
               ACE 32 - A Dos emulator for the Jupiter ACE
               ===========================================

Introduction
------------

The Jupiter Ace was a Z80 based machine released by Jupiter Cantab in 1983,
designed by two former Sinclair Employees. It was unique in that it was
the only home micro that used FORTH as its language (that I know of)
It came with 3k of RAM, but 2k of this was immediately sacrificed to the
display. A 16k RAM Pack was produced. The display was 32 x 24 monochrome
with 128 user defined characters (each of which could be reversed), and
included a buzzer. Storage was on a cassette tape, at either 300 baud or
1500 baud.

This is the first (AFAIK) Jupiter Ace emulator available. It emulates
a machine with 19k of RAM. (17k useable) It can be reconfigured for
3k of RAM or 35k of RAM (1k and 33k useable).

If you have some software for this machine, please let me know. I
believe there was a small collection, mostly non-commercial.

For more information about the Ace, see the FAQ at
[http://users.aol.com/autismuk/ace/faq.htm]

Features
--------
 - Full Z80 Emulation.
 - Built in Z80 Debugger.
 - 32 x 24 x 128 Characters Video Display Emulation.
 - Keyboard.
 - Mapping of Arrow Keys and Backspace onto appropriate Ace keys.
 - Mapping for : ; + - . , + - = < > " onto equivalent Ace keys (" as ')
 - Video Colour Scheme Changes.
 - Sound (via the incredible buzzer).
 - Snapshot Save & Load (save under any alphanumeric name).
 - Change MemSize Boot (hold down Ctrl on Reset).
 - Compression of Snapshots on Save and Load.
 - Ace Tape Program Loading.
 - Keyboard Image available for punctuation characters
 - Spooling in from a text file supported

Software Request
----------------
There was very little software available for this machine, but I and
others are attempting to collect what there is. If you have any
software for the Ace,  on cassette tape, on paper or as a magazine
listing please let me know so all fans of the Ace can share it.

I would be grateful for copies / loans / scans of the "Ace Users"
magazine.

Using the Jupiter Ace Emulator
------------------------------
To run type ACE32 file. There are two types of file : Snapshots (.ACE) which
merely record the emulators status and Tape Files (.TAP) which are copies
of Jupiter Ace tape programs. The .TAP file has the same format as the
Spectrum Emulator tap file (blocks of data preceded by block lengths).

A program "TAPH" is available, based on the original by Technomancer
(but rewritten!) which allows a 22kHz Mono .WAV file of an Ace Tape
program to be converted to a .TAP format program. If anyone is willing
to collaborate with me to produce a utility to 'go the other way' e.g.
produce tape files from .TAP files, let me know, but you'll have to
have a working Ace. I don't (or I'd do it myself...)

The following keys are available. (The Symbol Shift key is emulated
through the PC's Ctrl key.)

F1       : Reset (holding Ctrl will allow you to change the RAM available)
F2       : Configure
F3       : Change Colour Scheme (toggles through available schemes)
F4       : View Keyboard
F5       : Load Snapshot / Select tape file
F7       : Save Snapshot (to SNAP.ACE)
F9       : Spool from SPOOL.TXT into Ace (now fixed !)
F10      : Enter Debugger
Escape   : Quit
Pad+     : Switch between normal and turbo (border red in turbo mode)

When loading .TAP files, all that happens is that the given file is
selected for tape input. It is necessary to type "load" to get a
.TAP file into memory. The filename checking has been disconnected.

Without checking, I would estimate full speed on a DX2/66 or equivalent.
It's about 4-5 times real speed on my Cyrix P166. (estimate).

The default configuration settings are 3 frames per IBM PC Tick and 3
skipped frames per displayed frame. Increasing the frames per tick will
make the emulator run faster. Increasing the skipped frames is useful if
the emulator is too slow on your hardware, but it will not help the
display readability.

The Debugger
------------
The debugger is simple but functional. There are 3 windows - machine status
disassembled program and data.

The values are set by the same keys. To set the breakpoint address, use
the Alt key. To set the Data Address, use the Ctrl Key. Changing the
address in the 'disassembly' area does NOT change the program counter. At
present it isn't possible to change the Z80 registers.
 
0-9,A-F                 Rotate address right,insert digit (Try it !)
Up/Down/PUp/PDn         Move Up or Down by 1 or 16 bytes
Home                    Set equal to PC

Using F10 to break into a running program will only break in at the
start of the frame.

Debugger Function Keys
----------------------
F1              Break = Disassembly Address
F5              Display Current Screen
F7              Step Through (until SP = value before call)
F8              Single Step
F9              Run until Breakpoint
ESC             Run normally (no Breakpoint)

Shift Keys
----------
When shifted, most of the keys produce an upper case character, except
for the following.

Space:  Break
1:      Delete Line
2:      Caps Lock
4:      Inverse Video
5..8:   Left,Up,Down,Right cursor
9:      Graphics
0:      Delete

Symbol Shift Keys
-----------------
The following punctuation characters are available using SymbolShift + Char

1:  !   2:  @   3:  #   4:  $   5:  %   6:  &   7:  '   8: (    9: )    0:_
R:  <   T:  >   Y:  [   U:  ]   O:  ;   P:  "
S:  \   D:      F:  {   G:  }   J:  -   K:  +   L:  =
Z:  :   X:  œ   C:  ?   V:  /   B:  *   N:  ,   M:  .

I:  Copyright symbol
A:  Wavy horizontal line
S:  Vertical line
H:  Up arrow

This is also available by pressing F4 when running the emulator.

Releases
--------

1.0 on 21-Oct-97
        First working release of Jupiter Ace emulator.

1.1 on 22-Oct-97
        Added Turbo Switch (Keypad +)
        Snapshots can be saved to any filename.
        Bug: VPrint not preserving EDX.
        Ctrl-F1 allows memory size to be set.
        Compression and Expansion of ACE Snapshots

1.2 on 22-Oct-97
        Default colour scheme is now correct (white letters on back)
        Ace FAQ is available.

1.3 on 27-Oct-97
        Added support for @ and ! (wierd vertical bar top left corner)
        (Shift+1 on the Ace gives Delete Line which was irritating me)
        Added support for .TAP files.
        "Five Ace Programs" added to the archive.
        Confirmation menu on emulator exit.
        New Banner title.
        Added Keyboard Graphic. (accessed via F4)
        Added Text File Spooling (accessed via F9)

1.4 on 03-Nov-97
        Fixed bug in file spooling. (not patching out correctly).
        Removed .TAP files from Archive due to s/w library expansion.

Paul Robson (autismuk@aol.com)

