259 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
259 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
[T[H
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[T[H ############################################################################
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[T[H # #
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[T[H # SEGA MEGADRIVE - NINTENDO SUPER FAMICOM - NEC PC-ENGINE #
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[T[H # More than just AMIGA #
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[T[H # #
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[T[H # 14.4k HST/V32bis -- ASL -- Locked at 38.4k -- Kickstart 2 -- 68030 40MHz #
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[T[H # #
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[T[H ############################################################################
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[11;1H[0m[A
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FILE DOWNLOADED FROM TREASURE ISLAND BBS +44 (0)992 451 191
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COMING SOON
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-----------
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What everyone has been waiting for!
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THE
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MEGADRIVE/GENESIS EMULATOR FOR THE AMIGA
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----------------------------------------
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From Advanced Emulation Ltd.
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It's taken long enough to evolve.. infact over 6 months intensive programming
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has finally seen the first release of the "AmigaDrive emulator".
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Considering the Megadrive and Amiga contain a very similar architecture - it
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was only a matter of time before this emulator appeared.
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I mean, considering the Amiga can emulate IBM's, MAC's, C64's, BBC's,
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Spectrums, QL's etc.... most with completely different processors, the
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Megadrive one seems simple in comparison. (Although it certainly isn't!)
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The real surprise is that no other attempt has been made in the time of the
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Megadrive's release.
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INTRODUCTION
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------------
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First off, we won't bore you with the technical specifications of this
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emulator, but will highlight the main objectives and features of this
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software...
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* TO BRING THE MEGADRIVE WORLD TO THE AMIGA - FOR UNDER £100!
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* TO RUN MEGADRIVE CARTRIDGES FROM FLOPPY OR HARD DISK DRIVE.
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* TO RUN MEGA-CD GAMES VIA ANY CD-ROM DEVICE, AND THE FORTHCOMING A570 CD-ROM
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INTERFACE FROM COMMODORE.
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* TO ALLOW YOU TO SAVE/LOAD AND EDIT GAMES, IN MUCH THE SAME WAY AS THE "SUPER
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MAGIC DRIVE" BACK-UP SYSTEM ALREADY AVAILABLE ALLOWS.
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* TO RUN SOFTWARE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE ON AN AMIGA MACHINE..
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AN AMIGA 500 REACHES APPROX 60-65% SPEED.. A 68030 CAN ATTAIN 95% OR MORE.
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PLUS -- THIS EMULATOR IS TOTALLY BRITISH CODED! NO HONG KONG STUFF HERE!! :-)
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EMULATION
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---------
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THE 68000 CODE IS OF COURSE EMULATED (?) WITH THE AMIGAS OWN 68000 PROCESSOR.
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THE Z80 IS ALSO EMULATED BY THE 68000. (Naturally there is therefore a slow
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down, especially when attempting to run Mega-CD games and SCALING).
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THE MEGADRIVES SOUND IS EMULATED AS FOLLOWS:
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THE "CHIP MUSIC" CHANNELS ARE SPLIT IN THE SAME WAY AS OTHER MUSIC PROGRAMS
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WORK, SUCH AS "OKTALYZER", "TFMX", "STARTREKKER" ETC, BUT EVEN MORE SO AS ONLY
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THE FIRST 2 CHANNELS ARE 'SPLIT' THIS WAY. A SLIGHT LOSS IN QUALITY OBVIOUSLY
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OCCURS. THE REMAINING 2 "SAMPLE" CHANNELS WORK AS NORMAL WITH THE OTHER TWO
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AMIGA SOUND CHANNELS.
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One drawback is that the sound quality is reduced even more than the music
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programs mentioned above, as to keep enough processor time for the other
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emulation. However if you have heard the Megadrives sound quality, you will
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know that the samples are pretty poor anyway. Blame Commodore for not having
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a 8 or 16 channel sound chip!!
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THE MEGADRIVES 64 COLOURS ARE OBTAINED BY UTILISING THE AMIGAS HALF BRITE
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MODE. (THIS WILL THEREFORE LOOK TOTALLY WRONG ON AN AMIGA 1000)
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UNFORTUNATELY, WITH THE WAY THE PALETTE WORKS, SOME COLOURS WILL NOT APPEAR
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CORRECT. YOU CAN OPT FOR HAM MODE SCREEN EMULATION WHICH WILL GIVE THE
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CORRECT PALETTES - FRINGING WILL BE MINIMISED BY CONTINUOUSLY ADJUSTING THE
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PALETTE ON EACH SCAN-LINE, (LIKE NEWTEK'S DYNAMIC HI-RES & ASDG'S HAM-8 MODES)
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NB: THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE ON THE 68000 VERSION. INFACT EVEN WITH THE 680X0
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VERSION, ANYTHING BELOW A 25MHZ 68030 WILL PROBABLY STRAIN TO DO THIS AT ANY
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GOOD SPEED. ESPECIALLY CONSIDERING THE HARDWARES LIMITATION ON SCREEN
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UPDATING. WE BELIEVE THE EHB OPTION IS MORE THAN SATISFACTORY ANYWAY.
