Gemulator 96 Demo 
Atari ST/STE Emulator For Windows 
Version 4.50, Sep 3, 1996

Gemulator 96 version 4.50 is the latest release in the Gemulator series of 
Atari ST emulators for MS-DOS and Windows.  Gemulator 96 combines the 
functionality of our hardware based Gemulator product with that of 
Gemulator for Laptops into a single version, allowing it to run both TOS 
ROM based and disk based Atari operating systems. Gemulator 96 is the only 
Atari ST emulator that supports all versions of Atari ST TOS (1.0, 1.2, 
1.4, 1.6, and 2.06) and all versions of MagiC, including MagiC PC. Up to 16 
different Atari ST operating systems can be installed on your PC at once, 
and Gemulator 96 will switch between them with the click of a mouse.

Gemulator 96 runs on all versions of Windows - Windows 3.1, Windows for 
Workgroups 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows NT. It also runs on all 32-bit 
Intel x86 processors (386, 486, Pentium, and Pentium Pro).

Gemulator 96 has many improvements over previous versions: smaller memory 
footprint, faster load time, faster execution speed (up to 30% faster than 
previous versions), super fast full screen video, MagiC PC support, and a 
redesigned user interface to make it easier to use.

The smaller memory footprint allows Gemulator 96 to easily run on a 6 
megabyte Windows 95 computer while using much less swap file space than 
before. The new DirectX support (for Windows 95 and Windows NT) allows 
Atari programs to run full screen, as well as in window. The faster 
execution speed means that almost any 486 computer runs at full Atari 1040 
ST speed, and a 75 MHz Pentium runs at full Atari TT speed. Absolutely the 
fastest Atari ST emulator available and ideal for turning a 486 or Pentium 
notebook computer into a portable Atari ST!

The best feature of Gemulator 96 is the price, now only $69.95 for the 
emulator itself, with various combination packages available that combine 
Gemulator 96 with either MagiC or with TOS ROMs. A complete list of prices 
is given below.

This free demo version has most of the functionality of the retail version, 
allowing you to see for yourself just how fast Gemulator is and how well it 
performs. We even encourage you to compare Gemulator against competing 
products, just to see how bad the other products are. The Gemulator 96 demo 
has no time limit or expiration date, and does not put up annoying messages 
every few seconds to remind you that you are running a demo. We don't 
believe in silly games like that. What the demo doesn't support are some of 
the more advanced features, such as 4, 8, and 14-megabyte support (you are 
limited to emulating at most 2 megabytes of Atari memory). It also does not 
support the blitter emulation, sound, the full screen mode, the 68000 
debugger, and some of the acceleration options. But you are only a phone 
call away from ordering Gemulator 96 right now!

For the very latest information on Gemulator 96, browse our World Wide Web 
page at http://www.emulators.com/. It can be accessed directly from any 
Internet account and from most online services including CompuServe, 
America Online, and the Microsoft Network.


Installing the GEMULATOR 96 DEMO

The Gemulator 96 demo software comes in a single ZIP file called 
GEM96DEM.ZIP. Extract it with PK Zip and you will find the following files:

GEM96DEM.EXE  - The Gemulator 96 Demo emulator
WIN32VER.EXE  - Utility to display Win32 version
GEM96DEM.TXT  - This documentation file
GEM96DEM.HTM  - This file in HTML format
STHDBOOT.SEC  - Atari hard disk boot sector
CDRIVE.VHD    - Sample Atari C: partition
DDRIVE.VHD    - Blank D: partition
EDRIVE.VHD    - Blank E: partition
FDRIVE.VHD    - Blank F: partition
QINDEX22.PRG  - Quick Index 2.2, Atari ST benchmark utility
INSTMAG2.BAT  - Installation script for MagiC 2
INSTMAG4.BAT  - Installation script for MagiC 4
NT.ZIP        - Windows NT drivers for the Gemulator card

Before anything else, make sure that you have a computer capable of running 
the demo. You will need:

- Windows 3.1 with Win32s, Windows for Workgroups with Win32s, Windows 
95, or Windows NT 3.51 or 4.0
- If using Win32s, version 1.2 or higher
- A 386, 486, Pentium or Pentium Pro processor
- At least 6 megabytes of RAM with Windows 95, 8 megabytes with 
Windows 3.1, or 12 megabytes with Windows NT
- A Gemulator card with TOS ROMs, a version of MagiC, or MagiC PC

Win32s is an extension to Windows 3.1 and WFW that allows those operating 
systems to run 32-bit Windows programs such as Gemulator. You can download 
Win32s from Microsoft's ftp site or from our web page. To see if you have 
the correct version of Windows installed, run the WIN32VER.EXE utility 
provided. It will display which version of Windows you are running (Win32s, 
Windows 95, or Windows NT) along with the version number. If you get that 
far, you are ready. If it doesn't run, you are most likely running on 
Windows 3.1 and you don't have Win32s installed yet.

