1-------------------------------------------
2Virtual Jaguar v2.1.0 GCC/Qt release README
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4
5--------------
6- DISCLAIMER -
7--------------
8
9Or, "O liability, I do disclaim thee!"
10
11Ported by SDLEMU (Niels Wagenaar & Carwin Jones) and is based upon the
12original work by David Raingeard of Potato Emulation. For requirements please
13consult the INSTALL file for more information about supported OS's and
14software requirements.
15
16The use of this software is entirely at your own risk. While it won't rape
17your dog, it might do other nasty things. We can't be held responsible for
18damage done to your hardware and/or software. You may only use the ROM images
19if you own the cartridges itself. The use of commercial ROMs without owning the
20original cartridge is illegal in most countries and could result in fines
21and/or legal actions.
22
23The products, trademarks and/or brands used in these documents and/or
24sourcecode are owned by their respective companies and/or successors in
25interest.
26
27This software is released under the GPL v3 or later. For more information, read
28the GPLv3 file.
29
30
31----------------------------------------------------------------
32- IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT JAGUAR FILE FORMATS--READ THIS OR ELSE! -
33----------------------------------------------------------------
34
35There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding the various file formats that
36Jaguar programs come in, and a lot of this confusion seem to come from
37Cowering's GoodJag renaming tool. Note that it simply gets some files wrong,
38and it also incorrectly renames cartridge images with an extension that
39belongs to an already established extension (.jag is a Jaguar Server
40executable--read on). To clarify, there are basically four major types of
41Jaguar binary images that are NOT cartridge images:
42
43    .abs
44    .jag
45    .rom
46    .bin
47
48The first type, the .abs file, is a DRI/Alcyon format absolute location
49executable. These come in two different flavors and contain load and run
50addresses in their headers. Note that some files which have an .abs extension
51are really incorrectly labelled .bin files with no header information
52whatsoever.
53
54The second type, the .jag file, is a Jaguar Server executable. These files
55contain header information that tells you where to load and run the file's
56executable code. Note that as of this writing (8/5/2005) that the GoodJag ROM
57renaming tool by Cowering incorrectly renames Jaguar cartridge ROM dumps to
58have a .jag extension (a better choice, and the one supported by Virtual
59Jaguar, is .j64)--if you're trying to run a ROM image with a .jag extension on
60VJ, it will misinterpret it as a Jaguar Server executable and likely fail to
61run.
62
63The third type, the .rom file, is an Alpine Board/ROM Image file. These files
64have no header, but are known to load and run at $802000 in the Jaguar memory
65space. Again, these are *different* from cartridge dumps since they load at a
66higher address than a Jaguar cartridge.
67
68The fourth type, the .bin file, is simply a Jaguar executable with no header.
69Since these files contain no information about where they load and execute,
70Virtual Jaguar does not support this file type. Go bug the author to release
71either a file with proper headers or a file in Alpine ROM format. Virtual
72Jaguar is not omniscient (yet)! ;)
73
74There is a fifth type of file that is supported by Virtual Jaguar, the .j64
75file, which is simply a 1, 2, or 4 Meg dump of a Jaguar cartridge ROM which
76loads at $800000 in the Jaguar memory space.
77
78
79----------------------------------
80- What is Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt? -
81----------------------------------
82
83Virtual Jaguar is software dedicated to emulating the Atari Jaguar hardware on
84a standard PC. The software was originally developed by David Raingeard of
85Potato Emulation [http://potato.emu-france.com] and was released under the GPL
86on 25 June 2003.
87
88Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt is not just a port of the MS Visual C++/SDL sourcecode
89but has also been extended and rewritten so that we can enjoy Atari Jaguar
90emulation on every platform that has a GCC compiler and a port of Qt.
91
92Currently Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt compiles on WIN32 using mingw, and several
93UN*X based systems (BeOS, Linux, FreeBSD and MacOS). It may run on other
94systems as well but we can not guarantee that.
95
96The port was done by the SDLEMU crew (http://sdlemu.ngemu.com) and especially
97by Niels Wagenaar and Carwin Jones. A major portion of the rewrite was done by
98James Hammons. You may contact us by e-mail (sdlemu@ngemu.com) or leave a
99message on the SDLEMU Official Forum (see the website). Patches and bugfixes
100are particularly welcome! :)
101
102More information about the incredible SDL libraries can be found at
103http://www.libsdl.org. Thanks Sam--you rock! :)
104
105
106-------------------------------
107- Using Virtual Jaguar GCC/Qt -
108-------------------------------
109
110Simply double click on the Virtual Jaguar icon or type ./virtualjaguar -h from
111the command line. See the built in help (under Help|Contents) for more
112information on how to use it. :-)
113
114
115-----------
116- Finally -
117-----------
118
119If you find bugs, enhance the code or simply have questions, drop us an e-mail
120at sdlemu AT ngemu DOT com or drop a message on the SDLEMU Official Forum.
121
122More information about this project (releases/WIP) can be found at the official
123Virtual Jaguar website [http://www.icculus.org/virtualjaguar] and on the SDLEMU
124website [http://sdlemu.ngemu.com].
125
126We hope you enjoy the emulator and will use it wisely!
127
128Thanks go to guys over at ngemu.com and #ngemu (EFNET). Thanks also to David
129Raingeard of Potato Emulation who originally developed this emulator and
130released the sources to the public. We couldn't have done it without you!
131
132Special thanks go to everyone who submitted good, detailed bug reports,
133sometimes with demonstration code(!); your help has helped to make Virtual
134Jaguar better, more accurate, and more polished than it would be otherwise. We
135really appreciate your help!
136
137SDLEMU
138