
Gemulator 2000 version 7.1 (Service Release 1)
==============================================

Release date: May 5 2000

Contact information:

Emulators Inc.
14150 N.E. 20th Street
Suite 302
Bellevue, WA  98007-3700

Sales: (206)-236-0540
Fax:   (206)-236-0257
Email: info@emulators.com
Web:   http://www.emulators.com
Store: http://www.softmac2000.com


Gemulator 2000 version 7.1 is the latest release of the Gemulator line of
Atari ST and Atari STE emulators first release in 1992. Version 7.1 contains
several fixes for Windows 2000 and workarounds for known bugs in Windows 2000.
There is also a major fix for sound support that caused some people to not
hear any sound with certain sound cards both on Windows 9x and Windows 2000.

Gemulator 2000 version 7.1 is being released simultaneously with Xformer 2000
version 7.1 and SoftMac 2000 version 7.1 as part of the SoftMac 2000 Service
Release for Windows 2000. All three emulators contains these major changes and
new features:

    - the ability to create new emulation modes, or custom configurations
    - the ability to quick format a blank Apple Macintosh floppy disk
    - the ability to quickly create large disk image files
    - fixes for LS-120 (120 meg floppies) and other high capacity disks
    - user selectable options for timing and DirectX
    - fixes for reported hangs and lockups on some Windows 98 systems

You should already be familiar with using Gemulator 2000 (or earlier versions
such as Gemulator 98). If you are upgrading from an earlier version, your
old GEM2000.INI file will automatically be migrated. If you are upgrading
from Gemulator 98, you can import your Gemulator 98 settings by clicking on
the "Import Configuration..." menu item, and selecting your existing GEM98.INI
file in your Windows directory. Gemulator 2000 saves its settings in the file
GEM2000.INI in the Windows directory.

You can at any time clear Gemulator 2000's settings (which includes the
custom configurations and disk settings) by deleting the GEM2000.INI file.
Gemulator 2000 does not mangle the Windows registry or install any DLLs into
the Windows directory as we are not fans of "DLL hell" and "registry hell".
This is the reason why there is no setup program required for Gemulator 2000.
To install Gemulator 2000 simply copy the GEMUL8R7.EXE file to your hard disk
or run it from floppy disk. To un-install Gemulator 2000 simply delete the
GEM2000.INI and GEMUL8R7.EXE files.

The following is brief description of some of the new and existing features
in Gemulator 2000 version 7.1. We ask that you consult your Gemulator printed
manual and the Gemulator 2000 online documentation at http://www.emulators.com.


Multiple modes
--------------

Older versions of our emulators each contained three to six built-in emulation
modes. In Gemulator this consisted of a built-in Atari 8-bit mode, an Atari ST
mode, and an Apple Macintosh Classic mode.

Gemulator 2000 now supports up to 16 modes, allows you to create 13 new custom
configurations and even delete one of the 3 built-in ones. For example, if
you frequently need to toggle between running Atari ST software in monochrome
(such as for running Pagestream or Calamus) and in color (for running paint
programs), you can now create separate configurations.

To do this, start by switching the mode selector to the "Atari ST" mode. Now
click on the "+" button next to the mode selector. Click on the mode selector
and you will now see that there are 4, not 3, emulation modes. The Atari 8-bit
mode, the original Atari ST mode, the Macintosh Classic mode, and your new
Atari ST mode, indicated by the plus sign in the name of the mode. The two
Atari ST modes can now be configured independently.

You can also delete a mode. For example, if you use Xformer 2000 for your
Atari 8-bit emulation and don't need it in Gemulator, select the Atari 8-bit
mode and click on the "-" button to delete this mode.

Each mode can be assigned a user defined name up to 27 characters. Click on
the Properties menu and edit the name.

Remember to always click on Save to save your new custom settings to the
GEM2000.INI file.


Quick format Macintosh floppies
-------------------------------

The Advanced menu now contains a "Format 1.44M Mac Floppy" command. This will
reformat a PC floppy in Macintosh format. The formatting is done as a quick
format, meaning the floppy disk you insert into your A: drive must already be
formatted in either MS-DOS or Macintosh 1.44M format.

We suggest formatting a floppy only between emulation settings, such as when
the Mac OS is not running so as not to corrupt any Mac OS data.

Use this command to quickly format one or more floppy disks in Mac format. The
newly formatted disks will work perfectly on any Macintosh computer equipped
with a 1.44M HD floppy.


Creating large disk image file
------------------------------

A frequent product support question we receive from both Atari ST and Macintosh
users is how how to create a new har disk image file (also known as a "disk
container" or "virtual hard disk"). We do offer the MAKEDSK utility to create
an arbitrarily sized disk image file from a command prompt, but borrowing from
the Linux installer, we've added the option to convert the free space on a PC
disk partition into a disk image.

By selecting either of the menu items under "Create Large Disk Image", you
will be presented with a file selector. Select a disk partition and folder
where to create the disk image and name the new disk image file, typically
something like HARDDISK.DSK.

If you select the "Formatted for Mac OS" menu, the disk image will be pre-
formatted in Macintosh HFS format, allowing the disk image to be mounted as a
formatted Macintosh volume in either SoftMac 2000 or Gemulator 2000. These
files typically have a .IMG file extension instead of .DSK and are compatible
with Mac OS Disk Copy created images.

If you select the "Unformatted (Blank)" menu, the disk image will not be pre-
formatted and will need to then be formatted using either an Atari ST or
Mac OS formatting utility. This option is recommended and more versatile as
it allows for more formatting options sush as formatting multiple volumes or
formatting in HFS+ (Macintosh Extended) format.

