MAME 0.213 Apple II highlights

[m***@gmail.com]

We're a little late on this release due to the sheer amount of changes, but it's finally here.

Apple II changes include:
- Support for Sirius JoyPort (great for Total Replay!)
- Support for the 4Play 4-player joystick card
- Support for raw and 2MG hard disk images in addition to CHD (also great for Total Replay!)
- Support for the original gameport-connected ComputerEyes video digitizer on II and II Plus.
* You can feed it any arbitrary .PNG file of any size and color depth and get a decent HGR representation. It's not as good as the modern programs that can convert things to HGR and DHR, but it's fun to play with.
- Fixed a IIgs timing issue so that 3200 color pictures work, including SHOW3200 and DreamGrafix "Slow But Cool 3200" mode.

More fun Apple II goodies next time including ComputerEyes/2 support. That's the slot card version which gets better-quality scans and supports double hi-res.

[James Davis]

MAME SUCKS! Unless you are an I.T. I'll never get a round tuit. :-(

[Bobbi Webber-Manners]

Post by James Davis
MAME SUCKS! Unless you are an I.T. I'll never get a round tuit. :-(

Yay!! - Raw HD / 2MG image support is the one thing that was stopping me from using MAME on my setup.

[m***@gmail.com]

Post by James Davis
MAME SUCKS! Unless you are an I.T. I'll never get a round tuit. :-(

If you're on Windows, look at BletchMAME, which uses our new hooks to completely submerge MAME underneath a thick creamy layer of Windows GUI.

[James Davis]

Post by m***@gmail.com

Post by James Davis
MAME SUCKS! Unless you are an I.T. I'll never get a round tuit. :-(

If you're on Windows, look at BletchMAME, which uses our new hooks to completely submerge MAME underneath a thick creamy layer of Windows GUI.

Thanks. I'll check it (BletchMAME v1.1) out and get back to you as to whether I like it or not.

IIRC, I tried it (BletchMAME v1.0) when I first got MAME, and did not like it, then.

I'll bet MAME will still need an I.T. (person) to build anything useful with it. :-|

[m***@gmail.com]

Post by James Davis
I'll bet MAME will still need an I.T. (person) to build anything useful with it. :-|

Eh, we've successfully taught life-long Mac users to compile and play MAME. You're at least that smart, right?

[James Davis]

Post by m***@gmail.com

Post by James Davis
I'll bet MAME will still need an I.T. (person) to build anything useful with it. :-|

Eh, we've successfully taught life-long Mac users to compile and play MAME. You're at least that smart, right?

Never had a Macintosh computer. [Just the apple (and an Apple II+ & 2 eIIe's, and a Windows 95~98se & aWindows 7 machine{s}).]

I do not compile programs from source code. I have no interest in doing so. I prefer programs that have installer/uninstaller packages; And, that are complete with everything they need (e.g., for MAME: ROMs, etc.). MAME would be better if it had a proper Windows installer, that would update older MAME installations and the ROMS, etc., that one all already has.

[Bobbi Webber-Manners]

Post by James Davis

Post by m***@gmail.com

Post by James Davis
I'll bet MAME will still need an I.T. (person) to build anything useful with it. :-|

Eh, we've successfully taught life-long Mac users to compile and play MAME. You're at least that smart, right?

Never had a Macintosh computer. [Just the apple (and an Apple II+ & 2 eIIe's, and a Windows 95~98se & aWindows 7 machine{s}).]
I do not compile programs from source code. I have no interest in doing so. I prefer programs that have installer/uninstaller packages; And, that are complete with everything they need (e.g., for MAME: ROMs, etc.). MAME would be better if it had a proper Windows installer, that would update older MAME installations and the ROMS, etc., that one all already has.

For what it is worth I am not really a GUI person so I tend to drive MAME from the Linux command line. It can probably be used the same way from Windows. Once I have something useful that works I stick it in a shellscript (or batch file for Windows.) I have some standard one-line scripts for booting MAME with various floppy disk images or HDD partitions, and with various cards configured. I have one for CFFA3000 HDD, one for CP/M with a softcard, etc. etc. It is sometimes a bit of an experiment how to do something the first time, but once I work it out I just record it in my little script so I have it forever :)

I am happy to share a few of these scripts if you like, once I am back at my PC.

Are there any other emulators can can emulate CP/M Z80 Softcard? That is a killer feature of MAME for me. I love that it is configurable, not just a single configuration like GSPort for example.

[David Schmidt]

Post by Bobbi Webber-Manners
Are there any other emulators can can emulate CP/M Z80 Softcard? That is a killer feature of MAME for me. I love that it is configurable, not just a single configuration like GSPort for example.

Virtual ][ (Mac) has that kind of slot plugability, and includes a Softcard.

[Steve Nickolas]

Post by Bobbi Webber-Manners
For what it is worth I am not really a GUI person so I tend to drive
MAME from the Linux command line. It can probably be used the same way
from Windows.

That is indeed the way I use MAME, having come from the MS-DOS world.

