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Idiot's Guide to Installing SMSQ/E - Needed!
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 4:24 pm
by 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
Re: Idiot's Guide to Installing SMSQ/E - Needed!
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:08 pm
by 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)
Re: Idiot's Guide to Installing SMSQ/E - Needed!
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 5:26 pm
by Andrew
Chr$ wrote: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 !
Re: Idiot's Guide to Installing SMSQ/E - Needed!
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2021 7:40 pm
by 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 :
Re: Idiot's Guide to Installing SMSQ/E - Needed!
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2021 12:25 am
by 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
Re: Idiot's Guide to Installing SMSQ/E - Needed!
Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2021 8:20 am
by mk79
FrancoisLanciault wrote: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.