ReadMe.txt

SimCoupe - A SAM Coupe Emulator

Version 1.1 *ALPHA*, released ???

By Simon Owen <simon.owen@simcoupe.org>


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

INTRODUCTION

SimCoupe emulates the SAM Coupe - a Britsh Z80-based home computer released in
1989 by Miles Gordon Technology. See the Links section at the end of this
document for more information, including history and technical specifications.

This release of SimCoupe was derived from Allan Skillman's SimCoupe 0.72 for
DOS and Unix. It has been almost completely rewritten to improve accuracy,
features, and portability.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

LOADING SOFTWARE

SAM starts up ready to accept BASIC programs, with software loaded from tape
or disk.

The steps required to boot a disk on a real SAM are:

   1) Press the reset button to Return to the start-up screen
   2) Insert disk in floppy drive 1
   3) Press F9 (or enter BOOT) to boot the disk

The equivalent steps in SimCoupe are:

   1) Press F12 to reset the emulated SAM
   2) Press F1 to browse for a disk image
   3) Press Numpad-9 or type BOOT and press Enter

The default SimCoupe settings actually make the final step unnecessary - disks
inserted into drive 1 at the SAM start-up screen are booted automatically. To
boot a disk inserted at any other time, press F12 to reset then Numpad-9 to
boot (Numlock must be On).

Commercial titles will start automatically when booted, but some SAM disks
found online may not. Here are the common failure messages:

"55 Missing Disk, 0:1"
   There's no disk in drive 1 - did you insert into drive 2 instead?

"19 Loading error, 0:1"
   The boot sector (track 4, sector 1) could not be loaded. The disk could be
   unformatted or may be damaged.

"53 No DOS, 0:1"
   The disk does not have a valid boot sector, and cannot be booted. The
   default SimCoupe settings avoid this error by substituting an internal
   DOS image, so you're more likely to see the following error instead.

"101 no AUTO* file, 0:1"
   DOS was booted, but no filename startig with "auto" was found to load. To
   avoid this error, boot using BOOT 1 instead, which loads DOS but doesn't
   attempt to auto-run any file. Try DIR 1 to list the files on drive 1, then
   LOAD n, where n is a file number to load.

"0 OK, 0:1"
   DOS was loaded and an "auto" file was found, but there was no auto-run line
   number to execute from. Use LIST to check for a BASIC listing, and RUN to
   execute it. Otherwise use DIR 1 for a directory listing, to manually
   select a file to load.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

DISK IMAGES

SimCoupe can use software in the following disk image types:

 .MGT - Simple sector dump of +D/SAM disks: 2 sides, 80 tracks/side,
 10 sectors/track, 512 bytes/sector = 819200 bytes. Older images in this
 format may have a .dsk file extension. This is the preferred format for
 normal format SAM disks, and is compatible with the /dev/fd0u800 device in
 Linux.

 .SAD - SAm Disk format, created by Aley Keprt. Also a sector-based dump, but
 with a 22-byte file header allowing disk-wide geometry adjustments to
 sides/disk, tracks/side, sectors/track and bytes/sector. Normal SAM disks
 stored in SAD format are 819222 bytes, but a difference in track order
 prevents removing the 22-byte header to give an equivalent MGT image.
 Version 2 SAD images are the same basic format, but compressed using gzip.

 .DSK - Extended DSK (EDSK) images, originally used for Amstrad CPC and
 Spectum +3 disks. A flexible format able to represent all existing SAM disks,
 and also the preferred format used by the worldofsam.org archive. Images size
 is proportional to the disk geometry, with a normal SAM disk around 840K.

 SBT - Sam BooTable files, created by Andrew Collier. These are self-booting
 files designed to be copied to an empty SAM disk, then booted. While not
 technically disk images, SimCoupe treats them as such (read-only).


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

REAL DISKS

With only a few exceptions, original SAM disks can often be used directly in
SimCoupe under Windows and Linux. Even custom-formatted titles such as
Lemmings and Prince of Persia can be booted directly from original disks.

