Release Notes for CD-i Emulator, version 0.5.3-beta6

This version of CD-i Emulator is the sixth beta release for version 0.5.3.
It is hugely out of date with the current development version 0.6.0; the
only reason for its release is to get a working version available again.

This beta release can be used standalone, or you can install it over an
existing version 0.5.2 installation (both limited and unlimited editions).

To avoid overwriting the existing wcdiemu.exe file, the executable of
this release is named wcdiemu-v053b6.exe; it will co-exist alongside an
existing version 0.5.2 executable.

The files cdiroms.ini and cditypes.rul are updated versions of those
shipped with version 0.5.2; most files in the sys directory have also
been updated. All other files are either new or identical to their
version 0.5.2 counterparts, except for this RELNOTES file.

These Release Notes expand but do not supersede the Release Notes for
CD-i Emulator version 0.5.2 and earlier 0.5.3-beta versions. You can
find these in the RELNOTES-v052 file and various RELNOTES-v053b* files.

This beta executable is essentially a limited edition: CD-i emulation
is limited to three minutes between CD-i player resets unless you have
already activated an unlimited edition v0.5.2 on your machine or you're
using a Philips Mono-I player system ROM (200 F1, 210 F1, 220 F2).

The Mono-I exception is mainly intended to allow for full compatibility
tests against the MESS/MAME CD-i driver; the limited edition restrictions
will be dropped entirely for all version 0.6.0 releases.

There will be no separate unlimited edition of beta releases and
you cannot activate such releases. You can achieve the same effect by
activating an unlimited edition of version 0.5.2, however,
which is still available for sale on my website.

The beta executable will not register itself with Windows; as a
consequence the Options | Associations menu is not useful (it will
associate file extensions with the version 0.5.2 executable if one
exists on your system).

On Windows Vista and newer registering and associating file extensions
would not work correctly anyway because they require UAC elevation.

The following changes have been made between the version 0.5.3-beta5 and
this version 0.5.3-beta6 release:

- The built-in expiration date has been updated to 2024/01/01. By that
time a version 0.6.0 beta release should be available.

- Emulation speed throttling has been fixed for modern machines. You
can use the -nowait option to restore the previous "maximum speed"
behaviour (which may lag audio behind video and will often make
games unplayable).

- It is possible to save the contents of the CD-i NVRAM (non-volatile
memory) to a file, retaining e.g., high scores and other CD-i title
settings between emulation runs. The principal means of doing this is the
File | Save menu choice and corresponding toolbar button. On program exit,
CD-i Emulator will automatically ask if you want to save your CD-i NVRAM
contents. The menu choice and toolbar button will only be available if
changes have been made to the contents of the NVRAM since the last load
or save operation.

- You can tell CD-i Emulator to automatically save the NVRAM contents
by using the -savenvram command-line option or the corresponding GUI
option "Automatically Save CD-i NVRAM" under the Options | Settings menu
choice. The NVRAM contents will then automatically be saved on every
CD-i player reset and on program exit.

- By default, CD-i Emulator keeps a separate NVRAM file for every player
model. You can load a different file by using the same File | Open or File
| Select menu choices also used for CD-i disc images; both these choices
now support CD-i NVRAM files in addition to CD-i disc image files. You
can also specify an NVRAM file using the command-line option -nvram.

- You can create new NVRAM files by using the File | Save As... menu
choice or copying an existing NVRAM file using Windows Explorer.

- Use of new version 0.6.0 syntax in the cditypes.rul file, especially
the {nnnK} and ::type constructs, is tolerated (the emulator no longer
hangs on them) but the functionality is not implemented.

- All web links now use the secure HTTPS protocol instead of HTTP,
as befitting a more modern application.

No other changes have been made.

If you have bug reports or feature requests, please use the GitHub issue
tracker at https://github.com/cdifan/cdiemu/issues; as of right now
no CD-i Emulator source code is on GitHub but eventually there will be.

For comments, questions, and discussion, you can use the #emulation
subforum of the Philips CD-i Community Discord server reachable
at https://discord.gg/TKPejTfw6D. I am known there as CD-i Fan#8299.

You can also reach me via e-mail using cdifan@gmail.com, but this will
not involve the larger CD-i community and is hence discouraged.

If you like my work and/or would like to support future development,
you can also send me a donation. You can send PayPal payments to
payment@cdiemu.org or use one of the following websites:

https://www.buymeacoffee.com/cdifan
https://ko-fi.com/cdifan

Have fun emulating your favorite CD-i titles!