incompatible.txt

Programs incompatible with EmuTOS
=================================
This is a list of programs that have been found to contain bugs or
shortcomings that prevent them from running properly with EmuTOS, and
whose problem has been definitively identified.  It is mainly intended
to prevent these programs from being added to 'bugs.txt' in the future.
If you're an OS programmer, you may also find it slightly amusing to see
the weird and wonderful ways some programmers have found to abuse an OS.

Note: in many cases, programs that run on TOS 1.x but not on EmuTOS don't
run on Atari TOS 2.06 either.  Sometimes they might run on one language
version but not another (e.g. ok on TOS 2.06UK, not on TOS 2.06US).  This
is invariably caused by the use of undocumented addresses or interfaces,
or trying to find some 'private' TOS address by the use of heuristics.


Common issues
=============

Category: STOS Basic program
----------------------------
Error 1: joystick and/or keyboard input doesn't work.

Bug analysis:
STOS Basic compiler routines check for input using undocumented and
TOS-specific locations.  Programs using these routines work only with
specific TOS versions, and not with EmuTOS.

Workaround:
Use version of the program that has been fixed to work with modern TOS
versions.

Error 2: STOS error message "Error #046, press any key" during startup.

Bug analysis:
This is caused by a divide-by-zero error in vsm_height() when the
program is run from the AUTO folder.  VDI initialisation does not occur
until after AUTO-folder programs have been run, so if a VDI function is
called by an AUTO-folder program, internal variables have not been
initialised.  STOS tries to initialise these variables itself, based on
a built-in table of TOS-specific locations.  These locations are invalid
for EmuTOS, so the required variables remain zero, causing the error.

Workaround:
Move the program from the AUTO folder to the root of the drive, and run
it from there.  While STOS programs will then start, most of them will
remain unusable due to error 1 above.

Error 3: Any other error you could imagine.

Bug analysis:
STOS uses a builtin address to point to VDI private variables which it
then updates.  Needless to say, this could cause just about any kind of
bug you could imagine.  For example, the Bomb Squad game for the Falcon
runs four times more slowly under (some versions of) EmuTOS than TOS.
In this particular case, STOS overwrote the internal 'timer sieve'
variable so that etv_timer() was called four times less frequently.

Note: STOS programs can sometimes be identified by the presence of *.MBK
files (STOS memory bank files).


Category: Omikron Basic program
-------------------------------

Programs compiled with older Omikron Basic versions rely on undocumented
internal TOS variables at several points.

Error 1: crash at start / during disk access

Bug analysis:
Program expects A0 upon return from Mediach (BIOS function) to point
to wplatch (floppy write protect latch variable). On EmuTOS A0 is
undefined and hence a bus error can occur when the program modifies
that variable.

Error 2: crash at start / during display updates

Bug analysis:
Program parses the bytes of the 0xA00A (hide cursor) line-A routine to
get the address of a variable reflecting the internal state of the
mouse cursor:
    https://sourceforge.net/p/emutos/mailman/message/30605378/
This also fails on EmuTOS, resulting in (another) bus error (or possibly
the mouse cursor not being visible).

Known failing programs (and their Omikron Basic library version):
- Hypnosis 1.5 (v3.05)
- Ramses (v3.00)
- OMIKRON.BASIC interpreter v3.01 (v3.0x)
- Quaderno 1.5 (v3.05)

Only older Basic library versions seem to have these issues. v3.5x and
v3.6x versions supporting Falcon do not have these issues.

Omikron Basic programs and the Basic library version they use can
be identified from the strings in the binaries:
    strings some.prg | grep -i omikron


Category: program created by ST Adventure Creator (STAC)
--------------------------------------------------------
Error 1: crash during startup.

Bug analysis:
Some (all?) STAC programs copy themselves to a fixed address in RAM at
around $1F120.  Depending on how much is already loaded into RAM
(AUTO-folder programs, ACCs), the program can end up overwriting its own
basepage, leading to crashes when a subsequent GEMDOS call tries to
access basepage information.  This crash can also happen under TOS 2.

Workaround:
Boot with a bare system (press Ctrl at the Welcome page).


Category: old game using fixed addresses
----------------------------------------
Error: panic or hang during game startup.

Bug analysis:
Several old, floppy-only games load their data into fixed memory
addresses, which won't work when EmuTOS has loaded something else
there.  This can be detected by tracing programs' OS calls with Hatari
(--trace os_all) and checking the used addresses. For example, under
older EmuTOS versions, the Gods game demo (from an ST Format cover disk)
overwrote itself with its game data because of this, and crashed.  Some
games (e.g. Turrican) use very low memory areas that are also used by
TOS, but choose those areas carefully.  This can never work with EmuTOS.

