XRoar - Dragon & CoCo emulator

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XRoar is a Dragon emulator for Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, GP32, Nintendo DS and Windows. Due to hardware similarities, XRoar also emulates the Tandy Colour Computer (CoCo) models 1 & 2.

These are the latest packaged builds. For old versions, see the file archive. The latest source code is version 0.22, released 2008-12-23.

The manual is available in various forms: PDF, HTML and plain text. See Getting started for a quick guide to running XRoar.

Firmware ROM images are required to usefully run this emulator. If you have difficulty extracting these from your real Dragon or CoCo, dumps may be available from the Dragon Archive.

Want a Dragon in your browser? Here's a limited but functional Flash version of XRoar. Needs Flash 9 and a pretty fast computer.

• Notes for version 0.22
• Source code
• Redistribution
• Ports
• Similar projects
• Images

Notes for version 0.22

• Fixed WD2791/3 side compare flags for double-sided disks on CoCo.
• Honours user-specified RAM size again.
• Automatically determine which machine user has ROMs for.
• Added -load and -run options (automatically attaches files on startup, -run attempts to autorun them).
• New manual to replace the README file.
• Handle more truncated CAS files.

For full version information, see the ChangeLog.

Known issues

• RAM organisation always based on 64K layout in hardware.
• GP32 binary release deferred - seems to not find any ROMs yet.
• Dragon 32 map type 1 ROM write-through regression - fixed in vcs.
• CoCo RAM select not implemented, meaning specific BASIC version needs to be chosen. Fixed in vcs.
• MPU rate control operates as suggested in SAM data sheet, not as reflected by reality. Fixed in vcs.

Source code

This is the latest source code release, and the patch against it used for the 'fast' builds (better speed at the expense of accuracy). For previous releases, see the file archive.

A Darcs repository, usually reflecting the current development state, is provided:

$ darcs get --set-scripts-executable http://www.6809.org.uk/repos/xroar

The --set-scripts-executable option should give execute permission to the configure script.

See Building from source code in the manual for instructions on building from source.

Redistribution

XRoar is free software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Binary packages may be linked against SDL and/or libsndfile, each of which are distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License.

• Local copy of SDL source code: SDL-1.2.13.tar.gz.
• Local copy of libsndfile source code: libsndfile-1.0.17.tar.gz.

Ports

drHirudo has ported XRoar to AmigaOS 4 (!), available here.

ZX-81 has ported XRoar 0.19 to the Sony PSP and GP2X handhelds. Check for "Tandy Coco" in the list of categories on ZX-81's web site.

Ron from DCEmu started a port to the Dreamcast called DragonDC. The last post about it I can find was from the 12th April 2007.

Similar projects

MESS, the "Multiple Emulator Super System", emulates a variety of old computer hardware, Dragon included. SDLMESS might be more appropriate, depending on your system. Source available.

T3 and PC-Dragon, two DOS-only emulators written by Paul Burgin. Source code is available for PC-Dragon, but redistribution of modified copies (of the source) is not permitted, amongst other restrictions. T3 is closed source.

Vcc, a Windows-only CoCo 3 emulator. Does not emulate CoCo 1/2 (beyond what compatibility a CoCo 3 had) or Dragon. Closed source.

Images

• 
  XRoar on the Nintendo DS
• 
  XRoar on the GP32 (old version)

Updated 9 May 2009