Post by Bobbi Webber-Manners
Are there any other emulators can can emulate CP/M Z80 Softcard? That
is a killer feature of MAME for me. I love that it is configurable, not
just a single configuration like GSPort for example.

AppleWin supports the Softcard in slot 4 or 5. I think Agat Emulator
supports it as well.

-uso.

[awanderin]

Post by Bobbi Webber-Manners

Post by James Davis

Post by James Davis

Post by James Davis
I'll bet MAME will still need an I.T. (person) to build anything

useful with it. :-|
Eh, we've successfully taught life-long Mac users to compile and
play MAME. You're at least that smart, right?

Never had a Macintosh computer. [Just the apple (and an Apple II+ &
2 eIIe's, and a Windows 95~98se & aWindows 7 machine{s}).]
I do not compile programs from source code. I have no interest in
doing so. I prefer programs that have installer/uninstaller
packages; And, that are complete with everything they need (e.g.,
for MAME: ROMs, etc.). MAME would be better if it had a proper
Windows installer, that would update older MAME installations and
the ROMS, etc., that one all already has.

For what it is worth I am not really a GUI person so I tend to drive
MAME from the Linux command line. It can probably be used the same
way from Windows. Once I have something useful that works I stick it
in a shellscript (or batch file for Windows.) I have some standard
one-line scripts for booting MAME with various floppy disk images or
HDD partitions, and with various cards configured. I have one for
CFFA3000 HDD, one for CP/M with a softcard, etc. etc. It is sometimes
a bit of an experiment how to do something the first time, but once I
work it out I just record it in my little script so I have it forever
:)
I am happy to share a few of these scripts if you like, once I am back at my PC.
Are there any other emulators can can emulate CP/M Z80 Softcard? That
is a killer feature of MAME for me. I love that it is configurable,
not just a single configuration like GSPort for example.

Yes, please do share your scripts! Thanks!

[Bobbi Webber-Manners]

Post by awanderin

Post by Bobbi Webber-Manners

Post by James Davis

Post by James Davis

Post by James Davis
I'll bet MAME will still need an I.T. (person) to build anything

useful with it. :-|
Eh, we've successfully taught life-long Mac users to compile and
play MAME. You're at least that smart, right?

Never had a Macintosh computer. [Just the apple (and an Apple II+ &
2 eIIe's, and a Windows 95~98se & aWindows 7 machine{s}).]
I do not compile programs from source code. I have no interest in
doing so. I prefer programs that have installer/uninstaller
packages; And, that are complete with everything they need (e.g.,
for MAME: ROMs, etc.). MAME would be better if it had a proper
Windows installer, that would update older MAME installations and
the ROMS, etc., that one all already has.

For what it is worth I am not really a GUI person so I tend to drive
MAME from the Linux command line. It can probably be used the same
way from Windows. Once I have something useful that works I stick it
in a shellscript (or batch file for Windows.) I have some standard
one-line scripts for booting MAME with various floppy disk images or
HDD partitions, and with various cards configured. I have one for
CFFA3000 HDD, one for CP/M with a softcard, etc. etc. It is sometimes
a bit of an experiment how to do something the first time, but once I
work it out I just record it in my little script so I have it forever
:)
I am happy to share a few of these scripts if you like, once I am back at my PC.
Are there any other emulators can can emulate CP/M Z80 Softcard? That
is a killer feature of MAME for me. I love that it is configurable,
not just a single configuration like GSPort for example.

Yes, please do share your scripts! Thanks!
--
--
Jerry awanderin at gmail dot com

These MAME command lines are nothing too exciting, but I hope they are helpful to someone. I use these on Linux, but I expect they will work on Windows too without too much tinkering.

To start ProDOS from 143k floppy in slot 6:

mame -w apple2ee -sl6 diskii -floppydisk1 ProDOS_2_4_2.po

Using an HDD partition with CFFAv2 emulation:
mame -w apple2ee -sl6 diskii -sl7 cffa202 -hard1 hdd.cfd

Booting CP/M with Wordstar in drive B:
mame -w apple2ee -sl6 diskii -sl4 softcard -floppydisk1 CPM2.23B.dsk -floppydisk2 CPM_WordStar.dsk

The other catch, at least until the latest and greatest MAME that just came out (which I haven't gotten around to trying yet) is that HDD images have to be in some weird CHD "compressed hard drive" format. MAME provides a conversion tool called 'chdman' which can convert back and forwards. On Ubuntu I had to install the package 'mame-tools' to get 'chdman', but I imagine it is part of the normal Windows install of MAME.

Here is how to use chdman to create a CHD HDD file from a .PO image:

chdman createhd -i hd.po -o hd.chd -c none

To convert back, just swap the input (-i) and output (-o):

chdman createhd -i hd.chd -o hd.po -c none

And that is pretty much everything I ever need to do with MAME. I am not a very advanced user though -- just need an Apple //e on my laptop that works like the real one on my desk. It is very handy for building HDD images to copy to the real machine and so forth.

[Steve Nickolas]

Post by Bobbi Webber-Manners
mame -w apple2ee -sl6 diskii -floppydisk1 ProDOS_2_4_2.po

The syntax should be the same, since I usually use this to boot an Apple
///:

mame apple3 -flop1 ..\apple\star051.dsk

-uso.