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THE MEGA-CD'S SCALING/ROTATION CAPABILITY MEANS THE EMULATOR WILL SLOW DOWN
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*QUITE CONSIDERABLY* WITHOUT AN ACCELERATOR. THEREFORE A FASTER PROCESSOR IS
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THOROUGHLY RECOMMENDED, IF NOT VITAL.
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MEGA-CD OPERATION
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-----------------
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As is probably already known, the current Mega-CD units have special
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protection to stop you being able to run say a Japanese CD on an European/UK
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Megadrive. We have overcome this, by automatically detecting which country of
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origin the CD is from (by reading the CD header information like the
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Mega-CD).. and switching the Amigadrive to that country, that is Japanese,
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American or European. We have found this to be pretty much successful.
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We will be releasing update "modules" for any game that still fails to run.
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The CD-Rom options have been tested on Philips and Goldstar CD-Rom units, and
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we are writing the routines to work with the forthcoming A570 (formally the
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A690) CD drive. Until the A570 is released we cannot ensure its 100%
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compatibilty, but it is expected to be launched before the final version of
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the Mega-CD software is released.
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We also hope to get the software to work with the Xetec CD-Rom system in the
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near future.
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The software for running the Mega-CD is sold separate to the main package and
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will be sold for £75 Including VAT.
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MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
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--------------------
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To run the AmigaDrive emulator, you will need the following:
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AMIGA COMPUTER (!) WITH 1.5 MEGS OF RAM. (KS1.2 or above)
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FAT AGNUS (THE MACHINE MUST RUN IN 60HZ [NTSC] MODE)
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AN AMIGA 500 WILL BE NEEDED IF USING THE A570 OPTION.
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ALL AMIGAS : A PHILIPS OR GOLDSTAR CD-ROM UNIT FOR RUNNING MEGA-CD SOFTWARE.
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The following are thoroughly recommended:
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Faster processor; 68020/30/40 (almost vital for running Mega-CD games)
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and maths co-pro for mathematical work (Scaling/rotation)
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Hard Drive; to store games.
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RUNNING THE GAMES
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-----------------
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The games can be run from disk, but of course firstly need to be converted
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from cartridge format to disk.
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We will be supplying our own adaptor to allow you to transfer the ROM data to
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the Amiga via Parallel. This will be sold at approximately £20 including VAT.
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You can alternatively make your own adaptor, which will consist more or less
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of an IC socket, parallel cable and little else. The requirements will be
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made available to the public domain as it becomes available, and can be built
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for approx £5.
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You can also directly run the cartridge with the adaptor, without saving to
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disk (if you have just a floppy system for instance.)
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Once the game is put on disk, a menu system allows you to load the games from
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floppy or hard disk (using a fully windowed environment) and execute them. A
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monitor is included on the professional version of the emulator and you can
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save the game at any point (like an Action Replay).
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It is also possible to also modify the games with cheat modes etc.. with our
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built in "cheat mode finder" option, similar to that used in Datel's "Action
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Replay" for the Megadrive and the forthcoming "Game Genie".
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The professional version of the AmigaDrive will also let you code your own
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Megadrive software. However the official documentation is only given to
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authorised Sega developers, and so you will have to become one, or get
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friendly with someone who is! .. or learn by trial and error!
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THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM
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'AmigaDrive' : Matt Francis
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Coding Simon Colgrave
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Howard Mansell
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Amiga : Devpac 3.01
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Configuration Amiga 3000 25MHz - with installed KS2.04 ROM
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9 Megs 32bit RAM
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Goldstar CD-Rom drive + adaptor
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Testing : J. Morris
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P. Turner
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L. Costa
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K. Wilson
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M. Hudson
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L. Lirpa
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Special thanks: Advance Console Entertainment
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For the loan of the Mega-CD unit.
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COPYRIGHT
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---------
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The AmigaDrive, Megadrive emulator is designed and produced by Advanced
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Emulation Ltd, and remains our copyright (C) 1991/2. All Rights Reserved.
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Although the main software is commerical, and we will supply the adaptors
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ready made, the diagrams are released to the public domain.
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Sega(TM) is a trademark of Sega Enterprises Ltd, Japan. NB: This Emulator is
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NOT approved by Sega.
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ESTIMATED RELEASE DATE
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----------------------
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The AMIGA-Drive Emulator should be available from May 1st 1992, and will come
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complete with main AmigaDrive software, consisting of normal 68000 version and
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enhanced 680X0 6888X version.
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Distribution will be made direct from Advanced Emulation Ltd. Trade enquiries
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welcome.
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COST
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----
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The AmigaDrive software will be sold for £99.
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The Professional version will be sold for £150.
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The Mega-CD software will be sold for £75 - please note, as stated in the text
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above, an accelerator with maths co-processor is recommended, as the standard
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68000 is trying to run TWO 68000 processors in parallel!
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The Cartridge adaptor is £20. But the diagrams will be made public domain if
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you wish to build your own.
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These prices include VAT, but ARE NOT finalised. Full details will be
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available later in April.
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FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
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-------------------
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A future version may very well be as a hardware version, with separate
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versions for the A500, A600 and A1500-3000 series.
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We are also closely looking at a Super Nintendo emulator, although this will
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be virtually impossible to do through software, and will almost definately be
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hardware.
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EPILOGUE
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-------- _
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_ //
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Thank you for reading! and remember... "Only Amiga makes it possible." \X/
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