Steem SSE manual
=================

v3.7.2

About the manual
_________________

This manual is based on the original readme.txt included with Steem.
It's been updated to reflect all modifications ('mods') introduced
with Steem SSE.
It is included as a text file in the main Steem download.

A copy of it is available at:

http://ataristeven.t15.org/Steem_sse_manual.htm

It can be read from inside Steem if you click on the blue (i) button.
Please, before you ask questions, for once that freeware software is
well documented, consult the manual. 


Atari ST
__________

You may skip this part if you think you know what the Atari ST is, 
this is just a point of view.

The Atari ST was the first 16/32 computer available at a reasonable price. 
It was built around a Motorola 68000 microprocessor and made of cheap, 
sometimes outdated, off-the-shelf components like the  WD1772 floppy disk
controller (no side control!), the HD6301 "intelligent keyboard", or IKBD,
that also handles joysticks and mouse, the YM-2149, or "PSG" sound chip,
the same that was in some 8bit computers, the infamous MC68901 MFP
(Multi-Function Peripheral), and some custom Atari chips, like the DMA
(direct memory access), the GLU (Generalized Logic Unit), the MMU
(Memory Manager Unit), the video shifter... all hastily patched together
and rushed to market, because Commodore had just stolen the Amiga from 
Atari. 

Considering the way it was designed, it did fairly well against the Amiga. 
The machine had many downsides, yet some fantastic programs (apps, games,
demos) were made for it.
The most was drawn from each of its chips, which became almost legendary:
the video shifter, the Yamaha sound chip, later the blitter... the Atari
magic!

The system was run by a stable and intuitive graphic user interface (GUI) 
controlled by mouse, the GEM. 
Anybody with some competency could code in C and other languages some serious
applications for the ST (games were coded in assembly), that would be more
user-friendly (windows, menus, dialogs... like today) and powerful than on 
the PC (stuck with poorer Intel microprocessor, text-mode display, keyboard 
control).

It also featured a very good flicker-free monochrome display, which for 
professional use was more important than fancy eye-killing Amiga high
resolutions. 
It wouldn't have taken so much to be a serious competitor to the Mac and 
the PC. 
Maybe Atari didn't tackle the right market. Anyway it's done, and now we
have thousands of great games not to mention the demos.
To run this all on your much faster PC, you need an emulator and files
containing images of the content (ROM, disks...).


Steem Engine, by Anthony & Russell Hayward
____________________________________________

Steem is a legendary Atari ST emulator, both accurate and easy to use thanks
to its great user interface.
Its development was stopped in 2004, at v3.2. The Steem authors probably got
sick of all the lamers.
In 2011 the Hayward bros released the source code for further development.


SSE
_____

Steem SSE is an updated version of Steem based on that source release. It 
incorporates new features and emulation improvements, some of them based on
other emulators (I credit each time and this "emulation" goes both ways), 
some on various internet discussions, technical documentation, like chip 
datasheets, and tests on real hardware.

Steem SSE aims to be the #1 STF/STE emulator. There's no limitation in
the original Steem code structure (in C++) that would make that goal 
unreachable.

'SSE' pompously stands for 'Steven Seagal Edition'. 
Steven Seagal is a well known Aikido grandmaster, action movie star,
environmentalist, musician, reserve deputy sheriff and playboy.
It is rumoured he has a shadowy past working for some secret agencies, and
that he learnt the ancient secrets of emulation somewhere in the Far East.
This is also my silly handle at http://www.atari-forum.com (AF).


Licence
________

Steem is free open source software.
Its licence is GPL3 as chosen by Steem authors.


Where to find Steem?
_____________________

Steem SSE may be downloaded from various places.

The official sites are:

http://ataristeven.t15.org/Steem.htm
(presentation website, with games and more to download)

http://sourceforge.net/projects/steemsse/files
(code and builds hosting)


3rd party
__________

Steem works with various other programs or libraries:

-ArchiveAccess.dll (*)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/archiveaccess/

-CAPSImg.dll 
http://www.kryoflux.com/

-D3DX9_43.dll
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

-FreeImage.dll
http://freeimage.sourceforge.net/download.html

-msa.exe
http://msaconverter.free.fr/

-pasti.dll (*)
http://pasti.fxatari.com/

-unrar.dll 
http://www.rarlab.com/rar_add.htm


You may download them from here too:

http://ataristeven.t15.org/Other_downloads.htm

For libraries marked with (*) it actually is recommended (fixed versions).
ArchiveAccess.dll is included with the main download.

Steem uses additional data files, that are included in the main 
download:

-Folder DriveSound with some samples

-HD6301V1ST.img (the keyboard chip rom)

-HFE_boot.bin, a file that helps Steem create HFE disk images

-ym2149_fixed_vol.bin (the P.S.G. soundchip table by ljbk)

They should be copied into Steem's folder.
If some of those files aren't present, Steem will still work, but some
features will not work.


Getting started
________________

To use Steem, you need a copy of the Atari ROM, called "TOS", and image disk
files. When you first launch Steem, you may point to where they are,
and you can change that later.

Use the disk manager to select the disk image, there are various ways
to start emulation.

To get started you will find some TOS on the Steem SSE site:

http://ataristeven.t15.org/Other_downloads.htm
or here:
http://www.avtandil.narod.ru/tose.html

Disk images are easy to find. For example:
http://planetemu.net/index.php?section=menus&machine=34 

Some are also available at http://ataristeven.t15.org.

Legally this is all still copyrighted material, and if they really wanted,
companies that own it could call a halt on emulation, but they don't.


Icons
______


On the toolbar you find some icons; from left to right:

1st group on the left

'Play'
'Fast forward'
'Reset'
'Memory snaphot'
'Screenshot'
'Paste'

2nd group on the right
'Info'
'Patches'
'Shortcuts'
'Options'
'Joysticks'
'Disk manager'

Some words of explanation are given for each icon.


'Play'
------

You start/stop emulation by using the play button or function key F12.

When emulation starts, the mouse cursor is grabbed by Steem. You may
change this (tricky) behaviour in the SSE options. 
To free the mouse, press the 'Break' key. 
If you press 'Pause' (shift + 'Break'), emulation is stopped and the mouse
is freed. You may assign other shortcuts to control Steem.


'Fast forward'
--------------

Use this to skip intros but don't expect accurate emulation.


'Reset'
-------

A left click on the reset button emulates the reset button of the ST
("warm reset") - you know, the button that doesn't exist on the Amiga?
A right click stops the ST and clears the memory as if you
had switched off. Keyboard shortcuts may be assigned to warm or
cold reset as well.
Notice that many demos were programmed to react on warm reset (hidden screen
and such).


'Memory snaphot'
----------------

The camera and chip button on the Steem toolbar brings up a menu from which 
you can load and save memory snapshots. Save snapshot will save out the current 
state of the ST (not just RAM) to a file. 
This can be useful for games without save facilities. 
When you load a snapshot it will change your TOS version, monitor type, memory 
size and the current disks in the drives. The last ten snapshots 
that have been used appear also on this menu so you can quickly reload them. 
There is also an option to undo the last snapshot load or reset in case you did 
it by mistake.   


'Screenshot'
------------

Steem can natively save a screenshot as BMP or NEO.
With the freeimage.dll plugin, more formats are available, such as PNG, JPG...
Alternatively, you can copy the full window into the paperclip using the 
usual Alt-PrtScr combination.

'Paste'
-------

This button allows you to quickly and easily paste text from Windows into the 
ST. Just click on the button and Steem will type in the text at incredible 
speed. Some programs may struggle with the top speed, to slow it down right 
click on the button and choose a longer delay. 


