[General Topics] Menneisyys:
1.3.1.2.1.1 Disk file loading in UnrealSpeccyPPC

Finally, loading disk files (in UnrealSpeccyPPC only) is even more different. Start with the usual Open File / selection screen and press Reset. (You will, as opposed to the Tape loading screen, NOT need to set the operating system to something else than TR-DOS!)

You'll be presented a directory list on a green background. Using the 6/7/8/9 buttons on the on-screen keyboard, position the mouse cursor on top of the item you'd like to load so that it is highlighted. (With most, say, Virtual TR-DOS or contemporary, post-Soviet disk images / demos / games, there's only programs in the image and, therefore, you'll only see one image in there.) After this, click 0 (fire) - the given program will be loaded and started.

1.3.1.2.2 Tape file loading in FuseSP

To load a tape file in FuseSP, in the “UI mode”, select Menu / 2 Load Tape and do the same as previously, with snapshot images – that is, select the file to load. Note that you should NOT untick the “Auto load” checkbox. Should you untick it, you would need to, after manually resetting the emulator (Menu / 6 Reset), manually enter LOAD””. This would be pretty problematic – if you don’t have a built-in full thumbboard, the only way of doing this is assigning all the used letters and signs (L, O, A, D, “) to a hardware / phonepad button, one by one and, then, pressing them. As is also pointed out elsewhere in this roundup, this is what makes it (almost) impossible to issue any long(er) custom commands in FuseSP.

1.3.2 Other features / settings

1.3.2.1 Turbo mode

UnrealSpeccyPPC allows for a "turbo" mode in addition to the "100% speed" one. The former will allow for, on current, fast Windows Mobile devices, much (in cases even 1500% of the original Spectrum speed) faster program execution.

Enabling turbo mode also greatly speeds up tape loading. However, it, as with the C64 emulator PocketHobbit, it also results in most importantly character input problems: with enabled turbo mode, you won't even be able to enter almost anything because of the doubled characters. Also, games will be unnecessarily fast.

This means you will only want to enable turbo mode during, say, lengthy tape loading sessions. To do this, just press Application button 4 on your Pocket PC. You will also see the FPS value, continuously displayed in the lower left corner of the screen, to be increased (and the sound muted).

1.3.2.2 Buttons

Better emulators also let for redefining buttons. This is essential when dealing with non-Kempston joystick emulation and on the MS Smartphone platform, where you need to assign original alphanumeric letters to the phonepad / control buttons of the device so that you can use the given letters / numbers at all (assuming your Smartphone doesn't have a built-in keyboard).

1.3.2.2.1 Buttons in UnrealSpeccyPPC

To make any (additional) button assignments in UnrealSpeccyPPC, as is also pointed out in the "Joystick: supported keyboard layouts " row of the Chart, you'll need to click Advanced Settings, tap-and-hold the functionality you’d like to assign and select Assign. (If you no longer need the previous assignment(s) of a button, just select Empty in the same menu.)

You can also manually edit the action_map.ini file in the home directory of the emulator. Make sure you convert the file back to the LF-only (Unix-style) format from the DOS/Windows-specific, CR+LF format, should you use a Windows-based editor also putting CR's at the end of each line. Note that it's quite unlikely you'll need to modify existing button assignments as the built-in, pre-defined ones cover most games.

1.3.2.2.2 Buttons in FuseSP

With the MS Smartphone-based FuseSP, the situation is wildly different. This emulator, unlike PocketHobbitSP2003 (the C64 emulator for the MS Smartphone), doesn't let for arbitrary character input. That is, unfortunately, unlike with PocketHobbitSP2003, you can't just use the phonepad in the traditional text input way.

While the default character mapping, that is, numerals (and the most widely used other control characters: Enter (Talk), Space (hang up)) are assigned to the phone buttons (including the volume up/down keys, the Power button and the two softbuttons), and these assignments generally work great in most games (where you need to use the numerals 1, 2, 3 etc. to select at least a joystick mode), you may need to assign other characters to a specific button so that you can enter other types of characters.

If you encounter situations like this, go to the main screen (by pressing the Back or the Home key while in the main emulation window; this is what the README.txt coming with the emulator calls "UI Mode", as opposed to the in-emulation "Spectrum mode"), invoke the main menu (right soft key), select "5 Define Keys", select a hardware button (for example, Left Softkey) to assign the given original key to, press the Action button to quickly bring up the selection list, select the new assigned key (for example, in here, “A”) and press Done (left softkey). The assignment will change.

Incidentally, this menu can seem a bit complicated at first because, in addition to the plain character assignment operations, it's also here that you can en/disable Kempston emulation (enabled by default) and mirror the D-pad directions to the phone keys so that you can not only control the game via the D-pad, but also with the phonepad buttons 2/8/4/6 for down / up / left / right. If you don't need the latter functionality (because you exclusively use the D-pad to control your player) but would prefer to be able to assign more functionalities / more original keys to the available (few) hardware buttons, you can safely untick the "Mirror Joystick on Keys" checkbox in here, which is enabled by default.)