Merge pull request #5 from rocky1138/patch-2

[clinton/Virtual-Jaguar-Rx.git] / docs / README

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Virtual Jaguar v2.1.3 Rx GCC/Qt release README
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- DISCLAIMER -
--------------

Or, "O liability, I do disclaim thee!"

Ported by SDLEMU (Niels Wagenaar & Carwin Jones) and is based upon the
original work by David Raingeard of Potato Emulation. For requirements please
consult the INSTALL file for more information about supported OS's and
software requirements.

The use of this software is entirely at your own risk. While it won't rape
your dog, it might do other nasty things. We can't be held responsible for
damage done to your hardware and/or software. You may only use the ROM images
if you own the cartridges itself. The use of commercial ROMs without owning the
original cartridge is illegal in most countries and could result in fines
and/or legal actions.

The products, trademarks and/or brands used in these documents and/or
sourcecode are owned by their respective companies and/or successors in
interest.

This software is released under the GPL v3 or later. For more information, read
the GPLv3 file.


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- IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT JAGUAR FILE FORMATS--READ THIS OR ELSE! -
----------------------------------------------------------------

There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the various file formats that
Jaguar programs come in, and a lot of this confusion seem to come from
Cowering's GoodJag renaming tool. Note that it simply gets some files wrong,
and it also incorrectly renames cartridge images with an extension that
belongs to an already established extension (.jag is a Jaguar Server
executable--read on). To clarify, there are basically fith major types of
Jaguar binary images that are NOT cartridge images:

    .abs
    .jag
    .rom
    .bin
    .elf

The first type, the .abs file, is a DRI/Alcyon format absolute location
executable. These come in two different flavors and contain load and run
addresses in their headers. Note that some files which have an .abs extension
are really incorrectly labelled .bin files with no header information
whatsoever.

The second type, the .jag file, is a Jaguar Server executable. These files
contain header information that tells you where to load and run the file's
executable code. Note that as of this writing (8/5/2005) that the GoodJag ROM
renaming tool by Cowering incorrectly renames Jaguar cartridge ROM dumps to
have a .jag extension (a better choice, and the one supported by Virtual
Jaguar, is .j64)--if you're trying to run a ROM image with a .jag extension on
VJ, it will misinterpret it as a Jaguar Server executable and likely fail to
run.

The third type, the .rom file, is an Alpine Board/ROM Image file. These files
have no header, but are known to load and run at $802000 in the Jaguar memory
space. Again, these are *different* from cartridge dumps since they load at a
higher address than a Jaguar cartridge.

The fourth type, the .bin file, is simply a Jaguar executable with no header.
Since these files contain no information about where they load and execute,
Virtual Jaguar does not support this file type. Go bug the author to release
either a file with proper headers or a file in Alpine ROM format. Virtual
Jaguar is not omniscient (yet)! ;)

The fifth type, the .elf file, is a Jaguar executable with ELF headers, with
or without DWARF information.

There is a sith type of file that is supported by Virtual Jaguar, the .j64
file, which is simply a 1, 2, or 4 Meg dump of a Jaguar cartridge ROM which
loads at $800000 in the Jaguar memory space.


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- What is Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt? -
----------------------------------

Virtual Jaguar is software dedicated to emulating the Atari Jaguar hardware on
a standard PC. The software was originally developed by David Raingeard of
Potato Emulation [http://potato.emu-france.com] and was released under the GPL
on 25 June 2003.

Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt is not just a port of the MS Visual C++/SDL sourcecode
but has also been extended and rewritten so that we can enjoy Atari Jaguar
emulation on every platform that has a GCC compiler and a port of Qt.

Currently Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt Rx compiles on WIN64 using msys2/MinGW64,
and Visual Studio 2015. Compiles also on cygwin64 but no tests have been done.
It has previously compiled on WIN32 using mingw, and several UN*X based systems
(BeOS, Linux, FreeBSD and MacOS). It may run on other
systems as well but we can not guarantee that.

The Rx version has been made specically to add a debugger support, but some
modifications have been done as well. The official contact email and name(s) are
not related in any way with this work.

The port was done by the SDLEMU crew (http://sdlemu.ngemu.com) and especially
by Niels Wagenaar and Carwin Jones. A major portion of the rewrite was done by
James Hammons. You may contact us by e-mail (sdlemu@ngemu.com) or leave a
message on the SDLEMU Official Forum (see the website). Patches and bugfixes
are particularly welcome! :)

More information about the incredible SDL libraries can be found at
http://www.libsdl.org. Thanks Sam--you rock! :)


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- Using Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt -
-------------------------------

Simply double click on the Virtual Jaguar icon or type ./virtualjaguar -h from
the command line. See the built in help (under Help|Contents) for more
information on how to use it. :-)


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- Finally -
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If you find bugs, enhance the code or simply have questions, drop us an e-mail
at sdlemu AT ngemu DOT com or drop a message on the SDLEMU Official Forum.

More information about this project (releases/WIP) can be found at the official
Virtual Jaguar website [http://www.icculus.org/virtualjaguar] and on the SDLEMU
website [http://sdlemu.ngemu.com].

We hope you enjoy the emulator and will use it wisely!

Thanks go to guys over at ngemu.com and #ngemu (EFNET). Thanks also to David
Raingeard of Potato Emulation who originally developed this emulator and
released the sources to the public. We couldn't have done it without you!

Special thanks go to everyone who submitted good, detailed bug reports,
sometimes with demonstration code(!); your help has helped to make Virtual
Jaguar better, more accurate, and more polished than it would be otherwise. We
really appreciate your help!

SDLEMU