Atari System Emulator or ASE is an Atari ST emulator that, for the moment, emulates the F/FM versions with, or without Blitter. It is written in C# and utilizes the great Motorola 68000 Moira emulator created by Dr. Dirk Hoffmann.
This emulator has been partly ported from an old emulator that I started writing in C and assembly language in the late 90s, although in this released version, there is a bit of everything. Most of it has been rewritten, and other parts have been ported from Hatari, one of the best Atari ST emulators currently available.
The initial idea behind this emulator was for it to serve as a simple example to experiment with and study how an emulator works, as I explain on my YouTube channel, The Bit Culture. However, with later updates it has gained more complexity and is now more than just an easy-to-understand emulator. Even so, I invite you to check out the video on YouTube and follow the project comments if you’re curious about how an emulator really works.
Check out my channel, we won't only talk about emulators there, but we'll also look at some hardware and classic games.
👉 https://youtube.com/@thebitculture?si=2s4M5Iu4QbIdq_hn
At the moment, the emulator is not compatible with some games and programs, and some of them will blow up at some point, as the emulator is in a very early stage of development. I hope to add new features and improve compatibility over time.
Whether some games work depends largely on how they were cracked/unprotected; sometimes it might work simply by using another floppy image with a different crack. Currently, ASE supports disk images in .ST and .MSA formats, as well as these compressed in ZIP format. A ZIP file can contain more than one disk image, which is ideal for games that require multiple disks, as they can be quickly swapped from the emulator’s menu.
The ST Help key is mapped to the period/dot key on the numeric keypad.
ASE supports gamepads and can emulate the joystick in a fully configurable way, allowing you to assign "Up" to any gamepad button, as well as "Space" or other commonly used keys in compilation game menus from that era. The keys used to emulate the joystick can be configured from the settings window, but by default, the configuration is as follows:
| Joystick | Numeric Keypad |
|---|---|
| Up | 8 |
| Down | 5 |
| Right | 6 |
| Left | 4 |
| Fire | 0 |
It runs on Windows, Mac, and should also work on Linux, although I haven't tested it. ASE will work with any TOS version up to 1.04.
You can download the latest release ready for use from the releases page, or better yet, you can download the source code to compile and experiment yourself. To compile the source code, you will need to download Moira from Dr. Dirk Hoffmann's repository and copy only the 68k emulator into that directory, excluding the MoiraConfig.h configuration file. In the ASE Moira directory, you will find Moira_dotnet.cpp and Moira_dotnet.h, which are responsible for exposing Moira to the C# wrapper, as well as the files to compile Moira (build.cmd and build.sh), depending on the OS you use.
To compile Moira on Windows, you will need to have cmake.exe in your system path or open a Visual Studio developer console.
👉 ASE Releases: https://github.com/thebitculture/ase/releases/
👉 Moira Releases: https://github.com/dirkwhoffmann/Moira/releases
(C) The Bit Culture - Public License Version 3