[Atari] Steem SSE 3.5

Insects in space (Hewson Consultants Ltd., 1991)

Steem V.3.5, 28/02/2013

• Option 'Wake-up state' his is a very technical point, the ST's processor and the video circuit share the RAM bus. Wake-up state means which chip gets the first cycles
each time. It is determined somewhat randomly (depending on temperature for example) at power-on on a true ST. It's an option in Steem, which you can change live (no need to reset). Because the option is implemented more generally now (v3.5), and implies CPU timings, hence it's risky, it is possible to bypass this new feature. Wake-up state means something different for the STE, but we don't know enough yet. It only slightly changes the timing of palette changes. In STF mode, wake up state 2 will break many fullscreens. It is a useful option for demos: Death of the Left Border, Omega, Overscan Demos, Forest, Nostalgia, etc.
• IPF support (disk format of images saved by Kryoflux hardware) You need CAPSimg.dll in Steem's directory. It's available here: http://www.softpres.org/download To use this feature, just run an IPF disk. We use the low-level WD1772 included in the DLL, so it's a matter of integrating emulations, a bit like for the HD6301 emulation. The real work was done by István Fábián and The Software Preservation Society. IPF support is as good as the emulator. Some features are not implemented yet (write command). Windows-only.
• Record to AVI To use this feature, you need to assign a shortcut key combination (eg right control + V), then use this shortcut to start & stop recording (toggle) The video will be saved in Steem's directory as 'SteemVideo.avi', erasing the previous file if necessary. If the MPG4 codec is in your system, it will be used, if not the MSVC codec will be used. Neither video nor sound, nor sync are great. Sound isn't compressed. Apparently some computers record the full screen! No idea why. Certainly there's room for improvement. We don't use DirectShow yet (would need to install SDK). Windows-only.
• RAR archive support. Using the free Unrar.dll plugin by RAR labs. You need to have this DLL in Steem folder or in any system path, just like unzip32.dll.
• Save screenshot as NEO Hopefully with the correct palette. Some programs change it all the time, so it's better to take the screenshots while the emulation is running, or you could a black screenshot. Even so, I made this for the demo included with Steem SSE 3.5. Note that Steem can also use 'FreeImage' library for various formats (PNG etc).

Other Improvements in v3.5

• Red LED when using Pasti
• indicate Pasti is in charge on disk manager
• nuked WinSTon import, it's outdated
• nuked update process
• F12 as shortcut will do nothing
• 6301 emu debug: more accurate clock in 'Captain Blood'
• grey out hd6301 if unavailable
• basic test before going fullscreen
• Match TOS with ST type: refresh in TOS list, now working!
• STF must crash on reading Microwire or STE paddles (Petari)
• ADD.L & ADDA.L timing, more generally instructions using -(An) addressing
• mode
• Don't crash at emu video panic
• Disk drive slow mode: bug fixes and improvements (Disk manager option "Accurate Disk Access Times")

Internal

• interrupt_depth & Line F (debug info)
• DLL "delay loading"
• better debug system
• removed "MMU confused" RAM access emulation
• Wake up state now part of MMU block & object, and handled more generally. All shifter trick parameters changed for wake-up state 2!
• CPU prefetch timings have been corrected. At the same time the long- standing and unknown hack in 'read SDP' (shifter counter) has been removed. This is a huge change for the better, but due to probably some misplaced (by me) macros, this could break some programs for a while. Those probable remaining bugs will be ironed out and after that Steem will be quite there for CPU timings & prefetch emulation.

Programs working better in Steem

• If you don't get it working read hints here below. Maybe you should (un)check option 'Hacks' or select anohter ST type or TOS, etc.

Games

• Titan STF mode (thx to Petari) (3.5)
• Ultimate Arena STF (thx Petari) (3.5)