The FreeDO Project Beta README.TXT

Public Beta Release 1.3 Notes - 5/19/2003

by awright69 and felixl

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1	System requirements
2	File names and locations
3	Starting the emulator
4	Using the emulator
	a Loading ISO images
	b Running the CPU
	c Stopping the CPU
	d Controls/How to play games
	e Fullscreen
5	Bug reports
6	Credits
	
	
1 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
  P3-1.0 GHz or faster processor. P4-1.4 GHz recommended for close to 100% speed.
  Windows 2000 or Windows XP. Other Win32 platforms MAY work, but they are NOT supported.
  64 MB RAM. More is better since you won't swap as much.
  ISO-2048 images of the games you wish to test. Our goal is to provide complete physical CD-ROM support in a later release. You can find instructions on how to "rip" CD-ROM titles on the forum if you haven't done so already.
  
  
2 FILE NAMES AND LOCATIONS

In the installation directory, place all the files you received with this installer into a directory of your choice (say, "C:\Program Files\FreeDO"). 

You will need to obtain a 3DO BIOS ROM (we CANNOT legally provide this for you, so don't ask! You will have to find some way to obtain this for yourself. There are ways to extract this ROM from your 3DO, but we're not going to detail that here.)

The BIOS MUST be placed in the same directory as the FreeDO executable file.

An NVRAM file will be created at the root of "C:\" and be called "NVRAM.BIN". This will contain your game saves.

Depending on the version of the beta, from time to time other files may be created and/or destroyed in the root of C:\ or the program direcotry itself as games are played. Some of these files may be of use to the development team in debugging a particular problem. You may delete these files safely, after FreeDO has executed, to free space. We will try in the future to be "cleaner" but we can't promise.... ;-)

3 STARTING THE EMULATOR
TO start the emulator, click on the FreeDO executable in File Explorer or type FreeDORel.EXE in the current directory at a command prompt. The emulator will start, and present you with a black/greyshade playfield, and a menubar with the following items (from left to right):
Quit - Obvious. Immediately stops the emulator and exits the program.
CD-ROM - "Load: ISO images, and (eventually) "eject" them.
CPU - Only functional items you need to use in here are "Start/Stop ---> Start, Stop, Reset" - this menu item starts and stops the CPU, and resets the virtual 3DO machine (may not work with all titles). You can also use the F2 key to start, and the F3 key to stop, the emulation.
CEL, VDL, DSP, PBUS - not used in the Beta. Function changes are disabled and the controllers are fixed to keyboard operations only for now.


4 USING THE EMULATOR
a Loading ISO Images
  Let's assume you have created an ISO-2048 image of the game you wish to test and you have placed it on your harddrive or burned it to a CD-ROM. To "load" it into the emulator, select "CD-ROM ---> Open ISO" from the FreeDO menubar. A dialog box will open which will allow you to select the ISO image you wish to play.
b Running the CPU
  Now that you have loaded an ISO image, or if you simply want to watch the 3DO "BIOS" run, you can press F2 or select "CPU ---> Start/Stop ---> Start" from the FreeDO menubar.
c Stopping the CPU
  Press F3 or select "CPU ---> Start/Stop ---> Stop" from the FreeDO menubar.
d Controls / How to play games  
  Here is a mapping of the PC kayboard to 3DO controls. Sorry, 1-player only for now.   
  3DO			PC
  "A"			"A"
  "B"			"S"
  "C"			"D"
  "X"			"]"
  "P"			"Enter"
  "LS"			"Q"
  "RS"			"E"
  up/down/left/right	up/down/left/right   
e Fullscreen mode
  Press F4 to enter fullscreen. You cannot return to windowed mode from fullscreen; we are aware of this bug and we will work to fix it.

5 BUG REPORTS
We know you will find many, many bugs in this release. Please do not notify the FreeDO project developers about ANY bugs by email. Instead, please limit your reports to the FreeDO forums, and ONLY post if a similar bug has not already been posted there.

6 CREDITS
  FreeDO code is (c) Felix Lazarev, Alexander Trush, John Sammons, and others. 
  "3DO" is (r) (tm) (c) 3DO Corporation, Redwood City CA USA.
  Please, don't pirate, reverse-engineer, or disassemble any of this code for your own use or the use of others. Any such action or use is expressly forbidden.
  