'Info'
------

The 'i' icon opens an info box that displays this very manual
and other useful documentation (FAQ, hints...).


'Patches'
---------

Patches change the memory of the ST after a program has been loaded to
change its behaviour.
This is useful to go around a bug or a protection, cheat in some game,
etc.
You may create your own patches with a text editor.


'Shortcuts'
-----------

You can assign key combinations (up to 3 keys each) to either some Steem
control (start/stop, fullscreen, swap disks, etc.) or some Atari ST
key. Not only keys are taken but also mouse and joystick actions.
You can load and save as many key sets as you wish, and use several
of them at the same time.
To avoid overwriting your changes, it's advised to name your own sets
rather than edit the 'Default' set.


'Options'
---------

The icon makes the options dialog of Steem (see below) appear or disappear.


'Joysticks'
-----------

You can assign keys or real (PC) joysticks to ST joystick ports 0 and 1
and to STE joysticks, and even to parallel port joysticks.
Steem handles analog as well as digital joysticks.
Three setups may be recorded.
For 'up' you have 2 boxes, so you can map a joystick button as in arcade
games, in addition to the joystick movement.
There's also a mouse speed dial.



'Disk manager'
--------------

The icon toggle Steem's disk manager (see below).


Options
________

Steem is a very complete emulator and there are really many options,
spread between several pages or tabs.
All are explained here, tab by tab.

      
 
Machine
--------   
   
These options configure the hardware inside the virtual ST.

-ST Model
   
This is the long awaited STF/STE switch in Steem.
The STE was the better computer but most programs were coded with the older
STF in mind. 
Emulating the differences between STF and STE is not so hard and makes a lot
more programs run in Steem.
You can change this option during emulation but at your risk (ST crash 
possible).
Even if some STE programs may work in TOS 1.02, it's more realistic to use 
TOS 1.06 or 1.62.
The STF won't boot with TOS 1.06, 1.02 or 1.04 is recommended, though 1.00 
may be necessary for older programs (see Hints).
The Mega STF option gives you the blitter and 4MB, that's all it does, it's
for fun (and we do this all for fun, right?)
If option 'Hacks' is on:
The emulator won't compel you, but will try to match a default compatible TOS
when you change the option: 1.02 for STF, 1.62 for STE.
It will also allocate the most compatible amount of RAM, 1MB for STF, 2MB for
STE.
     
  
-Wake-up state
   
Advanced. This is a very technical point, related to latency between some 
electronic chips. It is rarely relevant. 
Normally you'll use this option only if the display of some demo isn't 
correct without (see Hints). 
You don't need to understand all technical aspects to use the option, 
of course.

               +-----------------------------------------+
               |              Wake-up concepts           |
               |                                         |
               +---------------+------------+------------+
               |   DL Latency  |     WU     |      WS    |
               |     (Dio)     |    (ijor)  |    (LJBK)  |
               +---------------+------------+------------+
               |      3        |   2 (warm) |      2     |
               |      4        |   2 (warm) |      4     |
               |      5        |   1 (cold) |      3     |
               |      6        |   1 (cold) |      1     |
               +---------------+------------+------------+

DL is a latency electronically measured by Dio (atari-forum) between two
signals, 'DE' and 'LOAD', in cycles.
It is determined somewhat randomly (depending on temperature for example!)
at power-on on a true ST. 
WU are the two wake-up states first found by ijor.
WS are the more detailed "wake states" found by LJBK.
They're in that strange order for "historical" reasons.

The "Forest" demo by LJBK will recognise STF WU1-2 and STE.
The "Bee" demos by LJBK will recognise WS1-4, and the demos will behave as
expected in all WS (sync scrolling).

On the STE, the chips responsible for 'DE' and 'LOAD' were merged so
that variable latency doesn't exist anymore.
Yet there seens to exist some kind of wake-up too, but that varies without a
cold reset too. This hasn't been much studied.
There's some preliminary emulation of that STE behaviour in Steem SSE.

Needless to say, Steem is leading the way for this issue.


-ST CPU speed

This option can boost the speed of the emulated ST, to improve those painfully 
slow games that were released. The ST's CPU ran at 8 megahertz but here you can 
whack it up to get things going faster. A couple of points: setting the CPU 
speed above 8MHz will cause the emulator to run _slower_, because it has more 
processing to do for each screen displayed. It will also cause many ST programs 
to crash/not work properly, because they rely on the processor running at the 
correct speed. When we reach 128Mhz, we may lose MFP emulation cycle accuracy
and everything relying on timers will start acting weird.


-Memory size

Here you can select how much memory will be available in the virtual ST. Please 
note that 14Mb wasn't supported on the ST range of computers without special 
hacks, so not everything will work with that option selected. Also 4Mb or 
greater does not work with TOS 1.00. The most compatible choice is generally
1Mb for STF, 2MB for STE.


-Monitor type

Can be "Colour" (for ST low and medium resolutions) or "Monochrome" (for ST 
high resolution). 

It was an important choice on the ST, because only the appropriate monitor
could display such or such resolution. 

Also available are extended monitors; these are larger screens than a standard 
ST could manage but are achieved by some tinkering with the ST operating
 system. The only programs that have any chance of working with 
extended monitors are GEM applications (windows/menu bars), all other programs 
will crash or make a mess of the screen (there is nothing that can be done 
about that). Most GEM apps will fail too, but some will work and allow you to 
fit more on the screen than anyone could ever need! NOTE: Extended monitors 
only work with TOS versions above 1.02, also if you use a 4 plane resolution 
(e.g. 800x600x4) the ST can get very confused if it tries to change to medium 
resolution, so try to avoid it. You have to do a cold reset of the ST before 
any changes to this option take effect.


-Keyboard

Here you can configure the keyboard. This is an area that many people have 
problems with because most non-English PC keyboards are vastly different from 
their ST counterparts. The important thing is that your PC keyboard language, 
TOS language and ST keyboard language all match, that gives you a chance of 
having the right characters appear for the right keys. If keyboard language is 
set to certain languages then the "Shift and alternate correction" option will 
become available. When checked this makes Steem do its best to get round the 
differences between ST and PC keyboard layouts by fooling the ST into thinking 
you are pressing keys you aren't. This works well for GEM programs but it could 
cause problems for games and any other program that reads the keyboard 
directly. If you can't get the keyboard to work properly then the only option 
is to manually remap the keys using shortcuts (see below).


-Cartridge

Steem can emulate ROM cartridges using cartridge images, here you can choose to 
insert one. For details how to make a cartridge image see the "cart image 
howto.txt" file that comes with Steem.
      
  
TOS
----   
   
TOS simply stands for 'The Operating System'.

Including the BIOS, the GEM graphic environment and other layers, the full OS,
except on very early models (also emulated), was printed on a ROM chip. You 
need an image of one of those roms to use Steem.

There are many more OS roms for the ST than for the Amiga. This is both 
entertaining and confusing.

Generally, TOS 1.02 is the most compatible for STF mode, although TOS 1.04 may
be preferred for hard disk emulation; and TOS 1.62 for STE mode. 
Steem will try to match those TOS when you switch ST model.
Some rare programs prefer another version (check Hints file).
People report troubles with TOS 2.X, but before debugging we really must be sure
it wouldn't do the same on real hardware. Steem doesn't try to emulate the Mega
STE (yet).

 TOS1.00 STF
 TOS1.02 STF
 TOS1.04 STF
 TOS1.06 STE
 TOS1.61 STE
 TOS2.05 Mega STE
 TOS2.06 Mega STF/STE
 TOS3.0X TT
 TOS4.0X Falcon

US TOS versions 
Using a United States TOS causes games to be run in the NTSC screen mode 
(60Hz). This is okay emulation-wise but a lot of ST games and demos do not work 
in this screen mode, and often just crash or act oddly rather than telling you 
why. We recommend that American users of Steem use UK TOSs for games and demos, 
the only time a US version is required is for word processing, due to tiny 
differences between the US and UK keyboards. 

