XRoar

XRoar is an open source, multiplatform and 100% free command-line/graphical emulator for the Dragon 32, Dragon 64, as well as versions 1 and 2 of the Tandy Colour Computer (CoCo), all originally released in the early '80s.

The emulator runs under GNU/Linux and UNIX-like operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, using SDL for video and OSS for audio. It also works on the Nintendo DS & GP32 handheld gaming consoles.

Features at a glance

While featuring a feature rich user-interface powered by GTK2, XRoar includes accelerated OpenGL output using GtkGLExt and SDL, YUV scaled output using SDL, simple unscalable framebuffer output using SDL, as well as support for both PAL or NTSC systems.

The application supports CAS file input and output, reads and writes DMK, DSK (JVC) and VDK disk images, supports RS-DOS, DragonDOS and Delta cartridges, supports various floppy controllers, including WD2797, WD2795, WD2793 and WD2791, and supports the Orchestra-90 stereo sound cart.

Among other features, we can mention accurate timing for NTSC and PAL CoCos and Dragons, accurate mode-switching, NTSC cross-colour support, support for the DNG format, and frameskip support for slow machines.

Getting started with XRoar

While XRoar is easily installable on various Ubuntu distributions, supporting 32-bit and 64-bit CPU architectures, using the PPA repository provided on the dedicated downloads sections above, it can be install on any other Linux kernel-based operating system using the source package.

Download and save the latest TAR archive, unpack it, open a terminal emulator and navigate to the location of the extracted archive files (e.g. cd /home/softoware/xroar-0.32) - replace ‘softoware’ with your username.

Then, run the ‘configure && make’ command to configure/compile XRoar, followed by the ‘sudo make install’ command to install it. View XRoar’s command-line options by running the ‘xroar --help’ command.

What is new in this release:

• Building from source now uses GNU build system (autotools).
• Various timing fixes.
• New option -tape-ao-rate hz specifies output samplerate for wav files.
• New option -timeout-motoroff s quits s seconds after tape motor off.
• New option -snap-motoroff file creates snapshots on tape motor off.
• New option -tape-channel-mode mode specifies how to read stereo audio files: mix, left or right.
• New option -config-print-all prints even default values.
• Better defaults for Windows use of SDL audio.
• Special-case autorun instructions for some tape programs.
• Fix Windows menu selection event drops.
• Basic MPI support.
• Assume single density JVC/DSK where sectors = 10. Disable with -no-disk-auto-sd.
• Fix hook-based printing on switching machines.

What is new in version 0.32:

• Fix keyboard handling - CoCo Tetris now playable again.
• SDL, CoreAudio: allow -ao-fragments more than 1.
• Add joystick menus to GTK+ interface.
• New option -ao-format to select audio sample format.
• Fix 6309 timing issue (CMPU, CMPS).
• Fix issue with 6309 STBT instruction.
• Use endian.h where available.
• New Windows UI adding menus to the SDL window.
• Detect headerless JVC image geometry from OS-9 filesystem information.
• Recognise ".os9" as extension for JVC images.

What is new in version 0.31.1:

• Fix potential deadlocks in new SDL and CoreAudio code.

What is new in version 0.31:

• Ctrl+Shift+I toggles Inverse Text.
• New option -invert-text.
• Added external character generator support.
• Many new keymaps. -keymap help for a list.
• New option -machine-keyboard selects layout for machine.
• New machine Dragon 200-E.
• Fix CoCo RAM select detection.
• More accurate sound timing.

What is new in version 0.30.2:

• This version adds a GDB target, adds CoCo printing through ROM intercepts and emulation of the 6847T1 VDG variant and Orchestra 90-CC cartridge, improves sound bus interaction accuracy, fixes PAL CoCo video timing, and exposes more functionality in Mac OS X menus.

What is new in version 0.29:

• This version adds Hitachi 6309 emulation, VDG sub-scanline rendering improvements, an optional "Becker port" in RSDOS, timing fixes, and keyboard matrix ghosting simulation.

What is new in version 0.28:

• New keyboard map: Canadian French [Pierre Sarrazin].
• CPU core optimisations.
• User-specified ROM lists and CRC matching (for applying breakpoints).
• New -tape-write option selects output tape file.
• New -type option types a command into BASIC.
• Fixed ROM loading under Windows.

What is new in version 0.26:

• SAM-VDG interaction fix - 48 byte-per-line mode now works.
• More resilient fast tape loading.

What is new in version 0.25:

• New GTK+2 user-interface.
• New GtkGLExt video module.
• New audio options: -ao-rate, -ao-buffer-ms, -ao-buffer-samples, -volume.
• New options: -kbd-translate, -disk-write-back.
• New PulseAudio sound module.
• New Linux joystick module.
• CPU emulation accuracy improved [from doc by Darren Atkinson]
• Tape audio feedback while loading CAS files (AUDIO ON).
• Fixed some CPU timings.
• Added ability to print to file or pipe.
• Ability to define new machines or cartridges.

What is new in version 0.24:

• Improvements were made to ALSA output, SDL video and SDL audio under Windows.
• The new "-tapehack" option was added for creating sanitized CAS files.
• More illegal instructions are supported.

Requirements:

• SDL
• gtk+
• Jack audio connection kit