Workarounds:
In some games this can be worked around by either using the cartridge
version of EmuTOS (which uses less memory) or by using a custom high-RAM
build of EmuTOS, that uses higher RAM addresses for loading programs and
for memory allocation:
make 512 UNIQUE=uk DEF="-DSTATIC_ALT_RAM_ADDRESS=0x00080000 -DCONF_WITH_FRB=0"

However, this doesn't help with programs which also expect undocumented,
OS internal functions and variables to be at certain locations.  The
best workaround is to use a version of the game that has been fixed to
run from HD and with modern TOS versions.


Category: old game using undocumented addresses for joystick/keyboard data
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Error: joystick and/or keyboard is ignored.

Bug analysis:
Some old games monitor the joystick and/or keyboard by looking at words
that are at offsets 0x3c/0x6c (respectively) from the address returned by
Kbdvbase().  That was never documented by Atari, but is apparently true in
all versions of TOS 1.  However it is not true for TOS 2/3/4 (or EmuTOS).

Some guilty programs:
. Joystick monitoring:
    Douglas Rockmoor, Space Invaders, Crystal Cave, Macro War, Brain Blasters
. Keyboard monitoring:
    (VDI) Invaders, Anduril, Brain Blasters



Unique issues
=============

Program: Art for Kids
---------------------
Error: crash during program startup, before anything is displayed, when
using 512K/1024K ROMs

Bug analysis:
The program uses the TOS version in the OS header to decide how to
interpret the country code in os_conf.  If the version is not 4, the
program assumes a valid country code and uses it as an index into an
array of pointers.  EmuTOS 512K/1024K ROMs use a TOS version of 2, but set
os_conf to 0xff to indicate multilanguage.  This causes a crash when the
program indexes beyond the end of the array and loads a garbage pointer.

Workaround:
This is an STe program: use an EmuTOS 256K ROM.


Program: Awele v1.01
--------------------
Error: mono desktop colours are inverted after exiting program.

Bug analysis:
This version of Awele was compiled with PureC and linked with a very
early version of WinDOM.  During WinDOM initialisation, malloc() is
called to allocate an area to save the palette in.  However, although
malloc() returns the pointer in A0, the WinDOM code assumes it is in D0.
As a result, an area of low memory is pointed to, which is overwritten
during Awele execution.  At program termination, the palette is restored
from the overwritten area, resulting in the error seen.

Workaround:
Use v1.02 of the game.


Program: Cameleon
-----------------
Error 1: program exits immediately when 'Start game' is selected.

Bug analysis:
The program requires an STe.  In order to determine whether it is
running on an STe, it checks the contents of location 0x995 (hardcoded).
On Atari TOS, this is where TOS initialisation happens to store the _MCH
cookie but this is *not* how Atari says you should locate it (and it's
not where EmuTOS stores it).

Error 2: program crashes with a Trace exception on any exit.

Bug analysis:
During startup, the program switches to supervisor state via the Super()
system call.  Subsequently, the supervisor stack overwrites the program's
user stack.  On exit, the user stack pointer is restored and during this
a corrupted value is loaded into the SR, causing a trace exception.


Program: CP/M-Z80 Emulator by SoftDesign
----------------------------------------
Error: Crashes with bus error when loading CP/M-Z80 disk.

Bug analysis:
The program expects to find the initial environment at the fixed memory
address 0x840. This address is used by Atari TOS 1.00 - 2.06 but it is
undocumented. The initial environment of EmuTOS is located elsewhere in
RAM.


Program: CTRL.ACC/CONTROL.ACC (from ST/STe Language Disks)
----------------------------------------------------------
Error: hangs on startup; eventually crashes with bus error

Bug analysis:
The program searches the buffer returned by shel_read() for lines
beginning with '#a', '#b' and '#c' and never tests for buffer end.
EmuTOS does not use these lines and only fakes the '#a' line for
compatibility with EMULATOR.ACC.

Workaround:
Use a less-buggy control panel, e.g. XCONTROL.ACC from the TT or
Falcon Language Disk.


Program: Cubase v2, v3.01 & Lite
--------------------------------
Error: panic

Bug analysis:
On TOS (v1.62) etv_timer vector is a delegate to an internal private
function.  Cubase tries to guess the address of that private function
in an undocumented way, which crashes on EmuTOS. If that is patched,
crash happens on next private function which Cubase tries to search
for.


Program: Flexdisk 1.7
---------------------
Error: fails to load, complaining about not enough memory

Bug analysis:
This RAM disk software accesses internal TOS variables to manage its
memory. To achieve that, it has a list of known Atari TOS versions and
corresponding memory addresses. Thus, it does not work on versions of
TOS that are unknown to the program, such as EmuTOS or Atari TOS 4.04.


