emulator.  Please do not ask for them.



Floppy Disk Emulation
---------------------

Archie 0.5 contains two types of floppy disk emulation.  Drive :0 uses a
disk image file which contains a sector dump of an adfs d or e format
disk. Two images are used (diskimg0.adf and diskimg1.adf) which can be
toggled between by pressing F11.  This is useful for some games which
need two disks.  The scroll-lock light is used as the disk drive light
for the disk image.

Makedisk.bas is a simple program to run on your 'real' Archimedes to
create disk images. The program creates the image in two parts all on
drive 0, and so should run on any ROS3 machine.  Before running you will
require two 720k dos disks & your source disk.

On your pc you should then run Makeimg.bat with a image name

eg.  buildimg demos2.adf

This will prompt you to insert the disks & will combine the parts
into a whole image called demos2.adf in the disks directory.

To use your image simply copy the file from the disks directory 
as diskimg0.adf or diskimg1.adf in the same directory as Archie.exe.

The disk access seems slow but is mainly due to the way the Archimedes
floppy interface works (and the overall speed of the emulator).

Direct Floppy Access is also built in to Archie 0.5, but is not so stable
and much slower than the disk images.  If you wish to try this, simply

*configure floppies 2 

and re-boot.  Drive :1 will directly access your PC's A: drive and
should read 720k DOS disks (ROS 3 only).  This is a useful way of
transferring files into disk images, but watch out for name truncation!
The access is read-only and should report write-protect error if writing is
attempted.

As I have not completed testing on the floppy emulations, they are used at
your own risk....



Coming Soon
-----------

Some of the main enhancements in the pipeline (in no particular order) are:

1) More bug fixes
2) Direct support of ADFS D/E floppies in PC drive
3) Nice front end with easy selection of disk images within emulator
4) PCFS - new filesystem which allows use of PC resources - big harddisks,
   cd roms, network drives, removeable media etc...
5) Speed up
6) Re-write of graphics routines to be much faster & flexible
7) Parallel (& maybe serial) port emulation for printing
8) Sound



Disclaimer
----------
The program and documentation are provided 'as is' and without
any warranty, not even the implied warranty of merchantability
or fitness for any particular purpose. In no event will the
author be liable for any damage or loss caused by use of this
program or documentation.  The program is used entirely at the
users own risk.


