CLK/ROMImages/AtariST/doc/incompatible.txt

Programs incompatible with EmuTOS
=================================
This is a list of programs that have program bugs or shortcomings that
prevent them from running properly with EmuTOS, and whose problem has
been definitively identified.  It is mainly intended to prevent these
programs from being added to 'bugs.txt' in the future.


Program: STOS programs
----------------------
Error 1: joystick and/or keyboard input doesn't work.

Bug analysis:
STOS Basic compiler routines check for input using undocumented and
TOS-specific locations.  Programs using these routines work only with
specific TOS versions, and not with EmuTOS.

Workaround:
Use version of the program that has been fixed to work with modern TOS
versions.

Error 2: STOS error message "Error #046, press any key" during startup.

Bug analysis:
This is caused by a divide-by-zero error in vsm_height() when the
program is run from the AUTO folder.  VDI initialisation does not occur
until after AUTO-folder programs have been run, so if a VDI function is
called by an AUTO-folder program, internal variables have not been
initialised.  STOS tries to initialise these variables itself, based on
a built-in table of TOS-specific locations.  These locations are invalid
for EmuTOS, so the required variables remain zero, causing the error.

Workaround:
Move the program from the AUTO folder to the root of the drive, and run
it from there.  While STOS programs will then start, most of them will
remain unusable due to error 1 above.


Program: old game using fixed addresses
---------------------------------------
Error: panic during game startup.

Bug analysis:
Several old, floppy-only games load their data into fixed memory
addresses, which won't work when EmuTOS has loaded something else
there.  This can be detected by tracing programs' OS calls with Hatari
(--trace os_all) and checking the used addresses. For example, under
older EmuTOS versions, the Gods game demo (from an ST Format cover disk)
overwrote itself with its game data because of this, and crashed.

Workarounds:
In some games this can be worked around by either using the cartridge
version of EmuTOS (which uses less memory) or by using a custom high-RAM
build of EmuTOS, that uses higher RAM addresses for loading programs and
for memory allocation:
make 512 UNIQUE=uk DEF="-DSTATIC_ALT_RAM_ADDRESS=0x00080000 -DCONF_WITH_FRB=0"

However, this doesn't help with programs which also expect undocumented,
OS internal functions and variables to be at certain locations.  The
best workaround is to use a version of the game that has been fixed to
run from HD and with modern TOS versions.


Program: Awele v1.01
--------------------
Error: mono desktop colours are inverted after exiting program.

Bug analysis:
This version of Awele was compiled with PureC and linked with a very
early version of Windform.  During WinDOM initialisation, malloc() is
called to allocate an area to save the palette in.  However, although
malloc() returns the pointer in A0, the WinDOM code assumes it is in D0.
As a result, an area of low memory is pointed to, which is overwritten
during Awele execution.  At program termination, the palette is restored
from the overwritten area, resulting in the error seen.

Workaround:
Use v1.02 of the game.


Program: Cameleon
-----------------
Error 1: program exits immediately when 'Start game' is selected.

Bug analysis:
The program requires an STe.  In order to determine whether it is
running on an STe, it checks the contents of location 0x995 (hardcoded).
On Atari TOS, this is where TOS initialisation happens to store the _MCH
cookie but this is *not* how Atari says you should locate it (and it's
not where EmuTOS stores it).

Error 2: program crashes with a Trace exception on any exit.

Bug analysis:
During startup, the program switches to supervisor state via the Super()
system call.  Subsequently, the supervisor stack overwrites the program's
user stack.  On exit, the user stack pointer is restored and during this
a corrupted value is loaded into the SR, causing a trace excpetion.


Program: (VDI) Invaders and Anduril
-----------------------------------
Error: keys to move an object are ignored (in Invaders, the '-' key; in
Anduril, the 'h' & 'j' keys)

Bug analysis:
Both programs were written by "M.Dheus" who found that the most recent
key input from the keyboard was stored at offset 0x6d from the address
returned by Kbdvbase(), and used that to read the keyboard.  This was
never documented by Atari, but was apparently true for all versions of
TOS 1.  However it is not true for TOS 2, 3, or 4 (or EmuTOS).


