Release Notes for CD-i Emulator, version 0.5.3-beta7

This version of CD-i Emulator is the seventh and probably last beta
release for version 0.5.3, which is now in maintenance mode as all
development has shifted to version 0.6.0 for which a first public beta
release is expected soon.

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-v053b7.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-beta6 and
this version 0.5.3-beta7 release:

- The built-in expiration date has been updated to 2025/01/01.

- A new debugger command "ewk" has been added to kill watch addresses.

- Additional help lines explaining parameters have been added for some
debugger commands.

- VDSC mode bit sampling timing has been changed to avoid some title
issues with using the -playcdi option due to different mode bit timing
(fixes Laserlords freeze on cdi220b12 and screen distortions on the
Engineering 5.0 disc).

- Pixel-based transparency processing has been improved to fix regression
with Shaolin's Road caused by a workaround for Jeopardy.

No other changes have been made. Saving the contents of the CD-i NVRAM
to a file is still supported.

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 (cdifan).

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!