| Home | Editorial | Maggie 25th | Demos | Games | Serious Stuff | Travel Reports | Multimedia | Humour |
Hatari Atari emulator v1.90
We're offering an unscientific, limited and personal journey through one of the premier emulators of the Atari ST family, namely 'Hatari', as created by Thothy and countless other volunteers working to develop and improve it. This article is mainly concentrating on the Falcon emulation improvements, the ST(FM) and STE parts having being generally sorted out a while ago.
Hatari is one of those things that has been around for ages, since its first outgrowth from the WinSTon source code in 2001. It has stood in as a quick and easy substitute Atari ST for when I've been too lazy to plug in original hardware at home. As a travelling companion if you are limited to a laptop at a crowded demo party, it has been invaluable.
Hatari has been ever present, in the background, so commonplace without attracting more attention. It is like air and water, things that you can't go without in your day to day existence, but that you barely acknowledge. However, for this 25th anniversary issue of Maggie, and with a brand new update of Hatari, now at v1.90, perhaps it is time it had its moment in the sun?
Hatari v1.9 has a number of new features that prod it to the front of the stage. The most notable pair are the long awaited arrival of FastRam or 'TT Ram' support to 256 Megabytes and the beginnings of 68040/68060 CPU emulation. There's also a proper 68030 in there as well, with options for the 68881/2 maths co-processors on the WinUAE build. At last, an honest attempt at emulating a higher end Atari Falcon or clone can be made.
There are two versions of this latest Hatari 1.90 under test here. Firstly the WinUAE build for MacOS X. The host hardware is a mid-2011 vintage Mac Mini, with a 2.5 GHz i5 core processor. The other version, which can be called 'official Hatari' runs under a Windows 8.1 Asus PeeCee laptop, with a rather limp Celeron 1.4 GHz processor doing its best to keep up.
The first of these would be able to comfortably emulate a standard Falcon, with room to spare for a decent stab at a pretend higher end Falcon. The lower end PeeCee version, might just be able to manage a standard Falcy. We will refer to differences between the two versions when considering how some applications perform.
Preamble rambling..
Hatari has been around as long as my involvement with computer platforms other than an Atari of some flavour. I first discovered a dearth of emulation options for the Atari ST, back in 2006 when I got my first Mac Mini. There was a fair to middling emulation, 'NoSTalgia', which had been updated in 2004 and offered a fidelity of emulation similar to a lot of the early PeeCee emulations. Nothing was being done with this, although it did get a subsequent refresh in 2012 and again last June.
The only other option available was the multi-platform Hatari. This was a promising up and comer, and turned out to be the best option for the Mac. When I first came into contact with it, Hatari had recently gained STE emulation. The beginnings of Falcon 030 emulation came about in 2007 (version 0.95).
These early versions worked as well as could be expected. Later and better versions came along, but for some reason, I never seemed to get a completely reliable Falcon emulation. The recommended WinUAE core version always fell over on both my Macs. The holy grail of a fully featured Falcon emulation seemed to be just out of reach.
I later diversified hardware, but even contemporary versions on the old Dell laptop (1.5'ish) sometimes struggled with aspects of Falcon emulation mode. ST or STE mode on the other hand, seemed to be good enough for what I wanted to do though. I've even used a pretend Mega STE with a GEM extended VDI screen of 1024 x 768 to do stuff, such as development of the HTML 'Mag' concept.
However, with this latest version 1.90, apart from the major steps up I'm about to describe, it coughed up with an WinUAE Core version that actually deigned to run on my hardware, hence this report!
How well does it go?
Firstly, some general observations on how they both look and perform in relation to ease of use and the desktop. The emulated GEM environment is okay to good on the Mac version. It was very very sluggish at first for Windows Hatari, until an enhancer.prg was installed in the auto folder which improved matters a great deal for both. NVDI will also be helpful here. On the other hand, non-gem applications run as intended, subject to the abilities or otherwise of the host CPU.
Hatari seems to be unfazed on the Mac with other applications running at the same time such as Firefox and this text editor. This was demonstrated with a constant frame rate being maintained on the Dead Hackers GEM Demo used as a test.
A major omission from the Mac WinUAE version seems to be an almost total lack of sound. In general, where there are issues on the Mac, these seem to be related to something missing from the audio side of things. (DSP based replay routines hanging.) The tested software below will reference this, many times.
So how is Hatari getting on with, you know, actually running stuff? Let's go and find out.
