RPCEmu 0.8.9 released

VinceH

Peter and Matthew Howkins have announced the availability of a new version of free emulator RPCEmu.

Version 0.8.9 brings with it a long list of improvements, fixes and new features. These include, for all the platforms on which the emulator can be run:

  • There is now support for emulation of 256 MB of RAM. This is the maximum amount supported by the RiscPC (which, as its name suggests, is hardware the emulator is originally designed to emulate) and A7000.
  • A new option has been added to reduce CPU usage. When enabled, RPCEmu will try to reduce the amount of CPU usage by utilising the ‘Idle’ feature of RISC OS. The effects should be seen roughly 30 seconds after booting RISC OS, provided activity is low enough. This feature does not require a ‘Portable’ module, and is partly based on code by Jeffrey Lee.
  • A two-button mouse mode has been added which swaps the right and middle mouse button behaviour, meaning the right hand button (normally Adjust on RISC OS) acts like the  middle button (normally Menu). When used on systems with a two button mouse or other pointing device, such as the touch-pad found on most laptops), this means the two buttons become Select and Menu, and there is no need to move your hand to the keyboard to call up a RISC OS menu.
  • There have been several fixes to the “Follow host mouse” feature, which should make it more reliable: It now correctly interprets OS_Byte 106 and handles pointer/cursor linking.
  • SWIs are now intercepted even when called using CallASWI. This, based on a patch by Alan Buckley, further improves the reliability of the “Follow host mouse” feature.
  • When changing between emulating a RiscPC and an A7000, the emulator will now appropriately (re)configure the mouse type, removing the need to issue the necessary *configure star command.
  • Resolved a bug in which an ARM instruction including a rotate could set the C flag incorrectly.
  • A possible crash in the Dynamic Recompiler has been prevented thanks to a fix from Tom Walker.
  • When using RISC OS 4.02 with no VRAM configured, RPCEmu now boots in RiscPC emulation.
  • There are accuracy improvements to the emulation of IOMD.
  • A workaround has been implemented to the ADC issue on the 64bit recompiler, which prevented RISC OS 5.17 from booting.
  • Refactoring of code, particularly relating to RAM and IOMD.

Changes relating to the Windows version:

  • The window size has been increased vertically by one pixel. Previously it was too short, resulting in the very bottom row of the display being missing.
  • There have been some improvements to the GUI, including the enabling of Windows “Visual Styles” so that windows adopt the native look of the OS, as well as improving the layout of the “Configure” window.
  • A potential freeze when choosing “File->Exit” has been fixed.
  • An improved icon, which now includes high-resolution variants for Windows Vista and later.

Changes relating to the Linux version:

  • Some improvements to the GUI, including improving the layout of the “Configure” window.

Note: Before installing the Windows version, it is recommended that backup copies are made of your cmos.ram and rpc.cfg files – these may be overwritten during the installation process, losing your choices and settings. Once the installation has been carried out, you should be able to copy them back into their original locations, and they will be recognised by the new version.

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