nc100em 1.2 - a family of Amstrad NC100/NC200 emulators:

  gnc100em - (for X) a GTK+-based version (the best, IMHO :-))
  snc100em - an svgalib version
  tnc100em - a tty-based version (only runs ZCN)
  xnc100em - (for X) an Xlib-based version (NC100 only)

Z80 emulation and Xlib code from `xz80', copyright (C) 1994 Ian Collier.
nc100em changes (C) 1995-2001 Russell Marks.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.


ROM issues
----------

The `pdrom.bin' provided here (written by me) is a public domain
replacement ROM which is capable of booting ZCN (my free CP/M-like OS
for the NC100), context saving and restoring, and nothing else -
useful for ZCN, but useless if you want to run the ROM software. (ZCN
is available from http://rus.members.beeb.net/zcn.html or
ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/packages/zcn/.)

No Amstrad code is involved if you run ZCN using the PD ROM, so
there's no need to own an NC100 to do that.

However, if you do own an NC100, you should be able to copy the
original Amstrad ROM for your own personal use with the emulator
(which is capable of running the ROM software) using `romdump' (see
the README in the romdump directory), but it's up to you to correctly
observe copyright law. I'm no lawyer.

`romdump' won't yet dump the NC200's ROM, I'm afraid. :-(


Roadmap
-------

The COPYING file contains a copy of the GPL described above.

The NEWS file describes the changes made between versions - so if
you're upgrading from a previous version, be sure to read that.

ChangeLog is similar to NEWS, but more hacker-orientated. :-)


Description
-----------

nc100em is an Amstrad NC100 emulator. (It also has NC200 support, but
this is less complete.) It supports both the ROM software and my free
CP/M-like replacement OS `ZCN'. There are actually four separate
versions:

- gnc100em, a GTK+-based version for X;

- snc100em, which runs under svgalib on a Linux console (using only
  generic VGA modes, so it should work on any VGA card);

- tnc100em, which runs on any tty (but only works with ZCN);

- xnc100em, an Xlib-based version for X (emulates NC100 only).

snc100em obviously requires Linux. The GTK+ and Xlib versions should
work on any POSIX-ish Unix box with X (and GTK+, in the former case),
though I've only tested it under Linux. tnc100em should run on
anything those two run on, except it doesn't need X. :-)

Associated programs also included are `makememcard', a simple shell
script to make a blank memory card image, and `zcntools', an
mtools-like set of utils for reading/writing memory card images in ZCN
format.


Installation
------------

If you want to compile the GTK+ version (you probably do :-)) then
you'll (obviously) need GTK+ installed. See GTK_NOTES for more on
this.

You'll need an ANSI C compiler. `gcc' is fine - so should most other
compilers be, these days.

Check/edit the Makefile first - if you're compiling the Xlib version,
you may need to change XROOT, for example, and you may want to change
SCALE. But if you're running Linux, it should be ok as-is.

Then do one of these:

(Yes, sorry, there are *many* combinations... :-) Note that most of
these will require GTK+ installed to work; if you don't have it and
don't want to install it, use the `xlib', `tty', or `vga' target.)

- `make', to make all versions (Linux only).
- `make x', to make only the GTK+, Xlib, and tty versions.
- `make gtk', to make only the GTK+ and tty versions.
- `make xlib', to make only the Xlib and tty versions.
- `make tty', to make only the tty version.
- `make vga', to make only the svgalib and tty versions (Linux only).

After compiling, do (as root) `make install', which installs any
programs compiled.

`z80.c' will take a little while to compile on slower/older machines,
and the gcc process gets pretty big. Don't worry about this, it's
simply because of the mind-bending - and above all, fast - way the Z80
emulator works. I don't know why I still bother mentioning this, 'cos
you'll barely notice it on a modern machine. :-)

See the man page (when installed) for details of how to setup nc100em,
how to use it, etc. - and it's important to read it, as you *have* to
set the thing up before you'll be able to do anything in the emulator.


Which version to use
--------------------

The management summary on this one is `use the GTK+ version'. :-)

But seriously, with so many versions, you may wonder which is best to
use. I mean, if you use X, you have three different ones to choose
from! Personally, I like gnc100em best (as you may have twigged), and
it's my preferred version. However, xnc100em is *slightly* more
efficient (there's not as much in it as you'd think), so if you have a
relatively slow machine you may prefer that, or the svgalib-based
snc100em (which is probably the most efficient version). And of
course, snc100em is the best choice if you don't/can't use X, or don't
like it. :-)

Generally you should only use tnc100em as a last resort; the
main exception to this is that, when doing hackish ZCN stuff, not
having to bother with the NC100's awkwardly-shaped screen and small
text can be a definite advantage. (Using gnc100em with `-s' can be
just as good for this though.)


History
-------

I decided to write a NC100 emulator on February 26th 1996. For some
reason. :-)

Thanks to the GNU GPL, I could use Ian Collier's Z80 emulator from
xz80, a ZX Spectrum emulator for X, and replace the X and Spectrum
support code with that for svgalib and the NC100, as I did with my
ZX81 emulator Z81. (I did the X and tty versions later.) And here I am
writing the README the following evening (again). This is an argument
for open source. :-)

I give Ian the main author credit for nc100em, as the Z80 emulation is
much harder to do than emulating the NC100's hardware etc. However,
any correspondence regarding nc100em should be to me, as Ian hasn't
had anything else to do with it and may not appreciate being hassled
by NC100 fans. :-)


Future developments
-------------------

While nc100em is a fairly pointless hack, and not generally a big
priority for me, feel free to try and prod me into making it better,
if you want. :-)

One possible future development - I'm vaguely planning Lapcat support,
to make file transfer to/from the ROM software possible. Actually, the
Lapcat stuff itself would be pretty trivial, the tricky bit would be
doing the file transfer in a tolerably elegant way. (Differentiating
Lapcat I/O from normal printer output would be a bit hairy, but
probably not that hard in practice.)


On a rather different subject, I may well drop the Xlib version before
long; I don't like maintaining two different X versions when I
like/use/understand :-) one so much more than the other. If you use
xnc100em, let me know - I'll leave it in if anyone really wants it.



Contacting me
-------------

You can email me at russell.marks@ntlworld.com.


Share and enjoy! 

-Rus.