X G S / 3 2 FAQ   

 

Q: What is XGS/32 and why should I care?

XGS/32 is an program the emulates the operation of an Apple ][gs computer. If you have been frustrated at the obvious lack of attention by programmers in regard to Windows 9x/NT compatible ][gs emulators, then this program should interest you.

Q: Who are you?

My name is Steve Mentzer. I am a computer programmer who resides in southern California. I am an avid Apple II'er, who has a special passion (but limited hardware knowledge) for the Apple ][gs. I have been labeled a criminal, pirate, loser, facist, a-hole, communist, liberal, idiot, flamebait, Turley-conspirator.... the list goes on. I am just here to keep the Apple II alive. You make your own judgements.

Q: What kind of computer do I need to run XGS/32?

XGS/32 should run on any Windows 9x or NT v4.0 PC. The speed of the emulator is largely dependent on the speed of your computer. However, if you have a really fast computer, you can always adjust the speed of the emulator to mimic something more reasonable.

Q: How fast (or slow) is XGS/32?

The effective speed of the emulator is decided by a number of factors (video mode selected, CPU speed, type of program being run). However, here are some recent benchmarks that show the average performance of the emulator.

Intel Pentium II 400Mhz	~10.2Mhz	Running Windows NT v4.0
Intel Pentium II 400Mhz	~10.4Mhz	Running Windows 98 SE
Intel Pentium III 600Mhz	~12.7Mhz	Running Windows NT v4.0

Note: These are the maximum sustained emulator speeds for the particular platform listed. The effective speed is fully adjustable from 1 Mhz to 20Mhz in .1 Mhz Increments.

Q: "I click on "Run Emulator" but nothing happens.

There are a number of files and paramters that must be set before XGS/32 can start. If a problem is detected, a message box will be displayed indicating what the problem is, and how you should fix it. If a message box is not displayed indicating a failure condition, then something sinister is happening. Go to the emulator configuration screen, and enable "Debug Processing". This will place a file called xgs.dbg in the directory where you installed XGS/32. Email the file to me and I will see if I can help.

Q: Sound is choppy.. what is wrong?

Try increasing the number and/or size of the audio buffers. This will increase audio lag, but reduce choppiness. Sound is extremely difficult to configure. This is just the nature of the beast inside of windows. Future versions will support DirectSound audio streaming, which should elminate these headaches.

Q: I put an 800k (3.5") disk image in smartport #0, but the program doesn't boot correctly.

Remove all smartport images, put the image in S5D1, and start the emulator. It should put you at the applesoft basic prompt. Type "pr#6". If it doesn't work, there might be an incompatibility between XGS/32 and the title. If course, if you read the documentation, you would know this :)

Q: I put a 140k (5.25") disk image in smartp       ort #x and S5D1, but the program doesn't boot correctly.

140k (5.25") disk images are only supported via S6D1 and S6D2. You must place the boot image in S6D1, remove all smartport images, start the emulator and type "pr#6" at the applesoft basic prompt. Read the manual. Please.

Q: Why does the windows desktop "bleed through" to my XGS/32 session?

I wish I had the answer to this question. It appears that some bargain-basement video chipsets (Jaton, Trident) have this problem. I haven't had any reports of the more popular boards causing problems, so I am not terribly concerned. Once solution is to avoid selecting the same color depth and resolution that your windows desktop is running on. I have witnessed this problem on one computer where I selected "800x600x24" and the windows desktop was set to "800x600x24" as well. Switching the emulator to run as "800x600x32" corrected the problem.

Q: Why doesn't program "xyz" run under XGS/32

This could have an infinite number of answers. Even though the XGS/32 core is constantly being refined, there are still a large number of titles that will not work properly for one reason or another. Let me know what isn't working, and I will try to look at it.

Q: Why is the emulator so slow on my PC?

There are a number of factors that can contribute to this problem. XGS/32 taxes your CPU, Video and Audio subsystem pretty heavily. A weak link in the chain could slow the entire emulator operation down. I have tested XGS/32 on a Pentium III 600Mhz machine with an old ISA Diamond SpeedStar VGA board, and the maximum emulator speed was around 3Mhz. With a TNT Ultra2 board in it, the maximum emulator speed hovered around 14Mhz. If you suspect that your video board is causing slowdown, you can reduce the number of video refreshes per second in the emulator configuration. If your audio board or CPU are suspect, then you may want to disable audio entirely.

Q: When will you be adding support for paddles/joystick.

Interestingly enough, there is code in the emulator to allow the mouse to act as a paddle/joystick device. This code is largely unchanged from the original core written by Josh Thompson. Pressing F5 will activate it. However, I have yet to see it work. I am currently working on a new joystick emulation module that will use standard PC joysticks via the Win32 API. It should work pretty cool.

Q: Will you ever support gamepads?

Not likely.

Q: Why can't XGS/32 read apple-formatted disks? Why must I use disk images?

The IBM/PC hardware (specifically floppy drive controllers) do NOT allow the reading of Apple-formatted diskettes. This is a hardware limitation that cannot be overcome by software. There is a hardware product called "Catweasel" that supposedly allows for the reading of Apple II formatted disks via a special controller card and software. I have contacted the developers of this board to no avail. I am eager to integrate support for this product into XGS/32, but haven't been able to get any answers out of them.

Unfortunately, until the hardware-barrier is broken, we are stuck with disk images.

Q: When will you be adding support for serial port emulation.

While I am pretty adept at working with PC serial ports, I know little or nothing about how the ][gs serial ports work. I would like to emulate the hardware, but I am going to need some information on how the hardware works. I am also willing to work with another developer to add the support to XGS/32.

Q: I Want to know some technobabble about XGS/32?

Click here.

Q: Where can I get XGS/32?

From the download page, of course! Click here.