The next step is to install one or more Atari ST operating systems. If you 
don't already have a Gemulator ROM card installed, and you don't have 
MagiC, download the MagiC PC demo from the Internet. You most likely fall 
into one of these categories:

If you are running Gemulator Classic

Gemulator Classic refers to the MS-DOS versions of Gemulator (versions 1.0 
through 3.04). If you are currently running this version of Gemulator, then 
you already have a Gemulator card with ROMs installed. All you need to do 
is run GEM96DEM.EXE from Windows. If you have virtual disks set up, you may 
wish to copy the file GEM96DEM.EXE to your existing Gemulator directory and 
run it from there so as to detect those disks.

If you are running Gemulator 95

Gemulator 95 refers to the Windows versions of Gemulator (versions 4.0 
through 4.15) which Gemulator 96 replaces. If you are currently running 
Gemulator 95, then again all you need to do is run GEM96DEM.EXE. Similarly 
you may wish to install it in your existing Gemulator directory to use any 
virtual disks you may have.

If you are running MagiC 2 or MagiC 4

If you don't currently own Gemulator but are using the MagiC operating 
system on your Atari computer, then you need to install MagiC on your PC. 
This can be done either manually or using one of the supplied batch files.

To use the batch files, first determine which version of MagiC you own. 
MagiC 2 comes on a single floppy disk while MagiC 4 comes on two disks. 
Both install to your hard disk the same way. In the root of your PC's C: 
drive you need the file MAGIC.RAM which contains the MagiC operating 
system. You also need a folder called GEMSYS which contains support files 
for MagiC, such as the desktop program. Use one of the two batch files 
INSTMAG2.BAT and INSTMAG4.BAT to install MagiC 2.0 and MagiC 4.0 
respectively. You will be prompted to insert the MagiC master disks and in 
a few seconds the installation will be complete.

To manually install MagiC, or if you have some other version of MagiC, copy 
the MAGIC.RAM file from your MagiC installation disk to your C: drive. 
Create a folder called GEMSYS and within that folder create another folder 
called GEMDESK. From the MagiC installation disk, copy the files 
GEMDESK.APP, GEMDESK.RSC, and GEMDESL.RSC to this GEMDESK directory. If 
using MagiC 4.0, you also need to copy the file OFF002.OSD.

If you wish to run Gemulator and MagiC from a floppy disk, install MagiC to 
your hard disk as described, then copy the MAGIC.RAM file and GEMSYS folder 
to a blank 1.44M floppy disk. Then copy the GEM96DEM.EXE program to the 
floppy. You now have bootable Gemulator 96 floppy disk that you can carry 
with you and run on any Windows computer!

If you are running MagiC PC

If you downloaded the MagiC PC demo or purchased MagiC PC, you follow a 
similar procedure as for installing MagiC. Instead of MAGIC.RAM, the MagiC 
PC operating system is contained in a file called MAGIC_PC.OS. Copy that 
file to the root of your PC's C: drive. Copy the GEMSYS folder from your 
MagiC PC disks to your PC's C: drive as well.

If you are running the MagiC PC demo, you will first need to run that demo 
to copy the GEMSYS folder from their virtual demo disk to a real floppy 
disk. Then exit MagiC PC, and use Windows to copy that GEMSYS folder to 
your C: drive.


Optimizing your VGA driver for fastest screen redraws

Gemulator has been optimized for use with 256 color Windows 95 and Windows 
NT video drivers. For best results, run Gemulator in a 256 or 65536 color 
video mode. Do not run in a 16 color VGA video mode, as most VGA drivers 
and cards are not optimized for that mode. Since Gemulator is very graphics 
intensive, it is preferable to use a localbus video card. Avoid older 8-bit 
and 16-bit VGA cards.