Demos..
We're going straight for the heart of the matter, why so many of you are here. How does Hatari get on with various randomly sampled Falcon demos?
We're taking the standard Falcy first. The most obvious candidate for viewing was the 1997 classic from Avena, Sonoluminescenz. This works completely on the Windows version including Tommy's tune. It is sluggish in places due to the lameness of the host hardware. However, I'm sure it would be fine on a better specc'd PeeCee, so it's champagne corks flying in all directions.
Hatari can run this!
It starts and runs very nicely and smoothly on the Mac WinUAE port. It seems to stop or hang after the fishes have done their stuff in the middle of a white screen, or else is it doing something with screen changes very very slowly? A similar delay observed in 'Stardust' on fake 060 mode, just after the opening parts of that demo.
Next up is the Tere Rai demo from Dune. Does it work? Gratifyingly, theres a complete run through with both ports (silently on the Mac) so an emphatic yes!
Going back some time to some classic French mid-nineties design, with the Gloop Demo, again, a positive yes from there for the Windows version at least.
The 2003 showstopper, 'Beams', This runs with a slow soundtrack. (No sound on the Mac) and more or less there in speed on my slow laptop powered Windows version. The soundtrack may be going out of synch on a slower host machine.
A more recent demo, '2x2187' by Paradox, seems to be more co-operative on the Mac version, but with no nostalgic evocative killer soundtrack, which is a large part of its appeal in the first place.
The picture becomes more clouded, the further in we get. An early demo, 'Relics' by a very early Black Lotus started okay, then it hung halfway through. So only a partial success there.
Our first outright failure came with 'Upside Down' from Sillyventure 2000. This does not go past the fake options menu on the Mac. With the Windows Hatari, it does not get off the title screen and sounds horrible.
Another one that was sometimes tricky on real hardware was the Avena/Digital Chaos demo from Fried Bits 3. This runs but in a very very buggy fashion, crashing as it is getting to the 3D world bit.
To bring a bit of cheer back, '4Ever', the Orneta party 4k winner from Dead Hackers Society was 100 percent present, and proved that the 68882 maths co- pro emulation was properly working!
Whilst on the subject of Dead Hackers, we took a look at 'Dream Dimension' from the class of 1998. This proved to be a tricky one to get going. It kept coming up with 'insufficient ST Ram' even on the 14 MB setting. I had to feed it some FastRAM in the end. The file I had was the Centurbo 2 compatible version, which may have had something to do with the issues? Once going, it was a perfectly fluid and decent showing even on my slow laptop. The soundtrack was good quality and not lagging or dropping parts. This would be one to recommend to show off the emulation.
Getting near to the end of the random selection of demos. We have the very DSP bashing and state of the art for 2001 'Hmmm' demo from Escape. This gratifyingly managed the entire first act without complaining, but it locked up when just getting going with the second part. This was the same across both the Windows and Mac versions. Was Norman tickling parts of the DSP not properly emulated or debugged yet?
As a related topic, the CT60 demos were tried under Mac Hatari. Most run, but slowly. We are still speed limited with a 32 MHz virtual 68040/68060. Where 060 detection is included as with some of Deez's releases, this states the Hatari emulation is 'not an 060'.
Notable successes included the most of the Black Lotus demo ports, various Dead Hackers 060 productions, Orion's 'Unexpected Fun' demo.
Failures include other PC ports, TBL's 'Rift' demo, which starts then crashes on the first proper screen, Britelite's 060 demo from the Sillyventure 2014 party which stays on the start screen, also 'Kioea', which does the same. Some of the failures are down to the lesser compatibility of the Mac Hatari build. I did not dare to try running '060 demos on my strictly speed limited Windows Hatari! I guess that at least some of the failures here should work on the Windows build?
To get a quick impression of how a typical 3D heavy CT60 demo feels on this current emulation, Earx's 4k intro, ' Scape' runs at around 3-4 frames a second. The Dead Hackers Outline '06 invitro seems to be a bit quicker than that.
Even bigger demos like Derealisation, Silkcut, Ocean Machine and Stardust can work under Hatari. There's lots of slowness and some bits of Stardust seem to take forever to appear, but we do get there in the end.
In conclusion, the story of Falcon demo compatibility on Hatari v1.90 is mixed but encouraging, with a greater degree of cooperation shown by the Windows version over the Mac version.
Games..
