NoSTalgia & PowerST: AtariST Emulators for the Macintosh

This page is a tribute to NoSTalgia and PowerST, two Atari ST emulators that I used to use back in my Mac days. It was compiled from multiple archive.org snapshots of the website originally located at http://users.skynet.be/sky39147, which was created and maintained by Gérin Philippe, the author of both emulators.

The site disappeared in 2021, and I thought it would be nice to bring it back to life - not just in its final form, but as an amalgamation of the entire history of development of these two fine pieces of software, with as many versions to download and as much release info as I can find. Where info was missing in English, I used machine translations from the early 1997 French version of the site, and several parts are from Read Me! files from emulator releases.

I even reached out to the author, who kindly provided some missing releases and approved the creation of this page. Though it's not perfect, I've done my best to preserve as much of the original look and feel as possible. If you have additional information you believe should be included, please feel free to contact me via e-mail, and I'd be glad to add it.

Martin K. a.k.a. Logout

NoSTalgia, an AtariST Emulator for the Macintosh

NoSTalgia & PowerST for Macintosh (3/6/2015).

The Little Green Desktop

1/6/2015

- Fixed Midi via Quicktime.
- Bug fixes for Yosemite (10.10).
- Fixed crashes with multiple bus error applications.
- Fixes for Spectre128, Aladin 3.0, Magic OS.
- Fixes for disk insertion.
- Fixes for Console output.
- Fixed "pause" screen".

17/10/2004

- I removed all the unzip/gz codefrom NoSTalgia because it was taken from Hatari (sorry about this, but I didnt write that part of the code). *update* the gz support was not taken from Hatari (or anywhere else).

5/6/2004: Version 1.42 available.

- Added support for GZ disk images (.gz & .msa.gz files).
- Added support for ZIP disk images (.zip & .msa.zip files).
- New ST mouse driver (like VirtualPC).
- Full screen mode.
- Disk images are now restored (if possible) with a saved state.
- Improved stability.
- Bug fixes.

14/2/2004: Version 1.4 available.

- Added multiple bus errors support.
- Core Audio Support.
- The Hard disk driver is now free.
- Added support for Top/Bottom/Left/Right Borders.
- Removed 256 colors screen support.
- Removed "screen draw" option.
- NoSTalgia is now compatible with Panther (10.3)
- EmuTos Support
- Fixed some bugs in the CPU engine.
- NoSTalgia is now developped with Xcode 1.1.
- Added basic support for 512 colors images (disabled in this version).
- Bugs fixes in MSA code.
- Mouse driver bugs fixes.
- Added full support for EmuTos.

4/4/2003:

- Fixed a bug where multiple bus error crashed the emulator.
- The sound Part is now using CoreAudio
- Some speed improvement in the 68000 engine.
- Removed the patch allowing to use some disks with damaged boot-sector (PaCifiST and Makedisk).
- Removing OMS and starting to use CoreMidi for Midi in/out.
- Fixed a bug in the ST mouse driver crashing some games.

16/3/2003: Version 1.3 available.

- François Menu added/Fixed Sampled sounds.
- FDC bug fixes.
- Bug fixes in video shifter.
- Added basic support for EmuTos (included, rename to tos.img if you want to - use it).
- Lot of internal changes (needed for the next version 1.4).

11/2/2003:

- Fixed a bug in the FDC code preventing Supremacy to load (version 1.4).
- Added full support for EmuTos (version 1.4).
- Added basic support for Overscan Left and Right (version 1.4).
- Added basic support for 512 colors (Spectrum) images (version 1.4).

27/1/2003:

- Added (fixed) better CPU timing (version 1.4).
- Added Screen borders (version 1.4).
- Added Overscan Top (see screenshot) (version 1.4).
- Fixed bug in MSA code.

18/1/2003: Version 1.21 is out.

- Fixed a bug preventing disks with special boot sector to load.
- Fixed documents types.

15/1/2003: NoSTalgia 1.2 is out.

- Mac OS X only.
- New Speed control.
- New 'Auto frame' code.
- Fixed some bugs in the MMU code.
- New I/O, HDD code.
- Use less CPU.
- Hard disk images compatibles with DiskCopy.
- Lots of internal changes.
- Disks detection is not working (fixes Aladin and NAES).

1/12/2002:

- Switched from CodeWarrior to GCC 3.0 ProjectBuilder.
- Next version is OS X only.
- Lots of internal changes.
- New speed control, the emulator uses less CPU time.
- Screen drawing and sound speed inprovement.
- Rewritten all Disk I/O code
- New 'Auto frames' code.
- New Icon.
- Hard disk images are now compatible with DiskCopy.

6/5/2001: Version 1.1 is available.

- Fixed the control key.
- Fixed the disk menu.
- Added 14 Mb memory option.
- Added ST mouse driver for Apps using LineA/VDI (GEM apps), only one cursor (cart.img needed).
- Fixed the memory info in the freeze format (1.0 saved states are not compatible with NoSTalgia 1.1).
- Fixed the Fullscreen mode (Mac 0S 9/8).
- Fixed Harddisk partitions creation.
- The 'Auto frames' option is now in the 'frame rate' menu.