TOS 1.06 and 1.62 UK
Watch out, before Steem came along most copies of these TOSs were corrupt 
(because no emulator could test them properly). If you have problems with this 
version try downloading a new copy.

TOS 1.00
Is really bad, try to avoid using it unless a game insists on it (some really 
old ones do).

Language
Some localised version of the TOS may be necessary for some programs.
There were French and German scenes. If you have some trouble with a
program, you may give it a try.


 References:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_TOS

 Images:

 http://www.avtandil.narod.ru/tose.html 
 http://ataristeven.t15.org/Other_downloads.htm 
  
  
Ports
------   
   
This page configures the emulated ST's link to outside hardware. There is a 
section for each port on the ST, MIDI, parallel and serial. To set up a port 
select one of the options from the box next to "Connect To". When you do the 
section will fill up with options related to the connection you chose.
 

-MIDI Device

When you select this you must then select the PC MIDI device you want the ST's 
messages to be sent to and the PC MIDI device you want to be able to send data 
to the ST. 


-Parallel Port (LPT)

This allows you to connect an ST port to one of your PC's parallel ports. The 
only option is to choose which one. Warning: This may not work on all versions 
of Windows. See the FAQ for information on printing from Steem.


-COM Port

By selecting this option you can connect an ST port to one of your PC's COM 
ports. Again, just select the required port. Warning: This may not work on all 
versions of Windows.


-File

Using this option you can send all output from an ST port to a file. Click on 
the "Change File" button to open the file selector where you can select the 
output file (you can create a new one by typing in a new name and clicking 
"Open"). The "Reset Current File" button will delete everything that is 
currently in the file.


-Loopback (Output->Input)

Selecting this will cause anything that is sent to the port to be then received 
by the port, what use that is I really don't know!
     
  
MIDI
-----   
   
Here are some options that affect the PC side of Steem's MIDI emulation.
Remember that the ST side is also affected by SSE option C1.


-Volume

Not that useful but here nevertheless. It won't work for all devices.


-Allow running status for output/input

Normal MIDI messages are made up of one status byte that describes the message 
and then one or two data bytes. If a program wants to send the same message 
again it can leave off the status byte and just send the data. By default Steem 
doesn't allow this and adds the status byte itself if it has been omitted, but 
this could cause problems to programs that require a very high transfer rate. 
These options mean that running status will be passed on to Windows which has 
to decide what to do with it, so if you are having problems with MIDI tempo you 
can try this.


-System Exclusive Buffers

The number of system exclusive buffers affect MIDI when it is sending/receiving 
many small system exclusive messages quickly. If the number of buffers is too 
small it is possible for there to be so little time between messages that Steem 
is still busy with all the buffers when a new sysex message arrives (and 
therefore part of it gets lost). If you find some MIDI program having input or 
output problems that sound like this it's worth a try increasing the number of 
buffers, something like 6 should do the job for almost anything. The size of 
the buffers allows you to choose the maximum length of message Steem can send 
or receive. This is important if you are transferring large memory banks from 
the device to the ST and vice-versa. 


-Input speed

This option allows you to slow down the speed Steem feeds any received data 
from the MIDI device to the ST. Due to restrictions of Windows Steem sends all 
data as fast as possible to the ST regardless of the speed it was actually sent 
by the device, but some ST programs can't handle that. If you have problems 
with receiving bank dumps it might be an idea if you slow this down a bit. Also 
related to this is the shortcut action "Pause until next SysEx", this can get 
round time-outs on ST programs waiting for a bank dump to start. See the 
shortcuts section for details of how to assign this action to a key/combination 
of keys.
      
  
Macros
-------   
   
This is a handy feature that will allow you to record sequences of input in 
to the ST and play them back later. At the top there is a display of your macro 
folder: each macro is stored in a file with the extension stmac, and they are 
displayed here (if you have any). To record a macro, first click on "New 
Macro", name it something snazzy and then click on the big red record button. 
Now go to the main Steem window, start emulation and do some sort of input 
(move the mouse, press a key, move a joystick). When you have recorded what you 
want to go back to the macro display and click on the record button again to 
turn it off. Don't worry about doing this too quickly, Steem doesn't start 
recording until some input is received and it will cut off any time on the end 
that doesn't have any input. Now you can replay the actions you recorded by 
pressing the green play button (next to the record button). 

 You can have as many macro files as space on your hard drive will allow. This 
might mean they get a bit difficult to find on the list, so you can organise 
them into folders using the macro folder display. Just right click to create a 
new folder and drag appropriate macros in there. You can also right click on 
the bold "Macros" folder and choose to open it in Windows explorer if you 
prefer to use that for your organising.

 There are 2 options that affect how macros work:

-Maximum mouse speed

This affects recording and playing macros. Some ST programs won't accept 
really fast mouse movements as ST mice couldn't generally move very far in a 
short time. This option lets you allow for this problem by configuring the 
maximum speed for each macro individually.


-Playback event delay

For most macros you will want your actions to be played back as quickly as 
possible (for instance in the case of clicking on a shoot button in a game). 
This option allows you to configure how long Steem will wait between input 
changes, as some programs won't accept lots of very quick inputs. If speed 
isn't an issue then you can always set this to "As Recorded", then playing the 
macro will replay the recorded events at the speed you recorded them at.
     
  
General
--------   
   
-Run speed

Sometimes you will find a game/program that isn't significantly affected by 
changing CPU speed, it is still too slow. In that case you can use this option 
to change the speed Steem runs and make sure a program speeds up (or even slows 
down if you want). The disadvantage is that sound doesn't work above 105% or 
below 80%.


-Slow motion speed

This option determines how fast Steem will run when you have slow motion turned 
on (right-click on the play button).


-Maximum fast forward speed

Using this option you can limit Steem's speed, fastest isn't always best (you 
can find you have zipped through the bit you wanted to see).


-Show pop-up hints

This little option toggles those pop-up hints on and off, now you've read the 
readme you don't really need them.


-Make Steem high priority

When this option is ticked Steem will get first use of the CPU ahead of other 
applications. This means Steem will still run smoothly even if you start doing 
something in another window at the same time, but everything else will run 
slower.


-Pause emulation when inactive

When this option is checked Steem will pause emulation when you switch to 
another program. Steem uses a lot of PC CPU time when running which slows all 
other programs down, if you are switching between programs regularly you may 
want to use this option.


-Disable system keys when running

This option allows you to send certain key combinations that are used by 
Windows to the ST instead. When it is checked Alt+Tab, Ctrl+Esc and 
Ctrl+Alt+Delete will go to the ST instead of to the PC. Although Steem is very 
stable this option could cause a bit of a disaster if Steem stops responding 
for any reason, you won't be able to shut it down with Ctrl+Alt+Delete, so for 
safety reasons it is best only to use this option when you really need it. 
Unfortunately this option doesn't always work in fullscreen mode. Depending on 
your version of Windows, it may not be possible to capture certain key 
combinations - you can use shortcuts (see below) to trigger the keys you want 
from other keys. 


-Automatic fast forward on disk access

Sometimes disk access can be really slow, so this option makes Steem always 
fast forward when the ST is doing it. There are some programs that continue 
while accessing the disk, if you are going to use one of them then you should 
turn this off.


-Start emulation on mouse click

When checked clicking on Steem's main window will start emulation.
           
