            *********************************************************
            *  NOTES ABOUT THE WINDOWS BUILD OF REALSPECTRUM (RS32) *
            *********************************************************

                                   RELEASE 14
                           (v0.97.31 - May 1st 2005)


----=[ Introduction ]=---------------------------------------------------------------

RS32 is not a new emulator; it's just the good old RealSpectrum recompiled to run
under Windows natively, without the need of MSDOS. Therefore, it does not contain
any significant changes respect to the classic RS. You will find the same features
and, most importantly, the very same user interface and look-and-feel.

For the complete documentation about RealSpectrum, please refer to the user manual
of the DOS version. This file only contains some additional notes about the
peculiarities of the Win32 adaptation.

We made this special version of RealSpectrum as a temporary solution to the DOS
compatibility problems on modern operating systems, namely Windows 2000 and XP.
Since RS32 is now fully a Win32 program, it uses regular Windows functions for sound
and graphics, eliminating all the well-known troubles arising with MSDOS programs.
Another thing that will now work also on NT-based systems is the high-precision
timer (TSC), the lack of which was the cause for speed violation errors during
compo-mode input recordings and other synchronization problems.
RS32 uses the Windows port of the Allegro library, which in turn relies on DirectX.

In general, bear in mind that RS32 still behaves like a DOS-minded application, so
don't expect any advanced interactions which are typical for Windows programs.

SINCE IT'S JUST AN EXPERIMENT, DON'T EVEN EXPECT IT TO WORK ON YOUR SYSTEM AT ALL.
However, if you experience troubles and bugs please report them to us and we'll try
to release fixes and patches as needed.

If you have no problems running RealSpectrum for DOS (e.g. you have Windows 98/ME),
we recommend you to keep using it since it is probably more stable and tested.
Unless you prefer RS32 because it runs windowed and it is more Windows-friendly,
of course :)

If you want a modern, full-blown emulator designed and optimized specifically for
Windows and DirectX, wait for our next-generation emulator which will be in your
hands soon. In the meantime, you can continue to use the old RealSpectrum also
under Windows 2000/XP with RS32.


----=[ Usage notes ]=----------------------------------------------------------------

RS32 is currently a Win32 console application. It will open a command prompt box
when you launch it, which you can later minimize but not close. This sligtly
annoying effect might be removed in later releases, in the meantime the console box
is used to report the usual status messages.

You can start RS32 by double-clicking over its icon (or a link to it), or from
the command prompt as in DOS. You can also drag snapshot and tape files over
the icon, which will be loaded/inserted on startup. We haven't tried to associate
the supported file types to RS32, but that could work too.
When you drop a tape file over the RS32 icon, AutoLoading will be implicitly enabled
for that tape, and so the program will be loaded automatically on startup; by the way
remember that you can disable the welcome message box in the INI, if it hurts you :-) 

Quit by clicking on the close button of the window, or by pressing the usual F10 key.

If you are running several other applications at the same time, RS32 might slow down
a bit. You can increase the priority assigned to RS32 by the operating system by
rising the "ThreadPriority:" setting in the [GENERAL] section of the INI file.
The higher the number, the higher the CPU time that will be dedicated to RS32 to the
detriment of other applications. See the comment in the INI for more information.


----=[ Video ]=----------------------------------------------------------------------

RS32 can run both in a window and fullscreen. You can toggle between the two modes
using the new option in the F11 menu. The INI file contains a new setting called
"Fullscreen:" which determines the visualization mode used at startup; it can be
overridden with the command-line switch "-fullscreen".
Besides, the F11 menu contains an option to activate special blitter effects to
render differently the Spectrum image to the PC screen; at the moment the available
choices are "Standard 1x" (normal size display), "Pixel Scaler 2x" (2x zoomed display
with simple pixel doubling) and "Vector Scaler 2x" (2x zoomed display with a special
interpolation). The blitter effect can be selected in the INI file ("BlitterFX:")
and with the command-line switch "-blitterfx N" (N=0-2).


----=[ Sound ]=----------------------------------------------------------------------

The default master volume is set to half-way in the INI (128) to prevent clipping,
while it was set to max (255) in RSDOS. Just a precaution to accomodate certain
sound drivers.
Feel free to increase the volume if it sounds too low on your system.


----=[ RealDisk ]=-------------------------------------------------------------------

RS32 offers complete RealDisk support under Windows 2000/XP/2003/XP64 and above,
with the ability to read, write and format both standard and copy-protected disks.
In order to access RealDisk, you must first download and install the FDRAWCMD driver
by Simon Owen, which is freely available from http://simonowen.com/fdrawcmd/
Choose the appropriate version for your system (32 or 64-bit Windows) and run FdInstall
to install or remove the driver.
Please check that the type of your PC disk drive matches the one reported in the ALT-F6
control panel (default: 3.5" 1.44MB). If it's different, move the cursor over the line
labeled "Realdisk drive" and press SPACE repeatedly until the description matches your
actual configuration.


----=[ MP3, OGG and WAV support ]=---------------------------------------------------

In addition to all the file types supported for tape loading by the DOS version,
RS32 allows to load tape files compressed in MP3, OGG and generic ACM WAV format.
From our tests, reliable loading of fast turbo loaders can be guaranteed by the
following minimum bitrates: 64Kbps mono (or 80Kbps stereo) for MP3; 80Kbps mono
(or 128 stereo) for OGG Vorbis. The Codemasters turbo (14000 baud!) loads back
perfectly from an MP3 file compressed with LAME at 112Kbps stereo.
Note: generic WAV files can contain data compressed with any codec, e.g. Windows
Media Audio (WMA), AC3, MP3, etc. Of course you need to have proper ACM codec
installed on your system to decoded them. Be aware that some codecs may be
unsuitable to compress computer tapes; we have successfully tested MP3 and OGG,
others untested.


----=[ Input Recording ]=------------------------------------------------------------

The Input Recording menu is now located in ALT-F8 instead of ALT-F4.

RS32 supports the new RZX format instead of AIR. The RZX specifications are still
being developed, so this feature must be considered experimental. If you don't know
what RZX is (and you really should), check out our RZX development page at this URL:
http://www.ramsoft.bbk.org/rzx.html


----=[ Known limitations ]=----------------------------------------------------------

The following functions have been temporarily disabled in this version, because they
contain some DOS-specific code which cannot be recompiled under Windows without
requiring some additional work:

* RealTape
* Networking

They may be reintroduced in later releases, depending on how much time we can
dedicate to RS32 instead of working on the new RealX :-)


Have fun,

Ramsoft staff         <ramsoft@bbk.org>
---------------------------------------
RAMSOFT - ZX Spectrum demogroup    ////
   http://www.ramsoft.bbk.org     ////
Home of RealSpectrum and MakeTZX ////
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