Windows requires use of a free driver for complete control over the floppy
drive. This is a one-time install, and must be run by a user with
Administrator access rights. The driver installer is available from:
http://simonowen.com/fdrawcmd/

To use real disks under Windows XP or later:

   1) Install the fdrawcmd.sys driver, if not already installed
   2) Insert your SAM disk into PC drive A:
   3) Select "Open A:" from the File menu to use as SAM drive 1
   4) Boot/use the disk as normal

To use real disks under Linux:

   1) Ensure your user has read-write access to /dev/fd0
   2) Insert your SAM disk into PC drive A:
   3) Press F1 to browse for a drive 1 disk
   4) Browse to /dev/fd0 and click OK

Note: USB floppy drives don't allow access to the floppy controller, which is
needed for real disk access in SimCoupe. Only floppy drives connected directly
to a motherboard floppy controller will work, and modern systems often lack
one.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FLOPPY TRANSFERS

For occasional access to original SAM disks, the real disk feature is usually
the most convenient option. For regular use it's better to create a disk
image, and use that in SimCoupe instead. If you only need to transfer a single
data file in or out of SimCoupe, use the Import Data (F4) or Export Data
(Shift-F4) features instead.

If you're writing disk images back to a real floppy, you must use only
original double-density disks. The lower magnetic sensitivity of high-density
disks make them unsuitable for double-density use, even if you cover the
density hole. As a very rough guide, double-density disks are generally blue
and high-density disks are black.


Windows 2000 or later

Use SamDisk 3.x, available from http://simonowen.com/samdisk/

 To create a disk image from an existing SAM floppy disk:
   SamDisk.exe a: image.dsk

 To write a disk image back to a real floppy disk:
   SamDisk.exe image.dsk a:

If your disk is a normal SAM/MGT format, add the -m option when creating the
disk image to read only the used areas of the disk.


Windows 98/98/Me

Use Edwin Blink's Disk Image Manager, available from:
  http://www.samcoupe-pro-dos.co.uk/edwin/software/diskmanager/diskmanager.htm

 To create a disk image from an existing SAM floppy disk:

   1) Insert your SAM disk in A:
   2) On the 'Sam disk' menu, select 'Load'
   3) On the File menu, select "Save diskimage as..."
   4) Browse to a suitable save location and name the new image

 To write a MGT/SAD disk image back to a real floppy disk:

   1) On the File menu, select "Open diskimage"
   2) Browse to find the existing image
   3) Insert your SAM disk in A:
   4) On the "Sam disk" menu, select "Save"

Disk Image Manager supports MGT (with a .dsk extension) and SAD disk images.
It can also be used to add/extract single files from both real disks and disk
images.


Linux

MGT images are directly compatible with the /dev/fd0u800 floppy device.

 If /dev/fd0u800 doesn't already exist, create it as root using:
   mknod /dev/fd0u800 b 2 120

 To create a disk image from an existing SAM floppy disk:
   dd if=/dev/fd0u800 of=image.mgt conv=noerror,sync

 To write a disk image back to a real floppy disk:
   dd if=image.mgt of=/dev/fd0u800 conv=noerror,sync

 To format a new SAM disk use:
   fdformat /dev/fd0u800

 To create a blank disk image use:
   dd if=/dev/zero of=image.mgt bs=512 count=1600

Custom-formatted and copy-protected disks cannot be transferred using this
method, but most can still be used directly in SimCoupe by opening /dev/fd0
for floppy 1.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

HARD DISKS

SimCoupe emulates the Atom and Atom Lite hard disk interfaces. Atom's DOS
(BDOS) is compatible with the original SAMDOS. The hard disk is treated as an
array of floppy-sized records, giving good compatibility with existing
software.

Real hard disks and compact flash (CF) cards can be used under Windows, Linux
and Mac OS X. This gives a fast and reliable way to share data between with a
real SAM machine. For your safety, only existing Atom-formatted disks can be
opened in SimCoupe, so be sure to format them on the real SAM first.

If you don't have a real device to use, you can still work with existing hard
disk images files (HDF):

   1) Press F10 to open the SimCoupe options
   2) In the Disks section, click "..." next to the Atom interface type
   3) Browse to select an existing HDF image file to use
   4) Click OK twice and you're ready to boot BDOS

To create and prepare a new HDF image:

   1) Press F10 to open the SimCoupe options
   2) In the Disks section, click "..." next to the Atom interface type
   3) Enter a new path and size in megabytes (32MB = 40 floppy records)
   4) Click OK twice to create the disk and return to the emulation
   5) Boot a BDOS version (1.6e is recommended)
   6) With "Floppy drive" selected, press Cursor-right to view the files
   7) Select "Formatter" and press Enter
   8) Press Enter again, then "Y" to begin the Atom format
   9) Your HDF image is now ready to use!