We now turn to the subject of games on Hatari v.1.90. For the limited sample we tried, the news was pretty good.
We start with one of the flagships for the Falcon 030 as a serious games player. Namely 'Bad Mood' by Douglas Little and others. It is very good on the Windows Hatari. There is scarcely any loss of speed (at least in low detail mode). Even the distinctive music played nicely with just a hint of slowdown on a more complex scene. The good news continued with Mac Hatari. This provided no sound, but we did get an even smoother ride in a higher detail mode. Bad Mood is quite a decently playable game in general on both Hatari versions. So if you are lacking real hardware, then help yourself.
Another majestic beast of a game was 'Racer 2' by Dune. This turns out to be very playable, even with my not quite full speed Windows based Hatari, With the Mac version, it starts promisingly, but seems to go away after the intro sequence.
We're looking at some shooting up action. A good place to start is with an early Anima X68000 transfer to the Falcon, 'Galaga 88'. This came up as a positive runner on both of my Hatari's.
One game which has been close to my heart, and giving people finger blisters, is the metal pushing extreme arcade shooter, 'Cho Ren Sha', as ported from a Sharp X68000 to a Falcon. This works as advertised with both of the emulations. It should, as there is even a Hatari specific executable for it!
It can also run this!
Jewelz from Paradize Software works fine as a 030 or 060 mode game. You would expect this to, as it does not punish the hardware, but is a fine demonstration of possibilities in a higher resolution VGA mode on the Falcon. The same would be expected for their other release in that vein, 'Chainz'.
We now go back in time for some Arkanoid style fun, with 'Impulse'. This has mixed success. It hangs on the loading screen with Mac Hatari. It does work completely on the Windows version, bombastic soundtrack and all, but we encounter some seriously iffy mouse to screen player updating on a slow host machine. At this point, the game is almost unplayable.
An interesting test was had with 'Killing Impact'. This does not start at all on the Mac, but it starts up and runs on Windows. The killer for that one is a screwed up palette in the game itself, so it is not very playable and rather disagreeable to look at for a long time.
Some more racing, with 'Rave' (Opium). Once again, we see the black screen of despair on Mac WinUAE, but it works flawlessly on Windows Hatari. Speed is not at issue here. We have a very playable game with no signs of lag at all. This one is a little gem.
The other game from Thadoss, 'Beats of Rage', works very satisfactorily on the Windows Hatari. It is completely playable. There's a tiny hint of lag on the music, but only a tiny hint. it deployed the title screen and nothing else on Mac.
We also tried a couple of '060 orientated things. Firstly, the 'Spear of Destiny' 68060 SDL port. This did not start up, so a similar failure to launch with other SDL demo ports. There is something about SDL ports that goes "Meh!" on this specific version of Mac Hatari. Maybe these get on better with a faster Windows host?
But to redress this failure, Mikro's version of 'Quake' (multiplayer) intended for CT60 works. It works at around 3-4 frames per second, so more like the '060 demos we tested earlier. Or else is this an attempt to simulate delay cache mode as found with 3D stuff on the real hardware?!
Applications..
What used to be called 'Serious stuff' around these parts. Let's take a look on how some audio visual tools work here.
And we're straight in with a biggie. Ace Tracker works! This works fully on the Windows Hatari. With my wheezy laptop, it gets a little more laboured in playback if more tracks are used in a tune. One attempt with Ace gave a constant buzzing, but that can be cured with a restart of the emulator. The news seems to be good at first with the Mac Hatari, as Ace works up to the point where a tune plays, then suddenly nothing happens. You can still exit the program, so there is some good error handling going on with the code.
We've tried a couple of random mod file players. The first one I found was 'Stormtracker', a GEM player/tracker or composer program. This loads perfectly, loads tune, but fails to play on the Mac. However, it works perfectly on PeeCee Hatari, even with stereo sound coming through clearly on the tinny speakers in the laptop. There is no slowdown in playback and good sound quality.
GEMMOD, loads up, but when trying to load a tune, a disheartening message, 'System does not have enough memory for that directory' appears on both Hatari versions. Otherwise if we get past this, it displays a multi bomb crash which nearly breaks the emulator.
GEMACE on the other hand works like a dream. It needs a faster host machine than this review can provide for it, but otherwise it is pretty much all there.
Turning to the magnificent but buggy 'Graomf Tracker', yes well, this was messy. There is always a reset option for Hatari, which was needed.
