                        ---==========================---
			     KEM -- Killer Emulator
			   Frequently Asked Questions 
                                    KEMFAQ 
			      For KEM version 1.1
			        $Revision: 1.9 $
			  $Date: 1997/07/12 05:23:20 $
                        ---==========================---

		KEM written by: Mike Cuddy <mcuddy@FensEnde.com>
		FAQ written by: Jeff Mercer <riffer@afn.org>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What's In This FAQ
------------------
Section I - Beginner Questions
  o What is KEM?
  o What games does KEM support?
  o Future game support
  o What do I need to run it?
  o How much is it going to cost?
  o Where do I get it?
  o How do I use KEM?
  o Where do I get the ROM images?

Section II - Problems
  o Hey! When I run KEM it just hangs on the credits screen!
  o KEM is really slow and I have a Pentium. What's wrong?
  o How/Where do I get VESA 2.0 drivers?
  o Some games are still slow wit VESA 2.0, how come?
  o Every other line of the graphics in some of the games is missing, why?
  o Why do some of the games have extra graphics on the edges of the screen?
  o I'm not getting any sound/KEM locks up when it tries to do sound.
  o Sound for Tron (or other game) doesn't seem right, how do I fix it?
  o The sound doesn't seem to synch correctly, what can I do?
  o Most of the Bally/Midway games give a "Sound Board Error" but still give
    me sound. How come?
  o How come I can only enter two initials in Tron & Satan's Hollow?
  o Rampage doesn't have any sound/Locks up on me. What's wrong?
  o Discs of Tron: When I get to the level that the discs move up and down,
    the game hangs!
  o Discs of Tron: I can't start a 1 player game!  The 1P start button
    always starts a 2 player game!
  o Journey: Isn't it supposed to play "Seperate Ways / Worlds Apart" during
    the concert scene?
  o Gyruss: Gyruss' music is missing it's drums!
  o I found an undocumented bug! How do I report it?
  
Section III - Technical Stuff
  o Why is VESA 1.2 support slower than VESA 2.0 support?
  o What's the whole story behind the "Sound Board Error" messages?

*** If you find a FREQUENTLY asked question not covered in this document, ***
*** please E-mail it to riffer@afn.org for possible addition to the KEM   ***
*** FAQ. Thanks! (Serious questions only. Don't ask for ROM's.)           ***

==============================================================================

Section I - Beginner Questions
------------------------------

Q: What is KEM?

A: "KEM" is short for Killer Emulator, an arcade game emulator engine
   designed and written by Mike Cuddy. An emulator is a program that can
   mimic the functionality of hardware (namely electronic circuits & chips)
   purely via software.
   KEM uses emulation with your computers hardware to emulate classic arcade
   video games, so you can play them on your PC. WooHoo!!


Q: What games does KEM support?

A: Currently, KEM is capable of running the following games. All of these
   games are fully playable, have correct or nearly-correct colors, and
   nearly-full functioning sound:
       
       o Gyruss    \
       o Time Pilot >--------- Konami games
       o Pooyan    /

       o Kickman   \__________ Bally/Midway MCR/I board set
       o Solar Fox /
       
       o Tron          \
       o Satan's Hollow \  
       o Two Tigers      >---- Bally/Midway MCR/II board set
       o Journey        /
       o Domino Man    /

       o Tapper           \ 
       o Discs Of Tron     >-- Bally/Midway MCR/III board set
       o Demolition Derby /

       o Rampage      >------- Bally/Midway UNIBOARD/Z80 board set
         * (No sound yet. May crash if you try and enable audio)
	 
       o Blue Print


Q: Wait, didn't I hear it was going to support "some other game"?

A: As KEM is developed, many more games will be added. Support for MCR/I,
   MCR/II, and MCR/III systems has now been added. Games that will
   likely be added in the future include Spy Hunter, Bezerk, Frenzy, 
   and others. See the KEM web page for more information.


Q: What do I need to run it?

A: There are both hardware requirements, and software requirements. Please
   be sure to read *all* of these!
   
   KEM is a DOS-based program, and will only run on an IBM PC or compatible.
   It should run under Windows95 in a DOS box (full-screen), and some have
   reported it runs under OS/2, but that is not a supported platform.
   