For more details on using BDOS, visit Edwin Blink's site:
  http://www.samcoupe-pro-dos.co.uk/edwin/software/bdos/bdos.htm


Windows 2000/XP

  1) Insert your CF card in the USB reader
  2) In SimCoupe, press F10 to open the options
  3) In the Disks section, click the combo-box down-arrow for the Atom
  4) Select the device to use (typically \\.\PhysicalDrive1)
  5) Click OK twice and you're ready to boot BDOS


Linux

The details for discovering the IDE/CF device path will depend on the Linux
distribution you're using, but is usually one of the following:

  - For IDE hard disks, try "fdisk -l" as root to list available devices
  - For USB devices, try "tail -f /var/log/messages" then inserting it
  - Failing those, browse through the raw "dmesg | less" output

Once you've found the device path:

  1) In SimCoupe, press F10 to open the options
  2) In the Disks section, enter the device path for the Atom hard disk
  3) Click OK then Close, and you're ready to boot BDOS


Mac OS X

  1) Insert the CF card in your USB reader
  2) When warned about an unreadable disk, click Ignore
  3) Open Disk Utility and select your CF volume (orange USB icon)
  4) Click Info on the toolbar, and find the Disk Identifier (such as disk1)
  5) Prefix the identifier with "/dev/r" for the device path (/dev/rdisk1)
  6) In SimCoupe, press Cmd-F10 to open the options dialog
  7) In the Disks section, enter the device path for the Atom hard disk
  8) Click OK then Close, and you're ready to boot BDOS!

In most cases you only need to determine the device path once, as it will be
the same the next time you insert it. It will only change if other disk
devices have been added/remove in the meantime.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

PRINTING

SimCoupe supports print-to-file on all platforms, making it easy to export
code listings to a plain text file. Configure as follows:

   1) Press F10 to open the options
   2) Select the Parallel section
   3) Under the Port 1 drop-down, select Printer
   4) In the Printer Device section, select "File: prntNNNN.txt"
   5) Click OK to accept the new settings.

You can now print from most applications, and use LLIST to print BASIC
listings. The output will be saved to a file in your Data Files directory,
with a unique name matching the template "prntNNNN.txt".

Under Windows you can also print to a real printer by selecting the device
name in step 4) above. Please note that only true SAM-compatible printers can
be used, particularly if you're printing non-text output. If your device is
not compatible, use the print-to-file option then open and print the text
output.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

KEYBOARD INPUT

The default SAM keyboard mode allows letters, digits and symbols to be typed
as normal on your keyboard, with SimCoupe automatically converting them to the
appropriate SAM key sequence. There's also a Spectrum mapping mode to use when
running Spectrum software, and a raw mode to disable the mappings.

The SAM has a keypad of function keys from F0 to F9 located on the right-side
of the keyboard. For similar key positions in SimCoupe, the SAM keypad is
mapped to the numeric keypad on your keyboard. You'll need to have Numlock
enabled for these keys to be recognised. Don't forget that when SAM software
refers to function keys, you must use the numeric keypad instead!

F1 to F12 keys on your keyboard are used for emulator functions, with the
default mappings shown below. Under OS X, keys F9 to F12 are used by Expose
and Dashboard, so you'll need to hold the Command key in addition to the
combinations below to access them.

             F1 = Open disk 1
       Shift-F1 = Eject disk 1
        Ctrl-F1 = Save disk 1
         Alt-F1 = New disk 1
             F2 = Open disk 2
       Shift-F2 = Eject disk 2
        Ctrl-F2 = Save disk 2
         Alt-F2 = New disk 2
             F3 = Tape browser
             F4 = Import data
       Shift-F4 = Export data
         Alt-F4 = Exit application
             F5 = Toggle 5:4 display
             F6 = Toggle display smoothing
             F7 = Toggle CRT scanlines
       Shift-F7 = Toggle hi-res scanlines
             F8 = Toggle full-screen
             F9 = Debugger
       Shift-F9 = Save screenshot
            F10 = Options
            F11 = NMI Button
            F12 = Reset button
       Ctrl-F12 = Exit application

      PrintScrn = Save SAM screenshot in PNG format
          Pause = Pause emulation
    Scroll Lock = Pause emulation
     Ctrl-Break = Reset
  Ctrl-Keypad * = Reset
  Ctrl-Keypad - = Normal emulation speed
       Keypad - = Reduce emulation speed
       Keypad + = Increase emulation speed
       Keypad * = Turbo speed

Turbo speed disables the frame sync and sound, and limits the display to just
5 frames per second. This usually gives a big speed boost, which is useful for
zooming through slow sections in games and demos, etc.


