Rainbow 95

Rainbow 95 is the Atari 8-Bit Emulator for Windows developed by Chris Lam that allows a user to run Atari 8 bit software using a PC. Though initially available as a commercial emulator, it is now a freeware with limited versions available for download. The emulator software duplicates the functions of a first computer system (referred to as the guest) in a second computer (the host). Rainbow 95 requires Windows 95 with Direct X installed or NT 4.0 which contains the Direct X software and a Pentium processor. DirectX from Microsoft contains a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) that is specially used in game programming and video on Microsoft platforms. The X in the Microsoft gaming console that was used as the basis for XBox indicates that the console is based on DirectX technology. Rainbow also uses DirectSound, a component of DirectX library that provides an interface to the sound card driver to execute the mixing and recording of multiple audio streams. Some of the games that can be played using Rainbow 95 are Pacman, Donkey Kong, Joust, Defender, Ballblazer and Star Raiders.