Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0 Preview
welcome



please see end of document for License Agreement and contact information


_______________________________________________________________________
Welcome To Superior Emulation!

Thank you for downloading Bernie ][ The Rescue 3.0 Preview, the premier Apple IIgs¨ emulation software for Power Macintosh¨ computers!

The software you have downloaded is shareware. Please see the "License & Registration Info" text file for detailed information on legal and registration issues.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who helped us with the Bernie project. Many technical problems could only be resolved with the ongoing support of Richard Bennett, Ewen Wannop and Tony Diaz. That Bernie became the successful product it is today was only possible with the help of Ryan Suenaga, Joe Kohn, Max Jones and every single Bernie user who registered the software and encouraged us to teach our dog new tricks. For version 3, Jšrg Kienzle, good old friend back from Bright Software days, deserves some extra thanks. Being both a math and computer head, he contributed to the awesome VECTORSOUNDª sound engine by checking the underlying math models. Also, thanks to Alex Lee for beta-testing the new front-end and making several excellent suggestions.

Some personal notes to you, the user of our software. Bernie was started in early 1996 and since then most of our spare time went into this product. It's been four years of very hard and fascinating work. Things moved on this summer 2000, though, and we no longer can keep the Bernie business up in the form you've seen it before. Both of us have joined companies that are operating on the fast lane - quite a contrast to the Apple II world we were used to. We can therefore no longer devote as many resources to Bernie and, something I regret the most, to users asking for assistance or wanting to have us implement yet another trick. Our formal 24 hours policy for tech support is gone, but rest assured we will do this on a best effort basis. 
We have been asked from time to time what would happen to Bernie when we lost interest in it. Make it open source? Let it die a horrible death? Sell or license it to someone else? It's a moot point - because we won't loose interest in it. We do love the Apple II platform, and Bernie has become an important part of newer Apple II history. Priorities got mixed up a bit lately, but this will hopefully change at some point in the future. Thank you for joining us in the late 90ies for a truly mind-blowing retro-experience!

It's been a lot of fun bringing Apple IIgs emulation forward, and we hope you will enjoy working with Bernie. We hope your Bernie journey is an enjoyable one.


The Bernie CD-ROM

If you are new to Bernie and are unsure what you need in order to get started with Apple IIgs emulation, you might want to consider ordering the pretty unique Bernie Starter Kit CD-ROM from Shareware Solutions II. It includes about everything you want to have (except for the ROM dump) and has been specifically made for people who tend to avoid hassle. The CD is priced at only US$25 and comes with Bernie, the HTML documentation, utilities, system software, applications and more. The CD-ROM is available from F.E.Systems' online shopping page (http://order.kagi.com/?XF). Please note that the CD does not include a Bernie license -  this must be ordered separately.


_______________________________________________________________________
The Manual


The manual has not been included with this Preview because it is still under construction. We are making new chapters available online first. Please see http://www.magnet.ch/emutech/Bernie/Documentation/ for the latest docs.


_______________________________________________________________________
What's New In Bernie 3.0

Version 3 is here, and if you think we just upped the version counter, you're mistaken. Instead we rewrote core parts in the sound department, added a versatile error messages window, fixed a couple of "issues".

The software you have downloaded is a Preview. It has been tested extensively but is missing a major feature that we have disabled.
 

Performance Considerations

Before we'll dive right into the new features, a few notes about performance. Bernie 3.0 comes loaded with new features, and we always have to make decisions and assumptions about how we distribute available CPU power among raw emulation, the user interface and system tasks. With Macs becoming faster and faster, we have somewhat relaxed our former policy of making the user interface as CPU-friendly as possible. While we made every attempt to write fastest possible code, the new front end may suck considerable amount of CPU cycles which leads to poor performance on low-end systems. In Bernie 3.0, the front-end is no longer just a side effect of the emulation engine but something we're starting to see as a feature. We do believe that the new high-tech interface adds to a very positive user experience on reasonably fast Macs.
For those users with slower Macs (say, less than 200 Mhz), this doesn't mean you have to live with poor performance. Every feature that demands a fast system can be turned off. In fact, version 3.0 is exactly as fast as any earlier version if you dispense with version 3.0's "special effects". The following actions free CPU resources:

¥ disable the spectrum analyzer display in the Sound window
¥ stop audio capture
¥ switch to classic sound modes mono, stereo or surround (disable VectorSound)

Additionally, closing the Sound, Disks and/or Joystick windows will further increase emulation speed.