20/4/2001: Version 1.0 is available.

- This version runs on OS X (Carbon) or System 8.x/9.x.
- Added overscan low.
- Added "freeze" , "unfreeze" functions.
- Fixed MFP/new code (Captain blood rasters, Interphase,...).
- Fixed MFP vector (fix lot of programs).
- Removed OMS support.
- Fixed bug in CPU, instructions timing.
- New Audio support (no samples yet).
- Fixed shifter timing.
- Better control of the emulation speed.
- Added an 'Auto frame' option to help the emulator when the CPU is too slow.
- Fixed several bugs in the FDC emulator (Drakken,...)
- Fixed the keyboard synchro code.
- Fixed the real time clock (Captain Blood).
- Most of the code has been rewritten.

Notes:

- Direct screen drawing is still present (and much faster) but is NOT recommended under OS X.
- You cant 'hog' all the CPU under OSX.
- Quickdraw performances are not great with OS X, NoSTalgia runs faster under 0S 9 in Quickdraw mode.
- NoSTalgia is too slow in 'Millions Colors', switch to 'thousands Colors'.
- The emulator may be slower when 'max speed' is enabled because it doesnt skip any frame in this mode.
- There is no 'Full screen mode' with OS X.
- You cant hide the Mac mouse with OS X.

26/12/2000:

- Rewritten MFP , Ikbd, FDC & event manager code.
- Bugs fixes in the FDC/68k engine/Ikbd/MFP/shifter.
- Improved screen drawing speed.
- Better shifter compatibility.
- Added Overscan low.
- Added Midi to the Carbon version.
- Fixed many games.

2/10/2000: NoSTalgia 0.7 is available.

- Multiple partitions (TOS 1.4 or better).
- New IKBD code preventing data overrun in the emulated code.
- New hard disk driver (Ver 0.4)
- Improved stability.
- Bugs fixed in the pending interruptions routines.
- Fixed internal debugger.
- Run MagiC 6 and NAES 2.0 (with some limitations).

Multiple partitions requiere the version 0.4 of the hard disk driver. Just rename your old HD image to HDD-C and HDD-D.

If you are a registered user and you didn't get the new driver, please send me an email.

27/2/2000: NoSTalgia 0.65 now runs in 256, thousands & millions of colors.

- Fixed crashs when the PC entered the hardware memory area.
- Bug corrections memory manager.
- Added some internal support for 2nd harddrive support (driver is not yet available).

25/12/1999: NoSTalgia 0.62 fixes somes bad bugs and is now compiled with CW Pro 5.

24/12/1999: PowerST 0.3 is in beta stage:

- Support of TOS 2.x.
- Bug corrections in the MFP emulator.
- New interuption Manger (still buggy). - Fix in the memory manager. - Many fixes in the interface.
- Navigation service disabled.
- Support more games, but some are not working anymore in this version (please, test and give feedback).

11/2/1999: PowerST 0.2 available:

- Mode VDI 640*400*16 colors (TOS 1.4 or better).
- Added CPU cycles counting.
- Correction bug TimerD.
- Appearance Manager Support (Système 8.0).
- More precise mouse.
- New Hard disk driver (version 0.3).
- Configurable Joystick.
- Bugs corrections.

15/12/1998: Added Navigation Service and Appearance support for NoSTalgia.
21/1/1998: Completed 640*400*16 colors VDI mode.
2/11/1998: CPU Cycles calculation.
19/9/1998: Dust has been updated to version 1.04.
17/9/1998: Improved version 1.03 of DUST.

24/6/1998: NoSTalgia 0.52 available.

- Runs MagiC !
- Better mouse control.
- Better speed control.

5/6/1998: PowerST is a new ST Emulator for the PowerMacintosh.

- Up to 3 times faster (using the Asgard 68000 asm engine), it runs the Gem Desktop at full speed on any PowerMacintosh.
- Up to 14Mb of ST Ram.
- Support of TOS 1.0, 1.2, 1.4.
- Midi In/Out.
- Hard disk.
- Shifter, Mfp, Keyboard, Joystsick, FDC, PSG,.... from NoSTalgia 0.5

13/5/1998: NoSTalgia 0.5 available.

- MIDI via QuickTime (OUT only) and via OMS (IN & OUT).
- New MFP Emulator (better rasters).
- Printer Port redirected to a file.
- Mixed Mode (Low/Medium) for Magnetic Scroll games.
- Raster in medium résolution.
- Bug correction in the MSA extractor.
- Better Shifter Emulator (Lemmings,...).
- IKBD Mode 'Mouse Key' de l'IKBD for Defender of the Crown.
- Option 'Slow FDC'.

13/3/1998: Dust has been updated to version 1.0.2 !
11/3/1998: Dust has been updated to version 1.0.1 !
7/3/1998: Version 0.4 released.
13/2/1998: Hard disk Emulation.
23/1/1998: Version 0.32 available.

25/8/1997: Version 0.1b2: Fixed a bug in FDC emulation.
9/8/1997: Version 0.1b1 ready !
4/8/1997: Full screen mode.