Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0

Getting Started

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Registering | Getting Started | Audio/Video | Storage
Communications | Printing | Preferences | Total Integration

 Bernie Home | F.E.Systems Home

 


1. Installation Procedure

1.1 Downloading Bernie

1.2 Obtaining a ROM Dump

1.3 Packaging List

1.4 Everything In Place? (The Acid Test)

1.5 Where To Go From Here

 


2. Starting Bernie ][ The Rescue

2.1 Memory

2.2 Working with Bernie ][ The Rescue

2.2.1 Keyboard

2.2.2 Customized Keyboard Layouts

2.2.3 Function Keys

2.2.4 Mouse

2.2.5 Joystick

2.3 Starting Emulation

2.4 Speed Control / SpeedNanny

2.5 Zip Chip™ Support

2.6 ViagRAM™ Memory Enhancer

 


3. Miscellaneous

3.1 Switching ROMs

3.2 Miscellaneous Preferences

3.2.1 Special Sound Effects

3.2.2 Pause GS When In Background

3.2.3 Warn On Reset and Shut Down

3.2.4 Remember Last Keyboard Layout

3.2.5 Support For Extended Keyboards

3.2.6 Hide Mac Cursor While Typing

3.2.7 Allow GS Clock To Overwrite Mac Clock

3.3 Getting Help

  

 


1. Installation Procedure

 


1.1 Downloading Bernie

Bernie is available as a CompactPro™ or StuffIt™ archive. To install Bernie, follow these steps:

 

 

 


1.2 Obtaining a ROM Dump

Since Bernie is a software-only emulator, it requires a copy of the Apple IIgs ROM. We are not allowed to include this code due to the copyrights that prevent us from doing so. Consequently, you have to create an image of a Apple IIgs ROM yourself.

Bernie can handle both ROM 01 and ROM 3. You can install either of them, or both at the same time. The ROM dump(s) must be located in the same folder as the Bernie application. The ROM file(s) go by "Apple IIgs ROM 01" or "Apple IIgs ROM 3", respectively. Bernie will find the files no matter how they're labeled and renames them appropriately. You only need to throw them into the Bernie application directory. (Please decompress the files manually if they have been compressed before.)

Here's how you can make a ROM dump of a Apple IIgs ROM. Please be sure to follow these steps precisely, otherwise your ROM dump might end up being corrupted:

 

 

 

CAUTION: Do not use a ProDOS-formatted disk for copying the ROM file(s). Always use a Macintosh (HFS) disk.

 

Making a ROM dump is not for the faint-hearted. If you feel you need additional help, we will gladly help you.

 


1.3 Packaging List

When you have downloaded everything, you should have the following files all in the same directory:

Please read the Release Notes carefully. They contain late-breaking news and explain with just a few words what has changed since the previous release.

The Application Notes is a document that discusses specific Apple II application and how they interact with Bernie, what settings should be used for best performance etc.

 

 


1.4 Everything In Place?

When you now start the Bernie application, you should see (in that order):

The error message "Check Startup Device" is exactly what you'd see on a real Apple IIgs if you turned it on without inserting a disk. In other words, your Mac has now been taught hardware-emulating a IIgs, now it's time to shop for the software.

Congratulations, you now have a full-featured Apple IIgs® running on your Macintosh® hardware!

 

 


1.5 Where To Go From Here

We recommend you to read the rest of this Getting Started section and try the various options on the living object. You do not need system software for exploring most emulation-related features. Once you got familiar with the emulator, you can start using Apple IIgs software.

At this time, you might want to learn what other people are doing with Bernie. Consider subscribing to the Bernie mailing list, a mailing list that focuses on Apple II emulation with Bernie. Details on subscriptions are available on the web. The Bernie crew is monitoring the mailing list and providing answers in case your feeding questions into it.

Upon reading this section, you should get your hands on a few disk images. Most will already be eager to recycle their huge software archive. If you do not have Apple IIgs software within reach, consider downloading a few titles from the Internet (see our Download page for links).

