** 1 page Gemulator 96 2nd opinion / 753 words **

Gemulator 96 "Second Opinion"

Joe Connor goes back to the future to review Gemulator 96...

** g96comp.gif here (as big as possible please) **

I've been a Gemulator user since the early DOS based version and having recently been lured away by MagiC PC I was interested to read Richard's viewpoint.

Gemulator 96 does include a number of changes which make it a much nicer emulator than the early windows release I previously reviewed so now is a good time for a second look. The following changes grabbed my attention:

TOS image support
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Using "ROM extractor" software TOS image files can now be saved to disk and loaded by Gemulator instead of reading the real thing from the ROM card - which is now an optional purchase.
This means laptop PCs, with no slot to install a ROM card, can now run Gemulator! The MagiC OS is also supported offering true pre-emptive multitasking in mono and four colour resolutions. Geneva does not appear to be supported.

Winsizer
** WINSIZER.GIF here **
This Freeware utility, programmed by Mårten Lindström, is a replacement for VGAWIN.PRG, a Gemulator utility which supports higher than standard ST mono and colour resolutions. However, VGAWIN.PRG displays colour resolutions using ST low AES screen gadgets with half height dialogs and fonts and screen redraw speed is slow. The solution is to use NVDI except getting VGAWIN and NVDI to work together requires getting the correct Auto folder order and a suitable desktop INF file - I've wasted hours setting up working resolutions.
Under TOS WinSizer works first time, every time, offers extra resolutions and always displays the correct fonts - with or without NVDI! Sadly Winsizer did not work properly with MagiC 5 and I had to retrieve my copy of VGAWIN.PRG from the bin!

DirectX mode
If you want to pretend you're running a real Atari machine run Gemulator in DirectX mode (a component of Windows 95 and Windows NT) and Gemulator completely fills the screen. Using the [Alternate]+[Enter] keyboard combination toggles between windowed and full screen mode offering the best of both worlds.

Video modes
Running TOS, Gemulator supports the three standard ST resolutions plus some extended four and sixteen colour resolutions up to the capability of your monitor. 800x600x16 colours was a good working resolution on my system. Under MagiC 5 the three standard ST resolutions, plus 300x200x16, 640x400x4 and any monochrome resolution up to the capability of your monitor are supported.
Extended 16 and 256 colour modes are not possible although these are planned for Gemulator 97 which should also feature Atari TT and Apple Macintosh emulation.

Other stuff
Previous Gemulator versions did not support the [Alternate]+[Numeric keypad] method of entering special characters but happily these have now been implemented, there's still a non-functional backslash key to whinge about - but at least this can now be accessed (most of the time) by pressing [Alternate]+92 on a UK keyboard.

Conclusions
If you don't need long filename support or 256 (or higher) colour resolutions and you intend to run single TOS most of the time Gemulator 96 is a mature product which is attractively priced at almost half the price of MagiC PC.
If you intend to run MagiC most of the time MagiC PC is the best option - MagiC support in Gemulator is bolted on - and it shows.

** Boxout **
Benchmarks
Test system: Pentium Intel 133MHz, 16Mb memory, PCI video card
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** Caption **
Left: Gemulator running MagiC 5. Right: Gemulator running TOS 2.06. Both tests performed on bare systems without NVDI. Compared with MagiC PC (Gembench results in AC#3 p29) Gemulator turns in faster results.
** end boxout **

** Product boxout **
Publisher: Emulators, Inc.
Email: emulators@msn.com
URL: http://www.emulators.com
UK distribution: FaST Club, PO Box 101, Nottingham, NG2 7NN
Tel: +44 (0)115 945 5250
Fax: +44 (0)115 914 0545
Email: stclub@cix.co.uk
URL: http://www.cix.co.uk/~sta/
Cost: Gemulator96 software: £49.95. Gemulator 96, ROM reader card and TOS 2.06 ROMs: £149.95, prices include P&P.
Requirements: TOS 1.04 or 2.06 on ROM reader card or TOS image file. Alternatively MagiC versions 2, 4 and 5. Pentium 75 can provide TT speed emulation. 8Mb memory minimum, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 or Windows NT.
Pros:
** bulleted list **
* Excellent TOS emulation
* Usable without NVDI (on faster machines)
* ST-medium support
* Competitively priced
** end list **
Cons:
** bulleted list **
* No support for 256 colour (or greater) resolutions under TOS
* Windows 95 file system not supported
* No support for 16 colour (or greater) resolutions under MagiC
** end list **
Rating: 88%
** end boxout **