  
Sound
------   
   
-Output type

This can be "None" to make no sound at all or one of the other options to
choose the filter applied (or no filter).
'Coaxial' and 'SCART' are the connections between the ST and respectively a
TV or a monitor.
'Hatari' was lifted from that emulator. It's only the low-pass filter, not
all sound emulation (so Steem's and Hatari's are still different).


-Sampled YM-2149

This option changes the tables used for emulation of the YM-2149 soundchip.
When it's checked, Steem uses a big table made up by ljbk based on 
measurements on an actual STF.
Thanks to this accuracy of PSG emulation is much improved.
It is also louder and many tunes now sound distorted, but that's like on
a ST. If you uncheck the option we fall back on Steem 3.2's softer sound.
"STF samples" are kind of noisy, but they are on real hardware too.
There currently are 2 limitations:
1) The table only has values for fixed volumes, that were coded on 4bit.
Enveloped sound was coded on 5bit, so other values are interpolated.
2) The sound of the PSG was different, relatively softer on the STE, but
we only have one table, for STF.
When the option isn't checked, the original small table is used (and memory 
is freed). It's fine enough. The option is more useful for sampled sound.

  
-Microwire
   
STEem being an STE emulator, it was high time we added support for this
rarely used feature of the STE, the ultra-cheap Microwire tone controller.
We use simple 3rd party DSP code by Maverick (Fabio Bizzetti) to add 
control over volume, balance, bass & treble in those rare cases.
I'm sure it doesn't exactly sound like on an STE, but I doubt they sounded
that great anyway.   
Note: due to some bugs, treble control has been disabled for now.


-Keyboard click
   
This option reflects the state of bit 1 of address $484 in the ST, that
is checked by the OS to know if it must produce that annoying click or not
when you press a key. It's like on the GEM Control Panel, but always 
available. It was often requested and is at last available in this Steem 
build. It would be most useful for playing the Pasti version of The Pawn, 
for example.
Use this switch only when you want to get rid of clicks. Many programs 
overwrite this memory zone, and changing some byte there could crash the ST.
Note: unchecked means no clicks.


-Device

These options allow you to tweak the sound output, firstly volume, best to 
leave that around Max. Next is frequency, most sound cards can handle 50066Hz 
but if sound is a bit dodgy then you can go down to 44100Hz, if that doesn't 
work try 25533Hz (it will be quite muffled). The next option is format, 8-bit 
mono should be adequate for most people and it is the least stressful on the 
CPU. Then there is Write to primary buffer, some sound cards seem to perform 
very badly with Steem's standard output, try checking this if it doesn't sound 
perfect. Next is timing and delay, these options were added in a desperate 
attempt to improve output on some sound cards, if you are having problems 
fiddle and see if they make any difference.
Remember the sound device is chosen on the startup page.


-Drive sound

Yes! This is in Steem too now.
Current samples are from an Epson SMD-480L, sampled by Stefan jL.


-Record

These options allow you to record Steem's output to a wav file. Clicking on the 
red button begins recording, clicking on it again (or stopping emulation) will 
end recording. You can choose the na-me and location of the wav file to output 
by clicking on choose.
    
      
Display
--------   
   
-Frameskip

This is a very useful option for slower processors. Drawing the screen takes 
quite a bit of PC CPU time so skipping frames is a very effective way to speed 
things up to the same speed as a real STE. Auto frameskip makes Steem skip up 
to 8 frames dependant on how fast it is running. 


-Borders

Here you can choose whether you want to see the ST borders. Some games 
(and quite a lot of demos) use a technique called "overscan" to display
 graphics in the borders, that's one reason you might want to see them.
The option "Auto Borders" will keep them turned off most of the time, 
only coming on when there's an overscan. You can also choose to have 
borders always on or always off. The border option affects fullscreen 
mode: with borders on, Steem displays fullscreen in the 800x600 
screen resolution. Auto-borders won't work so well in fullscreen because we 
don't want to keep changing the PC monitor's resolution; so if you are running 
a program in fullscreen that makes use of the borders, turn on "Always Show 
Borders".


-Display size
   
The option is only useful if you show the borders. If borders are not 
displayed, or the ST is in high resolution, the option is disabled.
Quite a few programs used tricks to display rasters or pixels in the borders.
Steem SSE offers no less than 4 modes:

 384 x 270         normal, original Steem
 400 x 278         max in fullscreen 800x600 mode (DirectDraw)
 413 x 280         max overscan
 416 x 286         max plasma

Depending on the program, one or the other size will be better.
Generally the smallest is sufficient.
The sizes count only for border effects in colour mode.

Why various sizes, while other emulators only offer one? 
There are many reasons.
- The option was built as a hack on the original size. It started a bit
buggy, so it's best to keep the original size available.
Note that internally 400 x 278 is emulated as 416 x 286, and a trick is used
to change resolution at rendering time (blit). 
This trick will work in DirectDraw fullscreen mode with option
straight blit'.
'Screen flip' will only work with 384 x 270.
This may cause the display to go black or be shifted or another kind of 
bizarre when the emulator isn't running. 
400 x 278 allows one to read the full text of Best Part of The Creation.
416 x 286 has recently been modified, so this mode and derived modes
400 x 278 and 413 x 280 could still be a bit buggy!
In short, all bigger than normal (384 x 270) display sizes use various
tricks, and may be trouble in fullscreen mode.
- There's a performance hit for larger displays.
- 400 x 278 is more useful in DirectDraw fullscreen mode, 413 x 280
and 416 x 286 in windowed mode.
- Some programs look better with larger displays, other worse!
Because not every monitor showed the full borders, programmers could leave
some "trash" in the borders.
On the other hand, some demo texts are readable only with larger borders.
- Some real monitors or TV will actually display no more than Steem's original
size, or even less. There isn't one unique good size.

Technical info:
Steem displays what's inside the video RAM even at the extremities of the
borders, regardless of blanking or plane shifs introduced by shifter tricks
on a true ST. That's why 413 x 280 may be actually more faithful than the
max size. If option 'Hacks' is checked, the image will show 52 left
border pixels in 413 x 280 and 416 x 286 modes. If not, only 48.
I believe 52 is the right number, but am not sure. In order to avoid 
rewriting the rendering system we also use tricks to obtain those 4 more 
pixels. It may break in some yet unknown cases.


-Lock window size

When it's checked you can't change the size of the window by dragging the
borders so that you won't be able to sabotage Steem's nice display.


-Lock aspect ratio

With this you may drag all you want, but the window should keep more or less
the same proportions (to spare code, it's not perfect).
You may check this even if the current window has a grotesque aspect ratio
if for some reason you like that.


-Window size

These options allow you to configure exactly the size of Steem's window in the 
various ST resolutions. First is the option of whether Steem should 
automatically resize its window when the ST resolution changes or when borders 
turn on or off. Below that you can set the sizes that Steem should use. With 
some sizes you have the choice between "Stretch", "No Stretch" and 
"Scanlines".
"Stretch" makes Steem use the video card to convert the image from the ST 
output size to the size of the window. This is generally the quickest option, 
though most video cards will blur ("alpha blit") the stretched image, an
effect which some people don't like. 
"No Stretch" will make Steem draw the ST screen larger in order to avoid
stretching. 
"Scanlines" makes Steem skip every other line; this is quicker than "No 
Stretch" but looks pretty ugly to some people. 

If you want scanlines and a blurry display, use option 'Interpolated 
Scanlines' on the SSE page instead.

WARNING: On some prehistoric video cards making the window size bigger than 
the real size (the first option) will slow down emulation considerably.

