                         ******* ColEm-DOS *******
                    The Portable ColecoVision Emulator
                        version 1.0a (10/27/1998)
                            by Marat Fayzullin
              MSDOS port and additional features by Firebug

                   WWW: http://www.komkon.org/fms/ColEm/
               WWW (DOS): http://members.xoom.com/ColEmDos/
                  WWW (Mac): http://emulation.net/coleco/



                           * IN THIS DOCUMENT *

                      NEW IN THIS VERSION
                      INTRODUCTION
                      BUTTONS
                      COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
                      FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS



                        * NEW IN THIS VERSION *

* Stupid joystick initialization bug fixed (should fix slowdown on some systems)



                           * INTRODUCTION *

  ColEm is a portable emulator of the old ColecoVision videogame console
written in C. You can always get the latest ColEm MSDOS version from

                   http://members.xoom.com/ColEmDos/

  Versions of ColEm for Unix/X, Amiga, and other systems, and related
files, are available from Marat's official ColEm support site at

                   http://www.komkon.org/fms/ColEm/

  ColEm for Macintosh is available as shareware from John Stiles at

                   http://emulation.net/coleco/



                             * BUTTONS *

  [LALT]     - FIRE-A button
  [LCONTROL] - FIRE-B button
  [[]        - SuperAction FIRE-C button
  []]        - SuperAction FIRE-D button
  [0]-[9]    - Digit buttons
  [-]        - [#] button
  [=]        - [.] button
  [ESC]      - Quit emulation
  [F1]       - Decrease sound volume
  [F2]       - Increase sound volume
  [F3]       - Toggle FIRE-A autofire on/off
  [F4]       - Toggle FIRE-B autofire on/off
  [F5]       - Instantly save game state
  [F6]       - Turn soundtrack log on/off
  [F7]       - Instantly restore game state
  [F8]       - Toggle all sound on/off
  [F9]-[F12] - Toggle sound channels on/off
  [SHIFT] and [CAPSLOCK] switch between joypads




                        * COMMAND LINE OPTIONS *

  -verbose <level>    - Select debugging messages [5]
                        0  - Silent      1 - Startup messages
                        2  - VDP         4 - Illegal Z80 ops
                        16 - Sound
                        NOTE: If you want to print the VDP or sound
                        data, you should redirect the output to
                        a file to prevent flooding the screen.
  -hperiod <period>   - Number of CPU cycles per HBlank [215]
  -vperiod <period>   - Number of CPU cycles per VBlank [60000]
  -uperiod <period>   - Number of VBlanks per screen update [2]
  -help               - Print this help page
  -autoa/-noautoa     - Autofire/No autofire for button A [-noautoa]
  -autob/-noautob     - Autofire/No autofire for button B [-noautob]
  -logsnd <filename>  - Write soundtrack to a file [LOG.MID]
  -sync/-nosync       - Sync/Don't sync machine interrupts to timer [-nosync]
  -192/-200           - Use/Don't use non-standard 256x192 mode [-200]
  -sound/-nosound     - Emulate/don't emulate sound [-sound]
  -volume <level>     - Set volume level. Acceptable levels are from 0
                        (silence) to 250 (loudest). [200]
  -joy/-nojoy         - Use/Don't use PC joystick for player 1 [-joy]
  -gravis/-nogravis   - Remap/Don't remap buttons for Gravis Gamepad [-nogravis]



                     * FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS *

* I WANNA PLAY GAMES!!!! WHERE DO I GET GAMES???????
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  I do not know. I can't give you any due to both legal and moral reasons.
Please, do not mail me asking for games. I will delete your mail right
away, and you won't get an answer.

* How do I copy games from cartridges to a computer?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  You can use a special device called cartridge copier. Pascal Felber has
made such a copier. Its schematics and software are available at

                http://lsewww.epfl.ch/~felber/IO-56/
  
  You can also buy this copier from Pascal, either in parts, or as a  
pre-built kit.

* Why is ColEm so slow on my PC?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Because your machine is too slow to run it. Experience shows that you
need at least a 486DX/33 machine with fast video to run this emulator at a
reasonable speed. Following are the ways to speeds thing up: 
     
  a) Increase UPeriod. The picture gets more jerky this way, but the
     program become faster.

  b) Decrease VPeriod. While it may prevent some games from working,
     others will run faster.

* ColEm is too fast on my machine! How do I slow it down?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Decrease UPeriod to 1. The emulation will become slower, but smoother.
You can also use the -sync option, which should keep the emulation speed to
a constant rate.

* ColEm starts, but then it exits immediately.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  This may happen because of following problems:

  a) Check if you have the COLECO.ROM file in the current directory. This
     ROM contains ColecoVision startup code and BIOS. It must be 8192
     bytes long. ColEm won't run without it.

  b) Check your cartridge ROM image size: it must be a multiple of 8192.
     Otherwise, your ROM is most likely corrupted.

  c) Look at the cartridge ROM image in a hex editor: the first two bytes
     must be AAh 55h or 55h AAh.

* My favorite game doesn't work on ColEm. What do I do?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  There may be several reasons why a game has problems running on ColEm
or does not run at all:

  a) If the game hangs, it may be because the VPeriod is too small.
     Increase the VPeriod and see what happens.

  b) The game may require some exotic piece of equipment, such as a
     light gun. Not all ColecoVision addons are supported by ColEm.

  c) ColEm may not currently run this game. Not all games are supported at
     this moment. Don't expect 100% compatibility with real hardware.

* Is it legal to spread cartridge ROMs?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  No. Few people seem to care though, mainly because there is no profit to
be made on these ROMs any longer. Nevertheless, be aware of the fact that
by using commercial software you haven't bought, you are technically performing
an act of copyright infringement. Many ColecoVision games belong to a company
called Telegames now, which doesn't take spreading their ROM images lightly.

* Do I need to unpack GZIPped ROM images to run them on ColEm?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  No, unless your copy of ColEm has been compiled without #define ZLIB. 
The MSDOS distribution was compiled with ZLIB and allows transparent handling
of these files.

* How do I get the ColEm source code?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  I'm sorry, but on request of Marat Fayzullin, the DOS-based source code is not
available. The Unix/X portable source is at Marat's official ColEm page.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firebug (firebug@penis.com)