Running the Gemulator 96 Demo

Once you have installed Gemulator 96 using one of the 4 methods above, go 
ahead and run it.  You will then see the Gemulator 96 main menu dialog, 
which contains an Options menu, an Exit menu, and a Continue button. Press 
Continue to go into the First Time Setup dialog. This is required to tell 
Gemulator which Atari operating system you have installed.

The First Time Setup dialog has two options: Search ROM Cards and Search 
for MagiC. If you have an existing Gemulator card installed, click on 
Search ROM Cards. If you have MagiC or MagiC PC installed, click on Search 
for MagiC. Then press Search. All the Atari operating systems which are 
detected will be listed. At that point press Close.

Gemulator will now reboot using the first operating system it found. 
Congratulations, you are running Gemulator 96! Because GEM maintains its 
own mouse pointer independent of Windows, you will at this point have two 
mouse pointers on the screen. Click inside the Gemulator window to 
deactivate the Windows mouse and make the GEM mouse active. To re-activate 
the Windows mouse, either press F11 on your keyboard, or click both mouse 
buttons at once. You can press Control+F11 to activate the main menu 
dialog.


Configuring the Gemulator 96 Demo

Gemulator's default mode of operation is 2 megabytes of Atari ST memory, 
monochrome mode, serial and printer ports off. If you wish to change this, 
or switch between Atari operating systems, you do so in the Properties 
dialog box. You do this by pressing either Alt+F11, or by choosing the 
Properties menu item from the main menu.

The Properties dialog has the following options. Note that changing most 
options, such as the amount of memory or the monitor type, will require 
rebooting the Atari operating system.

DirectX (full screen)
This option is not available in the demo. It activates full screen mode 
using DirectX (also called DirectDraw) allowing your Atari programs to use 
up the whole screen and run much faster than in windowed mode.

Zoom pixels
Due to the low resolution of Atari screens (320x200, 640x400, etc) and the 
high resolution of most VGA cards (1024x768, 1280x1024, etc), the Atari 
desktop can appear to be quite a small. The Zoom pixels option stretches 
the size of Atari pixels so that the Gemulator window occupies more screen 
space. If this is still too small, or too slow, use the DirectX mode.

Fast Refresh
By default, Gemulator is set to refresh its window about 10 times a second. 
On most computers this is a reasonable tradeoff between speed and 
smoothness of the video, but you may notice some jerkiness in the mouse 
motion and text scrolling. To smooth this up, activate the Fast Refresh 
option. This will roughly double the screen refresh rate and give much more 
realistic video at the expense of the emulator running slower. This is 
really of concern on 386 and 486 computers. On most Pentium computers the 
tradeoff is minimal and you should always have this option turned on.

Model
This option selects between emulating an Atari ST, Atari STE, and Atari TT. 
Gemulator 96 does not currently emulate an Atari TT but this feature will 
be added shortly in a later release. In the demo there is little difference 
between the ST and STE modes since the features that this option affects 
are mostly disabled. Set it to either ST or STE mode.

Memory
This sets the amount of Atari ST memory. The demo supports 512K, 1 Meg, and 
2 Meg. The retail version also support 4, 8, and 14 Meg configurations.

Serial Port
This selects which PC serial port is to be used as the Atari ST serial 
port. By default this is set to None. Change this to the correct port if 
you wish to use your modem.

Printer Port
Similarly, this option selects which printer port to use. The default is 
none. When you activate a port, that printer port becomes unavailable to 
other MS-DOS or Windows programs while Gemulator is running. Also make sure 
that the printer is connected and online. Otherwise Gemulator may appear to 
hang when no printer can be found.

Share printer
When using a printer port, this option tells Gemulator to release the port 
after 30 seconds of printer inactivity. This allows you to share the 
printer port with other programs. However, if your print job pauses for 
more than 30 seconds (such as a when laying out a complex Pagestream 
document) the printer port will be released prematurely. Only use this 
option if necessary. It is disabled in the demo.

Blitter
This activates the blitter chip emulation. Disabled in the demo.

Sound
This activates the sound emulation. When in ST mode, only the Yamaha chip 
is emulated. When in STE mode, the stereo sound chip is also emulated. 
Sound is disabled in the demo.