Program: Flood (game)
---------------------
Error: crash while loading

Bug analysis:
The game deselects the floppy drive too early from an interrupt routine
while still loading data, causing the read to time out. It does not check if
the floppy disk read was successful and crashes while processing the only
partially loaded data.
Note: Flood works with Atari TOS because Atari TOS reselects and retries
a floppy disk access when a timeout occurs. As a deliberate design decision,
EmuTOS only retries in case of floppy disk read errors, but not in case of
a timeout to not unnecessarily slow down booting.


Program: G-Loc (game)
---------------------
Error: Fails to load from original floppy disk.

Bug analysis:
On the floppy disk, sector 6 of the first track is unreadable as part of
the copy protection. To reliably detect media change, EmuTOS calculates
a checksum over the first six sectors, which fails. Therefore, the disk
is considered unreadable by EmuTOS and the game loader (in the AUTO
folder) is not run.

Note: The game fails to load for the same reason under Atari TOS 2.06,
which uses a similar media change detection method.


Program: GFA Basic
------------------
Error: Black background for file selector/form alerts

Bug analysis:
This only occurs when GFA Basic is launched in ST Low resolution, under
a version of EmuTOS that supports 3D objects.  After launch, GFA Basic
automatically switches to ST Medium without notifying the AES.  However,
with 3D object support, EmuTOS sets up the file selector/form alerts
differently between ST Low and ST Medium, and this causes the black
backgrounds.

Workaround:
On versions of EmuTOS with 3D object support, launch GFA Basic in ST
Medium.

Note: Other programs which change resolutions without notifying the
AES may have similar problems.


Program: HDCOOKIE
-----------------
Error: Fails to set the _FDC cookie.

Bug analysis:
HDCOOKIE is supposed to set the _FDC cookie to indicate high-density
(HD) floppy disk support in machines upgraded with a HD module.
However, it fails when an _FDC cookie already exists, as it is always
the case under EmuTOS.

Workaround:
Use a different program to manipulate the _FDC cookie, e.g., ACC.PRG
by Steffen Engel.


Program: Indigo (game)
----------------------
Error: random crashes and glitches (depending on exact EmuTOS version)

Bug analysis:
This unreleased Psygnosis game loads itself at a fixed address of 0x6000,
overwriting part of EmuTOS's BSS. It lets the Timer C interrupt run. The
etv_timer handler of EmuTOS is invoked, which writes to variables in the
BSS, modifying the game code loaded there. The exact location of these
variables, and, therefore, the effects depend on EmuTOS version and variant.


Program: Luftschloss
--------------------
Error: Fails to load with an error message about the MPB variable.

Bug analysis:
Luftschloss is a reset resident RAM disk originally distributed with
the German book "Scheibenkleister". It does its memory management
itself, without using GEMDOS functions. For that, it needs to
determine the location of an undocumented system variable, the memory
parameter block (MPB). The heuristic it uses to find the memory
address of that variable only works with Atari TOS.


Program: MidiDraw v1.00
-----------------------
Error: Crashes with "Illegal instruction" message.

Bug analysis:
The program relies on undocumented internal TOS variables.  It expects
the word at offset 0x12 from the beginning of the system's keyboard/MIDI
interrupt handler to contain the address of a private system variable.
This is true on TOS 1.00 only.  MidiDraw installs its own keyboard/MIDI
interrupt handler which uses that saved address to generate a subroutine
address; under EmuTOS this gives an address of zero.  When the interrupt
handler branches to that address, it causes an illegal instruction
interrupt.
NOTE: the program also crashes on all versions of Atari TOS except 1.00,
although the actual details of the crash are slightly different.


Program: Protracker v2 STE (Equinox version)
--------------------------------------------
Error: crash when "DISK OP." button is selected

Bug analysis:
The program relies on a TOS-specific code sequence, as follows:
1. it searches the ROM (pointed to by location 4) for the first word
   equal to 0x47e
2. when found, it uses the longword immediately before as a pointer to
   an address; in TOS2, this is a pointer to the mediachange handler
3. it stores the long at offset 0x1c from that address in its data
   segment; in TOS2, this is a pointer to (I think) two bytes of
   status for the floppy drives
Subsequently, when "DISK OP." is selected, the stored long is used as a
pointer.  In TOS2, the value stored is $4216; in EmuTOS, it's zero,
resulting in a crash.

Workaround:
Use an alternate tracker program.  There are many Protracker variants and
other module tracker programs which work fine with EmuTOS.


Program: Reservoir Gods programs on the Falcon
----------------------------------------------
This applies to (at least): Bugger, Bunion, Fractal Playground, SkyFall, Sworm

Error: panic

Bug analysis:
Programs use an undocumented TOS4 vector for keyboard input instead of
accessing kbdvec and/or 'shifty' correctly.  This causes EmuTOS to panic.