SAM shift modifier keys and special symbols are mapped as follows:

         Insert = Inv
      Left-Ctrl = Symbol
     Right-Ctrl = Cntrl
       Left-Alt = Cntrl (if enabled)
      Right-Alt = Edit  (if enabled)
       Menu Key = Edit
  ` (backtick)  = (c)
  . (on keypad) = (c)
    § (section) = #

The following additional combinations are also provided for convenience, since
they map common keys to the equivalent function on the SAM:

     Native key   SAM key
     ----------   -------
         Delete = Shift-Delete
        Numlock = Symbol-Edit  (toggles SAM BASIC keypad mode)
           Home = Cntrl-Left
            End = Cntrl-Right
        Page Up = F4
      Page Down = F1


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

DEBUGGER

The debugger provides code, text, data and graphical views of memory, with
typical debugging functions such as single-stepping and breakpoints.

The debugger starts in disassembly view, highlighting the next instruction.
Symbols are shown for ROM locations, and for custom code if built with pyz80
using the --mapfile= option. The register panel on the right shows the current
system state.


Register panel

The first 7 lines of the panel show Z80 register values, with changed
registers display in pink text. Below it are the current interrupt mode, and
the interrupt state (EI or DI). The arrows below the SP value point to the
top of the stack, where the top 4 values are shown.

'IM' shows the current interrupt mode, and IFF1 status (DI/EI).

'Stat' shows the 5 interrupt status flags: O=midi-out, F=frame, I=midi-in,
M=mouse and L=line. These letters are visible when the corresponding interrupt
type is active (low) in the status port (F9/249).

'Scan' shows the line number (0-311) and line-cycle counter (0-383) for the
current raster position within the frame. If the position is within the
visible area, the raster is shown on the display as a pulsing white dot.

'T' shows the cycle offset within the current frame (0-119807). Below it is the
number of cycles since the debugger was last active. During single stepping
this shows the timing for the last instruction, including any I/O contention
delays. Stepping over an instruction will give the total time for the step.

'A/B/C/D' show the page present in each of the four 16K mamory banks. This
will be ROM 0-1, RAM 00-1F for internal memory, or EXT 00-FF for external
memory. Cyan text indicates the area is read-only.

'L/H/V/M' show the current LMPR/HMPR/VMPR paging register values, plus the
current display mode (1-4).

'Events' shows upcoming events, and the number of cycles before they are due:

            FRAM = start of frame interrupt
            LINE = start of line interrupt
            IEND = end of active FRAME or LINE interrupt
            MIDI = MIDI OUT interrupt
            MEND = end of active MIDI OUT interrupt
            MOUS = mouse reset after strobe
            BLUE = Blue Alpha clock tick
            ASIC = end of ASIC startup sequence
            TAPE = next tape edge due

Keys active in all views:

               A = enter new view address
               B = breakpoint list
               C = code trace history
               D = disassembly view
               G = graphics view
               H = change HMPR page
               L = change LMPR page
               M = change screen mode
               N = number view
               T = text view
               V = change VMPR page
        Keypad-0 = toggle ROM0
        Keypad-1 = toggle ROM1
        Keypad-2 = toggle RAM write-protection
        Keypad-3 = toggle external RAM
          Ctrl-T = toggle debugger transparency
             Esc = exit debugger, or return to disassembly view

Disassembly View:
               S = toggle symbol display
               U = execute until condition is met
        Keypad-7 = single step 1 instruction
        Keypad-8 = step over instruction
        Keypad-9 = step out of function
        Keypad-4 = step 10 instructions
        Keypad-5 = step 100 instructions
        Keypad-6 = step 1000 instructions
   Ctrl-Keypad-8 = step over with code timing (no ints, border contention)
      Left/Right = scroll 1 byte
         Up/Down = scroll 1 instruction
       PgUp/PgDn = scroll 1 page
 Ctrl-Left/Right = move PC by 1 byte
    Ctrl-Up/Down = move PC by 1 instruction
          Return = debugger command mode (see below)

Text/Number View:

         Up/Down = scroll by 1 line
      Left/Right = scroll by 1 byte
       PgUp/PgDn = scroll by 1 page

Graphics View:

         1/2/3/4 = select screen mode
         Up/Down = scroll by 1 line
      Left/Right = scroll by 1 byte
    Ctrl-Up/Down = zoom in/out
 Ctrl-Left/Right = adjust column width by 1 byte
       PgUp/PgDn = scroll by 1 column
  Ctrl-PgUp/PgDn = scroll by 1 page