   The minimal system requirements:
    o Pentium CPU, 100Mhz or faster.
      KEM will *not* run properly on a 486. 486's are *not* supported.
    
    o Fast SVGA card and VESA 1.2 or VESA 2.0 support. Either the card must
      have VESA support built into its BIOS, or you must have a VESA
      driver for your SVGA card. You can get VESA support for most video
      cards by checking out the Scitech homepage:
      
		   URL:<http://www.scitechsoft.com/>
    
    o 8MB of RAM if run under DOS. 16MB of RAM if run under Windows95.
      The emulator will likely run with less RAM, but it may not 
      be as efficient.
    
    o *At least* 256K of RAM cache, 512K strongly recommended.            
      While the game will run if your system doesn't have a high-speed
      RAM cache, it will perform poorly. A Pentium without RAM cache is
      crippled.
	
   Hardware that is not required, but makes the emulator more fun:

    o Wingman Warrior.  This is the only joystick currently supported.
      For more information on this joystick, check out:    

	     URL:<http://www.logitech.com/logitech/45ce.htm>

    o A SoundBlaster sound card, or SB compatible. KEM currently works 
      properly with SB 16 (classic and PnP), and SB 32 cards. It
      may work with other SB cards, and SB compatible cards in many cases,
      but may require tweaking certain command options.
      
      ** KEM MAY NOT WORK WITH SOUNDBLASTER-PRO COMPATIBLE CARDS **
      **   SINCE THESE CARDS DO NOT SUPPORT THE "AUTOINIT" DMA   **
      **   TRY USING THE -**
      
   
   And finally, you *must* have the ROM images from the arcade games to be
   able to play them! A ROM image is a file containing a duplication of the
   data stored in the ROM chips of an arcade games motherboard. The ROM chips
   hold the program code for the game, as well as graphical and sound data.
   If you have one of the arcade games that KEM emulates, or at least the
   board or ROM chips for it, you can dump the ROM images to a file, or
   download them from one of a variety of archive sites.
   
    *** ROM IMAGES ARE NOT INCLUDED WITH KEM AND NEVER WILL BE, EVER!! ***
    *** ROM IMAGES ARE NOT INCLUDED WITH KEM AND NEVER WILL BE, EVER!! ***
    *** ROM IMAGES ARE NOT INCLUDED WITH KEM AND NEVER WILL BE, EVER!! ***


Q: Sounds great! How much is it going to cost?

A: Nothing. KEM is free, and always will be. In fact, if you paid someone
   money for the KEM program, you were scammed big-time.


Q: Where do I get the emulator?

A: You can get the KEM emulator from the official KEM homepage:
		
		URL:<http://www.FensEnde.com/kem/>
   
   Or from an approved Arcade Emulator mirror, such as:
		
		URL:<http://www.eel.ufl.edu/~riffer/arcade/>

   If you find KEM on a CD-ROM, *DO NOT USE IT!* It is an illegal copy and
   may have been tampered with. Do not trust it. Worse: KEM is updated
   frequently, a with new games, and bug fixes. A version not downloaded
   from an official source may not be the latest version and may contain
   potentially system threatening bugs.


Q: How do I use it?

A: The KEM emulator program comes with documentation on how to install and
   use the emulator. Check the README.TXT file that comes with the KEM .ZIP
   package. If there is no file included, you should download a new copy
   of the package from the official site, and notify Mike Cuddy about where
   you got the archive with the missing files.


Q: Where do I get the ROM images?

A: As mentioned in a previous answer, you can dump the ROMs yourself if you
   have the necessary equipment. You will probably find it easier to obtain
   them from an Arcade game ROM archive. There are several of these on the
   Internet, and many pointers to them. Check out Yahoo or Lycos and you will
   probably find them.
   It must be noted that you are NOT legally entitled to the ROM images if
   you do not own the arcade games, or at least a set of the physical ROM
   chips in some functional form.


Section II - Problems
---------------------

Q: Hey! When I run KEM it just hangs on the credits screen!

A: The first time that you run KEM (or if you delete the KEM.REG file), 
   it forces you to watch the credits, once, all the way through.  Once
   the credits have run through one time, you can press any key.
   
   If you want to see the credits again, you can access them from
   the configuration menu (press <ESC> while in the emulator)
   

Q: KEM is *really* slow on my machine! I have a Pentium 100 (or higher).
   What's wrong?

A: Many video cards have built-in VESA 1.2 support. KEM will run in VESA 1.2
   mode, but will perform significantly slower than if you have VESA 2.0
   support. If you can, install a VESA 2.0 driver for your video card. KEM
   will automatically use VESA 2.0 if a driver for it is installed.


