Nice one! Absolutely loving this release so far. The new machines and cards are a treat. I only wish I could track down a copy of the Mach64GX BIOS! Google's not been any help. If anyone has any leads, please PM me.

Also, a heads up for Sarah Walker on some minor oversights/glitches with the release version:

- Folders for the sis496 and 430vx have not been created within the "roms" directory. It was trivial to create them myself, but a user who wasn't familiar with the source code would be lost, not knowing exactly how the folders should be titled.

- When I launched PCem with ROMs in place for the sis496, 430vx, and s3_764, and no other roms but those three, it exited to desktop immediately after the "configured romset not found" dialog. The log file simply read "DEAD". There was no way to use the program at all until I added the ibmpc rom. Then, I still got "configured romset not found" (for video, I imagine), but the program didn't exit.

- All video cards are showing up as options in the video config, even though I don't have the roms for any of them except s3_764. Obviously if I select any of the other boards, the emulated machine simply dies immediately.

- Not a bug, but while I'm at it, I'd like to mention that it would be nice to be able to give the emulated system 24 MB of RAM - it was a common amount for a while, including in two of my PCs, and it'd be fun to be able to accurately reflect that. 😀 Actually, I see that it *is* possible by editing the .cfg file, so it would be convenient to be able to use the in-program options to make such a setting as well.

- On a related note, another bug: if the user manually types in a memory amount instead of using the drop-down list, PCem crashes to desktop as soon as it attempts to reset the emulated system. This happens whether or not " MB" is included after the number, and it happens whether or not the number chosen is one of the legitimate options. Furthermore, even when PCem is relaunched, it still crashes immediately, because the .cfg file is corrupted (mem_size is set to 0). The .cfg must be deleted or manually fixed to use PCem again. Considering many users will intuitively want to type a number into the memory field rather than use the drop down list, this of course needs to be addressed one way or another. My vote would be for allowing any integer number of MB up to the maximum, simply by typing it into the box.

or maybe a bunch of individual memory slot comboboxes with a crapload list of modules that have varying speeds 😀

The emulator of my dreams actually would have exactly that 😉 Maybe someday...

ecksemmess wrote:

Nice one! Absolutely loving this release so far. The new machines and cards are a treat. I only wish I could track down a copy of the Mach64GX BIOS! Google's not been any help. If anyone has any leads, please PM me.

The VGA museum had a few matching bios files, I think this is the one:
http://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/component … 1-ati-mach-64gx

And of course, Sarah, thanks for your amazing work on PCem past year, up to v0.8 (or v8?). much appreciated!

That does appear to be the one, gerwin - thanks!

One other bug, very minor but very pesky: Direct3D Fullscreen doesn't erase the host's mouse pointer. At higher resolutions this can be a problem because an entire character can be obscured by the pointer, which isn't movable (nor should it be). Should be simple enough to blank it out - Direct Draw fullscreen already does this properly.

Well, when using the virtual ATI Mach64, PCem beeps too fast.
Can you please fix that bug, SarahWalker?

SarahWalker wrote:

PCem v8 is now available.

FYI, gusmax is a gus with wss compatible dac on a different port. Might be able to get away with just setting the ultra16 environment var to the wss port, but if there are any hard coded programs, make the wss dac available on port 32c in the code. The biggest draw for me is the enhanced sbos for the gusmax, maxsbos, of course, need nmi and the gus nmi handling emulated.

Hi,
I found a problem in V0.8. (And in V0.7, too.)
While playing "Pitstop 2" (A PC-booter game), I should hold the cursor keys to control my car.
But if I hold them a while, they will automatic "held" until I press the "held" key again.
Please have a look into this. Thanks a lot. 😀
BTW, does Hercules mode have green or amber color to be selected ?

coolhaken wrote:

Hi, I found a problem in V0.8. (And in V0.7, too.) While playing "Pitstop 2" (A PC-booter game), I should hold the cursor keys t […]
Show full quote

Hi,
I found a problem in V0.8. (And in V0.7, too.)
While playing "Pitstop 2" (A PC-booter game), I should hold the cursor keys to control my car.
But if I hold them a while, they will automatic "held" until I press the "held" key again.
Please have a look into this. Thanks a lot. 😀
BTW, does Hercules mode have green or amber color to be selected ?

Green and amber options for MDA/Hercules/CGA have already been suggested, and hopefully will make it onto the list of possible additions for PCem v9, v10 etc.

Sorry for asking a noob question: where can I get dells200 and acer386 rom files?