 When automatic resizing is off you may find it difficult to get the window to 
a precise size, making ugly lines appear; to help there are some options on the 
main window's system menu (accessed by clicking on Steem's icon in its title 
bar). Normal size will resize the window to the size you have selected for the 
current ST screen resolution. Restore aspect ratio will maintain the current 
size of the window but will alter it so that its aspect ratio matches that of 
the selected size for the ST resolution. Also on this menu is Bigger and 
Smaller Window, they are a quick way to resize the window without going to the 
Options dialog, and border settings, which also affects the size of the window. 
As well as all that there's an "Always On Top" option that keeps the main Steem 
window above all others.


-Screenshots

These options configure where screenshots are saved. If you have the FreeImage 
library (http://freeimage.sourceforge.net/) then you will be able to choose the 
format that the screenshots will be saved in here. The last option is "Minimum 
size screenshots", when checked this will make Steem always save screenshots at 
the smallest size possible for the resolution, this is handy for people taking 
screenshots to put on a website. Warning: Sometimes this might make a mess as 
Steem will have to shrink the picture, but this is never a problem if you are 
using Stretch mode for drawing (see the Fullscreen options and Display | Window 
Size options).
     
  
On Screen Display
------------------ 
 
The Steem OSD is there to look pretty and give information, it can be 
configured to suit your needs.


-Disk access light

This is a small light that appears in the top right of the screen, it emulates 
the light that was on the right hand side of a real ST, except that the
led is green for reading, red for writing, yellow for hard disk. 


-Drive track info

This will display current drive, side, track and sector (plus command in 
Boiler).
Yes kid, admit it, it was your fantasy, now it's true! It emulates those
devices some people had attached to their ST, only it gives more info.
The same colour as the 'disk access light' is used, so when the option is
checked, the simple light is suppressed.


-Logo

You can configure how long the 'Steem SSE' logo will be displayed after you 
start emulation.


-Speed bar

The blue bar in the bottom-left corner indicates the current speed of the 
emulator compared to the refresh rate of the monitor on a real ST - if the bar 
is full it is drawing at the ST sync rate. 


-State icons

These little icons tell you whether the emulator is running, fast-forwarding, 
sound recording or just stopped.


-CPU speed indicator

This icon appears next to the speed bar when you have ST CPU Speed set to more 
than 8 megahertz.


-Scrolling messages

These messages pop up to delight and inform you, they have some useful tips for 
how to get the best out of Steem.


-Disable on screen display

This will disable all elements of the on screen display, it is useful if you 
are taking screenshots.   
      
  
Fullscreen Mode
----------------   
  
To enter fullscreen mode, click on the 'maximize' window control.

How to exit fullscreen mode depends on whether DirectDraw or Direct3D
is used. 

With DirectDraw, there's an icon on top right to switch back to windowed 
mode. You can also directly quit Steem (bottom left icon).

With Direct3D, you switch back as soon as you stop emulation.
It is so not because we want it that way but because Microsoft stopped 
supporting its interface in fullscreen mode with Direct3D.

You may assign shortcuts to enter, exit, toggle fullscreen mode.


-Direct3D

Check this option to use Direct3D 9 instead of DirectDraw 7 for fullscreen.
This is more compatible for computers running Windows 8 for example.
Aspect ratio is preserved, whatever your screen form.
When the option isn't checked, DirectDraw is used.
When it is checked, other options on this page that are not relevant,
because they only work with DirectDraw, are disabled.

Because not every computer has the a working version of DirectX9, a build
without the feature is available.

--Mode

This option lists all D3D 32bit fullscreen "modes" that are available on
your video card. You just select the one you like.
Note that whether a mode works or not also depends on your display.
Only some CRT monitors will display 320x200 or 320x240 properly.

--ST aspet ratio

This option only works with D3D fullscreen for the moment.
When it's checked, we emulate the Atari ST's distorted aspect ratio, 
visible on many screenshots: pixels are higher than they should, so that
squares and circles ain't.

--Crisp rendering
Similar to DirectDraw "straight blit" mode, you get neat but big pixels.


-DirectDraw

If option Direct3D isn't checked (or there's no such option), then fullscreen
uses DirectDraw, and following options are relevant.
   
--Drawing mode

This is a bit of a confusing option, you really don't need to know what the 
possible settings mean, but which is best will be different depending on your 
computer's hardware, try them all to see which is quickest. "Stretch blit" 
makes Steem draw small and then use the video card to stretch the resulting 
image to fill the screen. This can be slow on very old, bad video cards, and on 
many video cards it causes the image to be slightly blurred (alpha-blitted), 
which makes it better resemble the bad televisions usually plugged into STs. If 
this blurring annoys you, switch to one of the other modes.

--Special effects

When you are in "Straight Blt" or "Screen Flip" drawing mode you can apply 
effects to Steem's display. "Scanline Grille" makes every other vertical line 
black, this can make the display a bit dark but it can also make Steem run 
quicker. 

--Use 256 colour mode

When checked this makes Steem use the 8-bit graphics mode -- this is faster but 
will not look good with very colourful games (for 8-bit mode the maximum is 118 
colours on screen at any time, most ST programs only need 16). This option is 
very useful for high-res, because there are only 2 colours to display and using 
65536 or more seems excessive. 

--Use 640x400

This option makes the screen switch to 640x400 pixels when you run in 
fullscreen. This means the ST display will fill the entire screen instead of 
having small borders to the top and bottom. You can only use 640x400 mode when 
borders are set to "Never Show Borders".

--Synchronisation

When the PC and ST are displaying a different number of frames per second you 
can get jerkiness and wobbling that didn't appear on a real ST. Using these 
options you can hopefully put that right. Vsync to PC display tells Steem to 
wait for the PC to be ready before it displays its next frame. To make this 
option work better you should try and make the PC refresh rate the same or 
double the ST one. The ST used 50Hz (PAL), 60Hz (NTSC) and 70Hz (Mono). 
Hardware (video cards and monitors) that displays at 50Hz is now rare.
     
      
Brightness/Contrast
--------------------   
  
Some PC monitors/video cards can be very dark, this can make the ST display 
unrealistic, or even make some things that should be visible black. Here are 
some simple options to fix this problem, just fiddle with the two values until 
in the colour bar display you can see colours above the number 2 and the 
colours above 15 and 16 are a different shade. Sometimes other colours on the 
screen can make this difficult, to get round that click on the image of the 
bars to make it fill the whole screen.
If you use the SSE option scanlines interpolated, you may wish to increase 
those parameters.
      
  
Profiles
---------   
  
Profiles allow you to store many different Steem configurations and use them 
when you like. To make a new file containing the current Steem configuration 
click on "Save New Profile". You can then restore it at any time by selecting 
it and clicking on "Load Profile". Be careful though as your configuration 
before you load a profile will be lost forever. Below "Load Profile" and "Save 
Over Profile" is a list of sections that affect loading profiles, you can 
enable or disable each section. This allows you to only load specific options 
in Steem and keep other options that you don't want changed. As in macros (see 
above) you can organise all your profiles using the profile folder display.   
      
  
Startup
--------   
  
-Restore Previous State

You can choose to have Steem remember the state of the ST when it quits, so you 
can return to what you were doing next time you run it. Below the option is a 
box where you can type in the filename that will be used to save the state, 
this file will be saved in the directory Steem.exe is in.


-Start in Fullscreen Mode

If DirectDraw is enabled and working then you can make Steem fill the whole 
screen when it first runs.


