AppleWin on Linux

This is a linux port of AppleWin, that shares 100% of the code of the core emulator and video generation. Audio, UI, scheduling and other peripherals are reimplemented.

Number one goal is to stay source compatible with AppleWin, to make git merge a trivial operation. Shared files are modified as a last resort.

Structure

There are 4 projects

• libapple: the core emulator files
• applen: a frontend based on ncurses
• qapple: Qt frontend
• sa2: SDL2 frontend
• a libretro core

What works

Almost everything works, except the serial port, SNES-MAX and FourPlay.

The UI has been rewritten in Qt or ImGui. The rest works very well.

Network is supported via libslirp.

If this is not available, it uses libpcap, but it requires elevated capabilities:

sudo setcap cap_net_raw=ep ./sa2

Unfortunately, this must be reapplied after every build.

Most of the debugger now works (in the ImGui version).

New features

Audio files can be read via the cassette interface (SDL Version). Just drop a wav file into the emulator. Tested with all the formats from asciiexpress.

Executables

sa2

This is your best choice, in particular the ImGui version.

TL;DR: just run sa2

See sa2 for more details.

applen

Frontend based on ncurses, with a ASCII art graphic mode.

Keyboard shortcuts

• F2: reset the machine
• F3: terminate the emulator
• F11, F12: Save, Load Snapshot
• ALT-RIGHT: wider hi res graphis
• ALT-LEFT: narrower hi res graphics
• ALT-UP: vertical hi res (smaller)
• ALT-DOWN: vertical hi res (bigger)

In order to properly appreciate the wider hi res graphics, open a big terminal window and choose a small font size. Try CTRL- as well if ALT- does not work: terminals do not report a consistent keycode for these combinations.

The joystick uses evdev (--device-name /dev/input/by-id/id_of_device).

qapple

This is based on Qt.

• keyboard shortcuts are listed in the menu entries
• joystick: it uses QtGamepad
• emulator runs in the main UI thread
• Qt timers are very coarse: the emulator needs to dynamically adapt the cycles to execute
• the app runs at 60FPS with correction for uneven timer deltas.
• full speed when disk spins execute up to 5 ms real wall clock of emulator code (then returns to Qt)
• audio is supported and there are a few configuration options to tune the latency (default very conservative 200ms)
• Open Apple and Solid Apple can be emulated using AltGr and Menu (unfortunately, Alt does not work well)
• yaml files can be dropped to restore a saved state

ra2

There is an initial libretro core.

A retropad can be plugged in port 1 (with or without analog stick).

Keyboard emulation

• JOYPAD_R: equivalent to F9 to cycle video types
• JOYPAD_L: equivalent to CTRL-SHIFT-F6 to cycle 50% scan lines
• START: equivalent to F2 to reset the machine
• SELECT: press twice quickly to exit
• JOYPAD_R2: switch audio source
• JOYPAD_L2: save configuration to /tmp/applewin.retro.conf

In order to have a better experience with the keyboard, one should probably enable Game Focus Mode (normally Scroll-Lock) to disable hotkeys. Even better set Auto Enable 'Game Focus' Mode to Detect.

Video works, but the vertical flip is done in software.

Audio: speaker and mockingboard works, but only one at a time (use JOYPAD_R2 to switch).

Easiest way to run from the build folder: retroarch -L source/frontends/libretro/applewin_libretro.so ../bin/MASTER.DSK

It supports playlists files .m3u (see https://docs.libretro.com/library/vice/#m3u-and-disk-control alttough not all options are implemented).

Build

The project can be built using cmake from the top level directory.

qapple can be managed from Qt Creator as well and the 2 have coexisted so far, but YMMV.

Checkout

Don't forget the submodules!!

git clone https://github.com/audetto/AppleWin.git --recursive

Fedora

On Fedora 35, from a fresh installation, install all packages from fedora.list.txt.

Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu and other Debian distributions

Install all packages from raspbian.list.txt.

You can use sudo apt-get -y install $(cat AppleWin/source/linux/raspbian.list.txt) for an automated installation.

See Travis CI too.

Building

cd AppleWin
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE ..
make

Frontend selection

There are 4 cmake variables to selectively enable frontends: BUILD_APPLEN, BUILD_QAPPLE, BUILD_SA2 and BUILD_LIBRETRO.

Usage:

cmake -DBUILD_SA2=ON -DBUILD_LIBRETRO=ON ..

or use cmake-gui (if none is selected, they are all built).

Packaging

It is possible to create .deb and .rpm packages using cpack. Use cpack -G DEB or cpack -G RPM from the build folder. It is best to build packages for the running system.

Speed

Fedora

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz

Full update = 582 MHz

Raspbian

Pi 3B+

Full update = 54 MHz