Idiot's Guide to Installing SMSQ/E - Needed!

[Andrew]

I want to start using SMSQ/E on my bb QL with QL-SD and SGC - but I have no idea what file(s) I need to load and in which order. Couldn't find any documentation explaining this, either.
The SMSQ/E 3.37 archive contains several files:
Aurora.bin - I don't have Aurora, so not needed
GoldCard.bin
GoldCard_256colours.bin
Q40.rom - for Q40
Q68.SMSQ.WIN - for q68
SMSQE - I presume this is for SMSQumulator
SMSQE.bin - I presume this is for QPC
SMSQE.PRG - i presume this is for Atari
SMSQEQXL.EXE - ??

Can someone tell me what do I need to load on my QL? a sample boot file will be appreciated
And what is the difference between GoldCard and GoldCard_256colors ? Only the number or colors? Which can be used on a real QL with SGC?

Thank you

[Chr$]

You just have to LRESPR GoldCard.bin I believe.

And the GC 256 colour version is only for Aurora with GC.

(SMSQEQXL.EXE is the exe to run from MS-DOS to launch it in collaboration with a QXL/II card)

[Andrew]

You just have to LRESPR GoldCard.bin I believe.

And the GC 256 colour version is only for Aurora with GC.

(SMSQEQXL.EXE is the exe to run from MS-DOS to launch it in collaboration with a QXL/II card)

Thank you !

[pjw]

I wrote this boot file about 100 years ago when I had just read the documentation and may have known what I was doing.. At the time there was some issue about continuous re-booting which this switch is supposed to resolve. Try it; it seems to work for me - now only in Q-emulator.

Code: Select all

120 IF VER$ <> 'HBA' THEN 
130  PRINT "SMSQ/E? ";
140  k$ = INKEY$(150): PRINT k$
150  smsq = (k$ = '' OR NOT k$ INSTR 'n ' & CHR$(27))
160 ELSE 
170  smsq = 1
180 END IF 
190 :
200 IF smsq THEN 
210  IF VER$ <> 'HBA' THEN 
220   LRESPR 'win2_SMSQ_GOLD'
240  END IF 
250 END IF 
260 :

[FrancoisLanciault]

I never understood what is the difference between the GoldCard_256colours and the Aurora SMSQ/E version as the only way the get 256 on a (super)goldcard is with an Aurora board.

I use the Aurora version with my Aurora QL, might try the 256 colors version one day.

François

[mk79]

I never understood what is the difference between the GoldCard_256colours and the Aurora SMSQ/E version as the only way the get 256 on a (super)goldcard is with an Aurora board.

I never got this either, and I wrote the damn driver. As far as I can see is that the Gold version is QL mode, the Gold256 is 256 colours (NO QL mode!) and Aurora has both. So Gold256 doesn't make much sense to me.

The Aurora driver used to be a paid-for feature, so this was one reason there is a distinction. Nowadays it could all ship in one single file as the loader has the capability to skip modules that are not applicable to the current platform. The downside to this approach is that the Aurora version is much bigger, making load time from floppy unnecessarily longer for people that don't have an Aurora. So the current split between Gold and Aurora might still be sensible, just forget about Gold256.