Monochrome
This turns on monochrome monitor emulation. To use color modes such as ST 
Low and ST Medium resolution, turn this option off. Note: since this is a 
frequently used option, there is a keyboard shortcut to toggle this option. 
Press Shift+F12 to switch from color to monochrome or monochrome to color 
modes at any time. This of course will reboot the Atari operating system.

OS
"OS" as in Operating System. This drop down list box selects which of the 
TOS or MagiC versions to use.

Quick ST emulation
Gemulator has most of the functionality of the Quick ST (now known as Warp 
9) screen accelerator built in. When TOS 2.06 is your current operating 
system, activating this option will patch TOS 2.06 to use the faster Quick 
ST code. This speeds up screen redraws considerably. If you are running 
MagiC, MagiC PC, or have NVDI installed, you can leave this option turned 
off.

Boot disk
This tells Gemulator which disk partition to boot from. Mainly this tells 
it which drive has the AUTO folder. Typically you will leave this option 
set to C:. Note, this option only applies in Windows disk mode and is 
ignored for Atari disk mode.

Fast Baud Rates
This feature is disabled in the demo. What it does is activate baud rate 
mapping to get around the Atari ST's upper limit of 19200 baud. This option 
remaps slow baud rates, like 110 baud and 300 baud, to faster baud rates 
beyond 19200 baud.

Fast BIOS Printing
This feature is also disabled in the demo. It patches the Atari ST BIOS to 
speed up printing from programs that use the BIOS. Pagestream is one such 
program that benefits greatly from this option. Calamus SL, which writes to 
the printer port directly, is unaffected by this setting.

Atari disk mode
This option determines which of two methods is used to access the floppy 
disks and hard disks  Atari disk mode and Windows disk mode. They are 
described below.


Atari disk mode and Windows disk mode

Atari computers and Windows computers format their disks in almost the 
exact same way. Most disks formatted on an Atari ST can be read on a PC 
running MS-DOS and Windows, and similarly, any disk formatted by MS-DOS or 
Windows can be read on an Atari ST. This is not always true. Atari disks 
formatted by TOS 1.0, TOS 1.2 and some buggy disk formatting utilities do 
not create an MS-DOS compatible disk. Also, some Atari games use boot 
disks, which are disks formatted to run automatically when TOS is starting 
up.

Similarly, hard disks are not always formatted the same way. Atari hard 
disk partitions cannot grow to more than 32 megabytes in size. So trying to 
run TOS on your PC, which may have a 300 megabyte or 500 megabyte or even 
larger hard disk, means that the hard disk cannot be used by TOS. This was 
true in earlier versions of Gemulator.

Gemulator 96 offers the best of both worlds, by providing both an Atari 
mode and Windows mode of disk access. The modes work like this:

Atari disk mode

- All Atari ST floppy disks can be read, including boot disks, 360K, 800K 
disks, and TOS 1.0 formatted disks, except copy protected disks.
- Uses 4 virtual partitions to emulate 4 32-megabyte Atari ST hard disk 
partitions. These virtual partitions are stored on your PC as the files 
CDRIVE.VHD, DDRIVE.VHD, EDRIVE.VHD, and FDRIVE.VHD. No actual 
reformatting of your hard disk is required.
- Atari disk mode behaves exactly how a real Atari ST floppy disk and 
hard disk behaves.

Windows disk mode

- All MS-DOS formatted floppy disks (including 1.44M high density disks) 
as well as compressed floppy disks can be read.
- All of the PC's hard disk partitions and CD-ROM drives are available, 
including network drives, compressed partitions and non-MS-DOS 
partitions.
- Windows disk mode is compatible with most Atari software except some 
disk utilities and AUTO folder programs. If a program does not work in 
Windows disk mode, try it in Atari disk mode. Most major Atari ST 
software runs fine in Windows disk mode, including Calamus SL, 
Pagestream, Magic, Neodesk 4, GFA Basic, Data Manager ST, FLASH, and 
others.

The two disk modes cannot be mixed. Files stored in the virtual partitions 
(the .VHD files) cannot be accessed outside of Gemulator. What you may want 
to do is install all of your Atari software on virtual partitions first. 
Then re-install the software in Windows disk mode. Try running the software 
both ways and see which way you like best.

If you have old Atari disks with non-MS-DOS boot sectors, you can use one 
of many utilities (MOSDOS, DC Formatter, etc) to write proper MS-DOS boot 
sectors to those disks. Then the disks will be usable in Windows disk mode.


