So we have a little surprise for you all…… We have the release of PS3Roar. You may have heard that a Tandy Color Computer 1&2 and Dragon 32/64 emulator was in the works. Well CrashSerious has been kind enough to give us the first release of this emulator to share with you. Now that he has most of the kinks worked out, CrashSerious felt it was ready for the release. There is a minor issue with the sound at the moment but it shouldn’t stop you from enjoying this.
Quote of part of the PS3Roar Readme
+= Emulated machines =+
Dragon 32 (PAL).
Dragon 64 (PAL).
Tano Dragon (NTSC).
Tandy Colour Computer (1 and 2) (PAL).
Tandy Color Computer (1 and 2) (NTSC).
+= Current status =+
- 6809 emulation
- Video display (at original pixel size) on a 480p display w/ background
- Keyboard emulation with PSL1GHT_SDL that has a keyboard Driver (https://github.com/CrashSerious/SDL_PSL1GHT)
- Cart loading from /dev_hdd0/game/PS3Roar00/USRDIR/ROMS/ (CTRL-I)
- Cassette loading from /dev_hdd0/game/PS3Roar00/USRDIR/CASSETTES/ (CTRL-L)
- Cassette Saves from /dev_hdd0/game/PS3Roar00/USRDIR/CASSETTES/ (CTRL-W)
- New Cassette creation (currently only one filename is used, a input mechanism is needed)
- Disk loading from /dev_hdd0/game/PS3Roar00/USRDIR/DISKS/ (CTRL 1-4)
- Disk Saving from /dev_hdd0/game/PS3Roar00/USRDIR/DISKS/ (No Key, automatically writable)
- New DISK (.dsk) creation (currently only one filename is used, a input mechanism is needed)
- Snapshot loading from /dev_hdd0/game/PS3Roar00/USRDIR/SNAPSHOTS/ (CTRL+S)
- Snapshot saving to /dev_hdd0/game/PS3Roar00/USRDIR/SNAPSHOTS/
- Emulation Soft Reset (CTRL-R)
- Emulation Hard Reset (SHIFT-CTRL-R)
- Exit (CTRL-C)
- trace mode (with DEX or Ethboot payload)
- Fixed emulator in all resolutions supported by the PS3. 480p, 720p, 1080p, etc
- Switching to and from full screen mode enabled, set full screen to default.
+= Known issues =+
- Sound (Sound is there, but not 100% correct)
+= Keyboard commands: =+
PS3roar’s user interface is based around SDL. The emulator video output window is shown, and all operations are performed with keyboard combinations, usually accessed as Control+KEY. The following are
the keyboard combinations for the functions listed:
-= Loading Files =-
Control+I Insert a ROM cartridge.
Control+Shift+I Insert a ROM cartridge, no autorun.
Control+L Load a cassette file.
Control+Shift+L Load a cassette file and attempt to autorun it where appropriate.
Control+W Attach a virtual cassette file for writing.
Control+[1-4] Insert a virtual disk into drive 1-4.
Control+Shift+[1-4] Insert a blank virtual disk (40TSS) into drive 1-4.
Control+[5-8] Toggle write enable on disk in drive 1-4.
Control+Shift+[5-8] Toggle write back on disk in drive 1-4.
Control+S Save a snapshot.
Control+Shift+S Load a snapshot.
-= System Control Keys =-
Control+R Soft reset emulated machine.
Control+Shift+R Hard reset emulated machine.
Control+C Quit emulator (Power Off).
-= Emulation Configuration Keys =-
Control+K Toggle between Dragon and CoCo keyboard layout. See Keyboard.
Control+A Cycle through cross-colour video modes (hi-res only).
Control+M Cycle through emulated machine types (resets machine).
Control+E Toggle DOS emulation on/off – reset to take effect.
Control+J Cycle through joystick emulation modes (None, Left, Right).
Control+Shift+J Swap joystick mapping (left/right).
Control+Z Enable keyboard translation mode.
Control+F Switch from and back to Full screen mode.
F12 While held, the emulator will run at the maximum possible speed.
Control+U Create and copy from folders on USB for ROMS, CAS, DSK, BIOS, etc.
+= ROMS information =+
The emulator is distributed with some software for the Color Computer II, it is distributed with:
Dungeons of Daggorath, per the license below:
http://iloveglory.freehostia.com/daggorath/license.html
To find other ROMS, and to find BIOS files; search google for the phrase, they are REQUIRED to get
the emulator working:
“color computer” roms
PS3Roar creates a folder structure on a USB drive that does not already contain a “PS3Roar” directory, the structure is:
BIOS
CASSETTES
DISKS
images
ROMS
SNAPSHOTS
These folders correspond to the folders in the installed PS3roar directory on the HDD. Placing files on the USB Stick, then again inserting into the PS3 and pressing CONTROL+U once more will copy the files to the PS3. Once copied, the USB stick can be removed. Note: files are NEVER loaded from USB,
they must be on the internal HDD in the proper location. The CONTROL+U functionality makes this easy and removes the need to FTP files to the PS3.
+= Notes =+
- You will need to unzip the rom files. They need to be .rom files, the emulator doesn’t deal with .zips
- You will need to get your own roms and (for now) place them in /dev_hdd0/game/PS3Roar00/USRDIR/ROMS/ to get the emulator
You will need to get the bios (all 4 of them) yourself but once you do, put the BIOS on the root of a USB pen drive and press Control+U in the emulator and exit, then reload to get the BIOS initialized. You can only use one BIOS at a time. Also I am told, you should be on the look out for the Easter Egg in this program, which can be triggered by an unlisted button combo. Thanks go out to CrashSerious author of this port and thanks to the emulator’s original author Ciaran.