Debugger Command Mode:

          q / quit = exit debugger
           di / ei = disable/enable interrupts
              im M = set interrupt mode M (0-2)
             reset = reset emulation
               nmi = generate non-maskable interrupt
               zap = replace current instruction by NOP
         call ADDR = simulate call of address A
            push W = push 16-bit value W onto stack
         pop [reg] = pop 16-bit value, optionally to register
             break = set paging+interrupts in an attempt to return to BASIC
               x N = execute N instructions
    [x] until COND = execute until condition is true (one-shot)
          bpu COND = breakpoint on condition (permanent)
          bpx ADDR = execute breakpoint at ADDR with optional condition
 bpm ADDR [r|w|rw] = memory breakpoint with optional access specifier
 bmpr A B [r|w|rw] = memory range breakpoint between locations A and B
   bpio P [rw|r|w] = I/O breakpoint on port P
           bpint I = breakpoint on interrupt (frame/line/midi/midiin/midiout)
 flag +|- sz5h3vnc = set and/or reset flag bits
              bc N = clear breakpoint N (* for all)
              bd N = disable breakpoint N
              bd N = enable breakpoint N
               exx = exchange BC/DE/HL with BC'/DE'/HL'
          ex R1,R2 = exchange register R1 with register D2
            ld R,N = load register R with value N
             r R=N = load register R with value N
           out P,N = write value N to port P
poke A,N1[,N2,...] = poke address A with one or more values


Breakpoint addresses are resolved to a physical location, so they'll trigger
if the same underlying memory is access from a different paging position. They
can also be specified in page:offset format for an explicit location e.g.  bpx
1:0  will break when page 1 offset 0 (BASIC address 0x8000/32768) is executed.

Breakpoints accept an optional condition, by adding "if COND" to the end of
the command. If present, the breakpoint will only trigger when the expression
is true.

Single-stepping a HALT instruction will step into the interrupt handler,
assuming interrupts are enabled. Stepping over a HALT will completely execute
the handler, as if stepping over a call. Step-over also recognises JP/JR
instructions, and will single-step to follow the jump rather than attempting
to step over it.

To return to the current execution point after browsing other memory
locations, press A to enter a new address and enter "pc" as the expression.
Alternatively, single-step and the view will automatically return to the next
instruction.

To aid to debugging, conditional instructions show whether or not the
condition is met by the current flags. If execution flow is changing, the
current highlight changes from yellow to green, and an arrow indicates whether
the change is above or below the current location.

Double-clicking on an instruction in disassembly view will set an execution
breakpoint for that address.

Numeric expressions:

 Operators
   Unary:  + - ~ ! * =
   Binary arithmetic:  + - * / \ %
   Logical:  && || and or
   Comparison:  == != <> < > <= >=
   Bitwise arithmetic:  & | ^ band bor bxor
   Bitwise shift:  << >>

 Symbols:
   Single registers: a f b c d e h l i r ixh ixl iyh iyl
   Double registers: af bc de hl af' bc' de' hl' ix iy sp pc
   Paging: lpage hpage vpage vmode lepage hepage rom0 rom1 wprot
   Registers: lepr hepr lpen hpen status lmpr hmpr vmpr midi border addr
   Interrupts: ei di iff1 iff2 im
   I/O: inval outval
   Display: dline sline
   Execution: inrom call autoexec

 Functions
    PEEK <addr> = 8-bit lookup in currently paged RAM
   DPEEK <addr> = 16-bit lookup in currently paged RAM

The '=' unary operator has a special use in expressions. Its operand is
evaluated immediately, and the value inserted in the expression instead of the
operand itself. The first example below shows why this can be useful.

Example UNTIL expressions:

 Break when the current value of HL changes:  hl != =hl
 Break at the next HALT instruction:  peek pc == 0x76
 Break when 123 is written to any port:  outval == 123
 Break when screen mode 3 is selected: vmode == 3
 Break when 12345 is top of stack:  dpeek sp == 12345
 Break when the raster is drawing screen line 0:  sline == 0
 Break when A, B and IXl are equal:  (a == b) && (b == IXl)

Execute Until breakpoints are only temporary, and cleared when the debugger is
next activated, regardless of whether they were triggered. This also applies
to other simple breakpoints, such as step-out and step-over.

The debugger works natively in hexadecimal, but allows values to be entered in
other bases using an appropriate prefix or suffix:

       Decimal:  0n12345 or 12345.
   Hexadecimal:  1234 or 0x1234 or 1234h or $1234 or &1234 or #1234
     Character:  "a" or 'a'
        Binary:  %10101100

Octal is not supported, so leading zeroes have no special meaning.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

OPTIONS

The section below describes all setting available in the Options (F10):


System

Internal RAM - the base SAM model comes with only 256kB main memory, with an
internal add-on board to boost it to 512kB. Many software titles require 512kB
to work correctly.

