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. Feature list.

These are the latest packaged builds. For old versions, see the file archive. The latest source code is version 0.29.5, released 2013-04-21.

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 10 and a pretty fast computer.

• Notes for version 0.29
• Source code
• Redistribution
• Ports
• Similar projects
• Images

Notes for version 0.29

• New PIA & keyboard code supports matrix ghosting.
• Fixed emulation of Dragon 32 with 64K.
• VDG sub-scanline mode switching more accurate.
• Fake ACIA responses to fix 32K mode autorepeat.
• Curses video module removed - incompatible with new VDG/video code.
• "Becker" port supported in RS-DOS.
• Various CPU timing fixes.
• Hitachi 6309 support (unverified) with "-machine-cpu 6309".

Notes for version 0.29.5

• Fixed the "-cart-becker" option.
• The fat binaries (PowerPC and 32-bit Intel) built on Mac OS X 10.4 seem to be failing on more recent versions, so have made a 64-bit version built on 10.6 available.
• Single-bit sound fixed. Also, interactions with single-bit sound and DAC fixed.
• Dragon 32 printing fixed.
• Fixed the "-disk-write-back" option.
• Added "-c filename" as very first command line option to override configuration filename. Specifying it prevents searching the usual path.

For full version information, see the ChangeLog.

Known issues

• Video timings in PAL CoCos are different to PAL Dragons. Fixed in development versions.

Source code

This is the latest source code release. For previous releases, see the file archive.

A git repository is provided:

$ git clone http://www.6809.org.uk/repos/xroar.git

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 any or all of SDL, libsndfile, or pthreads-win32. Each is distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License.

• Local copy of SDL source code: SDL-1.2.15.tar.gz.
• Local copy of libsndfile source code: libsndfile-1.0.24.tar.gz.
• Local copy of pthreads-win32 source code: pthreads-w32-2-9-1-release.tar.gz.

Ports

Tormod Volden has contributed this build for Android. For more information see its readme.txt. For patches, etc., check out Tormod's website.

CrashSerious has ported XRoar 0.24 to the PS3. Download the PS3roar binary, or clone the PS3roar git repository. There's an announcement page with discussion here.

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. 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, website expired.

Images

• 
  XRoar simulating NTSC cross-colour
• 
  XRoar on the Nintendo DS
• 
  XRoar on the GP32 (old version)

Updated 7 Jun 2013