Hi everyone. I'm also missing some roms.
I'm specially interested in trident 9440AGi bios, there are several versions of this chip and i can't find it anywhere.
I've downloaded several roms for sis 496/497 but i don't know the board model. Diamond stealth 32 bios would also be nice to have.
@SarahWalker: i find your emulator very exciting 😀 , could you please upload some missing bioses to your webpage? Thanks in advance.

Be aware that BIOS files may have licencing issues, so I don't expect her to host the whole lot. To do it by the book you need to possess the actual hardware and make your own ROM backups from that.

And for what it is worth, I don't think it matters much:

-Like a 486 ISA/VLB Bios can use PCI graphics anyways.
-My Doom 1 benchmarks show no FPS gain using different video cards. Just that bootup speed and mode switching speed is faster on the older ISA cards.
-In windows 9x a few videocards may have some acceleration. But since Doom on DOS is not that fluent with sound+midi enabled (on Ivy Bridge i3 CPU) I am not expecting a smooth experience with windows loaded. PS. Doom 1: Without sound and midi I get a smooth 40.7 FPS in 486 DX4 100 mode.

Edit: the benchmarks may be misleading, I get the exact same FPS value on a slower system. Possible of course, but it appears to me the FPS is noticably slower. As if the game does not detect time or drawn frames fairly.

[edit: probably should have paid attention to the 0..100% indicator in the title bar....]

I've downloaded the trident bios from vga museum anyway. I still need to know the sis 496/497 mobo model at least.

It would be great if someone could link (as to not 'host') all the BIOS files that PCEM supports. It would nice to have a perfectly working collection.

Fantastic emulator, fantastic release, thanks a lot!

I'm not familiar with the rules of this forum, but if allowed, I have the mediafire link ready for you guys with all the missing video and system ROMs, except for the AWE32, Dell System 200 and Acermate 386SX/25N. Also updated the AT-XT IDE boot ROM to Beta 3.

Every system boot ok, except for the following issues:

Stuck/error booting, so impossible to test:
Amstrad PC3086: Error: Faulty direct Memory Access Controller
Tandy 1000: Memory size = 640k

Ramon

Here's an update on that bug with the host's mouse pointer remaining visible after switching to fullscreen (Direct3D mode only). I was messing around, and I found that if I make the host mouse pointer disappear before switching to fullscreen (i.e. click within the window to capture the mouse and then switch to fullscreen using Alt+S -> V -> F on the keyboard), it stays invisible in fullscreen as expected, but if I enter fullscreen without first capturing the mouse, the pointer remains visible. Shortly after this, inexplicably, the pointer started behaving properly in fullscreen no matter whether I enter it with the mouse captured or uncaptured. I can't imagine how I could have possibly "fixed" this just by randomly trying different things, but maybe it was some peculiarity of my host machine the whole time. There is still one reliable way to make the mouse pointer behave improperly: use D3D, enter fullscreen and then press Ctrl+Alt+Del to bring up the host's user menu. After returning to PCem, the mouse pointer refuses to go invisible when captured, even in windowed mode. This problem persists until PCem is restarted, even if the user switches back to DirectDraw mode. The sole exception is DirectDraw fullscreen, where I assume some special case handling was added to blank out the host mouse a different way. Can anyone repro at least that much?

roytam1 wrote:

Sorry for asking a noob question: where can I get dells200 and acer386 rom files?

You can't, unfortunately - despite being listed in the Readme and website, those two systems aren't actually supported by PCem in any public-facing sense. Sarah Walker actually dumped those ROMs from her own hardware, and is almost certainly the only person in modern history to have done so, so your only option would be to ask her very nicely to send you her personal copies of those particular files. If you do manage to get your hands on them, PM me! I'd love to see those systems in action, too.

ecksemmess wrote:

roytam1 wrote:

Sorry for asking a noob question: where can I get dells200 and acer386 rom files?

You can't, unfortunately - despite being listed in the Readme and website, those two systems aren't actually supported by PCem in any public-facing sense. Sarah Walker actually dumped those ROMs from her own hardware, and is almost certainly the only person in modern history to have done so, so your only option would be to ask her very nicely to send you her personal copies of those particular files. If you do manage to get your hands on them, PM me! I'd love to see those systems in action, too.

alright.

BTW I played around the BIOSes floating around the world, some screen shot are posted here.

Phoenix 386 BIOS

Setup

Quadtel 286 BIOS

It doesn't boot showing error code besides showing this slash screen

Award BIOS

4.50 in text only mode, AMI 386/486 mode doesn't play well with Award BIOSes.

4.50 in classic verbose mode

Award 286 BIOS 3.11

Award 286 BIOS 3.11 setup screen

ACER BIOS v2.0 for ALI1429G

setup screen

POST

AMI 386 BIOS with old extended setup screen