External memory - external add-on packs are available to extend memory in 1MB
blocks. Programs needed to be written specially to use external memory, with
only a few titles doing so. They include MasterDOS, MasterBASIC and the TopGun
Demo.

Custom 32K ROM image - if blank a built-in v3.0 ROM image is used.

Use AL-BOOT ROM if Atom Lite is connected - if the Drive 2 is configured as an
Atom Lite device, this option applies ROM patches to automatically boot from
it. This is not available if a custom ROM image is in use.


Display

Enable hardware acceleration [Win32] - uses the hardware features of your
video card to generate the display image. You should only ever need to
temporarily disable this if troubleshooting display driver issues.

Bi-linear fitering (smoothing) - smooth the display image when stretching to
fill the SimCoupe window.

Renderer [Win32] - Auto-select will use Direct3D 9 on Windows Vista or later,
and DirectDraw on Windows XP.

Enable TV scanlines - show alternate lines at reduced brightness, to simulate
the scanline effect present on older CRT displays (default = on).

High resolution (display native) - alternate scanlines at the resolution of
your monitor, instead of the resolution of the SAM display (default = on).

Intensity - set the intensity of the scanlines, from 0% to 95% (default =
75%).


Sound

SID Interface - selects the type of SID chip connected to the Quazar SID
interface. The (default) 6581 is the traditional chip found in the original
C64 machines, with a gritty sound. The 8580 is the chip found in newer C64
models, with a cleaner and brighter sound.

DAC on port 7C - select the type of DAC device present on SAM's port 7C. The
Blue Alpha sampler has a custom clock frequency for variable speed playback.
The SAMVoc and Paula (no relation to the Amiga chip!) are simple DAC output
devices.

MIDI Out - select a device for MIDI output, which may be a real device or
software synthesizer.


Parallel

Port 1/2 - selects the device to connect to the virtual printer port. With
Printer selected you have a choice of printing to a file or a real printer
device. Mono-DAC emulates an 8-bit mono sound device, and EDdac/SAMdac an
8-bit stereo device. The latter is highly recommended for use with Stefan's
SAM MOD Player.

Printer device - if Printer is selected above, this is the file or device to
use for output. The "File:" option auto-generates a unique file to hold the
output, and saves it to your Data Files path.

Automatically flush print jobs - if no data is sent to the port within 2
seconds, any remaining print data with be flushed to the output device.


Input

Keyboard - in SAM Coupe mode letters and symbols are converted to the key
sequence required to generate the same symbol on SAM. For example, pressing
Shift-0 on a typical PC keyboard generates ')'. SimCoupe converts it to
Shift-9 to generate the same symbol on SAM. If you require a literal Shift-0,
select Disabled from the mode list. Automatic mode also detects the presence
of a Spectrum ROM and will use ZX Spectrum mappings.

Use Left-Alt for Cntrl key - maps the Left-Alt key to the Cntrl key on the SAM
keyboard, in addition to the Right-Ctrl key. Left-Alt is located in a similar
keyboard position to SAM's Cntrl key. Note: enabling this option blocks normal
Windows menu combinations, such as Alt-F for the File menu. However, you can
still press and release Alt to activate the menu, then press F to open the
file menu and navigate as normal.

Use Alt-Gr for Edit key - maps the Right-Alt key to the Edit key on the SAM
keyboard. Alt-Gr is located in a similar keyboard position to SAM's Edit key.

Enable mouse interface - select to use your mouse with supported SAM software.
Clicking on the SimCoupe window will activate the mouse when a program is
reading it. For BASIC use, double-click the SimCoupe window to active it. To
release mouse control for normal desktop use, press Esc or switch to another
task using the keyboard.


Joystick

Player 1/2 - selects up to 2 devices to use for control input. Each can be set
to control SAM joystick 1 (keys 6,7,8,9+0), SAM joystick 2 (keys 1,2,3,4+5),
or a Kempston joystick used by Spectrum software.


Drive 1

Device - select whether floppy drive 1 is installed in the left-hand bay. The
ROM only supports booting from drive 1, but later loading is supported from
either drive.

Media - select either a disk image file or real device from the drop-down list
(if supported).


Drive 2

Device - select the type of device installed in in the right-hand bay. This
can be None, Floppy, Atom (legacy) or Atom Lite.

