PAST-O-RAMA

Copyright (c) 2000 Pascal Bosquet


I) Introduction :
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Past-O-Rama is a free Windows9X/DirectX based emulator for the Sega SG1000 system. It requires at least DirectX 5.0

web page : http://www.system16.com/pastorama
mail : pastorama@hotmail.com

II) Hey, how does it works ?
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Nearly simply, start the emulator itself or, passing the name and path of a ROM to start up with.

Menu description :
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MAIN :
Load rom do i have to explain something ?
Free rom
Load state load the current state slot
Save state save the current state slot
Select slot select the state slot (0 to 9)
Options show options screen (paths,backdrop,...)
Quit quit the program

MACHINE :
Pause works like the Pause button present on the real SG1000
Reset does a hardware reset

VIDEO
Fullscreen toggle fullscreen (320x200x16) / windowed mode
Size x 1
Size x 2 scale the window (2x is default)
Size x 3
Speed limiter select the speed limiter (60fps or vsync)
Strech in fullscreen mode, strech the screen to the whole display area.

SOUND
Enable enable or not the sound
Rate select sound rate (11025,22050,44100 Hrz)

Keys :
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Now, Past-O-Rama emulate the 2 players joypad. The keys are still
not redifinable but there's support for both the keyboard and joystick :

LEFT CTRL or joystick1 B1 : BUTTON 1
LEFT SHIFT or joystick1 B2 : BUTTON 2
Up/Down/Left/Right : directional pad

NUM PAD ENTER or joystick2 B1 : BUTTON 1
NUM PAD + or joystick B2 : BUTTON 2
num pad 8/2/4/6 : directional pad

ALT-ENTER : toggle fullscreen/windowed mode
TAB : does a soft reset
F10 : Strech
F5 : Save the current state
F7 : Load the current state
SHIFT + 0..9 : select the save slot

III) Know issues :
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PAST-O-RAMA WILL ONLY RUNS IN 15/16 BPP !!!!!

The emulation is not perfect, but the compatibily is quite high. For the few roms that i've tried (+-40), i get only troubles with :

Rock'n Bolt ( sprites priority but playable )
Safari hunting ( crash )

After some test, it seems that the emu doesn't run on Windows NT the problem is related to the sound implementation. So if you want absolutly to play with it , you have to disable the sound in the ini file.For this, change this line in por.ini :

[sound]
enable=no

and the emu'll run ... i'll look to fix this in the future.

IV) Greetings :
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This emu'd never exists without the work from :
Zoop and all the people on S8-Dev board
Charles McDonald
Sean young
Marat Fayzullin
The Mame Team
Ricardo Bittencourt
Richard Mitton

Special thanks for helping me a lot :
Stephane Dallongeville
Dave
Neil Bradley
Atani
Franz

And a big thanks to Thierry Lescot / ShinobiZ
for testing and hosting Past-O-Rama.

V) History :
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v.0.02
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- code mainly rewritten (ddraw,dinput,dsound,program logic)
- added the load and save of multiple states
- Player two is emulated (keyboard and joypad)
- save states and roms paths are saved
- possibility to choose the sound rate (warning : game is reset)
- can enable or not the sound
- automatic detection of the RGB format (565 or 555)
- configuration is saved to an ini file
- added keyboard shortcuts (thanks to Stef)
- can use or not the backdrop color for the borders in fullscreen mode
- add on screen messages
- changed the speed limiter, now the emu runs really at about 60 fps
  This can give a great speed improvement on older video cards
- Title of the roms'll appears in the title bar
- some other things that i can not remember

v.0.01
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- initial release

VI) Legal :
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Past-O-Rama is Copyright (C) 2000 Pascal Bosquet / NeoZeed Sega, Sega SG1000 are trademarks of Sega Enterprises, Ltd. The author is neither affiliated with Sega in any way, nor endorses piracy of Sega products.

Windows,Windows98,Windows NT,Windows 2000 and DirectX are trademarks of Microsoft corp.

Past-O-Rama is freeware, and you can distribute it freely, so long as it is not modified, no copyrighted ROMs are packaged with the program, and nothing is charged for distribution except for the media.

You use this software at your own risk, the author is not responsible for any loss or damage resulting from the use of this software. If you do not agree with these terms do not use this software.

RAZE Z80 core Copyright (C) Richard Mitton All rights reserved.