[Blindapple] Updated MESS emulator package

[Jayson Smith]

Hi all,

This update fixes the Echo pitch issue so it sounds more like the real 
thing. A few other fixes are included, as well as a readme, pasted 
below. URL is the same:
http://www.bluegrasspals.com/messapple.zip
Enjoy!
Jayson

Apple Emulation with Echo II Plus Emulation for Windows

This package contains an emulator called MESS which I have set up to 
emulate an Enhanced Apple IIe with an Echo II Plus speech synthesizer. 
If you're reading this, you've already downloaded and extracted this 
archive. In the disks subfolder are several talking disk images supplied 
so you can have fun with your virtual Apple. I have quite a few more, 
but these are just some to get you started. You'll also see a folder 
called roms, which you don't need to do anything with. If you go poking 
around in there anyway, you'll see several zip files. Do NOT unzip them, 
they are designed to stay zipped.

Before you start, you'll probably need a full desktop keyboard, for 
reasons which will become apparent later on. If you're using Jaws, 
you'll also want to set up a script to put it to sleep when mess.exe is 
running. Otherwise, it will try to grab some Apple keystrokes, and in 
general not do very nice things.

To start the emulator with a disk in drive 1, type the following at a 
command prompt, for example:
mess apple2ee -flop1 disks\egames.dsk

Yes, you do need to type apple2ee with two e's since that's the 
designator for an Enhanced IIe.

Once the Apple has started, things pretty much work like you'd think 
they would. The four arrow keys really do act as the Apple's arrow keys, 
left and right alt are open and closed apple, F12 is reset. In most 
cases, even if your real caps lock is turned off, the Apple's caps lock 
will be turned on, simply because so many Apple games and programs 
require all upper case input. If you want to change this, just hit your 
caps lock.

The program records a wav file of your Apple session in a file called 
session.wav. If you don't want this file, just delete it. It is 
overwritten with each new emulator session, so if you do anything you 
want to preserve, you need to take steps to do so before you run Mess again.

I currently don't know how to switch disks, so you don't want to use 
this to play Eamon or for any other purpose where disk switching is 
required. Working on this.

Please be aware that this program doesn't significantly speed up disk 
access, so there may be long pauses while Apple programs load.

To exit the emulator, hold down the scroll lock and press the insert key 
on the six-pack, that is, the set of keys with insert, del, home, end, 
page-up, and page-down. Release both keys, then hit escape. This will 
flip the power switch on the virtual Apple, so anything you were doing 
will be lost forever.

Have fun!