VAPI prerelease (play the original Alternate Reality)

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ijor
Posts: 426
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2005 3:48 am

VAPI prerelease (play the original Alternate Reality)

Post by ijor » Fri Oct 14, 2005 12:06 am

First public release of VAPI tools is available (as a preview) for Atarimania users. You can now play the original Alternate Reality on Windows.

VAPI is a project for preserving Atari 8-bits software in its original unmodified (which usually means copy-protected) form. It provides tools for imaging, running the images under emulators and real hardware, and writing back the images to a physical disk.

More details available soon here at Atarimania, and at the VAPI website.


This is a preliminary beta release. Recommended for advanced users only. Both the tools and the images are subject to change. No documentation except this note is provided.

A patched version of Atari800WinPlus and VAPI DLL are available for download. This combo can run images of copy protected disks.

Note, the patch to the emulator is a quick and dirty hack. It is not perfect. Some things don't work, others don't work perfectly. The main limitations are noted below. Keep your "standard" Atari800Winplus setup, don't delete it.

Only ATR and VAPI images can be used, DCM or compressed images are currently not supported.

Only the main emulator executable is included. It will warn you if it can't find the supplemental DLLs (Kaillera and zlib). You can add those DLLs (from the standard version) by yourself if they are not already in the search path. No ROM images, help files, etc, are included. Again, use the ones in your standard emulator setup.

Vapi.Dll is the actual program that handles the copy protected images. The DLL must be in the same directory as the emulator executable or in the search path.

SIO-patch on the emulator must be turned off.


An image of the original Alternate Reality The City is provided. Many more images will be available soon at Atarimania.

Patched emulator:
http://vapi.fxatari.com/downloads/a8wp_03.zip

Vapi DLL:
http://vapi.fxatari.com/downloads/vapiDll_02.zip

VAPI image of Alternate Reality the city:
http://vapi.fxatari.com/downloads/Alter ... heCity.zip
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Andre
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Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2004 10:11 am
Location: Deutschland

Post by Andre » Sun Oct 16, 2005 9:46 am

Wow! Works like a charme! :D

More!!! 8)
André
ijor
Posts: 426
Joined: Thu Mar 10, 2005 3:48 am

Post by ijor » Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:53 am

Running VAPI images of Electronic Arts titles.

There is currently a bug in the Atari800 emulator core that affects all Electronic Arts titles. It includes earlier ECA games like Archon I or MULE, and later ones like Archon II, Racing Destruction Set, etc.

The bug affects all Atari800 derivatives like Atari800Win and Atari800WinPlus. And is exposed when running the original ECA titles under 800 mode (usually known as OS-B mode). ECA titles run fine when using the XL/XE mode.
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