Xcpc emulator • User manual

User manual

On this page you will find useful informations on how to use Xcpc.

Command-line options

Usage: xcpc [toolkit-options] [xcpc-options] [files...]

Help options:
    --help                      display this help and exit
    --version                   display the version and exit

Emulation options:
    --company={value}           Isp, Triumph, Saisho, Solavox, Awa, Schneider, Orion, Amstrad
    --machine={value}           cpc464, cpc664, cpc6128
    --monitor={value}           color, green, gray, ctm640, ctm644, gt64, gt65, cm14, mm12
    --refresh={value}           50Hz, 60Hz
    --keyboard={value}          english, french, german, spanish, danish
    --memory={value}            64kb, 128kb, 192kb, 256kb, 320kb, 384kb, 448kb, 512kb
    --sysrom={filename}         32Kb system rom
    --rom000={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #00
    --rom001={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #01
    --rom002={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #02
    --rom003={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #03
    --rom004={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #04
    --rom005={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #05
    --rom006={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #07
    --rom007={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #08
    --rom008={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #09
    --rom009={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #10
    --rom010={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #11
    --rom011={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #12
    --rom012={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #13
    --rom013={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #14
    --rom014={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #15
    --rom015={filename}         16Kb expansion rom #16
    --drive0={filename}         drive0 disk image
    --drive1={filename}         drive1 disk image
    --snapshot={filename}       initial snapshot

Misc. options:
    --speedup={factor}          speeds up emulation by an integer factor
    --xshm                      use the XShm extension
    --no-xshm                   don't use the XShm extension
    --scanlines                 simulate crt scanlines
    --no-scanlines              don't simulate crt scanlines

Debug options:
    --quiet                     set the loglevel to quiet mode
    --trace                     set the loglevel to trace mode
    --debug                     set the loglevel to debug mode

Environment variables

Loglevel

The default loglevel is overridden with the --quiet, --trace, --debug options.

You can also set the default loglevel with the XCPC_LOGLEVEL variable:

export XCPC_LOGLEVEL={xcpc-loglevel}

The available loglevel values are:

0 = quiet
1 = error
2 = alert
3 = print
4 = trace
5 = debug

Joysticks

You can select the joysticks if not correctly handled by default.

XCPC_JOYSTICK0: the path to the joystick0 device (defaults to /dev/input/js0 on Linux)
XCPC_JOYSTICK1: the path to the joystick1 device (defaults to /dev/input/js1 on Linux)

Example:

export XCPC_JOYSTICK0="{path-to-joystick0}"
export XCPC_JOYSTICK1="{path-to-joystick1}"

Audio

You can adjust audio parameters if they are not good by default.

XCPC_AUDIO_CHANNELS: the channel count, 1 for mono, 2 for stereo
XCPC_AUDIO_SAMPLERATE: the sample rate, for example 11025, 22050, 44100, 48000

Example for a low-end hardware:

export XCPC_AUDIO_CHANNELS="1"
export XCPC_AUDIO_SAMPLERATE="11025"

Example for a high-end hardware:

export XCPC_AUDIO_CHANNELS="2"
export XCPC_AUDIO_SAMPLERATE="48000"

Hotkeys

Some Hotkeys/shortcuts are available:

F1 for help.
F2 for loading snapshots.
F3 for saving snapshots.
F5 for resetting the emulator.
F6 for inserting disk into drive A.
F7 for removing disk from drive A.
F8 for inserting disk into drive B.
F9 for removing disk from drive B.

Keyboard

The left control keys (Left Control, Left Alt, …) are sent to the emulated machine, so if you want to send some keycodes (eg. when you are using an AZERTY keyboard), you must use the right control keys of your keyboard (Right Control, Right Shift, AltGr, …).

If you don’t have a joystick or if the joystick support is not available at compilation time, a joystick emulator is provided:

Home or End for toggling the joystick emulation.
Cursor Up for moving the joystick up.
Cursor Down for moving the joystick down.
Cursor Left for moving the joystick left.
Cursor Right for moving the joystick right.
Left Control for Fire 1.
Left Alt for Fire 2.

Joystick

A joystick support is available under Linux:

Up to two physical joysticks can be used.
Joysticks must be plugged before launching Xcpc.
Joysticks are tied by default to /dev/input/js0 and /dev/input/js1.
You can set the XCPC_JOYSTICK0 environment variable to specify 1st joystick device.
You can set the XCPC_JOYSTICK1 environment variable to specify 2nd joystick device.

Drag’n drop

Xcpc supports drag’n drop, so you can use your file manager to load snapshots and/or disk images.

The supported extensions are:

.sna for loading snapshots
.dsk for loading raw disk images
.dsk.gz for loading compressed disk images with the zlib algorithm.
.dsk.bz2 for loading compressed disk images with the bz2 algorithm.

Note: .zip disk images are currently not supported, so you have to extract the disk images from the zip archives.