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2 | Virtual Jaguar v2.1.3 Rx GCC/Qt release README | |
3 | ---------------------------------------------- | |
4 | ||
5 | -------------- | |
6 | - DISCLAIMER - | |
7 | -------------- | |
8 | ||
9 | Or, "O liability, I do disclaim thee!" | |
10 | ||
11 | Ported by SDLEMU (Niels Wagenaar & Carwin Jones) and is based upon the | |
12 | original work by David Raingeard of Potato Emulation. For requirements please | |
13 | consult the INSTALL file for more information about supported OS's and | |
14 | software requirements. | |
15 | ||
16 | The use of this software is entirely at your own risk. While it won't rape | |
17 | your dog, it might do other nasty things. We can't be held responsible for | |
18 | damage done to your hardware and/or software. You may only use the ROM images | |
19 | if you own the cartridges itself. The use of commercial ROMs without owning the | |
20 | original cartridge is illegal in most countries and could result in fines | |
21 | and/or legal actions. | |
22 | ||
23 | The products, trademarks and/or brands used in these documents and/or | |
24 | sourcecode are owned by their respective companies and/or successors in | |
25 | interest. | |
26 | ||
27 | This software is released under the GPL v3 or later. For more information, read | |
28 | the GPLv3 file. | |
29 | ||
30 | ||
31 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
32 | - IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT JAGUAR FILE FORMATS--READ THIS OR ELSE! - | |
33 | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | |
34 | ||
35 | There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the various file formats that | |
36 | Jaguar programs come in, and a lot of this confusion seem to come from | |
37 | Cowering's GoodJag renaming tool. Note that it simply gets some files wrong, | |
38 | and it also incorrectly renames cartridge images with an extension that | |
39 | belongs to an already established extension (.jag is a Jaguar Server | |
40 | executable--read on). To clarify, there are basically fith major types of | |
41 | Jaguar binary images that are NOT cartridge images: | |
42 | ||
43 | .abs | |
44 | .jag | |
45 | .rom | |
46 | .bin | |
c303e81c | 47 | .elf |
cf76e892 JPM |
48 | |
49 | The first type, the .abs file, is a DRI/Alcyon format absolute location | |
50 | executable. These come in two different flavors and contain load and run | |
51 | addresses in their headers. Note that some files which have an .abs extension | |
52 | are really incorrectly labelled .bin files with no header information | |
53 | whatsoever. | |
54 | ||
55 | The second type, the .jag file, is a Jaguar Server executable. These files | |
56 | contain header information that tells you where to load and run the file's | |
57 | executable code. Note that as of this writing (8/5/2005) that the GoodJag ROM | |
58 | renaming tool by Cowering incorrectly renames Jaguar cartridge ROM dumps to | |
59 | have a .jag extension (a better choice, and the one supported by Virtual | |
60 | Jaguar, is .j64)--if you're trying to run a ROM image with a .jag extension on | |
61 | VJ, it will misinterpret it as a Jaguar Server executable and likely fail to | |
62 | run. | |
63 | ||
64 | The third type, the .rom file, is an Alpine Board/ROM Image file. These files | |
65 | have no header, but are known to load and run at $802000 in the Jaguar memory | |
66 | space. Again, these are *different* from cartridge dumps since they load at a | |
67 | higher address than a Jaguar cartridge. | |
68 | ||
69 | The fourth type, the .bin file, is simply a Jaguar executable with no header. | |
70 | Since these files contain no information about where they load and execute, | |
71 | Virtual Jaguar does not support this file type. Go bug the author to release | |
72 | either a file with proper headers or a file in Alpine ROM format. Virtual | |
73 | Jaguar is not omniscient (yet)! ;) | |
74 | ||
75 | The fifth type, the .elf file, is a Jaguar executable with ELF headers, with | |
76 | or without DWARF information. | |
77 | ||
78 | There is a sith type of file that is supported by Virtual Jaguar, the .j64 | |
79 | file, which is simply a 1, 2, or 4 Meg dump of a Jaguar cartridge ROM which | |
80 | loads at $800000 in the Jaguar memory space. | |
81 | ||
82 | ||
83 | ---------------------------------- | |
84 | - What is Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt? - | |
85 | ---------------------------------- | |
86 | ||
87 | Virtual Jaguar is software dedicated to emulating the Atari Jaguar hardware on | |
88 | a standard PC. The software was originally developed by David Raingeard of | |
89 | Potato Emulation [http://potato.emu-france.com] and was released under the GPL | |
90 | on 25 June 2003. | |
91 | ||
92 | Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt is not just a port of the MS Visual C++/SDL sourcecode | |
93 | but has also been extended and rewritten so that we can enjoy Atari Jaguar | |
94 | emulation on every platform that has a GCC compiler and a port of Qt. | |
95 | ||
96 | Currently Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt Rx compiles on WIN64 using msys2/MinGW64, | |
97 | and Visual Studio 2015. Compiles also on cygwin64 but no tests have been done. | |
98 | It has previously compiled on WIN32 using mingw, and several UN*X based systems | |
99 | (BeOS, Linux, FreeBSD and MacOS). It may run on other | |
100 | systems as well but we can not guarantee that. | |
101 | ||
102 | The Rx version has been made specically to add a debugger support, but some | |
103 | modifications have been done as well. The official contact email and name(s) are | |
104 | not related in any way with this work. | |
105 | ||
106 | The port was done by the SDLEMU crew (http://sdlemu.ngemu.com) and especially | |
107 | by Niels Wagenaar and Carwin Jones. A major portion of the rewrite was done by | |
108 | James Hammons. You may contact us by e-mail (sdlemu@ngemu.com) or leave a | |
109 | message on the SDLEMU Official Forum (see the website). Patches and bugfixes | |
110 | are particularly welcome! :) | |
111 | ||
112 | More information about the incredible SDL libraries can be found at | |
113 | http://www.libsdl.org. Thanks Sam--you rock! :) | |
114 | ||
115 | ||
116 | ------------------------------- | |
117 | - Using Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt - | |
118 | ------------------------------- | |
119 | ||
120 | Simply double click on the Virtual Jaguar icon or type ./virtualjaguar -h from | |
121 | the command line. See the built in help (under Help|Contents) for more | |
122 | information on how to use it. :-) | |
123 | ||
124 | ||
125 | ----------- | |
126 | - Finally - | |
127 | ----------- | |
128 | ||
129 | If you find bugs, enhance the code or simply have questions, drop us an e-mail | |
130 | at sdlemu AT ngemu DOT com or drop a message on the SDLEMU Official Forum. | |
131 | ||
132 | More information about this project (releases/WIP) can be found at the official | |
133 | Virtual Jaguar website [http://www.icculus.org/virtualjaguar] and on the SDLEMU | |
134 | website [http://sdlemu.ngemu.com]. | |
135 | ||
136 | We hope you enjoy the emulator and will use it wisely! | |
137 | ||
138 | Thanks go to guys over at ngemu.com and #ngemu (EFNET). Thanks also to David | |
139 | Raingeard of Potato Emulation who originally developed this emulator and | |
140 | released the sources to the public. We couldn't have done it without you! | |
141 | ||
142 | Special thanks go to everyone who submitted good, detailed bug reports, | |
143 | sometimes with demonstration code(!); your help has helped to make Virtual | |
144 | Jaguar better, more accurate, and more polished than it would be otherwise. We | |
145 | really appreciate your help! | |
146 | ||
147 | SDLEMU |