To create a smaller or arbitrarily sized disk image, you still need to
manually run the MAKEDSK or MAKEIMG utilities.

We recommend using popular Atari's HDX 5.0 formatting utility when formatting
the large disk image files which you create.


LS-120 support
--------------

We have made fixes in the floppy disk and SCSI disk emulation to now support
LS-120 and other high density removable disks more reliably.

When using an LS-120 drive, such as the built-in ones found in many of today's
notebook computers, you need to install the disk in Gemulator slightly
differently than a regular floppy. Bring up the Disk Properties dialog box,
select the first disk device (the "internal floppy"), then under the "Disk
Source" setting select "SCSI device" and click on the "2..." button until the
LS-120 drive shows up.

You can similarly use this technique to install an Iomega ZIP drive, or other
non-floppy removable drives.

Make sure that you have the latest Adaptect ASPI drivers installed. These
Windows drivers are required to access non-DOS and non-Windows formatted
SCSI, IDE, CD-ROM, and removable drives.


Timing and DirectX options
--------------------------

We've moved a couple of menu options from the Advanced menu and made them
more visible under the Options menu. These options are required to fix boot
and timing problems on some people's machines.

DirectX - due to a bug in Windows NT 4.0 and certain DirectX drivers, Gemulator
will not display full screen mode correctly if DirectX is loaded automatically.
If you are unable to switch to full screen mode or get error messages from
DirectX, set the "DirectX Video" setting to "Delay Load". If you experience
no problems set it to "Automatic". And if you wish to disable full screen
support completely (to save memory and speed up boot time) select "Disable".

A number of users reported timing problems running Gemulator on some AMD and
Intel processors, such as the Pentium III SpeedStep variable speed and Pentium
III Coppermine processors used in today's new PCs. Due to the way these
processors handle timing, you need force Gemulator to use the PC's hardware
timer, which is more stable and reliable but will make Gemulator run slightly
slower.

If you experience timing problems, such as the time display of the emulated
computer is running too fast or too slow, activate the "Use Hardware Timer"
menu option. We recommend activating this option by default until you have
verified you have no timing problems.

If you do run a notebook computer with a Speedstep processor, we suggest
always keeping this option on as the processor may change clock speeds as
Gemulator is running.

We also fixed some timing issues that caused some Windows 98 computers to hang
when running Gemulator. If you experience these kinds of problems, again, set
the hardware timer option.

As a side note, our developers have been testing Gemulator 2000 on some very
fast processors including the AMD Athlon (currently the world's fastest x86
processor), the standard Pentium III, the Pentium III "B", and the Pentium III
"Coppermine".

Our testing has shown that in fact the AMD Athlon is the fastest chip, beating
the original Pentium III in some cases by as much as 50% (even in actual
Gemulator 2000 benchmarks). We've even found some performance bottlenecks in
the Pentium III which are quite serious and we hope Intel will fix them if they
hope to keep up with Athlon. So for now we do highly recommend the Athlon
processor if you require maximum speed. However, the second generation of
Pentium III processors (the "B" and "Coppermine" versions) are looking very
promising and in our tests between the Pentium III-B, Pentium III Coppermine,
and Athlon, running at 600 Mhz, the Athlon has a very slight speed advantage.


Hibernate
---------

This is a feature introduced almost 6 months ago but one which many users
forget to take advantage of. When you are running Gemulator 2000 and wish to
stop running the emulator but don't wish to lose the spot you are at, do not
click on the Exit menu item. Instead click on the Hibernate menu item. This
will save the entire state of the 68000 processor and the Atari ST or Macintosh
computer to disk. The next time Gemulator 2000 is started it will load this
saved state and resume from where you left off.

This command works in much the same way the Hibernate and Suspend commands
in Windows work except you are only saving the emulator's state, not the whole
state of Windows.


Disk support
------------

Many people still ask us if they can read their old Atari ST and Macintosh
disks on a PC. The answer is a big YES!

Gemulator 2000, using your PC's built in floppy disk drive, CD-ROM drive,
DVD-ROM drive, Iomega ZIp drive, Syquest Jaz drive, and LS-120 drive can
directly read the Atari ST and Macintosh formatted disks that Windows normally
refuses to read.

While running Gemulator you are able to boot and run the files on those disks.
If you need to copy files from those disks to your PC, use our free Gemulator
Explorer utility on our web site.

Gemulator also supports most of the common disk image (virtual disk) file
formats used by the Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, and Macintosh.



Send your feedback
------------------

We appreciate hearing back from you about our products. Our Atari 8-bit and
Atari ST emulators are free products but we do continue to maintain and update
them as we have for years. If you find problems, do report them to us.

When sending in bug reports, it helps if you attach a screen shot showing the
problem. You can create a screen shot of the Windows desktop by pressing the
Print Screen button your PC keyboard, and then pasting the image in to a Word
processor or email editor.

It also helps if you tell us EXACTLY which version of our product you are
running, and which version of Windows you are running. To find this out, click
on the Help About menu item, and tell us which emulator you are running
(Xformer 2000, Gemulator 2000, or SoftMac 2000), what the release date is,
what the Windows version and build number are, and what the Windows platform
is (i.e. Windows 95/98 or Windows NT/2000).

Also verify that your DirectX drivers are up to date, that your ASPI driver is
up to date, and that your video driver is up to date. We don't need to remind
people that there are serious bugs in the ATI video drivers that shipped on
the Windows 98 CD-ROM and you do need to go to ATI's web site and download
the latest drivers.