Next, we very strongly recommend you to learn the details of Bernie's disk handling as described in the Storage section. It's not a particularly simple topic but crucial for having an enjoyable time with Bernie.

For the ultimate support experience, we would also be glad to welcome you in Delphi's Apple forum. We are doing online support there as our time permits and would enjoy talking to you. Look for the Apple II forum.

Finally, have a look at the remaining chapters (video, audio, printing).

 

 


2. Starting Bernie ][ The Rescue

 

Once you have completed the steps in chapter 1, you're ready for liftoff. The Bernie team at F.E.Systems wishes you a great time with Bernie!

 


2.1 Memory

Bernie has been designed to work in small memory partitions ("heaps"). The factory setting is approx. 4.5 Mb RAM. This application size is about the equivalent of a 1.5Mb Apple IIgs system. (Ca. 3 megabytes are reserved for Bernie, all remaining free RAM will be allocated for Apple IIgs memory.) If you would like to increase available Apple IIgs memory, follow these steps:

 

The next time you start Bernie, the changes in memory allocation will take effect. Please keep in mind that Bernie will not allocate more than 8 megabytes and not more than 14 megabytes with the ViagRAM™ 14Mb option enabled. A stock Apple IIgs does not support more than 8Mb of RAM.

 

 


2.2 Working with Bernie ][ The Rescue

 


2.2.1 Keyboard

Bernie translates Mac keyboards into Apple IIgs key codes. Bernie does also support international character sets.

There are just a few important special keys on your Mac keyboard:

  • To access Macintosh menu key commands, press command-shift-[key] instead of command-[key].

Tidbit: On slower Macs, consider enabling keyboard buffering in the Apple IIgs' Classic Control Panel:

 

 


2.2.2 Customized Keyboard Layouts 

Bernie is shipping with customized keyboard layouts for your Mac. The layouts tell your Mac to let through certain key combinations that are crucial for a few applications such as ProSEL and AppleWorks UltraMacros. The Bernie keyboard layouts are included with the Bernie application and must be installed first:

  1. locate the file "Bernie Keyboard - U.S." or an international variant that matches your requirements. Layouts for French, British, German and Dvorak keyboards are included. (Users of earlier versions of Bernie can download the layouts from the web.)
  2. grab the file with the mouse and drop it onto the system suitcase of your start disk. The system suitcase is located on your startup disk in the system folder. It's the file titled "System".
  3. If the operation has been successful, you will notice a menu to the right on the Mac menu bar - next to the applications menu - that is now listing the keyboard layout you just copied/moved.

Bernie's keyboard layout handling is very flexible and allows for simultaneous use of a customized Bernie layout while retaining the original layout in other applications running in the background. To activate automatic layout switching, please open the Preferences menu (from the Setup menu):

 

Check the box Remember Last Keyboard. Bernie will now behave as follows:

 

 


2.2.3 Function Keys

Bernie also supports function keys. The keys are reserved as follows:

F5

toggle Joystick

F6

toggle Mouse

F7

sound on/off

F8
Shift-F8

Power Mode on/off
Put Bernie into background and make the Finder active

F9

Speed Nanny on (regulated emulation speed)

F10

a wee bit slower

F11

a wee bit faster

F12

Speed Nanny off: max. speed

Shift-F13

Power off-on (cold reset)

Shift-F14

Shutdown (quit Bernie)

F15

Halt

  


2.2.4 Mouse

For most desktop based Apple IIgs applications, the mouse switching is done automagically by Bernie. However, if the application is not using the Event Manager to poll the mouse, you have to manually turn on mouse emulation to use it as an Apple IIgs mouse. You need to enable Mouse Support when you are running an application with mouse control and nothing happens when you're moving the mouse.

There's an easy shortcut to switch between Mac and GS mouse: Command-Shift-M. Alternately, you can also click in the Video window while holding down Command-Shift.

The mouse is polled 30 times a second which is sufficient in most situations. If you feel the mouse is jerky and unresponsive, you can double accuracy by:

Note that updating mouse position more frequently has a marginal impact on execution speed.

