Category Archives: IBMulator

IBMulator 0.7

A new version of IBMulator, the PS/1 emulator, is finally ready. In version 0.7 you’ll get:

  1. Better emulation of HDD and FDD with more realistic timings.
  2. Sound FX for FDD, HDD and the system unit.
  3. Various bug fixes.

download_0_7

The configuration file (ibmulator.ini) has changed so, if you are upgrading, delete or rename the old one to recreate.

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IBMulator 0.6

The realistic GUI mode

The realistic GUI mode

In this version:

  • Realistic GUI mode
  • New key bindings (for eg. Ctrl-Alt-Del and SysReq)
  • Bug fixes (Windows 3.0 now works)

The Realistic GUI mode is for the retro enthusiasts who want to truly experience the PS/1. In this mode the system is rendered in its entirety, monitor included. There are no additional buttons or controls except for the originals: volume, brightness, contrast, power, and floppy (you need to use the key bindings for any extra function.) The PS/1 model 2011 is 32 cm (12.6″) wide and 34.9 cm (13.74″) tall, so you need at least a 24″ 16:10 monitor in portrait mode (rotated) to render it at real size.

The configuration file (ibmulator.ini) has changed a lot, with a new section. Delete the old one to recreate.

Download at https://github.com/barotto/IBMulator/releases/tag/v0.6

IBMulator 0.5

Windows 3.1

Windows 3.1

In this version:

  • Joystick emulation
  • Custom HDD type
  • ROM load from bin files and directories
  • Lots of bug fixes

With the custom HDD type (45) you can use a drive with 1024 cylinders, 16 heads, and 62 sectors per track, for a maximum of 496MiB. Theoretically the maximum value for sectors per track would be 63, but a bug in the BIOS prevents the system to correctly format the drive.

Among the bug fixes: Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 6 now work.

The Windows version has been tested only under Windows 8.1 and the Linux version under Ubuntu 14.04

The configuration file (ibmulator.ini) has changed. Delete the old one to recreate.

Download at https://github.com/barotto/IBMulator/releases/tag/v0.5

IBMulator 0.3

This new version brings these notable improvements:
  • Hard Disk Drive emulation (bare bones)
  • Better PC Speaker emulation
  • Windows x64 version
  • Various bug fixes

The Windows version has been tested only under Windows 8.1. It might run under Windows 7 but I don’t have the resources to test it on anything else than Win 8.1 x64.

The HDD emulation works but it’s very basic (only read, write, seek, read_check commands and DMA data transfers), so any low level diagnostic or format programs will almost certainly not work.

You can download the precompiled binaries at https://github.com/barotto/IBMulator/releases/tag/v0.3

In the Download section you can find a pre-formatted, bootable HDD image with the italian version of all the IBM factory-installed programs.

Unfortunately an Heisenbug prevents some programs from working properly (CPU throws an invalid opcode exception).

This will be the last version for some time as I don’t have much free time anymore. I will continue to sporadically push code updates to the master branch on GitHub though.