This file is a list of ideas for erc's development. It is intended to capture only the present and near future scope of work that can be done. This file is used to produce a roadmap of work.
Erc is an acronym which stands for "emulator of retro computers", and its long term aim is to do that. It is designed straightforwardly so that people can read the source code and learn how old computers work.
The near-term vision is to reasonably emulate an Apple //e, which is an Apple IIe "enhanced" computer.
Erc is able to emulate Apple II DOS-order software. It can:
- read and execute software
- write data into the disk image held in memory and save those changes to the image
- render high resolution graphics, double high resolution graphics, low resolution graphics, 80-column text, and 40-column text
- play audio produced by the software
- reasonably emulate cycles (although precise cycle emulation is not a goal)
- at any point drop into a debugger and record a log of disk access
- produce reasonably complete debugging output to examine what software does
- allow the user to speed up and slow down at will
- support multiple disks loaded at boot time and allow you to swap dynamically between them
- A lot of software has not been tested at all (NIB, and PO files particularly)
- We do not yet support WOZ images
- Mockingboard sound support
- Mouse support
- Double low resolution graphics