| 1 | ---------------------------------------------- |
| 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 |
| 47 | .elf |
| 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 |