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TIPS & TRICKS for PALE
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'I can't load a Disk / LynxDOS doesnt work properly'
Okay, well its early days with Pale and LynxDOS, although CP/M could
be just around the corner.
Remember that the OS uses some of the Bank1ram for its operation so not all programs
are going to run on it as expected.
Oh, and CAN'T get DOS to start - type XROM at the Lynx prompt
for further LynxDOS details see the manuals that can be found on Russell's Lynx archive site.
'The Printer has corrupted Graphics'
Well to be honest I quite like it like that. Oh alright then, if you want to improve
the quality of the screen dumps ( EXT VPRINT <colour number> )
then try upping the emulation speed, and don't have any status windows running.
The printer will hang in Text mode sometimes - it's being worked on.
(UPDATE - IT WAS WORKED ON :) )
'I can't use MSAVE'
erm no, you can't, I haven't written it yet (but it works in LynxDOS). But as a workaround if you
drop the 'dev stuff' extras on the status panel you should see a button labelled MEM DUMP.
This button will dump the 5 lynx memory banks to disk. You can then extract
the binary data with a Hex editor and, using the Z80->TAP converter
built into Pale, create a loadable binary TAP file.
'The sound is crap'
yeah, okay, the sound isn't the best. But there's a few things you can do to improve
it somewhat. First off, if you're not using the status windows then turn 'em off.
If the sound is stuttering in 100% speed mode then try 200% it might stop.
In the extra 'dev' functions there is a slider marked SOUND DIVISOR. This changes
the pump rate to the sound engine. Altering this will change the pitch of the sound, but also will alter
the amount of sound data pumped per emulation cycle, into the soundcard.
Try engaging the 'background' sound, even if at a low level.
Try Accurate Video mode (see below)
'The last version worked, the new version doesn't'
You probably forgot to uninstall the old Pale version and it left some registry entries
which are confusing the new version. Using Regedit you can delete the offending keys
found at /HKEY_USERS/X-X-XX/Software/VB & VBA Program Settings/PALEXXX/
'What's this Accurate Video all about'
Pale is written in a mixture of Visual Basic and Visual C++, normally VB calls the C code
to emulate the Z80 and the screen once every frame. In Accurate Video mode the
screen is updated on a per scanline basis and so allows more accurate
6845 controller emulation. It may require a bit more horsepower though.
If it does run then don't use status screens whilst in this mode as everything will slow to a crawl.
Try out the 6845 test program to see some of the 6845 development.
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For reference Pale was developed on an AMD 3200+ and tested under WINE on a 1800+
'How do I get it to run under WINE/ LINUX'