From Jawaid Bazyar:
I am pleased to announce the release of GSSquared v0.7.2. GSSquared is an Apple II series computer emulator. Supported platforms are:
- Apple ][
- Apple ][ Plus
- Apple //e
- Apple //e Enhanced
- Apple //e Enhanced with 65816 CPU and Super Hires Video
- Apple IIgs ROM 01
Pre-built binaries available for:
- MacOS (Intel and Apple Silicon)
- Windows 10+
- Linux AppImage (Should run on many linux, but I tested on Ubuntu 22).
This is a maintenance release, focusing on user interface – menus and interactive widgets of various types.
User Interface
- Menu bars on MacOS, Windows, and Linux for managing common elements of an emulated Apple. On MacOS/Windows, this is native menus functionality. *1
- Help / Documentation menu item that launches the project GitHub Pages with user-facing documentation
- There is a on-hover sidebar menu on the left edge of the display that supports speed change, monitor type change, reset, and mouse capture.
- Improve readability of disk drive status (slot, drive, track)
- Disk Drive status now includes indicator for media changed (*) and write protected (lock icon)
- Some clarity in the code over properly generating 59.9226 frames per second for monitors that support AMD FreeSync etc. Smoothness of emulator display is enhanced with FreeSync.
- The system select tiles now use a background color appropriate to that Apple’s actual case color; IIgs badge greatly improved.
- When using keyboard control-RESET sequence, reset is asserted as long as you hold down the RESET key, just like a real Apple II.
- Modifier keys (Open-Apple and Closed-Apple) are now consistent across MacOS, Windows, Linux.
- Reset key now appropriate to system (F12 on MacOS/Windows and PAUSE/BREAK on Linux).
- GS2 no longer automatically enables mouse capture when you click in the window. You must use F1, or the Capture Mouse menu.
Features
- GSSquared now implements an Extended SmartPort interface for its “3.5” (aka hard disk) interface. This improves GS/OS performance and properly notifies GS/OS etc of media changes.
- IIgs keyboard now implements auto-repeat internally and respects GS control panel delay-to-repeat and repeat-rate settings.
- New “Pause / Resume” function to suspend the emulator.
- User can enable “Sleep” versus Busy Wait to reduce CPU usage, at the cost of a (very slight) increased inaccuracy in FPS.
- Drag/drop for disk images has been reenabled. When you drag a disk image over GS2, the Control Panel automatically opens and you can drop the image on whichever drive you want.
- Copy Screen reimplemented to support IIgs with borders, and not crash.
Bug Fixes
- the IIgs 1-second interrupt is now truly a 1-sec interrupt (as opposed to 60 frames) and at boot is synced to your system’s realtime clock.
- IIgs ADB fixes for “SRQ” mode – Ctrl-RESET now works in Wolf3D for example.
- Now implement WAI and STP 65816 instructions
- Fixed a sporadic coredump bug in the IIe MMU code
- Fixed a coredump on Linux in IIgs MMU
- Fixed a variety of memory leaks
- Cleaned up a variety of build warnings
Internals
- The main application loop is now done using the SDL3 “App Callbacks” method. Which should have no impact on use, but does open up some interesting new host platform options.
- Some reorganization of platforms vs systemconfig, getting us closer to being able to edit slots before starting a VM.
- Lots of restructuring of the On Screen Display user interface library
*1: On Linux, because Linux is a dumb wasteland of ego, there is no platform-native menu interface an application can use with SDL that will work on all distros, so Linux uses the IMGui library for menus. This is a new build dependency on Linux.
https://github.com/jawaidbazyar2/gssquared/releases/tag/v0.7.2