-Draw direct to video memory

To be able to display a picture on your monitor Steem has to get it to your 
video card's memory, it can do this in two ways. Firstly it can draw it direct 
to the video memory, it does that when this option is on. This is generally the 
fastest way to draw but on some set-ups it may cause problems if video card 
access is slow. With this option off Steem will draw to your PCs system memory, 
this is faster but at some point all the data will still have to be transferred 
to the video card. In older versions of Steem repeated accesses to video memory 
(to draw complex scanlines) could make it run about one fifth of the speed it 
should. Now when drawing direct to video memory Steem buffers complex scanlines 
to stop this problem, but you still may find it quicker to draw to system 
memory on your PC.


-Hide mouse pointer when blit

Some video cards can make a mess when the PC mouse pointer is over the Steem 
window, with this option on that will never happen as Steem hides the mouse 
before drawing to its window. This can however cause the PC mouse to flicker 
while Steem is running, if that is a problem try turning it off and see if your 
video card is one of the messy ones.


-Never Use DirectDraw/DirectSound

If you have DirectX errors when you boot up, or DirectX doesn't work properly, 
then you can tell Steem to not use it. Sound doesn't work without DirectSound 
and drawing is slower without DirectDraw. If you are having problems, it is 
best to install the latest version of DirectX through Windows Update.


-Sound Driver

This lets you configure which DirectSound driver Steem will use, Default is 
usually the best option.
      
  
Icons
------   
  
You can customise Steem's look by altering its icons. On this page you will 
see a box containing all the icons, just left click on one to be able to select 
an ico file to replace it with. Right clicking on an icon restores it to its 
default, click on the "All Icons to Default" button to restore them all. You 
can also download icon schemes to change all or just some of Steem's icons with 
a single click on the "Load Icon Scheme" button, go to:

 http://steem.atari.st/icons.htm (link still working)

 To see what is available.   
      
  
File Associations
------------------   
  
Windows programs love to associate and de-associate programs with file types. 
This dialog allows you to choose which files you want to associate with Steem. 
Just click the "Associate" button next to the desired files. 
Click again to de-associate.

Note: if you used a previous version of Steem, you must reassociate with the
current version (or rename the program 'Steem').
If you used a version before v.3.5.3, you should manually remove the
associations in the registry, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT part.
This is because in newer versions, associations are recorded for each user,
in older versions, they were for the computer, and you needed "administrative
rights". 

Here you can also choose whether you want files to open in a new Steem 
window or the current Steem window when you double-click on them from 
Windows Explorer. 


SSE 
----

In Steem SSE, some options are grouped onto a new page logically called
"SSE". Hopefully you'll recognise the icon.


-Status info

This toggles visibility of the status info line in the tool bar.
Status info includes ST model, TOS version, RAM quantity and:

 C1 and C2: respective options are checked (see further).
 When one of these isn't checked, a X stands to attract your attention to
 this unfortunate fact.
 !       The CPU/MFP ratio has been changed or drive is in single-sided mode
 #       'Hacks on'
 ADAT    'Accurate Disk Access Times' (Slow drive)
 V       'Vertical Sync'
 HD      'Hard Disk'
 MHZ      CPU speed is indicated if higher than 8MHZ


-Disk name

Displays the name of the current disk (in A:) in the tool bar.
If this option isn't checked, Steem will display the type of image in
each drive instead (ST, MSA...)

     
-Hacks
   
This option covers two kinds of things:
- Convenience hacks, like fitting the window size in Best Part of the Creation,
 or accelerating STE booting.
- Emulation hacks, when emulation of some feature isn't perfect yet we want
the programs to run. Since we don't understand everything in the feature,
those hacks could break something, hence the option.
It is recommended to disable 'Hacks' only if you meet problems (please report).   

  
-Emu detect
   
Steem includes a facility to interact with ST programs that want to know
what kind of emulator is there. If you uncheck the option, this facility
is disabled.


-Interpolated scanlines
   
This option mixes Steems' display modes 'stretch' with 'scanlines'.
That way the picture resembles more the display of a not so sharp colour
monitor on a real ST. 
The option is available in both low and medium resolutions (not high).
It works (or should) for both windowed and fullscreen modes. 
Like some other SSE features, it's more a hack than anything.
      
  
-VSync
  
This version of 'vertical synchronisation' also works in windowed mode. 
Your monitor needs a compatible refresh rate, or emulation speed is adjusted.
With the right monitor, emulation of many programs is about perfect on the
video side. Games like Goldrunner, Lethal Xcess, Xenon, etc. won't look
smoother on a real ST.

   
-Triple Buffering
   
This may be useful to eliminate "tearing" or "ghosting", at the price 
of higher CPU use.
This should work in window mode as well as in fullscreen mode (DirectDraw,
stretch mode only though).

Compositing, a feature introduced in Windows Vista and enforced (can't 
disable) in  Windows 8, will interfere with the latter two options, in
that case they're not recommended.
Compositing does its own Triple Buffering, but no VSync.


-C1: 6850/6301/MIDI/E-Clock
   
Using code by Arne Riiber and doc by Stephane Catala - Belzebub / ST 
Connexion, Steem features low-level emulation of the HD6301 "intelligent
keyboard" (IKBD) chip since v3.4.
The main goal was to be able to run some (very rare!) demos reprogramming 
that chip without copying Hatari code, but it does more than that, being 
better than fake emu in some cases. When you change this option, you
normally should reset the ST, but Steem won't force you.
In case you're curious, the demos that reprogram the chip are:
Dragonnels, Froggies over the Fence, Transbeauce 2.
All are available here:
http://ataristeven.t15.org/Steem_demos1.htm

The option also commands ACIA (the MC6850 chip) and MIDI (the musical 
interface) improvements, because timings corrections concerning those 3
chips have an "all or nothing" character.
Both the IKBD and the MIDI connector use a 6850 to communicate with
the CPU. Communication between the 68000 and the 6850 uses the E-Clock
of the microprocessor. This needs to be emulated too. In turn, the E-Clock
also affects the timing of VBL and HBL interrupts. So you see, changing this
option has many consequences.

Why an option then? Emulation is more processor-intensive, you may prefer the
PC mouse feel to the ST's, and all those modifications could very well break
programs.
If the option isn't checked, Steem falls back on the same emulation as 
Steem 3.2.
     

-C2: 68901

Advanced: this activates some MFP (an important chip on the ST) emulation 
improvements that are seldom needed and are more processor-intensive, and
a bit risky, such as IACK and writing latencies, IRQ latency, spurious
interrupt, cycle-precise timers...


-Capture mouse
   
By default Steem grabs the mouse when running, even if you don't really need
it. You may use a keyboard shortcut to release the mouse. 
Key 'pause' is the default.
This behaviour isn't always what you would want, so use the option to
change it. When it's unchecked, Steem will capture the mouse only when
you click in the window.


-Fine tune CPU clock

Advanced: you may set the CPU clock in relation to the MFP's. Contrary to
other Steem speed options, this changes the CPU/MFP clock ratio.
It's an interesting and quite "dangerous" variable in emulation.
It may help some programs to work, and will certainly break other programs.
When unchecked, default values are used.


Disk manager
_____________

This window controls all the disks on the ST, and the two boxes up the top 
hold the disks currently in the drives. 


-Disk Images

Disk images are floppy disks turned into files, this is how most programs are 
accessed on ST emulators. For details of how to create disk images from ST 
floppy disks have a look at the "disk image howto.txt" that comes with Steem. 

The large box at the bottom of the disk manager window shows all the disk 
images in the current directory. The disk manager is like a little Explorer 
window, you can go into a folder by double clicking on it or by selecting it 
and pressing return. All disk image files, zip/rar/7z/bz2/gz/tar/arj archive
files and any Windows shortcuts to those types of files are shown. 