Q: How/where do I get a VESA 2.0 driver?!

A: First off, check to see if a VESA 2.0 driver was included with the
   support software for your video card. If not, check with the manufacturer
   of the video card. They may have a VESA 2.0 driver available that could
   not be included with the driver support software for your card (you can
   do this by checking their web page, or calling their tech support number).
   Note that some companies offer actual upgrades to the BIOS on the video
   card as a chip replacement.
   If you can't get a VESA 2.0 driver from the manufacturer of your card,
   don't worry there are still alternatives. Your best bet is to check out
   a program called Display Doctor by SciTech Software. It offers VESA 2.0
   support (plus acceleration functions, benchmarking, etc) for literally
   hundreds of different video cards. It's a commercial package but is
   reasonably priced and a free, uncrippled demo is available. Check out:

		  URL:<http://www.scitechsoft.com/>

   For those of you who have a video card that uses an S3 video chip set
   (such as a Number Nine brand card), there is a Freeware VESA 2.0 driver
   available called S3VBE that you can download. The URL is:

          URL:<http://wwwmath.uni-muenster.de/math/u/mesched/>

   There is also an S3 accelerator program that works in conjunction with
   the S3 VESA 2.0 driver to speed up the VESA 2.0 banked modes.


Q: Some of the games (Gyruss, Pooyan, Time Pilot) are *still* really slow.
   What's going on?

A: Those games use a different resolution display mode and do not perform
   well at all in banked video modes. If you don't have Linear Buffer support
   for your video card, they will be slow.
   Remember, KEM is still in beta. It is virtually all C and is far from
   optimal. In Mike's own words, "it's a pig."


Q: How come every other line of the graphics seems to be missing for the
   Konami games?

A: This is explained in the README.TXT file that comes with the KEM program.
   To briefly summarize, this is done intentionally to speed up the
   emulation display. If you wish, you can alter the .GAM file for a game to
   use a full display driver. Please see the KEM README.TXT file for more
   information.


Q: Some of the graphics in the games keep going over the edges of the
   display and don't get cleaned up properly. Is something wrong?

A: In many cases, this is actually the way the game functioned. Arcade
   game designers would simply hide these flaws by making sure the display
   over the monitor covered up the edges of the screen.
   You can fix this by changing the video driver used by the games in
   their respective .GAM files. Note that this will make the emulation
   run slower. Consult the KEM README.TXT file for details.


Q: I'm not getting any audio, but I have a SoundBlaster compatible card.
	... and ...
   The emulator locks up when it tries to access my sound card.   
   
A: You have a couple of things you can try:

       o Hit F12 to increase the master volume level. Hit it several times
         to make sure the volume is set to an audible level.
         NOTE: You should do this while the emulated game is actually running.

       o Start the emulator with the "-a 0" option, to disable sound.

       o Buy a SoundBlaster 16 sound card.


Q: The audio for Tron isn't right, especially the noise played when the
   text is printed out. How do I fix this?

A: We believe the correct frame rate for Tron is 30 fps. Be sure to start
   the KEM emulator with "-f 30" to get the correct update time.  Or, better
   yet, use the included batch file 'TR.BAT' or "Fps = 30" in INI\MCR.INI.
   Some may find this speed is still off, and may want to try adjusting the
   FPS value.
   Also, make sure you are using VESA 2.0 and not VESA 1.2 drivers.


Q: The sound still doesn't seem to play correctly, and doesn't synch with
   the video correctly.

A: Your computer may not be fast enough. Try running the emulator with the
   option "-K 1" to have it skip drawing every other frame. You should see
   significant speed increase and you may get better sound/video synch.


Q: When I start an MCR/II or MCR/III game such as Tron, it says the sound
   board couldn't be initialized. Yet I get sound! How come?
   
A: The message is being given by the emulated arcade game, not the emulator
   itself. While KEM does emulate the sound hardware of the MCR/II games
   quite well, it's not perfect. So when the arcade game does its self test,
   it thinks the sound board isn't working. Note that it's not looking at
   your soundcard in your PC, but a non-existent sound card existing solely
   in your computer's memory. Spooky, eh? :)


Q: Hey! How come I can only enter two letters for my initials in Tron and/or
   Satan's Hollow?! >:(
   
A: This isn't a flaw in KEM. Those arcade games only allow two letters for
   initials in the high score table. Don't blame Mike.
   