 

 


2.2.5 Joystick

Games are more fun when played with a joystick. Bernie offers varies "emulations" for getting the most out of your input devices.

 

Input Sprockets Support

Input Sprockets is a technology from Apple Computer. It's a programming interface that offers unified code for controlling joystick-like input devices from a various manufacturers.

If you have Input Sprockets installed, be sure to have the check box "Use InputSprocket" checked. This enables InputSprockets code. Joystick configuration takes place in a separate window that you can open by pushing the "Configure InputSprocket Joysticks" button.

 

Direct Joystick Support

Besides InputSprockets, Bernie also supports certain joysticks directly. These include the Gravis GamePad and MouseStick devices.

When you open the Setup menu, you will find a menu item "Joystick..". This menu lets you choose one of the following emulations:

 

The Joystick panel is part of the Preferences panel and lets you refine joystick emulation.

 

 

Bernie emulates up to two joysticks. We're aware of only game supporting two joysticks (Super Star Icehockey), but since that's our all-time favorite it was worth adding support for two devices. The popup menus will also list GamePad and MouseStick devices.

If you have a GamePad or MouseStick attached to your system and the corresponding popup menu items are dimmed, please make sure their control panels (on the Mac side) are properly installed and loaded.

Autocenter is an option for joystick emulation via keypad. When you do not steer to a particular direction, Bernie will center the joystick. You could do so by pushing 5 on the keypad, but enabling this option frees you from doing so.

 

Joystick emulation is a tricky thing because timing circuits are hard to emulate. Even on the real hardware calibrating a joystick has often been a daunting task. If Bernie does not work well with your software because the emulated joystick seems to be badly calibrated, you can adjust it with the Adjust Ratio slider.

 

  


2.3 Starting Emulation

As soon as Bernie is loaded, emulation is running. To pause emulation, choose "Pause" from the Setup menu.

 

 


2.4 SpeedNanny

SpeedNanny is a tool for controlling the speed at which Bernie is emulating. If SpeedNanny is turned off, Bernie is humming along at top speed, typically far beyond that of a stock IIgs.

To control performance of Bernie, open the Preferences window:

 

 

If Speed Control is checked, the speed slider and popup menu become active:

The SpeedNanny menu command from the Setup menu toggles between control speed and full speed.

You can control SpeedNanny via function keys as well. See the previous chapter ("Function Keys") for details.

 

  


2.5 Zip Chip™ Support

A stock Apple IIgs is running at a rather 2.8Mhz. That's why accelerators such as the Zip Chip™ have been a popular add-on.

Bernie adds support for a virtual Zip Chip. This means that Zip Chip-aware software thinks there is a Zip Chip built into Bernie.

If speed control/SpeedNanny is enabled, Bernie will perform at the speed level the virtual Zip Chip is set to. For example, when your Apple IIgs software sets the Zip Chip to 9 Mhz, then Bernie will run at 9Mhz.

(If Bernie does not support a specific speed, it will tune in on the next higher speed.)

 

 


2.6 ViagRAM™ Memory Enhancer

Bernie comes with ViagRAM™, the tool for almost doubling available memory. With ViagRAM™ enabled, your Apple IIgs software can see up to 14Mb of RAM.

Please note that in order to take advantage of ViagRAM™, you need to allocate enough memory to Bernie. For the full 14Mb of RAM, you'd need to increase Bernie's application size to 17 Mb.

Please note that ViagRAM™ patches the system and a few programs make assumptions about how memory behaves and how much is available. ViagRAM might invalidate these assumptions so the software is incompatible with the patch. One software that is known to be incompatible is AppleWorks Classic.

 

 


3. Miscellaneous

 


3.1 Switching ROMs

The Setup menu has a submenu "Switch ROM" that displays the ROM currently in use. Depending on which ROM dump you have installed, one of the two choices may be disabled.

If select a ROM dump in the "Switch ROM" submenu, Bernie will load the selected ROM and cold boot Bernie. You can't switch ROMs on the fly without rebooting the virtual IIgs.