Note that Steem needs some DLL to handle archive files
-unzipd32.dll for zip files (ArchiveAccess could handle them but there's
some incompatibility to investigate with MSA Converter)
-7z/bz2/gz/tar/arj: ArchiveAccess.dll
-rar: unrar.dll.
Steem doesn't know if some archive contains an image or not, so all
archives are displayed regardless, but maybe clicking on them is useless.
It's up to you to sort your directories, of course.

To insert a disk image into a drive, drag it to the box to the right of the 
big drive icon. To remove it from the drive just drag it back out to the 
directory view. 

If you right click in the directory view a menu will pop up allowing you to 
create a new standard size disk image (ST), a custom size disk image (ST), 
a disk image with format information (STW), a HFE disk image compatible with
the HxC harware floppy emulator, or a folder. 

Custom disk images can be up to 2 megabytes in size, although larger ones 
are emulated correctly most TOS versions didn't support them, you 
may find they will only work with TOS 2.06 or maybe not at all.

ST disk images contain raw data bytes without any meta information (so
that emulators must guess the disk configuration).

STW and HFE disk images include clock bits as well as data, encoded into MFM
words.
STW is the simplest such format, HFE is optimised for HxC floppy emulator
hardware.
Those images are more than twice larger than ST images but allow to more 
precisely emulate the 'Format' command of the WD1772 disk controller. 
Because they're formatted inside the emulated ST, there's no sides/tracks/
sectors options.
Specification of STW disk images:
http://ataristeven.t15.org/txt/STW%20specification.txt

Besides those ST, STW and HFE disk images Steem may create itself, it is also
able to handle:

-DIM and MSA images
-STT images
-STX images (need pasti.dll)
-IPF and CTR images created with Kryoflux hardware (need CAPSImg.dll)
-SCP images created with Supercard Pro hardware

About STX images, those are now also handled in Hatari, and it may happen
that some game works in Hatari and not in Steem. Those are very rare cases
and are explained by imprecisions in pasti.dll. This is no fault on Steem's
side. The equivalent CTR, IPF or SCP images generally run fine.

About SCP images, Steem only uses first 2 revs and works with only 1 rev too,
provided the image is good.

If you right click in the box to the right of the big drive icon, a context 
menu allows you to toggle the read-only property (important for some games),
swap disks A and B, remove the disk, or go to where the disk is stored. 
The full name of the disk image is also displayed, clicking on it copies it
into the clipboard (it was a request, OK?).

Right clicking on a disk image displays a menu with a myriad of options to 
allow you to organise and use your disk images. "Get Contents" is useful if the
disk image is a compilation disk, selecting it will display a list of what the 
disk contains. "MSA Converter" is a great program that allows you to edit the 
contents of a disk and convert it to a different format. "Properties" allows 
you to change the way Steem uses the disk, it is very unlikely you will have to
change the setting from the default.

If you double click in some empty space of the main window, you go to the
parent folder of the current one.


-Drive icons

Left-clicking on the B: drive icon disconnects drive B:.
By default Steem emulates an ST with an external drive attached, this is 
usually very useful. Unfortunately, most STs only had one drive and some 
programs will get confused when there are two. 
It is usually a good idea to reset after you change this option as the ST
might still think there is a drive B when really there isn't.

Right-clicking on the drive icons opens a context menu with some useful
options to:
Stop the motor (if it's running you crazy)
Change the 'SEEK' sound (if it's running you crazy); note that with STX, IPF,
CTR images you can't change the sound, but with SCP you can.
Change your fine SF314 double sided drive into a miserable SF354 single sided
drive (if you feel really nostalgic)


-Hard Drives

Another important button on the disk manager is the Hard Drives button, it 
opens the hard drive manager. You can have up to 10 virtual hard drives. To set
one up select the folder on your PC and then select the letter that you want it
to be on the ST. Those virtual drives are called GEMDOS drives because they're
based on interception of GEMDOS commands.
You need to know that this type of emulation is very convenient for you, 
because you just use your PC hard drive, but it is based on hacks, and in some
cases it could not work as on a real Atari. 
For serious work we really advise to use TOS 1.04 or TOS 1.62, or to use
an ACSI hard disk image (see below).
Hard drives aren't as reliable as disk images, most things 
will work but not everything. If a program isn't working properly copy it to a
disk image (using the ST desktop) to see if that helps. Another option in this
box is to choose which hard drive to boot from if floppy drive A is empty. You
can force Steem to boot from a hard drive even when drive A contains a disk by
holding down the CONTROL key when you run after performing a cold reset of the
ST.

Right-clicking on this icon will toggle hard drives on/off.


-Home Folder

The disk manager allows you to select a home folder. This is where all your 
disks or shortcuts to disks should be stored. You can go to your home folder at 
any time by clicking the third button from the left in the disk manager window. 
If you are away from your home folder you can quickly move/copy/create 
shortcuts to disks in your home folder by right mouse button dragging them to 
the home button. The button to the right of the home folder button sets the 
current folder as your home folder. Right clicking on the home button and the 
set-home button brings up menus allowing you to go to/set 10 quick-folder links.

To the right of the set-home button is a the disk manager options button, it 
brings up a menu with the following choices:


-Accurate Disk Access Times (Slow)

Floppy disk drives are slow, horribly tediously slow, so by default Steem does 
away with the waits and emulates disk access at impossibly high speed. 
Unfortunately, some ST software uses, ahem, colourful ways of accessing the STs 
floppy disk controller that only work if the disk access is horribly, tediously 
slow. So that is the reason for this option, but don't leave it on all the time 
or you will surely go insane!
Though the 'Drive sound' and 'Drive track info' options may make this ordeal
more bearable, as you can see and hear what the drive is doing, you don't get
the feeling the emulator is stuck.
Note that all 'SSE' floppy drive emulation improvements for ST, MSA and DIM
images are enabled only when this option is selected.
Please don't report drive emulation bugs if this option wasn't even checked.


-Read/Write Archives (Changes Lost On Eject)

To access disk images in archives (ZIP or RAR files) Steem extracts them to a 
temporary file and uses that like a normal disk image file. Unfortunately 
re-archiving the temporary file is very difficult, Steem can't do it. Because 
of this by default all disk images in archives are treated as read-only, so 
they can't be changed. By turning on this option you can make Steem allow 
writes to the temporary file, but any changes will get lost when the temporary 
file is deleted (the disk is ejected). Some ST programs require their disk to 
be read/write, this option will allow you to run them without having to extract 
them.


-Use Pasti

In Steem SSE, you normally don't need to care about this option because
it will use the Pasti DLL as needed.
You would check it if you want Pasti to handle some ST or MSA disk image,
but except for possible bugs, Steem native emulation of those is now a bit
better anyway.
Changing this option won't reset the ST in Steem SSE.


-Pasti Configuration

It opens a dialog box managed by pasti.dll.
It is recommended to set all 'speed' options to 'slow' for precise emulation.
Options'fake write-protect' as well as 'disable randomize' seem to do nothing 
useful in v02h. It's very likely a bug.


-Pasti only for STX
   
This makes Pasti handle only STX images, Steem being in charge of ST and MSA
images. 
Interesting possibilities: you may try and copy STX images on a ST or STW disk
image. No guarantee!
You could have problems with this option if you use Pasti hard disk emulation
at the same time.


-Enable ghost disks for CTR-IPF-STX-SCP

Check this option to harmlessly save hiscore with CTR/IPF/STX/SCP disk images.
STG files are automatically created when the game tries to save data on
the disk, leaving your image file untouched. 
The image may be in an archive.

STG files are simple and compact collections of sectors, only those
that have been written.
If needed, this could be improved, but as nobody reports anything...
 