Workaround:
In the programs listed above, this can be worked around with the following
hack.prg:
    https://sourceforge.net/p/emutos/mailman/message/26841274/
This may also work with other Reservoir Gods programs.


Program: Sea of Colour
----------------------
Error: does not run when started from an ACSI hard disk

Bug analysis:
To be compatible with all ACSI devices, EmuTOS must wait for five
milliseconds between ACSI commands, as specified in the "Atari ACSI/DMA
integration guide." However, the demo expects ACSI transfers to complete
faster and therefore fails to run correctly. Such faster transfers can
be achieved with HDDRIVER's "accelerated mode" at the expense of breaking
compatibility with slower ACSI devices.

Note 1: Sea of Colour fails with similar symptoms and for the same reason
under Atari TOS when using AHDI or CBHD hard disk drivers or when using
HDDRIVER without activating the "accelerated mode."

Note 2: Sea of Colour can be run under EmuTOS from an IDE hard disk or an
emulator's GEMDOS drive.


Program: Spectrum 512
---------------------
Error: crash during program initialisation

Bug analysis:
The program relies on a TOS-specific code sequence, as follows:
1. it searches the VBL handler (pointed to by location $70) for the
   first word containing a value of 0x6100
2. when found, it uses the word immediately following as an index to
   generate an address, and starts searching at that address for a
   word containing a value of 0x8606
Under EmuTOS, the address generated is a nonsense address which happens
to be odd, causing an immediate address error.


Program: Striker9
-----------------
Error: Cannot exit from startup screen

Bug analysis:
In its joystick vector handler, the program looks at the contents of
register d1, which in Atari TOS 1 is an address within the joystick
buffer, and ignores the interrupt if d1 bit 0 is 0.  In EmuTOS, d1 is
not an address and it is always even.  This program does not work in
TOS 2.06.


Program: STSpeech v2.0
----------------------
Error: panics due to stack corruption

Bug analysis:
The program installs a custom Timer A interrupt handler, and calls the
XBIOS from it.  If the Timer A interrupt happens to occur just when an
unrelated BIOS/XBIOS call is manipulating _savptr (saving registers),
then the nested XBIOS call inside the Timer A handler will trash that
BIOS/XBIOS save area, possibly modifying the stack pointer. In the
"Hitchhiker's Guide to the BIOS", Atari documented a workaround for this,
but STSpeech does not use it.

Workaround:
Because this problem is timing-dependent, it does not show up on Atari
TOS, and only shows up in EmuTOS if BigDOS is installed (BigDOS issues
many XBIOS calls).  Use program without BigDOS, or anything else doing
a lot of XBIOS calls.


Program: STVidPlay
------------------
Error: "Error in getting file location"

Bug analysis:
Program looks for a specific 2-byte sequence in the hard disk driver
code pointed to by hdv_rw ($476).  If it doesn't find that sequence
within bytes 6-48 (or thereabouts) of the start of the driver, it
gives the error message.


Program: Super Cauldron demo
----------------------------
Error: Cannot exit from startup screen

Bug analysis:
Program gets the address of the IKBD handler, then inserts jumps to
various fixed offsets within that handler into its own code.  The fact
that it does not crash is pure chance; when run under TOS 2.06, it does
crash.


Program: Turbo ST 1.8 (and possibly other versions)
---------------------------------------------------
Error: Screen drawing errors

Bug analysis:
The program modifies internal VDI variables, presumably to speed up
the VDI. The internal data structures of EmuTOS VDI differ from
Atari's VDI implementation in TOS.
Note: Turbo ST is known to cause drawing errors and to crash under
Atari TOS, too.

Workaround:
Use NVDI.


Program: Warp9 v3.80 (TT version)
---------------------------------
Errors: EmuDesk screen drawing errors with 512K/1024K EmuTOS images on a TT

Bug analysis:
The different versions of Warp9 for different systems correspond to
differing internal layouts of the virtual workstation structure, which
are related to the maximum number of bits/pixel supported.  Since the
512K/1024K EmuTOS images must handle the Falcon (16bpp) as well as the
TT (8bpp), the virtual workstation layout used by 512K/1024K EmuTOS
images corresponds to that of the Falcon rather than the TT.
NOTE: under EmuTOS releases prior to 1.0, Warp9 fails to install and
therefore no errors are seen.

Workaround:
When running EmuTOS on emulated or real TT hardware, use the Falcon
version of Warp9 (WARP9_FA.PRG).
NOTE: Since 192K/256K versions of EmuTOS only support ST(e) hardware,
WARP9_ST.PRG is the version to use for them.