matherp
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Joined: 11/12/2012
Location: United KingdomPosts: 12166 |
| Posted: 10:54pm 09 Nov 2026 |
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An Apple //e on the Colour Maximite 2
A new program in the 7.00.00RC4 programs zip. It needs firmware 7.00.00RC2 or later, and no firmware update.
https://github.com/UKTailwind/CMM2V1.5/releases/tag/v7.00.00RC4
Getting started
Download CMM2_Programs_7.00.00RC4.zip again, as the apple2 folder is new. Copy that folder to A:/apple2, then:
CHDIR "A:/apple2"
RUN "apple2.app"
After a three second start screen you have Applesoft BASIC's ] prompt. The Apple's ROMs are built into the program, so there is nothing else to install.
What it is
It is frank-apple, rh1tech's port of Michel Pollet's MII emulator to the RP2350, with a new front end for the CMM2.
• An enhanced Apple //e with 128K and an 80-column card, at the Apple's own 60 frames a second in MODE 8. On a G1 it leaves about two thirds of the processor spare.
• The screen is drawn at the Apple's full resolution, so 80 columns and double hi-res keep all 560 of their dots across. The RP2350 version squeezes them into 320.
• Text, lo-res, hi-res, double lo-res and double hi-res, in NTSC colours, in the IIGS's colours, or on a green or amber monitor.
• The speaker's sound comes out of the CMM2's audio output.
• Two Disk II drives for .dsk, .do, .po, .nib and .woz images, and two hard disks on a SmartPort card.
• A joystick or paddles from a USB gamepad, or from the keypad.
Disks
Put any disk image you have the right to use in A:/apple2, and press F11. Choose drive 1 or 2, then the image, then Boot to start the Apple from it, or Insert to change the disk for a program that asks for its next one.
The first time you choose an image, a copy of it in the drive's own form is made beside it, with .bdsk added to its name, and the drive uses that copy from then on: the image itself is never changed. A disk starts read-only. Press Space in the last step to let a program write to it.
Take care in the list of disks: D deletes the chosen file from the card, without asking.
For hard disks, put ProDOS-order images of up to 32MB in A:/apple2 as drive0.img and drive1.img. The Apple starts from them when the Disk II drives are empty.
Typing on it
What is printed on the key is what you get, following your OPTION USBKEYBOARD setting. The //e's Caps Lock is down at the start, because Applesoft and DOS 3.3 only understand their commands in capitals. Caps Lock lets it up. A key held down repeats, as on the //e.
Left Alt, left Windows Open Apple
Right Alt, right Windows Closed Apple
Backspace, left arrow the left arrow
Delete DELETE
The serial console types into the Apple too, so you can paste a BASIC program in from a terminal. There, Ctrl-F then 1 to 9, a, b or c gives F1 to F12, and Ctrl-] goes back to MMBasic.
The keys
F9 the speed, at the top of the screen
F10 the colours, and the green and amber monitors
F11 disks
F12 as fast as it can go, while held
Scroll Lock as fast as it can go, until pressed again
Ctrl+Pause Ctrl+Reset (with the left Alt too: a cold start)
Ctrl+Alt+Del a cold start
Ctrl+Alt+End back to MMBasic
Ctrl-C is an Apple key here, so it does not end the program: in Applesoft it stops a BASIC program. Use Ctrl+Alt+End.
Joysticks and paddles
• The first USB gamepad is the Apple's joystick. The left stick moves it, and the d-pad moves it too, gradually, for paddle games.
• a and x (circle and triangle on a PlayStation pad) are the first button, b and y (cross and square) the second, and Start the third.
• Select opens the disk menu. Start, a and b together give a cold start.
• The keypad is a joystick as well, with 0 as the third button.
• A DualShock 3 needs its PS button pressed once before it sends anything.
Changed from frank-apple
• The full 560-dot screen, as above.
• After one Ctrl+Reset, frank-apple showed double hi-res in black and white. Here it stays in colour unless you choose a green or amber monitor.
• frank-apple makes two empty 32MB hard disk files on the card when it finds none, and saves the Apple's memory to the card each time its disk menu opens. Neither happens here.
Known problems
a2audit, an Apple //e test disk, finds a few faults in the emulation that come from frank-apple and MII, not from the CMM2's front end: in the language card, in switching the ROM at $C800, and in reads of $C00D and $C00F, which switch on 80 columns and the alternate characters.
What has and has not been tried
Tried on a G1: Applesoft, text in 40 and 80 columns, lo-res, hi-res and double hi-res, the colour and monitor settings, the disk menu, starting from a disk image, and typing from the serial console.
Not tried yet: a G2, the USB keyboard, sound, a gamepad, saving to a disk, the hard disks, and .nib and .woz images. Please report what you find.
Licences
frank-apple and MII are under the MIT licence. Their sources are github.com/rh1tech/frank-apple and github.com/buserror/mii_emu, with the CMM2's front end and changes in apps/apple2 of the firmware's repository.
The Apple //e's ROMs are built into the program, as they are in frank-apple. They are Apple's, and not under the MIT licence. |
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