[Coco] Software testing for FDC emulator

[Roger Taylor]

At 06:07 PM 4/24/2011, you wrote:
> > ...You can call them subdrives or virtual drives but they
> > behave just like the FDC...
>
>I think it's important to reiterate that CoCoNet/DrivePak/etc drives
>do not behave exactly like a FDC.  They are actually incompatible with
>lots of software, mostly games.  DriveWire has this same limitation,
>and I suspect most IDE/SCSI controllers do too, so it isn't picking on
>CoCoNet, but I know from discussion in the IRC channel it is has been
>a common surprise to a new user of the serial based systems that they
>might not be able to play their favorite game after all.
>
>Darren's project fixes this, hopefully providing 100% compatibility
>with all software.  Also, any OS9 software should work fine with
>coconet and other alternatives.  But, to say your system behaves just
>like the FDC can lead to disappointment, as I have seen first hand.  I
>am now careful to explain the limitations of serial based drive
>systems when talking with people about it.
>
>-Aaron


Everyone already knows that these virtual drive systems don't fully 
emulate the floppy controller hardware but what the average user 
accomplishes with an FDC can be done using these systems.  An FDC is 
both the controller and the ROM working together.  When you say 
mostly games, it almost sounds like you're saying most games won't 
work under CoCoNet.  Let me be the second or third person to 
reiterate that many, many, games and apps have proven to load and run 
just fine under CoCoNet's various drive systems.

As for Darren's FDC emulation concept - we chatted about it over two 
years ago and I agree that it's brilliant.

-- 
~ Roger Taylor