plus4emu

plus4emu is an open source, portable emulator of the Commodore 264 family of computers (C16, C116, and Plus/4), written in C++, and supporting Windows and POSIX platforms (32 bit Windows, 32 and 64 bit Linux, and MacOS X have been tested). It implements accurate, high quality hardware emulation, however, the system requirements are higher than that of most other emulators.

Features

Screenshots
Download (the latest version is 1.2.9.2)
Installation

Usage

News

plus4emu 1.2.9.1 has been released (25 Sep 2008)

some improvements and optimizations in the p4fliconv and compress utilities
a few minor bugs have been fixed

plus4emu 1.2.9 release (27 Aug 2008)

added a C interface that allows using the emulator as a shared library in other programs; the library and header file can be found in the 'plus4lib' subdirectory of the binary packages, and a simple example program with compile instructions is also included
implemented IEC level MPS-801 printer emulation, in addition to the previously existing hardware level MPS-802 emulation
added a new button to the debugger GUI that makes it possible to break only when a branch is taken (i.e. the opposite of 'Step over')
more accurate PAL emulation in OpenGL mode when the display quality is set to 3
LED display is now also implemented for IEC level drive emulation
the ROM images required by the emulator are included with the binary packages, and no longer need to be downloaded separately
fixed a bug in the 'Step over' function of the debugger
fixed/improved support for D64 error information; this allows some copy protected games that previously did not work to load correctly
the 'compress' utility has two new compression methods, some new options, and the original method is 3-5 times faster now while producing identical files; also, compression support in 'p4fliconv' is improved somewhat
various minor bug fixes, optimizations, and other improvements

plus4emu 1.2.8.1 is released (22 Jul 2008)

fixed file overwrite (@) bug in IEC level drive emulation

plus4emu 1.2.8 has been released (21 Jul 2008)

new option for saving the printer output to a text file, either as the raw characters sent to the printer, or converted to ASCII
slightly improved compression when saving the printer output in TGA format
added Windows icons from the Plus/4 icon set by SVS
when using the mouse to set the cursor position, the color of the character under the cursor is now saved, set, and restored correctly
minor utility and Windows installer improvements and fixes
some optimizations in software video mode, and serial floppy drive and printer emulation

plus4emu 1.2.7 release (06 Jul 2008)

added support for using the mouse to change the cursor position in the emulated machine, and copying text to and pasting from the clipboard; the following functions are available:
- left click: sets the cursor position
- right click: sets the cursor position, and copies the selected word to the clipboard
- ctrl + right click: sets the cursor position, and copies text from the selected line to the clipboard
- shift + right click: copies text from the whole screen to the clipboard without changing the cursor position
- middle click: sets the cursor position, and pastes text from the clipboard
- shift + middle click: pastes text from the clipboard without changing the cursor position
Note that these are disabled when a display mode that hides the menu bar and the mouse cursor is selected, or light pen emulation - which also uses the mouse - is enabled.
new command line option (-keybuf) for typing text of any length at startup; the text can also be read from a file
added machine configuration option to control the SID output volume; this also affects the sound recorded to AVI files
increased TED audio output level relative to the default SID output level, for better accuracy in programs that use both types of sound at the same time
minor sound emulation fixes
the process priority of the emulator can be changed from the GUI (currently, this is only implemented on Windows)
some utility improvements:
- compress has more options now, and is optimized somewhat for slightly better efficiency and speed
- p4fliconv automatically detects the use of the C64 palette in GIF files and enables pixel exact reading mode, and there is a new experimental hires conversion algorithm as well
minor optimizations
in OpenGL video mode, the vertical interlace effect is now also displayed at quality 1 and 2, and quality 2 uses 32-bit textures for improved color accuracy at the expense of being somewhat slower (previously, both interlace and 32-bit textures were enabled only at quality 3)
fixed bug that prevented the emulator display from being correctly redrawn when damaged on Windows in software video mode or OpenGL with the quality set to 0
a few Linux compile and link errors have been fixed

plus4emu 1.2.6.1: minor bugfix-only update (25 May 2008)

fixed bug in changing the type of a floppy drive with no image file selected
fixed link errors when building from source code on Linux

plus4emu 1.2.6 has been released (23 May 2008)

implemented IEC level floppy drive emulation; this allows access to a directory on the PC filesystem, and supports reading and writing .prg, .p00, .s00, .u00, and .r00 files, and some commonly used CBM DOS commands
the debugger window now displays the current state of TED registers
on Windows and MacOS X the native file selection dialog is used instead of the FLTK one; also, the last PRG and screenshot file selected is remembered by the dialogs
various improvements have been made to the utilities
changed the TED luminance table to (hopefully) match the colors of the real machine more accurately
when recording video to AVI files in RLE8 format, some TV emulation color effects are now also captured using additional palette colors
D64 files with any number of tracks from 35 to 42 are supported
new/improved GUI keyboard shortcuts
the old file I/O hack has been removed, since its functionality is now replaced by the IEC level drive emulation
added Gtk+ GUI theme (enabled with '-colorscheme 3' command line option)
some minor bugs have been fixed

plus4emu 1.2.5.2 release (10 Feb 2008)

fixed some minor TED emulation bugs

plus4emu 1.2.5.1 is released (3 Feb 2008)

the full speed mode (Alt+W) now restores the original speed setting when turned off
added a "go to program counter" button to the disassembler in the debugger
some new utilities have been added
a few minor bugs have been fixed

plus4emu 1.2.5 has been released (9 Dec 2007)