[James Davis]

These are the Win7 shortcuts I have setup:

0. MAME64 [machine] [media] [software] [options] <--[command structure.]

1. MAME64 -window

2. MAME64 apple2ee -window -flop1 "APPLE DOS 3.3 SYSTEM MASTER.dsk"

3. MAME64 apple2ee -window -nothrottle -flop1 "ProDOS-8 2.4.2.dsk" -flop2 "Prosel Utilities.dsk"

These (2&3) had full pathnames within the quotes, but I removed all but the disks' filenames (here) for simplicity.

[James Davis]

Post by Bobbi Webber-Manners
...
mame -w apple2ee -sl6 diskii -floppydisk1 ProDOS_2_4_2.po
mame -w apple2ee -sl6 diskii -sl7 cffa202 -hard1 hdd.cfd
mame -w apple2ee -sl6 diskii -sl4 softcard -floppydisk1 CPM2.23B.dsk -floppydisk2 CPM_WordStar.dsk
...

How/where did you get info about Apple II specific MAME commands (above, e.g., -sl#, etc.)? I have not seen them in the MAME documentation. Do you have links to additional (Apple II specific) MAME documentation that you can post here?

[Bobbi Webber-Manners]

Post by James Davis

Post by Bobbi Webber-Manners
...
mame -w apple2ee -sl6 diskii -floppydisk1 ProDOS_2_4_2.po
mame -w apple2ee -sl6 diskii -sl7 cffa202 -hard1 hdd.cfd
mame -w apple2ee -sl6 diskii -sl4 softcard -floppydisk1 CPM2.23B.dsk -floppydisk2 CPM_WordStar.dsk
...

How/where did you get info about Apple II specific MAME commands (above, e.g., -sl#, etc.)? I have not seen them in the MAME documentation. Do you have links to additional (Apple II specific) MAME documentation that you can post here?

That is a good question James :)

I managed to track them down somewhere on the web, not in official docs. It was a few years ago now so I don't recall where. When something is hard-won knowledge like this, I try to memorize it in a script, otherwise I would simply forget.

MAME has some magic commands that can show you what ROMs and add-on cards are available. I could dig those out somewhere.

I think part of the challenge is that MAME is so general purpose, and more people are using it to emulate vintage arcade machines or consoles than Apple II. Machine-specific info is hard to track down.

[m***@gmail.com]

There's a quick primer on slot devices in this Reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MAME/comments/d2ewdv/slot_devices/ezuntjt/


Long-term I'm writing Apple II-specific documentation on our wiki here:

https://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/Driver:Apple_II

It's very brief right now, I will be expanding it.

[Bobbi Webber-Manners]

Post by m***@gmail.com
https://www.reddit.com/r/MAME/comments/d2ewdv/slot_devices/ezuntjt/
https://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/Driver:Apple_II
It's very brief right now, I will be expanding it.

That documentation is very handy (and will be even more handy once you expand it further!) Thanks for this!!

[James Davis]

I found this with Google search:

"Using MAME to Emulate the Apple II+ - GlassTTY"
<https://glasstty.com/wiki/index.php/Using_MAME_to_Emulate_the_Apple_II%2B>.

It gave me some clues as to how to get the information.

These are the (MsDOS) commands I used to list MAME's Apple II machine specs:

"<YourPathnameTo>\mame64.exe" -listslots apple2 > "MAME--Apple2,Slots.txt"

"<YourPathnameTo>\mame64.exe" -listdevices apple2 > "MAME--Apple2.Devices.txt"

"<YourPathnameTo>\mame64.exe" -listslots apple2ee > "MAME--Apple2ee,Slots.txt"

"<YourPathnameTo>\mame64.exe" -listdevices apple2ee > "MAME--Apple2ee.Devices.txt"

[",Slots" & ".Devices" are windows directory sorting tricks (that I use to force the sort order of the texts created).]

According to the article, the "-listslots" & "-listdevices" commands will give you the information needed (e.g., that I asked about how/where to find) about any specific machine [e.g., <ROMname>.zip; for example, ROMnames: "apple2," "apple2p," "apple2ee," etc.].

[James Davis]

Post by James Davis

Post by m***@gmail.com

Post by James Davis
MAME SUCKS! Unless you are an I.T. I'll never get a round tuit. :-(

If you're on Windows, look at BletchMAME, which uses our new hooks to completely submerge MAME underneath a thick creamy layer of Windows GUI.

Thanks. I'll check it (BletchMAME v1.1) out and get back to you as to whether I like it or not.
IIRC, I tried it (BletchMAME v1.0) when I first got MAME, and did not like it, then.
I'll bet MAME will still need an I.T. (person) to build anything useful with it. :-|

I do not see much difference between BletchMAME v1.0 and v1.1. Most of the menu items are greyed out, so unusable. The only thing good about it is that it tells you what you are missing when you try to run/emulate any particular machine. (Aesthetically, I like the colorful MAME windows better.)