Audio

Sound emulation has undergone the biggest changes since the emulator's availability. Bernie now features  the all-new VECTORSOUNDª sound engine which employs state-of-the-art sound processing technologies. Some of these are 'experimental' and their performance may vary depending on the recording quality of the original samples and signal type (music/voice). VECTORSOUNDª is a very CPU-intense beast that will roast slow Macs instantly. Thus we've included all the good old sound modes from earlier version so you can choose whatever you feel is appropriate. Then again, VECTORSOUNDª has been heavily optimized and - for the math that's involved - it's a roadrunner. Meep meep!

VECTORSOUNDª has three main benefits. First, it's insanely accurate meaning Bernie's sound synthesizer got rid of virtually all possible sources of distortions. Overall improvement is around 200% of additional precision. Some of these improvements also made it into previously available sound modes (mono, stereo, ..) without adding additional overhead, so even 'old' modes sound better.

A second optional yet experimental key feature is its bit enhancing technology based on one of two mathematical models of your choice. VECTORSOUNDª tries to compensate for loss of information that is part of the sound conversion process and outputs a smooth wave that somewhat approaches the characteristics of an analog signal (within the limitations of digital sound processing of course).

Third, VECTORSOUNDª features a spectrum analyzer showing 15 bands which is pretty fun to watch. The analyzer is also available in other sound modes.

Besides VECTORSOUND, we've fine-tuned numerous other features. Here's summary of what's new in the listener's department:

¥ VECTORSOUND high-precision sound engine with real-time bit enhancement

¥ Finally you can capture sound to a AIFF sound file. This function works transparently in the background
Êand automatically adapts to your current settings. When stopping Sound Capture, you will get a 
Êdetailed report about the sound file including disk-related errors that occured or dropped frames.
ÊThe resulting file can be double-clicked which in turn opens the QuickTime Player application.
ÊSound Capture also suspends recording during silent phases (requires Sonic Sense), so your disk fills
Êup only when needed. See below for brief instructions.

¥ You can now switch among sound modes (stereo, mono) and carrier frequency (22/44kHz) at will
Êwithout interrupting sounds that are currently playing. There're no effects on the tempo or timing
Êwhen switching.

¥ The volume slider now covers a much wider range.

¥ Sound is playing when Bernie is in the background.

¥ Emulation won't pause when clicking in the Sound window.

¥ We've thrown in a "high-precision timing feature" for our audiophiles. Timing accuracy improves by
Êa factor of 4, no matter what sound mode is active.

¥ Sounds are playing much more accurately than before. 

¥ There's a new Sound window giving you a detailed status report of the sound engine. The display
Êshows voice levels, a spectrum analyzer, frequency display, among others. Additionally, you can
Êchange a few essential settings by clicking into the window. These settings include volume level,
Êsound mode, mute sound, and display effects.

¥ No scratches in VECTORSOUND modes when volume amplifier is set too high
  (less offensive distortions may occur)


VECTORSOUND Sound Modes

Besides the usual suspects mono, stereo, stereo enhancement and surround playback mode, the new VECTORSOUND engine comes in various flavours.

¥ VSª Direct: this mode selects the new, high-precision sound engine. This mode comes close to
 regular stereo mode but is even more accurate than the already improved mono or stereo modes.
 This is the fastest VECTORSOUND mode and the recommended choice for gaming and listening
 to lower-quality sounds (such as MODs) or voices. VS Direct produces really crisp audio.

¥ VSª Interpolated: the linear sound mode adds very limited bit enhancement that actually may lead to
Êa noticeably dampened sound. It's almost as fast as VS Direct, though, which may be the only reason why
Êit's there. Ahem. :-) 

¥ VSª Harmonic: Bernie's Harmonic mode smoothes a wave very accurately. Unfortunately, there's
Êan awful lot of math required for this, thus VS Harmonic is dog-slow. The resulting wave is as if you had
Êdrawn it by hand - supersmooth. The inherent drawback of VS Harmonic is that high-pitched sounds and 
 noises can't be reproduced precisely. Thus, VSª Harmonic works best with high-quality FM
Êsounds such as those found in SynthLab. It's an experimental sound mode that may or may not cut it
Êfor you.

¥ VSª Harmonic Compressed: based on the Harmonic sound filter, the compressed flavour greatly
Êreduces the effects on high-pitched sounds. It's a compromise between Direct and Harmonic modes.


New Full-Screen Mode

ATTENTION: as of this Bernie 3.0 Preview, full-screen works only with resolutions of 800x600 or higher.

