I was simply stating the fact that (until now) no Plus/4 emulator supported 1541 direct disk access.
I am happy to be proven wrong.
I am also happy to report that YAPE 0.37 works just fine with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Zork 1, and Cutthroats. As you wrote, 1541 support must be turned on and 1551 support turned off, otherwise the loading program crashes (not an emulator crash but a failure in the Infocom software itself).
Now my next wishes:
1) an emulator that SAVEs to the .d64 directly. This would allow use of the file manager within the Plus/4 built-in software, among other things.
2) user-definable keyboard translation (use PC keyboard and the emulator software translates to equivalent CBM keyboard. If I press the SHIFT-2 I want a "@", and the emulator substitutes whatever the CBM keypress is to get the "@". If I press the SHIFT plus the button next to my Enter key on my PC keyboard, the emulator figures out that I want a " and substitutes a SHIFT-2. This feature would allow non-Commodore people like my wife to play with my emulator setup without my being here to tell her what key to press to get the desired effect.)
3) 1581 support via .d81, with a DOS wedge to allow simplified directory selection similar to PC DOS
4) support for USR and REL filetype within 1541/1551 emulation.
5) a unified way of determining what emulator is running my software, or if I'm running on a genuine Plus/4. This could be as simple as wedging a line or two into the hidden message SYS. I could SCNCLR, SYS to the hidden message, and then PEEK the last two lines listed to get an emulator name and author, or if I get the last two lines of the hidden message I know I'm running on the real machine. Or, put it in the USR function -- USR(+4) would not error out on an emulator, but instead give a copyright. Or it could be in DS$... as in:
? ds$(+4)
+4, YAPE 0.37, ATILLA (C)2002, GYROS@FREEMAIL.HU
READY.
A friend and I have some great ideas for Plus/4 software but we are limited by time and some of the limitations above. The Plus/4 is a great utility and programming machine, and should not be limited to game support when emulators are written/upgraded.