Specification of STG files:
http://ataristeven.t15.org/txt/STG%20specification.txt
      

-Run PRG and TOS files

This enables direct support of PRG and TOS files.
To run standlaone PRG or TOS files, you need to set up a Z: hard drive that
points to a PRG folder, preloaded with a DESKTOP.INF file and an AUTO folder.
It is part of Steem 3.7 download, so if you extracted all files, it is ready.
Steem will copy the file in this folder (always under the same name, so don't 
worry about space waste).
This should work with files inside archives.
The main limitation is that it only handles single files. If you want
more then you need to use a virtual hard disk.


-ACSI hard disk images (option available in v3.8 and in beta)

Much like ST files for floppies, some img files contain all sectors of an
Atari hard disk (data only).
Using those files allows lower-level emulation of hard disks in Steem.
The feature was already available with Pasti, but with some limitations.
ACSI (Atari Computer Systems Interface) was the SCSI-like interface between
the ST and a hard disk or a laser printer (not emulated).

Steem will recognise up to four image file names, it they're placed in
its ACSI folder (sorry about that, no GUI selection for now).
The driver you use must be able to handle each of those drives...
Extension must be img, order should be alphabetical. You are responsible
for the files you put there. Two ready examples are provided in the 
download, images of the familiar SH204 and MEGAFILE 60.
The size limit is 1GB.

It is also possible to enable GEMDOS virtual hard disks at the same
time as ACSI virtual hard disks, you need to adapt letters of course.
ACSI drives will take the first letters.
It's handy to copy files.
Transfer speed depends on Disk manager 'Accurate Disk Access Times' option,
but even when it's not checked, the ST operates slowly compared with a PC.

It is even possible to format those disk images inside Steem (for advanced
users).
A floppy disk image with necessary utilities is available here, so you can
see with what I actually pass time:
http://ataristeven.t15.org/Steem_apps.htm#HD_UTILS

More importantly, you could use a 3rd party file manager to edit ST hard 
disk images, 'Drive image' by Petari:
http://atari.8bitchip.info/drimus.php 


-Automatically Insert Second Disk

Lots of games come on two disks, if this option is on when inserting a disk 
into drive A Steem will look for a second disk image with a similar name and 
insert it into drive B.
Note that even if Steem manages to insert the second disk in drive B:, the
game may still require a disk swap in drive A:. Many games had only one drive
in mind. The same for demos unfortunately.


-Hide Broken Shortcuts

This option hides shortcuts that point to a file that doesn't exist. If you 
show these shortcuts then you can right click on them and select Fix Shortcut 
to allow Windows to search for the target file. You may want to check this if 
you have many broken shortcuts that are going to stay broken to speed up 
displaying of their folders.


-Eject Disks When Quit

This makes Steem eject all the disks from the drives when you quit.


-Double Click On Disk...

This allows you to configure what happens when you double click the left mouse 
button on a disk image (or a shortcut to a disk image). By default doing this 
will insert the disk into drive A, reset the ST and then run.
The same effect is assigned to the 'Enter' key.


-Close Disk Manager After Insert, Reset and Run

If you don't like the disk manager open when you run a game, give this a go.


-Large/Small Icons and Icon Spacing

Save space with small icons.



Next to disk manager options is the disk image management tools button, it 
brings up a menu with the following options:


-Search Disk Image Database

Steem uses the great disk image database created and maintained by Keili to be 
able to recognise disk images. Using this option you can search for a program 
to find out what disk images contain it. To download the disks have a look at 
Steem's comprehensive links in the General Info dialog.


-Open Current Folder in Explorer

Opens the folder the disk manager is looking at in Windows Explorer.


-Folders Pane in Explorer

When checked causes the folders pane to appear when you open a folder in 
Explorer.


-Find in Current Folder

 Opens a Windows find dialog with the "Look in" directory set to the current 
folder, useful if you have a large number of disks in many folders and you want 
to find one quickly.


-Run MSA Converter

This loads the MSA Converter program that can be used to edit disk images.



Command-line options
_____________________
   
Here are some useful command line options for Steem. The easiest way to run 
Steem with them is to make a shortcut to Steem.exe, right click on it and 
select Properties. In the text box labelled Target add the command line options 
on the end (after the " if there is one).

 NODD, GDI - don't use DirectDraw.

 NODS, NOSOUND - don't use DirectSound.

 .st, .msa, .stt, .dim, .zip, .rar, .stz, .stx file - load disk & go. If two 
disks are passed then the first will go in drive A and the second will be in 
drive B.

 .prg, .tos: same as disk but those are individual ST files. 

 .sts file - load snapshot & go.

 .stc file - insert specified cartridge.

 NONEW - means that if one of the above files is passed to Steem and a Steem 
window is already open it will be opened in the current Steem and not in a new 
window.

 OPENNEW - means the opposite of NONEW, the files will always be opened in a 
new Steem window.

 NOLPT - this removes the option to connect an ST port to your PC's LPT ports 
(that option can cause a crash on some versions of Windows).

 NOCOM - this removes the option to connect an ST port to your PC's COM ports.

 INI=[filename] - load [filename] instead of steem.ini.

 TRANS=[filename] - use [filename] as translation file.

 SOF=[freq] - stands for Sound Output Frequency. Output will be forced to 
[freq]Hz and all other factors will be ignored (unless setting the sound card 
output to [freq]Hz fails, in that case Steem will ignore this option and use 
its usual method of determining output frequency).

 WINDOW - force Steem to boot in windowed mode.

 FULLSCREEN - force Steem to boot in fullscreen mode.

 DOUBLECHECKSHORTCUTS - this makes Steem's disk manager check shortcut files 
more thoroughly, some people have had problems when a shortcut's target file 
name is in a different case to the actual file. This option makes the disk 
manager slower to display folders with shortcuts in them.

 SCLICK - this option makes Steem output a click when you run and stop instead 
of a bump.

 NOPCJOYSTICKS - don't look for any PC joysticks, sometimes joystick drivers do 
some weird things!

 OLDPORTIO - we changed how I/O to LPT and COM ports worked in v2.4, if you are 
using Win9x/ME then you can use this switch if it doesn't work any more.

 SCREENSHOT[=path] - this tells the currently open Steem to take a screenshot. 
If no Steem is open then it won't do anything.

 ALLOWREADOPEN - this command line option makes Steem open hard drive files as 
read only. TOS has a bug in it that allows programs that open files for read to 
write to them, most versions of Windows and all versions of Linux don't allow 
it. Steem gets round this by opening all files as read and write. This works 
well except in circumstances when another Windows program is accessing the same 
file. If you want to do that then use this command line option to open the file 
as read-only.

 SCREENSHOTUSEFULLNAME - this makes Steem use the full disk name as the 
screenshot name, rather than just the first word.

 NONOTIFYINIT - disable the "Steem is Initialising" box.

Legacy:

 STFMBORDER - does nothing in SSE version: no need for that when you have the
STE/STF switch!


INI file options
_________________

Those options are inside the steem.ini file to avoid bloating the emulator
interface itself.


- DefaultSnapshot

You can define a shortcut, called "Load Default Memory Snapshot", that will 
load the memory snapshot you specify in the [main] part of steem.ini,
for example:

DefaultSnapshot=[path to Steem]\memory snapshots\mysupergame.sts

To save memory, the feature uses the same resources as the "launch Steem with
snapshot" feature, that has priority in case of conflict.


- WindowTitle

You can change the name that is displayed as window title and in the task bar
by adding a line in the [main] part of steem.ini, for example:

WindowTitle=Steem SSE teh best

It is useful if you mean to run several specialised instances, each in its
own folder.
Limitation: mustn't be longer than 20 characters.


