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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'

see THIS PAGE

 

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