ApplePC Emulator (Apple II)
ApplePC - Development apparently discontinued in 1995, but this color
emulator is the Apple 2 standard. It was written by David Ellsworth and is based on
Randy Spurlock's Apl2Emu program.
(Download Emulator)
(Download Required ROMS)
Getting Started
ApplePC does not have an installation like most people are used to these days, so you must do most of the work by hand. Start by creating the following directory structure somewhere on your hard drive:
- Apple2/
- Exe/
- Disks/
Download the emulator and unpack the contents into your Apple2/Exe directory. Also download the ROMs and unpack these into your Apple2/Exe directory as well. You will notice that the ROMs are named after various flavors of the Apple 2 machine. This is no accident - during execution you will choose which flavor of Apple 2 to run and only one of these ROMs will be in use during any particular session.
Also download at least one program (i.e. Bards Tale or Seven Cities of Gold), make a subdirectory in the Apple2/Disks directory and unpack the contents into the new directory. The complete directory structure should now look something like this:
- Apple2/
- Exe/
- apple.exe
- apple.doc
- apple2.rom
- apple2c.rom
- apple2e.rom
- history.doc
- img-fmt.doc
- Disks/
- Bardtale/
- bt1_boot.dsk
- bt1_char.dsk
- bt1_dun1.dsk
- bt1_dun2.dsk
- Sevcity/
- map.dsk
- sevenc1.dsk
- sevenc2.dsk
- sevenc3.dsk
- Bardtale/
- Exe/
Execution/Main Menu
To run the emulator, go to a DOS prompt (or "Cmd Prompt" for the Windows 2000 geeks) and cd to your Apple2/Exe directory. Then type "Apple" to launch the emulator.
Computer Model
First press "M" to select what kind of an Apple 2 you want to run. (I usually run an Apple 2e.) A plain Apple 2 is the oldest Apple 2 you can run. The Apple 2c was the top-end model with a big chassis for up to 6 or 7 expansion cards. The Apple 2c was an entry model which ended up in school computer labs across the country.
Boot Disk
Next, press "D" to select your boot disk.
You want to put a boot disk in "Disk 1", so press "1" to select this drive. A prompt will appear and ask which disk image you want to load. At this point, hit TAB and pop up the file chooser. Browse back ("../") and get into the disks directory. Select the image you want (usually marked with the word "boot" or the number "1") and press the enter key.
The full path of the boot disk should now be listed next to "Disk 1". Press ESC to continue.
Color Mode
The next step is to flip from monochrome mode to color mode. It's not a menu option, and it's not under "video" where you might expect it to be. Instead, press the F3 key to enable colors.
Clock Speed
Before you leave the main menu, you should also press "W" to set the relative clock speed. (Your little IBM clone runs a little hotter than 1985 hardware!) For most games, a delay value of at least 80 is recommended. You must also enable cycle counting to use the arrow keys as your joystick. (The emulator does not support a real, external joystick!)
Returning to Options Menu
If you want to get back to the options menu at any time, press F10. This key freezes execution and allows you to do useful things like switch disks, save your state, reboot and quit.
If you want to slow down up your application, hit the keypad plus key to increase the delay by one unit at a time. If you want to speed up your application, hit the keypad minus key to decrease the delay by one unit at a time.
(There is a full manual included with the emulator - most of the help below extends material from this manual.)
Keys
- Ins or L.Alt - Button 1 (Open Apple)
- Del or R.Alt - Button 2 (Closed Apple)
- F3 - Toggle color blurring
- F4 - Toggle green monochrome
- F5 - Toggle two-page view (not available in green monochrome mode)
- F7 - Toggle delay/turbo mode (preserves delay value)
- F8 - Toggle cycle counting
- F9 - Enter debugger
- F10 - Enter control panel
- Ctrl-Break - Ctrl-Reset
- Keypad- - Increase speed
- Keypad+ - Decrease speed
The keypad arrow keys control the joystick in Keyboard Mode. The normal arrow keys also control the joystick if NumLock is on. Otherwise, they function as the Apple's cursor keys.
File Chooser
The file chooser allows you to browse for files on disk. To use it, press the TAB key when prompted for a file name. If you did not type anything, a listing of files with the default extension will appear. If you did type something, it will be used as a mask for the directory listing (for example *.NIB).
Loading/Saving State
In ApplePC, you can save and load the exact state of the emulator. This is useful to instantly start a program that takes a long time to load. It also helps when you get stuck in a game -- if you die, just load the last state and continue!
The state image "APPLE.IMG" will be loaded at startup if it exists.
ApplePC will prompt you for a file name when you load or save a state. The default extension is IMG. ApplePC will remember the name of the last state you accessed.