  
Q: Rampage doesn't have any sound.
        ... and ...
   When I try and turn on sound in Rampage, it crashes.

A: As of the writing of this document, KEM doesn't currently emulate the
   sound for Rampage. If you attempt to turn sound on, it will crash. This
   is documented in the KEM README.TXT file.
   

Q: On Discs of Tron: When I get to the level that the discs move up and 
   down, the game hangs!
   
A: Yes, this is a known bug.  Mike's working on it.


Q: On Discs of Tron: I can't start a 1 player game!  The 1P start button
   always starts a 2 player game!
   
A: Yes, this also is a known bug.  Mike's working on it, too.


Q: Journey: Isn't it supposed to play "Seperate Ways / Worlds Apart" during
    the concert scene?
    
A: Yes, it is.  The real game used a cassette recorder to play the chorus
   of the song.  You need to put a file called "sepways.snd" containing 
   the sample you want played; this sample will be looped, and the whole
   thing will be loaded at startup.  The sample should be 22KHZ, 8-bit
   SIGNED sample.
   
Q: Gyruss: Gyruss' music is missing it's drums!

A: In order to reduce archive size, the 1.1 version of KEM doesn't ship
   With gyruss drum samples.  There is an archive of drum samples available
   on the KEM home page:
	
   	http://www.fensende.com/kem/drums.zip


Q: I have found a bona-fide bug!  How do I report it?

A: First, make sure that you've really found a bug.  If you can, verify that
   it happens on another machine.  Most problems that KEM has are related 
   to slow machines. Does the problem go away when you turn off audio?  Does
   the problem go away if you use "-K 1" to skip a frame? If so, then it's
   not a bug in KEM; your machine is too slow.  Also, check the KNOWNBUG.TXT
   file to see if Mike already knows about the bug; PLEASE DO NOT REPORT
   KNOWN BUGS!
   
   Don't e-mail Mike with the bug; he currently gets about 200 to 500 mail
   messages _PER_DAY_ and the bug report will more than likely get lost.
   
   If, at this point, you are still sure that you have found a bug, go to:

                       URL:<http://www.FensEnde.com/kem/>

   and click on the "Submit a Bug" link. Please be sure to fill out the form
   as completely and accurately as possible!


Section III - Technical Stuff
-----------------------------

Q: Why is VESA 1.2 support slower than VESA 2.0 support?

A: The VESA 1.2 specification for Super VGA modes does not include any
   standards for accessing a video cards memory as one linear (or flat)
   memory chunk. So when KEM needs to send the buffer representing the
   game display to the video card, it has to do it using bank switching,
   which is a much slower method than linear memory access. Bank switching
   literally requires more code instructions be used to produce the same
   result.
   For more information on the VESA specifications, check out their
   webpage:

			URL:<http://www.vesa.org/>

Q: What's the whole story behind the "Sound Board Error" messages?

A: Mike wrote a pretty full emulation of the sound hardware for the Midway MCR
   boardsets. However, in order to get the sound to sound right, and to synch
   properly with the video, he has the virtual sound board run at a higher
   clock rate than the actual sound hardware runs at. When the emulated
   machine does it's diagnostics, it can't communicate with the sound board as
   its running faster than is expected. So the emulated game correctly decides
   something is wrong with the sound hardware (it didn't respond to diagnostic
   requests), and reports the error.
   Fortunately, this doesn't stop the game from sending its commands to the
   sound hardware, so we still get full sound for just about all the games.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Mercer may be contacted electronically:
	EMail: riffer@afn.org
	WWW  : http://www.afn.org/~riffer/

Michael Cuddy may be contacted electronically:
	EMail: mcuddy@FensEnde.com
	WWW  : http://www.FensEnde.com/Users/mcuddy/

The official KEM Home Page is located at:
	WWW  : http://www.FensEnde.com/kem/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This FAQ is  copyright 1997 by  Jeff Mercer and Michael Cuddy.  All rights are
reserved.  This FAQ may be freely distributed  as long as it is *not* modified
and  no fee is  charged for  the distribution  or accessing  of the  document.
Permission to  include this FAQ  with the KEM emulator and/or ROM images on a
CD-ROM is hereby explicitly DENIED, under all conditions.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
$Id: faq.txt 1.9 1997/07/12 05:23:20 MCUDDY Exp $