Gamers! Bernie 3.0 invites you to play all your favorite games in the all-new Power Mode again. New Power Mode features are:

¥ shift-command hotkey for menu and Mac mouse access
¥ disks, joystick and sound display with automatic placement
¥ direct manipulation of essential storage, joystick and sound settings

Power Mode's preferred screen resolution is 800x600 pixels. In this mode, Bernie can display the full IIgs video screen with border plus all of the auxiliary windows. (The video display will be shifted upwards slightly to make the windows fit.) You can automatically have Bernie switch to 800x600 by setting the "switch resolution" in the video preferences.

The Disks subdisplay is limited by available space. You will only see those disks that fit onto the screen. It is not possible to view or manipulate disks not shown.

To switch in and out the disks, sound or joystick displays, hold down shift-command and pick the desired option from the Windows menu.


Joystick Window

Upon popular request we've thrown in a new joystick window, a small but noteworthy addition. The window shows the current x/y position of the joystick. By clicking into the active area, you can change the calibration setting. The red position marker only works when the software is actually polling for the joystick - it'll rest in a corner otherwise.
The indicator/switch to the lower left enables or disables autocenter mode.


Error Reporting

The error window introduced with Bernie Total Integration has been turned into a stand-alone unit and now serves as a generic reporting tool. It features a scrollback buffer of the 40 most recent incidents and comes with human-readable, plain text error messages. Fully resizable.



Misc Changes

When shutting down your Mac, Bernie now gives you a chance to save your work and block the shutdown process.

It is now possible to deselect the "built-in disk drive" unit from the Disks window. This option makes most sense on newer systems without built-in floppy drive, or on beige systems where the floppy drive won't be used.

Bernie's windows have been redesigned and are now taking up less desktop space than before. They sport a new high-tech look which is consistent among all windows. Several indicators are clickable so you don't have to go through the Preferences window to change a setting. This includes sound volume, sound mode and mute sound in the Sound window and ejecting and locking disks in the Disks window. (To eject a disk, click the "spinning disk". To lock/unlock a disk, click the lock icon.)
 
The sporadic "check startup disk" message with properly (auto)mounted, bootable startup disks no longer appears.

Bernie now recognizes your ROM dumps no matter what filename they got. They will be renamed automatically to some human-readable name.

Clicking in the Disk window won't pause emulation.

InkMeister got a number of safety checks for dealing with low-memory conditions.

We've reworked an insane amount of internal code.


_______________________________________________________________________
New Features At A Glance

The following section describes new key features (that need some explanation) in version 3.0 very briefly. To learn more about how to use these features, please consult the manual.



Sound Capture


Sound Capture enables you to record Apple IIgs and 8-bit "classic" audio to a file. The file is of type AIFF and can be played back in QuickTime Player or most third-party sound editors.

To start capturing sound, open the Edit menu and select "Capture Sound...". Provide a name for the new sound file and save it to a volume that has enough free space to accomodate the data.

Please keep in mind that Bernie does not record to disk when there's no sound playing. You can start Sound Capture well in advance without filling up your hard disk.

Also note that you can't switch sound modes (stereo/mono, 22/44kHz) while sound is being captured. The controls are dimmed.

To end sound capture, go to the Edit menu again and select "Stop Sound Capture".Afterwards, Bernie tells you how successful it has been at recording audio to disk. If all went well, a brief message will appear in the status bar:

ÊÊÊAll data has been recorded successfully.

If some of the data could not be written to disk, the Error window opens and Bernie will tell you how much data could be saved to disk of the total amount. 

ÊÊÊSome sound data was lost (75% written).

In this example 25% of the total amount could not be saved to disk and this data is missing in the sound file. There are two reasons why the file could not be completed:

¥ CPU resources were in short supply and Bernie could not keep up with the incoming data
¥ a disk-related error occured (disk was full, write access denied etc.). Bernie will then post a separate error
Êmessage explaining what exactly happened.

Typically, you shouldn't worry when Bernie is reporting that only 99% of the file could be written to disk. Some data was lost, but it will be hardly audible. It is common that a frame is dropped right when you start the process because the creation of the capture file causes the Finder to steal some CPU cycles.

Some performance considerations. Sound files are very large, but the actual amount of data greatly varies from sound mode to sound mode. Here're some figures:

¥ 22kHz mono generates 43kB/second
¥ 22kHz stereo generates 86kB/second
¥ 44kHz mono generates 86kB/second
¥ 44kHz stereo generates 172kB/second

For example, a 1 minute recording at 44kHz stereo takes up a whopping 10 Mb of hard disk space. At 22Khz mono it'd be 2.5 Mb only.

