Atari++ is an emulator of the Atari 8-bit
series computers - namely the Atari 400 and 800, the Atari 400XL, 800XL and
130XE, as well as the Atari 5200 game console.
(NOTE: Author no longer uses BeOS and therefore has no desire to
support or continue work on this project, this is merely here as a
tribute to all he has offered to the community, and for you to enjoy!)
Its emulation features are stunning:
* Cycle precise emulation; this includes correct emulation of
horizontal kernels and programs that modify chip registers within a
horizontal line. In a less technical language, software making use of
advanced displaying techniques will be emulated correctly.
* Emulation of an advanced 1050 disk drive including single, double and
enhanced density. The emulator not only understands .atr and .xfd
files, but comes with a mini-boot loader that allows you to boot from
binary load files (.exe and .com).
* Supports .gz compressed images, and .DCM disk images. No additional tools required to load these disks.
* Precise emulation of ANTIC and GTIA graphics, including undocumented
scrolling features, undocumented GTIA player/missile priorities and
collision detection, and some other less known GTIA features. Color
artifacting is also available.
* Precise emulaton of POKEY sound, including "Software Speech",
high-pass filters and POKEY hardware timer interrupts. An emulation of
the console speaker is also included.
* Precise emulation of the POKEY SIO (serial transfer) protocol,
including the Atari "sound effects" on disk loading and some lesser
known influences of serial transfer on the sound subsystem.
* Pokey stereo hack ("Gumby") included in the emulation.
* Emulates graphics output either thru X11, or the SDL library,
including a screen snapshot feature, saving images as PGM, BMP or PNG.
* Sound output is either emulated by the Open Sound System (OSS), the
ALSA system, the SDL library, or by recording the sound samples into a
WAV file in CD quality.
* Cylce-precise 6502 emulation, including "extra-instructions" that are
not documented in the 6502-manual, and also including all known
hardware-bugs of the 6502.
* Printer emulation thru standard LPR printer user interface.
* Joystick, paddle and lightpen emulation by keyboard or mouse, or by
standard analogue PC joysticks. A special home-made interface allows
the connection of Atari digital joysticks by an additional joystick
driver. Hence, you'll be able to play all your old games even with your
digital joysticks.
* Includes emulation of the Pokey POT reading mechanism.
* Saves and loads machine states to save games in the middle of the
game play, and allows to resume from that point later on.
* Includes emulation of a variety of cartridge types, including 5200 games cartridges and Oss supercarts.
* Effective emulation of 800XL/XE and cartridge bank-switching mechanisms.
* Emulation of the Atari 850 Interface box by the serial port of the host computer, including a full 850 driver "in ROM".
* Interfaces to "Hias'" AtariSIO driver, allowing you to connect real Atari hardware to the PC.
* Includes a Dos 2.xx compatible interface to the filing system of the emulator.
* Easy to use graphical user front-end for simple setup and
configuration, includes saving and loading of (human-readable)
configuration files. The user front-end also allows to setup details
like the player/missile collision setup to build "game-trainers" on
demand.
* Includes a built-in monitor allowing experts to debug Atari software easily.
* And the best: It is free.
NOTE: Quality FREE games are still being developed for this hardware!