Ordering Gemulator 96

Now that you've tried the Gemulator 96 demo, it is time to buy the real 
thing! We offer many pricing options including competitive upgrades. To 
order Gemulator 96, contact EMULATOR INC. by phoning 206-236-0540 to order 
by credit card. Or fax us at 206-236-0257 to fax in your order. Or send 
payment by snail mail to:

    EMULATORS INC.
    14150 N.E. 20th Street, Suite 302
    Bellevue, WA 98007
    U.S.A.

To take advantage of our competitive upgrade pricing, you must currently 
own either the Janus or MagiC PC emulators. Mail or fax to us a copy of 
your original sales receipt along with your Gemulator 96 order to prove 
ownership. If you have lost your receipt, you can also send either the 
master disk or the front cover of the manual.

To take advantage of the $29.95 upgrade price, you must currently own 
either Gemulator Classic, Gemulator 95, or Gemulator for Laptops, and you 
must be registered with Branch Always Software. If you never sent your 
registration card, or you sent it to your dealer, you are NOT registered. 
To register, please mail in your registration card and/or a proof of 
purchase (sales receipt, master disk, or the manual cover).

Our complete price list is as follows:

Item                      Price
----------------------   -------
Gemulator 96 emulator     $69.95

Gemulator 96 upgrade
from previous versions 
of Gemulator              $29.95

Gemulator 96 upgrade
with MagiC for Gemulator  $79.95

Gemulator 96 competitive 
upgrade for MagiC PC      $49.95

Gemulator 96 competitive 
upgrade for Janus users,
includes a Gemulator
ROM card                  $99.95

Gemulator 96 with 
MagiC for Gemulator      $119.95

Gemulator 96 with 
ROM card and TOS 
1.4 installed            $149.95

Gemulator 96 with ROM
card and TOS 2.06
installed                $179.95

There is a fixed $8 UPS shipping charge for orders within the U.S., $12 for 
orders to Canada, and $15 elsewhere.

Gemulator 96 will also be available from Atari dealers in North America and 
Europe. Dealer prices may vary so shop around. Remember to always check our 
web page at http://www.emulators.com/ for the latest information about 
Gemulator 96 and our other products.


Beware of our competitors tricks!

You will find that Gemulator 96 runs about 3 times faster than MagiC PC, 
even though the makers of MagiC PC claims to run almost as fast as 
Gemulator. One trick that we've caught both the STonX and MagiC PC 
emulators doing is to incorrectly emulate the Atari's 200 Hz timer, making 
it appear it to run much slower. This has the effect of tricking benchmark 
programs like Quick Index and GEM Bench into reporting much faster speed 
results, and in turn, the makers of these emulators then make bogus speed 
claims. DON'T BE FOOLED BY THIS TRICKERY!!! Put a real Atari ST or Atari TT 
computer side by side with your PC. Then run the benchmarks and use a 
stopwatch to time the results. You'll see, as we did on our 90 MHz Pentium 
computer, that while Gemulator 96 takes only 7 seconds to complete the 
Quick Index benchmarks, MagiC PC takes a whole 18 seconds. A real Atari TT 
computer proves who is correct. You'll get similar results running other 
benchmarks and on other computers.

The other trick most of the other emulators use (Janus, MagiC PC, and STonX 
do this) is to quote speed numbers for a system that is running NVDI or 
some other screen accelerator. Then they compare those numbers to a plain 
Atari ST using no accelerator. That's cheating. Our speed claims are based 
on running bare and unmodified Atari TOS ROMs with no acceleration.

The bottom line is this: our competitors are doing everything they can to 
steal business away from Gemulator, including making bogus claims about 
their products. Only Gemulator runs at full Atari TT speed on a 75 MHz 
Pentium. The others don't even come close. They would have you believe that 
you must buy a top of the line Pentium to emulate an Atari ST, and this is 
simply not true! Gemulator users have been using 386 and 486 computers for 
years! Gemulator has been under development for over 5 years, and during 
that time we have optimized our 68000 emulator using hand written assembly 
language to make it as fast as possible. The other emulators are mainly 
written in C which makes them much slower.

We welcome your comments about either Gemulator 96 or any of the competing 
products. Tell us what you like about our demo, what you don't like, and 
what we can do to improve it so that you decide to buy Gemulator instead of 
wasting money on some other product. Send your comments to the address 
above or email to emulators@msn.com.