For maximum craziness, we then asked the question if there was to be any joy with FalcAMP?! This loads and works as far as loading an .MP3 file on the Mac. It does not play it (do you see a theme here?) On the Windows version, it tries to play but comes up with a plugin error, DSP timeout.
We gave up on musical applications at that point and went to the movies instead, Mplayer 3.30 was a star, It works very well on both Hatari versions. The Windows version offers a soundtrack as well.
Aniplayer, on the other hand struggles on the Mac, frame updating drops to a crawl. Strangely it is better on Windows, if you are not overtaxing it. A 160 x 80 pixel movie file played back at 49% CPU usage and larger screen sizes were also playing back as expected for an emulated standard Falcon comparing with real hardware.
Another graphical application, 'zView' didn't want to play at first. It needed an enhancer programme in the Auto folder or NVDI to work. Once this had been arranged, it worked in 256 colour palette with enhancer. It may need a proper NVDI for access to true colour modes. The overall user experience was slow and 'grotty', especially compared with original hardware or Aranym.
An early high end Falcon paint and animation package, Apex Media, seems to work just fine. No, it works GREAT! That goes for both versions, but it is smoother and easier to use on the Mac Hatari with more raw power available there.
Emulations, within emulations? Well we had to try, didn't we. As expected, there was a degree of sluggish performance. I did not try these on the Windows Hatari. The SMS Sega emulator and MinivMac Classic Mac emulations were more like a Centurbo 2 level of performance. Maybe a little bit quicker than that. The Lunar Lander game on MinivMac was almost playable, likewise, the Mac Painter drawing program was almost useable.
It can even (just about) manage this!
And there's still more. We had some strangeness with the Kronos benchmarking application. It wasn't sure what CPU the fake 060 was supposed to be. The test results are very much slower in places than a proper CT60.
Diskmags..
We're doing a 25th anniversary issue of Maggie, can we see if the Maggie diskmag is at home with Hatari? Well we'd look pretty daft if we didn't try. I can confirm that the ST shell in its various stages of evolution does work with Hatari. The overlarge article elsewhere in this issue, 'Maggie Moments' bears witness to that. However, how did it get on with the Falcon shell?
At the first attempt, not at all well on the Mac. There were various issues for the new and old version (pre-issue 24) shell issues that were tried, all failed. They either stopped on the old shell, or threw back to the desktop with the new one.
However, we reported some success on Windows Hatari. Issue 19 started (easiest to test as this was without an intro.) Even the music player was fully functional. Using the shell was manageable with this, but noticeably better with text scrolling without music on this speed limited host platform. With issue 18, we also got the iconic Tat intro, which fired up without problems, followed by the rest of the Mag as expected. Even the Donkey Kong game worked.
With the later version shell, we tried issue 24, the 'transitional' shell. We got a double bus error, with the cpu halted. A proper "yikes!' moment.
But it rather struggled with this?
For issue 25, the mystic bytes intro runs decently at first, but crashes near the end. If the intro is interrupted to start the shell, then we're thrown back to the desktop as for the Mac Hatari.
Wrapping things up..
Right, we're all tested out and I'm ready to finish this report. What did we find out with Hatari v1.90?
Generally, the 'official' (Windows) version seems to be the most complete and most compatible. It is more or less there and useable as a standard F030, even on my crappy laptop. It will give better results with better hardware. There are still some gaps, even at this stage, but most of the essentials are covered.
The Mac WinUAE build is fast and smooth in general operation, but there are more 'sticking points' Most importantly, there is no sound. There are a lot more failures on starting, especially with applications expecting a soundtrack. (Is this incomplete emulation?) The 68060/040 emulation is most definitely experimental. The FastRAM option in conjunction with the extra fake CPU does give access to many CT60 applications which we would not have been able to try before, by which we mean mostly demos.
Things we've not done (yet) We've only tested a narrow and random range of demos, games and applications. Is there a full compatibility list out there? Also we've not tried with any alternative O/S such as Magic or Mint in there. I would be interested to hear how other people might have fared there?
So in conclusion, Hatari v1.90 is awesome fun and a viable supplement to real Falcon 030's, especially on a decent quality PeeCee compatible (it hurts to say this!) The Mac version is still missing some crucial features, such as properly working sound. We're not at the end of the road yet, there is still a fair bit to do, but I'm looking forward to version 2.0 already!
CiH - For Maggie 25th Anniversary issue, October 2015.