
    Welcome to Portable Vectrex Emulator

Original Author of VecX 

  Valavan Manohararajah

Author of the PSP & Caanoo port version 

  Ludovic Jacomme alias Zx-81 zx81.zx81(at)gmail.com

  Homepage: http://zx81.zx81.free.fr


INTRODUCTION
------------

  VecX emulates the Vectrex game console on systems such as Linux and Windows.

  Caanoo-Vectrex is a port on Caanoo of one latest version of VecX.

  This package is under GPL Copyright, read COPYING file for
  more information about it.

  Special thanks to Mospaedax for his icons/graphics !

INSTALLATION
------------

  Unzip the zip file, and copy the content of the directory game to your
  SD card.

  Put your roms files on "roms" sub-directory. 

  For any comments or questions on this version, please visit 
  http://zx81.zx81.free.fr, http://zx81.dcemu.co.uk or 
  http://www.gp32x.com/


CONTROL
------------

  In the VECTREX emulator window, there are three
different mapping (standard, left trigger, and
right Trigger mappings).  You can toggle between
while playing inside the emulator using the two 
caanoo trigger keys.

    -------------------------------------
    Caanoo        VECTREX            (standard)
  
    A          1
    Y          2
    B          3
    X          4

    Pad        Joystick

    -------------------------------------
    Caanoo        VECTREX   (left trigger)
  
    A          FPS  
    Y          LOAD Snapshot
    B          Swap digital / Analog
    X          SAVE Snapshot
    Left       Render mode
    Right      Render mode

    -------------------------------------
    Caanoo        VECTREX   (right trigger)
  
    A          1
    Y          2
    B          3
    X          Auto-fire
    Left       Dec fire
    Right      Inc fire
  
Press Start+L+R to exit and return to eloader.
Press Select    to enter in emulator main menu.
Press Start     open/close the On-Screen keyboard

  In the main menu

    RTrigger   Reset the emulator

    Triangle   Go Up directory
    Cross      Valid
    Circle     Valid
    Square     Go Back to the emulator window

The On-Screen Keyboard of "Danzel" and "Jeff Chen"

Use Analog stick to choose one of the 9 squares,
and use Triangle, Square, Cross and Circle to
choose one of the 4 letters of the highlighted
square.

Use LTrigger and RTrigger to see other 9 squares
figures.

USB Joystick
------------
  
  This version supports USB joystick. 
  You can modify or copy existing joystick mapping by editing files in 
  the usb folder.  The default USB mapping called 'default.usb' is a 
  simple text file using the following syntax : 

  # Syntax:  usb_joy_id=caanoo_button_id
  #                                    
  # Caanoo Button Ids are the following
  0=3
  1=2 
  2=1
  ....

  Each line describes the mapping between usb joystick button number and 
  the equivalent caanoo button number.

  You can use the simple tool called 'caanoo-joystick' to identify your 
  joystick button numbers.

  This file is suitable for Playstation2 -> USB adapter (that i've used 
  for testing).  You can add your own mappings for other joysticks
  using file with .usb extention. 
 
  Inside the emulator you can choose the mapping file you want using 
  the "USB Joystick Config" menu.  The latest usb mapping you used will 
  be saved on exit as the default one in the 'global.cfg' file.


LOADING ROM FILES (.rom or .bin)
------------

  If you want to load rom image in your emulator, you have to put 
  your rom file (with .rom or .bin file extension) on your SD
  memory card in the 'roms' directory. 

  Then, while inside emulator, just press SELECT to enter in the emulator 
  main menu, choose "Load Rom", and then using the file selector choose one 
  rom image  file to load in your emulator.


LOADING KEY MAPPING FILES
------------

  For given games, the default keyboard mapping between Caanoo Keys and VECTREX keys,
  is not suitable, and the game can't be played on CaanooVECTREX.

  To overcome the issue, you can write your own mapping file. Using notepad for
  example you can edit a file with the .kbd extension and put it in the kbd 
  directory.

  For the exact syntax of those mapping files, have a look on sample files already
  presents in the kbd directory (default.kbd etc ...).

  After writting such keyboard mapping file, you can load them using 
  the main menu inside the emulator.

  If the keyboard filename is the same as the rom file then when you load 
  this file, the corresponding keyboard file is automatically loaded !

  You can now use the Keyboard menu and edit, load and save your
  keyboard mapping files inside the emulator. The Save option save the .kbd
  file in the kbd directory using the "Game Name" as filename. The game name
  is displayed on the right corner in the emulator menu.

  If you have saved the state of a game, then a thumbnail image will be
  displayed in the file requester while selecting any file (roms, keyboard,
  settings) with game name, to help you to recognize that game later.
  
  You can use the virtual keyboard in the file requester menu to choose the
  first letter of the game you search (it might be useful when you have tons of
  games in the same folder)

CHEAT CODE (.CHT)
----------

  You can use cheat codes with Caanoo-Vectrex You can add your own cheat codes
in the cheat.txt file and then import them in the cheat menu.

  All cheat codes you have specified for a game can be save in a CHT file 
  in 'cht' folder.  Those cheat codes would then be automatically loaded when
  you start the game.

  The CHT file format is the following :
  #
  # Enable, Address, Value, Comment
  #
  1,36f,3,Cheat comment
  
  Using the Cheat menu you can search for modified bytes in RAM between
  current time and the last time you saved the RAM. It might be very usefull to
  find "poke" address by yourself, monitoring for example life numbers.

  To find a new "poke address" you can proceed as follow :

  Let's say you're playing Mine storm and you want to find the memory address
where "number lives" is stored.

  . Start a new game
  . Enter in the cheat menu. 
  . Choose Save Ram to save initial state of the memory. 
  . Specify the number of lives you want to find in
  "Scan Old Value" field.
  (for Mine-storm the initial lives number is 5)
  . Go back to the game and loose a life.
  . Enter in the cheat menu. 
  . Specify the number of lives you want to find in
  "Scan New Value" field.
  (for Mine the lives number is now 4)
  . In Add Cheat you have several matching Addresses
  . Specify the Poke value you want (for example 5) 
    and add six new cheats with this address / value.
  . Try them one by one to identify what is the good
    one, while restarting new games and see if the 
    life number is 4 or 6. You will see that the good
    address is 00d9. You can delete all others.

  The cheat is now activated in the cheat list and you can save it using the
  "Save cheat" menu.

  Let's enjoy Mine storm with infinite life !!


OVERLAYS
------------

  Overlays are now supported. You need to create two overlay images called 
  <rom_name>_rot90.png and <rom_name>_norm.png in the 'over' folder.
  You may have a look to the existing ones (Mine-Storm & Armor attack) 
  to create your own. The geometry of those images must be 320x240.

  The overlays will be automatically displayed when you load the <rom_name>.
  
COMPILATION
------------

  It has been developped under Linux using gcc with GPH-SDK. 
  To rebuild the homebrew run the Makefile in the src archive.