Media - select either a disk image file or real device from the drop-down list
(if supported). Atom and Atom Lite devices support Master and Slave drives,
which can be either HDF images or real devices. Only pre-formated hard disks
and compact flash cards are listed, and you'll also need sufficient permission
to access the raw disk devices. Under Windows this requires the user be
running as an Administrator (elevated), or having SAMdiskHelper installed.
Under Linux the user will often need to be a member of the 'disk' group.


Misc

SAMBUS clock - the most common clock hardware interface, as used by MasterDOS
and BDOS.

DALLAS clock - advanced clock hardware, supported by BDOS.

Show disk drive activity lights - enables on-screen LEDs in the top left of
the display, showing when the drive is active. Floppy drives are shown in
green, Atom in orange, and Atom Lite in blue.

Show status messages - enables the display of status text in the bottom right
of the display. This are used to confirm various user actions, such as
ejecting disks and changing runtime options.

Show emulation speed - show the percentage of normal SAM running speed in the
upper-right of the display window.

Ask before saving disk image changes - prompts for confirmation before saving
modifications back to disk images when they are ejected. This doesn't apply to
changes saved manually using Ctrl-F1/F2.


Helpers

Fast boot after hardware reset - accelerates the cold-boot process, avoiding a
few seconds delay while main memory is tested.

Fast floppy disk access - accelerates the emulation speed when disks are being
accessed, to speed up loading and saving.

Auto-load media inserted at startup screen - automatically load disks and
tapes inserted when SAM is showing the stripey boot screen.

Allow booting from non-bootable disks - detects booting from an unbootable
disk and temporarily replaces the boot disk with either an internal DOS image
or a user-specified disk. Once DOS has booted the original disk is restored
and the boot process continued.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS

SimCoupe supports the following command-line options, which override setting
in the configuration file:

    -scale <int>            Windowed mode scaling: 1=50%, 2=100%, 3=150%
    -ratio5_4 <bool>        Stretch display width to 125% (default=no)
    -scanlines <bool>       Show vertical lines for a TV effect
    -scanlevel <int>        Scanline intensity percentage (default=75)
    -scanhires <bool>       Scanlines at native resolution (default=yes)
    -mode3 <bool>           Sample odd pixels in low-res (default=no)
    -fullscreen <bool>      Start in full-screen mode (default=no)
    -depth <int>            Colour depth for full-screen (default=16)
    -borders <int>          Border size: 0=none, 1=small, 2=normal,
                             3=TV-visible, 4=full TV scan area
    -hwaccel <bool>         Enable hardware acceleration (default=yes)
    -greyscale <bool>       Greyscale mode (default=no)
    -filter <bool>          Smooth emulated display (default=yes)
    -filtergui <bool>       Smooth built-in GUI display (default=no)
    -direct3d <int>         Use D3D9: -1=auto (default), 0=no, 1=yes [Win32]

    -avireduce <int>        AVI audio: 0=lossless, 1=good (default) to 4=none
    -aviscanlines <bool>    Include scanlines in AVI recording (default=no)

    -rom <path>             32K custom ROM image (blank for default v3.0)
    -romwrite <bool>        Enable memory writes to ROM (default=no)
    -albootrom <bool>       Enable Atom Lite boot ROM patches (default=no)
    -fastreset <bool>       Skip SAM power-on memory test (default=yes)
    -asicdelay <bool>       ASIC delay on first start (default=yes)
    -mainmemory <int>       Main memory size in kB: 256 or 512 (default)
    -externalmem <int>      External memory size in MB: 0 (default) to 4
    -cmosz80 <bool>         CMOS rather than NMOS Z80 (default=no)
    -speed <int>            Emulator speed percentage (default=100)

    -drive1 <int>           Drive 1: 0=none, 1=floppy
    -drive2 <int>           Drive 2: 0=none, 1=floppy, 2=Atom, 3=Atom Lite
    -turbodisk <bool>       Fast disk access sensitivity (default=yes)
    -saveprompt <bool>      Prompt before saving changes (default=yes)
    -dosboot <bool>         Automagically boot DOS (default=yes)
    -dosdisk <path>         Custom DOS boot disk (blank for SamDos 2.2)
    -stdfloppy <bool>       Assume real disks are normal format (default=yes)

    -disk1 <path>           Disk image file for drive 1
    -disk2 <path>           Disk image file for drive 2
    -atomdisk0 <path>       Atom hard disk image or device path (Master)
    -atomdisk1 <path>       Atom hard disk image or device path (Slave)
    -autoload <bool>        Auto-load media at startup screen (default=yes)

    -turbotape <bool>       Fast tape access (default=yes)
    -tapetraps <bool>       Use tape traps for instant loading (default=yes)