Tidbit: You can use the "Switch ROM" command to apply changes you made to the slot settings. When switching a particular slot from "Your Card" to its built-in function (Printer, Disk Port, etc.) or vice versa, the change will not be applied immediately. Instead, you have to completely reboot the emulated Apple IIgs in order to make the changes take effect. This is particularly important when you'd like to print with "InkMeister" (Bernie's proprietary printing technology) and discover that the slot setting for slot 1 is wrong. It is not sufficient to just toggle the slot setting from "Printer" to "Your Card" but you also need to reboot the emulated Apple IIgs. The "Switch ROM" command does exactly this.

We are often being asked if there's a major difference between ROM 01 and ROM 3. The answer is: no, there isn't. ROM 3 is slightly faster with Bernie, but the key benefits of the ROM 3 machines were mostly in hardware design.

 


3.2 Miscellaneous Preferences

 

 

 

The Preferences window contains a "generic settings" panel. To access it, open the Preferences window and click the panel "This & That". Here's a short description of what some more obnoxious items do:

 


3.2.1 Special Sound Effects

Emits nostalgic sounds when ejecting disks etc.

 


3.2.2 Pause Emulation When In Background

Switches to pause mode when you hop to another application. This also affects emulation when you put Bernie into background with the Shift-F8 shortcut.

 


3.2.3 Warn On Reset and Shut Down

Displays warnings when you're about to loose data (by resetting etc.). Experienced users will find these warnings pretty annoying, but if you're new to Bernie you might want to enable them for a while.

 


3.2.4 Remember Last Keyboard Layout

See chapter about Keyboards for more information.

 


3.2.5 Support For Extended Keyboards

If this option is enabled, Bernie will not map own functions to the function keys. Instead, function keys are passed to the Apple II software.

Please note that with Support For Extended Keyboards, it is not possible to disable Mouse Support, Speed Control or Power Mode with function keys. Remember their key shortcuts!

 


3.2.6 Hide Mac Cursor While Typing

Well, hides the Mac cursor while typing.

 


3.2.7 Allow GS Clock To Overwrite Mac Clock

Bernie offers RTC (Real-Time Clock) support. When software attempts to set the clock to a new date, you have the choice to write this change through to the Mac layer.

 

 


3.3 Getting Help

 

You might run into situations where you would appreciate some help.

We are offering you different sources of help. Most importantly, please read the remaining chapters. This introduction only scratches the surface and is not supposed to reveal all the secrets.

Next, Bernie has a Help menu where you can enable menu help. Menu help is a variant of Apple's balloon help, but it's not so annoying because Bernie activates it only when you have opened a menu. These messages can be actually very helpful when you are new to Bernie. We strongly recommend you to play with Bernie with menu help enabled for a while.

Join the mailing list or surf the online archive of past messages. You will find answers to many intricate questions here.

We are - as time permits - chatting in Delphi's Apple II Forum. We can work out problems there very quickly in a live conference.

Last but not least, we have the tech support line where a bunch of totally relaxed people will take your mail and answer whatever questions you might have, such as if I've been finally elected CEO of Apple Computer or not. Please note that we have put together some reminders that you should please read carefully before contacting us. This saves both of us time and makes correspondence much more fun. Thank you!

 

 

Registering | Getting Started | Audio/Video | Storage
Communications | Printing | Preferences | Total Integration

 Bernie Home | F.E.Systems Home

 

 

Mac, Apple IIgs, SmartPort, GS/OS, Finder, MacOS, ProDOS, AppleWorks are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. Dolby Pro Logic is a trademark of Dolby Laboratories Inc. THX is a trademark of Lucasfilm Inc. All other brand names are trademarks of their respective holders. I'm a registered citizen of my home town.

 

Bernie ][ The Rescue is copyrighted by F.E.Systems, Switzerland. Uploading, distributing with commercial products or on high capacity disks (>2Mb) only with prior written permission. Software and manual are provided "as are" without warranties as to performance or fitness to a particular purpose. F.E.Systems, its staff and Kagi Shareware are not liable for loss of data or any other direct or indirect damages. Specifications are subject to change without notice.