MESS 0.159 should be released tomorrow (Wednesday, February 25th) barring any major catastrophes.

Apple II users will notice the following improvements:
– The Microsoft SoftCard works again
– The Mountain Computer Music System (aka alphaSyntauri aka Passport SoundChaser) works again
– Improved support for debugging code running on CPUs that share memory with the 6502 (e.g. the SoftCard’s Z80)
– Some errors in the cycle-by-cycle disk controller emulation have been corrected and so a few .EDD protected originals now work slightly better. There are still other errors we are pursuing. Normal DOS/ProDOS/Pascal disks should not experience these issues.

Apple /// users get these improvements:
– We’ve always emulated a /// with an AppleColor RGB monitor; it turns out text should be white for that setup, not green, so it’s been fixed. I may add an option in the future to simulate the more common monochrome Monitor /// configuration in addition.
– The ///’s smooth scrolling feature has been implemented for all video modes. This fixes the intro screens for Atomic Defense (which now look quite impressive). However, I haven’t been able to figure out why gameplay doesn’t start yet though (it’s something to do with VIA interrupts).

0.158 (already out) added greatly improved keyboard responsiveness for most supported Mac models; it’s now possible to comfortably use MPW or CodeWarrior and other keyboard-intensive tasks in the emulation without having keys dropped.