Difference between revisions of "En:EP32 manual"
(New page: English version is just being translated from Hungarian, please be patient! =Introduction= The EP32 and the EP128emu Enterprise emulators exist for PC. EP32 is the wor...) |
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1. Using the emulator choose '''Hardware''' menu and '''load memory config''', then select any of the configurations differing from the ''original EP with tape'' (all of them emulate a machine with a floppy drive excepting this one). | 1. Using the emulator choose '''Hardware''' menu and '''load memory config''', then select any of the configurations differing from the ''original EP with tape'' (all of them emulate a machine with a floppy drive excepting this one). | ||
| − | 2. In '''File''' menu at '''configure disk drives''' you can | + | 2. In '''File''' menu at '''configure disk drives''' you can associate the PC floppy disk drive(s) to the emulated Enterprise drives. Instead of drive floppy image file can be set as well. Using a floppy image is faster but you cannot save to it (it's "write protected"). |
| − | + | Emulating a machine with floppy drive, you have first to copy the files of the program desired to the floppy disk, of course. '''It's essential that before starting emulation of a machine with floppy drive all the Windows programs be closed that may use the floppy drive. Even in the Explorer the floppy content should not be open. Run the emulator only after closing the programs mentioned!''' Otherwise the emulator won't read the floppy at all. | |
| − | + | Saving files this way, they will appear on the floppy disk. If you want to check from Windows Explorer what the emulator saved to the floppy disk, you have first to close the emulator, otherwise Windows won't detect the new files on the floppy disk. The emulator entirely blocks floppy drive so we can't access it meanwhile with another software. | |
| − | + | On how to use floppy drive you can read in the [http://www.ep128.hu/Ep_Konyv/Exdos.htm Enterprise EXDOS felhasználói kézikönyv]. (Sorry, Hungarian only.) | |
| − | |||
==Using a floppy image== | ==Using a floppy image== | ||
Revision as of 11:17, 9 February 2010
English version is just being translated from Hungarian, please be patient!
Contents
Introduction
The EP32 and the EP128emu Enterprise emulators exist for PC. EP32 is the work of Béla Vincze (Egzo) and can be run only in Windows operating systems. It has somehow more modest capabilities than EP128Emu but it is easy to configure and anyone can learn using it easily. It can be downloaded here: http://web.axelero.hu/egzo/ep/ep32-120.zip After downloading it doesn't need to be installed, it can be run at once.
Some essential information
After starting the emulator, first an emulated memory-test of some seconds can be seen (like in the real Enterprise computers) and an ENTERPRISE inscription appears flashing in different colours. You can go on by pressing any key and you enter the BASIC as default where basic commands can be given. You can read about these commands in the Enterprise Programming Guide (available here in PDF format: http://ep.homeserver.hu/PDF/Enterprise_Programming_Guide.pdf ).
Loading Enterprise programs into the emulator
Beginners mostly would like to try the programs downloaded from the net. The easiest way to do this is to emulate an Enterprise computer with a cassette tape recorder.
Emulation of a machine with a cassette tape recorder
In the beginning the programmes could be loaded into the Enterprise using a tape recorder, the floppy disk and drive spreaded only later. When emulating a machine with cassette tape recorder the emulator reads files from the hard drive of PC. To emulate a machine with cassette tape recorder you have to do the following:
1. Copy the program to be tried into a certain directory, with all its files of course. (Having downloaded a rar or zip file it has to be unpacked first.)
2. Using the emulator choose Hardware menu and load memory config then choose original EP with tape. (Thus you can emulate an Enterprise with a single cassette tape recorder.)
3. In the File menu choose Select directory for tape and point the directory where the desired files have beed copied previously into (see the first step here).
Attention! Putting the different files of the desired program into sub-directories within the chosen directory, the emulator cannot load the program!Copy all the files into this directory and don't create another directory within it with this purpose.
Thus if you give the START command (in BASIC) (or press 1 on numeric keyboard) after starting the emulator, a window will appear where you can select the file you want to load. When loading a game this file should be one with COM extension because it is either a stand-alone program or a loader which loads e.g. PRG, SCR files. These last mentioned file types cannot be run in themselves. (Do not be confused by the fact that PC DOS programs also have the extension COM.)
Besides the COM files you can directly load files with TRN (game with eternal life), BAS (basic programs) and EXT (system extension) extensions.
Emulating a machine with cassette tape recorder saving files is unfortunately not possible. So do not write programs this way because you cannot save them! Furthermore the programmes which run only with a machine with floppy drive do not work this way (there are only a few programs like that). If you want to save using the emulator (e.g. a basic program) you have to emulate a machine with floppy drive because the emulator cannot save files into the PC's hard drive (into "cassette tape"), files can be saved only to a floppy disk.
Emulation of a machine with a floppy drive
You have to have a floppy drive in your PC even if it is a more and more out-of-fashion device. To emulate a machine with a floppy drive you have to do the following:
1. Using the emulator choose Hardware menu and load memory config, then select any of the configurations differing from the original EP with tape (all of them emulate a machine with a floppy drive excepting this one).
2. In File menu at configure disk drives you can associate the PC floppy disk drive(s) to the emulated Enterprise drives. Instead of drive floppy image file can be set as well. Using a floppy image is faster but you cannot save to it (it's "write protected").
Emulating a machine with floppy drive, you have first to copy the files of the program desired to the floppy disk, of course. It's essential that before starting emulation of a machine with floppy drive all the Windows programs be closed that may use the floppy drive. Even in the Explorer the floppy content should not be open. Run the emulator only after closing the programs mentioned! Otherwise the emulator won't read the floppy at all.
Saving files this way, they will appear on the floppy disk. If you want to check from Windows Explorer what the emulator saved to the floppy disk, you have first to close the emulator, otherwise Windows won't detect the new files on the floppy disk. The emulator entirely blocks floppy drive so we can't access it meanwhile with another software.
On how to use floppy drive you can read in the Enterprise EXDOS felhasználói kézikönyv. (Sorry, Hungarian only.)
Using a floppy image
Floppy image készítéséhez a DOS alatt működő CPDRead programra van szükségünk (Innen letölthető).
Az emulátorban a File menüben a configure disk drives menüpontot választva beállíthatjuk, hogy milyen betűjelű meghajtóként szeretnénk az image fájlt használni. A drive a:, drive b:, drive c:, drive d: valamelyike alatt jelöljük be az use disk image-t, és az insert gombbal keressünk rá az elmentett image fájlra! A remove gombbal eltávolíthatjuk virtuális meghajtónkból az image fájlt.
Ismét megjegyeznénk, hogy ha floppy image fájlt használunk, nincs lehetőségünk elmenteni az emulátorral a fájlokon végzett módosításainkat az image fájlba.