It is possible if not likely that slower systems can not keep up with 44kHz stereo. You will get lots of lost frames and the sound file does not sound properly. If you get lost frames in the 50% range (that is, each other frame was not written to disk), you should trade fidelity for reduced bandwidth to relax the situation. Depending on your needs you should first turn off high-precision timing, switch from stereo to mono or go from 44kHz to 22kHz. (Note: High-Precision Timing does not reduce the amount of data stored on disk, but with this option enabled timing is very, very tight and there's much more overhead. While your system might be able to handle the data flow, it just can't keep up with the data coming in in such small pieces at such a high pace.)


Sound Window


The Sound window has been redesigned and now offers some interaction with the user. It consists of a 
¥ output level meter
¥ voice matrix
¥ sound mode indicator
¥ on/mute/stndby 'lights'

The output level meter shows what's coming out of your stereo speakers. You can click into the four lowest LED bars to change the volume. Clicking the upper bars has no effect so you do not blast your expensive speakers by mistake. Once you picked up the volume slider you can increase the volume all the way.

The voice matrix shows the status of the 15 voices. This display supports three pages that you can rotate by clicking the two digits. The three pages are:

¥ page 1 displays the volume of each voice. The two digits tell you how many voices are active - it is
Êtypically set to "16". The highest numbered voice is usually used for timing tasks and not shown in the
Êdisplay.
¥ page 2 is the spectrum analyzer. When this page is selected, you see a "SP" in the display.
¥ page 3 is the frequency display. The voices are sorted by their frequency with the lowest frequency to
Êthe left.

Some people prefer solid bars in the matrix display. Click the matrix to enable/disable solid bars.

The sound mode indicator consists of five speakers which are clickable. To set a particular sound mode...
¥ click the topmost speaker for mono
¥ click the upper left speaker for stereo
¥ click the upper right speaker for stereo enhanced
¥ click one of the lower speakers for surround

Lastly, the "ON" and "MUTE" indicators tell about the sound engine's status. Click the corresponding one for turning sound on or off.


Disks Window


Honey, I've shrunk the window! We hope you like the new look. The information shown is basically the same as before. Each unit comes with the following:

¥ to the left, in big bold digits, is the unit number. The unit at the bottom of the window is the lowest numbered and usually has the ID 1. Unit 1 is typically used as the boot device, so move your GS/OS startup disk here. Bernie 3.0 supports up to 18 disks plus two 5.25" floppies.

¥ next comes an icon showing what kind of disk is in the drive. There are distinct icons for generic hard disks, 3.5" floppies and 5.25" floppies. In low-level disk mode ( a compatibility mode for use with self-booting demos and games that require very accurate IWM emulation), the two supported IWM drives show a yellow "1" or "2" in the icon. 

¥ further to the right you'll see part of a disk. This disk will spin as data is read from or written to the disk. You can click this icon to eject the disk. We do recommend to eject disks in your software though, for example by moving a disk to the Finder trash.

¥ in the middle of each row are a few indicators: a green double-arrow which shows when a drive is queried by the operating system, a disk lock (clickable) that turns red when a disk is read-only, and a slot/drive indicator so you know to which slot/drive combo this unit is linked to. The slot/drive combination is what you'd need if you wanted to print a catalog of a disk in ProDOS.

¥ lastly, to the right is the name of the disk image, its size and image kind.

Each unit can be selected. Click into its row anywhere (except into the 'spinning' disk half or the lock icon which already trigger other functions) and the disk will be highlighted. At the same time a number of buttons in the button bar become active. They allow you to move a disk to another ID or slot/drive combination respectively. The lock icon locks/unlocks the selected disk and the preferences button opens the Preferences window for attaching settings to the highlighted disk. (See the manual for more information on attaching preferences to disk images.)
Two other buttons which are permanenly enabled allow you to mass-eject disks or mount disks. Click & hold the mouse button on the 'Mount' item to see a list of recently used disks.





License Agreement

Bernie ][ The Rescue is a trademark of F.E.Systems Horstmann & Gudat  ("F.E.Systems" hereafter.) The software is distributed as is without warranties as to performance or fitness to a particular purpose. The user, and not F.E.Systems, assumes the entire risk for loss of data, servicing, repair , incidental and consequential damages. The Bernie ][ The Rescue archive may not be included on CD-ROMs and other high-capacity media (>2Mb) without prior written permission from F.E.Systems. Electronic distribution only with prior written permission from F.E.Systems.

Software and documentation © 1996-2000 F.E.Systems. Diversi-Tune is a trademark of Diversified Software Research. AppleWorks, Apple, Macintosh, MacOS, Apple IIgs, ProDOS, DOS 3.3 are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. InkDirect, CerealPuffs, MuesliPump, ViagRAM, Sweet16, CataDog, Bernie ][ The Rescue are trademarks of F.E.Systems.