Plans for 1.0.4 and the future

[Tobias Eriksson]

Hi everyone,

As you probably know there hasn't been a lot of activity in the project since it was migrated to Github. However, we've recently had a few pull requests with new features which started me thinking that a release of the next version (1.0.4) in the near future would be nice. I'm currently working on making it easier for the user to get ROMs to work with the emulator, since we're no longer shipping the ROM binaries with releases. I'll also work on fixing warnings during the build process.

This also got me thinking about future development of OpenEmulator. Myself I'd like to add other computers that are not from Apple.

Any thoughts about what should be added to OpenEmulator in future versions?

Best regards,

Tobias

[Tobias Eriksson]

As an aside, today I also migrated and updated the old website: link to github pages.

[Zellyn]

I'd like Apple IIe and IIc, but don't really have much time to actually write code :-(

[Antoine Vignau]

Thanks.
I'd also like to have IIe and enhanced IIe support, with 128K RAM and DHGR and 80-col support.
That would allow me to test the EDD images I have that require a IIe and/or 128K.

Antoine

[Tobias Eriksson]

Adding support for the Apple IIe seems doable, and fitting, for the next release.

As I'm no Apple II expert (I love retro computers in general), what are the differences between the IIe and the plain II? I'd guess that most of the component code written will work for the IIe (CPU is the same, memory is larger), but is the graphics capabilities different?

From what I can read on Wikipedia, the IIe had 64K RAM + 16K ROM, but the RAM was expandable to 128K if using the Extended 80-Column Text Card. Then at least we have to implement the column card as a new device.

[Zellyn]

Understanding the Apple IIe has a comprehensive list of differences, but comes mainly from the hardware side... I'm not sure how much difference is visible to the software.

Zellyn

[Tobias Eriksson]

I guess the IIe has a different ROM. I'll look into the source you gave.

On Sunday, July 24, 2016 at 9:49:54 PM UTC+2, Zellyn wrote:

Understanding the Apple IIe has a comprehensive list of differences, but comes mainly from the hardware side... I'm not sure how much difference is visible to the software.

Zellyn

Personally, I'm interested in adding support for serial terminals, e.g. DEC VT05, so that it's possible to connect and use emulated computers that lack built-in video support (KIM-1, Altair 8800, etc). 

[Zellyn]

Hey Tobias,

Do you plan to try to do this? Just curious. If nobody else is going to work on it, I might give it a try, but it's likely to be extremely slow, because I don't have much free time at the moment.

[Tobias Eriksson]

Hi Zellyn,

You're welcome to have a go at it; I'm about to leave for my summer vacation so for the next month I won't be doing much work on OpenEmulator :-)

[Jeremy Barr-Hyde]

Hi!
I have a particular issue with emulators of the Apple II poorly matching the colours I remeber and have next to me from a //e using the AppleColor Composite monitor.  It was to great surprise that I found OpenEmulator is the closest I've ever found in getting the colours right.  So much so that with care, I took a photo of the AppleColor monitor of a the title screen to 'Fish Scales' (I haven't yet put the disk image online) and compared it to Virtual II and OpenEmulator.  Can post a comparison image soon. 
Feature request: Sharpness.
While the colours are beautiful and like the real thing, there is a blurryness about the picture which I think is intentional but I have no control of it.  The monitor is sharper than the emulator - usually it's the other way around!

[Zellyn]

Try the "Studio Composite Color Monitor" - it has a lot of settings you can tweak.

Zellyn