implemented Lua scripting in the debugger; this makes it possible to write complex rules for breakpoints, but can have other uses as well, since the script can read and write memory and CPU registers, in addition to having access to the standard Lua library functions
changed the debugger window layout so that there is a larger window with only two tabs
the disassembly view in the debugger now allows for paging backward, and the disassembly and memory dump displays can also be scrolled with the mouse wheel
made the serial bus delay for the 1541 high timing accuracy mode adjustable; while the default setting works with all the disk turbos tested so far, this option may be useful for debugging purposes
when using audio files as tape images, the signal read or written can optionally be inverted for compatibility with other software
the enabling of 6551 ACIA emulation is now configurable, rather than being fixed to machine configurations with 64K or more RAM
SID emulation and floppy drives with no disk image attached can be disabled from the GUI menu to reduce CPU usage; previously, these automatically enabled features could only be turned off by a forced or hard reset
added new GUI menu items for resetting floppy drives
new command line option (-tape) for loading tape images on startup; it has also been made possible to automatically load a file with .prg, .p00, .d64, .d81, or .tap extension by using the file name as a single command line argument
minor bug fixes and optimizations

plus4emu 1.2.4 release (22 Nov 2007)

implemented the ACIA 6551 registers at $FD00-$FD0F, which are automatically enabled for configurations with 64K or more RAM; this is not complete yet, but the basic functionality works
video recording can also be done in RLE8 format now, which allows smaller file sizes than uncompressed YV12, at the expense of some TV emulation effects not being captured
added new command line option for selecting the GUI style and colors
various minor improvements and bug fixes

plus4emu 1.2.3 has been released (1 Oct 2007)

video and sound output can be recorded to AVI files
more accurate colors in NTSC mode
TED sound emulation improvements
added hue shift to the display configuration options
minor optimizations in serial floppy drive and printer emulation
the drive head position is now also shown on the LED display when it is changing
a few bug fixes

plus4emu 1.2.2 is released (6 Sep 2007)

implemented Digi-Blaster emulation
added limited support for error information in D64 files
new option for setting SID model (6581 or 8580) to be emulated
P00 format files can be loaded
emulation speed percentage is now displayed on the title bar; it is also possible to set half, double, etc. speed in the menu
the head position (track, side, and sector) of all floppy drives can be displayed in a window

plus4emu 1.2.1 release (9 Aug 2007)

TED emulation improvements; also fixed a bug introduced in version 1.1.1
the frame rate in full speed mode is now limited to a maximum of 50 Hz to improve performance
minor bug fixes

plus4emu 1.2.0 has been released (26 Jul 2007)

many improvements in the TV emulation; to enable all the new features, use OpenGL mode and set the display quality to 3 (requires OpenGL 2.0 or newer and shader support)
added a tedmon-like monitor to the debugger; it supports all the commands, including assemble, but there are also some improvements and additional features (use ? to print the list of commands, or ? N for help on command N)
it is now possible to set breakpoints on TED video positions in the debugger
trace command in the monitor for logging CPU instructions to a text file; when debugging the main CPU, the TED video position at the first cycle of each opcode is also logged
light pen emulation
hardware level 1526/MPS-802 printer emulation
the file I/O ROM module now also includes a tape turbo; to enable it, set $0647 to $17, $27, $37, or $47 to select speed (from slowest to fastest), and use device 7 when saving
tape playback and recording can be sent to the sound output
the RAM startup pattern has been made configurable
minor TED emulation improvements
various bug fixes

plus4emu 1.2.0 beta release (16 Jul 2007)

plus4emu 1.1.3 has been released (14 Jun 2007)

fixed bug in Hannes memory expansion emulation
improved 6523 emulation in 1551 floppy drives
minor bug fixes

New release (1.1.2) with some bug fixes (10 Jun 2007)

fixed a bug that caused the tape input signal to get stuck at high level sometimes even after stopping or closing the tape
optimizations in 1541 high timing accuracy mode
adjusted reSID filter for the different clock frequency used in Plus/4

plus4emu 1.1.1 is released (06 Jun 2007)

added new 1541 timing code that fixes some programs that previously did not load, at the expense of higher CPU usage; it is enabled by default, and can be turned on/off in the floppy configuration dialog
more accurate emulation of television vertical synchronization
MacOS X build fixes; also added patch for FLTK 1.1.7 which fixes the check callback on OS X
improvements and fixes in TED video shift register emulation
fixed CPU I/O port data direction register ($0000)
the ROM package now includes the 1541 DOS, rather than the 1541-II; however, it is still possible to use the 1541-II by loading dos15412.rom to ROM segment 10 in the machine configuration
minor optimizations

plus4emu 1.1.0 has been released (15 May 2007)

implemented 1551 drive emulation
added floppy drive LED display to the GUI (1541 is red, 1551 is green, and 1581 is yellow)
the debugger now allows for debugging floppy drives; the drives are also mapped to the physical address range $180000-$1BFFFF
fixed 1541 disk change detection
keyboard map can be configured with the GUI
external game devices like joysticks and gamepads are supported, and can be assigned in the keyboard map like normal keys
the 'step over' button in the debugger now also skips branch instructions
invalid opcodes that normally jam the CPU can be used as breakpoints (with the priority assumed to be 3) that open the debugger, and the execution of the program can continue as if there was a NOP instruction
added new command line options for loading disk image, snapshot, and demo files on start-up; on Windows, D64 and D81 files are also optionally associated with the emulator
it is now possible to use WAV, AIFF, and other sound file formats as tape images; these files can be read and written, however, new files are created in plus4emu format
blank video output is generated when the TED is disabled by setting bit 5 of $FF07
reduced horizontal texture resolution to 384 in OpenGL mode when the quality is set to 0, for improved performance
minor GUI improvements and fixes