Program: Ramses
---------------
Error: panic

Bug analysis:
Program calls the Line A initialization $A00A and gets the routine
vectors in a2.  It gets the address of _v_hide_c, then starts doing
undocumented things with the bytes of the actual routine:
    https://sourceforge.net/p/emutos/mailman/message/30605378/


Program: STVidPlay
------------------
Error: "Error in getting file location"

Bug analysis:
Program looks for a specific 2-byte sequence in the hard disk driver
code pointed to by hdv_rw ($476).  If it doesn't find that sequence
within bytes 6-48 (or thereabouts) of the start of the driver, it
gives the error message.


Program: Cubase Lite
--------------------
Error: panic

Bug analysis:
On TOS 1.62 etv_timer vector is a delegate to an internal private
function.  Cubase Lite tries to guess the address of that private
function in an undocumented way, which crashes on EmuTOS.  (Somebody
could write a loader or TSR to change the etv_timer function so that
Cubase will not crash.)


Program: Reservoir Gods games (Bugger, Bunion, SkyFall, Sworm)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Error: panic

Bug analysis:
Games use an undocumented TOS4 vector for keyboard input instead of
accessing kbdvec correctly.  This causes EmuTOS to panic.

Workaround:
This can be worked around with the following hack.prg:
    https://sourceforge.net/p/emutos/mailman/message/26841274/


Program: OMIKRON.BASIC V3.01 (interpreter)
------------------------------------------
Error: Panic (bus error) during start

Bug analysis:
The program relies on undocumented internal TOS variables at several
points.  First, it expects A0 upon return from Mediach (BIOS function)
to point to wplatch (floppy write protect latch variable).  On EmuTOS
A0 is 0 and hence a bus error occurs when the program wants to modify
that variable.  Second, it parses the bytes of the 0xA00A (hide cursor)
line-A routine to get the address of a variable reflecting the internal
state of the mouse cursor.  This is done with the same code used in
"Ramses" (see above).  This also fails on EmuTOS, resulting in another
bus error.  There may be more accesses to undocumented variables.


Program: STSpeech v2.0
----------------------
Error: panics due to stack corruption

Bug analysis:
The program installs a custom Timer A interrupt handler, and calls the
XBIOS from it.  If the Timer A interrupt happens to occur just when an
unrelated BIOS/XBIOS call is manipulating _savptr (saving registers),
then the nested XBIOS call inside the Timer A handler will trash that
BIOS/XBIOS save area, possibly modifying the stack pointer. In the
"Hitchhiker's Guide to the BIOS", Atari documented a workaround for this,
but STSpeech does not use it.

Workaround:
Because this problem is timing-dependent, it does not show up on Atari
TOS, and only shows up in EmuTOS if BigDOS is installed (BigDOS issues
many XBIOS calls).  Use program without BigDOS, or anything else doing
a lot of XBIOS calls.


Program: Protracker v2 STE (Equinox version)
--------------------------------------------
Error: crash when "DISK OP." button is selected

Bug analysis:
The program relies on a TOS-specific code sequence, as follows:
1. it searches the ROM (pointed to by location 4) for the first word
   equal to 0x47e
2. when found, it uses the longword immediately before as a pointer to
   an address; in TOS2, this is a pointer to the mediachange handler
3. it stores the long at offset 0x1c from that address in its data
   segment; in TOS2, this is a pointer to (I think) two bytes of
   status for the floppy drives
Subsequently, when "DISK OP." is selected, the stored long is used as a
pointer.  In TOS2, the value stored is $4216; in EmuTOS, it's zero,
resulting in a crash.


Program: Spectrum 512
---------------------
Error: crash during program initialisation

Bug analysis:
The program relies on a TOS-specific code sequence, as follows:
1. it searches the VBL handler (pointed to by location $70) for the
   first word containing a value of 0x6100
2. when found, it uses the word immediately following as an index to
   generate an address, and starts searching at that address for a
   word containing a value of 0x8606
Under EmuTOS, the address generated is a nonsense address which happens
to be odd, causing an immediate address error.