    -inpath <path>          Default path for input files
    -outpath <path>         Default path for output files

    -keymapping <int>       Keyboard mapping: 0=none, 1=auto, 2=SAM, 3=ZX
    -altforcntrl <bool>     Use Left-Alt for SAM Cntrl key (default=no)
    -altgrforedit <bool>    Use Alt-Gr for SAM Edit key (default=yes)
    -mouse <bool>           Mouse interface enabled (default=no)
    -mouseesc <bool>        Esc to release mouse capture (default=yes)

    -joytype1 <int>         Joystick 1: 0=none, 1=Joy1, 2=Joy2, 3=Kempston
    -joytype2 <int>         Joystick 2: 0=none, 1=Joy1, 2=Joy2, 3=Kempston
    -joydev1 <string>       Joystick 1 device (default=none)
    -joydev2 <string>       Joystick 2 device (default=none)
    -deadzone1 <int>        Joystick 1 deadzone percentage (default=20)
    -deadzone2 <int>        Joystick 2 deadzone percentage (default=20)

    -parallel1 <int>        Parallel port 1 device: 0=none (default),
                             1=printer, 2=mono DAC, 3=stereo DAC
    -parallel2 <int>        Parallel port 2 device: 0=none (default),
                             1=printer, 2=mono DAC, 3=stereo DAC
    -printerdev <string>    Printer device name or path
    -printeronline <bool>   Printer online (default=yes)
    -flushdelay <int>       Printer flush delay in seconds (default=2)

    -midi <int>             0=none (default), 1=midi synth [Win32]
    -midiindev <string>     MIDI-in device name/path (future)
    -midioutdev <string>    MIDI-out device name/path

    -sambusclock <bool>     SAMBUS clock (default=yes)
    -dallasclock <bool>     DALLAS clock (default=no)

    -sound <bool>           Sound enabled (default=yes)
    -latency <int>          Sound latency: 1=best, 5=(default), 20=worst
    -dac7c <bool>           DAC on port 7C: 0=none, 1=Blue Alpha (default),
                            2=SAMVox, 3=Paula
    -samplerfreq <int>      Blue Alpha sampler frequency (defaut=18000)
    -sid <bool>             SID chip: 0=none, 1=6581 (default), 2=8580

    -drivelights <int>      Floppy drive LEDs: 0=none, 1=top, 2=bottom
    -profile <int>          Profiling stats: 0=off, 1=simple (default),
                             2=detailed percentage, 3=detailed timings
    -status <bool>          Show status messages (default=yes)

  Key:
    <bool>    0 or 1, true or false, yes or no
    <int>     an integer value in the range shown next to the parameter
    <string>  string of characters, in "quotes" if it contains spaces
    <path>    file/dir path, in "quotes" if it contains spaces

To restore the defaults settings, close SimCoupe and delete the file:
  %APPDATA%\SimCoupe\SimCoupe.cfg  [Windows]
  ~/.simcouperc  [Linux]
  ~/Library/Preferences/SimCoupe Preferences  [Mac OS X]


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

THANKS

Allan Skillman - Father of the original SimCoupe
Dave Laundon - CPU contention and sound enhancements
Dr Ian Collier - Z80 core from his xz80 Spectrum emulator
Dave Hooper - Phillips SAA 1099 chip emulator
Dag Lem - MOS 6581/8580 chip emulator
Dr Andy Wright - Permission to distribute the SAM ROMs
Philip Kendall - Spectrum support library

Sam Lantinga - Simple DirectMedia Library (SDL)
Shawn Hargreaves - Allegro games programming library
Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler - zlib compression library

Special thanks to Andrew Collier, Edwin Blink, Chris Pile, Frode Tennebo,
Steve Parry-Thomas and Robert Wilkinson, for their active roles during
development. Thanks also to the sam-users mailing list, and everyone who sent
feedback.


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

LINKS

SimCoupe Homepage:
  http://www.simcoupe.org/

SimCoupe project page:
  https://github.com/simonowen/simcoupe
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/simcoupe/

World of Sam archive:
  http://www.worldofsam.org/

Wikipedia entry for the SAM Coupe (and for more links):
  http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Coupe


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

DISCLAIMER

THIS PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION ARE PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
KIND, NOT EVEN THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. BY USING THE PROGRAM, YOU AGREE TO BEAR ALL RISKS AND
LIABILITIES ARISING FROM THE USE OF THE PROGRAM AND DOCUMENTATION AND THE
INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE PROGRAM AND THE DOCUMENTATION.